diacronia ingles

7/29/2019 Diacronia Ingles

1/41

INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 3

IMPORTANCEOFTHE ENGLISHLANGUAGE...........................................................................................3

WILL ENGLISHEVERBECOMETHEWORLDLANGUAGE? .........................................................................3

FUNCTIONSOF ENGLISHTODAY.........................................................................................................3

PROSANDCONSOF ENGLISH.............................................................................................................4

PIDGINSAND CREOLES.....................................................................................................................4

Tok Pisin.............................................................................................................................. 4

SYNCHRONICVS. DIACHRONICLINGUISTICS..........................................................................................4

THEDISCOVERYOF SANSKRIT...........................................................................................................5

GRIMMS LAW...............................................................................................................................6

1........................................................................................................................................... 6

2........................................................................................................................................... 7

3........................................................................................................................................... 7

VERNERS LAW..............................................................................................................................7

WHERE DOES ENGLISH COME FROM? ............................................................................8

THE

IEFAMILY

OF

LANGUAGES

.........................................................................................................8Indian................................................................................................................................... 8

Iranian................................................................................................................................. 8

Albanian............................................................................................................................... 8

Armenian.............................................................................................................................. 8

Hellenic................................................................................................................................ 8

Italic .....................................................................................................................................8

Balto-Slavic.......................................................................................................................... 8

Celtic.................................................................................................................................... 8

Germanic............................................................................................................................. 9

GENERALFEATURESOF ENGLISH.....................................................................................................10

PERIODSINHISTORYOF ENGLISH.....................................................................................................10

Old English (450 1150). Full infections.......................................................................... 10Middle English (1150 1500). Levelled Inflections........................................................... 10

Modern English ..................................................................................................................10

THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD............................................................................................... 10

ENGLANDBEFORETHE ROMANS......................................................................................................10

Consequences of the presence of Celts in England............................................................. 11

THE ROMANSIN ENGLAND.............................................................................................................11

The Romanization. Latin in Britain.................................................................................... 11

THE GERMANICCONQUEST.............................................................................................................12

The Germanic invasion...................................................................................................... 12

The Anglo Saxon Heptarchy............................................................................................ 12

THECHRISTIANISATIONOF ENGLAND................................................................................................12THE VIKINGERA...........................................................................................................................13

OLD ENGLISH GENERAL FEATURES.............................................................................. 15

Pronunciation..................................................................................................................... 15

Grammar............................................................................................................................ 15

Spelling.............................................................................................................................. 16

Stress in Old English.......................................................................................................... 16

The vowels.......................................................................................................................... 17

Diphthongs......................................................................................................................... 17

Consonants......................................................................................................................... 17

Vocabulary in Old English................................................................................................. 17

Number in OE.................................................................................................................... 19Gender .............................................................................................................................. 19

1


2/41

Case................................................................................................................................... 20

THENOUN....................................................................................................................................21

Strong declensions............................................................................................................. 21

Weak declensions............................................................................................................... 22

THEPERSONALPRONOUN................................................................................................................23

THEDEMONSTRATIVES...................................................................................................................23

THEADJECTIVE.............................................................................................................................24

The possessive adjectives................................................................................................... 24

Comparatives and superlatives.......................................................................................... 24

THE VERB...................................................................................................................................25

Present system.................................................................................................................... 25

Preterit system ....................................................................................................................25

SYNTAX.......................................................................................................................................27

Differences between OE and todays English..................................................................... 27

Negation in Old English..................................................................................................... 28

Word order in OE............................................................................................................... 28

MAINDIALECTALAREASIN OLD ENGLISH........................................................................................28

THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD....................................................................................... 29

EXTERNALHISTORY.......................................................................................................................29

Linguistic communication in England 1066 1204...........................................................29

The loss of Normandy......................................................................................................... 29

FRENCHREINFORCEMENTSANDTHEREACTIONSAGAINSTTHEFOREIGNERS..............................................30

Reactions against the foreigners........................................................................................ 30

THEPROGRESSIVERE-ESTABLISHMENTOF ENGLISH.............................................................................30

GENERALADOPTIONOF ENGLISHINTHE 14THCENTURY.....................................................................31

GENERALFEATURESOF MIDDLE ENGLISH.........................................................................................31

Features............................................................................................................................. 31

The handwriting................................................................................................................. 31

The alphabet....................................................................................................................... 31Spelling.............................................................................................................................. 32

French tradition in ME manuscripts: innovations.............................................................. 32

MIDDLE ENGLISH PHONOLOGY.......................................................................................................32

Devices for quantity........................................................................................................... 32

Stress.................................................................................................................................. 33

Changes which affected vowels.......................................................................................... 33

Diphthongs......................................................................................................................... 34

Vowels in Scandinavian words........................................................................................... 34

Vowels in French Loanwords............................................................................................. 34

Unstressed syllables ...........................................................................................................34

MIDDLE ENGLISHMORPHOLOGY......................................................................................................35

Noun declensions............................................................................................................... 35The personal pronouns....................................................................................................... 35

THE MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD..................................................................................... 37

GENERALFEATURES.......................................................................................................................37

MODERN ENGLISHSPELLING...........................................................................................................37

The chaotic position of English spelling............................................................................. 37

MODERN ENGLISH PHONOLOGY. THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT...............................................................37

MORPHOLOGY..............................................................................................................................38

The Noun............................................................................................................................ 38

Adjectives and adverbs....................................................................................................... 39

Personal pronouns............................................................................................................. 39

Uses of relative and interrogative pronouns......................................................................40THE VERB...................................................................................................................................40

2


3/41

INTRODUCCINALADIACRONADELINGLS.

Introduction.- Old English. 5- mid 12th centuries (1150). German tribes arrive to England (Angles, Sax-

ons, Jutes). The Celts also influenced English language. Then Romans came. Influence of Latin.Full inflections, with four cases: Nom., Acc., Gen., Dat.

- Middle English. 1150 1500. Battle of Hastings (1066). Death of Anglo Saxons. Feudal-

ism. Norman invasion. Three languages live together: English, French and Latin. In 1476 print-

ing press is invented by William Caxton. Levelled inflections, full inflections gradually disap-

pear.

- Early Modern English (1476 1756). Renaissance. Lost inflections, only a few endings

survive. The grammar becomes far simpler. Different spelling live together for the same word.

There are no authoritative dictionaries or voices.

- Late modern English (1756 nowadays). First authoritative dictionary of the English lan-

guage, by Samuel Johnson, which provided spellings, sounds and ethimology. It was decided

not to establish an Academy of English.

Importance of the English language.A language lives only when it is spoken by anyone. Its importance depends on the im-

portance or influence of the people who speak it. English is spoken by 340 million people as a

mother tongue. It is the language of Western languages. Political, economical and scientific

reasons are related to the importance of a language. But English is also very broadly spoken as

second language (communication, commerce).

The growth of the Spanish language goes with the growth of Latin American countries.

It is also probable that pidgin and Creole varieties of English are more and more wide-

spread spoken where English is not the first language.

Will English ever become the world language?Many people are strongly opposed to an artificial language (like Esperanto). Perhaps the

most representative languages in the world are spoken in united nations (English, French, Span-

ish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic). It is possible that speakers of these countries dont want to

substitute their own languages for another one. Over a century ago, French was considered the

educated classes language, a polite and elegant language. Along the 19 th century, the importance

of French declines due to the influence of a serious rival, German. Germany became influential

in scientific research and scholar activity. But it has been replaced in 20 th century by English in

the same fields and also in commerce. If we add to this the importance of mass media, we ob-

tain a great expansion of English all over the world.

Functions of English today.It is spoken by several hundred million people as mother tongue, as second language, asa vehicle of education, in science, in business in a word, as lingua franca. It has become a

symbol of social mobility, of people who wants to climb up in the social scale.

