History of English

LANGUAGE FAMILIES

• Language families and Indo-European

• language family - a group of closely related languages

• cognate languages - members of a language family

Origin based classification of words

• native - in a language since its beginnings as a discrete language

• borrowed/loanwords - introduced at some time from another language, either from a related or an unrelated language

Language vs. dialect

• dialects - mutually intelligible versions of one language

• language - no mutual intelligibility

European language families

• Indo-European

• Finno-Ugric

• Altaic

• Basque

• Northern and Southern Caucasian

Indo-European family groups

• lndo-Iranian

• Tocharian

• Armenian

• Anatolian

• Balto-Slavic

• Hellenic

• Albanian

• Celtic

• Italic

• Germanic

Language typology based on morpheme classification

• inflectional - in which inseparable inflections are fused with lexical stems to carry much of the grammatical information

• agglutinative - combine grammatical morphemes with lexical stems, but the grammatical morphemes are discrete, relatively unchanged from word to word, and strung onto the lexical stem one after the other

• isolating - every morpheme forms a separate word, and individual particles (such as prepositions, articles, and conjunctions) are used to convey grammatical information

Indo-European family subdivision

• satem - (from Avestan satem '100') - languages to the east (lndo-Iranian, Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic)

• centum - (from Latin centum '100') - languages to the west (Tocharian, Indo-European easternmost language, is centum)

Germanic

• East Germanic - Gothic, Burgundian, Vandalic, Gepidic, Rugian

• West Germanic - High German, Low German: Plattdeutsch, Dutch, Afrikaans, Luxemburgian, Flemish, Frisian, English

• North Germanic - Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese

OLD ENGLISH

• 450-1100

Written accounts of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain

• Brittanic

• English

• Continental

Brittanic sources

• 548 - Gildas - Liber querulus de excidio Britanniae

• Nennius - Historia Britonum (includes the story of Hengest and Horsa invited by Vortigern)

English sources

• Bede (c. 673 - 735) wrote his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum in 731

• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

• Poems: Widsith, Beowulf, The Fight at Finnsburg

Continental sources

• Prosper Tiro, account of the visit of the bishop Germanus to Britain in 429 A.D.

• anonymous Gaullish chronicler 441/2 A.D.

• Zosimus, Byzantine historian c. 500 A.D.

• Procopius of Caesarea after 550 A.D.

Settlement of Anglo-Saxons in Britain

• Jutes: Kent, Isle of Wight

• Saxons: west of Kent, south of Thames

• Angles: north of Thames to the northern border of contemporary England

Old English stress assignment

• always stress the first syllable of the root

• stress is assigned on a left-to-right basis

• only heavy syllables can be stressed, unless in the initial position

• the leftmost stressed syllable receives primary stress

Stress in prefixed words

• nouns, adjectives, and adverbs receive primary stress on the prefix

• verbs with unseparable prefixes are stressed on the first syllable of the root (e.g., a-, be-, for-, ge-, mis-, of-, on-, to-)

• verbs with separable prefixes are stressed on the first syllable of the prefix (e.g., æfter-, bi-, fore-, in(n)-, up-, ut-)

NOMINAL SYSTEM (OE)

Old English nominal system

• OE nouns: masculine, neuter, and feminine

• OE gender is grammatical - assigned to nouns on the basis of the grammatical structure of the words and not on its actual, natural gender (engel “angel” masculine, wif “woman” neuter, þeod “nation” feminine)

• OE noun declensions: major and minor/productive vs. unproductive (productive paradigm is accepted by all new words entering the language)

• Major: strong/weak (PIE vowel stems - endings added to a stem ending in a vowel or diphthong /n-stems - endings to a stem formed with a vowel plus /n/)

• Minor: consonantal stems, case-endings added to a stem ending in a consonant other than /n/

• OE nouns two numbers, singular and plural, five cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental (narzędnik)

OE concord

• Concord is agreement in gender, case, number or person between different words that share a reference

• The subject must agree with its verb in person and number

• The pronoun must agree with its antecedent in gender and number

• Adjectives and demonstrative pronouns must agree in gender, case and number with the nouns they modify

• The subject must agree with the complement in case

• The subject may agree with the participles in periphrastic verb forms in gender, case and number

WEAK VERBS (OE)

• Weak verbs>classes

Class 1 (WV1)

-infinitive: -ian, -an

-preterite 1sg.: -ede, -de, -te

-passive: -ed, -d, -t

Class II (WV2)

