Historical Grammar
The Norman Conquest
Settled in Normandy in the 9th and 10th century, gave up their own language and learned French. The civilisation of Normandy was essentially French. Northman absorbed their culture and took their language. As the result Normandy became part of France.
The relations between England and Normandy had been fairly close. In 1002 English king married had married a Norman wife. His son Edward, brought up in France, in 1042 became king of England, Edward the Confessor. He was without hair. Godwin, earl of the West Saxon was Edward's principal advisor. Godwin's son Harold succeeded to his father's title and influence.
The day after Edward's death Harold was elected king, but there were other people to claim the crown, e.g. William duke of Normandy, second cousin of the late king.
In September 1066 he landed in Great Britain. In October 1066 battle of Hastings took place. Harold was killed, William won and became the king, William the Conqueror.
Consequences of the Norman Conquest: introduction of the new nobility of Norman origins; the new ruling class knew no English, spoke French; French was promoted by political connections with Normandy; through marriages Englishmen learned French; many merchants were of French origins; a considerable body of French literature was produced in England; English was an uncultivated tongue, the language of a socially inferior class. But: a knowledge of English was not uncommon among those who habitually used French, among churchmen and men of education knowledge of English was expected, many Englishmen became bilingual.
In 1204 King John lost Normandy, he fell in love with Isabel of Angouleme, she was at the time formally betrothed to Hugh of Lurigan, the head of powerful and ambitious family. John attacked him. Hugh appealed to king of France, John was to come up on the court, but he did not. The king took from him Normandy and title.
Consequences of the loss of Normandy: was wholly advantageous, unification of the country; in 1204 the progress of separation of England and Normandy started, noblemen had to give up their estates in Normandy; the country experienced a fresh invasion of foreigners, this time mostly from the south of France, son of king John, Henry III, was wholly French in his tastes and connections.
Language: at that time
The position of the French language in Europe: popular all over Europe, France was chivalrous society, French - first international language of culture and fashion; in England spoken by the upper class, used in business, parliament and administration.
The position of English: was more and more used among upper class, becoming stronger in church and university; French lose its hold because French in England was not "good" French used on the court, but mixture of various northern dialectal features, to keep it in use: Oxford required the students to translate in both English and French, Parliament required that all noblemen should speak French and lean their children.
The Hundred Year's War: the loss of Normandy was succeeded by conflict of interests and a growing feeling of antagonism; the long period of open hostility with France (1337- 1453), French was considered as language of an enemy country.
Consequences: reestablishment of English among upper class; raise of the middle class; villainage was dying out; plaque (Black Death 1349) provoked to the lack of people, which contributed to the growth of middle class which used English; in 14th century upper class adopted English as first language, French was taught as snobbery; 1362 parliament opened-all-law-suits were conducted in English.
Middle English Literature: 1150-1250 period of Religious Admonitory Literary, the Aucrene Riwle and Ormulum, series of paraphrases interpretations of Gospels passages and saints' lives, the Owl and the Nightingale (a long poem in which two birds quarrels); 1250-1350 period of Religious and Secular Literature; 1350-1400 period of Great Individual writers: G. Chaucer, W. Longland, J. Wycliffe; 1400-1500 Imitative Period, emulation of Chaucer.
General consequences, stages: subjection of English reestablishment of English, triglosso: English - Latin - French diglosso: English - Latin.
Middle English
- begins: Norman Conquest, 1050-1150 border date when Middle English began.
- ends: accession of Henry VII in 1489, Tudor Dynasty, 1450-1500 - approximate date of end.
- Early Middle English: 1150-1300
- Late Middle English: 1300-1450
- "Middle" suggests that it was transition period between Old English and Modern English. Period in which occurred changes which led to Modern English. Old English was fully Germanic.
- important changes: some were trigged by Norman Conquest; change in vocabulary, loss of Old English words; changes in spelling and pronunciation; change in form from synthetic language do analytic language, simplification in grammar and inflection.
Old English dialect: West Saxon, Mercian, Kentish, Northumbrian.
Middle English: Northern, West Midland, East Midland, Southern, Kentish.
Spelling
1400: the cursive miniscule called also the Chancery Hand.
Vawel, semi vawel: æ > a; ð > þ > th; p /wynn/ > u, uu; w > w; ʒ > g /g/; ʒ > y /j/; ʒ > n, gn /x/
Elimination of Old English letters, , consonants: new were needed: w was added, first used in Kent; f > v (OE lufu > ME love); cw > ME qu (cwen - queen).