English has lots of influences depending on the areas where it is spoken. It may vary

enormously. Many colonies obtained their independence in the 20th century. Their new govern-

ments had to choose a national language in order to be different to their neighbours. The choice

was often a problem. Today, many problems are still unresolved (not enough education, super-

power politics, etc). Many times a local language has been chosen, but if there are many local

languages, the problem remains unresolved. Other governments have chosen a language spoken

for all. In many former colonies, for reasons of commerce and development, the language

chosen has been English. E.g. the official language in India is Hindi, but English works as a

very important second language in schools, TV, newspapers Children have to learn English,Hindi and the local language, and even more.

3


4/41

In Africa, English is used extensively (160 million people). Many nations have chosen

English, as Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, etc.

Pros and cons of English.English present a very mixed vocabulary. It is a Germanic language, but it has borrowed

many words from Latin. More than a half of its vocabulary is Latin, directly or through Ro-mance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese).

It presents also inflectional simplicity. English has gone further than other European

languages in this aspect. Noun inflections have been reduced. The s remains as plural mark,

though other plural forms exist. The different cases have also disappeared, remaining the Saxon

Genitive only (s).

The verb has been also simplified; it has lost most of its endings. The subjunctive mood

is also about to disappear.

Another advantage of English is that it has natural gender. All nouns referring to living

creatures are masculine or feminine, depending on their sex. All other nouns are neuter.

But the great handicap of English is the absolute lack of correlation between spelling

and pronunciation.

Pidgins and Creoles.The origin of pidgin languages is the coincidence of groups of people without a com-

mon language, usually for business sake. The vocabulary and syntax is basic.

A pidgin is nobodys natal language, but a Creole arises when there is a community that

learns a pidgin language as natal tongue. This situation is more complex, because this people

have to use this language in a more complex way, for daily life and to express all circumstances

of human existence. For this reason, syntax and vocabulary become more and more complex.

The study of pidgins started in the 60s; until that time it was considered to be spoken

by non-intelligent people.

Tok Pisin.Pronoun system:

This reduction of grammar use to take problems of

misunderstanding. The English language lost dual number

much time ago, but in Tok Pisin still survives.

The grammar is very simple: papa bilong mi

would mean my father, and bilong would be the equi-

valent of of. However, there are rules. The vocabulary is

mixed with the local language. It has fewer words and

sounds. E.g. there is no distinction between [p] and [f] or

between [s] and [ ]. Due to the simplicity of its vocabulary

it takes a word and combines it with others to produce new

words and meanings. E.g. pikini meri Marys daugh-

ter (pikinismall); haus sik hospital.

It has only three prepositions: bilong (of), long

(lots of meanings) and wantaim (with). Subordination

does not exist. They convert the complex sentence into two

simple sentences.

Synchronic vs. diachronic linguistics.Language is the way by which people express themselves. Its existence gives people a

social, historical and intellectual dimension. Language connects people to the rest of the world.

Language is that interpretative system which enables its users to make understandable

utterances (speech) and to interpret properly these utterances by other speakers.

ENGLISH TOK PISIN

SINGULAR

IYou

He/she/it

MiYuEm

PL

URAL

WeYou

they

MipellaYupella

Ol

DUAL

yumi

4


5/41

There are many different ways in which we can study a language: synchronic linguistics

and diachronic linguistics..

Synchronic linguistics only analyses a language in a given period of time. Diachronic

linguistics studies the evolution of a language. To achieve a good understanding of a language

we must consider its autonomy, but without forgetting its history and evolution. Synchronic and

diachronic methods complement each other.

Synchronic linguistics has been always considered more important, but since the 1970s dia-

chronic linguistics has also been paid attention.

There are three main sources of variation in a language

- Regional variations. The language spoken has variations depending on the zone it is

spoken.

- Social variations. Not all the social groups speak in the same way (young people, workers,

businessmen, etc).

- Style variations. The English used in a reunion with friends is not the same that we use

when searching our first job.

These variations were taken into account especially by William Labov.

There are some reasons for studying the history of a language. For example, for the

same reason we study History. It is also useful to know the story of our country, society, etc.Nowadays language is the product of what have previously happened in a society. E.g. we find

words from other societies we consider superior in certain aspects (i.e. most of words referred to

music come from Italian. Even sounds may be affected by this situation. I.e. garage /grId /

(English pronunciation), /g ra / French pronunciation). Garage is a French word. If we

use the French pronunciation we will seem more distinguished or more snob. French was con-

sidered a more elegant language.

It is also useful to read an old document in the original language.

The rules of a language are not fixed. What is correct today may be incorrect tomorrow,

and vice versa. The study of the history of a language helps us to broaden our minds with regard

to the use of our language or other.

It also helps us to understand where irregularities and anomalies come from.

The discovery of Sanskrit.It was fundamental for the establishment of an origin of the English language and the

Indo-European language.

We find correspondences like:

Old English Germanic

bn beinstn stein

When these correspondences were found, Scholars came to the conclusion that these

words had to come from the same parent language. They saw that Old English (OE) corres-ponds to modern German ei.

English Latin

father pater

nephew nepos

So Latin t,p correspond to English th,ph. These different languages also seem to come

from the same origin. Linguistic reconstruction was done also. It helped to get the earliest forms

possible.

The proto-Germanic was the previous stage. In the case of Romance languages we have

much more information than in the case of Germanic languages. We know that Latin is the ori-

gin of Romance languages.

5


6/41

Those languages (and others) were the same in

older times. They would be only dialects of a German-

ic language. Old High German is the proto-Germanic

language spoken by the Germanic inhabitants of Aus-

tria, Switzerland and Central and Southern Germany.

Old English could be said to be proto-Germanic as

spoken in 8th 11th century by Anglo-Saxons.

The normal process of linguistic change tends to splint up languages. When a group

separate from the greater one becomes isolated, his language evolves independently, because in

those times were no way to maintain constant contact with the great group.

In the lathe 18th century the family relationship of European and Western Asia had not

been properly worked out. It was known that there were basic differences between English,

Dutch and German. Also that there was some relationship between Hebrew and Arabic and also

among Romance languages. Scholars had taken a lot of time to establish relationships between

languages, but the concept of an Indo-European language had not been grasped out. What led

to this conclusion was the discovery of Sanskrit by Western scholars. Sir William Jones learned

Sanskrit and realised that there were resemblances between Sanskrit, Latin and Greek. In 1786

he said that these languages were dissembled from a common ancestor. He went further sayingthat there were Celtic and Germanic languages, which came from the same source.

English Gothic Old Norse German Latin

father fadar fair Vater pater

English Dutch Greek German Sanskrit

brother broeder Bouder Brthr

Sanskrit, a language of Ancient India, was one of the group. Indias literature reaches

back much further than Latin and Greek. Sanskrit preserved features of a primary language than

those of Greek and Latin. It also preserved a full system of declensions and conjugations. It be-

came clearer that the inflections of these languages could also be traced to a common origin.

Grimms Law.In making comparison among several languages that showed similarities, Rasmus Rask,

a Dane, and Jacob Grimm, German, discovered in early 19 th century the set of phonological cor-

respondences now known as Grimms Law. There was a regular system of parallel sound

changes from all the European and West-Asiatic languages. The discovery of the pattern was

made through the close examination of a number of words, basic vocabularies of Indo-European

languages. The family of languages that Jones postulated came be known as Indo-European

(IE).

1.

Latin English

pes foot

piscis fish */p/ /f/

plenus full

tres three

tennis thin */t/ //

centum hundred

caput head */k//h/

* /h/ initial position

[x] no initial position

INDO-EUROPEAN GERMANIC

Voiceless plosive Voiceless fricative

*/p/

*/t/

*/k/

/f/ ph

// th/h/, [x] *

6


7/41

2.

Sanskrit English

bhrati bearbhrthr brothermdhu mead

Latin

hostis guest

hortus garden

3.

Lithuanian English

Dubus deep

Latinlabium lip

dens tooth

duo two

decem ten

granum corn

genos kin

It must have taken place about 5 th century BC with contact with non-Germanic popula-

tion. Perhaps the contact was product of migration of Germanic peoples or due to the penetra-

tion of these peoples in Germanic territories.

