- •Lecture 1.
- •Introductory. General characteristics of germanic languages
- •2. Inner and outer history of the language
- •3. Chief characteristics of the Germanic languages
- •3.1. Phonetics
- •Indo-European Germanic
- •Indo-European Germanic
- •3.2. Grammar
- •3.3. Alphabet
- •Lecture 2. Old english. General characteristics
- •Outer history
- •1.1. Pre-Germanic history of Britain The Celts
- •The Latin Language in Britain
- •Britain’s Roman villas
- •The Names “England” and “English”
- •1.2. Anglo-Saxon Civilization
- •1.3. Introduction of Christianity
- •1.4. Principal written records of the Old English period
- •2. Dialectal classification of Old English written records
- •2.1. The dialects in Old English
- •2.2. Old English written records Runic inscriptions
- •2. Inner history
- •3.1. Phonetics
- •3.2. Spelling
- •3.3. Grammar
- •3.4. Vocabulary
- •Lecture 3. Middle english. General characteristics
- •1. Outer history
- •1.1. The Scandinavian Invasions in England
- •1.2. Effect of the Scandinavian Invasions
- •1.3. The Norman Conquest
- •1.4. Effect of the Norman Conquest on the linguistic situation
- •1.4. Early Middle English dialects
- •5. Formation of the National language
- •2. Inner history
- •2.1. Phonetics
- •2.2. Grammar
- •Some grammatical features viewed diachronically
- •Тнe problem of spelling pronunciation
- •Lecture 4. New english. General characteristics
- •1. Outer history
- •1.1. Emergence of the nation
- •1.2. Establishment of the literary norm
- •Geographical expansion of English in the 17th – 20th centuries and its effect on the language
- •Cultural Development in the 14th Century
- •Pre-renaissance culture
- •English renaissance
- •2. Inner history
- •2.1. Phonetics
- •2.1.1. The system of stress
- •2.1.2. Consonants
- •2.1.3. Vowels
- •2.2. Grammar
- •2.3. Word-stock
- •Lecture 5.
- •1. Old english vowels
- •1.1. Origin of Old English vowel phonemes
- •1.2. Changes in Old English vowel phonemes
- •1.2.1. Breaking
- •1.2.2.Palatal mutation
- •Monophthongs
- •1.2.3. Effect of palatal mutation upon grammar and word-stock
- •Verb Verb
- •Old english consonants
- •Voicing of Fricatives in Proto-Germanic (Verner’s Law)
- •Lecture 5. Old english grammar. The nominal system
- •Old English grammar
- •2. General survey of the nominal system
- •Grammatical categories of declinable parts of speech
- •2. The noun
- •2.1. Gender
- •Masculine
- •Feminine
- •2.2. Number
- •2.3. Case
- •Nominative plural
- •Declensions in Old English
- •Vowel-stems. Declension of a-stem nouns
- •Consonant stems. Declension of n-stem nouns
- •Declension of a-stem nouns
- •Declension of n-stem nouns
- •Declension of root-stem nouns
- •Declension of root-stem nouns
- •2.4. Homonymity of forms in Old English and its influence on the further development of noun forms
- •3. The pronoun
- •3.1. The personal pronoun
- •Masculine feminine neuter
- •Singular dual Plural
- •Declension of the personal pronoun Ic
- •3.2. Other pronouns
- •Declension of the demonstrative pronoun sē
- •The adjective
- •4.1. Declension of adjectives
- •Declension of adjectives
- •4.2. Degrees of comparison
- •Summary
- •Lecture
- •1. General survey of finite and non-finite forms of the verb
- •Ic зā tō drincenne (I go to drink)
- •2. Grammatical categories of the finite forms of the verb
- •2.1. Person
- •2.2. Number
- •3. Morphological classification of verbs lecture 6 changes in the phonetic system in middle english and new english
- •Changes in the Phonetic System in Middle English
- •Vowels in the unstressed position
- •Vowels under stress
- •1.2.1. Qualitative changes
- •Diphthongs
- •1.2.2. Quantative changes
- •Consonants
- •Summary – Middle English
- •2. Changes in the phonetic system in New English
- •2.1. Vowels in the unstressed position
- •2.2. Vowels under stress
- •2.2.1. Qualitative changes
- •Middle English New English
- •Influence of the consonant “r” upon the Great Vowel Shift
- •Middle English New English
- •Summary – New English
- •Vowels – qualitative changes:
- •Vowels – Quantitative changes:
- •3. Changes in alphabet and spelling in Middle and New English
- •Lecture 7 changes in the nominal system in middle english and new english
- •1. General survey of grammar changes in Middle English and New English
- •2. The noun
- •2.1. Middle English
- •2.2. New English
- •2.2.1. Morphological classification
- •2.2.2. Origin of modern irregular noun forms
- •2.2.3. Grammatical categories
- •3. The adjective
- •Degrees of Comparison
- •Comfortable – more comfortable.
