Loanwards and Roman Expansion in North-West Europe Author(s): John Peter Wild Source: World Archaeology, Vol. 8, No.

1, Archaeology and Linguistics (Jun., 1976), pp. 57-64 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/124299 . Accessed: 30/12/2013 11:48
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World Archaeology

Volume 8

No. I

and linguistics Archaeology

in and Romanexpansion Loanwards north-west Europe

John Peter Wild

In his classic account of 'languages in contact' Uriel Weinreich (I953: 5) drew attention to the fact that, while the methodologies of anthropology and comparative linguistics are distinct from one another, there are 'certain inescapable parallels in the two domains'. If we substitute 'archaeology' for 'anthropology', the observation still holds good. Scholars concerned with the older languages of the Indo-European family in western Europe have sometimes sought to interpret linguistic developments there in terms of the archaeological views current at the time (Pokorny I935: 315ff; I936: 489ff; I938: 55ff; Schrader I907). The difficulties of achieving a lasting result are considerable; for not only has the archaeological dating of the earlier phases of European prehistory changed radically in recent years, but the realization that remains of early substrate languages survived as late as the Roman conquest makes the linguistic panorama more confused (Weisgerber 1953: 269, 274; I954: 47). Collaboration between scholars from different backgrounds, such as is exemplified by the work of Hachmann, Kossack and Kuhn (I962) is the exception rather than the rule. In the comparatively well documented period of Roman rule in Europe, loanwords are a fruitful source of cultural information. In 1970 I tried to demonstrate in the context of Roman Britain that a loanword which denotes a concrete object may with fair probability be taken as evidence in itself that the object, too, was borrowed (Wild I970). I sought there, not merely to repeat a linguistic truism, but to establish the degree of probability of parallel borrowing of noun and object, so that the archaeologist seeking information from this source might appreciate its limitations. At its simplest, 'lexical interference', which gives rise to most loanwords of interest to an archaeologist, involves the straightforward transfer of a phonemic sequence (the complete word) into a new language. This was prevalent in the western Roman provinces, where the vocabulary of an advanced society made an impact on the languages of less advanced peoples. But where Roman met Greek on the same plane, subtler forms of lexical interference, as defined by Weinreich (I953: 51), are found. The use of a
Greek word might be extended to conform with the Latin model (e.g. 7rpea3Evrjs for

legatus, a senior officer) or loan-translations of various types might be preferred by the

Greek purist to a straight borrowing (V'7raroLfor consules rather than KWovcoVAVE) (Hahn

I906: II6, I26). The thesis that loanword implies loan-object is untenable for a small proportion of loanwords. Terminology for parts of the body is a case in point (Wild I970: 127;

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58

John Peter Wild

Haarmann I973: 52; von Wartburg 1952: 30; Gamillscheg 1970: 344). Such borrowings may be explained in a variety of ways. Foreign words per se often had a social cachet - or were used for sheer force of expression in cursing and swearing (Weinreich 1953: 56ff.). Britain provides a good starting-point for a review of how loanwords supplement the historical and archaeological evidence for the impact of Rome on its north-western provinces (Jackson 1953: 76ff; Haarmann 1970); for contact between Latin and the insular Celtic British can be set within comparatively close chronological and geographical limits (c. 55 B.C. to c. A.D. 450). After the relaxation of Roman political control in the early fifth century, the Latin of the Church was the main fount of new loanwords for Celtic speakers, and these are not difficult to isolate. The character of British Latin was conservative, as can be seen in its phonology (Greene i968: 77; Jackson I953: 105ff.). Conservatism is a normal phenomenon on the margins of a linguistic province (Palmer 1954: 23ff.), heightened in this case by the relative backwardness of Romano-British society. Latin was the only language for writing and communicating Roman culture. It was probably spoken mainly by the rural and urban upper classes and by those in official circles, including the army. Evidence for Vulgar Latin, the colloquial speech from which the European Romance languages grew, can be found in Roman Britain, as Greene (I968) has argued; but its currency was restricted. Mann (1971) has shown that some of those who cut the inscriptions in Britain spoke Vulgar Latin. I cannot follow Greene (I968: 76) in accepting that there was a considerable bilingual population in Roman Britain. The borrowing of Latin vocabulary could take place without the medium of bilinguals (Weinreich I953:56). Latin never ousted the British language; but nearly 600owords, mostly nouns, were borrowed by British speakers during the Roman occupation (Lewis 1943; Jackson 1953: 76ff.). Once borrowed, they followed the regular grammatical and phonological development of British into Old and Middle Welsh - or, in the case of the British emigrants to Armorica in the fifth and sixth centuries, into Old and Middle Breton (Haarmann 1973). Welsh and Breton have about 370 Latin loanwords in common, but about a quarter of the loanwords in Old Breton must have been adopted after the emigrants left Briton and reflect the influence of Gallic Vulgar Latin (IHaarmann1973: 30-I). In 1953 Jackson drew attention to the detailed picture of life in Roman Britain which the Latin loanwords give. A brief review of this will indicate the scope of the linguistic evidence. Roman technology is as apparent on the linguistic as on the archaeological side. Mining and metallurgy (aurum, 'gold'; plumbum, 'lead'; durus, 'steel'), the building industry (pontem (acc.), 'bridge' ;parietem, 'house wall'; fenestra, 'window'), glassworking (vitrum) and industrial milling (molina, 'millstone') are attested. The textile industry, too, which was already flourishing in the Iron Age, learnt new techniques of cloth finishing (pexa, 'soft-finished cloth'; lixivium, 'urine (for fulling)'; pannus, 'web of cloth'). The improved agricultural techniques introduced on the villa-estates of Lowland Britain account for at least 30 loan words. By comparing borrowed plant-names with Godwin's list of British flora (1956) I indicated in 1970 the proven and the likely Roman introductions, mostly fruit and vegetables (Wild I970). The Roman kitchen and table made some impression on the British. Olive oil (oleum) and wine (vinum) are not unexpected among the loanwords; for the inscriptions on

