Chronology of the penetration of the Italian borrowings in the modern English language

Abstract. The article is devoted to the study of the chronology of the penetration of Italian borrowings in modern English. The author of the paper examines the semantics of lexical borrowings from the Italian language. Particular attention is paid to the reasons for the appearance of borrowings. The object of the research is borrowings from the Italian language, and the subject is the ways of penetration of borrowed lexemes.

Keywords: borrowings, italianisms, Italian, chronology, English.

Lexical borrowings are an integral part of the process of the emergence of new words and new meanings in the language. The study of the development and expansion of the lexicon of the language is one of the central tasks of domestic and foreign linguistics of the second half of the XX century. Many Russian linguists have studied borrowings in various languages: in Russian (V.M. Aristova, D.S. Lotte), in English (N.N. Amosova, V.P. Sekirin), in German (L.Y. Granatkina, J.P. Zinder, and T.V. Stroeva), in French (E.A. Gutman, B.N. Zabavnikov), in Italian (E.V. Arkadieva, A.M. Eldarov). In the context of the progressive process of globalization, it is important to pay attention to the borrowing of lexical units.

Borrowings form a special layer in the vocabulary. Arising as a result of language contacts and expansion under the influence of other language societies, the experience of these native speakers, they represent a certain economy of language effort in generating speech, since ready-made units of a foreign language are used to fill in the elements of speech in a given language. At the same time, the loss of the previous associative connections that existed in the language from which they are borrowed also leads to the loss of the motivation that may be inherent in the borrowed words in the source language, which, accordingly, causes significant difficulties in recognizing their meaning in the process of speech perception. [1, p. 124]

A special position in linguistics is occupied by the study of direct and translated lexical borrowings in the English language: not only because this language is global, but also because this language is particularly characterized by borrowing as the main way of enriching the lexicon. And one of the most popular sources of borrowing for English is the group of Romance languages, in particular, Italian. [2, p. 56] Modern linguistics calls borrowings of Italian origin the term "italianisms".

The peculiarity of the process of borrowing Italian vocabulary into English, unlike, for example, Latin, French or Scandinavian, is the lack of direct language communication between the English and Italian peoples. English-Italian language contacts were either mediated (borrowing was carried out through other languages, mainly French), or the nature of communication between individual native speakers of English and Italian (as a result of trade, travel, etc.), or borrowing was carried out by book, in which language contacts as such were absent. [3, p. 93]

As many linguists note, the mass penetration of Italian loanwords into English begins in the 16th century. Until the 16th century, only five Italianisms (direct borrowings) were borrowed into English. The Italianism of buckram (It. bucherame) is noted in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) as a 13th-century borrowing. The first meaning of the borrowing buckram "cloth, a kind of fine cotton cloth" has a direct indication that this word, being the name of a commodity of trade, penetrates into the English language as a result of trade relations between Italy and England. Trade relations, as one of the initial types of language contacts between the English and Italian peoples, are noted by many researchers. In the 14th century, two Italianisms scale (It. scala) and tramontane (It. tramontana) were borrowed into English. It is quite acceptable to think that the meanings with which these Italianisms penetrate the English language indicate the development of navigation in Italy and its influence on the countries of Europe: scale "scale of the measuring instrument", tramontane "Polar Star". One of the main ways of navigating the sea in those early days was orientation by the stars, and the word scale could well mean the scale of a navigation device. The 15th-century Italianisms fresco (It. fresco) and barble (It. barbola) "wind; inflammation of the neck gland of horses, cattle; foot-and-mouth disease" also seem to be the result of oral contact between native speakers of Italian and English [4, p.233]. The semantics of these borrowings indicate the beginning of a sharply increasing scientific and cultural influence of Italy on the countries of Europe in the Renaissance by the 16th century. Thus, until the 16th century, only five Italian words were borrowed into the English language. The borrowings were apparently the result of oral contacts between native speakers of English and Italian.

In the 16th century, there was a sharp increase in the influx of Italian vocabulary into English, which continued until the end of the 19th century. In the BOS, 97 Italianisms of the 16th century, 129 – 17th century, 160 – 18th century, and 173 - 19th century are noted. The increased influence of the Italian language on English in this period is primarily due to the cultural development of Italy. The flourishing of science, literature, painting and sculpture, architecture in the Renaissance, followed by the rapid development of secular music and theater in Italy in the 17th-18th centuries could not but affect the countries of Europe, in whose languages, along with new concepts, many Italian words penetrate. Almost half of the Italian loanwords of this period are the vocabulary of art. New musical terms: accelerando, diminuendo, energico, forte, largo, moderato, obbligato и др., names of musical instruments: accordion, bassetto, bombardon, cembalo, clarino, fagotto, flauto, violin, violoncello и др., names of musical works: aria, cantata, concerto, opera, oratorio, rondo, sinfonia, sonata и др., vocabulary of literature: canto, pasquinade, comedietta, stanza, terzina, sestina и др., vocabulary of art: contorno, replica, tondo, guazzo, impasto, tempera, sfumato, morbidezza и др., vocabulary of sculpture: altorelievo, relievo, gesso, scagliola и др., applied arts: cameo, majolioa, smalto, tarsia, architecture: campanile, belvedere, archivolt, ovolo and so on - they are firmly established in the lexical composition of the English language. The terms of various sciences penetrate into the English language: medicine (influenza, malaria, pellagra, tarantism), physical geography (archipelago, grotto, fiumara, rivulet, volcano, voloanello), geology (breccia, lava, lapillo, peperino, cavolinite, gabbro) and others. Borrowings from politics (manifesto, propaganda, ballot, mafia), trade and economy (agio, banco, braccio, grano, tariff), military and maritime affairs (capitano, generalissimo, falconet, arsenal) indicate the intensification of Anglo-Italian political, trade, economic and other contacts. The appearance in the lexical composition of the English language of the names of many Italian specific realities, such as signor, signora, marchese, marchesa, vendetta, gondola, barcarole, casino, cicerone and many others is, according to a number of researchers, the result of frequent trips of the British to Italy, acquaintance with the peculiarities of life and lifestyle of the Italian people.

The twentieth century is characterized by a slight lexical influence of the Italian language on English. In the Dictionary there are only 18 Italianisms of the XX century: antipasto, autostrada, basso buffo, contrapposto, diabolo, duce, fascism, fascist, grosso modo, grottesco, mafiosa, mafioso, mezzani, mezzofanti, mezzogiorno, seicentist, terrazzo, valuta - which, however, does not mean that the process of borrowing vocabulary from Italian is stopped. The process becomes less intense. If, without taking into account the borrowings of the XX century, Italianisms occupy the fourth place in their numerical composition after Latin, French and Scandinavian borrowings, then according to the research of J. R. R. Tolkien. Cannon, this place is preserved for them in modern English. The only difference is that lexical elements from the Japanese language rose to the third place after Latin and French borrowings [5, p. 30].

Thus, in the process of borrowing Italian words by the English language, three main periods are conditionally distinguished: before the 16th century - the initial stage of borrowing; the 16th-19th centuries-the period of intensive penetration of Italian vocabulary into the English language; the 20th century-the stage of weakened lexical influence of the Italian language on English. Some linguists note the assimilation of many words of Italian origin in the English language and the acquisition of their wide use. The Italian musical vocabulary includes words that are common in everyday speech, for example. alto, soprano, opera, and more special terms (legato, allegretto, andante).