- •Introductory lecture The History of the English language-Subject and the aims of the History of the English language.
- •Lecture 1 The Origin of the English Language
- •The Anglo-Saxon Conquest
- •Formation of Germanic States in Britain
- •The Writing and the Written monuments of oe
- •The Three Periods in the History of the English Language
- •Phonetic Structure of the oe Vowels
- •The Ablaut (Gradation)
- •Mutation (umlaut)
- •Monophtongs
- •Diphtongs
- •Lengthening of vowels
- •Palatalization
- •Palatalization of consonants
- •Other changes and loss of consonants
- •Lecture4 The Grammar Structure of Old English
- •Morphology. Nouns
- •The Strong Declension of Nouns
- •The weak declension of nouns
- •A separate group of nouns.
- •Old English Adjectives
- •Old English Pronouns
- •Lecture5 The Old English Verb
- •Infinitive Past Past Second
- •Indef. Past Indef. Sing. Past Indef. Plural Past Participle
- •The conjugation of verbs
- •Strong verbs
- •Preterite - present verbs
- •Lecture6 old english syntax
- •The meaning of case forms
- •The usage of pronouns
- •Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Indicative Subjunctive
- •The category of mood in oe
- •Lecture 7 Historical change The reason for studying historical change
- •The importance of text analysis
- •The Middle English Period
- •Lexical influence of the French language
- •The formation of the English national language
- •Lecture 8 Phonetic changes in me
- •Consonant changes
- •Spelling changes in the period after the Norman Conquest
- •General view of the me sound system
- •Lecture 9 Middle English Morphology
- •Middle English Pronouns
- •The demonstrative pronouns
- •Middle English Verbs
- •Lecture 10 Middle English Syntax
- •Lecture 11 The Modern English Period The formation of the English national language
- •Phonetic changes. Vowels.
- •Consonants
- •Voicing and Voiceless Fricatives.
- •Loss of Consonants in Clusters.
- •Loss of consonants in initial clusters
- •Lecture 12 Grammatical changes.
- •Morphology. The Substantive.
- •Interrogative
- •Impersonal and Personal Constructions.
Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Indicative Subjunctive
1. telle telle ------- tealde tealde
2. tellest telle tele, tell tealdest tealde
3. telleƥ telle --------- tealde tealde
Plural:
tellaƥ tellen tellaƥ tealdon tealden
Infinitive tellan
Participle 1 tellende
Participle 11 (3e)teald
The category of mood in oe
OE had three moods: the indicative mood, the imperative mood and the subjunctive mood. Mood is a grammatical category which indicates the attitude of the speaker towards the action expressed by the verb from the point of view of its reality.
The indicative mood in OE was used to state an action as a real,. Thus in the following sentences the verbs in the indicative mood are meant to express actual facts: ƥã cõm hë on mor3enne to ƥæm tun3erēfan, sē ƥe his ealdormon mæs, sæ3de him, hwylce 3iefe hë onfën3, ond hē hine sõna tõ ƥære abbudissan 3elædde ond hire ƥæt cȳðde ond sæ3de ‘then he came on the morrow to the steward who was his chief, told him what gift he had received, and he soon brought him to the abbess and announced and told her this’.
The Imperative Mood was used to express a command or a request to a second person:
brin3 mē twã ƥã betstan tyccenu (bring me two best kids).
The subjunctive mood showed that the action was merely supposed. The subjunctive mood was also used to express an emotional attitude of the speaker to real facts. In OE the subjunctive mood was expressed by synthetic forms and had a special set of infinitives, different from those of the indicative mood. The subjunctive mood in OE had a wide usage, it was used both in the main and in the subordinate clauses, it was widely used in indirect speech:
onsende Hizelãce, 3if mec hild nime beaduscrüda betst ‘send Higelac, if the fight takes me’.
Hē sǣde ðæt Norðmanna land wǣre swȳƥe lan3 and swȳƥw smæl ‘he said that the land of the Northmen was very long and very narrow’.
Lecture 7 Historical change The reason for studying historical change
In order to see how English has developed, it is important to think about the language both synchronically (as a snapshot of a particular moment) and diachronically (as part of a historical process). By concentrating on key periods and by analyzing textual examples, it is possible to establish the characteristics of the English language at different times in its history and thus, to see how older forms differ from the English we speak and write today. To focus your attention appropriately, for each period you will need to think about the changes in semantics, lexis, syntax, phonology and graphology.
To understand how and why the English language has become what it is, linguistics study both the causes of change and the characteristics of English at key stages. For convenience, they refer to 3 distinct periods in the history of the English language: Old English (OE), 450-1150; Middle English (ME), 1150-1500, Modern English, 1500-1990.
These dates give a general indication of the different stages, but are only approximate since linguistics change does not take place neatly within boundaries. Linguists draw attention to the most significant linguistic features in each key period, and looking back it is easy to recognise the points at which each change occurs. However, it is important to remember that the process is gradual, often taking place over hundreds of years.