- •Summary
- •Lecture 8 changes in the verbal system in middle and new english
- •1. Non-Finite forms (verbals)
- •I thanked him for brining the happy tidings.
- •2. Morphological classification of verbs in Middle English and New English
- •2.1. Strong verbs
- •2.1.1. Classes of the strong verbs
- •2.1.2. Principal forms of the strong verbs
- •2.2. Weak verbs
- •2.2.1. Classes of the weak verbs
- •2.2.2. Principal forms of the weak verbs
- •2.3. Origin of modern irregular verbs
- •3. Grammatical categories of the English verb
- •Summary
- •Lecture 9 english vocabulary
- •1. Old English
- •General characteristics
- •1.2. Means of enriching vocabulary
- •1.2.1. Internal means of enriching vocabulary
- •Vowel interchange:
- •2. Middle English
- •3. New English
- •Lecture 12
- •2. Native element in Modern English
- •2.1. Common indo-European stratum
- •2.2. Common Germanic stratum
- •3. Foreign element in Modern English (borrowings)
- •3.1. Latin element
- •3.2. Scandinavian element
- •3.3. French element
- •4. Word-hybrids
- •5. Etymological doublets
- •6. Sources of the new words in modern English
Declension of the demonstrative pronoun sē
Number Case |
Masculine Singular |
Feminine Singular |
Neuter Singular |
Plural |
Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative Instrumental |
sē (that) Þæs þǽm þone þý, þon |
sēo (that) þǽre þǽre þā |
Þæt Þæs þǽm þæt |
Þa Þāra þǽm þā þý |
The adjective
4.1. Declension of adjectives
The paradigm of the adjective is similar to that of the noun and the pronoun, i.e. it compromises Gender, Number, and Case.
The grammatical category of case was built up by five forms: the Nominative, the Accusative, the Dative, the Genitive and the Instrumental.
There were two ways of declining adjectives – the definite and the indefinite declension. The adjective followed the definite declension mainly if the noun if modified had another attribute – a demonstrative pronoun, and they were declined as indefinite otherwise.
The grammatical suffixes – forms of cases mainly coincided with those of nouns with the stem originally ending in a vowel or -n, yet in some cases we find pronominal suffixes example, in the Genitive Plural, in Dative Singular, etc.
Declension of adjectives
Declension Case |
Indefinite (strong) |
Definite (weak) |
Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative Instrumental |
Зōd (good) Зōdes Зōdum Зōdne Зōde |
Зōda
Зōdan |
Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative |
Зōde Зōdra Зōdum Зōde |
Зōdan Зōdra Зōdum Зōdan |
4.2. Degrees of comparison
The adjective in Old English changed its forms not only to show the relation of the given adjective to other words in the sentence which was expressed by the gender, number and case of the adjective, but also to show the degree of the quality denoted by the adjective, i.e. the forms of the adjective in Old English could expressed degrees of comparison.
The degrees of comparison were expressed, the same as all other grammatical notions, synthetically, namely:
by means of suffixation:
heard – heardra – heardost (hard)
by means of vowel gradation plus suffixation:
eald – ieldra – ieldest (old)
by means of suppletive forms
Зōd – bettra – betst (good)
the first means being unquestionably the most common.
Both suffixation and the use of suppletive forms in the formation of the degrees of comparison are original means that can be traced back to Common Germanic. But the use of vowel interchange is a feature which is typical of the English language only and was acquired by the language in the pre-historic period of its development.
The origin of vowel gradation in the forms
eald – ieldra – ieldest
is a result of the process of palatal mutation which the root-vowel ea underwent under the influence of the original stem-forming suffix –i, ie.
Positive Comparative Suppletive
degree degree degree
eald ieldra ieldest
ealdira ealdist
ealdira > ieldra ealdist > ieldest
A similar case is observed with strong (strong), long (long) etc.
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