PRESENT THE MAIN GROUPS OF INDO - EUROPEAN LANGUAGE DEVISION

 

`INDO-EUROPEAN' is the name scholars have given to the family of languages that first spread throughout Europe and many parts of southen Asia, and which are now found, as a result of colonialism, in every part of the world. The parent language, generally known as `Proto-Indo-European', is thought to have been spoken before 300 b.c., and to have split up into different languages during the subsequent millennium. The differents were well established between 2000 and 1000 b.c., when the Greek, anatolian, and Indo-Iranian languages are first attested

 

THE NAME OF THE LANGUAGE

By the end of the 6^th century the term angli ( `angels' ) was in use - as early as 601, a king of kent/ethelbert, is called rex anglorum ( ` king of the angels' )- and during the 7^th century angli or anglia ( for the country) became the usual Latin names. Old English Engle derives from this usage, and the name of the language found in Old English texts is from the outset referred to as Englisc texts. References to the name of the country as England (`land of the Angels'), from which came England, do not appear until c. 1000.

 

 THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY:

 Banian

this language forms a single branch of the indo-european family, spoken by nearly 3 million people. Albania, and parts of Yugoslavia, greece and italy. Albanian has two main dialects, known as heg ( in the north ) and tosk ( in the south )

 

Anatolian

A group of languages, now extinct, spoken from around 2000 b.c. in parts of present-day turkey and syria. The main anatolian language is hittite, snown to be Indo-European only as recently as 915.

 

Armenian

This branch of indo-european consists of a single language, spoken in many dialects by between 5 and 6 million people in the armenian republic of the ussr and turkey, and ( through emigration ) the parts of the middle east, europe, and the united states. The spoken language may have been established soon after 1000 b.c, but there was no written form until after the introduction of christianity. Classical armenian, or grabar, is the language of the older literature, and the liturgical language of the armenian church today.

 

Balto-slavic

Baltic languages and slavonic languages are often placed together as a single branch of indo-european, because of their similarities, though there is some dispute over whether these constitute evidence of common origin rather than of more recent mutual influence. Taken together, these languages are spoken by about 300 million people, more than half of whom speak russian.

The main baltic languages are latvian ( also known as lettish ) and lithuanian, with written texts dating from the 14^th century. There are around 4 million spealers in the baltic area, with a further million abroad, mainly in the united states.

The slavonic ( or slavic ) languages are more numerous, and are usually divided into three groups : south slavonic, found in bulgaria, yugoslavia, and parts of greece, includes bulgarian, macedonian, serbo-croat, and slovene; west slavonic, found in czechosloviaka, poland and east germany, includes czech, slovak, sorbian and polish; east slavonic, found in the ussr, includes russian, belorussian, and ukrainian. Each of the main slavonic languages has an official status as a standard ( pp.38,364 ); but there are numerous dialect differences within these groupings.

 

Germanic

The various branches of the germanic family of languages derive from the migrations of the germanic triges who lived in northen europe during the 1^st millennium b.c. some germanic words are recorded by latin authors, and scandinavian inscriptions in the runic alphabet ( p. 203 ) are recorded from the 3^rd century a d.

Germanic languages are used as a first language by over 500 million people, largely because of the world-wide role of english . they are usually classified into three groups. East germanic languages are all extinct, and only gothic is preserved in manuscript.north germanic includes the scandinavian languages of swedish and danish ( east scandinavian ), norwegian, icelandic, and faeroese ( west scandinavian ). West germanic comprises english and frisian ( often grouped as anglo - frisian ), and german, yiddish, netherlandic, or duth ( including local, flemish dialects in belgium ), and afrikaans ( often grouped as netherlandic - german )

 

Greek

This branch of Indo-European consists of a single language, represented in many dialects, and attested from around the 14^th century b.c. greek, was spoken throught the eastern mediterranen from around the 4^th century b.c. for nearly a thousand years. In its written from, it was the language of the new testament . the modern varieties of greek, spoken in greece, cyprus, turkey, the united states.