Changes in letters distribution: c > h before letters l, e, n; u > o before letters m, n, v, w; c for /č/ and sc for /ś/ > ch and sh or sch, ex: circe > chirche, fisc > fish.
/dʒ/ > g or j in initial position, ex: jelous > jealous;
> g and dg in the middle and final: jugge, bridge.
/ts/ > c : cite
Vocalic system: quantitative changes, the length and value are changed; qualitative changes, the place of articulation, lengthening of short vowels, shortening of long vowels: OE /æ/ > ME /a/, /౬:/ > /e:/, /a:/ > /o:/; /ø/, /y/, /y:/ > /e/, /e:/, /i/, /i:/
Consonants: sittan > sit: geminates turned into single consonants; voiced allophones of voiceless fricatives become voiced phonemes; in Kentish all fricatives in the initial position were voiced; in the late Middle English the velar fricative (X) represented by 'gn' disappeared if it preceded consonant; final 'g' was dropped - new phoneme (n); h disappeared at the beginning of a word, stress on the first syllable, morphology - reduction of inflection, declension. Plural with the root vowel change and no suffix; plural suffix (-re) derived from OE -rn, which took the plural suffix -en giving in result 'ren': children, eivren; zero plural suffix: der /deer/, shep /sheep/; some nouns preserved IIItype plural -en: oxen, eyen, brethern. Adjective Inflection reduced to -e. Old English: wit - "we" for two people, and git - "we" for many people = both disappeared. Verbs - defective (nie odmieniają się), anomalous verbs, 160 strong verbs disappeared, some strong verbs are now used as adj.
Pronoun: changes come gradually, from North, Heo >They, Hath > then, þare > them, þare > there, origins of she are unknown, probably from Scandinavian: ha > sche > she; œ > thou/thee ; œ > ye/you ; around 1600 ye, thou, thee disappear; thou - towards those of lower class, among lower class, in address to God, in talking to witches, ghost, still used in some dialects; you - towards those of upper class, among upper class.
Demonstrative pronouns: elomination of gender distinction, loss of inflection, OE se and seo > þ, þe, /the, this/
Gender: the grammatical gender in OE: woman (r.m) because of man; wife, child (r.n.); ME - the grammatical gender disappears.
Verbs: two numbers, 3 persons in the sing, and 1 in plural; 3 moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), all weak verbs can be divided into 3 classes: -ed, - d, -t, the irregular verbs, 11 defective verbs (without inflection): can, dare, may, shall, will...; anomalous verbs: go, be; simplification of inflectional endings, OE - 330 strong verbs > ME - 140 50 strong verbs, some are still used but most of become weak, a few weak forms disappeared and the strong ones reminded, in some cases both forms continued to be use; all borrowings follow the weak inflection, many strong verbs are now used as adj.
Word order: Noun + Adj - it is an old structure, now used only on few expressions, ex: the Princess Royal; Middle English: there is / there are - start to be used.
Auxiliaries: in the early ME auxiliary verbs are not used, developed later ≈ 14th century.
Tenses: perfect tenses are more frequently used; continuous tenses are rare, -ing ending in the verb is preceded by on or an, ex: was on hunting; future tense - expressed by means of the defective verbs: shullen and willen, ME I shell < OE I must, ME I will < OE I wish to.
Negation: pre-verbian negation ne; nan whunt as nothing, nis, nouht > not, multiple negation is sth very common.
Morphology: no inflection, simplification, synthetic > analytic, change of pronouns, case endings of nouns and adj disappeared gradually, agreement of verbs simplifies, strong verbs become weak, subjective tenses are expressed by modals.
Syntax: OE - word order very flexible, ME - word order changes into SVO; development of subject pronouns; pleonastic (dummy) subjects are introduces, multiple negation, lost of inflection, adj. follows noun.
Linguistic situation of Anglo-Norman England: triglosia to diglosia (French disappears) language changes reflect social changes.
French influences in vocabulary: two phrases of influence - before 1250 (number of borrowings 900, connected with nobility, church and administration, ex: baron, dame, servant, pray, baptize, sermon, chancellor, council); after 1250 (the French upper class carries huge number of new borrowings); first borrowings introduced by noblemen from France. After 1250 second phase of borrowings to name the new things and phenomena without equivalent in English language. Borrowings from Anglo-Norman and Parisian French. French borrowings: government and administration, religion, church and its administration, law, army, fashion, etc.
Old French and Modern French: OF feste - Middle English feste - Modern English feast - Modern French - fete; forest - foret; hostel - hotel, beast - bete.
