New English

1. Lecture 4

New English

2. 1. External History. Formation of the National Language

1.1. Spread of London Dialect in the 15th Century
The formation of a national language was mostly
caused by
the Wars of the Roses (1455—1485)
the introduction of printing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Caxton
http://www.uni-duisburgessen.de/SHE/HE_DialectsModernEnglish.htm

3. 1.2. Development of the Literary Language

1611 King James' Bible
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version_o
f_the_Bible
1621 Alexander Gill. Logonomia Anglica
1685 Christopher Cooper. Grammatica Anglicana
1724 William Baker. Rules for True Spelling and
Writing English
1755 Dr. Samuel Johnson. A Dictionary of the
English Language

4. Samuel Johnson 1709— 1784

5. 1.3. Expansion of English. The English Language in America. Hybrid Languages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_language

6. 1.4. 20th century. English as an International Language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Eng
lish

7. Early New English texts William Shakespeare

http://molcat1.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/s
earch.asp

8. 2. Internal History

1.1 Vocabulary of NE period
Enrichment of Vocabulary in the
Renaissance Period
Latinization of French Words
Greek Words
Borrowing of Colonial and French Words
in the 17th Century

9. 2.2 Phonetic Changes

The changes that affected the vowel and the consonant system in New English were great and
numerous.
Vowels — Qualitative changes:
1. Disappearance of vowels in the unstressed position at the end of the word.
2. Changes of all long vowels — the Great Vowel Shift.
3. Changes of two short vowels: [a] > [æ] or [o] and [u] >[ʌ].
Vowels — Quantitative changes:
4. Changes of two diphthongs: [ai] > [ei], [au] > [o:].
5. Lengthening of vowels before [r] — due to the vocalization of consonants.
Consonants:
6. Appearance of the consonant [3] and the consonants [ʧ]>[d3] in new positions.
7. Disappearance or vocalization of the consonant [r].
8. Voicing of consonants — Verner's Law in New English.
9. Positional disappearance:
r vocalized at the end of the word: far
w
before r
write
к
before n
knight
h
before t
light

10. VOWELS IN THE UNSTRESSED POSITION

Vowels
in the
unstressed
position already
reduced in Middle
English to the
vowel of the [ə]
type are dropped
in New English if
they are found in
the endings of
words
Old
Middle New
English English English
nama
name
name
[neim]
writan
writen
write
[rait]
sunu
sone
son
[sʌn]

11. VOWELS UNDER STRESS

Qualitative changes.
Changes of
monophthongs
All long monophthongs in
New English (15-17
century) underwent a
change that is called The
Great Vowel Shift. Due
to this change the vowels
became more narrow and
more front.
Middle New
English English
[ā]-[ei]
make
make
[ē]-[i:]
see
see
[ō]-[ou]
ston
stone
[õ]-[u:]
roote
root
moon
moon

12.

Two long close vowels: [ū] and
[ī] at first also became more
narrow and gave diphthongs of
the [uw] or [ij] type. But those
diphthongs were unstable
because of similarity between
the glide and nucleus.
Consequently the process of
the dissimilation of the
elements [ī] and [ū] gave us
the diphthongs [ai] and [au],
respectively.
Middle New
English English
[ū]-[au]
hous
house
[ī]-[ai]
time
time

13. INFLUENCE OF THE CONSONANT “R” UPON THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT

When a long vowel was
followed in a word by the
consonant "r" the given
consonant did not prevent
the Great Vowel Shift, but
the resulting vowel is
more open, than the
resulting vowel in such
cases when the long
vowel undergoing the
Shift was followed by a
consonant other than "r".
[ei] but [ ə]
fate but fare
[i:] but [iə]
steep but
steer
[ai] but [aiə]
time but tire
[u:] but [uə]
moon but
moor
[аu] but [аuə] house but
hour

14.

As
a result of the
Great Vowel
Shift new sounds
did not appear,
but the already
existing sounds
appeared under
new conditions.
The
sound
appeared
after the
Shift
[u:]
The
sound
existed
before
the
Shift
wey
hous
[i:]
time
see
[ei]
make
moon

15.

Two short
monophthongs
changed their quality
in new
English (XVII
century), the
monophthong [a]
becoming [æ] and
the monophthong [u]
becoming [ʌ].
Middle New
English English
[a] > [æ] that
that
[u]>[ʌ]
cut
cut

16.

However, these processes
depended to a certain extent upon
the preceding sound. When the
sound [a] was preceded by [w] it
changed into [o].
Middle New
English English
[a] > [æ] that
that
[a] > [o]
was
Where the sound [u] was
preceded by the consonants [p],
[b] or [f], the change of [u] into [ʌ]
generally did not take place
bull, butcher, pull, push, full, etc.
was

17.

Changes of
diphthongs
Two out of the four
Middle English
diphthongs changed
in New English, the
diphthong [ai]
becoming [ei] and the
diphthong [au]
contracted to [o:] For
example:
Middle New
English English
[ai] > [ei] dai
day
[au]>
[o:]
law
lawe

18.

Quantitative
changes
Short vowels followed
by the consonant [r]
became long after the
disappearance of the
given consonant at
the end of the word or
before another
consonant
Middle New
English English
[a] > [a:] farm
farm
[o] > [o:] hors
horse

19.

When the consonant [r] stood after the vowels
[e], [i], [u], the resulting vowel was different from
the initial vowel not only in quantity but also in
quality. Compare:
her
fir
fur
or [h] before [t]: might, night, light.
[ə:]

20. CONSONANTS

1) Appearance of a new
consonant in the system
of English phonemes —
[3] and the development
of the consonants [d3]
and [ʧ] from palatal
consonants. Thus Middle
English [sj], [zj], [tj], [dj]
gave in New English the
sounds [ſ], [3], [ʧ], [d3].
[sj] > [ſ]
Asia, ocean
[zj] > [3]
measure,
treasure
[tj] > [ʧ]
nature,
culture,
century
soldier
[dj]> [d3]

21.

2. Certain consonants disappeared at the end of the word or before another
consonant, the most important change of the kind affecting the consonant [r]:
farm, form, horse, etc.
3. The fricative consonants [s], [Ө] and [f] were voiced after unstressed
vowels or in words having no sentence stress — the so-called "Verner's Law
in New English":
possess, observe, exhibition; dogs, cats; the, this, that, there, then, though,
etc.