Verners Law.Some words in IE dont fit the Grimms law path (this affects only the first set). This

anomaly was explained by Carl Verner in 1875:

Latin OEpater fder (d sounds //, not //)

Voiceless Indo-European in English became voiced fricative in German unless they were pre-

vented by one of these three conditions:

- Being the first sound in a word,

- Being next to another voiceless sound,

- Having the IE stress on the immediately preceding syllable.

In proto-Germanic, voiceless fricatives became voiced when they were in a voiced environmentand if the IE stress did not fell on the immediately preceding syllable. Verners law was ob-

scured because after it had operated there was a stress shift to the first syllable of the root, dis-

guising one of these three conditions:

IE Grimms Verners thenp > /f/ > // > //t > // > // > // West Germanic /d/

k > [x], [h] > // > //s > [s] > [z] > /r/Rhotacism


Voiced aspirated Voiced plosive

*/bh/

*/dh/

*/gh/

/b/

/d/

/g/


Voiced plosive Voiceless plosive

*/b/

*/d/

*/g/

/p/

/t/

/k/

7


8/41

Where does English come from?

The IE family of languages.There was a language which is no longer in use, which developed in different languages

in various parts of the world. This language was given the name of proto-Indo-European or,simply, Indo-European (IE). It was spoken in Europe and in West Asia. It is the ancestor of

many nowadays languages, and the descendents make up the IE family. The members are very

different, they show different degrees of similarity from one to another depending on their geo-

graphical distribution. All the languages fall into 10 branches:

Indian.

It seems that oldest literary texts preserved in any IE languages are the Vedas, the sac-

red books of India, about 1500 BC.

Iranian.

In the NW of India. It covers the great plateau of Iran. One group decided to settle there,while other continued to Russia and China, carrying its languages with them.

Albanian.

This is a small branch in the NW of Greece.

Armenian.

In the South Caucasus, Eastern end of the Black Sea.

Hellenic.

In Greece.

Italic

Italy. Here was Latin and the romance languages born.

Balto-Slavic.

A vast area in Eastern Europe. There were two great groups:

- Baltic.

- Slavic.

Their similarities are more important than their differences.

Celtic.These languages form part of the most extensive languages at first time. In the begin-

ning of the Christian era were found in Spain, the north of Italy, Great Britain and Gaul. The

language of the Celts in Gaul which was conquered By Julius Caesar was called Gallic, but it

was soon replaced by Latin. Nowadays we know very little about this language. Some scholars

claim that the first Celts that come to Britain should have be driven to Ireland and from there to

Scotland and the isle of Man by invaders. Their language has survived as Irish (Ireland), Scot-

tish Gaelic Erse, Scotland), Manx (I. Of Man, extinguished in the 20 th century).

A second group of Celts were called Cymbric or Britannic. They were driven westwards

from what is now England by the Teutons (Anglo Saxons, Jutes) in the 5th century BC. Some

of them crossed to Britany, others stayed in Wales or went to the SW, to Cornwall. Cornish,

spoken in Cornwall, was extinguished in 18th century. In Britany, their language was called Bri-

ton, and Welsh in Wales.

8


9/41

Germanic.

Germanic family has been subdivided into 3 different branches

North Germanic languages.Scandinavia and Denmark. The earliest traces of these languages are in runic inscrip-

tions from the 3rd century BC. In this earlier form, the common Scandinavian language is called

Old Norse. From 11th century, dialectal differences became more and more important, so theywere divided into two groups:

Iceland was conquered by Norwegians in the 9 th century. It has preserved an important

body of literature: Elder or PoeticEdda (poems 10 11th century) and Younger or proseEddas,and also 40 sagas.

East Germanic languages.Gothic.

The main document in Gothic is a tranlation of part of the Bible, by bishop Uifilas, in

standard Gothic of that time, in the 4 th century. It is preserved in the Carolina Rediviva library,

in Uppsala.

Burgundian and Vandalic.Only a Few fragments are preserved

West Germanic languages.This group is divides into two branches:

The languages of the High Germanic Branch suffered the 2nd sound shift about 600 AD.

Old High German covers until 12th century, Middle High German until 14th Century and Modern

until 16th century.

9


10/41

General features of English.It is the fusion of three languages, corresponding to peoples who invaded England:

Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Those languages were probably very similar. It shares some charac-

teristics from other Teutonic languages:

- Shifting of consonants (see Grimms Law)- Weak and strong declensions in adjectives

- Weak and strong conjugations of verbs. There are weak and strong verbs. Weak verbs

presented de ed ending, as todays regular verbs. Strong verbs present a change in the root

vowel such as swim, swam swam.

- Adoption of a strong stress on the root syllable of most words. This have been obscured

later by Romance languages. English took a lot of words from French, and it surely made that

the stress change.

- Doubling of consonants due to phonetic languages, especially from the West Germanic

branch.

- English, together with the rest of the languages of the Low Germanic branch, did not suffer

the 2nd sound shift.

English Germanwater Wasser

pound Pfund

gate Gasse

(OE) tunge>

tongue Zunge

Periods in history of English

Old English (450 1150). Full infections.

Four cases.

Middle English (1150 1500). Levelled Inflections.

Simplification in morphology and syntax, case endings are reduced. There is a greater

use of prepositions and a more rigid word order. The printing press was a revolution for lan-

guage.

Modern English

Early Modern English (1500 1750) Lost inflections.Only a few traces of the previous complexity in syntax and morphology survive.

Late Modern English (1750 today).The first serious dictionary of the English language was written in 1750 by Samuel

Johnson. For this reason they decided not to establish an Academy Of English Language, John-

sons dictionary was enough.

The Old English period.

England before the Romans.In the beginning of the Christian era, Celts were found in a very large area of Europe:

Spain, France, Germany, England, etc. Later on, there was a retreat of Celtic towns before the

advance of Latin language. Celtic tongues are found today only in remote parts.

Celts are the first people in England about whose language we have a certain know-

ledge. As it is usually assumed, the coming of Celts coincides with the introduction of bronze in

England.

10

[k] [kx]

[t] [ts]

[p] [pf]


11/41

Celtic was the first tongue to be spoken in England, but another language came later,

Latin, when the isle became part of the Roman Empire.

Consequences of the presence of Celts in England.

The number of Celtic words in Modern English is not very large. The British Celts were

subjugated by Germanic tribes. The linguistic exchanges were unusual. None of the 2 sideswanted to learn the language of the other one. E.g. bratt(cloak), torr(peak), cumb (valley),

Holcombe, Duncombe and many other place names such as Carlisle, London, Devon, Canter-

bury, etc. In Scotland loch (lake), whisky, Tory, Whig.

The Romans in England.One of the most invasions is the landing of Julius Caesar (55 BC). The first expedition

was a disaster. Caesar had to face a terrible storm, what left him without cavalry. To this was

added that the fact that, when they arrived, they found a strong opposition from the Celts. They

had to return to Rome with a loss of prestige, although they tried again.

The following summer the Romans invaded the island. They settled in the SE and they

asked for tribute from the natives. Romans did not plan any invasion for a century.

In 43 AD, emperor Claudius decided to conquest they island. He prepared a 40000 men army.

They were successful to conquest the central and the SE territories. In 61 the Romans had to

face a strong resistance of the Celts. There was a serious uprising. After this encounter, 70000

people were killed. Little later (early 80s) governor Agricola advised the northern border

between Solway and Tyne was protected, and it was done with a stonewall. Some years later

(143) the wall was moved to the north.

Britain was a roman province during 300 years. The end came in the year 410. Emperor Hon-

orius retired the legions from Britain, and the Celts had to defend themselves.

The Romanization. Latin in Britain.

There are many remnants of the Roman presence. The Romans built many roads, start-

ing in London and to the NW and the SW. There are also a great number of houses, objects,buildings, etc.

Latin soon became the official language, and new varieties of it were born then. It was

used as lingua franca, carried by the soldiers, and presented influences from the natal tongue of

every soldier.

Celtic society was tribal and their language undeveloped. Under the Roman pressure,

Celtic must have been a low language. Latin was more frequent in cities than in villages. In

some areas a bilingual situation should have occurred. In the S and the E, Latin surely displaced

Celtic. By the 5th century, both languages felt the barbaric invasions.