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Loanwords and Roman expansion in north-west Europe

59

imported amphorae - and their sheer quantity - prove a brisk trade in Mediterranean oil, wine and sauces (Callender I965) which stretched back into the Iron Age (Peacock 1971). The famous sauces, garum and liquamen, the sine qua non of the Roman cuisine and the ubiquitous mortarium,'mixing bowl', are not attested in British. This is curious; for even in the fifth and sixth centuries the kitchen of the lord of Dinas Powys was the most Roman part of his household (Alcock 1963). At least the British took lunch (prandium) and dinner (cena). Archaeological evidence for the eagerness with which the British accepted the Roman economic order is plentiful. Their vocabulary was enriched, for example, by new terms for market (mercatus),weights and measures (sextarius, modius) and coin denominations (denarius, solidus). Roman military organization and equipment is reflected in such basic concepts as weapons (arma), fort (castra, castellum), soldier (miles) as well as tent (papilio), breastplate (lorica) and infantry (pedites). While most of the aspects of provincial-Roman life mentioned above can be studied by archaeological means, there is an imbalance between the rates of survival of organic and inorganic archaeological material. Loanwords help to correct this. In technology, to quote one example, we know little of Roman cloth-finishing methods in Britain; but the loanwords, some of which are noted above, suggest that the industrial processes revealed in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Ostia were widely practised in Britain (Wild I97oa: 79ff.). Loanwords also shed light on fields where historical rather than archaeological sources are normally informative. The Roman calendar, Roman legal and administrative practices and the whole spectrum of education and cultural life are reflected in at least seventy loanwords in British. Haarman (I970; I973) has arranged the Latin loanwords in Welsh and Breton according to Dornseiff's (I970) semantic classification. It is thus possible to discover those spheres of human life where Latin made no impact on British, namely the human emotions and thought processes. While the Romans moulded the environment of the British, it is evident that they did not win their hearts and minds. The situation in the continental Roman provinces was quite different. When Julius Caesar arrived, Celtic dialects were spoken throughout Gaul (Whatmough I970). In the north-west remains of a pre-Celtic language or languages could still be traced (Hachmann, Kossack, Kuhn I962), while in the south Greek loanwords revealed the extent of Greek commercial penetration inland from their coastal colonies (von Wartburg 1952: iff.). Vulgar Latin, however, ultimately replaced continental Celtic, and the regional dialects in Gaul prove its vigour (Jud 1917). There is still some doubt about how quickly this happened (Whatmough I944; Weisgerber I939: 27), but an observation by Jerome (Migne I845: col. 382), probably based on Lactantius, suggests that Celtic speakers were a small minority by the later fourth century. The few Celtic words which appear in the Romance language of Gaul pertain, suggestively, to rural life (Thurneysen 1884). The Celtic-speaking refugees in Brittany, an intrusive linguistic entity, serve to highlight the cultural differences between Gaul and Britain at the end of the Roman period. The Latin language was in contact on the Rhine frontier with another major linguistic group, the Germanic dialects. Soon after Caesar's campaigns the Ubian tribe was moved by the Romans from east to west of the Rhine, and linguistic pointers to their Germanic