The earl French borrowings kept Old French pronunciation: judge /dʒ/ chant /tʃ/. In 13th century in French dʒ
tʃ softened to ʒ and ʃ. The words borrowed later are pronounced with soft sound, ex: chamios.
Anglo-Norman vs Central France- two dialects which influenced borrowings; in Angli-Norman words begin with ca-, in Central French with cha- chie-; ex: carry - French "ch" charrer, catch AN cachier, CF chancier; qu - in Central French there is no labial element /w/: quit, question, but used in Anglo-Norman and it entered to English
W => g /j
| Anglo Norman Borrowings | Parisian borrowings |
|---|---|
| reward | regard |
| warden | guardian |
| goal | jail |
Duplications: earliest are borrowings from Anglo-Norman French, Parisian French borrowings occur later and name the same phenomena. Germanic vocabulary is still in use. The borrowed words acquire with time different meaning: OE demon > ModE dim (consider) - ME judge ; OE dom > ModE doom - judgement; hearty - cordial; stench, smell - aroma, scent; ox, sheep, swine, calf - beef, mutton, pork, veal.
Derivatives: French borrowings were base for later derivatives: gentle > gentleman, gentleness, gently; faith > faithful, faithfulness.
Word formation
- Old French affixes: the prefixes of French origin: de-, die-, en-, in-, il-, im-, ir-, re-, sub-; the affixes of French origin: -able, -acy, - age, -al, -ance, -ity, -ation, -ery, -ess, -ment, -ous;
- Old English affixes: prefixes: for- (forget, forbear, forbid - no longer productive), un- (OE un/in, unable, unarmed, unfrend, used to negation, still predictive : unfriend); a- (OE arsen, asenden) no longer in use nor productive; with-(meaning against: withdraw, withhold, withstand) no longer productive. Suffixes: -ness, -less, -ish, -ful, -still, still in use but not really productive.
French and English affixes can be compounded: reǁnew (French affix, English root), unǁable (English affix, French root).
Latin borrowings: alchemy, astronomy, biology, education, language, law, medicine, religion.
Borrowing from Dutch and Flemish: navy, shipping, painting: dollar, poll, dock, etching, landscape.
Portuguese: marmalade
Italian: alarm, bark, million
Greek: bible, character, fantasy
Arabic: saffron, mosque, zenith
Persian: azure, chess, check
In general: there is 30 000 French borrowings, but 50 000 Latin borrowings. Because of borrowings language change, many new words become used, language is enriched, vide linguistic choice. Use of word depends of style and situation (social and stylistic variation)
| Germanic | French | Latin |
|---|---|---|
| ask | question | interrogate |
| cloth | garment | |
| fast | firm | rescue |
| fire | flame | conflagration |
| guts | courage | |
| kingly | royal | regal |
| rest | reminder | reside |
| rise | mount | ascent |
| fear | terror | trepidation |
| time | age | epoch |
| wish | desire |
Basic vocabulary remained of Germanic origins (vocabulary of everyday life). Activities: eat, drink, sleep, work, walk, ran; products: meat, bread, butter, fish, milk, cheese. It is vocabulary of pre-conquest days. In Modern English still the words of Germanic origins are the most frequently: the, of, and, time, man, make, year.
Development of the standard English
East Middle English, London dialect, was basis for the standard, because of: middle position between the extreme divergences of the north and south; region was the largest and the most populous of the major dialect areas; the presence of the universities: Oxford and Cambridge; London: capital of England, all the legal acts and documents issued by the crown were written in London dialect; in 1476 William Caxton founded the first printing house. in London
Modern English: Early Modern English 1500-1650 (Renaissance); Late Modern English 1650 -1800 (Enlightenment); Present Day English.
Factors influencing language changes: Printing: Introduced by William Caxton, between the 1476 and 1620, 20 000 titles printed in England: 45% theological, 36% literary, 11%legal, 8 % science; level of literacy rising; modernisation of commerce and transport; the growth of specialized knowledge; English become language of science, standardisation, development of new terminology.
Translations of the Bible: John Wycliffe's translation 1382 (banned); William Tyndale's 1525 (author burned on the stake; Milers Coverdale's 1539, 20 000 copies published; King James Version 1611.
Tyndale's Translation: many phrases still in use: Let there be light, The truth shell make you free; The sign of the times; The powers that be.
