- •2. Word stress in Proto-Germanic and its morphological consequences.
- •Voicing of fricatives in Proto-Germanic (Verner’s Law).
- •6. The West Germanic lengthening of consonants or Germination
- •7. The second consonant-shifting (High German).
- •8. The ablaut in the Indo-European languages and Germanic languages.
- •9. The Proto-Germanic phonology. The vowels.
- •Vowel Triangle Front Back
- •Vowel system’s Processes :
- •10. The umlaut in Old Germanic languages.
- •11. The inflectional system of Proto-Germanic: general concept.
- •12. The verb categories in Old Germanic languages.
- •13. Strong verbs in Gothic language.
- •I minor class – haitan
- •II minor class – letan
- •14. The weak verbs in Old Germanic languages.
- •2. Second Weak Conjugation.
- •3. Third Weak Conjugation.
- •4. Fourth Weak Conjugation
- •15. Preterite-present verbs in Old Germanic languages.
- •16. The verbals in Old Germanic languages. Infinitive and participle: their origin and morphological categories.
- •17. Nominal parts of speech in Old Germanic languages, their morphological categories.
- •18. Old Germanic noun and its morphological categories.
- •19. The morphological structure of the noun in Proto-Germanic.
- •20. Old Germanic strong declension of nouns. P. 73
- •21. Old Germanic weak declension of nouns.
- •22. Old Germanic strong and weak declension of adjectives.
- •23. The pronoun in Old Germanic languages: its morphological categories.
- •Demonstrative
- •24. The vocabulary of Proto-Germanic. (p 101-103)
- •25. The Indo-European legacy in the Germanic vocabulary: the notion of isogloss.
- •Western branch ( Centum): Celtic, Italic (Latin), Germanic, Anatolian, Hellenic, Tocharian Eastern branch (Satem): Baltic, Slavonic, Arminian, Albenian, Aranian, Indo-aryan (Indic), Thracian
- •27. Old Germanic vocabulary: borrowings. The notions of substratum and superstratum.
- •28. Simple and composite sentence characteristics in Old Germanic languages.
- •29. The concept of the comparative method: reconstruction and asterisk. P 20.
- •30. The concept of the Indo-Europeans and Indo-European family of languages.
- •31. The Indo-European tree-diagram of languages: the notions of parent language, daughter languages and dialect; genetically related languages and closely related languages.
- •32. The home of the Indo-Europeans: the existing concepts.
- •33. The concept of Centum and Satem languages.
- •34. Old Germanic of the Indo-European languages. Basic division. The concept of Proto-Germanic.
- •35. Periodization of Old Germanic languages. Old North Germanic languages: general characteristics.
- •37. The West Germanic tree-diagram of languages.
- •38. The East Germanic branch of languages: general characteristics.
- •39. The North Germanic branch оf languages: general characteristics.
- •40. Old Germanic alphabets. The distinguished written records.
- •41. The Runic alphabet, its origin.
- •42. Old English literary monuments.
- •43. Old Icelandic and its literary monuments.
- •The Eddas
- •Skaldic poetry
- •44. Old Saxon and its written records.
- •45. Pliny’s classification of the Germanic tribes.
- •47. The age of migrations: the Visigoths.
- •49. Division of the Frankish Empire and its linguistic consequences.
- •IiIc ad…..Vc – started the creation of Frankish empire
- •50. Old Germanic mythology and beliefs (general outline).
- •Viking:
- •53. Old Frisian ethnic community: geographical, cultural, and linguistic evidence.
- •55. Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians: their original home and migration to the British Isles.
- •56. Paganism vs. Christianity in Old Germanic ethnic communities.
- •57. Old Germanic peoples’ beliefs and mythology.
41. The Runic alphabet, its origin.
The runic alphabet is a specifically Germanic alphabet, not to be found in languages of other groups. The word rune originally meant ’secret’, ‘mystery’ and hence came to denote inscriptions believed to be magic. The runes were used as letters, each symbol to indicate separate sound. This alphabet is called futhark after the first six letters.
runic letters are angular;
straight lines are preferred, curved lines avoided;
this is due to the fact that runic inscriptions were cut in hard material: stone, bone or wood.
the shapes of some letters resemble those of Greek or Latin, other have not been traced to any known alphabet, and the order of the runes in the alphabet is certainly original.
the number of runes in different OG languages varied.
As compared to continental, the number of runes in England was larger: new runes were added as new sounds appeared in English (from 28 to 33 runes in Britain against 16 or 24 on the continent). The main use of runes was to make short inscriptions on objects, often to bestow on them some special power or magic.
The best known runic inscriptions are the earliest extant OE written records. One of them is and inscription on a box called the “Franks Casket”, the other is a short text on a stone cross near the village of Ruthwell known as the “Ruthwell Cross”. The ring from Piertoassa IIIc. AD “gutaniowihailag” - “Goths” “sacred”. The Edge of the Spear from Kovel III-IV c.AD “tilradis” – “attacking”. The Runic Stone IVc AD
p.36, 39
42. Old English literary monuments.
SABO. P.45
43. Old Icelandic and its literary monuments.
Language |
Written records |
Century |
OLD Icelandic |
|
|
The Eddas
The Elder Edda or Poetic Edda - is a collection of Old Norse poems and stories originated in the late 10th century.
These poems were first written down in the 13th century in Iceland. The first and original manuscript of the Poetic Edda is the Codex Regius, found in southern Iceland in 1643.
The Younger Edda or Prose Edda was written by Snorri Sturluson, and it is the main source of modern understanding of Norse mythology it contains many mythological stories and also several kennings.
Skaldic poetry
Skaldic poetry was composed by well-known skalds, the Icelandic poets. Instead of talking about mythological events or telling mythological stories, skaldic poetry was usually sung to honour nobles and kings, commemorate or satirise important or any current events.
Sagas
The sagas are prose stories written in Old Norse, that talk about historic facts of the Germanic and Scandinavian world; for instance, the migration of people to Iceland, voyages of Vikings to unexplored lands or the early history of the inhabitants of Gotland.