- •Федеральное агентство по образованию
- •Contents
- •Introduction the subject of the history of the english language. The indo-european family of languages. Germanic languages. The periods in the history of english 5
- •Indo-European Language Family 6
- •Variant I 86
- •Causes of language changes
- •Historical Linguistics
- •Indo-European Language Family
- •Indo-European languages tree
- •Germanic Languages
- •Peculiarities of Germanic languages
- •Germanic people. Origin and culture
- •Germanic Alphabet
- •Periods in the History of English
- •The Old English period: brief outline and main features
- •The Middle English period: brief outline and main features
- •The Modern English period: brief outline and main features
- •The old english period Historical Background: Prehistoric Britain, Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon Britain
- •Old English Writings
- •How Do We Know What Old English Pronunciation Was Like?
- •The Old English Sound System
- •Phonetic Changes in Old English
- •Vowel changes
- •Consonants changes
- •Old English Grammar The Old English Noun
- •The Old English Pronoun
- •Interrogative pronouns
- •Indefinite pronouns
- •The Old English Adjective
- •The Old English Verb
- •Irregular (anomalous) verbs.
- •The Old English Numeral
- •The Old English Adverb
- •The Old English Auxiliary Words
- •The Old English Syntax
- •Old English Vocabulary Composition
- •Word building
- •Foreign influences on Old English
- •The middle english period Historical background: Medieval Britain
- •Changes in Spelling
- •Phonetic Changes in Middle English
- •Vowel changes:
- •Changes in Middle English Grammar
- •Changes in Middle English Vocabulary
- •The modern english period Historical background: Tudor Britain, Stuart Britain
- •General Changes in Modern English Phonology
- •The Great Vowel Shift
- •Early Modern English Grammar Changes and features of ModE noun system
- •The Modern English Pronoun
- •Changes and features of Early ModE verbal system
- •Early Modern English Syntax
- •Features of Early ModE vocabulary:
- •Part II The Old English Period
- •Part III the Middle English period
- •Part IV The Modern English Period
- •Appendix 1: British History Timeline
- •Appendix 2: Control tests
- •Part III.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from Hamlet by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Variant II
- •Instructions: Basing on the Grimm’s law, explain the correspondences of underlined sounds in the following words of the common root from Germanic and non-Germanic Indo-European languages.
- •Instructions: Provide grammatical analysis of the suggested elements from the sentence below:
- •Verbs — strong or weak type, define tense, aspect, mood, person, number.
- •Part III.
- •Instructions: Read the passage in Middle English, analyze the part in bold and do the tasks below.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from Hamlet by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Variant III.
- •Part III.
- •Instructions: Read the passage in Middle English, analyze the part in bold and do the tasks below.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Variant IV
- •Part III.
- •Instructions: Read the passage in Middle English, analyze the part in bold and do the tasks below.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Variant V
- •Part III.
- •Instructions: Read the passage in Middle English, analyze the part in bold and do the tasks below.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from the Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Related reading
- •Internet resources
- •Г. А. Васильцова история английского языка и введение в специальную филологию
Changes in Spelling
Another outcome of the Norman Conquest was to change the writing of English from the clear and easily readable insular hand of Irish origin to the delicate Carolingian script then in use on the Continent. Spelling of many English words changed considerably as well. Some changes reflected the sound changes that were in progress in MidE; but most of new spelling habits were introduced by French scribes under the influence of Norman spelling traditions.
The runic letters passed out of use. The letters ‘thorn’ Þ and ‘eth’ ð were replaced by th, the rune ‘wynn’ was replaced by ‘double u’, combinations æ and disappeared.
The sibilants were represented by the combination sh, sch [ʃ]; ch, tch [tʃ], dg, j [ʤ] borrowed from French (compare: OE cild – MidE child).
According to the French habit, the letter c represented the sound [k] only before back vowels; before front vowels it stood for [s]. In some English words it was replaced by k (compare: OE cyning – MidE king).
The sound [j] was denoted by y.
The front vowel [e:] was denoted by ie as in Frend: field [fe:ld].
The combination ou was used for [u:] in the words of French origin and in some English words: round [ru:nd], house [hu:s] (compare OE hūs).
The English sound [u] was similar to the sound [o] in French, so in many words [u] started to be represented through o, especially when it stood between the Gothic letters with vertical bars (u, n, m). Compare: OE cumin – MidE comen.
The letters u and v were often used one instead of another, thus some words could have two variants of spelling: but – bvt.
Long sound were shown by double letters: MidE book – OE bōk.
The combination gh was used for the fricative [x]: MidE knight – OE cnieht.
Phonetic Changes in Middle English
In the MidE period the phonetic system underwent some considerable changes, some of which reflected in spelling.