 

Indo-iranian

This branch of Indo-European comprises two large groups, known as indo-aryan ( or indic ) and iranian. There are over 500 indo-aryan languages, spoken bt around 500 million people in the northern and central parts of the indian subcontinent.

  

Italic

The main language of this famlily is latin, the language of rome and of its surrounding provinces, preserved in inscriptions from the 6^th century b.c.romance languages have spread, as a result of colonialism, throughout the world, so that today over 500 million people speak a romance language, or one of the creoles based of french, spanish, or portuguese.

 

Tocharian

This language, now extinct, was spoken in the northen part of ghinese turkistan during the 1^st millennium a.d.. two dialects were established - an eastern variety, from the turfan region, which was labelled tocharian a, and a western variety, from the kucha region, which was labelled tocharian b.the status of tocharian as an independent Indo-European language is not in doubt.

 

All languages in the Indo-European family have the same original structure, based on inflections. They all have clearly defined parts of speech. These include nouns, adjektives, pronouns and verbs which take certain endings to show gender, number, case, person, tense, mood, or voice.

Other language families. Besides Indo-European, scholars have discovered many other language families:

 

-         the sino-tibetan family

-         the semitic-hamitic-kushitic family

-         the uralic and altaic families

-         japanese and korean

-         the dravidian family

-         the malayo-polynesian family

-         the mon-khmer family

-         african negro languages

-         american indian languages

 

IV.

 

GIVE AT LEAST ONE EXAMPLE OF:

·        CELTIC PLACES IN ENGLAND

 

Avon, exe, esk, ouse, Aberdeen, Uxbridge, Exter, Strath

 

        SCANDINAVIAN PERSONAL NAMES

 

Family names ending in son, such as Davidson, Jackson, and Henderson

 

        BORROWINGS FROM CHURCH

 

bishop, church, priest, school, giant, lobster, purple, plant

 

        BORROWINGS FROM SCANDINAVIA

 

dirt, egg, kid, leg, skin, sky, window, get, wayk, haile, sterne, ball, birth,

 

        BORROWINGS FROM FRENCH

 

Administration - authority, baron, chamberlain, chancellor, constable, coroner, council, court

 

Law - accuse, adultery, advocate, arrest, arson, assault, assize, attorney, bail, bar, blame

 

Religion - abbey, baptism, cardinal

 

Military - ambush, archer, army, barbican, battle, besiege, captain, combat

 

Food and drink - appetite, bacon, beef, biscuit, confection, cream, cruet, date, dinner, feast

 

Fashion - pearl, petticoat, pleat, robe, satin, tassel, train, veil, wardrobe

 

The home - basin, blanket, bucket, ceiling, cellar, chair

 

General verbs - advise, allow, arrange, carry, change, close, continue, cry

 

        BORROWINGS FROM ITALIAN

 

Piano, pizza, brigand, frieze, pedestal, motto, sonnet, stanza,

 

        BORROWINGS FROM SPANISH

 

Cork, hotel, restaurant, fiesta, siesta,

 

        BORROWINGS FROM GERMAN

 

fish, glass, man, salt, plunder, staff, focus, gas, interia,

 

        BORROWINGS FROM ARABIC

 

saffron, admiral, matters, algebra, alkali, zenith,

 

        BORROWINGS FROM LATIN AND GREEK

 

Absurdity, adapt, agile, alienate, allusion, anachronism, anonymus, appropiate, assassinate, atmosphere, autograph, benefit, capsule, catastrophe, chaos, climax, conspicious, contradictory, crisis, criterion, critic.

 

        BORROWINGS FROM RUSSIAN

 

Sable, Vodka

 

        BORROWINGS FROM POLISH

 

Mazurka, polka,

 

        BORROWINGS FROM DUTCH

 

Brandy, dike, monsoor, reef, smuggler, waggon, walrus,

 

 

        BORROWINGS FROM PORTUGUESE

 

marmalade

 

        BORROWINGS FROM IRISH

 

Lough

 

 

        BORROWINGS FROM AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES

 

Tomahawk, wigwam

 

        BORROWINGS FROM AUSTRALIAN

 

boomerang and kangaroo

 

        BORROWINGS FROM ESKIMO

   

III.

