Check yourself test 2

1. Name the three main periods in the history of the English language and characterize them from the point of view of the grammatical structure of the language in this period.

2. Speak about the Roman invasion of Britain. What traces of the Roman rule can still be found on the territory of Britain?

3. Which event was the starting point for the development of the English language?

4. Name and show on the map the seven kingdoms founded by the Ger­manic tribes on the occupied territory of Britain. Which of the kingdoms was the strongest?

5. Who was the first king of England?

6. Dwell upon the social, cultural and religious divergences between the Anglo-Saxons and the Scandinavians. Why do you think the Scandina­vians succeeded in conquering Britain?

7. What was the influence of Scandinavian dialects on the English language? Give examples to prove the lexical similarity between Scandinavian and English words.

8. What is the etymology of the English names for days of the week?

9. Speak of the process of Christianization of Britain.

10. What is a borrowing? Give examples of two layers of borrowings from Latin into English.

11. Are there any Celtic words in Modern English?

12. Name Old English dialects. On the map of Great Britain show the terri­tory of each of the OE dialects.

13. What are the main Old English manuscripts? In the language(s) of which of the OE dialects were they written?

14. Speak about the contribution of Bede and King Alfred into the formation of the English language.

Recommended literature

1. Иванов И. П., Чахоян Л. П. История английского языка. - CII6.: Лань, 2004.

2. Расторгуeва Т. А., Жданова И. Ф. Курс лекций по истории английского языка. – М.: Просвещение, 1972.

3. Barber, Charles L. The English language: A Historical Introduction. - Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993.

4. Baugh A. C., and T. Cable. A History of the English Language. - Routledge, 2006.

5. Campbell, J. (ed.) The Anglo-Saxons. - Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991.

6. The Cambridge History of the English language. Vol. 1 / R. Hogg (ed.) - Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992.

7. The Cambridge History of the English language. Vol. 2 / N.F. Blake (ed.) - Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992.

8. McCrum, R. et al. The Story of English. - London: Faber/ BBC, 1986.

9. Mitchell, Bruce. An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England. - Oxforf: Blackwell, 1995. 10. Pyles, Thomas and J. Algeo. The Origins and Development of the English language. - N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace, 1970.

11. Reaney, P.H. The Origin of English Place Names. - London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1960. 12. Wakelin, Martin. The Archaeology of English. - London: Batsford, 1988.

LECTURE 3. THE LANGUAGE OF THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD

1. Grammatical system of Old English.

2. Old English vocabulary.

3. Phonetic system of Old English (in comparison with MnE).

4. Old English alphabet.

1. Unlike the Modern English analytical language the Old English language had a synthetic system. Hence, the grammatical relations among words were expressed mainly with the help of inflections and the order of words was more or less free. There were the same parts of speech in Old English that are found in Modern English excepting the articles which de­veloped later.

The Noun. OE nouns had the categories of number, gender and case. There were two numbers - the Singular and the Plural. There were four cases: the Nominative, the Genitive, the Dative, and the Accusative. There existed three genders in nouns - masculine, feminine, and neuter. The nouns belonged to one of three types of declension: the strong, the weak and the minor. The so-called root-stems were declined according to the minor type. Such nouns did not have any suffixes (hence the name for this group of nouns) and were characterized by a specific set of terminations, as well as the root vowel interchange. Consider the declension of the two nouns below:

Table 1