Seminar 1 Phonetic and Grammatical Peculiarities of Old English

The Outline of Seminar 1

1. Main features of Germanic Languages (word stress; system of consonants; Grimm’s Law; Werner’s Law; rhotacism; system of vowels; Common Germanic vowelshift; Common Germanic fracture; morphological structure of the word; noun declensions; strong and weak declensions of verbs).

2. Old English (OE) phonology.

   1. Common Germanic fracture of OE.

   2. Development of stressed vowels in OE. The main processes: i-umlaut, breaking, diphthongization due to initial palatal consonants, back mutation (umlaut), contraction.

   3. Development of consonants in OE: splitting of velar consonants; loss of consonants, metatheses, shortening of consonants.

3. Old English Grammar.

   1. The Noun. Its grammatical categories (gender, number, case; noun

declensions).

2. The Adjective. Its grammatical categories.

3. The Pronoun. Its groups and grammatical categories.

4. The Verb. Old English Ablaut. Morphological classes of verbs (strong, weak, preterite-present, anomalous).

Recommended Literature

Obligatory:

1. Verba L. “History of the English Language”.-„Nova Knyha”, 2004.

Рp. 25-56; 61-86.

2. И. П. Иванова и др. «Практикум по истории английского языка».

-М., 1985.

Theory Texts for analysis Assignments Exercises

1. Урок1, p.4-16 Text1 (p.8) 1-4 (p.7)

8-9 (p.8)

2. Урок2, p.17-25 Text2 (p.19) 13-15 (p.14-15) 3 (p.15)

1-5 (p.19) 1-11 (p.24-25)

3. Урок3, p.26-34 Text3 (p.28) 2-8 (p.29) 1-3, 6 (p.34)

12-13 (p.32)

4. Урок4, p.35-40 Text упр.4 (p.39) 5-7 (p.36)

5. Урок5, p.40-48 Text6 (p.41) 1, 3, 4 (p.42)

6. Урок6, p.48-53 Text7 (p.49) 5-9 (p.50) 1-10 (p.53)

7. Урок7, p. 54-60 Text10 1-4 (p.61) 1-3, 5,6 (p.65)

5-8 (p.62)

21-22, 26 (p.63-64)

3. B. Ilyish. “History of the English Language”.-M., 1973.

Pр.12-16; 20-22; 44-53; 63-82; 87-105.

4. Lectures on the material.

Additional:

1. G. I. Stoudenets. “History of the English Language in Tables”.

-K., 1998.

Tables 13-24; 25-55.

2. T. A. Rastorguyeva. “History of English”.-M., 1983.

Pp.34-40; 42-49; 92-123.

Questions for self-testing:

1. What can you say about the the Common Germanic word accent (stress)?

2. What kind of process is the the Common Germanic fracture?

3. What kind of process is the the Common Germanic vowelshift?

4. What’s the essence of Grimm’s Law?

5. What’s the essence of Verner’s Law?

6. What’s the difference between Common Germanic and Old English systems of vowels?

7. What new diphthongs appeared in OE? What processes promoted their appearance?

8. What kinds of form-building means do you know and which of them were used in building different forms of words in OE?

9. What grammatical categories characterize OE nouns?

10. What declensions of nouns existed in OE?

11. What categories characterize OE pronouns? What declensions of adjectives

existed in OE?

12. What classes of pronouns existed in OE and what grammatical categories

characterize each of the group?

12. What morphological classes of verbs existed in OE?

14. What are the characteristic features of each of the class?

15. What’s Ablaut? How did it change in Common Germanic and OE?

16. What categories characterize OE verbs? Which endings of the verbs reflect

these categories?

17. What are specific features of preterit-present verbs?