Державний вищий навчальний заклад

«Запорізький національний університет»

Міністерства освіти і науки України

І.А.Галуцьких

ВСТУП ДО ГЕРМАНСЬКОГО МОВОЗНАВСТВА

Методичні вказівки

для студентів II курсу

факультету іноземної філології

Затверджено

вченою радою ЗНУ

(протокол № 3 від 28.10.2008)

Запоріжжя

2008

УДК: 811.11 (076)

ББК: Ш 143.2 – 923

Галуцьких І.А.

Г 168

Вступ до германського мовознавства: Методичні вказівки до курсу (для студентів ІІ курсу факультету іноземної філології). – Запоріжжя: ЗНУ, 2008. – 45 с.

Методичні вказівки містять розроблені теми лекційних та семінарських занять у відповідності до вимог кредитно-модульної системи. Кожну з них оснащено переліком ключових термінів, контрольними питаннями, практичними завданнями. У вказівках наводиться також рекомендації для виконання індивідуальної роботи, термінологічний глосарій, перелік рекомендованої літератури.

Призначені для студентів II курсу денної та заочної форм навчання галузі знань 0203 – гуманітарні науки, освітньо-кваліфікаційного рівня «бакалавр», відповідає напряму підготовки 6.030500 – філологія * англійська мова і література.

Рецензенти: д.філол.н., доц. Г. I. Приходько,

к. пед. Н., доц. Н.О. Надточій

Відповідальний за випуск:

к. філол. н., доц. С.М. Єнiкєєва

ЗМІСТ

Передмова ……………………………………………………………… 4

Перелік тем лекційних та семинарських занять. Їх розподілення у відповідності до кредитно-модульноі системи………………….…… 5

Рекомендації до виконання індивідуальної роботи та індивідуальні завдання ………………………………………………………….……. 22

Готський алфавіт та правила читання готських текстів …………….26

Рекомендації до рішення етимологічних задач ……………………...28

Завдання для додаткового добору балів ……………………………..29

Питання на іспит ………………… ……………………………..…… 31

Розподіл балів за модулями та критерії оцінювання ……………….33

Глосарій термінів………………………………..…….……………….34

Перелік рекомендованої літератури …………………………..…….. 40

Перелік інтернет-ресурсів з курсу..…..……………………………… 43

Передмова

Методичні вказівки в курсу «Вступ до германського мовознавства» призначені для студентів-германістів ІІ курсу факультету іноземної філології, які навчаються за спеціальністю „англійська мова та література”. Курс «Вступ до германського мовознавства» належить до фундаментальних, професійно-орієнтований дисциплін та є однією із ланок у системі базової теоретичної підготовки фахівців філологів із зазначеної спеціальності, який є послідовним продовженням курсу «Вступ до мовознавства», та передує таким курсам, як «Лексикологія», «Теоретична граматика», «Історія англійської мови», тощо.

Курс «Вступ до германського мовознавства» проводиться в Запорізькому національному університеті на факультеті іноземної філології за кредитно-модульною системою, яка вимагає ретельної та систематизованої підготовки до практичних занять, а також до кожного з видів поточного (модульного) та кінцевого контролю, а отже, сприяє засвоєнню студентами основних теоретичних положень історичної лінгвістики, ознайомленню з основними тенденціями еволюції мови на всіх її рівнях, формуванню вміння розрізняти основні процеси в фонетиці, лексиці та морфології, як то: закони Гріма та Вернера, другий та третій пересув приголосних, гемінація, ротацизм, умлаут, аблаут, тощо.

Мета вказівок полягає в організації самостійної та індивідуальної роботи студентів, а також систематизації отриманих знать та навичок в ході підготовки до різних етапів контролю.

Вказівки охоплюють 9 тем лекційних та семінарських занять, повну кількість яких розподілено у відповідності до вимог кредитно-модульної системи. Кожна з тем включає плани занять, оснащених переліком ключових термінів, контрольними питаннями, практичними завданнями, етимологічними задачами, тощо; рекомендації для виконання індивідуальної роботи (правила читання готських текстів, їх детального аналізу, виконання етимологічних задач). У вказівках наводиться також термінологічний глосарій, перелік рекомендованої літератури.

