
- •1St Cons Shift.
- •In general, after the gvs the gap between spoken & written forms of words increased & the Eng.Spelling system became more conservative & conventional than before.
- •In the same way the French word 'receit' under the influence of Latin 'receptum' got 'p' in its ModE spelling 'receipt'.
- •In midE some n-s of –n-stems still retain their peculiar features which were traced in the plural.
- •In oe there are besides singular and plural personal pronouns, also dual pronouns for the 1st and 2nd persons.
- •In Mid e and Mod e shall/will were interchangeable.
- •It should be added that from an early date the Pass. Voice was com¬mon in impersonal sentences with it introducing direct or indirect speech.
- •In the same way the French word 'receit' under the influence of Latin 'receptum' got 'p' in its ModE spelling 'receipt'.
1.Three Groups of Germanic Languages. Germanic Alphabets.
English belongs to the group of Germanic lang-s which may part in the vast family of Indo-European lang-s.
Germanic lang-s, on the one hand, have a number of distinctive features uniting them into the group of related lang-s. On the other hand, the same distinctive feature differentiate Germ lang-s from other Indo-european lang-s.
Germanic lang-s are subdivided into 3 groups:
1. East- Germ ( Gothic, Vandalic, Burgundian)
2. West – Germ ( Engl, Germ, Dutch, Frisian, Judish, Africans)
3. North – Germ (Swedish, Norwegian, Islandic, Danish)
In spite of this subdivision, GLs make a distinct group within the IE linguistic family due to their features in phonetics, grammar and voc. These features are either inherited from ProGL or developed parallelly in separate GLs later due to their mutual source.
Through the history of their development GLs used 3 dif.alphabets, which partly succeeded each other in time.
Runic alph.: originated in ћ 2-3 century AD on the banks of ћ Rhine & Danube, where Germ.tribes could come into contact with Roman culture. This alph was used by Goths, Angl-Saxs, Scandinavians and was adapted to ћ needs of each of these langs: e.g. new letters. Each letter –a rune. It is supposed that ћ Runic alph. is based on ћ Latin or some other Italic alph. But the material & technique of writing used by ћ Germ.tribes in those early times caused considerable modifications of Latin letters in ћ Runic alph.
Ulfila’s Gothic alph: originated in ћ 4 century. Is based on ћ Greek alph, but has some Latin and Runic letters. It is the alph of Ufila’s translation of ћ Bible, but in modern editions ofћ Gothic texts the Latin transcription is used.
Latin alph: began to be used when a new technique of writing was introduced – spreading some color or paint on a surface instead of cutting/engraving ћ letters. Introduction of ћ new alph was stimulated by ћ spread of Christianity and religious texts written in Latin. It was also modified to adapt to ћ peculiar needs of separate GLs. 2.The First Consonant Shift;Verner's Law.
1St Cons Shift.
An essential feature of GLs separating them from other IE langs is theit consonantal syst which developed due to the following changes – p-f, t-th, k-h; b-p, d-t, g-k; bh-b, dh-d, gh-g.
After these 3 stages of cons shift a great number of words of the common IE stock changed their pronunciation in Germanic lang-s. At the same time, there were some words in GLs, and they were not few, which would not fit into the correspondences of the 1st Cons Shift.Thus, instead of an expected voiceless fricative, there would appear a voiced stop. These seeming irregularities were explained by the Danish scholar Karl Verner, so the theory is known as Verner’s Law.
Verner’s Law
reads as follows: if an IE voiceless stop was preceded by an unstressed vowel, the voiceless fricative which developed from it in accordance with the 1st Cons Shift became voiced and later this voiced fricative developed into a voiced stop.
(greek “dekas” – goth “tigus”).
S-Z is the principal. Later z-r – rhotacism.
In the word-changing paradigm of notional parts of speech certain forms might bear the results of Verner’s Law, while other’s had none, and thus grammatical alternation of cons-s arose, for ex, wesan- w?s - w?ron.
The cons pairs involved into gram-l alteration were: f/b, ?/d, s/r. 3.Grammatical Peculiarities of Ancient Germanic Languages.
The Substantive.
Originally the substantive in Germanic, as well as in other IE lang-s, had 3 essential structural parts, which were: root, stem-suffix and case-inflexion. This kind of a substantive structure can be seen most clearly in Gothic, while in other Germanic lang-s it was obscured by later phonemic and grammatical changes.
The Substantive stems in GLs were:
1. The vocalic stems: -a-, -o-, -i-, -u-. They were united under the so-called strong declension
2. The –n- stem which formed the paradigm of weak declension
3. The –s- and –r- stems
4. The root-stem. They had never any stem-suffix, which implies that the root and the stem in these words always coincided.
But in OE, as well as in other GLs, except Gothic, the Substantive is represented by two structural parts only, cause the stem-suffix, having lost its own meaning, coalesced with the case-inflexion and could be no longer identified.
The Adjective.
In GLs Adjective declencion is represented by the paradigm of strong declension, which is the combination of substantial and pronominal endings, and the weak declension, which reflects the declension of –n- stem substantives. Adj declension in Old GLs has no analogy in other IE l-s.
The Verb.
The system of Verbs in Old GLs consisted of 3 distinct types: the main mass were the SV, the 2nd group was represented by the WV and the 3d one united preterite-present Vs.
SV used vowel gradation(ablaut) to derive their preterite and Pt 2.
WV derived the same forms with the help of the dental suffix –d-, its phonemic variants were –t- and -?-
Preterite-present verbs used vowel gradation to derive the forms of the Present tense, while their forms of the Preterite were built with the help of the dental suffix. 4.Invasion of Germanic Tribes andBeginning of the English Language. OE Dialects.
The Eng lang originated from the dialects spoken by the German tribes of Angles, Saxons, Frisian, Jutes who invaded Britain starting with the mid 5 c to the end of the 6c A.D. Before that the original population of the British Isles were the Celtic tribes of Britons and Gaels.
