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The Germanic langs in the modern world, their classification. Their common ancestor.
Germanic languages
1. English:
GB – Лондон; Ireland – Дублин; The USA – Вашингтон; Canada – Отава; Australia – Канберра; New Zealand – Веллингтон.
2. German:
Germany – Берлин; Austria – Вена; Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, part of Switzerland.
3. Netherlandish: The Netherlands & Belgium- Амстердам.
4. Danish: Denmark –Копенгаген.
5. Swedish:
Sweden – Стокгольм. Finland – Хельсинки.
6. Norwegian: Norway – Осло.
7. Ice Landic: Iceland – Рейкъявик.
8. Frisian:
The Netherlands; Germany
9. Faroese: The Faroe Islands
10. Yiddish: different countries.
11. Afrikaans: The SAR – Еханасбург.
Proto-Germanic is the ancestor: it’s supposed to have split from related IE tongues sometime between 15-10th cent BC.
Later it broke:
1. East Germanic;
2. North Germanic;
3. West Germanic.
EG was formed by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia → Gothic that’s dead now and this subgroup has no living languages. NG WG
The common features of Germanic langs
All the Germanic Languages of the past and present have common linguistic features that are not shared by other groups of languages in the Indo-European family (Slavonic group, Romance group, etc.). These features are characteristic of the Germanic group only. They appeared during the period of the Proto-Germanм ic Language, before it split into a certain number of the Germanic languages. First of all we are going to discuss the common Germanic phonetic features: W ord Stress/Accent: Indo-European(Non-Germanic) 1. free stress (movable, i.e. can appear in any part of a word (root, prefix, suffix)); 2. pitch stress (musical)E.g.:русский б`елый
Proto-Germanic 1. fixed stress (can’t move either in form- or word-building and is usually placed on root or prefix); 2. dynamic stress (force, breath stress) E.g.: English `white
The Proto-Germanic type of stress led to the formation of the following peculiarities of the Germanic languages as compared to non-Germanic Indo-European languages: phonetic – as a result of the fixed position of the stress the unstressed syllables were becoming weaker and weaker, they got less distinct and neutral sounds (such as “schwa”) appeared; morphological – as a result of the fact that the stress was fixed on the root and the syllables following the root were always unstressed and weak, many Germanic languages began to lose suffixes and grammatical endings and became ANALYTICAL LANGS. Vowels: Vowelsundergo(подверглись) different types of changes: Qualitative change – affects the quality of a sound (e.g. [o à Λ]). Quantitative change – affects the length of a sound (e.g. [i à i:]). Dependent/positional change – a change that occurs in certain position or in certain phonetic conditions. Independent/spontaneous change – affects a certain sound in all positions irrespective (независимо) of phonetic conditions and serves to distinguish a grammatical phenomenon (ablaut). Main tendencies in Vowel Changes in the Germanic Languages: Short vowels à become neutralized. Long vowels à become short and more open. à become diphthongized and more closed.
Grimm’s law: The first Germanic consonant shifts took place in the V-II cent. BC. Jacobs Grimm’s Law. According to Grimm, he classified consonant correspondences between indoeuropean and germanic languages. There are 3 acts of this law:
1. IE plosive (stops) p, t, k correspond to G voiceless fricatives f, Ө, h. Eg: пламя – flame, пена – foam, колода – holt.
2. IE voiced plosives b, d, g, →G voiceless fricatives p, t, k. Eg: яблоко - apple, дерево – tree, ego(lat) – ic (OE).
3. IE aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh →to voiced plosives without aspiration. Eg: bhrāta(sanscr.) – brother, rudhira – red, ghostis – guest.