 

WHAT WAS THE ROLE OF THE FOLLOWING IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE:

 

 

DANELAW

 

the parts of north, central and eastern england in which danish, rat her than saxon laws and ustans prevailed. In the 11^th & 12^th centuries is designated eastern england between t he rivers tees and thames, where danish customary law prevalied.

 

 

KING ALFRED THE GREAT

It was as leader in the struggle withthe Danes that King alfred abtained his principal fame although he had many other interests and ambitions : he was a lawgiver and a strict administrator of justice; he reorganized the *fryd; he is the „father of the English fleet”; he restored monasteries; he encouraged learning by founding schools, inviting scholars from abroad, and himself translating from Latin into English; he, finaly, ordered the compilation of the *anglo-saxon chronicle

Alfred'a wars with the Danes and his wretched health were such a drain upon his energies that we must feel suprise at the extent of his activities, and we must wonder if ever any man combined in his own person so much excellence in war, legislation, and learning The main source of our konwledge about Alfred is his life by Asser.

The Anglo-Saxon dooms [ie laws, decrees] are the best examples of germanic law. In England there was no legacy of Roman law.

The aim of the Anglo-Saxon law court was not to provide justice, but simply to provide alternatives to the blood feud. The greather patr of Anglo-Saxon law was oral and customary; the so-called anglo-Saxon law codes are not really codes at all, but merely statements on novel or confusing points of law.

  

WILLIAN CAXTON - THE FIRST ENGLISH PRINTER

In 1496 he began work on his first ranslation, a french account of the trojan wars. In 1471 he travelled to cologen and learned the technique of printing. In Brugers he collaborated with the Flemish caligrapher Colard Mansion to set up a press, and in late 1473 or early 1474 put through his 700-page translation of The Recuyell of the Historyes of troye, the first book printed in english. Returning to england, in 1476 he set up his wooden press in a shop somewhere within theprecincts of Westminster abbey, to be near the court. He published nearly 80 iyems, several in more than one edition. It took him about seven weeks to print Cordial (1479)-a book of 74 leaves with 28/29 lines per page. After his death, his business was taken over by his assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, who in 1500 moved the press to Fleet Street in London - from the court to the city - and a new era in printing began.

 

 

DR SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709 - 1784)

He produced an outline for his Dictionary in 1746, a contract was signed, and the first of thisamanuenses began work on midsummer day of that year. A more fully elaborated plan of a dictionary of the english language appeared a year later. It took him some three years to read his source works and mark the citations to be used. These were then copied by his amanuenses onto slips of paper, and filed alphabetically. Once all slips were collated, he began to draft his definitions. The first sheets were printed in 1750, beginning with letter a. The work was complete by 1754, an edition of 2000 copies appeared the following year, priced Ł4 10s. He was granted an honorary doctorate by Triity College Dublin in 1765, and again by Oxford in 1775, and thus received the title by which he has come to be most widely known : Dr. Johnson.

 

JOHANSONIAN DEFINITIONS

Pension - An allowance made to anyone without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.

 

It was not until Samuel Johnson completed A Dictionary of the english language in 1755 that the lexicon received its first authortative treatment. Over a seven-year period, Johnson wrote the definitions of c. 40 000 words, illustrating their use from the best authors since the time of the Elizabethans (but excluding his own contemporaries ). His selection is moer wide-ranging, and his lexicological treatment is far more descriminating and sophisticated. The book, according to his biobrapher Boswell, `conferred stability' on the language - and at least with respect to spelling (were most of Johnson's choices are found in modern practice), this seems to be so.

 

RADIO

The world of the media is an area where it is important not to confuse the `object' with the language. There are newspapers;there is radio;there is television.

Broadcasting, as a national medium, has existed only since the 1920s; but its popularity and power have been so great that it has already given language several new varieties.

The medium has also greatly icreased popular awareness of linguistic diversity.