Celtic lang-s don’t belong to the group of Germ lang-s
Thus, there exists the problem of the starting point of Engl
According to the formal approach the mid 5c is taken for the starting point when the 1st Germanic tribes landed in Britain.
But the earliest written records in Engl are dated back to the 7c AD. Many scholars take this very time for the beginning of Engl.
The 2nd viewpoint seems more logical cause the new EL couldn’t possibly originate immediately after the Germanic tribe appeared in Britain. For some time they continued speaking their original dialects they brought from Europe.
The invaders formed 7 Kingdoms and principalities in England.
The Angles occupied the central and northern parts of the countries (Nothumbria, Mercia, East Anglia).
At this time there appeared 2 words giving a new name to the country and the new language.(An?lelond – England)
OE Dialects and Writings.Though the common origin of the tribal dialects spoken by the Germanic invaders and their joint evolution In Britain transformed them eventually into a single lang, yet in its early stage English was represented by a number of disunited dialects spoken in separate kingdoms.
The OE period was the time of constant conflicts and wars for supremacy. Different kings managed to establish their suzerainty over other kingdoms at various times, but these domination were often personal and temporary. In the 7th century Northumbria was very powerful, and was a great centre of learning. In the 8th century this leadership passed to Wessex. And it was the kings of Wessex who finally unified the country. In the late 9th century King Alfred saved the south and west of England from the Danes, and in the 10th century Alfred’s successors reconquered the North and the East. The unification of England under the West Saxon kings led to the recognition of the West Saxon dialect as a literal standard. The surviving texts from the OE period are in 4 main dialects: West Saxon, Kentish, Mercian, and Northumbrian.
The Northumbrian:the Runic texts of the Ruthwell Cross and Frank’s Casket, translation of gospels.
Ћ Mercian: Translations of the Psalter (9c) and religious hymns.
Ћ West-Saxon: The works of King Alfred, translations of Latin texts.
Ћ Kentish: Translations of Psalms L-LXX and old charters. 5.Approaches towards the Periodization of the History of English.
Lang is a variable social phenomenon which changes through time. Though lang history is a slow uninterrupted process, changes are not evenly distributed in time: periods of intensive and vast changes may be followed by periods of relative stability. Thus, taking into consideration the state of the grammatical system of Eng, H. Sweet subdivided history of the lang into:
1. the period of full endings (sunu)
2. the period of leveled endings (sone)
3. the period of lost endings (son)
However, being a social phenomenon and having communication as its main function, lang in the process of development is regulated not only by its inner laws and principles, but is affected by changes in society as a whole and by social life of the lang community. It’s obvious that history of lang cannot and must not be separated from social history. Therefore, while dividing history of English into chronological periods, Russian scholars take into consideration both extralinguistic and linguistic aspects (B.A.Ilyish,I.P.Ivanove, L.P.Chakhoyan, T.A.Rastorgueva). In general, the boundaries between the periods of English are attached to definite dates and historical events affecting the lang. According to this approach, history of the EL can be subdivided into the flg periods:
1. OE – it begins with the Germ settlement of Britain (5th c AD) or with the beginning of writing (7th c AD), according to another viewpoint, and ends with the Norman conquest (1066). Thus, OE lasts from mid 5-7th c till the end of the 11th c.
2. MidE begins with the Norman Conquest and lasts till the end of the 15th c, to which 1485 is close, the year when the Wars of Roses came to an end, which marked the decay of feudalism and the rise of capitalism in England. The 15th c also witnessed the introduction of book-printing (1475), which was an event of social and linguistic importance. The MidE period, in its own turn, is subdivided into Early MidE – 12-13th c; and Late MidE – 14-15th c.
3. ModE begins at about 1500 and lasts well into our times. Within the ModE period it’s customarily to distinguish between Early Modern Eng (1500-1700 approximately) and Late Modern Engl, or Mod E proper (from 1700 to our times).
If we take the mid 5c – 7c it’s obvious that the whole history of Eng is more than 14c long. During this long period the language has gone numerous changes in its sound system, grammar, voc.
To trace these changes in its logical order the history of Engl is subdivided into 3 periods:
1) OE ( mid 5(7) c – 11 c AD)
2) Mid E (12-15 c) EMidE 12-13c LateMidE (14-15 c)
3) ModE up to the 15c - EModE (16-17 c, Shakespeare), (Mod E proper 18c-…)
In the process of its historical development E had numerous contacts with other languages and those contacts had very important consequences in the development of E. 6.The Scandinavian Conquest and its Influence upon the English Language.
The Scandinavian began their inroads in the 8th century AD and by the late 9th c. they had occupied the whole of English territory north of the Thames in spite of the stubborn resistance of the Anglo-Saxons.
In 878 AD Wedmore Peace was proclaimed and according to it the territory occupied by the Scandinavians was to remain in their power and it was called Danela?. After the Scandinavian conquest there developed a peculiar linguistic situation. The invaders spoke the same Germanic languages. These languages also belonged to the group of GL like the OE language or Anglo-Saxon spoken by the native population. So, there developed a favourable situation for blending the Scandinavian languages and the OE language.
The OE language at that time was enriched by a great number of Scandinavian borrowings and the process of language blending was especially intensive in the North and East of the Isles. And not seldom the native population and the invaders could understand without translating as the routes of many words were similar or even identical.
Among the Scandinavian borrowings we can mention: la?u (law); husbonda (master of the house); casta; calla; feol?a; wran?. In toponymics Scandinavian components are also numerous: - by (a village): Kirkby; Whitby; Derby; - toft: langtoft; - gate: gata (=street); -beck: Trout beck (речка форели). In grammar the pronoun of the 3d person pl. “they” was also borrowed from Scandinavian. The conj. “till”. In northern GL the preposition “at + Inf.” OE: at + don (=to do) > ado.
