The OE vocabulary was almost purely Germanic; except for a small number of borrowings, it consisted of native words inherited from PG or formed from native roots and affixes.
Native words. Native OE words can be subdivided into a number of etymological layers from different historical periods. The three main layers in the native OE words are: - common IE words; - common Germanic words; - specifically OE words. Words belonging to the common IE layer constitute the oldest part of the OE vocabulary. Among these words we find names of some natural phenomena, plants and animals, agricultural terms, names of parts of the human body, terms of kinship, etc.; this layer includes personal and demonstrative pronouns and most numerals. Verbs belonging to this layer denote the basic activities of man; adjectives indicate the most essential qualities. foeder – Vater; bropor – Bruder; modor – Mutter; dohtor – Tochter; sunu – Sohn; mona – Mond; niht – Nacht; woeter – Wasser; fyr – Feuer; The common Germanic layer includes words which are shared by most Germanic languages. This layer is certainly smaller than the layer of common IE words. Semantically these words are connected with nature, with the sea and everyday life. screap – sheep; macian – make; hus – house; drincan – drink; land – land; safe – sea; wisdom – wisdom; Specifically OE, that is words which do not occur in other Germanic or non-Germanic languages. These words are few: OE clipian - call, OE brid – bird, wifman – woman and several others.
|
