5. Quantitative gradation is represented by the alternation of a short vowel with the corresponding long one and also alternation of a short vowel with the zero of the vowel

// беру – брать// OE findan P2 fnden  fundan

6. The origin of gradation has been a matter of discussion for more than a 100 years. The prevailing theory is that it might be caused by different stressed conditions.

• the full stress brings the high degree /o/

• the weakened stress caused the medium degree /e/

• the unstressed position results in the zero of a vowel

Of all spheres of its application in GLs vowel gradation was used most constantly in deriving grammatical forms of strong verbs.

Germanic settlement of England. The Anglo-Saxon regions.

The 5th c was the age of increased Germanic expansion: about the middle of the country several West-Germanic Tribes overran Britain and by 6th c.had colonised most of the island. According to Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, the invaders came in 449 A.D. under the leadership of two kings. Hengist and Horsa; they, had been invited by a British king, Vortigern, as assistants in the local war, but soon dispossessed their hosts: invaders came in multitude_ in families, clans to settle in the occupied territories. Invaders came from western subdivision of the Germ. tribes. According to BEDE, the newcomers were of the 3 strongest races of Germany, the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes. Actually, the origin and the linguistic affiliation of the Jutes appears uncertain: some historians define them as a Frankish-tribe, others doubt the participation and their very existence, and name the Frisians as the 3d party in the invasion. uncertain, whether the early settlers belonged to separate tribes, Saxons and Angles or constituted 2 mixed waves of invaders, differing in the place and time of arrival. They were called Angles and Saxons by the Romans and by the Celts but preferred to call themselves Angelcyn (English people) and applied this name to the conquered territories Angelcynnesl land (`land of the English’)

FIRST WAVE -Jutes or the Frisians- extreme south-east: Kent and the Isle of Wight

SECOND WAVE-mostly Saxons-expanded westwards across Frisia to the Rhine and to Normandy, then to Britain by way of the Thames and the south coast and both banks of the Thames and, depending on location, called South Saxons, West Saxons and East Saxons, consolidated into petty kingdoms, most powerful-Wessex. the kingdom of West Saxons.

THIRD WAVE - The Angles-from southern Danemark and lower valley of the Elbe; landed on east coast and moved to the central part of the island: founded large kingdoms and absorbed weaker neighbors: East Anglia. Mercia, and Northumbria.

Result: killed and enslaved the Britons. drove them to distant parts of the country. The Britons found refuge in the mountainous districts of Cornwall and Wales: some fled to Armorice (later Small Brittany or Bretagne in mod. France). Celtic tribes remained infact only in Scotland and Ireland. As invaders prevailed over the natives so far as language was concerned: the linguistic conquest was complete: West Germ. tongues came to be spoken all over Britain with the exception of a few distant regions where Celts were in the majority: Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. -

Geograph. separation + mixture of people=major factors in linguistic differentiation and the formation of lang-s. Being cut off from related Germ. tongues the closely related group of West Germ dialects developed into a separate Germanic language, English. That is why, the Germanic settlement of Britain can be regarded as the beginning of the independent history of the English language.

First the Germans formed 7 kingdoms (NorthUmbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex, Sassex, Essex, Kent). Later was formed 4 kingdoms: Kent, Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. The 4 kingdoms at various times secured superiority and they constantly thought with each other. The supremacy of Kent lasted until the early 7^th century. The 7^th and the 8^th century weatnest of temporary rise of Northumbraia , then they was a balance of power of 3 main kingdoms (Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex). Then Mercia dominated, then Wessex had supremacy over Sassex and Kent. Then in the early 9^th century Mercia was conquered by Wessex. The Germanic tribes spoke the dialect which were closely related and belonged to the West Germanic subgroup. Their common origin and their separation from other G/L on the continent as well as evolution of their languages resulted in the appearance of a single language – English. There were 3 main dialects: Kentish (territory of Kent and in the Irland of White. It developed from the language of Jutes and Frisians); West-Saxson (it was spoken in the rest of the England and south of the river Thames, and some more places); Mercia (it was the dialect of England, central region); Nothumbrian (it was anglian dialect, it was to the north from the river Umbria). But of course the bounders of the dialects were movable. They penetrated into each other.

Nouns, Adj and Verbs in Germanic languages.

The Germanic NOUNS had a well developed case system with 4 cases. And 2 number forms. They also had the category of gender. The means of form-building were the endings added to the root/stem of the noun.