Розроблена система завдань та рекомендацій для їх виконання, яка пропонується у цьому виданні, відображає найбільш раціональну послідовність роботи над теоретичним та практичним мовним матеріалом та визначає необхідний його обсяг для вивчення та поточного та кінцевого видів контролю.

Перелік тем лекційних та семинарських занять. Їх розподілення у відповідності до кредитно-модульної системи

MODULE 1

Topic 1

Principles of historical linguistics

1. Principles of historical linguistics

2. Breakthroughs in the development of historical linguistics

3. Historical sources of Germanic languages (General account; Julius Caesar on the Germanic tribes; Cornelius Tacitus on the life and customs of the ancient Germans)

Key-words: comparative method, “genetic hypothesis”, neo-grammarian movement, diachronic and synchronic approach, reconstruction, cognate, etymology, etymological doublets, statics and dynamics, Sanskrit

Questions and tasks:

1. What is the difference between the principle of study at the beginning of the 19^th cent. And neo-grammarian movement?

2. Speak about the contribution of W. Jones, J. Grimm, A. Schleicher, F. Bopp, R. Rask, W. von Humboldt into historical linguistics.

3. Dwell upon the style of life of the ancient Germans.

4. What are the modern views on the mode of language evolution?

5. Find cognate words in different Germanic languages and in Indo-European languages.

6. Explain the difference between diachronic and synchronic approaches to language investigation.

Read the following citations of acknowledged linguists. Make your comments and remember:

1. “The causes of language change are double-layered. On the top layer, there are social triggers. These set off or accelerate deeper causes, hidden tendencies which may be lying dormant within the language. The gun of change has been loaded and cocked at an earlier stage.” (Aitchison J. Language Change: Progress or Decay? CUP. 1998. P.124).

2. J. Aitchison considering the issue of language origin states two possible ways of its evolution – “is it a sudden evolutionary leap?” opposing it to another point of view about language evolution as “very slowly, creeping over millennia”. (Aitchison J. The Seeds of Speech. Language Origin and Evolution. CUP. 1996. P.59).

3. “Language has a remarkable instinct for self-preservation. It contains inbuilt self-regulating devices which restore broken patterns and prevent disintegration“ … they can be called “therapeutic changes”. (Aitchison J. Language Change: Progress or Decay? CUP. 1998. P.138)

4. A very extraordinary point of view on language origin and evolution was proclaimed by R.M.W. Dixon. He proposed the following scenario: “Early humans lived in a state of relative equilibrium, with developing cognitive and communicative ability but no language. Then, by some process of punctuation, language developed. I suggest that it would have developed rather fast…”. (Dixon R.M.W. The Rise and Fall of Languages. CUP. 1997. P.4).

5. Proposed by R.M.W. Dixon “model of punctuated equilibrium” can be described by the following: “…language … since its first emergence .. there have been long periods of equilibrium during which a number of languages have coexisted … without any major changes taking place. From time to time the state of equilibrium is punctuated by some cataclysmic event; this will engender sweeping changes in the linguistic situation and may trigger a multiple ‘split and expansion’. The punctuation may be due to some natural event (floods, drought, volcanic eruption), or to some striking technical innovation, or simply to entry into new … territory. After the events which caused the punctuation have run their course, a new state of equilibrium will come into being) … During a period of punctuation a given language may undergo multiple splits, establishing a language family…. During a period of equilibrium, languages in contact will diffuse features between each other… This similarities will gradually converge…”. (Dixon R.M.W. The Rise and Fall of Languages. CUP. 1997. P.67, 70-71).

6. “There are changes due to the internal dynamics of the language.” As Baudouin de Courtenay said, “the mechanism of language at any given time is the result of all preceding istory and development, and each synchronic state determines in turn its future development. This is clearly seen when two or more languages that are genetically related – but which have not been in contact for some time – each changes in the same way. The phenomenon is not at present fully understood, but it seems that the languages share some common inner dynamic that engenders a certain sort of change”. (cited in Dixon R.M.W. The Rise and Fall of Languages. CUP. 1997. P.14).