The second consonant shift was Carl Verner’s law. According to C.Verner all the common Germanic consonants became voiced in intervocalic position if the preceding vowel was unstressed. p-f > v t-Ө > đ, d k-x > j, g
s-s > z/r Devoicing took place in early common germanic when the stress was not yet fixed on the root. A variety of Verner’s law is rhotacism (greek letter rho). [s] →[z]→[r] we find traces of this phenomenon in form of the verb to be →was – were, is – are;. II consonant shift occurred in dialects of southern germanic. Eg: еда – eat – essen.
i-mutation (unmlaut) is a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel. Includes fronting & narrowing. Brought a complete change in vowel quality: one phoneme is replaced by another. The process began in the 5th or 6th c. As a result of it a new phoneme arose which was different from the original one. Interchanges in the root vowels are connected with this phenomenon. Traces of palatal mutation are preserved in many modern words & forms: mouse-mice.
3. The chronological division of the history of English. General characteristics of each period.
The division of the History of English into periods is based on 2 principles.
1. extra linguistic – cardinal changes in the history of people.
2. linguistic proper – cardinal changes in the structure and status of the lng itself.
Roughly covers 12 centuries. It’s divided into 3 periods. The traditional division is based on the phonetics and grammatical principles (Henry Sweet)
1. Old English (500 – 1100) – no reduction of inflexion.
A. Early OE (prewritten OE) from 450 – 700.
B. OE (written OE) 700 – 1066.
2. Middle English (1100 – 1500) – reduced inflexions, unstressed endings.
a. Early ME 1066 – 1350
b. ME (classical) 1350 - 1475
3. Modern English (1500 -...) loss of inflexion.
A. Early New English 1476 – 1660
B. Normalization Period 1660 – 1800 (age of correctness, Neo-Classical period)
C. Late NE/Mod E (including 1800 – present day English)
OE was spoken on a small territory and number of speakers was ≈ 1 mln. There were 4 dialects of OE language. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects(Written OE).
OE was a typical OG l-ge, with a purely G vocab. and few foreign borrowings it displays specific phonetics pecularities; well-developed system of morphological categories.
In ME the nominal system was much simpler (2 tense forms), word order was not fixed. Early ME was a time of great changes at all the levels of the l-ge especially in grammar and lexis. Most of the inflections in the nominal s-m were fallen together. H.Sweet called ME the period of “levelled endings”.
4. The Scandinavian invasion and its effect on English.
By the end of the 8-th cent Britain was often invaded by Vikings (Danes from Denmark and Northmen from Scandinavia). England was invaded by Danes, Scotland and Ireland by Northmen. At first they came in small groups, than in large bands conquering territories one after another. Wessex kingdom under Alfred the Great began to struggle. But still Scandinavian invasion had made some effect on English:
1. words beginning on “sk” (sky, skirt, skin)
2. the system of personal pronouns (they, them, their)
3. the form ‘are’ of the verb to be/
4. the ending–s- for Present Simple, 3-rd person singular (in verbs) (he makes).
5. the system of personal names ending on –son-: Davidson, Richardson, Jefferson.
6. there are more then 1500 words of Scandinavian origin in ModE: sister, bad, fog, cake, get, again etc.
[sk’] → [s] NE Etymological doublets in
ME
→ [sk] Sc skjorte (Sc) – skirt (NE)
scierte (OE) – shirt (NE)
The influence was felt in 2 spheres
§ vocabulary – law, husband, loose, root, sky, smile, want;
§ morphology – the verb system was expanding.
5. The Norman Conquest and its effect on English.
The last of the invaders to come to Britain were the Normans from France. In 14 October 1066 Duke William of Normandy defeated the English at the battle of Hastings and established his rule in the country as King of England. He is known as William the Conqueror. They started a new period in England, which is known as Norman period. The Normans settled in the country and the French language became the official language of the ruling class. This explains the great number of French words in English (80%) – boots, pearl, beef, biscuit, home, sir, council, tax. Originally they were also Germanic tribes, but having won the territory of France, they practicaly assimilated with the people of France and took its high culture and language. 1. French is the lang. of upper classes.