Vowel changes:
A long vowel was shortened before two consonants, e.g. OE cēpan MidE kēpen, but OE cēpte MidE kept.
Short vowels a, e, o were pronounced longer in open syllables: OE macian MidE māken.
The long sound ā became in MidE higher and labilized, people started to pronounce it similar to [o:]: OE stān MidE stōn, OE hām MidE hōm.
OE long ō mostly remained unchanged, but in the Nothern dialect it began to develop into [u:], which was represented in spelling by French scribes: buk
Short [æ] developed into [a]: wæs was, in West Saxon dialect into ē [e:]: slǣpon slēpan.
The sound [y], [] changed into [i], hyll hill.
All unstressed vowels were, as a rule, weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel.
All OE diphongs became monophthongs in MidE, for example OE short ea MidE a: healf half.
Consonant changes:
Some new consonants were developed from old ones due to palatalization: [sk’] [ʃ], [k’] [ʧ], [gg’] [ʤ].
Some sonorants became vowels and new diphthongs appeared: g [y] [u], bōga bowe, [y’] [i], dæg day, ag ai, eg ei, ag aw.
Changes in Middle English Grammar
The MidE period is often called ‘the period of leveling of endings’. The phonetic tendency to reduce an unstressed vowel ensued in dropping grammatical endings. With its simplified case-ending system, Middle English is closer to modern English than its pre-Conquest equivalent.
1. Loss of most case-related inflections. This happened first with nouns, which were leveled to generic forms: dog, dogs, dog's; thenit happened to adjectives as well.
-
Singular Nouns
NOMINATIVE, ACCUSATIVE, DATIVE
dom
nome
GENITIVE
domes
nomen
Plural Nouns
NOMINATIVE, ACCUSATIVE, DATIVE, GENITIVE
domes
nomen
The strong -splural form has survived into Modern English, while the weak -nform is rare (oxen, children, brethren).
2) Loss of grammatical gender and appearance of "natural" gender. ie: "table" was no longer a "male" noun and "house" no longer a female noun, but words like "mare" and "stallion" would have pronoun references based on gender.
3) As inflections disappeared, English changed from a synthetic to an analytic language, which lead to the development of a fixed word order.
4) Words began to take on new meanings; in particular, nouns began to find themselves being used as verbs for the first time: mouth, fish(conversion)
5) The first person singular of present tense verbs ends in -e(ic here), the second person in-(e)st (þou spekest), and the third person in -eþ (he comeþ).
6) In the past tense, weak verbs are formed by an -ed(e), -d(e) or -t(e) ending, so they became more orderly and simple.
7) Strong verbs form their past tense by changing their stem vowel.
-
Strong Verbs – drink
INFINITIVE
drinke(n)
PRETERITE SINGULAR
drank, dronk
PRETERITE PLURAL
dronke(n)
PAST PARTICIPLE
dronke(n)
I drinke.
Thou drinkest.
He drinketh.
We, ye, they drinke(n).
8) In some verbs Preterite singular form of the verb started to be used for both Preterite singular and plural.
Compare:
|
Infinitive |
Preterite Singualar |
Preterite Plura; |
Participle II |
Old English |
stēlan (str, Class IV) |
hē stæl |
hie stǣlon |
stolen |
Middle English |
stēlen |
stal |
stal |
stōlen |
9) Many OE strong verbs became weak, for example:
OE helpan (Class III) – healp – hulpon – holpen;
MidE helpen – helped – helped.
A few new strong verbs appeared and there were some weak verbs that became strong.
10) -ende particilple disappeared in MidE, the new Particilple ended in –ing.
The future forms became quite usual, as modal verbs shal and will lost their original meaning.
11) Use of the double and triple negative became common:
"ne isaeh naevere na man selere chiht nenne"
("no-one had ever seen a better knight").
12) Middle English personal pronouns:
-
First person
Case
Singular
Plural
Nom.
I
we
Gen.
my, myn
oure
Dat.
me
us
Acc.
me
us
-
Second person
Case
Singular
Plural
Nom.
thou
ye
Gen.
thy, thyn
youre
Dat.
thee
yow
Acc.
thee
yow
Third person | ||||
|
Masc. |
Fem. |
Neuter |
Plural |
Nom. |
he |
she |
hit |
they |
Gen. |
his |
hir |
his |
hir |
Dat. |
him |
hir |
him |
hem |
Acc. |
him |
hir |
hit |
hem |
The third person plural personal pronoun is replaced by the Scandinavian they.
Though the MIdE noun lost most of its endings, it acquired the new morphological determiner – the article. People started t use the demonstrative pronoun sēas an article in late OE period; in MidE it got the formthe, the initial sound [s] was replaced by [] by analogy.
The indefinite article originated from the numeral ān (one).