Periods in the elh

The ELH is to a certain extent rare as we can actually find a starting point of the language development. Usually the rise of languages comes naturally through the splitting and merging of dialects in some hidden latent (скрытый) way. The beginnings of the EL are traced back to the year of 449 AD, when two Germanic chieftains, Hengist and Horsa, brought their belligerent (воинствующий, драчливый) tribesmen to the Isles to help their Celtic Ally. Prior to that the Romans conquered the North-East territories of the present GB and kept the Celts and Jutes in submission for several hundred years. But by that time they had withdrawn to the Apennines to check the onslaught of the Barbarian tribes. The name of the Celtic chief, who fought for supremacy for years with his countrymen and invited Anglo-Saxon tribes, was Vortigern. And Hengist, for his war labour, received the land on which he could support his men, which later became known as the Kingdom of Kent.

So starting as a language separated from the rest of the Germanic linguistic area, it has been functioning for more than a millennium and a half. Traditionally Old English period (449-1066), the Middle English period (1066-1475), and the New English (17^th century onwards) are recognized, based on linguistically outstanding historic events: Anglo-Saxon Conquest – Norman Conquest; Norman Conquest – the invention of the printing press, and at the end of the War of Roses. Usually a subperiod is distinguished – the Early New English,- between the 15^th and mid 17^th century. It was the period of Renaissance in the English culture, the one which is represented by numerous works of the classics of English literature and philosophy.

Each of the periods is marked by a set of specific features in phonology, grammar and vocabulary, and can be also defined in these terms. Henry Sweet classified them as The period of Full Endings, the Period of Levelled Endings and the Period of Lost Endings.

Lecture 3. The Old English. General Characteristics.

Questions:

1. Principal written records

2. Dialect classification

3. Phonetics

4. Spelling

5. Grammar

6. Vocabulary

The OE Period in our study is the time from the 5^th to the mid-eleventh century. The background of the English language formation includes long years of pre-written functioning. Angles, Saxons and Jutes were the early settlers on the island. Prior to that the Celtic population was ousted into the outskirts (to the North in Scotland and to the West in Cornwall and Wales). The seven kingdoms were formed: Jutes, the earliest to come formed the kingdom of Kent, Saxons, – to the south of the river Thames,- Essex, Wessex and Sussex, and Angles had East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia. They are known in the 7^th and 8^th centuries as Heptarchy. Though they were supposed to be allies, still they struggled for supremacy and Kent, then Mercia (in the centre of England) and Northumbria (north of the river Humber) gained it at various times.

The great bulk of written materials represent the speech from about 900 to 1050. The language was represented by four dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish and West-Saxon. It was the time of West-Saxon dominance in OE literature. But it was the Mercian dialect, not the West-Saxon, that eventually dominated and evolved into Chaucer’s Middle English and our Modern English. West-Saxon literature is the ancestor of nearly all English literature, but the West-Saxon language is not.

The introduction of Christianity was of paramount importance. Pope Gregory the Great, sent a mission to the Isles and since 597 Christianity comes to the life of islanders.

But it was not for the first time people encountered this religion. Romans were Christians when they left Great Britain, and so were Celts. Ireland has become Christian since the 2^nd century AD but the barbarians that replaced Romans were heathen.

As Christianity came to England from Kent, so Canterbury remains the religious centre of the country. Due to that fact England received the Latin alphabet and educated people. The English history was now written by Englishmen themselves, in their own language and translation (from and into Latin) became an intellectual activity. The period of reign of King Alfred the Great (b.849,d.899), even under the Danish Law, brought the unification of England. He arranged the church to teach and seek students. He himself translated four historic and religious books into English and added his commentaries.

The literary information of those distant days came to us in chronicles, translations of texts into Old English, in copied epic poetry texts.

The Kentish dialect is represented by the 8^th century glosses of Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”, translations of Psalms and some old chronicles.

The Northumbrian dialect is reflected in runic inscriptions on the Ruthwell cross; poetry is represented by Caedmon’s “Hymn”, Bede’s “Dying Song”, Cynewulf “Elene”, “Andreas”, “Juliana” and other biblical motives paraphrase, the best known epic poem “Beowulf”.

The Wessex dialect is represented best of all. King Alfred contributed by his personal writings and translations “Pastoral Care” (“Cura Pastoralis”), Orosius’ “World History”, Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History”.

The difference among the dialects was found in phonology, choice of words and in the use of some grammatical forms.