-infinitive: -ian

-preterite 1sg.: -ode

-passive: -od

Class III (WV3): secgan, habban, libban, hycgan

OE weak verbs

• Class I/II present paradigm

 

1.sg. lufie

2.sg. lufast

3.sg. lufaþ

1-3 pl. lufiaþ

• Weak verbs

• Class I/II preterite paradigms

1.sg. lufode

2.sg. lufodest

3.sg. lufode

1-3 pl. lufodon

• Weak verbs: class III

• habban

• secgan

• hycgan

• libban

Verb `beon'

• Suppletive paradigm (conjugational forms from different stems: *es- “to be”, *bheu- “to become, to come into existence”; *wes- “to dwell, to inhabit”

• *bheu- future forms, *es- present forms, and *wes- past forms

 

Present Future Past

1.sg. eom beo wæs

2.sg. eart bist wære

3.sg. is bit wæs

1-3 pl. sindon beot wæron

 

• Negative forms by adding <n-> to the initial vowel or by replacing the initial <w-> with <n->

WEAK NOUNS (OE)

• Weak -n- declension

masculine neuter feminine

singular

 

N. gum-a eag-e sunn-e

G. gum-an eag-an sunn-an

D. gum-an eag-an sunn-an

A. gum-an eag-e sunn-an

I. gum-an eag-an sunn-an

 

plural

 

N. gum-an eag-an sunn-an

G. gum-ena eag-ena sunn-ena

D. gum-um eag-um sunn-um

A. gum-an eag-an sunn-an

I. gum-um eag-um sunn-um

PRONOUNS (OE)

OE pronoun types

• demonstrative: þæs ofereode; þisses swa mæg “That has passed; so may this”;

• relative: most frequent is the invariable relative particle te;

• reflexive: performed by personal pronouns: se cyning hine wende “the king went”;

• personal: much more freely omitted than in ModE: hæfdon swurd nacod, þa wit on sund reowon “(we) held bare swords, when we two swam to sea”;

• impersonal: impersonal verbs with regularly take no subject or use hit: hine nanes þinges ne lyste “(it) desired him of nothing = he desired nothing”; swa hit þincan mæg “as it may seem”;

• indefinite: commonly take the genitive: uhtna gehwylce “every dawn”; Frysna hwylc “any Frisian”; on mægta gehw1m “in every tribe”;

OE personal pronouns

1st person

 

Singular Dual Plural

 

N. īc wit wē

G. mīn uncer ūre

D. mē unc ūs

A. mēc unc ūsic

OE personal pronouns

2nd person

 

Singular Dual Plural

 

N. þū git gē

G. þīn incer ēower

D. þē inc ēow

A. þēc inc ēowic

OE personal pronouns

3rd person

 

Singular Plural

Masculine Feminine Neuter All

 

N. hē hēo hit hī

G. his hire his hira

D. him hire him him

A. hine hī hit hī

ADJECTIVES (OE)

Strong vs. weak adjectives: usage

• strong: not preceded by a demonstrative or a possessive pronoun

sēoce beornas “sick warriors”

sēoc hlāford “sick lord”

• weak: preceded by a demonstrative or a possessive pronoun

þā godan beornas “the good warriors”

mīn goda hlāford “my good lord”

Weak adjectives

Masculine Feminine Neuter

  Singular

 

N. blind-a blind-e blind-e

G. blind-an blind-an blind-an

D. blind-an blind-an blind-an

A. blind-an blind-an blind-e

 

Plural

N. blind-an blind-an blind-an

G. blind-ra blind-ra blind-ra

D. blind-um blind-um blind-um

A. blind-an blind-an blind-an

Strong adjectives

Masculine Feminine Neuter

 

Singular

 N. blind blind blind

G. blind-es blind-re blind-es

D. blind-um blind-re blind-um

A. blind-ne blind-e blind

 

Plural 

N. blind-e blind-a blind

G. blind-ra blind-ra blind-ra

D. blind-um blind-um blind-um

A. blind-e blind-a blind

NOUNS: MINOR DECLENSIONS (OE)

OE minor declensions

- RCS (Root Consonant Stems): i-umlaut of the root vowel in dat.sg. and nom./acc.pl.;

• -nd- nouns: only masculine, affected by weak adjectival declension (gen.pl. -ra); i-mutated vowels in dat.sg. and nom./acc.pl.;

• - nouns of relationship (-r stems) no inflection in singular, various plural forms