In the course of time the Scandinavian settlers mixed with Anglo-Saxons, formed their villages and towns. And they became no longer invaders in the course of time. 7. The Norman Conquest and its Linguistic Consequences.
In 1066 after the death of Edward the Confessor Harold Godwin was proclaimed the king of England. But soon as the news reached William of Normandy in France he gathered a big army and supported by the Pope landed in Britain, because he believed he had the rights of the English throne. In the battle of Hastings (October, 1066) Harold Godwin was killed and the English were defeated. William of Normandy was crowned king and he got the title of the Conqueror. The Norman conquerors of England originally were again Scandinavians. They had come and settled in the North of France three centuries before the battle of Hastings. And the origin of the word “Norman” proves that they had come from the North. Norman < North + man.
By the time of the Norman conquest of England they had become the bearers of French culture and language. And the territory they lived on was called Normandy. After the Norman Conquest they brought to England the French language and cultural traditions. But French in England was affected by E. spoken by the inhabitants of England. This variant began to be called Anglo-Norman. The military occupation of the country had continued for several years after the battle of Hastings. William and his barons devastated and depopulated vast territories burning down villages and estates. After the Norman conquest the ruling class of the A-S nobility vanished almost completely. Many of them perished in battles, others were executed, some immigrated. And this nobility was replaced by the N. barons who spoke the Norman dialect of French. And all the posts in churches were also given to Frenchmen. French soldiers, merchants, teachers, tailors seeking for new fields of activity arrived in England in great numbers.
It is believed that during the first 20 years after the battle of Hasting 200.000 Frenchmen settled in England. For 3 centuries after the conquest French had been the state official language in Britain. It was the language of the court , the government, the courts of law and army. And the E. language was reduced to a lower social sphere. It was spoken by peasantry and townspeople, and gentry. An important conclusion here is that the primordial traditions of English were not broken. It was used mainly in the oral form at that time. In OE the leading dialect was that of West Saxon because the kingdom of Wessex subdued other kingdoms in the OE period. The West Saxon dialect is conventionally considered to be the literary language of the OE period. In Mid.E. after the Norman conquest none of the E. dialects enjoyed any privilege. They were all on an equal footing because the leading language was French.
The linguistic situation after the Norman Conquest was complex. The feudal upper class, the government spoke French and lower social layers spoke English. And there was also a considerable layer of bilingual population (merchants, tradesmen, craftsmen, teachers). There was the third language – Latin – which was used by church and at schools.
This coexistence of E. and F. was not peaceful. There were constant conflicts between them. In this struggle between the 2 languages there are some important dates showing gradual progress of E. The 1st English kings after the conquest could not speak English because their mother tongue was French. But in 1258 there appeared the 1st sign of the rise of English, when Henry III addressed the population of the country in a proclamation written in 3 languages (French, English, Latin).
In the 14th century the influence of English grew gradually. In 1362 Edward III proclaimed that the Courts of law should conduct their business in English because “French is too little known”. In the same year English was used for the 1st time in Parliament. At the end of the 14th century Eng. began to be used at schools. Thus by the end of the 14th century the supremacy of French had come to an end. And this victory of E. was due to the rise of social layers.
These layers were the gentry, townspeople, the rising bourgeoisie who played a very important role in the struggle against the top layer (feudal) of the society. And English emerged from this struggle with French in a considerably changed way.Firstly, its vocabulary was enriched by a great number of French loan words. And its grammatical structure underwent material changes, too. It’s quite natural that French loan words denoting mainly the things and notions connected with the life of French aristocracy. Several semantic spheres can be found here:
1) the words belonging to the sphere of political life, e.g. government, parliament, the court, prince, baron, noble, royal, to govern justice, to sentence, condemn; but the A-S words “king and queen” were not replaced by the corresponding French words “le roi”, “la reine”. The word “gentleman” was copied from the Fr. – phrase” un gentil home”. 2) Military life, e.g. army, battle, military, regiment, banner, victory, defeat. 3) Religion and church, e.g. saint, to pray, chattel, religion, religious. 4) Town professions, e.g. butcher, painter, tailor. 5) Art notions, e.g. art, colour, figure, image, ornament
6) Amusements, e.g. pleasure, le sure, feast, dinner, supper, to roast.
Many loan words are not easy to classify: air, place, to cover, river, large, change, etc. Many Fr. Words forced out the original E. words from usage, but quite often both E. and Fr. Words began to exist parallely in English. In this case these synonymous words developed in different ways:
1) Their meanings began to differ, e.g. A-S: calf, sheep, pig; Fr.: veal, mutton, pork.
2) One of 2 synonymous words narrowed its meaning. In OE the word “heartist” had 2 meanings: 1. the name of the certain season – autumn; 2. the name of the work – crops collecting. After the Fr. Word “autumn” had appeard in E., the name of the season began to be denoting by this word.
3) The synonymous words began to differ stylistically. E.g. to begin (A-S) is a stylistically neutral word. To commence (Fr.) is bookish.
Eng. also borrowed from French a considerable number of affixes. When the suffix had become familiar it began to be used with original Eng. Stems. –ance/ence first appeared in Eng. In such words: existence, innocence. And later it began to be used with Eng. Words: hindrance. In the same way the suffix –ment first came into E. in such Fr. Words as government, parliament, treatment. Later – with such E. words as fulfillment. The suffix –et has a diminutive meaning. In E. it was transformed into –let: book – booklet; stream – streamlet; leaf – leaflet. The suffix –age: plumage; courage; luggage. –ee is an indicator of passive participle in Fr.: employee, absentee; in E.: trustee. –al appeared from Fr.: arrival; in E.: burial. –rible/able is used to derive adj. from verbs: Fr. formidable; Eng. Drinkable, teachable. Prefixes borrowed from Fr.: dis-; en-; in-(ir-; im-; il-). Dis-: disown; disburden; distrust. En-: Fr. engender; E. to endear. In- Fr. inanimate; E. irresistible, illiterate, illegal.
