- •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
Periods in the History of English
The history of English is conventionally, divided into three periods usually called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and Modern English.
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Learn more about mysteries of runes at THE RUNIC JOURNEY http://www.tarahill.com/runes/ |
The Old English period: brief outline and main features
Dates: 7th–11th centuries AD. This earliest period begins with the migration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century A. D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it continues until the end of the eleventh century or a bit later. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the language of the Viking invaders), and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on the lexicon, and the well-developed inflectional system that typifies the grammar of Old English had begun to break down.
Main features the period in the language development:
After the English scholar Henry Sweet, this period is called the period of full endings. This means that any vowel may be found in an unstressed ending.
Spelling was phonetic, i.e. all the letters were pronounced.
The alphabet included some letters we do not use now : Þ (thorn),ð (eth) and æ (ash) The Anglo-Saxons didn’t use v and j.
There were long and short vowels and long and short consonants (geminates). Some sound do not exist now.
OE was an inflected language, whose words showed their grammatical function in the sentence by changes in the word itself. The word order was free.
The noun had 2 numbers, three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), 4 cases (Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative) and several types of declension according to the stem-suffix.
There were two types of adjective declension, strong and weak (after pronouns).
The verbs were divided in two main groups: strong and weak. Strong verbs formed their preterite and Participle II by change of the root-vowel; weak verbs formed these forms by addition of the suffix –d(e) The verb had only two tenses – Present and Past.
There was no article, his function was performed by the demonstrative pronoun seō (that)
Major authors and literary works:
Beowulf is a mythological poem which is written the West Saxon dialect of Old English. The author combined the floating legends of those times into one epic whole. The poem consists of 3 major stories, which tell of the battles of the most famous of all heroes (Beowulf) with the monster (Grendel), Grendel’s mother (a water-troll) and a dragon. In the last battle Beowulf received a fatal wound.
Beowulf maÞelode, bearn EaƺÞeower
(Beowulf spoke, Eagtheow’s son)
Ne sorƺa, snotor ƺuma; sēlre biÞ āƺhwǣm
(Sorrow not, sage man; better it is for every one)
Þæt ē his frēond wrecce, Þonne hē fela murne.
(htat he his frien avenge, than that he greatly mourn.)
The Anglo-Saxon Chornicle, a year-for-year account of the events in English history, starting in 787.
Some works and translations by King Alfred: Orosius, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Cura Pastoralis.
The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis, is a tenth century book (or, as some prefer, a codex) of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
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Read funny, metaphorical and ribald riddles from the Exeter Book with parallel translations in Modern English. The answers to some riddles have not been found yet! http://www2.kenyon.edu/AngloSaxonRiddles/texts.htm |