Topic 2

Classification of Germanic languages

1. Germanic group of languages within Indo-European family. Proto-Germanic

2. Pliny the Ender’s classification

3. Germanic family-tree

4. Traditional classificaion

5. Historical classification

Key-words: areal linguistics, areal classification, genealogical classification, typological classification, wave theory, isogloss, isolex, isophone, isomrph, proto-language, language family, language group, Vindili, Helleviones, Hermiones, Istaevones, Ingaevones, Peucini, Bastarnae, Goths, Gepides, Herulians, Lombards, Bavarians, Burgundians, Allemannians, Franks, Saxons, Westphalians, Frisians, Angles, Scandinavians.

Questions and tasks:

1. Dwell on the process of divergence of Germanic languages out of Indo-European group of dialects (Great Migrations period, geographical distribution of Germanic tribes and dialects).

2. What kind of relatedness is taken into account for the elaboration of different types of languages classifications?

3. What is proto-language and which stages of Proto-Germanic development do you know?

4. Find the information about the “wave theory”.

5. What does satem-centum division of IE languages account for?

Read the following citations of acknowledged linguists. Make your comments and remember:

1. Speaking about family tree model, R. Dixon remarked: “That a single ancestor language should split simultaneously into ten daughters is unlikely”. (Dixon R.M.W. The Rise and Fall of Languages. CUP. 1997. P.28).

2. “… family tree model, appropriate and useful in many circumstances, is not applicable everywhere and cannot explain every type of relationship between languages. We need a more inclusive model, which integrates together the ideas of family tree and of diffusion area”. (Dixon R.M.W. The Rise and Fall of Languages. CUP. 1997. P.29).

3. “A natural language is rather like an old garment that has been patched and mended. The overall outline is perceivable … but some parts have worn away and been replaced, one section may have been lost altogether, and in another place a bit from another source may have been tacked on. In contrast, a proto-language – as it is generally reconstructed – resembles a garment straight from the factory, every button in place, every zip working, every seam sewn neatly and evenly”. (Dixon R.M.W. The Rise and Fall of Languages. CUP. 1997. P.45).

4. “There is a tendency for languages to change typologically according to a kind of cycle. Isolating languages tend to move towards agglutinating structures. Agglutinating languages tend to move towards the inflectional type, and finally, inflecting languages tend to become less inflectional over time and more isolating”. “Isolating languages become agglutinating in structure by a process of phonological reduction. Languages of agglutinating type tend to change towards the inflectional type by the process of morphological fusion (when twi originally clearly divisible morphemes in a word change in a way that the boundary is no longer clearly recognizable). Finally, languages of the inflectional type tend to change to the isolating type, this process is called morphological reduction”. (Crowley T. An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. OUP. 1994. P.136).

5. There is a second, not traditionally accepted technique for sub-grouping languages, called lexicostatistics. Lexicostatistics was developed by M.Swadesh (Swadesh M. The Origin and Diversification of Language. Chicago. 1971.). According to his idea, it allows to determine the degree of relationship between two languages simply by comparing the vocabularies of the languages and determining the degree of similarity between them. This method uses the notion of ‘core vocabulary’ which in historical linguistics is understood as the part of lexicon which is more resistant to lexical change. The method operates two assumptions -1) that core words are less likely to be completely replaced by non-cognate forms from other languages, 2) the actual rate of lexical replacement in the core vocabulary is more or less stable and is the same for all languages over time, that allows to calculate the average rate of change and therefore make conclusions concerning the ‘degree’ of genetic relatedness between languages by calculating the degree of similarity between core vocabularies of different languages. In this way the average time when they diverged could be defined. If they have a lot of similarities, they diverged quite recently and could belong to lower subgroup. If less similarities could be found, they diverged at earlier time and could belong to much higher level of sub-grouping.