2. Many synonyms appeared: Eg: language (Fr) – tongue (Engl); 3. lange, huge (Fr) – great (Engl)
4. French effected all aspects of life:
= Government and administration: nation, people.
= Legislation: eg.: judge, court.
= Military term: navy, war.
= Literature and arts: music/
= Education: ink, college.
= Fashion: dress.
= Trade, profession: tailor, grocer.
= Religion: pray.
= Cooking: roast, fry, boil.
Engl → ox – beef ← French
pig - pork
↓ ↓
anim. food
75% of words have survived in NE.
6. The dialectal situation of English from a historical perspective.
The ancient Germanic tribes occupied a comparatively small territories in the North-West of Europe, they spoke similar dialects. These dialects → common germanic, it lasted till the beginning of our era. In the V cent germanic tribes migrated to the British Isles. They were Saxons, Jutes, Angles. The language of this tribes serves as a basis for the formation of OE. They spoke 4 dialects: Kentish (Jutes); West-Saxon /Wessex (Saxon); Mercian (Angles); Northumbrian (Angles) – north to r. Humber.
In the IX cent – during the reign of King Alfred (871-899) the Great, when Wessex became the most powerful kingdom and led the successful war against the Scandinavians. Since him the dialect of Wessex became more popular and got the status of written standard. Most OE written records that came to us are in the Wessex dialect (“Beowulf”, Anglo-Saxon chronicles). The first historian who started to record the history of the Germanic tribes on the British Isles and is considered to be the first English historian is Bede the Venerable, an English monk, who wrote “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People”. The most important dialect in the Old English period was the WEST SAXON DIALECT.
Middle English: Linguistic Situation
After the Norman Conquest: French became the official language of administration (it was used in the king’s court, in the law courts, in the church (as well as Latin), in the army, by the nobles in the south of England). It was also used as a language of writing and teaching as well as Latin. English was the language of common people in the Midlands and in the north of England. It still remained the language of the majority who were the representatives of the lower classes of society and never learned French, so the Norman barons had to learn English to be able to communicate with locals. Celtic Dialects were still used by the Celtic population in the remote areas of the country. Actually, during the presence of the Normans the country experienced the period of bilingualism (French and English were both used in the country and started to intermix, i.e. a lot of the French words crept into the Middle English Dialects and it came to resemble present-day English a lot). The Norman and the English drew together in the course of time and intermixed. French lost its popularity due to the fact that it was not the language of the majority and could not be used to communicate with local people. English regained its leading position with time and became accepted as the official language. The proofs are:
The Parliamentary Proclamation of 1258 – Henry the 3rd addressed the councilors in Parliament in French, Latin and English. 1)In the 14th – 15th c. legal documents (wills, municipal acts, petitions, etc.) started to be issued in English. 2)1364 – Parliament was opened with an address in English.
1399 – Henry the 4th accepted the throne and made a speech in English. 3)Translations of the documents written in French into English.
Thus in the 14th c. English becomes the language of literature and administration.
Dialects: Kentish →Kentish Dialect, West Saxon →South-Western Dialect (East Saxon Dialect, London Dialect, Gloucester Dialect), Mercian →Midland Dialects (West Midland Dialect, East Midland Dialect), Northumbrian → Northern Dialects ( Yorkshire Dialect, Lancashire Dialect)
The most important dialect in the Middle English period was the LONDON DIALECT.
London Dialect In the 12th -13th c. the London Dialect became the literary language and the standard, both in written and spoken form. The reasons why this happened: 1)The capital of the country was transferred from Winchester, Wesses, to London a few years before the Norman Conquests. 2) The East Saxon Dialect, that was the basis of the London Dialect got, became the most prominent in the Middle English period. 3)Most writers and authors of the Middle English period used the London Dialect in their works.