The vocabulary of E. language changed considerably. The conj. “because” is believed to be a Fr. borrowing. There are many similar grammatical forms and constructions in E. and Fr. grammars, but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to prove that they are direct borrowings from Fr., because they might as well develop parallely in 2 languages. There is the fact that Eng. Was enriched considerably by Fr. loan words and various scholars name different % of them. The minimal number is 40% and the max is 70%.
The conclusion: E. is no longer a typical Germanic language, and has become a hybrid language combining the features of Germanic and romance features. But this idea is not supported widely as the type of language and its essential characteristics are preconditioned by its grammatical structure. While in its grammar E. is certainly a representative of Germanic languages. 8.Rise of the National English Language. The role of the London dialect in this process.
In MidE there began the process of formation of the NEL. Linguistically the MidE period was represented by 4 essential dialects which now got geographical names:
1. Scotland dialect; 2. Northern dialect; 3. Midland dialect (OE Midland dialect; East Anglian dialect; West-Saxon(part) dialect): West-Midland and East-Midland; 4. Southern dialect.
At first in Early ME none of these dialects had only privilege. But it was in ME that important social and economic changes began developing in England. These were growth of commerce and industry, development of money circulation – all these changes marked development of E. bourgeoisie. And under these new social relations there began geographical and political consolidation of the country. Various kinds of contacts between various parts of the country increased. Under such conditions there developed an urged need for the unified national language which would be equally intelligible in all parts of the country. Whole in reality a number of isolated dialects could not perform this task. It was in ME that the process of development of the NEL began.
The base for this l-ge was the London dialect. The leading role of the LD could be explained by its favourable geographical position and the political role of the life of the country. This dialect lay on the boundary line between the midland and southern d-s, so it comprised linguistic forms of the Midland and Southern groups. But in the course of time the Midland elements became prevailing. Due to the growth of importance of London in economic the political life of the country by the end of the 14th c. the LD became influential in all parts of England. The LD was a mixture of the East Midland, South-Eastern (Kentish) and partially it comprised the forms of OE West-Saxon dialect.
In OE the leading dialect was the West-Saxon one which was located here and in ME the LD began dominating. And the scholars talk about the shift of the dialectal base (сдвиг диалектной базы). And this shift in ME lead to the new pronunciation of some OE forms. E.g. In OE:
West-Saxon Mersian
eald ald
c?t cat
m?nn mann
In OE the dominating forms were the W-S ones, in ME the former Mersian words began leading. And they were reflected in the developing NL/ The ME period was the time of intensive development of E. literature. If the authors were mainly unknown in OE, while in ME and later they were definite writers. Thus, the ME period is represented by the proclamation of Henry III and then there were 2 prominent writers Adam Davy and Chaucer and > J. Gower. Chaucer is the father of E. literature. The development of the NEL in ME was still characterized by a great variation in pronunciation, spelling a gram. forms of one and the same word. E.g. cat: cat and kat. In grammar each dialect was characterized by its own peculiarities.
But by the end of the 14th c. still the LD began prevailing in all parts of the country. The 15th c. was a remarkable stage in the history not only of England but of all European countries as in 1438 Gutenberg invented book printing. Book printing was introduced into England by William Caxton. The 1st E. book was printed in 1475. And 2 years later the 1st book was printed in E. itself.
By that time the Norman scribes had already introduced a great number of spelling innovations into E. and they were reflected in printed books and thus began to be used regularly and have survived till modern times. And a very important problem of cracked standard E. which form should be chosen and reflected in printed books if there are several variants of one and the same word.
In the 16th c. the role and importance of E. continued growing, but still in 2 spheres of life which were church and science Latin was dominating. But have quarreled with Pope Clementius Henry VIII began to force out Catholicism and introduce Protestantism. And in the course of time religious texts in England were translated into E. and the service began to be performed in E. as well. As for science Latin was still dominating there in the 16th c, but in Europe it was the time of the Renaissance and on the one hand it stimulated the spread of Latin and on the other hand the R-ce stirred national feelings, culture and l-ge. And at that time in E. there developed the movement of purists (Thomas Wilson, J. Cheke). They fought against cluttering up English with Latin words. In 1531 Sir Thomas Eliot wrote the book and it was written in E. At that time everything was written in Latin. At the end of the 16th c. the scientist Richard Malcaster praised E. as the best l-ge among existing in the world. As a result of this movement in support of E. at the end of the 16th c. E. began dominating in science as well, though even in modern E. there are a lot of Latin loan words which are used in science and learned E. By the end of the 16th c. the E. l-ge had penetrated into all the spheres of social life: school teaching, science, church, everyday communication, literature. It is believed that the birth date of the NEL is the end of the 16th c.
Though the process of its development began in the 14th c. In the following 2centeries the E. l-ge still continued its perfection and there were many linguistic problems which the young NL was to solve. The 17th c. was remarkable in the history of England. It was the time of the bourgeois Revolution which influenced the l-ge. Civil war ended in 1649 by the puritan victory and proclamation of Commonwealth. The l-ge of the C-th belongs to the early mod. E. period and it is affected strongly by the ideology of puritans. According to it the l-ge was to be simple, clear and easily intelligible. And the style of writings should be solemn and grand. To achieve it the writers often used the archaic words. The most prominent writer of that period was John Milton. In his poems he gave his own evaluation of the revolution and he managed to create a peculiar individual style in his poems using Greek and biblical quotations. 9.The Rise of Linguistic Disciplines in the 16-17th centuries.
The development of L.Ds was also stimulated by the problems connected with the perfection of the NEL.
In the 16th c. there appeared the 1st English grammars. Though at the beginning they were strongly influenced by Latin, still the problems of English were treated in them for the purposes of teaching at school. William Lily, Ben Jonson, J. Wallis.
In the 18th century there appeared the prescriptive grammars of E. which put forward to distinct aims: 1. to clear the language of all irregular and substandard forms. 2. to fix the correct forms in dictionaries and text books for constant usage. And an attempt of this kind was undertaken by the French academy of Science. They selected the forms which were in their opinion correct and compiled only the first volume of the dictionary.