The Germanic adjectives had two types of declension, conventionally called strong and weak. Most adjectives could be declined both in accordance with the strong and weak type. Agreeing with the noun in gender, case and noun, the adjective by its type of declension expressed the idea of definiteness (weak declension) or indefiniteness (strong declension), the meaning which was later to become expressed by a grammatical class of words unknown in Common Germanic — the article.

The adjective also had degrees of comparison, the forms of which were im most instances formed with the help of suffixes -iz/öz and –ist/-öst, but there were also instances of suppletivism, i.e. use of different roots for different forms — a means common for many Indo-European languages:

Goth leitils—minniza—minnists (little—less—least) Rus хороший—лучше—лучший

the Germanic verbs are divided into two principal groups: strong and weak verbs, depending on the way they formed their past tense forms.

The past tense (or preterite) of strong verbs was formed with the help of Ablaut, qualitative or quantitative. Depending upon the phonetic root structure, the exact manifestation of Ablaut could be somewhat different, and accordingly strong verbs were further subdivided into classes.

Weak verbs expressed preterite with the help of the dental suffix -d/-t. They also had stem-forming suffixes, depending on which they fell into separate classes.

There was also a small group of highly frequent suppletive verbs forming their forms from different roots, the same as in other Indo-European languages:

Goth im {IV am) Rus есть was (IV was) был

The Germanic verb had a well-developed system of categories, including the category of person (first, second, third), number (singular and plural), tense (past and present, the latter also used for expressing future actions), mood (indicative, imperative and optative) and voice (only in Gothic—active and mediopassive). The categorial forms employed synthetic means of form-building.

Periods in the history of the English Language.

Language is a variable social phenomenon. It changes through the time. It is a slow uninterrupted process. Changes are not evenly distributed in time: periods of intensive and vast changes may be followed by the periods of relative stability. Consequently, some changes may effect and even reconstruct the whole gr. type of a language, while others are contributing gradually to the trends existing in a language.

H. Sweet subdivided the history of the EL into 3 periods:

1. the period of full endings (Any vowel could be found in unstressed endings singan-sunu)

2. the period of leveled endings (All vowels in the unstressed endings were leveled under the letter e singen-sune)

3. the period of lost endings (Endings were lost all together sing-sun)

However, being a soc. phenomenon, serving for communication, language in its development is effected not only by its inner laws and principles, but by the changes in the society, by social life of the language community. RUS scholars take into consideration both extralinguistic and intralinguistic aspects. Ильиш the boundaries are attached to the dates of history

1. OE period (5 – 11 cent.)

germ. settlement of A, S, J. – 4 AD. or with the beginning of writing in the 7^th century. Ends with the Norman conquest 1066

2. MidE

Norman conquest – end of the war of Roses in the end of the 14^th century. 15^th century introduction of a printed book.

2.a EMidE 12-13

2.b.LMidE 14-15

3. ModE 15 – nowardays

   1. EModE 1500-1700

   2. LModE since 1700

some modern linguists distinguish Present day E., influenced by AE

The EModE was a time of great historical importance

O/E dialects and written records.

At its earliest stage ENG was represented by a number of disunited dialects.

With the growth of the feudal system tribal dialects, local, regional dialects

During the OE period there were 4 main dialects

1. Nothambrian – spoken by Angles living north of Hamba

2. Mercian – spoken by Angles between the Hamba and the Themes

3. West-Saxon – Saxons south of the Themes

4. Kentish – Jutes in the South-East of the Br. Isles

Each of the dialects represented by a number of written records

1. runic texts of the “Ruthwell Cross”, “Frank’s Cuscet”, translations of the gospels, “Bede’s dying song”

2. translation of the Psalter (9^th century), religious hymns

3. King Alfred’s words (original & translations), A-S Chronicle, Work of Abbat Alfred (10 c.), Sermons of Wolfsten (early 11 c.)

4. Translation of Psalm (L-XX) and old Charters (хартии)

As to the dialect of the OE poems “Beowolf”(Stories about the tribes life of ancient teutons) , “Genesis”, “Exodus”, “Judith” and poems by the monk Synowolf (religious, heroic, lyrical. They tell the life of apostols and Sants or deal with the Gospels) the it is difficult to define their locality (anglian and saxon forms). Ильиш thinks they were written in the anglian dialect in the period of saxon supremacy.

West-Saxon dialect in the 9^th c. became the dominating literary language.

