- •2. The common features of Germanic languages.
- •1. The old Germanic languages, their classification and principal features.
- •3. The chronological division of the history of English. General characteristics of each period.
- •4. The Scandinavian invasion and its effect on English.
- •5. The Norman Conquest and its effect on English.
- •6. The dialectal situation of English from a historical perspective.
- •7. Principal Old English and Middle English written record.
- •8. Major spelling changes in me.
- •12. Consonant changes in the history of English
- •9. The oe sound system. Vowel and consonant changes in Old English.
- •Loss of Consonants:
- •10. Monophthongs in the history of English.
- •11. Diphthongs in the history of English
- •14. The oe noun system.
- •15. The simplification of the noun declension in English
- •30. The main trends in word formation in history of English
- •16. The development of personal pronouns in the history of English.
- •17. The development of the adjective in history of English
- •18. The development of demonstrative pronouns in the history of English.
- •13. Form-building means in the history of English
- •19. Oe verbal system.
- •20.Weak verbs in oe & their further development.
- •21. Strong verbs in oe and their development.
- •22. Oe preterite-present verbs and anomalous verbs and their further development.
- •26. The causes of changes in the morphological system in me & ne. The origin of modern English regular and irregular noun forms.
- •23 .Changes in the verb conjugation in the history of English.
- •27. The principal features of oe syntax.
- •24. The rise of analytical forms within the verbal system in the history of English.
- •Formation
- •25. Verbals in the history of English
- •Infinitive
- •28. The main trends in the development of English syntax.
- •29. Oe vocabulary & its etymological characteristics.
- •31. Borrowings as a source of the replenishment of e vocabulary in me & ne.
1. The old Germanic languages, their classification and principal features.
OLD GERMANIC:
East-germanic
Gothic
Vandalic
Burgundian
North-germanic
O. Norwegian
O. Danish
O. Swedish
O. Icelandic
West-germanic
High germanic
Anglo-Saxon
Franconic
Old English
Old Dutch
Gothic is extremely important as The Gothic Ulfita is considered to be the first written text connected with Germanic languages and other European languages.
The first group is dead, but vandalic had similar features with Spanish and burgundian with French.
The second group (north-germanic) – was not until the 10th cent, it was called “old North” (древне северный). After the 10th cent. North split into O. Norwegian, O. Danish, O. Swedish, O. Icelandic. Historically the most important is O. Icelandic:
it had the largest body of written records, dated back to 12-13 cent. (the Elder Edda, the Younger Edda, Icelandic saga s).
Icelandic had retained a more archaic grammar and vocabulary than many other G. Lang.
Principal features:
Old German languages show differences in comparison with other European Lang on 3 main linguistic levels: grammatical, phonetic and lexical.
Grammatical level – the most important innovation in G. was the emergence of the new types of verbs – “weak”, past tense with the dental suffix –d-: open – opened, work – worked.
Phonetic peculiarities – 1) accent (word stress) in IE was free and musical (луна, лунный, прилуниться); in protogerm. Accent become fixed on the root syllable and dynamic (white, whiteness, whitewash), 2) Grimm’s law.
2. Numerals: cardinal and ordinal numerals from 1 to 3 are declined from 4 – 19 are usually invariable if they used as attribute to a substantive. Numerals denoting tens have their genitive in –es- or in –a-, -ra-, Dative in –un-.
The numeral ān is declined as a strong adj.
muscul. “twegen” neut tū, twā, fem. twā.
the word “both” begen, bū is declined in the same way as twegen, tū.
The ordinal numerals, with the exeption of ōÞer “2-nd” are declined as weak adjectives.
ōÞer “2-nd” is declined as a strong adj.
ME cardinal numerals developed from OE.
3. The chronological division of the history of English. General characteristics of each period.
The division of the History of English into periods is based on 2 principles.
extra linguistic – cardinal changes in the history of people.
linguistic proper – cardinal changes in the structure and status of the language itself.
Roughly covers 12 centuries. It’s divided into 3 periods. The traditional division is based on the phonetics and grammatical principles (Henry Sweet)
Old English (450 A.D. – 1100) – no reduction of inflexion.
Middle English (1100 – 1500) – reduced inflexions, unstressed endings.
New English (1500 - nowadays) loss of inflexion.
Early New English 1550 – 1660
Everything before 450 A.D. – prewritten period.
Each period is characterized by certain events in the history of the century, status of the lan-ge itself.
Dates |
Events |
Population |
Languages |
Old English Period |
|||
7th c. B.C. – 410 A.D. |
Roman Conquest |
Celts, Romans |
Celtic Latin |
mid.5th c. – late 6th c. |
Anglo-Saxon Invasion (west German) |
Celts, Angles, Saxons Frisians |
Celtic west-germ dialects, |
597 A.D. |
Introduction of Christianity |
Anglo-Saxons |
Celtic, Old English Dialects: (Northumrian, Mercian, Kentish, Wessex), Latin |
Late 8th c. |
The beginning of the Scandinavian Invasion |
Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians (Danes) |
Celtic (not popular), Old English Dialects, Latin, Old- Scandinavian |
Middle English Period |
|||
1066 |
The Norman Conquest |
Anglo-Saxons, Normans |
Trilingual: English (dialects, no unique lan-ge), Latin, French (state lang-ge) |
late 14th c. |
English becomes the state language of the country |
the English |
English (dialects of E, dominant –London dialect) |
New English Period |
|||
15th c. |
Introduction of Printing (William Caxton in 1477) |
The English |
English (London dialect continuous to spread). Latin exists as a source of terminology. |
16th c. |
Disappearing of Latin from Church |
The English |
English – national language. |