It turned out that almost half of the forms can become absolute (архаичные). This task of fixation of the correct forms in the dictionaries was impracticable, so the idea was given up. Nevertheless English Normative Grammar introduced a great number of rules which are observed in ModE as well. E.g. the forms of double negation were excluded from the language. Also at the same time there appeared the works of orthoepy which deals with the problems of standard pronunciation. E.g. If there were variants of pronunciation of one and the same word they selected the correct one: [kl?rl] and [kla:k]; [hwit?] and [wit?].
In the 16th c. the problem of orthoepy and its correct spelling were treated by such scholars as Charles Butler and Ch. Cooper. In this case it was necessary to overcome variation in spelling, when one and the same word had several variations: e.g. c-k: cumen – kumen. Among early L.Ds there was also lexicography dealing with the distribution of E. words into various kinds of dictionaries. The earliest d-s were bilingual, i.e. they were Latin – English or French – English dictionaries. Later there appeared the dictionaries of difficult words compiled by Henry Cawdrey and W. Cockram: archaic words, loan words and even slang words.
In the 18th c. there appeared monolingual dictionaries, some of which were based on etymological principle, which means that the author presumed not only practical aims but they also started treating E. on the scientific grounds. E.g. N. Baily in his work traced the history of words and described their meanings.
In 1755 the great E. lexicographer Samuel Johnson edited “A dictionary of the E. language”. He worked together with 6 assistants and they had done a really immeasurable job. They traced the use of the words in the 16-17th c. Later this dictionary served as the basis for the best E. dictionary of our times – “A New English Dictionary” which was edited by the stuff of Oxford University.
Conclusion: The problem of formation of the NEL began in the 14th c. and dialect of London served as its base. We may speak about the appearance of the NEL starting only at the end of the 16th c. > for 2 c. it was in the process of its development. After that all the changes have been taken place in the Nat. language. To solve the problems of the NL in the 17th and 18th c. there appeared such ling. dictionaries as grammar, lexicography, orthoepy. And at first they were solving only practical problems, but in the course of time the range of their interests widened and they began to treat scientific problems as well. The 18th c. was a remarkable stage in history of E. and is known as “The epoch of normalization”. When many language forms were abused and the rules of correctness were fixed in grammars, many of which are observed nowadays. In the process of its historical development the E. language had numerous contacts with other languages: Latin, French, Scandinavian which contributed greatly to the richness of its vocabulary. The E. demonstrates a positive attitude toward these contacts of foreign languages. 10. National variants of the EL.
For several centuries GB had been the most influential colonial power, due to this fact Eng penetrated into many parts of the world and exists nowadays in a number of native variants.
Eng in Scotland. In Modern Scot there are 2 official lit lang-s: Eng and Scot. In the 14th c when the Eng dialects began to unite to form the nat. lang, the Scots spoke the Northern dialect of Eng. But this dialect was not involved into the process of consolidation because until the beginning of the 18th c Scot had political autonomy. In the 14-16th the Midland and Southern dialect had been united, Scottish had its own way of development and its peculiar features can be traced even nowadays in pronunciation, voc and grammar. e.g. four years (r is pronounced); time [teim], church [firk]. These peculiar features of Sc were fixed and made popular by R. Burns in his poetry. Besides Scottish a number of people speak in the Highlands Gaelic (Celtic lang). There was a ling dispute whether Scottish is a separate Gem lang (Ilyish), the 1st point of view, Scot still remains the northern dialect of Eng (Иванова). The Scots is completely different lang.
In Ireland there are also 2 official lang: Ireland was conquered by the Eng in the early 17th c and the struggle against Eng power went all through the 17th and 18th c and normally they went to struggle for the rights of the Irish. Irish is a form of Gaelic, i.e. Celtic group. But most people in Ireland speak 2 lang-s: Irish and literary Eng.
Besides the Irish and Scottish variants that have been mentioned in the preceding paragraph, there are Australian English, Canadian English, and Indian English. Each of these has developed a literature of its own, and is characterized by peculiarities in phonetics, spelling, grammar and vocabulary.
Canadian English is influenced both by British and American English but it also has some specific features of its own. Specifically Canadian words are called Canadianisms. They are not very frequent outside Canada, except shack 'a hut' and to fathom out 'to explain'. The vocabulary of all the variants is characterized by a high percentage of borrowings from the language of the people who inhabited the land before the English colonizers came. Many of them denote some specific realia of the new country: local animals, plants or weather conditions, new social relations, new trades and conditions of labour. The local words for new notions penetrate into the English language and later on may become international, if they are of sufficient interest and importance for people speaking other languages. The term international words is used to denote words borrowed from one language into several others simultaneously or at short intervals one after another.
International words coming through the English of India are for instance: bungalow n, jute n, khaki adj, mango n, nabob n, pyjamas, sahib, sari. Similar examples, though perhaps fewer in number, such as boomerang, dingo, kangaroo are all adopted into the English language through its Australian variant. They denote the new phenomena found by English immigrants on the new continent. A high percentage of words borrowed from the native inhabitants of Australia will be noticed in the sonorous Australian place names. Otherwise an ample use was made of English lexical material. An intense development of cattle breeding in new conditions necessitated the creation of an adequate terminology. It is natural therefore that nouns like stock, bullock or land find a new life on Australian soil: stockman 'herdsman', stockyard, stock-keeper 'the owner of the cattle'; bullock v means 'to work hard', bullocky dray is a dray driven by bullocks; an inlander is a stock-keeper driving his stock from one pasture to another, overland v is 'to drive cattle over long distances'; to punch a cow 'to conduct a team of oxen'; a puncher 'the man who conducts a team of oxen'; tucker-bag 'the bag with provision'.