There were 4 periods in the influence of Latin:

The continental period.

Borrowings from the tongue of the continent. The Germanic tribes were not used to usethe long words of Latin. They only took the words they needed, and many were shortened, e.g.

CUPA > cup, DISCUS > dish, VINUM > wine. Many of these words represented new objects for Ger-

manic peoples: CASEUS > cheese, MOLINA > mill, COQUINA > kitchen, CAUPO > cheap, STRATA > street,

VALLUM > wall. Only about 50 of these words could be traced from this period.

Latin through the Celts.There were no direct contact between Germans and Romans, so the Latin influence was

through Celts. Only a few words survived: CASTRA > -ceaster (Manchester, Leicester,

Winchester, etc).

/k/ + /a/ North

/k/ + [ a] (1st stage) > [t ]Midlands, South

Another word was introduced, which still remains today: PORTUS > port, VICUS > wc (village)( Greenwich, Norwich, etc).

11


12/41

The Latin influence is slighter: CANDELA > candle, MAGISTER > mgester, PSALMUS > sealm(psalm).

The Germanic conquest.

The Germanic invasion.Around 449 AD the Germanic invasion started, and it lasted more than 100 years. Most

of them were Dane settlers who migrated from their continental homes. They came from the re-

gion of Denmark and the Low Countries, and tried to establish in the south. They gradually ex-

tended this area, until they occupied all the island, except the Highlands and the West, where the

Celts resisted. The old prose work written in any Germanic language is The Anglo Saxon

Chronicle. BedesHistoria Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (771) is another source.

The Picts and the Scots had to be stopped. The Romans had to defend themselves from

them but, when they left the island, the Celts had to do without the Romans. Then, the Celts

asked for help to the Jutes, offering in exchange the isle of Thanet. The problem was solved, but

the Jutes tried to conquest the rest of England. That soil was much more fertile, so they decided

to stay, although they had to do it by force. The Celts were gradually put to the West and the

North. The other continental tribes acted in a similar way, and the Saxons arrived in 477 in the

SE coast. They established in an area called Sussex (Saxons of the South). Later, other bands

of Saxons established themselves more to the West, in Wessex (Saxons of the West). In the 6 th

century other Saxons established in the east coast, in Essex (Saxons of the East).

The process of pushing the Celts to the Celtic Fringe wasnt easy. A Celtic leader, Ar-

torius, resisted and set a peaceful period that lasted one generation.

The Anglo Saxon Heptarchy.

The Angles settled 7 kingdoms in what is today England. For the Celts, All invaders

were Saxons, but the termAngelandAnglia remained in the language. In 601 the king of Kent,

thelbert wasRex Anglorum. A century later the people was known as Anglecynn (Angle kin)

and their language was called Englisc. In the beginning of the 11th century, that land was calledEngaland.

In some areas, specially where the invaders were few, the inhabitants lived peacefully.

Roman towns were destroyed, because town life was not attractive to them, and their occupa-

tions were based on agriculture. Words such as work, ox,sheep,plough belong to this field, and

other referring to the celebration and parties (merry, laughter), although some of these words

have changed their meaning today.

The Anglo- Saxon society was organised in clans. There were two levels in society

eorls (aristocrats) and ceorls (freemen). Different tribes allied between them to obtain more

power. Those groups were not stable, but some of them were the most important. The kingdom

of Northumbria had the supremacy in the 7th century, culturally and politically. This importance

passed through kingdoms: Mercia (8th century) and Wessex (9th century), under the leadership of

Egbert. In 830 he was acknowledged as King of England and Wales. Other kings wanted the

same title. In that century lived one of the most important kings Of England, Alfred The Great.

The christianisation of England.Christianity brought a huge vocabulary to England. The process started at the end of the

6th century. The impact is reported in Bedes Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. Here he

talks about the linguistic collision between English and Latin, and the spread of Christianity.

According to the tradition, this mission was inspired by a man who would become Pope,

Gregory the Great. He had the idea of chtistianising England. He intended to lead an expedition

himself, but later he wanted somebody to go for him. Saint Augustine stayed there for 50 weeks

(?). They had to face the English, who resisted. 51 of them landed in Kent. It was a little King-

dom with a small Christian community. King thelbert married princess Bertha, who wasFranc and also Christian. In 604 the kingdom of Kent was already Christian.

12


13/41

The Christianisation process was gradual and peaceful. The mission started in the south

and a charismatic preacher, Aidan, founded in 635 the Celtic Church. He started the conversion

of the north of England. Within 100 years of the landing of St. Augustine in Kent, all England

was Christian.

With the coming of Christianity also came the building of monasteries, the cornerstones

of Anglo Saxon culture. They provided education in many subjects. Bede studied in Jarrow,

and he wrote the chronicles that remained until today. Arithmetics, music or astronomy were

taught. The new monasteries wrote in English.

English benefited in a very large extent. It was enriched and powered with new words.

Christianity gave English the capacity to express subtle ideas and more abstract thoughts. At

this time, words from Latin and Greek were introduced, such as angel, psalm, disciple, etc.

These words allowed to express more complex things. Christianity affected English mainly in 2

ways:

1. It gave English a large church vocabulary. It also introduced ideas from far away coun-

tries. It also stimulated the Anglo Saxons to apply existing words to new concepts. Words like

preost, biscop,munuc,psalteror Sabbath were introduced.

2. English reinvented itself, giving old words new meanings:

Latin Old English English

spiritus sanctus > halig gast > holy ghostevangelium > gd spell > gospel

feond > enemy > devil

This marked a new era for English. There were more flexibility and two ways of speaking: us-

ing Germanic or Latin words.

By the end of 8th century the impact of Christianity made evolve culture and literature.

The English faced the second great influence on the development of the English language: the

coming of the Vikings.

The Viking era.Near the end of the OE period, English suffered another foreign influence, the influence

of Scandinavian peoples between 750 1050. This period was one of great migrations in the

history of Europe. These migrations started with plunder raids. People from Sweden established

a kingdom in part of the European Russia. People from Norway settled in part of the British

isles. Some of them continued to the Froes. Others went until Iceland and even Greenland and

the Coast of Labrador. The Danes also migrated. They occupied part of France, Normandy

(Land of the North Men), and also moved on to the British Isles. All those peoples were

known as Vikings. Ethimology:

- From Norse vik (bay).- From Old English wic (village,settlement)They gained fame of being violent and also very good sailors. The very last researches emphas-

ized the peaceful benefits of Scandinavian landings.

The Viking raids in England began seriously in 793. In this year, the monasteries of

Lindisfarne were sacked in different seasons and plundered of gold and silver.. By the mid 9th

century almost half of the country was in Viking hands, the eastern part was Dane. Once they

settled there, they paid attention to Wessex. The attacks started jus before the accession of king

Alfred the Great to the throne. He was one of the greatest kings of England. He had to resist all

Viking attacks. After 7 years he took refuge in the marshes of Somerset. He formed an army

with countrymen and defeated the Danes in the battle of Ethandune. The Danes capitulated and

a treaty was signed by both parts , the treaty of Wedmore between king Alfred and Guthrum, ac-

cording to which the Danes should withdraw from Alfreds territory. The terms were not

enough good for the Danes and did not like this. The limits of English territory were defined

13


14/41

with a line from London to Chester. The Danes agree to accept Christianity, and Guthrum was

baptised. This fact influenced in the eventual fusion of both peoples.

Ilustracin 1. The Danelaw. originally the body of law that prevailed in the part of England occupied by theDanes after the treaty of King ALFRED with Guthrum in 886. It soon came to mean also the area in which Dan-ish law obtained. The Danelaw had four main regions: NORTHUMBRIA; the areas around and including Lin-coln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Stamford; EAST ANGLIA; and the SE Midlands.

After Alfred was the sovereign of the SW of England he centred on Dorset, Somerset,

Wiltshire and Hampshire. The capital was Winchester. The problem was that King Alfred had

no power over the Dane territories. He felt that he needed the support of people living in other

countries in the Danelaw district. He had to retain control over territories which were not him.

