The System of Consonants in Late me

English consonants were more stable than vowels: the sonorants m, n, l, the plosives p, b, t, d and k, g in most positions were not subjected to any changes. But in the transition period – in the end of the OE period or during the early ME a new sets of sounds appeared: affricates and sibilants. Some consonants were lost or vocalised: back lingual fricatives γ, hard and soft χ, χ’. The consonant system in Late ME was different from OE: the opposition of velar consonants to palatal – k – k’, γ - j disappeared. Instead plosive consonants came to be contrasted to the affricates and /tſ/ was opposed to /dg/ through sonority. Besides the consonant system lost its quantitative distinctions.

Lecture 11. Evolution of the ME Lexical System.

Contents:

1. Scandinavian and French influence on the vocabulary in ME.

2. Borrowings from classical languages in the age of Renaissance.

ME vocabulary developed by internal processes and by borrowing words and word-building morphemes from other languages.

Scandinavian influence on the vocabulary in ME

Though the Scandinavian invasions of England are dated in the OE period, their effect on the language is apparent in ME: the greater part of lexical borrowings from OScand were not recorded until the 13^th c. Since the 8^th c. the British Isles were ravaged by the Danes and later – by Norwegians. By the end of the 9^th c. the Danes succeeded in obtaining a permanent footing in England. More than half of England was yielded to the invaders and recognised as Danish territory – the Danelaw. Gradually the Danes began to bring their families – the new settlers and the English intermarried and intermixed during 2 hundred years from the 9^th c.

In the areas heavily populated by Scandinavians – Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Northumberland, Cumberland – up to 75 % of the place-names are Danish or Norwegian. More than 1.400 English villages and towns bear names of Scandinavian origin -–with the elements thorp ‘village’, toft ‘a piece of land’.

Eventually the Scandinavians were absorbed into the local population ethnically and linguistically. Due to the contacts and mixture with OScand, the Northern dialects (Northumbrian and East Mercian) acquired lasting Scandinavian features and contained a lot of Scandinavian borrowings. In later ages the Scandinavian element passed into other regions. Yet neither in the South nor in Standard English the Scandinavian influence ever assume such proportions as in the North-Eastern ME dialects.

It is difficult to define the semantic spheres of Scandinavian borrowings: they mostly pertain to everyday life and do not differ from native words. Only the earliest loan-words deal with military and legal matters – Late OE barda, cnearr, scegþ ships, cnīf knife, liþ fleet, orrest battle; lagu law, ūtlagu outlaw, feolaga fellow, hūsbonda husband, tacan take.

Examples of everyday words of the Scandinavian origin:

bag, band, birth, cake, dirt, egg, gap, gate, kid, leg, loan, root, score, seat, skill, skirt, sky, window, wing; awkward, happy, ill, loose, low, odd, tight, ugly, wrong; call, crawl, cut, die, gasp, hit, happen, lift, scatter, take, want.

A considerable part of the vocabulary was common to English and to Scandinavian dialects: sunu – sunr, heorte – hiarta, fōt – fōtr, feallan – falla. Close relationship between English and Scandinavian made mutual understanding quite possible.

A most convincing proof of the close contacts between the two languages is the replacement of the native words by Scandinavian borrowings: the 3^rd plural personal pronoun hīe was replaced by the Scandinavian they, them, their, hēo – by she. Other form-words are both, though, fro.

In the regions inhabited by Scandinavians, where the two languages were mixed, there occurred blending of entire lexical layers. In many cases a Scandinavian word differed from its English equivalent only in small details. Sometimes it’s impossible to decide whether the English word was superseded by the Scandinavian or whether the phonetic structure of the English word changed under Scandinavian influence. Both languages were spoken by the same social layers and had equal rights. The result was the blending of Scandinavian and English dialects especially intensive in the North and East.

French influence on the ME vocabulary

The French language was brought to England by the Norman conquerors. The Norman rulers and the immigrants, who invaded the South-Western towns after the Conquest, spoke a variety of French, known as ‘Anglo-Norman’. This variety was spoken during 2 centuries. In the 13^th and 14^th c. English was exposed to a new wave of French influence – this time it came from Central, Parisian French – a variety of a more cultivated, literary kind.

The effect of this influence is seen in a large number of lexical borrowings in ME. At first the French words were restricted to the speech of the aristocracy at the king’s court, the speech of the middle class and the speech of educated people and the population of Southern towns. Eventually French borrowings spread throughout the country.

The total number of French borrowings exceeds the number of borrowings from any other foreign language.

The degree to which French words penetrated into English depends on two factors: on the geographical region and on the social layer addressed by the document. Thus we can state 2 principles:

1. The farther North, the fewer French words.

2. The closer to the lower strata of society, the fewer French words.

The penetration of French words into English during the first 2 c. was slow. Early ME texts – Ormulum – contain a few French words (Midland dialect). More words penetrated the manuscripts of the southern dialects.

On the whole before the 13^th c. 1.000 words entered English, in the 15^th. c. – 10.000 words.

French borrowings can be classified according to some semantic spheres: political and juridical terms, military terms, everyday things, furniture, nature, proper names etc. Many French words were connected with the life of the French nobility.

1. Government, court, jurisdiction: prince, baron, noble, govern, royal, court, justice. The words king, queen survived.

2. Army, military life: werre (war), army, regiment, castle, banner, siege, victory.

3. Religion, church: religion, saint, preyen (pray), sermon, chapel.

4. Town professions: tailor, bocher (butcher), peintre (painter). Words of the OE origin denoted country professions: smith, miller, shoemaker, sheperd.

5. Notions of art: art, colour, image, ornament.

6. Notions of amusement: plesir (pleasure), ese (ease), feste (feast), dinner, soper (supper).

7. Many other words which were not connected with these spheres, penetrated English: river, place, air, large, change.