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John Peter Wild

origin persisted in the epigraphic record for three centuries (Weisgerber i968: I43ff.). The main contact, however, between Rome and the Germanic peoples came in the third and fourth centuries, when increasing numbers of Germans from across the Rhine were recruited into the Roman army, settled on unoccupied Roman territory or employed as federate troops. The rise of the independent Frankish kingdoms was a natural result of this policy. The Lower Rhine was the principal contact-zone, but the city of Trier, the leading political, economic and ecclesiastical centre of the hinterland, played a prominent role, too. Four hundred Latin loanwords (almost all from Vulgar Latin) have been claimed for the Germanic dialects and Old English (Eggers I963: I03ff.; Frings I966: 85ff.; Betz I959). The Anglo-Saxon migration to Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries gives a terminus ante quem for the borrowing of many of these (Frings I966: 85ff.). Other dating criteria are discussed by Gamillscheg (I970: 9ff.). Loanwords which were subject to the second, Old High German, soundshift were probably assimilated by A.D. 500 (Gamillscheg 1970: 13). The semantic range of Latin or Vulgar Latin loanwords in the western Germanic dialects is similar to the range which we have seen in the British of Roman Britain, as Jud noted (I917: 65). There are some interesting points of contrast, however. The Germans borrowed surprisingly few Roman military expressions (pilum, petraria, campus), considering how many of them served with the Roman army - or fought against it! Gamillscheg (1970: I8) believed that the Latin loanwords were adopted, not by soldiers, but by the 'great mass of the Germanic people' in daily contact with the provincial-Roman population. It is hard to find historical or archaeological evidence for such mass contact before A.D. 400, and I am sceptical about his conclusion. The country between the Rhine and the Elbe was in Roman hands for only a brief spell (I2 B.C. to A.D. 9); but for over 400 years the Germanic inhabitants of North Germany and Scandinavia received Roman imported goods. Glass, pottery, metal vessels and coins were among the multifarious items in transit (Eggers 195I). Aquarium, 'pail', may have been the term borrowed by the Germans for the bronze or brass buckets manufactured in the Aachen district and distributed far and wide in Free Germany (Minis 1972: 45ff.). Roman customs dues (teloneum) were also familiar to the Germans according to Gamillscheg (1970: I7). It is no surprise that the Latin for shopkeeper (caupo) and 'dubious salesman' (mango)were widely borrowed by Germanic speakers. Caupo is not found in the Romance languages, and mango rarely so (Frings I968: 175, 314); for they gave way to mercator, 'trader', in Gaul. Caupo therefore must be an early loanword. While viticulture was known in Roman Britain (Frere I967: 293), the two associated loanwords cupa, 'barrel', and vinum, 'wine', suggest consumers rather than producers. Some of the barrels may have arrived from the important wine-growing area of the Mosel Valley (Ciippers 1970), whence a number of technical terms entered the Germanic dialects (Frings I948: I5). Calcatorium, 'wine-press' (Frings 1966: 71; i968: i36ff.), (vinea) camerata, a form of 'vine trellis' (Frings 1968: 143), lorea, 'after-wine' (second pressing), (Frings I968: 3I0), mustum, 'new wine' (Gamillscheg I970: Ix), vindemia, 'grape harvest' and *aequare, 'to gauge' (Frings i966: 7I; I968: 238) come from the vocabulary of the Gallo-Roman vintner. Anglo-Saxon (Old English) is an integral part of the Germanic group of languages

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Loanwords and Roman expansion in north-west Europe

