Common Indo-European words This is the oldest and biggest layer of the Old English vocabulary. The words of
this layer refer to different semantic spheres and denote the most important notions
and things of everyday life.
E.g.
sweostor (sister),
brōþor (brother),
heorte (heart),
sittan (sit), etan (eat),
twā (two), etc.
2) Common Germanic words This is a large layer as well. The words of this group can be traced back to the
Common Germanic Period when the ancient Germanic tribes had broken away from
other Indo-European tribes and formed an independent linguistic group. These words
also denote the most important objects and notions referring to the sea, nature,
everyday life, colours, measures, parts of human body, etc.
E.g.
hand ,
dēop ( deep),
sinʒan (sing),
hūs (house),
andswarian (answer),
finʒer (finger), etc.
3) Specifically OE words The words of this layer do not occur in any other Germanic or non-Germanic
languages. They were coined by the speakers of the Old English language. This group
is very small and is especially rich in compounds.
E.g.
wimman „woman‟ (wīf „жена‟ + man „человек‟)
brid „bird‟
scīr-ʒe-rēfa „sheriff‟ („chief of the shire‟)
§ 2. Borrowings Borrowings made a very small portion of the Old English word-stock. They
came from 2 sources – from the Latin and Celtic languages. Some words taken over
from Latin had been borrowed by Latin from Greek.
The majority of loans were adopted into the Old English language through
personal intercourse, due to the close contacts of the people speaking different
languages. Some of them entered the language through writing. Most loan-words
became widely used shortly after their adoption. Since they denoted things of
everyday life or other important notions, they were relatively quickly assimilated by
the language.
a)