6. “Proof of genetic relationship rests heavily on grammatical elements, including affixes”. (Dixon R.M.W. The Rise and Fall of Languages. CUP. 1997. P.41).

Topic 3

Historical phonology (1)

1. Comparison of Indo-European and Proto-Germanic consonant systems

2. Grimm’s law

3. Verner’s law

4. Consonant shifts

5. Interpretation of consonant shifts

6. Other phonetic processes in the system of Germanic consonants.

Key-words: Grimm’s law, Verner’s law, diphthongs/monophthongs, sound clusters, shift, rhotacism, gemination, Holtzmann’s Law, sound law, aspiration, fricatives, plosives.

Questions and tasks:

1. Give the interpretation of the First consonant shift.

2. Which one of the Germanic consonant shifts lasts till nowadays?

3. Find the examples of cognates from different languages to illustrate all acts of Grimm’s Law, Verner’s Law.

4. Find the examples to illustrate the process of gemination, rhotasism.

5. Find examples to illustrate the Second (High German) consonant shift.

6. You are given the correspondences: Engl. Foot, Germ. Fuß. Reconstruct the consonants of Indo-European root.

7. There is the correspondence: Lat. Pondus «wight», Engl. Pound and Germ. Pfund. Is it a genetic relatedness or borrowing?

8. Give the Engl. Cognate for Germ. Netz.

9. There are the words: Engl. Plight, Germ. Pflicht, Engl. Pit, Germ. Pfütze, Engl. Penny, Germ. Pfennig. What do they illustrate?

10. There are Germ. Zunge, Zopf. Give Engl. equivalent cognates.

11. There are Germ. Essen, Wasser, Kessel. Give Engl. Equivalent cognates.

12. There are Engl. Thank, Germ. Danken, Engl. That, Germ. Das. Prove the correspondence of the pairs.

13. Explain the correspondence of cognates: Engl. Apple, Germ. Apfel.

14. There are Lat. piscis, Goth. fisks, OHG fisc, Germ. Fisch, Engl. fish. Reconstruct IE root vowel.

15. Prove the relatedness of Lat. tu, Russ. ты, Goth. Þu, Engl. thou, Germ. du.

16. Prove the relatedness of Russ. борода, Engl. beard, Germ. Bart. Reconstruct IE root vowel.

17. Prove the relatedness of Russ. яблоко, Engl. apple, Germ. Apfel. Reconstruct IE root vowel.

18. Which Indo-European consonant corresponds to German z in Netz?

19. You are given the following German words: Eiche, machen, Loch, wack, sucken. Fill in the missing letters to get English cognates for them: oa_, ma_e, lo_, wa_e, see_.

20. Find Ukrainian and Russian genetic equivalents to the following English words: red, apple, eye, yellow, pool, nail, cold, water, snow, be, sit, eat, beat, I, my, wax using sound correspondences.

21. Find English genetic equivalents to the following German words: schlafen, sitzen, Pforte, opfern, Pfeife, Pfeffer, Katze, Kopf, zwei, Pfund, Wurzel, Nuss, wass, schaffen, Tisch, Wasser, Zimmer, Zaun, Wolke, Meer, machen, Buch, Vogel, Tier.

Read the following citations of acknowledged linguists. Make your comments:

1. “Sound change ‘operates blindly’”. (Hock H., Joseph B. Language History, Language Change and Language Relationship. Berlin, NY. 1996. P.123).

2. “There clearly must be limits on the extent to which simplification can progress: If phonetic simplicity were permitted to run its full course, it would change all words to something like [ə]”. “Human language requires a certain degree of complexity to successfully communicate meaning, variation and creativeness”. (Hock H., Joseph B. Language History, Language Change and Language Relationship. Berlin, NY. 1996. P.127).

Topic 4

Historical phonology (2)

1. Phonetic inventory and the structural system of oppositions in the Indo-European vocalic system

3. The development of IE e

4. Biphonemic clusters

5. Types of mutation

Key-words: umlaut, ablaut, palatal/velar mutation, assimilation, quantitative/qualitative changes, schwa indogermanicum, musical pitch tone, dynamic (force) stress.

