This book shows how, when, and why English took words from other languages and explains how to find their origins and reasons for adoption. It covers the effects of contact with languages ranging from Latin and French to Yiddish, Chinese, and Maori, from Saxon times to the present. It will appeal to everyone interested in the history of English.

• Part I: Introduction


• 1: Introducing Concepts


• 2: Introducing the Data


• Part II: Early COntacts in Continental Europe and Britain


• 3: Historical and Cultural Background to c. 1150


• 4: Very Early Borrowings into Germanic


• 5: Old English in Contact with Celtic


• Part III: Old English and Proto-Old English in Contact with latin


• Introduction to Part III


• 6: An Overview of Latin Loanwords in Old English


• 7: Interrogating the Data from Chapter 6


• 8: Methodologies: sound change; word geography; loanwords versus semantic borrowing


• Conclusions to Part III


• Part IV: Scandinavian Influence


• Introduction to Part IV


• 9: Introduction to Scandinavian Loanwords in English


• 10: Identifying Scandinavian Borrowings, and Assessing their Impact


• Conclusions to Part IV


• Part V: Borrowing from French and Latin in Middle English


• Introduction to Part V


• 11: Exploring the Contact Situation and Identifying Loans


• 12: Quantifying French and Latin Contributions to Middle English


• 13: Example Passages from English and Multilingual Texts


• Conclusions to Part V


• Part VI: Loanwords into English after 1500; how Borrowing has Affected the Lexicon


• Introduction to Part VI


• 14: Borrowing from Latin and French after 1500


• 15: Loanwords from Other Languages: test cases


• 16: Long-term Effects of Loanwords on the Shape of the English Lexicon


• 17: General Conclusions and Pointers for Further Investigation


• References


• Index

Philip Durkin is Principal Etymologist of the Oxford English Dictionary. His Oxford Guide to Etymology (2009; paperback edition 2011) has become the standard work in the field.