6.The Old English dialects and the formation of English language.

Old English is the language of the Germanic inhabitants of England, dated from the time of their settlement in the 5th century to the end of the 11th century. It is also referred to as Anglo-Saxon, a name given in contrast with the Old Saxon of the inhabitants of northern Germany; these are two of the dialects of West Germanic, along with Old Frisian, Old Franconian, and Old High German. Sister families to West Germanic are North Germanic, with Old Norse (a.k.a. Old Icelandic) as its chief dialect, and East Germanic, with Gothic as its chief (and only attested) dialect. The Germanic parent language of these three families, referred to as Proto-Germanic, is not attested but may be reconstructed from evidence within the families, such as provided by Old English texts.

Old English should not be regarded as a single monolithic entity just as Modern English is also not monolithic. It emerged over time out of the many dialects and languages of the colonising tribes, and it was not until the later Anglo-Saxon period that they fused together into Old English. Even then, it continued to exhibit local language variation, remnants of which remain in Modern English dialects.

For example, the language attested in Wessex during the time of Æthelwold of Winchester, which is named Late West Saxon (or Æthelwoldian Saxon), is considerably different from the language attested in Wessex during the time of Alfred the Great's court, which is named Early West Saxon (or Classical West Saxon or Alfredian Saxon). Furthermore, the difference between Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon is of such a nature that Late West Saxon is not directly descended from Early West Saxon (despite what the similarity in name implies).

The four main dialectal forms of Old English were Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish, and West Saxon.^[8] Each of those dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the island. Of these, all of Northumbria and most of Mercia were overrun by the Vikings during the 9th century. The portion of Mercia that was successfully defended and all of Kent were then integrated into Wessex.

The formation of a national language was greatly forsed by two events of the late 15th century.

The most significant event of the period was the War of Roses (1455 - 1485), which marked the decay of feudalism and the birth of a new social order - an absolute monarchy.

printing. Printing was invented in Mayence (Germany) by Johann Gutenberg in 1438. From Mayence printing spread to Strasburg, then to Italy and to the Netherlands. The englishman William Caxton (1422 - 1491) published the First English printed book, The Recuyeil of the Histories of Troy. Then he founded the first English printing office in London in 1476, and in 1477 appeared the first book to be printed in England, namely, The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers. The spread of printed books was bound to foster the normalization of spelling and also of grammatical forms.

Printed books was a first- rate factor in fixing spellings and grammar.

Social changes of the 16th century created the conditions for a great cultural progress and the growth of a national literature. The 16th century was a time of great literary achievement. The early poetical works of Wyatt and Surrey were followed by the The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599), and the 80s and 90s witness the rise of a great number of dramatists. The greatest of these was William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616). His contemporaries were Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593), Benjamin (Ben) Jonson (1573 - 1637), Philip Massinger (1583 - 1640), Frances Beaumont (1584 - 1616), John Fletcher (1579 - 1625), and many others. This epoch, which historians usually call Elizabethan after queen Elizabeth I, who reigned 1558 - 1603, belongs to the period of Early Modern English.