Questions and tasks:

1. What functions of ablaut / umlaut do you know?

2. Which of the Proto-Indo-European vowels remained unchanged in the system of Germanic languages?

3. Which type of mutation was more popular in Germanic languages?

4. What are the stimuli of mutation?

5. Find the examples of words to illustrate the process of umlaut in Germanic languages

6. What kind of changes are called quantitative and which – qualitative ones? Bring the examples for each.

7. Find examples to illustrate the process of ablaut.

8. Prove the relatedness of the following words: Lat. aqua, Russ. Ока, OHG. aha, OE. ea «river».

9. Explain the relatedness of Engl. Goose and Germ. Gans.

10. Explain the sound change in the following words: ModGerm. Rücken and OHG hrukki.

11. Define the type of IE vowel interchange in the following:

Goth. bairan – bar – bērum – baurans

Goth. leiþan – laiþ – liþum – liþans

Goth. tiuhan – tauh – tauhum – tauhans

Goth. bindan – band – bundum – bundans

Goth. giban – gaf – gēbum – gibans

Goth. wairpan – warp – waurpum - waurpans

12. Define the type of IE vowel interchange in the following:

Germ. binden – Bund

Germ. springen – Sprung

Germ. finden – fand – gefunden

Germ. fahren - Fuhrt

Engl. begin – began – begun

Engl. swing – swung

Engl. bind – bound

Engl. bear – bore

Engl. break – broke

Engl. give – gave – given

Engl. run – ran – run

Engl. spin – span – spun

Engl. find – found

Engl. rise – rose – risen

13. There are Lat. flos, Goth. bloma, OHG bluoma, Germ. Blume. Are the abovementioned words genetically related? Explain vowel changes.

14. Prove relatedness and explain vowel changes in Goth. nati, OHG nezzi, Engl. net.

15. Look at the following: Lat. piscis, Goth. fisks, OE fisc, Engl. fish, Ger. Fisch and reconstruct IE vowel in the root of the word.

16. Prove the relatedness of lat. mater, OInd. matar, Russ. мать, Ukr. мати, OE moðor, OHG muoter, Engl. mother, Ger, Mutter.

17. Formulate the rule of the change IE e> Gmc. i looking at the correspondences Lat. ventus, Goth winds, Engl. wind, Germ. Wind.

18. There are Germ. Qual ‘trial, suffering’, OHG quelan, OE cwelan, Lith. gelti ‘sting’, Russ. колоть. Prove the relatedness and reconstruct IE root.

19. There are Germ. über, OHG ubar, Engl. over, OE ofar, Goth. ufar, Gk. hyper, Lat. super. Explain the correspondences and reconstruct IE root.

20. There are Germ. Flut ‘stream’, OHG flout, Goth. flodus, Engl. flood, Gk. plotos ‘floating’. Explain the correspondences and reconstruct IE root.

Topic 5

Historical morphology. The word-class noun and adjective

1. Changes in the 3-morpheme structure

2. The development of the category of case

3. The development of the category of number

4. The development of the category of gender

5. The rise of article

6. Strong and weak forms of adjective

Key-words: 3-morpheme structure, stem, stem-suffix, grammatical ending, dual number, 3-article system, 2-article system, case, gender, declension (vocalic, weak, minor) of nouns, a-(o-,u-,i-, etc.)-stem, category of definiteness/indefiniteness, strong/weak declension (adj.)

Questions and tasks:

1. Explain the mechanisms of nouns division into different types of stems in Old Germanic languages?

2. Which of the grammatical categories of noun survived in Modern English?

3. What kind of opposition was characteristic of category of number in Proto-Germanic?

4. Dwell on the category of definiteness/indefiniteness in Old Germanic languages.

MODULE 2

Topic 6

Historical morphology. The word-class verb

1. The evolution of grammatical categories of the verb

2. Morphological classification of Germanic verbs

Key-words: weak/strong verbs, preterite-presents, suppletive verbs, anomalous verbs, mediopassive, vowel interchanges, root-morpheme, gradation, classes, tense, reduplication.