He appealed the feeling of Englishness, using the English language as means of creating a na-

tional identity. He restored his kingdom and rebuilt the churches and schools. He used English

and not Latin as the basis for education. He learned Latin to take part in the translations of someimportant texts. He describes his English language campaign in the preface to Cura Pastoralis.

After the treaty, Guthrum went back to his own religion. Besides that, there were more inva-

sions.

Under the reign of Alfreds son, Edward the Elder, Danes were attacked and defeated

(battle of Brunanburh). Most of the island was under English control. The next important battle

was the battle of Maldon (991). The English lose their leader and the Danish forces marched

again to England. In 1014 Svein and Knut drove the English king thelbert into exile. After

that, he wae known as the Unready. The Danes got the throne. Eventually, Knut Became the

king and England was controlled in the next years by Danish kings, Harald I and Hardicanute.

The consequences of the Danish reign were that 1400 place names presented Scand-

inavian names. More than 600 presented theby ending ( -by: farm)Grimsby, Whitley, Rugby,

Derby, etc; 300 of them hadthorpe (village): Linthorpe, Scanthorpe; 300 had thwaite (isol-

ated place): Satterthwaite; 100 presented toft (piece of ground): Eastoft, Lowestoft. These

14


15/41

names are not uniformly distributed. English names present the patronymic son (Danishsen,

e.g. Nielsen): Stevenson, Richardson.

We must take into

account that this civiliza-

tion was very similar to

the Anglo Saxon culture.

Apart from battles, they

got on well most of the

time. Both languages were

much interlinked.

Words from

Scandinavian: egg (OE

g),skin, sky, skull, skir,window, sister, fellowt;sk-

is typically Scandinavian.

Adjectives: awkward,

meek, odd, rotten, weak. Verbs: call, give, take, die, thrust.The borrowing of words was not limited to the exchange of words, but it extended to

pronouns, prepositions or conjunctions, what is unusual. Pronouns: they, them, their(OE him,he, hiera). Other words:same, both, at, to(+infinitive),seemly, aloft, hence, are (3rd p.pl. V.to be).

Old English General features.The English language has undergone a great change and we are not able to understand

Old English if we dont have into account the knowledge of its structure in the old days.

Pronunciation.

OE todaybn bonerp ropehlig holyft footfr firehs house

Most of the vocabulary of OE is Germanic. A huge part of it has disappeared, as a consequence

of the Norman conquest. In many cases it was replaced by Latin or French words. 85% of OE

words are no longer in use, and the words that survived are basic words such as prepositions,

auxiliary verbs and pronouns, i.e. cld, man(n), wf, etan (eat) drincan, etc.

Grammar.

Old English is a synthetic language, that is, it indicates the relation of words in the sentence by

means of inflections. In modern English, the subject and the object have no case endings (ana-

lytic), but it happened in Old English.

The night killed the prince.There are no case endings. The functions of the words are given by position, by word order. If

we change this, the meaning is different:

The prince killed the night.Prepositions were not much used in Old English. As case endings disappeared, preposi-

tions and auxiliary verbs were more used.

15

SUFFIXES FROM SCANDINAVIAN IN PLACE NAMES

-by

46%

-thorpe

23%

-thwaite

23%

-toft

8%

, thorn as th in thorn, eth as th in the, //c (a, o, u) /k/c (e, i) as c in Cesare (it.)sc as sh in should


16/41

Spelling.

We have to differentiate two types of spellings: the runes and the Roman symbols. The

runes were brought to England by the Germanic tribes. The system is quite simple. Some of the

Germanic tribes already had their own alphabet, and the runes were made to decorate in the

earliest stages of Germanic languages. The first runes are from the 2nd century AD. They were

not designed for writing, but to engrave or to inscribe. The earliest forms of reading or writingimply to interpret the incised runes. The first system was incised on wood, but they are also

found in metal, stone or bone. The material on which the runes were inscribed determined their

shape. They are formed, basically, for a vertical stroke and additional arms: .

The original Germanic rune row had 24 symbols, the futhark. We dont know the origin

of these runes, but wherever they were created, in the 6 th century they spread throughout many

counties of Europe. The Germanic tribes may need the runes for commercial and political uses.

Their social structure was so simple that they didnt need to send messages or doing things that

required writing.

The runes were a ritual or magic set of characters (run = mystery). Runes had magical

properties. The rune masters gave each rune a magical value, and they were used to predict the

future, taking decisions, etc. Every rune had a name and represented a concept and a sound

Out of Scandinavia, runes disappeared quickly. In Britain the Roman alphabet replaced

them about 11th century. In Scandinavia they were used even after the middle Ages.

The futhark was not the only rune row used in England, they used other similar system

called futhork, which had 31 symbols.

The Dream of the Rood is a poem written in runes in the Northumbrian dialect. This

poem was found in a cross, which seem to be the author of the poem and tells the story of a cru-

cifixion from its point of view.

When runes were replaced by the Roman alphabet, they developed they own variation,

the Roman Hand. It was a variation used until the Norman conquest. The Insular Hand was used

in Irish Gaelic, and the modifications were done by the Irish.

Stress in Old English.Polysyllabic words were usually stressed in the first (root) syllable, but there are some

exceptions:

- When the verb is preceded by a prefix, it produces a change of meaning in the verb.

wi-fohtanThe stress is placed after the prefix, in the first syllable of the verb itself.

fohtan = fight

wi-fohtan = fight against- Compounds have the Germanic stress in the first syllable with a secondary accent in the

first syllable of the second element:

hilde,dor (=brave in the battle)This heavy stressing of the first syllable has had a very deep influence in the development of

English. Because of it, the vowels of final syllables (unstressed) began to be pronounced as a

uniform sound that was something like a schwa. As a consequence of this a lot of misunder-

standings will follow:

- The case endings disappear,

- Appearance of more and more prepositions, and

- More and more rigid word order.

In general, the stress of Modern English is quite different. This difference lies mainly in

the fact that Modern English has a lot of borrowings from foreign countries which still have the

stress in the syllable established by the language they come from:

Maternal, taboo, philosophy

16


17/41

The vowels.

Old English vowels are very easy to pronounce, although the spelling is not fixed. There

are 7 vowels, which may be short or long, and 3 diphthongs.

Vowels in unstressed syllables were pronounced

clearly in order to be able to differentiate the differentcases.

eorlesnominative

eorlas accusative

Diphthongs.

o / eoa / eae / ie

Consonants.

All consonants were pronounced. Nowadays this doesnt happen. In Old English there

are no silent consonants, and even gand kbefore consonant are pronounced. Also the double

consonants are pronounced as double consonants.

However, there are some exceptions:

- The h has three different pronunciations:o Initial: aspirated /h/.

o h + e, i: as ch in al. mchten.

o h + a, o, u; + consonant; + diphthong:/x/.

- Other variations affects to digraphsf,s and:

F, S,

/f/, /s/ //

voiceless

Always in initial and final position and

when in contact with a voiceless consonant.

/v/, /z/, //Between voiced sounds. The doubling of a

consonant implies a voiced sound.

- c andg:

C, G

+ a, o, u /k/, /g/

+ e, i as c in it. Cesare.

- sc is pronounced assh in should. Exception: the verb ascian, /askjan/.- cgis pronounced as dgin edge.

Vocabulary in Old English.

An average of 85% of the words found in Old English texts are no longer in use, they

have disappeared for several reasons, although the most important was the Norman conquest,

which brought a remarkable number of words.

SHORT LONG

a //

eiou

y //

17


18/41

A small percentage of words is still present in Modern English but, after all, they are ba-

sic elements present in everyday English such as prepositions, conjunctions, etc. These words

changed their sound, their spelling and in some cases, the meaning. This small percentage is

much more used than 60% of words that came from Latin.