When anyone other than an Englishman uses English, the natives of Great Britain, often half-consciously, perhaps, feel that they have a special right to criticize his usage because it is "their" language. It is, however, unreasonable with respect to people in the United States, Canada, Australia and some other areas for whom English is their mother-tongue. Those who think that the Americans must look to The British for a standard are wrong and, vice versa, it is not for the American to pretend that English in Great Britain is inferior to the English he speaks. At present there is no single "correct" English and The American, Canadian and Australian English have developed standards of their own. 11. American English: Vocabulary and Sound peculiarities.
In the early 17th c Eng penetrated the lang into Am continent. The 1st party of eng colonists laid by John Smith stepped on the Am continent in 1607 (the first colony in the state of Virginia – Jamestown). In 1620 the ship Mayflower brought a new party of colonists to Am and this date is considered to be the official day of colonization . In the course of the following cent. Eng spread all over North Am and reached the Pacific coast. And this process Eng had to overcome 2 main rivals – Spanish and French. When the Am people had become a nation of its own right they question about the interrelations b/n Br and Am Eng.
In the 19th c there appeared many works describing peculiarities of Am Eng and in Britain there was a tendency to abuse Am Eng forms. The opposite tendency can be found in the USA. Noel Webster in 1828 edited Am dic of the Eng lang (he supported the right of Am Eng).
In the 20th the idea of Am lang became very influential and among its supporters – Henry Mankin. This idea is wrong from the ling point of view but its justification can be understood if we treat Americans as a special nation and every nation is char-sed by a lang of its own. From the scientific viewpoint the theory of Am lang is quite doubtful, as the base of ћ lang is the same as that of BrEng.
In order to answer definitely the ? whether Am Eng is a separate lang, different from Br Eng, it is necessary to summarize the peculiar features of Am Eng on various levels of the lang system.
Vocabulary. The voc. Of AmEng is a mixture: base fron BrEng. Borrowed: ~30 Indian words, included in literary AmEng (sequoia, wigwam, racoon); Spanish – agricultural (lasso, coyote, mustang, ranch); French (cent, chute, dime, saloon). Less fruitful: Danish (boss, waffle)? Italian (pizza, spaghetti), German (hamburger). Many BrE word have their syn-s in AmE: lift-elevator, sweets-candies, shop-store. Phrasal verbs differ considerably: to make out – to figure out.
Peculiarities in pronunciation.
Am literary E, not sub-standard, only in the sph of edu people.
Br E – Am E:
[a:]>[?](grass, ask, task)
[o]>[A] (not, box)
[ai]>[i] (hostile, specialization)
[ju:]>[u:] (due to, new, suit)
[t]>[d]- b/n vowels (kettle, twenty, student);
[r] – after vowel is not pr (Br), pron (Am). So, not easy to understand Americans. 12. American English: Grammar and Spelling peculiarities.
Grammar. 1. Am Eng was the 1st to level the Future auxiliary ‘will’ for all the persons and members (I will do it if I can (Am).But if the verb shall/should are used in their modal meanings, their use is the same in Br and Am Eng, i.e. they can’t be replaced by will. e.g. You shall pay for everything you had done.
2. The use of the V to have in Am Eng is more universal and logical. In Br Eng, there 2 kinds of rules concerning the v to have: 1) if it’s used in the meaning to posses, no auxiliary is necessary in ? and negations. Have you a sister? In Am Eng they use the auxiliary do. In Br Eng when the v to have is used in the modal meaning or in set phrases, the aux do in this case is used both in Br and Am Eng. When do you have the music lessons? In Am Eng the universal role is that aux do is used with the v to have in all its meanings and functions.
3. In Am E “to have” is sometimes used in a causative m. (to make smb do smth). Br E I’d like you to go there. Am: I’d like to have you go there.
4. In Br E the Inf is regularly preceded by the particle ‘to’. In Am E ‘to’ is often dropped before the inf. Br E Let’s go to see him. AmE Let’s go see him.
5. V-s of motion are often dropped in Am E if they are followed by locative post-positives and prep-s. Br E The child wants to come in/to go out. Am E the child wants in/out.
6. In the same way in Am E the aux v ‘to be’ is dropped in the Passive Inf. Br E I ordered the room to be decorated. Am E – decorated.
7. In Mod E there are 2 forms of the Subj Mood – synthetic and analytical. Am E the synthetic form is preferable. Br E the analytical one. I insist he should do it. I insist he do it.
8. the use of prep-s is very peculiar in Am E. In Br Eng to knock at the door, Am – on the door. To the British prep behind, in Am – in back of. Br – to (indicate direction), Am – to or by. Br – about, Am – over: I’m happy over it. Differences can also be revealed in prep-s while time telling. Br E: It’s ten past 12. Am It’s ten to/of 12.
9. The use of tenses in Am E is generally simpler. The number of tense and aspect forms is smaller. He has just come – he just came. Past Perf in Am E is often replaced by the form of Past Ind. The rules of Seq of Tenses in Am are broken regularly.
10. An obvious change in Am E is the change of irreg v-s into reg ones leant – learned, smelt – smelled.
Summarizing gr pec of Am E we may conclude that Am E aims at leveling variants, at simplifying constructions, at ling economy.
Spelling. E spelling in general is v conservative, v imperfect, as it doesn’t reflect the pronunciation. Attempts were made to simplify and perfect E sp both by Br and Am. But the British, due to their conservative nature, didn’t succeed in these attempts, while Am have reached some obvious result.
Thus, 1) in Am sp the suffix of nouns – our was reduced to –or.
2) the ending of the w-s –ce > se (offense).
3) the w-s of the Fr origin ending in –re > - er.
4) in Br – 2 variants –ize/-ise, in Am – ize.
5) in Am they don’t double the final consonant before the suf –ed.
6) Am – the final “l” is doubled (skillfull).
A great number of loan w-s were simplified (dialogue, telegramme, through) Am E at present is the most influential variant of eng.