Questions and tasks:

1. Dwell on the evolution of grammatical categories of the English verb.

2. Speak about mediopassive.

3. What are the specific features of preterite-present verbs?

4. Which of the Germanic languages preserved the archaic forms of the verbs inherited from Proto-Indo-European?

5. Comment on morphological structure of the following Gothic forms: azetizo, balgins, fairnjana, afnimada, dagos, gaggaiþ, motarjos, anakumbida, mannam, swaleikata, habaiþ.

6. Which grammatical categories are reflected in the following forms of Gothic words: þize, afletanda, airþai, þeinana, galaiþ, mikilidedun, laistei, haitanana, qeþun, þaim, wiljau, fastam, fastand, sunjus, wairsiza, niujata, niujans?

7. Comment on morphological structure of the following Gothic forms: rodida, wintruns, attaitok, wastjai, habaida, sauhtins, usluknodedun, asanais, infeinoda, auhjondein.

8. Define the stem of the following Gothic strong verbs and the type of ablaut. Define the class of the verbs and give the full scheme of vowel interchanges (4 forms): inwait, qaþ, warþ, qeþun, gaswalt, atberun, bitauh, urrais, ganas.

9. Which grammatical categories are reflected in the following forms of Gothic words: handu, ija, is, atlagei, atteka, wastjos, reikis, jainai, þo, afleiþiþ, managei, uggkis, izos, armai, garda, augam, iggqis, magjau, wairþai, witi, was, haimos.

Topic 7

Germanic alphabets and Germanic vocabulary

1. Runes and their origin

2. Wulfila’s Gothic alphabet

3. Introduction of the Latin alphabet

4. Native components of Germanic vocabulary

5. Borrowings

6. Ways of word-formation

Key-words: rune, FUTHARK, Danish Futhark, Latin hypothesis, Greek hypothesis, North-Italic hypothesis, Greek cursive, uncial alphabet, rustic capitals, written records, inscriptions, carvings, Wulfila, Franks Casket, Ruthwell Cross, Codex Argentus, loan-translation, ablaut, word-composition, affixation, kennings, cognates, etymological layer, native/borrowed words (loans).

Questions and tasks:

1. Study the rules of Gothic texts reading (clusters, diphthongs pronunciation) (see: Zhluktenko, Yavorska 1986)

2. Using the On-line Dictionary of Etymology find out the origin of the following words: gospel, Friday, bird, call, egg, sky, take, cherry, stone, beard, eye, day, water, fox, eat, wax, yew, warm, cold, Sabbath, silk, timber, town, oak, nail, wind. Define the etymological layer of Germanic lexicon they belong to.

3. The following words have cognates in other Germanic and Indo-European languages: hand, make, wolf, eye, head, heart, tree, free, see, winter, bee, welkin, owl, snow, dear, red, yellow, nail, cold, light, adj., bear, brown, ship, love. Find out the languages they have cognates in. Find among them the words that have cognates in Ukrainian and Russian and write them out.

4. Find out the source the following words were borrowed from: port, window, cup, fork, tiger, camel, fever, dish, offer, master, pit, shrive, scuttle, pit, angel, ginger, devil, elm, cap, pound, oil, plum, cheese, pepper, lily, rose. Find the primary meaning of these words in the source language.

5. Look through the words: bridegroom, lord, gossip, lady, gospel, walnut, werewolf, mulberry, worship, daisy, mildew, spinster, husband. Using the data of the etymological dictionary find out which of these words are the products of word composition.

6. Among the means of word-formation was there conversion? Explain your answer. If not, how can you explain the formation of bath, n from bathe, v and breath, n from breathe, v.?

7. Find the examples of kennings in Old English.

8. Which among Old Germanic ways of word-formation was the most productive and why?

9. Which way of word-formation was used to create the following words in Gothic: galaubeins, barnilo, motareis, frawaurhts, wajamerjan, waldufni, mikiljan, unhaili, atgaggan, bruþfaþs, þanuh, armahairtiþa.

