Lecture 1

Position of the English language among other languages in the world

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

1. The history of the English language as a science.

2. The purpose of this course of lectures.

3. Linguistic change.

4. Sources and methods of language history.

5. The Origin and position of English among other languages in the world.

6. Modern Germanic languages

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS A SCIENCE

Linguistic courses studied at philological faculties and institutes of foreign languages deals with different aspects of the language. Grammar deals with Morphology and Syntax; Lexicology deals with the Vocabulary (the structure of words, word formation, the development of meaning etc.); Phonetics deals with the sounds of the language. As a whole these aspects comprise the system of modern language.

But language is a product of centuries of development; language, as long as it lives is in actual use, is in constant state of change.

It does not develop by leaps and bounds; its changes are usually gradual and slow, though there are periods when the changes become numerous and comparatively fast (as the 12^th or the 15^th centuries in the history of the English language).

Language comes into existence together with the appearance of human society, and is inseparable from the latter’s development. That’s why language is historical and social phenomenon.

The growth and development of a language should be studied alongside with the history of the people that speak it.

A philologist should know the structure of the language he studies, and its relation to other languages, the wealth of its vocabulary along with sources enriching it, and in general the political, social and cultural influences which have combined to make the languages what it is.

Can we say that the history of a language begins with its coming into existence? No, we cannot. Its history begins with writing, that is when written documents exist.

The purpose of this course of lectures

As we have said above a language can be studied in its various aspects: phonetics, grammar, wordstock, style, and so on. In studying Modern English we consider all these aspects synchronically, that is we regard the language as a fixed, unchangeable system. Accordingly we take no account of the origins or previous development of present-day features previous development of present-day features of the language or their tendencies to change.

The synchronic approach may be contrasted to the diachronic approach, in which no element of the language is treated as fixed or stable, and every linguistic fact is interpreted as a stage in the continuous linguistic evolution.

The history of the language deals with changes in phonetics, grammar and wordstock in time, and thus is aimed to give a diachronic description of the contrast between historical and synchronic as it is in theory; in studying Modern English we often record to its history to find explanation for current phenomena; on the other hand the progress of the language can be presented as a series of synchronic cross-sections of certain historical periods, such as the age of Chaucer or Shakespeare.

The history of the English language shows the place of the English language among other languages and thus provides a wider approach to its study: it reveals the ties of English with other Germanic languages as well as its ties with languages of other groups, e.g. French and Latin.

The evolution of the English language is connected with the history of the English speaking people or “external history”. Wherever possible, it will be shown what linguistic alterations are dependant on or caused by events in the history of the people (e.g. the mixing of languages, the appearance of new words).

Thus the subject of the course is bound with that of the history of Britain.

A study of the phonetical, grammatical and lexical evolution of the language will enable us to see the general trends in the development in English and their interdependence.

The English language of today reflects many centuries of development and knowledge of its history offers one a better understanding of its present structure.

On the primary aims of the curse is to provide the student with a knowledge sufficient to account for the essential features and more specific peculiarities of Modern English. A few illustrations are given below to show how features of Modern English can be explained in terms of their past development; taken from different spheres they also show that all levels of the language are apt to change:

1. The scholar of English will say that English spelling is more difficult because it is more “conventional” than phonetic. The values of Latin letters in English differ from their values in other languages, (Latin, German, French). Many letters are not pronounced at all; the connection between letters and their combinations with the sounds they designate often seems arbitrary and must be automatically memorized, for it cannot be deduced from the names of the letters.

Consider:

Bit [bit] -

complete correspondence between Latin letters and 3 letters 3 sounds English sounds.

Bite [bait]

4 letters 3 sounds - the final e does not stand for any sound but is used, conventionally, to show that the preceding letter has its alphabetic value.

night [ nait] -

5 letters 3 sounds - the same goal is achieved by the diagraph “gh” which does not indicate any sound either.

The following general explanation may be given for these phenomena: at the time when the Latin alphabet was introduced into Britain (7-th centuries) its letters were used on a phonetic principle and their significance in English was the same as in Latin. During the next few centuries, as the pronunciation of the word changed, its spelling was accordingly modified by the scribes. Later, esp. after the introduction of printing (15-th century) spelling became fixed. While the pronunciation of words continued to change, their spelling remained the same. The spelling “night”, “bite” and others accurately show the pronunciation of the 14-th or 15-th centuries. The phonetic changes that have taken place since can be shown as follows:

14 century 19 century

[nix’t] > [nait]

[bi:t] > [bait]

( symbol >means “becomes”, “develops into”).

After the pronunciation had changed, the spelling became conventional and the letters “igh” and “i’ + consonant + “e” are now traditionally associated with the pronunciation [ai]. These spellings, like many others, can be justified solely from a historical viewpoint, or, in other words, the history of the language can help us to explain them.

It can also be concluded from the examples given that English sounds have undergone considerable changes, which can be seen if we compare modern English pronunciation with that of the 14th or 15th century.

2. Another illustration can be drawn from the history of the wordstock. The English language belongs to the group of Germanic languages and thus it is closely related to German, Swedish, Dutch and others. Thus, for example, the German for summer is Sommer, the German for winter is Winter, the German for foot is Fuß, the German for long is lang, the German for sit is sitzen, etc.

On the other hand, in certain cases English has something in common with French, though the latter belongs to another linguistic group, Italic or Romance. Such words as autumn, river, blouse, modest, change came into English from French.

These similarities are easily observed by anyone having some knowledge of German and French. Today we can only suppose that they are not a matter of chance and that there must be some cause behind them. These causes belong to a more or less remote past and they can only be discovered by going into the history of the English language.

3. Finally, the history of English can also to help us to understand the peculiarities of Modern English grammar, both as regards the “rules” and the so-called “exceptions”. For example, why do the substantives men, foot, goose, mouse, as against most Modern English substantives, form their plural by change of the root vowel? Why have the substantives sheep, deer an unchanged plural?

Unlike lexical changes, alterations in grammar can only be observed if we compare the language of different periods of history, at least a few centuries apart.

The history of English will explain why English has so few inflections; how its “analytical” structure arose – with an abundance of compound forms and a fixed word order; why modal verbs, unlike other verbs, take no ending –s in the 3 rd.p.sg; why some nouns add –en or change the root-vowel in the plural instead of adding –s (e.g. oxen, feet) and so on and so forth.

Thus, the subject of the course is the study of historical development of the main parts of the language: phonetic system, its grammatical structure and its vocabulary.

The purpose of our course is a systematic study of the languages development from the earliest times to the present day. Such study enables the student to acquire a more profound understanding of the language today. Besides, history of English is an important subsidiary discipline for history of England and of English literature.

History of the English language is closely connected with other disciplines. It is also connected with disciplines studying present-day English, vir., theoretical phonetics, theoretical grammar, and lexicology. It shows phonetic, grammatical, and lexical phenomena as they developed, and states the origins of the present-day system.

Through some concrete facts of the history of language linguists try to follow in what way the language was developed, what gradual changes took place in its grammatical structure, in what way its vocabulary was enlarged, how the relations between the spelling and pronunciation developed; how language changes what the Nature and cause of linguistic change is.