In spite of these system dif-ces b/n Br and Am in gr, voc, pronunc and spelling still these dif-ced are not significant enough to justify the idea of Am lan-ge. 13. Sources of OE Short Diphthongs and Their Phonemic Status.
There were three essential sources of short diphthongs in OE.
I. The Old English Breaking: front vowels /e/ and /?/ broke into the diphthongs /eo/ and /ea/ if they were followed by the combinations r, 1, h + a consonant; or /h/ in the final position: ?rm > earm рука; ?hta> eahta восемь. It was a characteristic of the W. Saxon dialect, while the Anglian dialects had a short monophthong in the same words: eald-ald старый.
II. Palatal diphthongization: under the influence of the initial palatal sounds /k'/, /sk’/, /?'/: e>ie 3efan>3iefan давать; ?>ea 3?f>3eaf дать; a >ea scacan>sceacan трясти; o>eo scort>sceort короткий; ?:>ea: 3?:fon>3ea:fon дали. /k'/ and / ?'/ influenced only front vowels, /sk'/ affected also back vowels /o/, /a/. It was characteristic of the West Saxon dialect, while in the Anglian dialects the same words had monophthongs.
III. Back Mutation. Under the influence of the back vowels /a/, /o/, /u/ the front vowels broke into the following diphthongs: i>io silufr>siolufr серебро; e>eo hefon>heofon небеса; a>ea saru>searu доспехи. It was more popular in the Anglian dialects than in the West Saxon one. There were a lot of discussion as to their phonemic status. Some scholars considered them to be the allophones. But OE short diphthongs represented independent phonemes, but not allophones of short vowels. 14. I-mutation and Its Phonemic Consequences.
It is impossible to state the exact time of i-mutation. No traces of i-mutation could be found in Gothic texts (4th century A. I).), but its results were reflected in the earliest OE texts (7th century A.D.), we may suppose that i-mutation took place in the period between the 4th and 7th centuries. The starting point of the English language is the mid-5ft century.
The essence: the fronting and narrowing of the root vowel under the influence of /i/ or /j/ in the immediately following syllable. Since these sounds were very common in suffixes and word-endings, i-mutation was a very frequent and systematic change: it affected the whole system of OE vowels, but for the narrowest i: and e:; both long and short vowels, diphthongs and monophthongs were affected by this change.
The results of i-mutation:
Short monophthongs:
/a/>/?/>/e/ taljan>t?ljan >tellan рассказывать;
/o/>/?/>/e/ ofstian>efstan спешить;
/u/>/y/ fuljan>fyllan наполнять.
Long monophthongs:
/a:/>/?2/ la:rian>l?:rian учить;
/o:/>/?:/>/e:/ fo:ti>f?t>fe:t нога;
/u:/>/y/ ontu:njan>onty:nan открывать.
Short diphthongs:
/ea/>/ie/ hleahian>hliehhan смеяться;
/eo/>/ie/ heordja>hierde пастух.
Long diphthongs:
/ea:/>/ie:/ 3elea:fian>3eliefan верить;
/eo:/>/ie:/ 3etreo:wi>3etriewe правдивый.
I-mutation affected not only the root vowels, but the following consonant too. Thus, if this root vowel was short, the following consonant was doubled: cnusian>cnyssan толкать.
No doubling of a consonant was found if: 1) the root vowel was long; 2) if it was followed by a cluster of consonants or /r/, besides /i/ was preserved if the root vowel was followed by /r/: do:mjan-de:man судить; sandian-sendan посылать; ga-sturian-styrian шевелиться.
I-mutation enriched the system of OE vowels, /y/ and /y:/ being new phonemes in it. 15. Qualitative Changes of Vowels in Mid Eng.
Changes of Short Monophthongs
1. The pronunciation of short vowels in unstressed syllables became indistinct. Dif. forms of the verbs had dif. endings that were levelled under one: wri:tan, writon, writen>wri:ten слышать. All unstressed vowels weakened and reduced to /?/.
2. /?/ was replaced by the back vowel /a/: ??t-that. But in the southern dialects /?/ was retained.
3. /y/ was delabialised, producing various results depending on a dialect: y, y:>i, i: (East-Midland, Northern); >u, u: (West-Midland, South-Western); >e, e: (Southern (former Kentish). E.g.: cyssan>kissen; kussen; kessen целовать.
But there are words reflecting cases of a compromise between two different: the spelling of the word "busy" - the West-Midland dialect, pronunciation - the East-Midland (or Northern) dialect; "to bury" - West Midland and Southern dialects; "to build" - East and West-Midland dialects.
Changes of Long Monophthongs
Long vowels tended to become closer:
1. a>o: ha:m>ho:m Except the Northern dialect, where /a:/ was preserved =>etymological doublets: ra:d>road, raid.
2. /?1:/>/e:/ /'l?:tan/>/'le:t?n/ But in the West-Midland dialect / ?1/>/E:/ /’sle:pan/>/'slE:p?n/
3. /?2/ resulting from i-mutation of /a./, developed into /E:/: /d?:l/>/dE:l/ долина. But in Kenish ?:>e: s?>/se:/
Changes of Diphtongs
All diphthongs developed into monophthongs:
1. ea>?>a hearm-h?rm-harm. This /a/ was lengthened before “ld” and developed into /o:/: /ald/>/a:ld/>/o:ld/
2. eo>o:>e /'heorte/>/'ho:rt?/>/'hert/ сердце.
3 /io/, developing from /i/ under velar mutation, turned into /eo/>/o:/>/e/: /'siolufr/>/'seolufr/>/'selv?r/ серебро.
4. /ie/, which appeared as a result of i-mutation or palatal diphthongisation, >/i/ or /u/ in the West-Midland dialect: ieldan>yilden, yulden.
Changes of Long Diphthongs
1. ea:>E: /bea:m/>/bE:m/ луч
2. eo:>e: /deo:p/>/de:p/ глубокий 16. Quantitative Changes of Vowels in OE
1. lengthening of a vowel before "ld", "nd", "mb” - the 9-10 centuries.