10. Comment on the vowels in stressed and unstressed positions of the following Gothic words and read them: baurg, usliþin, barnilo, bokarje, jus, mitoþ, hairtam, sunus, lekeis, managai, weis, unte, bruþfadis, ohtedun.

11. Define the role of the first component in semantic and morphological structure of the following Gothic verbs and comment on the influence of its semantics: atsteigan, afletan, urreisan, ufarleiþan, galeiþan, usstandan, ganiman, afniman, usgutnan, fraquistnan, distaurnan, gabairgan.

12. Analyze the semantic correspondence between the following Gothic words: skauts, swiltan, arman, meriþa and their cognates in other Germanic languages.

13. Comment on morphological structure and the way of words-formation of the following Gothic words: aftaro, galaubeins, haurnja, haurnjan, meriþa, unhulþo, uskunþs, gaqumþs, sauhts, unhaili, hairdeis, waurstwja, þiudangardi.

Read the following citations of acknowledged linguists. Make your comments and remember:

1. “Why all languages drop some perfectly good words and replace them by others?” (Myers L.M. The Roots of Modern English. Boston. 1966. P.57).

2. “The English vocabulary contains a nucleus or central mass of many thousand words (core vocabulary) whose ‘Anglicity’ is unquestioned… There are parts of body, natural landscape, domestic life, calendar, animals, common adjectives, common verbs.” (Murrey J. (ed.) Oxford English Dictionary. 1888).

3. “… basic vocabulary tends to resist change more successfully, even in the face of heavy prestige” (Lass R. Historical Linguistics and Language Change. CUP. 1997. P.186).

4. “There are no fewer than 51 words which are a) ancient enough Germanic heritage to be attested in Old English; b) Have at least 1 cognate elsewhere in Germanic; c) are relatively ‘core’ or at least not arcane or specified lexis; d) have no visible cognates elsewhere in Indo-European and e) are not loans form any other known languages.” (they are usually marked in the dictionary with ‘etymology is obscure’). (Lass R. Historical Linguistics and Language Change. CUP. 1997. P.209).

5. “… linguistic inheritance – large number of words with the same or nearly the same meanings and quite similar phonetic shapes” (Lass R. Historical Linguistics and Language Change. CUP. 1997. P.104).

6. “Why languages borrow? Languages borrow words from other languages primarily because of need and prestige… because the foreign term form some reason is highly estimated… (they are called ‘luxury’ loans)”. (Campbell L. Historical Linguistics. An Introduction. Edinburgh. 1998. P.59).

7. Compare the points of view on different periods of English lexicon evolution: “Old English depended on one’s own resources to enlarge vocabulary”. “English was hospitable to foreign words and less prone to use its own resources for word-creation”. (Baker Ch. The English Language: A Historical Introduction. CUP. 2000. P. 120, 149).

8. “There are time-stable words, they change slowly and are lexicalized as nouns. The least time-stable percepts events, actions, which involve rapid change in the universe, are lexicalized as verbs”. (Aitchison J. The Seeds of Speech. Language Origin and Evolution. CUP. 1996. P.111).

9. “Despite the loans, Old English was quite resistant to borrowing. In this respect it was rather more like modern German which frequently avoids classical learned terms and remakes vocabulary out of native resources”. (Lass R. The Shape of English: Structure and History. Lnd. 1987. P.34).

10. Speaking about semantic change, A. Blank termed this way of word-formation as the change that occurs due to “linguistic conservatism” (Blank A. Why do new meanings occur? In: Historical Semantics and Cognition. Berlin, NY. 1999. P.84).

11. “Languages are rare to borrow basic (core) vocabulary” (Aitchison J. Language Change: Progress or Decay? CUP. 1998. P.114).