Old English made an extensive use of compounds, whereas Modern English prefers bor-

rowing words from foreign languages instead of creating new ones. In Old English the phe-

nomenon of borrowing didnt exist so they built new words by joining two or three already ex-

isting. Old English was a self-sufficient language just because of this fact, but some borrowings

were needed. In the 11th century there were loans from Latin, Greek (through Latin), Scand-

inavian, French (before the Norman conquest) and Celtic. In any case, Old English preferred its

own words. It had two main ways of building words:

New words by joining previous ones.We find compounds of nouns and of adjectives. There were different formulae for building

compounds:

COMPOUNDS OF NOUNS

N+N=N

Adj+N=N

Adv+N=N

sciprapheahgerefawidsrdg

ship rape

chief officer

wide sea(early day) dawn

COMPOUNDS OF ADJECTIVES

N+Adj=Adj

Adj+Adj=Adj

Adv+Adj=Adj

Adj+N=Adj

lmesgeornheahungenforgeornbliemd

(alms eager) generous

high rank (social scale)

(forth eager) intentious

benevolent

In the compounds, the case ending goes at the end of the second element. Sometimes there

can be found a compound of three elements. In this case, the case ending is present in the last

element of the compound.

We often find in Modern English a compound in which the elements of the compound are

borrowings from Latin or Greek, such as microphone ortelevision. This kind of words is usuallylinked to Medicine, Biology or Chemistry. This is a different kind of English called English for

Science and Technology EST-. Here, most of the words are formed by non-English terms, but

by Latin or Greek ones.

A compound contains a metaphor or an image. Old English is very rich in metaphors and im-

ages. E.g.:

b weg (bath way, instead of sea)Affixing.

Prefixing.The adding of elements before the original word is a very useful resource, particularly

in the formation of new verbs. Some common prefixes:

- wi- : its meaning depends on the context. It has two main meanings: against or away.wicesan: to choose against(cosan: to choose): reject.

wisprecan: to speak against (sprecan: to speak): contradict.

- g-: Attached to a pronoun or an adverb., it generalizes the meaning of the word. Its mean-ing is every:

ghw: everybody (hw: now)ghwr: everywhere (hwr: what)

- ge-: together. It is found also in past participles of verbs and it expresses the perfectiveaspect of the action.

- on- / an-: negative sense.

onbindan: to unbind (bindan: to bind).

18


19/41

Suffixing.Adding elements at the end of the word.

- -end: Found in nouns to express the agent of the action.- -hd:Forms masculine nouns.- -ig: It creates adjectives, like y in Modern English.

- -lic: Firstly it was used as a noun, meaning body, but later on it started to be used as asuffix, so it lost its original meaning. Like ly in Mod English.

- -lice: Like ly in Mod English.- -sum: Sometimes like some.- -an: coming from.

Nocan: from the North.

Hrdlice: quickly (hrd: quick.

Number in OE.

In OE we find a third category for number, apart from singular and plural, that is the

dual. We only suspect that this category must have been used throughout the language but thetruth is that, in the texts studied there is only a remain of the dual form in the 2 nd and 3rd person

singular, so we dont know it for sure. OE speakers distinguished between one thing (singular),

two things (dual), and more than two things(plural). The dual form disappeared in the Middle

English period, although it is still present in poetry in forms like thou orthee.

Gender .

OE presents grammatical gender, that is, nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter,

without a necessary concordance with the natural gender the noun presents. Eg: wf is grammat-

ically neuter in OE, although its natural gender is feminine (woman). Grammatical gender dis-

appeared in the Middle English period and turned natural gender.

We must take grammatical gender into account when translating OE. Adjectives and

nouns must agree in gender, number and case:

S mna... h is gd

The moon he* is good *it

It is difficult to get to know the gender of each noun in OE. We can use a dictionary or search-

ing clues in the text. We can also consult a list of suffixes

- Adult male humans or animals use to be masculine:

o ao oo dmo elso ereo hdo scipe

so mna, se cynedm, se gebeorscipe- Adult female humans or animals use to be feminine:

So mdor, so c

o uo ungo nes(s)o en(n)o ett

19


20/41

o estreo rdem

so byrenn- Young livings are neuter:

t cild, t cycen (chicken)o laco en

t wtelac (punishment), t mgden (maiden)

Case.

Nominative.It works as subject, Subject complement (atributo) and in direct speech (vocative).

Cynewulf benan Sygebriht his rices

Subj (nom) V Oi Genit.

He is ordfrume and ende

Sub. V Cs (Nomin)

(Nom)

Accusative.As Direct Object, object of preposition, adverbial of time and subject of infinitive.

And wunodon r ealne one winter

Adv Adv (acc)

And stayed there all the winter.

Genitive.Possesion, adverbials of time, partitive genitive, number + gen. pl.

Be his hlfordes hse

Gen

by his Lords _____

XXX scilinga

Gen. p.

30 schellings

Some verbs have Od in genitive (rigen genitivo):

- beniman (deprive)- brcan (enjoy)- nesian (visit)- urfan- wnan (expect)

Dative.It indicates the instrumental function, the means by which an action is performed. Is also ob-

ject of the preposition.

Tdum

At times

20


21/41

Some adjectives require the dative case:

- eli (similar)- hold (loyal)- lof(dear)- nah (near)

and also some verbs:- andswarian (answer)

- elifan (believe)- helpan (help)- hiersumian (obey)- lcian (please)- yncan (think)

The dative of possession is used sometimes when expecting genitive.

The noun.Its inflections distinguish between singular and plural. The case system ia far more

simple than eg. Greek or Latin (no Ablative, no Locative, no Vocative, no Instrumental).There are two groups of declensions: vowel declensions or strong, whose stem ends in

vowel, and consonant declensions, or weak, whose stem ends in consonant.

Strong declensions.

A-stem (temas en a).Masculine hund-

SINGULAR PLURAL

NomAccGenDat

dordor

doresdeore

dordor

doradorum

/a/ is the sound of the stem in proto-germanic. The

name has some historical significance, because we do

not find this sound in OE.

Germanic OE

Nom. *wulfazwulf

Acc. *wulfan

This declension was extended to other nouns. This one is the most extended. Some de-

clensions adopted their endings from this one. In present day English, it only remains the pos-

sesive (genitive singular, -es). The s ending for plural comes from the Nom. Pl (-as). Thesetwo endings (-as, -es) merged in / / when people became to forget case endings and used more

and more prepositions. The apostrophy () helped to differentiate, in ME, whether the ending /

s was the old es (Gen. sing)ending or as (Nom. pl.). The apostrophy indicated Gen. sing.

Z-stem(Temas en z)Neuter cild-

SINGULAR PLURALNomAccGenDat

cildcild

cildescilde

cildrucildrucildra

cildrum

SINGULAR PLURALNom

AccGenDat

hundhund

hundes

hunde

hundashundas

hunda

hundum

21


22/41

They add r in the plural, before the ending:

IE Germanic | | OE

/s/ /s/ /z/ /z/ /r/ G. Law V. Law stress rhotacism

voicing shift

N-stem(Temas en -n)Masculine, feminine, neuter ox-


oxaoxanoxanoxan

oxanoxan

oxenaoxum

-n and s were used as indicators of plural. E.g. eyen, shoen (South).

Weak declensions.

Root consonant-stem (Temas en consonante)Masculine ft-


ftft

ftesft

ftft

ftaftum

Feminine bc-


bcbcbcbc

bcbc

bcabcum

There is a change in the root vowel in Nom. pl. and Dat. sing.

Dat. sing.: * fti > fti > ft.Nom. pl. : * ftiz > ftiz > ft.

The front vowel -i has fronted the root vowel. This phenomenon is called front mutation or um-

laut. The rest of Germanic languages also suffered this change. German does something differ-

ent, indicating the umlaut with the dieresis: Mann, Mnner, Fu, Fe. Feminine nouns present

this mutation also in gen. sing. This phenomenon is NOT a mark of plurality.

22


23/41

-stem (Temas en )Feminine luf-

SINGULAR PLURALNom

AccGenDat

lufulufe

lufelufe

lufalufa

lufalufum

In Nom. sing. There is no ending after long syllables. We find no ending after short vowel fol-

lowed by a consonant.

The personal pronoun.It is inflective. We differentiate gender, number and case.

1ST PERSON

Singular Dual Plural

Nom.Acc.Gen.Dat

icmmnm

wituncuncerunc

wsres

2ND PERSON

Singular Plural Dual

Nom.Acc.