"Ld" lengthened all kinds of vowels, open and close: /kild/>/ki:ld/ ребенок, /bald/>/ba:ld/ смелый.
“Nd” affected only narrow vowels: /findan/>/fi:ndan/ находить.
Lengthening before "mb" was systematic, but not numerous: /climban/>/cli:mban/ лезть.
No lengthening took place if the clusters in question were followed by another consonant: ci:ld, but cildru.
2. 11 century - long vowels were shortened before clusters of two consonants, except "ld", "nd", "mb": ce:pan, but cepte держать. It was not regular before "st": dust, but east.
3. 13ft century - short vowels were lengthened in open syllables. First it ws characteristic only of Northern dialects, but then spread all over England.
a>a: /'talu/>/'ta:l?/ сказка;
o>o: /’hopian/>/'ho:p?n/ надеяться;
e>e: /'stelan/>/'stE:l?n/ красть.
In the Northern dialects, and partly in the East Midland dialect: i>e: /'wiku/>/'we:k?/ зло; u>o: /'dures/>/'do:r?s/ дверь. After these quantitative changes of vowels quantity (length/shortness) stopped being their phonemic feature. Length of a vowel began to depend on its distribution and type of a syllable. 17. Dating, direction and causes of the GVSh.
The GVSh put forward number of problems, which are connected with the periodisation of shifting its possible directions and causes. Several view points may be found concerning the time of vowel shifting.
1) Such scholars as Martinet, Trnka expressed an idea that the shift might begin in the 12 or 14th c. But this view point can not be accepted because at that time the system of MidE long vowels which later was affected by shifting had not yet been formed.
2) H. Wyld believed that the Sh began in the 14th c. and was over in the 16th c. To prove his view point he studied a lot of poetic rhymed and private diaries and letters, written by poorly educated people whose writing was closed to the pronunciation of that time (housewives).
3) Jesperson and Sweet: Sh began in the 16th c. and was over in the 17th c.
4) But the most reliable view point – by Rastorgueva: the Sh took place between 14th and 18th c. Most probably it began in the 14th c. which is proved by the sound analysis in the 14th c. writings. As for the 17th c. it should be included as well as 14, 15, 16 c. into the frame of the Sh, as some phonetic changes of the 14 c. could be accounted for only with reference to the GVSh.
The 2nd problem – possible causes of the Sh. The Berlin scholars Horn and Lehnert expressed an idea that Sh which consisted in the narrowing of long vowels was caused by the pronunciation with arising tone. Intonation may affect the articulation of sounds and a rising tone causes its narrowing. Probably, this view point can be proved by the cases of screaming. But no obvious experimental data were given to prove this view point.
The Soviet scholar Plotkin: the Sh was to separate the pronunciation of a great number of mono syllabic words, in which the root vowel can be either short or long: rod [rod] – rod [ro:d]. To make this difference more obvious, the l-ge developed a new kind of apposition that between a short monophthong and a diphthong: rod prod] – rode [roud]. This view point deserves attention.
The 3d problem – directions of the Sh. There are 2 view points:
1) push-chain (Luick): the Sh began with the widest vowels: ?:, o: (long open o), a:. In the process of their narrowing they pushed their nearest narrower neighbours higher into even a narrower quality.
2) drag-chain (Jesperson) – the direct of the Sh was an opposite one. Here i: and u: were the 1st to break into diphthongs and, thus, their original positions became vacant. So, they dragged onto this vacant positions their nearest neighbours. In spite of the fact that both of them are logical and are proved by certain language facts, still neither of them is completely reliable or convincing. 18. The Great Vowel Shift and its Phonemic Interpretation.
The GVS – the most significant of all vowel changes in EModE period. It affected the system of long vowels, all of which changed their quality after the GVS: they either narrowed or developed into diphthongs. The GVS – an independent change ‘cause no apparent phonetic conditions for it can be traced in the syllable or in the word; but it affected regularly every stressed long vowel in any position.
E.g. i: > ai Mid E /t?i:ld/ > EModE /t?aild/
e: > i: /ke:p?n/ > /ki:p/
?: > e: > i: /m?:l/ > /mi:l/
a: > e: > ei /na:m/ > /neim/
o: > o: > ou /ro:d/ > /roud/
o: > u: /mo:n/ > /mu:n/
u: > au /mu:s/ > /maus/
Though the GVS affected the pronunciation of all the words containing the long vowels, yet the spelling hasn’t changed, and the few graphical replacements were introduced in the 16cent. Thus, the digraphs ‘ee’, ‘ei’, ‘ie’ were used for /e:/, while the digraph ‘ea’ was introduced in the 16cent. to reflect /?:/. But the further merging of /e:/ and /?:/ in /i:/ made their graphical distinctions useless: cf. meet – meat; steel – steal. In a similar way, two digraphs were introduced to represent two different long o: “oo” for /o:/ & “oa” for /o:/. This innovation proved to be more useful, as the digraphs still indicate two different sounds in Mod E: “oo” stands for /u:/, like in “room”, while “oa” stands for /ou/, like in “foam”.
During the period there was introduced another device to indicate the length of a vowel – that was the final mute “e”. It produced the position of an open syllable for the root vowel, and starting with the 13cent. an open syllable had a lengthening position. During the GVS the mute “e” began to be added even to the words, where it had never been spelt before & where it was to serve as a signal of a long root vowel: OE ban Mid E bon - EModE bone
During the GVS even the names of English letters, containing long vowels, changed:
MidE A /a:/; E /e:/; B /be:/; K /ka:/
EModE A /ei/; E /i:/; B /bi:/; K/kei/.
But not only the names of letters, their values had changed, too. Thus, before the GVS the letter “I” stood for the sound /i/, short or long. After the GVS it began it began to denote two sounds - /ai/ & /i:/: bite – bit. Similar changes to A, U, E, O.