Ashimova N., Ismanova N.

Kazakh state women’s teacher training university

Almaty, Kazakhstan

FRENCH BORROWINGS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Comprehensive analysis of the current system of language is impossible without knowledge of the history of its development and consecutive study of its various historical sections. Synchronic and diachronic unity of approach is absolutely necessary. Being an integral part of the English language, vocabulary develops and enriches together with the system, being in the rather complex and multilateral relations with it. If we examine the vocabulary of the English language, then all of its words should be considered British, except for such words that give its shape by its foreign origin. For example: padishah – [′pa:di′∫a:] (from Persian); khaliff – [′kælif] (from Arabic) etc.

But there are rather a small number of such words in English. The overwhelming weight of words is perceived in the modern language like English words, whatever is their actual origin. Actually, the native English words are words, known from the Old English period. They make up less than half the English vocabulary. The rest part of the vocabulary – the words of foreign origin, comes from Latin, Greek, French, Scandinavian and other languages.

In the course of its development, English faced many languages, from which it borrowed various words. They are different by their number and specific weight in vocabulary of the English language. The words of foreign origin are called borrowings. Borrowing of lexical items from one language to another is a very ancient phenomenon and is known to languages of the ancient world. Among the numerous problems, associated with the process of historical development of English language, one of the important places belongs to the problem of borrowing. Historical conditions of development of European society were such that up to the 20-th century from all languages namely French gave the largest number of borrowings other European languages. A special influence on the process of borrowings from the French language has undergone the English language. The history of the English language can be divided into 3 periods.

Old English begins with the settlement of Germanic tribes in the territory of the British Isles and dates from the 5-th century AD, or with the emergence of writing in the 7-th century AD. Thus, the Old English period dates from the 5-th to the 11-th century.

Middle English period begins with the Norman Conquest (1066 year) and continues until the late 15-th century (before the start of printing in 1475).

And finally the modern English period begins from the 1500 and continues until the present day. Most clearly the impact of borrowings appeared in the Middle English period. However, in all subsequent periods of existence of the English language French borrowings function actively. They are of great interest for the study.

Penetration of the French words in the English language did not begin immediately after the Norman Conquest, but only in the 12-th century. Norman Conquest had a profound influence on the vocabulary of the English language. During its long struggle with the French language, which lasted nearly two and a half centuries, the English language considerably increased at the expense of the defeated French. Completion of the vocabulary of the language took place not only due to the penetration of words from a defeated language, but also because with the arrival of the Normans in England, new features of life, new activities are unknown to the ancient British. Invasion of the Normans put the French on the state level, the language of the ruling minority. All official documents were written in French, it was carried out as taught in schools, and it seemed that it would be universally accepted language of the country. But the stubborn Saxons did not want to learn French, and the vast majority of people continued to speak Old English. English was not restricted in the development of writing, so it changed and simplified very quickly throughout the centuries Norman Conquest of England.

The situation is as follows: lower groups of the population had to learn French to understand the elite (French word); and the elite had to use English in their speech to communicate with ordinary people. And of course large segments of the British population became bilingual. This bilingualism was the main cause of the penetration of a large number of French words in English. That is why it absorbed a huge number of French words that were generally considered more polite and sensitive variants of demotic Anglo-Saxon counterparts. So now there are the Anglo-Saxon swine, sheep and belly and French pork, mutton and stomach.

As a result of borrowing, pairs of synonyms appeared in English, and the struggle between the synonyms would ensue. The outcome of the struggle would be different in different cases. We can identify three main ways of borrowing:

1. The struggle between English and French words ending in favor of the last, the English word disappears from the language. In the struggle, that borrowed and native words led with each other in language, the French word often completely supplanted the word of English origin. For example, the Old English word here was completely supplanted by the word army; Old English earm– by the French poor.... Some words of French origin ousted from the English language, even the most commonly used words. For example, the French word riviere "River" has replaced the word ea; French word montagne "mountain" – a word beorz. In some cases, such repression could contribute to the special conditions; so, the Old English name of the river ea acquired in Middle sonic image e; word, consisting of a single sound, obviously weakly resisted the penetration of a much more robust in regard to the sound of French word.

2. The winner is the English word. The French word, having existed in English for some time, is forced out of it. For example, the word amity "friendship" has been supplanted by the British friendship that existed in English for some time.

3. The both words are preserved in the language, thus there is more or less distinct differentiation of their values, sometimes purely semantic, and sometimes more stylistic.Sometimes the invading French word supersedes its native English synonym in another sphere values. For example, the Old English word hærfest meaning "fall", was replaced in this sense by the noun autumn from the French autumne, but remained in the English language in the form of harvest.

The borrowing of vocabulary is a closer interaction between nations on the basis of economic, political, scientific and cultural relations. Bright examples of this are numerous French borrowings in the English language. Being subjected to various morphological, phonetic and lexical changes, many borrowings have lost their French character and are not perceived like a foreign borrowed. The borrowings went a way up to their full language acquisition, which was a multi-step. Obeying the laws of borrowing language, some borrowings have developed new values that are not characteristic of their original versions. Acquiring with new values, a borrowed word expands the range of possible combinations for him, penetrates deeper into the thick of the vocabulary structure, increasingly splits its semantic relationship with other words, and yet, against the latter, clearly stands out like independent lexical unit of language.

The French language influenced greatly on the English language in the Middle English period. The attempts to continue the accumulation of borrowings in the 20-th century have not brought much success as in the necessity of such borrowings has disappeared – the language has become self-sufficient.

We were able to examine the issue of French borrowings in the English language. We have discussed the possible pathways of French words in the English language; have reviewed the various types of borrowings. By identifying and examining borrowings, we have considered their proportion in the works of the English writers of the 19-th and 20-th centuries. And yet the presence of a considerable number of French borrowings in the modern English language explains the important role they have played in the enrichment of the vocabulary structure and in the development of lexical rules of the English language, as borrowings allow language to save their own possibilities of the nomination, and contribute to the further development of word formation. Despite a certain contamination of English lexicon by the words, borrowed from the other languages, English generally did not suffer from large influx of foreign-language items. Conversely, its vocabulary, no doubt, was enriched. This became possible thanks to the fact that it had learned the foreign-language items, having absorbed everything valuable and necessary, rejecting the further development of all random.