centred geographically on the Lower Rhine. The Latin loanwords in Anglo-Saxon are potentially of considerable interest to the archaeologist attempting to assess Pagan Saxon society (Frings I968: 522f.). Many of them, perhaps the majority, were borrowed before the Volkerwanderung from North Germany and the Frisian coast was completed in the sixth century. They show most of the characteristics of the Latin loanwords in the other early Germanic languages - which is not necessarily what one might have expected. Frings (I966: 85, 94) has pointed out that a considerable proportion of the loanwords must have been derived from the Vulgar Latin of Gaul. Here we come upon the difficulty of distinguishing the pre-migration from the post-migration 'layers'; for comparative linguists can offer a relative, but not an absolute, chronology (Luick I92I: I92ff.). All too often they rely on out-of-date archaeological publications to supply the context. Some words may be most naturally taken as evidence for Roman trade with villages like Feddersen Wierde before the migrations from the homeland (Frings 1966: 94f.; Luick I92I: 63). Contact between the wealthy Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent and the Franks of the Rhineland and North Gaul may have been the vehicle for later linguistic borrowings (Evison I965). The Church, too, played a role in these. The full political, social and economic implications of the loanwords, however, will only become evident after a thorough sifting of the dating criteria and a close examination of the meanings of the words. Mortarium, for example, may not have meant a 'mixing bowl' to the AngloSaxons, but a marshy hollow (Frings i968: 330). Horticultural terminology has a regular place in the interchange of vocabulary in early Europe, and it can be cited here as an example of Anglo-Saxon borrowing from the Romans. While the gardener of Roman Britain was planting cabbages (brassica) and beans (faba), his Anglo-Saxon successor preferred peas (pisum), turnips (napus) and perhaps radishes (*radica) (Wild 1970: I28; Frings i968: 397, 338; Luick 192I: 197; Godwin 1956). Onions seem to have been particularly popular in Pagan Saxon England; for two forms (unio, cepa) are proven early loanwords (Frings 1966: 89, 99). Mulberries (morus) and pear-trees (pirum) were already grown in Roman Britain (Wild 1970: 128), and the Anglo-Saxons introduced, or intensified the cultivation of, the sorb-apple (sorbum)and perhaps the peach (persicum)(Frings I968: 466, 381). Plants with medicinal or aromatic properties familiar to the Anglo-Saxons included cat-mint (nepeta), elecampane (inula) and lovage (ligusticum) (Frings i968: 339, 288, 304). Other terms of later date can be attributed to the spread of Anglo-Saxon monasticism. Finally, it should be noted that there was two-way traffic in loanwords in the Roman period. There are remarkably few Germanic loanwords in Latin attested by Roman authors. Among them ganta (goose), sapo (soap), reno (hides) and glaesum (amber) reveal the reverse side of Roman trade with Free Germany (Gamillscheg I970: 23). Celtic loanwords - or loanwords entering Latin through the medium of Celtic - are more numerous (about 50o), and informative. Rome's first contact with the Celts dates to the fifth century B.C. when the latter were at their military peak. They conquered North Italy and sacked Rome itself. By the end of the third century B.C. Rome's expansion at their expense had begun, but was not complete until the first century A.D. Schmidt (I967) has drawn attention to the problems of establishing a Celtic etymology and of dating the successive 'layers' of loan-vocabulary, but it is the meanings of the loanwords and their cultural implications which concern us here.

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62

John Peter Wild

Roman terminology for wheeled vehicles is completely dominated by Celtic loanwords, as Dottin (1918) and Schmidt (I967) have demonstrated. Twelve terms have a clear or likely Celtic etymology (Schmidt 1967: i68f.) and they are so well integrated into Latin that they form the basis for Latin lexical development (e.g. essedum, 'wagon (with a seat)' to essedarius, 'waggoner'). Only their etymologies give any hint of their precise meaning, and that may have been submerged after borrowing. Archaeological sources confirm the importance of wagons and chariots in the Celtic world (Joffroy 1958), but do not yet indicate in what respect the Celtic wheelwright and cartwright was technically so inventive. A number of clothing terms - and probably the articles themselves - entered the Roman world through Celtic. Two cloaks (mantos) (Wild I966), (sagum) and four capes (cucullus, bardocucullus, byrrus and caracallus (Wild I963; I964)) may be cited. In addition, the Germanic loanwords braca (trousers) and camisia (shirt) may have reached Italy through the Celts. Roman fashion was wide open to foreign influence and ultimately the older Italic forms of dress were displaced by Gallic and Partho-Persian modes (Wild I968). Only the wagon terms stand out as unusual in the list of Celtic loanwords in Latin if we compare it with the list of words borrowed from Latin in the insular Celtic and the Germanic dialects. Schmidt (I967) has given grounds for believing that most of the Celtic loanwords were borrowed into Latin at a time when the Celts were still formidable enemies of the Romans. Celtic cultural influence upon Rome was followed by Roman influence upon the Celts to a point where the continental Celtic culture was practically obliterated. This brief review may indicate the nature of linguistic contact and linguistic borrowing in Roman Europe, as seen from an archaeological standpoint. Much research remains to be done, ideally by a comparative philologist and an archaeologist working in tandem. More precise dating may be sought for the borrowing of words, and more attention paid to the linguistic geography of loanwords. Closer comparison between the semantic ranges of loanwords in each language would also be fruitful.
3.vii.I975

University of Manchester

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Abstract Wild, John Peter

Loanwords and Roman expansion in north-west Europe

In this article the author reviews the evidence which loanwords supply for the character of cultural contact in north-west Europe during the Roman period. After some brief comments on the general position of borrowed vocabulary, Latin loanwords in British Celtic and in the Germanic dialects are discussed. Words borrowed by the Anglo-Saxons from the Romans are also considered. Loanwords passing in the opposite direction, from Germanic and Celtic into Latin, are examined in their historical context. Attention is drawn throughout to the value of language as an independent source of information on economic, social, political and administrative conditions.

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