Gen.Dat.

n

gitincincer

inc

gowower

ow3RD PERSON

SingularPluralMasculine Feminine Neuter

Nom.Acc.Gen.Dat.

hhinehishim

hohhirehire

hithithishim

hhhira, heorahim, heom

The demonstratives.They work as definite articles (the), but also as demonstratives (this, that). There is also

instrumental case.

There are two

main patterns of demon-

stratives:

1) s, so, t. It isfully inflected. The plural

has no differentiation

among genders. The ori-

ginal Nom. masc. andfem. were originally e,

SingularPlural

Masculine Feminine Neuter

Nom.Acc.Gen

.Dat.Inst.

s, seonesm

, on,

sorere

---

ttsm

, on,

ram

---

23


24/41

eo. This form survived until today as the. The t form evolved to thatnowadays. It ori-ginally was neuter only, but later it was used with every gender.

2) es, os, is. This paradigm was less important. The neuter form is survived untiltoday as this. As in the previous model, the neuter form was widened.

The adjective.It agreed with the noun in gender, number and case. They adopted the weak declension

when afters, os, is (dem) and after a possessive. They added a an in every cases ex-cept in the nominative. In the fem. except Nom. and Acc. The plural had no instrumental case.

The strong declension was used when the demonstrative was NOT preceded by any

demonstrative or possessive. The an ending is NOT used, there is an ending for each case. The

plural forms are common for the three genders. In Gen. and Dat. There is no Instr. in plural.

The possessive adjectives.

They derive from the genitive form of the pronoun. They are always declined weak.

Singular Equiv.

1s

t

2nd

3rd

mnn / (dn)hise, hire,his

myyour

his,

Dual

1st

2nd

3rd

uncerincer---

Plural

1st

2nd

3rd

re / serowerhira, heora,hiera

our

your

their

Comparatives and superlatives.Always declined weak.

- Comparative: -ra. lof > lofra.- Superlative: -est (most frequent), -ost, -ast (rare).

A few adjectives mutate the vowel in comparative and superlative:

Posit-Comparative Superlative

Mean-ing

eald ealdra > ieldra ealdest> ieldesteong eongra > ingra geongest > gingestlang langra > lengra langest > longest

strang strangra > strengra strangest > strengesthah heahra > hierra heahest > hehst

24


25/41

Others change their stem:

Posit-Comparative Superlative

Mean-ing

gd bet(t)era, betra best, bettest goodyfel wiersa wier(e)st, wyrst evil

micel mra mst muchltel lssa lst little

The Verb.There are distinctions of number, tense and person. Numbers: singular and plural;

tenses: present, past (preterit), no future, because the present tense covers the present and future.

The preterit tense covers some fields today occupied by different tenses.

OE verbs are classified in 2 conjugations: weak and strong. Not all weak verbs are regu-

lar. Weak and strong verbs differ in the preterit form. If a t or d ending (dental) is found, then

the path will be weak. Strong verbs form their past tense by varying the vowel of the stem

(gradation).

There is also mood distinction: indicative, subjunctive and imperative. In the present

system there is also infinitive and participle.

Present system.

Indicative WEAK:cpan

STRONG: helpan

ic

h, ho, hitw / g / h

cpecpestcpecpa

helpehilpsthilp

helpa

SubjunctiveSingularPlural

cpecpen

helpehelpen

ImperativeSingular

Pluralcp

cpahelp

helpaInfinitive

SimpleInflected

cpanto cpenne

helpanto helpenne

Present Par-

ticiple

cpende helpende

Preterit system

Indicative WEAK:cpan

STRONG: helpan

ic

h, ho, hitw / g / h

cptecptestcptecpton

healphulpehealp

hulponSubjunctive

SingularPlural

cptecpten

hulpehulpen

25


26/41

Past Parti-ciple gecped geholpen

Weak verbs have 3 main parts on which the rest are built (strong verbs present 4):

- Infinitive: cep-, help-- 1st, 2nd, 3rd p.s. of the preterit indicative: cept-, healp. In weak verbs, the whole preteritsystem is built on the stem of this part.

- (Strong verbs only) Preterit plural: hulp- . The rest of the preterit system was built takingthis as the basis.

- Past participle: gecped, geholpen.We find on the 2nd p.s. pres. ind. () the ending est. The -t is not part of the original

ending. The usual way to use it was cpes > cepesu > cepestu > cepest.The thas remained as a kind of enclitic form of.

The subjunctive may be found also in main and subordinate clauses. If found on main

clauses, it expresses wishes and commands:

God helpes s (may God help us)

Ne ho hundas cpe (She does not keep the dogs).- Infinitive endings:

NOT INFLECTED

o ano iano n

INFLECTED

A relic from when the infinitives were declined. Used when the infinitive had a noun

function, as todays gerund. It expressed gerund:

Is blie t helpenne (Helping is joyful)inf (infl)

- Participleendings:

PRESENT PARTICIPLES

-ende

-ndePAST PARTICIPLES

ge-_____-en (strong verbs) geholpen

ge-_____-d, -t (weak verbs) gecped

(OE) g- > gi- > ii > i > (Mod. E) .Most of the OE verbs were weak. They formed the preterit and past participles, contain-

ing a-t (after a voiced sound) or a d (after a voiceless one).

- Gradation.

26


27/41

STRONG VERBS. There are 7 classes of strong verbs, attending on the particular vowel altern-

ations in the root.

The verb to be is the only that has kept the distinction between preterit sing. and preterit

pl.: was / were. Many dialects of English do not use de form were, bu this is non-standard Eng-

lish.

Some verbs, specially bon, present many irregularities:Present Indicative

ic on / bo

eart / bist

h, ho, hit is / bi

w sindan / beog sint / beo

h sind / veo

Syntax

Differences between OE and todays English.

Nouns, adjectives and most pronouns had fuller inflections than their modal develop-

ments did, so we find a lot of case endings. They serve to indicate the function in a sentence.

Adjectives agree in gender, number and case with the noun they modify. Adjectives

were also inflected in the so-called weak and strong declensions. OE uses the genitive case inmany circumstances that would present an of phrase:

as iglandes micel dl A great deal of the island.Old English had no articles properly speaking. they used demonstratives. Likewise,

when we use an indefinite article (a, an), OE shows a numeral which means one (n) orsum(a certain).

thesa(n)n, sumOE could form verb phrases just as we do by combining the verbs have and be with par-

ticiples, e.g. is running. These combinations were less frequent in OE, they are hardly men-

tioned. Other combinations likeshe has been runningcould not be conceived in OE. Those aremore complex structures that only appear in Mod. English.

Class Infinitive Preterit singular Preterit plural Past Participle

Class I drfan drf drifon gedriven

Class II cosan cas curon gecoren

Class III helpan healp hulpon geholpen

Class IV beran br bron geboren

Class V sprecan sprc sprcon gesprecen

ClassVI faran fr fron gefaren

ClassVII

feallan foll follan gefeallen

27


28/41

OE uses the passive voice. They were built in a different way: using the simple infinit-

ive with a passive sense:

Ho hht hine lreanSubj V Acc Inf She ordered him to teach /to be taught (passive sense).

She ordered that he should be taught

There is another alternative for the passive voice, using the indefinite pronoun man:

Hine man hng One hanged he was hanged

Negation in Old English.

We find the negative particle placed before the verb. The form is ne:ne+is=nisne+wille=nillene+hf=nf

Word order in OE.

It is less fixed than todays English. In general, in OE declarative sentences, the sen-

tence order uses to be S V O, even when the subject does not need to go at the beginning. We

find some cases in which this order is not observed, when the sentence starts by , ne:

sealed se cyning himsweordAdv V S Oi Od

Then, the king gave him a sword

Ne can ic noht singan Double negation: negationno can I nothing sing

I cannot singIn subordinate clauses, the verb gets lost:

God geseah t hit gd wsS V Adv | S Od V |

Sub. clause: Od

In OE, we find very often parataxis. It involves the joining of sentences by means of co-

ordinating conjunctions The surface structure is very simple. Sometimes we find yuxtaposed

sentences, what is not so frequent in todays English.