Features of the London Dialect: 1) The basis of the London Dialect was the East Saxon Dialect 2) The East Saxon Dialect mixed with the East Midland Dialect and formed the London Dialect. 3) Thus the London Dialect became more Anglican than Saxon in character à The London Dialect is an Anglican dialect.
7. Principal OE & ME written records
Alphabets The first Old English written records are considered to be the runic inscriptions. To make these inscriptions people used the Runes/the Runic Alphabet – the first original Germanic Alphabet. Runes/Runic Alphabet: 1) appeared in the 3rd – 4th c. A.D.; 2) it was also called Futhark (after the first 6 letters of this alphabet); 3) the word “rune” meant “secret, mystery” and was used to denote magic inscriptions on objects made of wood, stone, metal; 4) each symbol indicated a separate sound (one symbol = one sound); 5) the symbols were angular due to the fact that they had to be carved on hard materials; 6) the number of symbols: GB – 28-33; on the continent – 16-24).
Best known Runic Inscriptions: Franks Casket – a box with 4 sides made of whale bone, each side contained a picture in the centre and runic inscriptions around the picture that told the story of the whale bone in alliterative verse. Ruthwell Cross – was found near thevillage of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, it is a 15 feet tall stone cross ornamented in all sides with runic inscriptions that are actually a passage from a religious poem “The Dream of the Rood”. Old English Alphabet The Old English Alphabet was borrowed from Latin, but there were also some letters that were borrowed from the Runic Alphabet:? (“thorn”) = [q] and [ð],? (“wynn”) = [w],? (“mann”) = stood for OE word “man”? (“dæζ”) = stood for OE word “day”,
Some new letters were introduced:
ζ = [g] and [j]; ð/þ/Đ/đ = [q] and [ð]; æ = a ligature of [a] and [e]; œ = a ligature of [o] and [e].
Rules of Reading: They resemble the modern rules, with several exceptions though:
f = [v] -1. between vowels; s = [z] 2. between a vowel and a voiced consonant ([r, m, n, l, d,]).
ð/þ = [ð]
ζ – [j] – between and after front vowels ([e, i, æ]);
– [g] – initially and between back vowels ([a, o, u]).
1)cζ = [gg]. 2)c = [k].3)n = [ŋ] when fallowed by [k] or [g].
Old English Manuscripts Most of the Old English manuscripts were written in Latin characters. The Latin Alphabet was modified by the scribes to suit the English language. The Old English manuscripts that give us the examples of the language of that period are:1)personal documents containing names and place names; 2)legal documents (charters); 3)glosses to the Gospels and other religious texts (Latin-English vocabularies for those who did not know Latin good enough to understand the texts); 4)textual insertions (pieces of poetry). Old English Poetry 1. Among the earliest textual insertions in Old English are the peaces of Old English poetry. They are to be found in “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People” written in Latin in the 8th c. by Bede the Venerable, an English monk. These two pieces are: 1)5 lines know as “Bede’s Death Song”; 2)9 lines of a religious poem “Cædmon’s Hymn”. 2. All in all we have about 30 000 lines of OE verse from many poets, but most of them are unknown or anonimuos. The two best known Old English poets are Cædmon and Cynewulf (Northumbrian authors). 3. The topics of Old English poetry: 1) heroic epic (“Beowulf”, the oldest in the Germanic literature, 7th c., was written in Mercian or Northumbrian but has come down to us only in a 10th c. West Saxon copy. It is based on old legends about the tribal life of the ancient Teutons and features the adventures and fights of the legendary heroes); 2) lyrical poems (“The Wanderer”, “The Seafarer”, etc. Most of the poems are ascribed to Cynewulf); 3) religious poems (“Fate of the Apostles” (probably Cædmon), “Dream of the Rood”, etc.). 4. The peculiarities of Old English poetry: 1)written in Old Germanic alliterative verse: a) the lines are not rhymed; b)the number of the syllables in a line is free; c)the number of stressed syllables in a line is fixes; d)the line is usually divided into 2 halves, each half starts with one and the same sound; this sound may be repeated also in the middle of each half; e)a great number of synonyms and metaphorical phrases or compounds describing the qualities or functions of a thing.