For the linguist, radio has uniquiely interestingfeatures. It is person-to-person communication that is mouth-to-ear, but not face-to-face, and where direct feedback is not possible. The totally auditory world of disembodied sound can involve the emotions and imagination of the listener in ways that have no parallel. Its simultaneous reception by millions promotes the language it uses as a standard ( e.g. ` BBC English ` ) and gives it an unequalled status and authority within a --> [Author:SW] [SW1]community. The question of the kind of language professional broadcasters should use is therefore a controversial one, and in several countries the relative merits of standard vs regional and formal vs informal usage continue to be debated.

 

KING JAMES BIBLE

 

The Bible has been published in about 2 000 languages, with several hundred new translation projects ongoing; but a major language with a long literary tradition will itself contain many translations. Some English translations have proved to be specially influential, such as the Great Bible (Crammer's Bible) of 1539, the Authorized Version of 1611, and the Douai Bible of 1609-10. The chief points of controversy then were partly doctrinal, partly stylistic, but both stemmed from the major changes in Christian belief taking place at the time in Europe.

The Bible, consisting of the 39 books of the Old Testament, written in Hebrew, and the 27 books of the New Testament, written in Greck. Several other writings, known collectively as the Apocrypha, and preserved only in Greek, have controversial status. A Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, is prominent in the Roman Catholic tradition.

 

NORMANS

 

Danish raids against England came to an end when the English King Harold defeated the Norwegian King at the battle of Stamford Bridge, on the 25^th of September 1066. But only a few days later, on the 14^th of October, Harold himself was killed during the battle fought at Hastings against other invaders, from the south: the Normans of William the Bastard, duke of Normandy in France, who thus became William the conqueror.

The later Normans were indeed also ` Norδem ` ( note the two plurals: Normans is a French plural, Northmen is the English plurl ); but, as they had settled in the French province of Neustria as early as 911 ( a province from then on called after theme, Normandy < French Normandie [ ......]), they had quickly forgotten their Scandinavian language and had become French-speakers: all the time they were to rule over England, from 1066, the Normans were to speak French, their domination over the English kingdom marking the end of the Old English period

 II.

 

PRESENT THE CHRONOLOGICAL DIVISION OF LANGUAGE WITH APPROPRIATE DATES.

 

 

Each generation modifies the language it learned from the preceding generation. This applies as well to the pronunciation as to the vocabulary. The history of a language is a long series of evolutions. Precise dates for the periods of the evolution of a language are quite exact but at the same time they are only symbolical.

 

 

OLD ENGLISH : BEFORE 1066

 

 

The time preceding 1066 is the period of “ Old English “, which is precisely defined as the English language before it underwent the French influence, that is before 1066. Old English is the language spoken in /Great/ Britain from the 5^th century onwards, when Germanic invaders settled on the main island. The arrivals took place from mid V^th century to the late VI^th century. The main part of the island was henceforth known as “The land of the Angles”.

The Angles, arriving from the north of present Germany were not the only ones invading Britain. The most numerous were the Saxons. Wessex was inhabited by them. It is from Wessex that most literary works have been transmitted to us, and thanks to them we have a very good knowledge of Old English. Among numerous poetic works we have: Beowulf, the works of the monk Aelfric, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written in different monasteries, poems mostly of Christian inspiration, translations of works inherited from the Antiquity, particularly translations of the Bible and Bede`s Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.

Allthese Germanic people were pagans. The frist kings to convert to Christianity were the Jute Aethelberg and the Northumbrian Edwin.

From the year 850 z new invasion of the Normans took place. They were “men from the North” known as Vikings. In 1016 Canute, a Dane, was acknowledged as King of England.

The region ruled over by the Danes is known by the name of “Danelaw”. Their language is indifferently designed as “Danish” or Scandinavian” or better and more scientifically “Old Norse”.

All these events had very many linguistic consequences.

 

 

MIDDLE ENGLISH: RROM 1066 TO 1453

 

this is one of the two periods of the history of the English language when the latter was submitted to the most important changes, according to quite an exceptional fraquency for a language: English was then undergoing what might be qualified as a revolution. This is due to two non0linguistic factors.