Richard Mulcaster, Elementaire 1582: first reference book on spelling, to give people some clue about standardisation, some changes still in use
Early Modern English
Spelling: no duplication of consonants: putt, rubb, ledd > put, grub, led; no final e when there is diphthong: made - mad, stripe - strip; final e after l, s: love, wise; y at the end: deny, defy. Consonants: h is dropped when unpronounced: hlaf > loaf; k unpronounced when followed by nasal: knight; in > iŋ; r > zero when before s and unpronounced: arse > ass; w unpronounced at the beginning: wrist, write; /t/, /ð/ > /t/, /d/; Noun: plural -es (nominal): fon > foes, kneen > knees, eyen > eyes;
Genitive: Middle English -es > Modern English 'his-genitive' => 's. Depending of the gender, possession is expressed by his or her. It gradually changes into ys, next in -s ( King of Denmarks sister), and finally into 's (for some time it was seen as abbreviation of his); group genitive starts to develop, 's is added to the last word of expression (my father and brother's car)
Adjective: alteration o => e (lenger > longer ) in comparison disappears, it becomes regular, only one still in use: old > elder; comparison is irregular: some words have additional element, analytic forms: more honest; double gradation is popular: more longer, most boldest; no standard pattern of gradations; gradual differentiation of -er/ -est and more / most - standardisation.
Pronoun: thou, thy, thee gradually disappear, strengthening of position of you; substitution of you for yo as nominative case; introduction of its as the possessive of it, (earlier its was expressed by his), its developed because of analogy with nouns: stone's > it's for the possessive of it; development of who as a relative of person: in Old English: sē, sēo, þaet, in Middle English: þæt, Modern English: who; development of relative pronoun: thy selfe (now yourself), my selfe (myself).
Verbs: Impersonal verb form is in use: It dislikes me; III person verb: telleth > tells, giveth > gives, saith > says, (-s developed in North and it had been influenced by Scandinavian language), doth, hath followed longer previous inflection.
Syntax: negation: proverbial negation by not (I not doubt); multiple negation still in use: Nor this in not my nose neither - it was to strengthen negation; auxiliaries introduces or expanded previous form, but still infrequent; proposition stranding: Who did you talk about?; Pied piping (one element is 'dragged' by another element) About whom did you talk?
Lexicon: converse becomes popular (one part of speech in another) to grace > grace (n)
Summary: Morphology - cases disappear; pronouns change; nouns are used as verbs and adj.; Syntax: word order becomes fixed, subject is obligatory; do becomes obligatory in question and negation; multiple negation is reduced; auxiliaries start to be use more frequently.
Borrowings: mainly from Latin; Inkhorn debate (about if we should introduce new words, which are often complicated) Aureate words - borrowings seen as a way of enriching English language; Dryden supported idea of borrowing, he had seen is as trade with living and dead languages;
Latin borrowings: some preserved original form: climax, axis, appendix; others are changed and adapted by English language according patterns, ex: by shortening: exoticus > exotic, change of ending: -us > -ous; -tia > -ence; -ibilis > -ible.
Dr Samuel Johnson 1755 - he first include in the dictionary exemples of use
Prescriptive grammar:
- William Bullokar Panph for Grammar 1586 - first prescriptive grammar, not very influential
- John Wallis Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae 1653, influential, written in Lain, then translated into English
- Joseph Priestley The Rudiments of English Grammar 1761, not very influential, but worth attention because of his descriptive approach, present how language really looks like.
- Bishop Robert Lowth A short Introduction to English Grammar 1762 - fully prescriptive, popular and influential, presented shared approach to the grammar: normative, prescriptive.
- views of prescriptive grammarians are related to French rationalism, grammars of classic Greek and Latin, to logic - everything should be logical, also language.
- goals of grammarians: creation of the rules, codification of the language, settlement of problems and elimination of disputed points, indication of common errors and correction; to create civilised and pure language.
- common problems: use of shall and will ( shall only for 1st sing.); use of between (two things) and among (more than two); me or I; distinction of who and whom (objective case only, whom used rarely, who becomes very frequent); condemnation of structures: the split of infinitive, double negation, double comparative form;
Other Grammar Books: Noah Webster A Grammar Institute of English Language 1784; Lindley Murray, English Grammar 1795.
English after 1800
Historical Background:
- Colonisation, spread of English Empire, New Zealand discovered by Capitan Cook, his expedition vas aimed at astrology; colonisation of South coast of Africa, Napoleonic was started spreading of British domination in Africa, as a result creation of new dialect of English, new words enter into language.
- Romanticism - new perspective and ideas, individual perspective, individuality, emphases of nationalism and people, different view on society, native language.
- American Independence; French Revolution; the abolition of slave trade by the British Parliament; Industrial Revolution; Word War I and II; technological and medical progress, political and social movements, revolution in art.
English language: new variation of English, Lexical growth, BBC English, Received Pronunciation.