8. Spelling changes in ME
The most conspicuous features of Late ME texts in comparison with OE texts is the difference in spelling. The written forms of the words in Late ME texts resemble their modern forms, tough the pronunciation of the words was different.
Major spelling changes in ME.
1. Runic letters – thorn Þ, d, đ → digraph ‘TH’.
2. the rune ‘wynne’ → ‘double u’ – w;
3. the ligatures œ, æ fell into disuse.
4. the use of g, c as [dg], [s] – before
front vowel; [g], [k] – before back vowel.
5. sh, ssh, sch → [∫];
6. hw → wh: Eg: hwæt – what - replacement.
7. long sound – double letters. Eg: book.
8. gh [x], [x’] to distinguished between the fricatives; [xx’] and the aspirate [h] Eg: knyhte [knix’t], he [he].
9. o → [o],
[u] + n, m, v. Eg: OE munuc – ME monk.
10. y → [i] – eg: nyne, very, my.
[j] – at the beginning: eg: yet.
11. w-interchangeable with ‘u’ in ‘ou’, ‘au’. Eg: ME down – down [dun];
how [hu].
12. th, s are voiced between vowels: eg:
worthy [wurđi];
are voiceless – initially, finally: less.
Rules of Reading: They resemble the modern rules, with several exceptions though:
1. g = [dζ] c = [s] before front vowels ([i,e]
g = [g]c = [k] before back vowels ([a, o, u]). 2. y = [j] – at the beginning of the word;
= [i] – in the cases when i stood close together with r, n, m and could be confused with one of these letters or could be lost among them, it was replaced with y, sometimes also for decorative purpose.(e.g. nyne [‘ni:nə], very [‘veri]). 3. th = [ð], s = [z] between vowels.
4. o = [o] – in most cases;
= [u] – in the words that have [Λ] sound in Modern English (e.g. some, love) 5. j = [dζ]
9. OE sound system. Vowel & consonant changes in OE.
The OE vowel system. Major changes during the OE period.
1)Short: [ĭ, ĕ, æﬞ, ŭ, ŏ, ă] - ĭ, ŭ – high, ĕ, ŏ – mid,
æﬞ, ă – low.
2)Long: [ī, ē, æ‾, ū, ō, ā]
This system existed before breaking took place in the 5th cent. BREAKING is a process which led to the split of the short front vowels into diphthongs.
Early OE OE eg.
Before ll æﬞ → ea all → eall
h + other cons. æﬞ: → ea: nah → neah
r + other cons ĕ → eo herza - heorte
æ - ea arm - earm
Diphthongization: after the palatal consonant (k’), (sk’) and (j) short and long [e] and [æ] turned into diphthongs ie or ea (scal – sceal, jār - jēar);
I-MUTATION (i-umlaut) it took place in all Germanic languages in VI – VIII cent, except Gothic. It is a case of regressive assimilation with –i- or semivowel ‘j’. Eg: kuning – c y ning (король), fulljan – fūllan (fill – full). fōti – fōel (foot). We find traces of i-mutation in: foot – feet, goose – geese, blood – bleed. 4 new phonems appear y‾˘, œ‾˘ Palatal mutation led to the grouth of new vowel interchanges and to increase variability of the root morphemes. Back mutation (o, u, a –umlaud) took place in the 8th cent. It influenced front short vowels → appearance of short diphthongs. Phonetically it’s regressive assimilation. I → io Eg: hefon → heofon (heaven). e → eo æ → æα
OE consonants underwent the following changes:
1)Hardening (the process when the soft cons becomes harder) – usual initially and after nasals [m,n] (ð-d, v-b, j-g) 2)Voicing (the proc. When a voiceless cons becomes voiced in certain position):- intervocally, - between a vowel and a voiced cons. and sonorant. [f,θ,h,s – v,ð,g,z]
3) Rhotacism (a pr. When [z] turns into [r] maize Goth – mara OE (more))
4) Gemination (a pr. Of doubling a consonant after a short vowel (as a result of palatal mutation)) settan OE – set, fullan – fill