The earliest written records: inscription on a box called the “Frank’s Cascet”; short text on a stone cross near the village Ruthwell and it is known under the name “Ruthwell Cross”. Both of them are in the Northumbrian dialects. Also were wills, grants, different deals or purchase, agreements, lows etc (chaters).

OE alphabet and pronunciation.

In OE, as it is now, there were long and short vowels. Short: a, (э), e, i, o, u, y; long: a, (э), e, i, o, u, y. There was no reduction. The main principle of the orthography was the phonetic principle. There were some sounds which are not pronounced in the modern language. Oneoftheotherinterestingfeaturesiscompleteparallelism(в староанглийском гласные образуют полноценные пары а-а..., тогда как в современном языке этого не наблюдаетсяIне равноi: т.к. разница не только в долготе, но и в качестве гласного).

OE - modern English.

Общее: - деление на долгие/краткие;

- сохранение некоторых звуков.

Разница: - отсутствие параллелизма в современном English;

- исчезли некоторые звуки появились новые.

There were also diftongs, both long and short: ea, eo (not a single one is now preserved). Difference - there were long and shot diftongs (in ME only long diftongs)

- the second element sonorous than the glide in ME.

- the second element was broader (now narrower).

Consonants.

There were no affricates t , d , besides there were no fricatives , . There was no palatalisation, which is strictly forbidden in the modern language, in some positions. The sounds s-z, f-v, - were not different phonemes, they were positional variants of the phonemes. There was aspiration.

O/E vowel system.

OE vowels made a symmetrical system where short monophthongs were opposed to long ones, and short diphthong were opposed to long diphthongs

monophthongs	diphthongs
a æ e I o u y	ea eo ia io
a: æ: e: I: o: u: y:	ea: eo: ia: io:

OE vowels had regular correspondence in other GLs which can be reflected in the following table

	Gothic	OE	OHG
short monophtongs	/i/ fisks	/i/ fisk	/i/ fisc
	/i/ stilan красть	/e/ stelan	/e/ stelan
	/a/ dags	/æ/, /a/ dæʒ, daʒas	/a/ tac
	/u/ fulls	/u/ full	/u/ ful
long monophthongs	/i:/ leiþan странствовать	/i:/ līþan	/i:/ lēda
	/e:/ slēpan	/a:/, /æ:/ Merc slēpan, WS slǣpan	/a:/ slāfan
	/ai/ stains камень	/a:/, /æ2/ (I-mut) stān, stǣ	/ei/ stein
	/o:/ brōþan	/o:/ brōþor	/uo/ bruodar
	/u:/ tūn поселок	/u:/ tun	/u:/ zun
diphthongs	/au:/ auk иго	/ea:/ ēāc	/ou:/ ōūch
	/iu:/ diups	/eo:/ dēōp	/io:/ tīōf

As it is seen from the table, OE shows certain phonological development of its own compared with other GLs. Thus, OE has stān and hām where Gothic has stains (stone) and haims (home).

In prehistoric OE a number of combinative sound changes had taken place after which phonemic and phonetic peculiarity of ENG increased considerably.

In general the length of OE vowels was their phonemic feature, but in few cases it could develop as a result of positional change of sounds.

1. the dropping of nasals: m, n were dropped before h, f, s, θ which caused lengthening of the preceeding vowel by compensation

// Goth uns – OE ūs; fimf – fīf

2. contraction: dropping of /h/ in the intervocal position

// *fohan  fōn; *hohan  hōn

Quite often contraction might produce a long diphthong

// *slahan  *sleahan  sēān; *sehan  *seohan  sēān; *tihan  *teohan tēōn

3. nasalisation: narrowing of a vowel before the following nasal, which characteristic of West Saxon dialect

// land  lond; mann  monn (also lånd, månn as graphical variants)

I-mutation

It is impossible to state the exact time of I-mutation. Still taking into consideration the fact that no traces of I-mutation could be found in Gothic texts (4^th c. AD), but its results were reflected in the earliest OE texts (7 AD). Thus, we may suppose that I-mutation might have taken place in the period between 4-7 centuries. If we take into consideration that the history of the EL begins in the middle of the 5^th century, we could restrict the periodasatoion of I-mutation.

The essence of I-mutation is the fronting and narrowing of the root vowel under the influence of i/j in the immediately following syllable.

Since these sounds are very common in suffixes and word endings, I-mutation was a frequent and a systematic change. It effected the whole system of OE vowels. But for the narrowest ī and ē, both long and short vowels diphthongs and monophthongs were effected by this change.