The first of them is the presence of “Northmen” /from Denmark/. Such a presence, theoretically ending in 1066, had no earlier linguistic results because it was not an over-ruling domination. It was not either the presence of very high numbers of Danish-speaking people. Finally, the two languages, English and Norse, were at that time sufficiently alike for there not being much disruption of mutual understanding.

The second factor is the conquest of England by the Normans, the army of William the Conqueror, after his victory at Hastings on the 14^th of October 1066. When he became King of England William organizes the kingdom with a French-speaking nobility and high clergy. Norman lords and knights received

 

 

 

Lands and built their own castles. Norman bishops were appointed to English dioceses and Norman abbots were appointed to abbeys. And even while becoming English, these „great” still spoke French, while the language of the people: farmers, artisans, rural priests and monks, remained English.

Out of this second cohabitation the necessity of a common language, perhaps of a mixed language, was born.The process was to go on, even with more intensity, at the time of William ` s successors on the English throne

 

 

TUDOR ENGLISH: FROM 1453 TO 1660

 

The year 1453 is the first of the period whose language we call “Modern English” - though since then variations have also been quite important, so that, for example, Shakespeare` s English can only be understood with difficulty in reading, or is even quite incomprehensible when hearing it as it was spoken.

That is why we usually distinguish first Tudor English, or “Renascence English”. Though these two names would not be synonymous in their strictest sense, yet they are sufficient since subdivisions in the history of a language, as was said formerly, must be understood first of all as landmarks. In fact, the names refer:

1.     to the long reign of the Tudors, from 1485 to 1603, with Henry VII, Henry

VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I

 

2. to the cultural event of the Renascence, especially: renewal of literature

through reference to the works transmitted from the Latin and Greek Antiquity and of language through reference to Latin and Greek. This “renaissance” took place in England during XVIth century and the first half of the XVIIth.

It was a most restleess period in the history of England, marked by the Anglikan

schism caused by Henry VIII and by the Commonwealth revolution but also by the union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, by victories against France, by explorations and conquests that engaget the nation towards the sea

and commerce.

From the literary point of view, it was the most fertile period, when the names of Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Ben Johnson, John Milton, John Donne shone in an outstanding light among many others, without speaking of the translations of the Bible, particularly the one called the “Authorized Version” (1611).

The English language could not but be influenced by such diversity of events.

 

CLASSICAL ENGLISH FROM 1660 TO 1815.

 

This period is qualified as “classical”, but the end of it is also the beginning of ROMANTICISM. It starts with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, i.e. the end of the Republic ( 1648-1660 ) called “Commonwealth” and it approximately extends unitil the end of the Napoleonic wars.

Among the authors of that time, may note Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Oliver Goldsmith, the first Romantics as Thomas Gray, William Blake, Robert Burns and the first works of William Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Keats.

Many historical trends constitute the landmarks of the period : on the ona hand, the development of democracy.

MODERN ENGLISH FROM 1815 TO 1945

 

Authors of grammars and dictionaries during that period the English glossary became richer and the structure of the English language more standardized ,

even when in English-speaking territories abroad,specially in the new United States of America , new local peculiarities were beginning to imerge.

 

CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH : SINCE 1945

 

This present period indeed witnesses the continuation of he preceding trends , mainly the enriching of the vocabulary because of the extraordinary development of technologies and sciences , greater than at any other time in history.Burt simultaneously a few other factors start playing an important

influence on the language : - on one hand , newly developed audio-visual technologies /radio at first , then television and sound recording /,whose

consequence is a quick expansion of peculiarities in pronunciation , or of newly borrowed words and idioms - on the other hand , within such a development of medias , American influence / media , from the Latin medium means ,

Takes on a new signification , precisely to name the new /Communication technologies /.

 

SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR : CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH

Three main phenomen have been exerting their influence during this period , and as such they deserve to be pointed out , though their relative importance varies : one is relative to ``the vocabulary , another to British English as compared with American English, the last one to the pronunciation.

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