Topic 8

East Germanic languages

1. East Germanic tribes: Visigoths and Ostrogoths

2. Peculiarities of the East Germanic subgroup

3. Gothic and Germanic

Key-words: Visigoths (Toulouse), Ostrogoths (Ravenna), Gothic, Arian, Theodoric the Great, Wulfila, Holtzmann’s law.

Questions and tasks:

1. Give a short survey of historical background of Gothic evolution (the history of Ostrogoths & Visigoths). Can there be any historical explanation of the Gothic language death?

2. Dwell on the specificity of Holzmann’s law in East Germanic languages.

3. Enumerate the phonetic and morphological phenomena lacking in Gothic and other Germanic languages of East subgroup. Give you account on the possible reasons of East Germanic specific features evolution differentiating them from West and North Germanic subgroups.

4. Find in the Gothic glossary (see Zhluktenko, Yavorska 1986) words cognate with other Germanic languages (not less than 10 items); with Slavonic languages (10).

Topic 9

North and West Germanic languages

1. Historical background

2. East Scandinavian subgroup

3. West Scandinavian subgroup

4. Peculiarities of the West Germanic subgroup

5. Frisian

6. Dutch

7. Afrikaans

8. English

Key-words: Scandinavia, Viking, Old Norse, Jutland, Zealand, Bokmal (Dano-Norwegian), Nynorsk, ballad, saga, Edda, Helleviones, Hermiones, Istaevones, Ingaevones, Anles, Frisians, Jutes, Franks, High Herman, Allemanians, Swabians, Bavarians, Thuringians, analyticity, pidgin.

Questions and tasks:

1. What does the word “Scandinavia” mean?

2. How the evolution of North Germanic languages is different from other languages of the same group?

3. Speak on specific features of North Germanic languages shared with other Germanic. Is there more common features with West of East Germanic languages? Why?

4. Which of Germanic languages is considered to be the most archaic? Prove it by dwelling on the characteristics of the language.

5. Which of Germanic languages is considered to be the “most” analytical one? Give the proof of the developed analyticity of the language.

6. Compare the histories of all North and West Germanic languages. What is common for the course of their evolution and what differs them from one another?

7. Enumerate the types of Faroese ballads.

8. How the languages of North and West Germanic groups correlate with Germanic tribes according to Pliny the Elder?

9. Make up the list of English words cognate with German (10 words).

10. What are the changes that separated German and Danish from other Germanic languages?

11. Which Germanic language is the youngest?

12. Which of Germanic languages evolved out of pidgin?

13. Enumerate the tribes whose dialects put the basis for the formation of the English language?

Read the following citations of acknowledged linguists and make your comments:

1. “… for three centuries English had no official status … it drifted ... but English survived yet and there is one uncanny thing – it’s incredible persistence. English survived despite the constant buffeting of history. It’s a cherishable irony that a language that succeeded almost by stealth, treated for centuries as the inadequate and second-rate tongue of peasants, should one day become the most important and successful language in the world.” (Bryson B. Mother Tongue. English and how it got that way. NY. 1990. P.56).

2. “About 85% of the 30000 Anglo-Saxon words dies out under the influence of the Danes and Normans” … only about 4500 Old English words, that is about 1% of the total number of words listed in the Oxford English Dictionary survived (Bryson B. Mother Tongue. English and how it got that way. NY. 1990. P.56).

3. “Despite the bounty of terms (in English), there is a maddening tendency to load a single word with a whole galaxy of meanings”. (Bryson B. Mother Tongue. English and how it got that way. NY. 1990. P.68). Which characteristics of English (structural, typological, etc.) is described here?

4. “For good or ill, at the end of the second millennium AD and the fifth full millennium since recorded history began, English is unique. No other language has ever before been put to so many uses so massively by so many people in so many places – on every continent and in every sea; in the air and in space, in thought, speech and writing; in print, on paper and screen; in sound, on tape and film, by radio, television and telephone, via electronic networks and multimedia. And it is used as a mother or other tongue by over a billion of people. Russian, Spanish are international languages, while the title ‘world language’ is given only to English”. (McArthur T. The English Languages. CUP. 1998. P.30-31).