5) Palatalization of consonants (a pr. when hard vowels become soft) – before a front vowel and sometimes after a front vowels [d,j,k,h – g’,j’,k’,h’]
6) Loss of consonants: The loss of nasals before fricatives:
Eg: fimf (OE)> fif (five); loss of [j] as a result of palatal mutation; fricatives between vowels and some plosives;
10. Monophthongs in the history of English
The Development of Vowel System in Middle English and New English
Word Stress/Accent: In ME and NE word stress acquired greater positions freedom and greater role in word derivation. Recessive tendency – stress in loan-words moved closer to the beginning of the word (e.g. in French words the stress is usually placed on the ultimate or pen-ultimate syllable, but the stress in the words of the French origin that penetrated into English has moved to the beginning of the word).E.g. ME vertu [ver’tju:] – NE virtue [‘vз:t∫ə] Rhythmic tendency – regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables (3 or more) that creates rhythm and has led to the appearance of the secondary stress. E.g. ME diso’beien – NE ,diso’bei Vowels English vowels proved to be more changeable than consonants. Long vowels proved to be more changeable than short ones.
Middle English The changes that occurred to vowels in ME were as follows:
1)Quantitative: Reduction – weakening and disappearance of unstressed vowels. As far as the stress was mainly on the root the vowels in prefixes and suffixes got weak and underwent reduction. In unstressed position only two vowels were left – [ə] and [i]. They had never been contrasted. In NE sound [ə] (schwa) was dropped at the end of the words but the letter e was left in spelling to show the length of the preceding vowel. Shortening – all long vowels became short before consonant clusters (NB!! except [ld, nd, mb] – before these clusters vowels remained long or if a vowel was short it became long). Lengthening (12th – 13th c.) – short vowels became long: 1)before clusters [ld, nd, mb]; 2) in 2-syllable words, only to [e, o, a] in open stressed syllable.
2)Qualitative: The system of vowels in ME were no longer symmetrical as it was in OE. Short Vowels: 1)[y] changed to [i] e.g. OE hyll – ME hill (hill); 2) [æ] changed to [a] e.g. OE w æ s – ME was (was). Long Vowels: 1)[ỹ] changed to [ī]; 2)[ǽ] fell together with [έ]; 3)[ā] changed to [ō] e.g. OE st ā n – ME sto[o:]ne(stone). OE diphthongs turned into monophthongs: ĭě/īē ài, ĕŏ/ēō àe, ĕă/ēā à æ.
New diphthongs appeared due to vocalisation of [j], [γ] and [w]. These consonants turned into vowels ([i], [u] and [u] respectively) and became the glides of the new diphthongs.
New English: Great Vowel Shift – the change that happened in the 14th – 16th c. and affected all long monophthongs + diphthong [au]. As a result these vowels were: 1)diphthongized; 2)narrowed (became more closed); 3)both diphthongized and narrowed. This shift was not followed by spelling changes, i.e. it was not reflected in written form. Thus the Great Vowel Shift explains many modern rules of reading. There were exceptions though, e.g. put, pull, etc. Vocalisation of [r]: It occurred in the 16th – 17th c. Sound [r] became vocalised (changed to [ə] (schwa)) when stood after vowels at the end of the word. Consequences: 1)new diphthongs appeared: [εə], [iə], [uə]; 2)the vowels before [r] were lengthened (e.g. arm [a:m], for [fo:], etc.); 3) triphthongs appeared: [aiə], [auə] (e.g. shower [‘∫auə], shire [‘∫aiə]).
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