Main dialectal areas in Old English.

Kentish (SE)

Jutes.West Saxon (S of the river Thames).

Mercian (Mercia).

Northumbrian (Northumbria).

(see map on page 12)

As Mercian and Northumbrian were similar, we find references to both as Anglian dia-

lect. The records we have are very few: some character, some runic inscriptions, fragments of

verse and no much more. The same has also happened with Kentish.

But the rests of West Saxon are much more numerous. All information we have about

OE is from this variety.

King Alfred had a lot to do with the encouragement of England. He promoted arts andthe learning in Winchester.

28


29/41

London, at that time, was a very commercial city, but it had not come to be the capital

then.

The Lordsprayer in Old English.

Fder re e eart on heofnumS in nama gehlgodT becume n rceGewur n willa opn eoranSw sw on heofnumUrne gedghwmlican half syle s to dgAnd forgyf s re gyltasSw sw w forgyfa rum gyltendumAnd ne geld s on costnungeAc ls s of yfele. Slice.

The Middle English period.

External history.[falta: The Norman conquest: the Normans. England at the time of the conquest. The battle of

Hastings. The Norman settlement.]

Linguistic communication in England 1066 1204.

Normans imposed French in England, although not all the people spoke this, only the

high classes, because they were French. The lower classes kept on speaking English, due to the

fact that they were mostly illiterate.

The loss of Normandy.About 150 years after the battle of Hastings, French became a very practical and useful

language for the upper classes. But in the 13 th century, maintaining French in England was more

and more difficult. The loss of Normandy influenced in this fact. If England had kept control

over 2/3 of France and if the nobility had kept their possessions there, the continuous use of

French in the upper classes would have been justified. But the English lose their possessions in

France, so they did not need French.

The loss of Normandy was the result of a love affair. King John of England was the

younger brother of Richard Lionheart. King John fell in love with Lady Isabella of Angoleme.

He wanted to marry her in the moment, but she already was engaged with Hugh of Lusignan,

from a powerful and ambitious family. Kin John achieved his aim. Then, he attacked the Lusig-

nans family in order to avoid an attack from them. The King of France, Philippe, summonedboth parties and asked king John to tell the charges against Hugh of Lusignan. King John never

went to the French court, because he had not to be submitted to France. Philippe thought that

king John was only the duke of Normandy. The French court declared Normandy confiscated

and Normandy was invaded by the French. After a number of invasions, Normandy was lost.

That happened in 1204. After this, the English nobility concentrate their power in Eng-

land. However, the English still had huge territories in France, in the South. Theselands were

not much interesting, because they were far away and it was really difficult to maintain some

control over them. At that time, a large part of the nobility also had lands both in England and

France. This was not a great problem, but after the loss of Normandy, King Philippe said that he

would confiscate also the lands of the most important barons. This happened in 1204 05.

These nobles were forced to leave one or the other country. In 1244 a new incident put

an end to the few cases of double allegiance that remained. The king of France, Louis, told the

29


30/41

vassals who had lands in both parts to serve one king or the other. The king of England, as a re-

action, send the French to France to dispossess them of their lands.

Around the mid 13th century all nobility of England was English.

French reinforcements and the reactions against the foreign-

ers.For a long time, the English real family was still connected to the French court by

means of marriages. King John married a French lady, and this wedding was the reason for

many people to move to England. King Johns son, Henry, was French and, moreover, he mar-

riage another French lady, Eleanor of Provence. Again, a lot of people moved to England.

In 1233, the king of England dismissed his English officers, appointing the French. In

1236, Henry III married Eleanor. In 1246 Henrys mother died and more people came to Eng-

land. During Henry IIIs reign, lots of French people came to England.

Reactions against the foreigners.

During Henry IIIs minority, the chancellor of England defended the policy of England

for the English. A great patriotic feeling arose. When the first migration occurred, in 1233, thisantagonism was evident, and some bishops wanted the king to be advised of this, although they

were not successful.

The barons war was a revolt in which both the barons and the middle classes joined and com-

plaint against the French power. The leader of this revolt was Simon de Monfort. Some of their

reasons were that they did not know to speak English.

The progressive re-establishment of English.The mid 13th century is considered the turning point in the use of French in England.

English started to be used generally among the upper classes. More French words were intro-

duced from now, although this was not a new phenomenon. Literature started to be translated

into English and more people had access to it.

During this century the upper classes continued using French because it was considered

the language of cultivated people. In those years, French had to be taught to children, and it was

still the language of laws and the Parliament. At the end of the 13th century French declined.

Some institutions tried to maintain French at any price, as monasteries or the University of Ox-

ford.

Henry IIIs son, Edward I, made uan unexpected change: he spoke English as his natal

tongue. In some literary circles the use of French was criticized. There were three factors which

influenced the decline of French:

1. The French spoken in England was called Anglo-French, a mixture of Northern French

dialects. The linguistic contact played its role. The higher in society we go, more widely was

French spoken, but strongly influenced by English. They did not feel comfortable talking in

French..2. The 100 years war. This war was the consequence of a number of conflicts between Eng-

land and France. The king o0f England, Edward III, claimed the throne of France, and tried to

invade the country. The use of French in England was not welcomed.

3. The rise of the middle classes. The middle class language was English. At that time, the rur-

al population was the majority, but little by little some people became to me more and more

powerful and richer. The free tenants and this rising was accelerated by the black death (1348),

which killed 9/10 of the total population. Many of them were from the lower classes, and many

of them were parish clergy, in constant contact with ill people.

With this situation, the shortage of workers was huge, and salaries rose, which provoked

a migration from rural population to the cities-. These people founded a better paid job and as-

cended in the social scale.

30


31/41

General adoption of English in the 14th century.English was at that time used by everybody. People in the court spoke English, although

they had to use French in writing and reading. In the Parliament, French was still used, but in

1362, the Lord Chancellor opened the session in English, and from that moment onwards, Eng-

lish became the mother tongue of English people.

English encountered 2 strong rivals: Latin and French. Latin was the international lan-guage for many years. Ot was used as lingua franca throughout all Europe. It was also a dead

language, so Latin did not change.

French was established as the official language England and considered an elegant lan-

guage then. It survived more time written than spoken. The earliest wills in English date from

the beginning of the 15th century. The earliest letters in English, from the 14 th century.

General features of Middle English.The limit between Old English and Middle English could be placed about 1120

1150, although this is a controversial issue. It is ridiculous to say that Middle English started in

a particular year, due to the fact that languages change very slowly. However, we need to estab-

lish some limit, and we can consider the features of the texts preserved as Middle English fromthat time onwards. The Lindisfarne Gloss (10th century) belongs to the Old English period, but it

present modern features.

Establishing the end of ME period is not so difficult, it can be placed when the printing

press was introduced in England, in 1476, by William Caxton. Thanks to this invention, books

were cheaper and were accessible for more people.

Features.

Vowels at the end of a word were levelled to e. The sound was a very relaxed vowel, [

].

stanas > ME stnes > stones [ston s].

This was provoked by the situation of the stress in the root vowel, which made that the endingwas weakened.

The consequence was a great simplification of inflections. From this levelling also res-

ulted the tendency to use analytic constructions, using prepositions instead of case endings.

There was also a more strict word order, in order to indicate the functions of the words:

OE h folgode num burg-sittendum menn s rices

ME h clevede t oon of e citizens of at contr.The vocabulary is full of French words, as a result of the Norman invasion and the permanent

links with France. However, there kept on being many Scandinavian words.

The handwriting.

In OE there were 2 types of writing, the runes and the Roman alphabet, the insular hand.

The insular hand was replaced by a new type of writing, around 1150, the Carolingian minus-

cule. the letters were more angular and differentiated. Around 1430 was established another

handwriting, the Chancery hand, which started in London and became the official system. The

manuscripts written in this new type were the Early Chancery Proceedings.

The alphabet.

After the Norman conquest the scribes continued using the previous alphabet:

a b c d e f h i k l m n o p r s t u $ (winn) x yBy the end of the 14th century there were additions and modifications to this alphabet:

a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

31


32/

diacronia ingles

Documents