Lecture XIII.

24.01.2013

Introduction to Linguistics with Elements of History of English

LANGUAGE CHANGE:

WHAT IS LANGUAGE CHANGE? a permanent alteration to the system

WHEN DOES LANGUAGE CHANGE? language changes all the time

WHY DOES LANGUAGE CHANGE?

• principle of least effort - people are lazy and simplify language

• analogy - 2 rules that were once different become identical

• imperfect learning - children acquire language mistakes from their parents

TYPES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE:

• sporadic very little impact on language system

• systematic affect the whole system of communication

LEVELS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE:

• phonological

• lexical

• morphological

• syntactic

• semantic

All the subsystems change.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE:

THE PRE- ENGLISH PERIOD:

• Proto- Indio- European spoken in the Baltic area

• 1000 B.C. Celtic becomes most widespread branch of language in Europe

• 55 B.C. beginning of Roman raids on British Isles

• 43 A.D. Roman occupation of Britain (Britannia colony)

• 200 B.C. - 200 A.D. Germanic people move down from Scandinavia and spread over central Europe in successive waves

• 5^th century Roman Empire collapses

• 410 A.D. first Germanic tribes arrive in England

• 410- 600 settlement of most Britain by Germanic people (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, some Frisians)

OLD ENGLISH (ANGLO- SAXON PERIOD):

• 449 Saxon invasion

• 600- 800 3 great kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex

• 600 -> St. Augustine introduced Christianity among Anglo- Saxons

• 793 first serious Viking invasion

• 840- 870 only Wessex stood alone as Britain kingdom

• 9^th century Vikings attacked Wessex

• 10^th century Danes & English mixed peacefully

• 994- 1014 the English capitulated to king Sveinn of Denmark

• 1050 the kingdom passes back to the house o Wessex (Edward the Confessor)

• 1066 William of Normandy

THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD:

• 1660 Norman conquest

• 1066- 1076 the supremacy of Norman French

• English only lower classes

• French courts, property classes

• 1225 first book in English since the conquest

• 1258 first royal proclamation issued in English

• 1300 English noblemen turn into English language

• 1337 Hundred Years War

• 1362 English is official language of the law court, more and more writers use English

• 1380 the London dialect “standard”

• 1307 the Canterbury Tales the first text entirely in English

MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD:

• 1550- present

• 1550- 1650 early modern English : The Great Vowel Shift (high vowels became lowered and diphthongized - low vowels were raised)

• 1611 king James' Bible published (source of spelling and orthography)

• 1616 Shakespeare dies

• 1770s classical period of English literature (borrowings from Latin & Greek coining new words)

• 17^th- 19^th British Imperialism (borrowings from Amerindians

• 19^th- 20^th development of American English (Australia, South Africa, India)

• Scientific & industrial revolution need of new names

• 20^th communications revolution, political, economic, military, supremacy of the US, immigration to the US

Caxton printing press 1476

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