-ru nouns: -r- of the plural, singular as strong neuter nouns

PRETERITE-PRESENT VERBS (PPV) (OE)

Preterite Present verbs

• past forms with new present meaning and new weak past forms

• in Modern English as modal verbs (auxiliaries)

Preterite Present verbs conjugations

Class I witan “know”, ah “possess”

 

present past

1. wat ah wiste ahte

2. wast ahst wistest ahtest

3. wat ah wiste ahte

pl. witon agon wiston ahton

Preterite Present verbs conjugations

Class III unnan “grant”, cunnan “can, know”, þurfan “need”

 

present past

1. can þearf cude þorfte

2. canst þearft cudest þorftest

3. can þearf cude þorfte

pl. cunnon þurfon cudon þorfton

Preterite Present verbs conjugations

Class IV sculan “shall”

present past

1. sceal sceolde

2. scealt sceoldest

3. sceal sceolde

pl. sculon sceoldon

Preterite Present verbs conjugations

Class VI motan “must”

  present past

1. mot moste

2. most mostest

3. mot moste

pl. moton moston

Preterite Present verbs conjugations

Unknown magan “may”

 

present past

1. mæg meahte

2. meaht meahtest

3. mæg meahte

pl. magon meahton

ANOMALOUS VERBS (OE)

Anomalous verbs

don “do” gan “go”

present

1. do ga

2. dest g1st

3. ded g1d

pl. dod gad

 

preterite

1. dyde eode

2. dydest eodest

3. dyde eode

pl. dydon eodon

SUBJUNCTIVE (OE)

• non-dependent clauses expressing wishes and commands

God ure helpe “may God help us”

• adverb clauses of concession introduced with þeah

þeah man swa ne wene “although people do not think so”

• hypothetical adverb clauses of condition,

gyf se þegen þæne þræl afylle “if a thane kills a serf”

• adverbial clauses of purpose

þi l1s we ætgædere ealle forweordan “lest we all perish together”

• temporal clauses relating to future or conjectural events

ot þæt he cunne gearwe “until he knows well”

Present subjunctive

• endings -e (singular) and -en (plural) to the present stem

deman ~ deme ~ demen

Preterite subjunctive

• endings -e (singular) and -en (plural) to the preterite stem

deman ~ demde ~ demden

MIDDLE ENGLISH

• 1100-1500

ME graphics

• variation in spelling, handwriting (in time, dialects, a single scribe)

• dialectal graphemic differences

ß in Scots vs. -s, -ss in other dialects

Middle English phonology

• confusion in spelling

• rise of a new standard

Middle English dialects

• Northern

• West Midland

• East Midland

• South-western

• Kentish

ME morphology

Consequences of the loss of inflections:

• loss of grammatical gender

• two cases in nouns (possessive/non-possessive)

• loss of adjectival strong~weak distinction

• reduction of verbal endings

• confusion in mood distinctions

• loss of dual in personal pronouns

Causes of the shift from synthetic to analytic

• possible creolization (English, French, Scandinavian)

• reduction of unstressed vowels

• increased use of prepositions

• more rigid word order (already in OE)

Dialectal distribution of morphological simplification

• North earliest (but not in phonology)

• Midlands next

• South the latest

ME nouns>inflectional losses>consequences

• two cases: possessive/non-possessive

• loss of grammatical gender

• loss of noun class distinctions (generalization to SM)

• merger of weak nouns with strong nouns

N-plurals in ME and PDE relics

• N-plurals in ME

• eye, ear, shoe, foe, hand

• N-plurals in PDE

• children, brethren, oxen

S-less genitives in ME

• former feminines

his lady grace

• kinship terms

thi brother wif

• nouns ending in sibilants

for peace sake

Uninflected plurals in ME

• former OE neuter nouns (SN)

year, thing, wood

• a few names of animals

deor, sheep

• uninflected by analogy

fish

• measure words

mile, thousand

• former genitive plurals in -a with numerals

two-hour walk

• mutated plurals

geese, teeth

ME adjectives

• loss of case, gender, weak~strong distinction

• causes

• reduction/loss of unstressed endings

• increased use of definite/indefinite articles

• inflection in EME

• final -e with monosyllabics ending in a consonant

• strong final -e only in the plural

• high degree of confusion

ME>adjectives>comparison

• OE -ra > ME -re > -er (metathesis)

• OE -ost, -est > ME -est

• analogical levelling of i-mutation (except elder)

• beginnings of the periphrastic comparison (ma, more, most)

• double comparison (more swetter)

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