History of english. Suggestions for reading

1. HISTORY OF ENGLISH

2. SUGGESTIONS FOR READING

• Ilyish B. History of the English language
• Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка
• Иванова И.П., Беляева Т.М., Чахоян Л.П.
История английского языка
• Смирницкий А.И. Древнеанглийский язык
• Смирницкий А.И. История английского языка
• Аракин В.Д. Очерки по истории английского
языка

3. THE SUBJECT OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH

4. Can you explain the following discrepancies?

• fight [fait], knight [nait]
• [Λ] sun, cut but mother, son, love
• a table – tables, a man – men, a deer –
deer, an ox – oxen
• OE feoh “cattle”, NE fee “sum of money”

5. The purpose of studying the history of English is a systematic investigation into the language development from the earliest

times up to now,
which helps us to acquire a more profound
understanding of Modern English, to establish ties
between different linguistic facts throughout the
language history, to reveal changes in all language
spheres and their causes.

6. LINGUISTIC CHANGE

• Linguistic changes are temporal.
• Linguistic changes are divided into
replacements (one-to-one, merger or
split), innovations and losses.
• Linguistic changes may be historical and
analogical (Young Grammarian school).

7. What type of a replacement is it?

OE
Nom
Gen
Dat
Acc
ME
stān
stānes
stāne
stān
Nom, Dat, Acc stone
Gen
stones

8. What type of a replacement is it?

OE /s – z/
ME /s/, /z/

9. What type of a replacement is it?

OE here
NE army

10. CAUSES OF LINGUISTIC CHANGES

• Decline and degradation (J.Herder, J. and W.
Grimm).
• Accidental individual fluctuations (W.Wundt).
• Phonetic laws (Young Grammarians).
• Social conditions and events in external history
(J.Vendryes, A.Meillet).

11. GERMANIC LANGUAGES

1. Modern Germanic languages.
2. Old Germanic tribes and dialects.
3. Common linguistic features of Germanic
languages (in phonetics, grammar and
vocabulary).

12. INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE FAMILY

• Germanic languages
• Balto-Slavonic languages
• Celtic languages
• Romance languages
• Indo-Iranian languages
• The Greek language
• The Albanian language
• The Armenian language

13. MODERN GERMANIC LANGUAGES

1. West Germanic languages (English, German,
Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, Yiddish).
2. North Germanic languages (Danish, Swedish,
Norwegian, Icelandic).

14. THE EARLIEST TESTIMONIES

Pytheas
Julius Caesar “Commentaries on the war in
Gaul”
Pliny the Elder “Natural history”
Tacitus

15. GERMANIC TRIBES

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
the Vindili (the eastern part of Germanic territory)
the Ingveones (the western part of Germanic territory,
which is the Netherlands now)
the Iscaevones (the territory along the Rhine)
the Herminones (the territory of modern southern
Germany)
the Peucini (the territory of modern Rumania)
the Hilleviones (Scandinavia)

16. OLD GERMANIC LANGUAGES

LANGUAGES
1. East Germanic
2. West Germanic
3. North Germanic
TRIBES
1. Vindili, Peucini
2. Ingveones,
Iscaevones,
Herminons
3. Hilleviones

17. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Proto-IE
Proto-Germanic
Old East Germanic
languages
Old West Germanic
languages
Old North Germanic
languages
Modern West Germanic
languages
Modern North Germanic
languages

18. LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES

in the sphere of
• phonetics
• grammar
• vocabulary

19. PHONETICS

• Word stress.
• Vowels.
• Consonants (consonant shift).

20. WORD STRESS

IE languages – free
e.g. река, реки, реки; зайчонок; заросли
Germanic languages – fixed
e.g. come, become, becoming

21. VOWELS

Independent vowel changes
IE /o/ → Germ /a/, e.g. L nox, Rus ночь II Goth
nahts, OHG naht
IE /a:/ → Germ /o:/, e.g. San bhrāta, L frater, Rus
брат II Goth broþar, OE broðor

22. VOWELS

Germanic fracture
IE /e/→ Germ /i/ if followed by i or nasal+C
L medius OE midde “middle”
L ventus OE wind “wind”
L ferre OE beran “to carry”

