- •Subject and Aims of the History of English. Its Ties with Other Disciplines. Germanic Language in the System of Indo-European Family of Languages
- •1. History of English in the systemic conception of English
- •1.1. The aims and the purpose of the study of the subject
- •1.2. Connection of the subject with other disciplines
- •2. Sources of Language History
- •2.1. Writings in early English
- •3. General notes on the language study
- •3.1 The definition of the language
- •3.2 The functions of the language
- •3.3 The structure of the language
- •3.4 The language classification principles
- •3.5 Synchrony and diachrony in the language study
- •4. The comparative-historical method
- •4.1 The stages of the comparative-historical method
- •4.2 The principles of the comparative-historical method
- •4.3 The drawbacks of the comparative-historical method
- •5. The Germanic group of languages
- •The Formation of the English National Language. Periods in the History of the English Language
- •1. Territorial dialects of the period of the Anglo-Saxon invasion
- •2. The dialects of the period of the Norman Conquest
- •3. The development of the dialect of London into a national language
- •Periods in the History of the English Language
- •1. Henry Sweet and his division of the history of English
- •2. Historical periodization as offered by b. Khaimovich
- •3. T. Rastorguyeva’s periodization of the English language
- •4. The division of the history of English as suggested by V. Arakin
- •5. The periods of the development of English as offered by a. Markman and e. Steinberg
- •6. David Burnley’s periodization of the history of English
- •Common Linguistic Features of Germanic Languages
- •1. Phonetic peculiarities of the Germanic languages
- •1.1. The First Consonant Shift
- •1.2. Vowels
- •1.3. The doubling of consonants
- •1.4. Rhotacism
- •1.5. Germanic fracture (or breaking)
- •1.6. The second consonant shift
- •2. Some common grammatical features of Germanic languages
- •2.1. Form-building Means
- •2.1.1. Ablaut
- •2.1.2. Word-structure
- •2.1.3. Types of Stems
- •2.1.4. Strong and Weak Verbs
- •3. Germanic Vocabulary
- •Phonetic Changes in the Old English Period
- •The Main Features of Old, Middle, and Modern English
- •2. Old English Phonetics
- •2.1. Oe Consonants
- •2.2. Vowels
- •2.2.1. Changes of stressed vowels
- •2.2.2. Changes of unstressed vowels
- •Changes in the Middle English Orthography and Phonology
- •1. Changes in the Orthographic System
- •2. Major Changes in the Sound System
- •2.1. The Consonants
- •2.2. Consonant Changes from Old to Middle English
- •2.3. Vowels in Stressed Syllables
- •2.4. Vowels in Unstressed Syllables
- •2.5. The Formation of Middle English Diphthongs
- •The Old English Morphology
- •1. The Old English Noun.
- •2. The Old English Pronoun
- •3. The Old English Adjective
- •4. The Old English Adverb
- •5. The Numeral in Old English
- •6. The Old English Verb.
- •The Middle English Morphology
- •1. Middle English as a Period of Great Change.
- •2. The Middle English Noun.
- •3. Articles.
- •4. The me Adjective.
- •5. The me Adverb
- •6. The me Pronoun
- •7. The me Verb
- •7.1. Strong and weak verbs
- •The New English Morphology and Changes in the System of English Syntax
- •1. New English Morphology
- •2. Old English Syntax.
- •3. Middle English Syntax
- •4. New English Syntax
Changes in the Middle English Orthography and Phonology
During the Middle English period a number of very significant changes became more and more visible in the English language. The major changes from Old to Middle English are the loss of inflections, and with it the development of more fixed word order. As in the Old English period, language contact led to borrowing, but its scale was far greater during this period than it had been before.
1. Changes in the Orthographic System
One of the consequences of the Norman Conquest was the French influence on English spelling. Those letters which the French did not employ gradually went out of use. They were the letter æ, ð, þ, з.
New letters were introduced such as g, j, k, q, v.
Many digraphs and combinations of letters came into use, such as th, sh, ch, gh, ph, dg, ck, gu, qu, ou, or ow.
E.g. OE. wiþ – ME with; OE. fisc – ME fish; OE niht – ME night.
It became usual to mark the length of a vowel by doubling it, especially in closed syllables.
Thus ee and oo were used to denote [ē] and [ō].
E.g. OE swēt – ME sweet; OE зōd – ME good.
Sometimes the sound [ē], chiefly in French borrowings, was denoted by the digraphs ie or ei.
Many letters changed their signification.
The letter u, for instance, which had denoted only one sound in OE, [u], was employed after the French fashion to denote also the labial front vowel [ü] formerly expressed by y. E.g. bysiз, ME busy.
The letter c began to signify not only the sound [k] as in OE cōc, but also, in accordance with French usage, [s] before the letters i, e, y. So, OE cēpan, could no longer be written with the letter c, for it would be read [sēpən]. It became necessary to employ the letter k in similar cases. E.g. keepen, king.
The letter k was not unfrequently substituted for c in other cases. E.g. OE bōc – ME book. Sometimes after short consonants the sound [k] was denoted by the digraph ck. E.g. OE bæc, ME back.
The letter o came to be used not only for the sound [o], but also for the sound [u].
All these spelling changes wakened the more or less phonetic character of the OE, orthography. They gave rise to fluctuations in the graphic presentations of sounds and words. In OE the sound [e:], for instance, had only one graphic equivalent, the letter ē. In ME [e:] could be represented by e, ee, ei, ie. In OE, the word fisc had only one spelling. In ME, it could be written fish, fysh, fish, fisch, fyssh, fysch.
2. Major Changes in the Sound System
2.1. The Consonants
Consonantal changes in the system are slight during this period, which is a characteristic feature of English. Certain voiced consonants became voiceless and other voiceless consonants became voiced; consonants could occasionally also be lost completely. Thus, /w/ was lost before a following /o/ if it came after another consonant: OE swa > ME so (so); OE hwa > ME ho (who). In addition, ME lost consonant clusters beginning with /h/, so that hring became ring and hrof became rof (> roof). Significantly, both of these consonants were glides among which change was limited to the feature of voice.