- •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
3.2. Scandinavian element
Chronologically words of Scandinavian origin entered the language in the period between the 8th and the 10th centuries due to the Scandinavian invasions and settlement of Scandinavians on the British Isles, with subsequent though temporary union of two important divisions of the Germanic race. It is generally thought that the amount of words borrowed from this source was about 5000, though some linguists surmise that the number could have been even greater, but due to the similarity of the languages and scarcity of written records of the time it is not always possible to say whether the word is a borrowed one or native, inherited from the same Common Germanic source.
Such words may be mentioned here, as:
They, then, their, husband, fellow, knife, law, leg, wing, give, get, forgive, forget, take, call, ugly, wrong.
As we said, words of Scandinavian origin penetrated into the English language so deeply that their determination is by no means easy. However, there are some phonetic/spelling features of the words which in many cases make this attribution authentic enough. These are as follows:
words with the sk/sc combination in the spelling, as:
sky, skin, skill, scare, score, scald, busk, bask
(but not some Old French borrowings as task, scan, escape)
words with the sound [g] or [k] before front vowels [i], [e], [ei], in the spelling I, e, ue, ai, a (open syllable) or at the end of the word:
give, get, forgive, forget, again, gate, game, keg, kid, kilt, egg, drag, dregs, flag, hug, leg, log, rig.
There are also personal names of the same origin, ending in –son:
Jefferson, Johnson
Or place names ending in –ly, thorp, -toft (originally meaning “village”, “hamlet”):
Whitly, Althorp, Lowestoft
These places are mainly found in the north-east of England, where the Scandinavian influence was stronger than in other parts of England.
3.3. French element
The French element in the English language is a large and important one. Words of this origin entered the language in the Middle and New English periods.
Among Middle English borrowings we generally mention earlier borrowings, their source being Norman French – the dialect of William Conqueror and his followers. They entered the language in the period beginning with the time of Edward the Confessor and continued up to the loss of Normandy in 1204.
Later Middle English borrowings have as their source Parisian French. The time of these borrowings may be estimated as end of the 13th century up to 15000.
These words are generally fully assimilated in English and felt as its integral part:
Government, parliament, justice, peace, prison, court, crime, etc.
Many of these words (though by no means all of them) are terms used in reference to government and courts of law.
Later Middle English borrowings are more colloquial words:
Air, river, mountain, branch, cage, calm, cost, table, chair.
The amount of these Middle English borrowings is as estimated as much as 3,500.
French borrowings of the New English period entered the language beginning with the 17th century – the time of the Restoration of monarchy in Britain, which began with the accession to the throne of Charles II, who had long lived in exile at the French court:
Aggressor, apartment, brunette, campaign, caprice, caress, console, coquette, caravat, billet-doux, carte blanche, etc.
Later also such words appeared in the language as:
Garage, magazine, policy, machine.
It is interesting to note that the phonetics of French borrowings always helps us to prove their origin.
These phonetic features are at least two: stress and special sound/letter features. Concerning the first (stress), words which do not have stress on the first syllable is a prefix are almost always French borrowings of the New English period. Words containing the sounds [∫] spelled not sh, [dз] – not dg, [t∫] – not ch and practically all words with the sound [З] are sure to be of French origin:
Aviation, social, Asia, soldier, jury, literature, pleasure, treasure.