23. VOWELS

Germanic fracture
IE /u/ → Ger /u/ if followed by u or nasal+C;
otherwise it turns into /o/:
San sunus OE sunu “son”
L iugum OE *goc > geoc “yoke”

24. CONSONANTS

THE FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT
(Grimm’s law)
L pater
Gr pater
Goth fadar
E
father

25. THE FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT

L tres
Gr treis
R три
Goth þreis
E three
L noctem
Gr nykta
Goth nahts
Ger Nacht
OE niht

26. THE FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT

R слабый
Goth slepan
E sleep
L duo
Gr dyo
R два
Goth twai
E two

27. THE FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT

L iugum
R иго
Goth juk
E yoke
San bhrātar
L frāter
Gr phrātor
R брат
Goth brōþar
E brother
Ger Bruder

28. THE FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT

San madhu
R мед
OE medu
L hostis
R гость
Goth gasts
Ger Gast
E guest

29. THE FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT

1. IE p,t,k II Germ f, θ, h.
2. IE b,d,g II Germ p,t,k.
3. IE bh,dh,gh II Germ b,d,g.

30. VERNER’S LAW

Karl Verner managed to explain the
correspondences that contradict
Grimm’s law.
Greek patér – OGerm *faþár
(according to Grimm’s law) > *faðar
(according to Verner’s law) > Goth
fadar, OE fæder

31.

According to Verner, all the voiceless
fricatives which arose under Grimm’s law
(f, θ, h) and the fricative s became voiced
between vowels if the preceding vowel
was unstressed. Otherwise they remained
voiceless. The voicing occurred at the time
when the stress was not yet fixed on the
root.

32. RHOTACISM

After an unstressed vowel s in Germanic
languages became voiced and then turned
into r West and North Germanic
languages: s > z > r.
E.g. Goth hausjan “to hear” – OE hieran,
Ger hören;
Goth laisjan “to teach” – OE læran,
Ger lehren

33. SECOND CONSONANT SHIFT

The second consonant shift occurred in
High German dialects only.
Goth badi, OE bedd “bed” – HGer Bett
OE don “to do” – HGer tun
OE pōl “pool” – HGer Pfuhl
OE hopian “to hope” – HGer hoffen
Goth taihun “ten” – HGer zehn

34. SECOND CONSONANT SHIFT

Goth itan, OE etan “to eat” – HGer essen
OE macian “to make” – HGer machen
The second consonant shift occurred on
the continent after the Angles, Saxons,
Jutes and Frisians left it for the British
Isles (the 5th c. AD).

35. LENGTHENING OF CONSONANTS IN WEST GERMANIC LANGUAGES

Every consonant but r lengthened if it was
preceded by a short vowel and followed by
i or j:
OE *sætian > settan “to set” (Goth satjan)
Goth saljan – OE sellan “to sell”
but Goth laisjan – OE læran

36. GRAMMAR

• Old Germanic languages had a synthetic
grammatical structure. The principal
means of form-building were inflections.
• Wide use of sound interchanges was a
characteristic feature of the Germanic
group of languages inherited from IE.
• 3-component morphological structure of
words in Old Germanic languages was
simplified.

37. VOWEL GRADATION (ABLAUT)

Ablaut is an independent vowel
interchange used as a special device to
differentiate between words (with the
same root) and grammatical forms of
words.
Ablaut may be qualitative and quantitative.

38. QUALITATIVE GRADATION

o/e/According to stress conditions different
vowels can be found in the root of the
word: fully stressed roots contain o (high
degree), roots under weakened stress
contain e (medium degree), unstressed
roots do not contain any vowel.

39. STRONG VERBS

Gothic strong verbs
1. Inf.
Past Sg Past Pl Participle II
reisan
rais
risum
risans
i:
ai
i
i (i/a/-)
2. kiusan
kaus
kusum kusans
iu
au
u
u (i/a/-)

40. STRONG VERBS

3. bindan
band
bundum
bundans
i
a
u
u (i/a/u)
4. stilan
stal
stelum
stulans
i
a
e:
u (i/a/e/u)
5. giban gaf
gebum
gibans
i
a
e:
i (i/a/e/i)

41. SIMPLIFICATION OF WORD STRUCTURE

root + stem-building suffix + ending
stem + ending