HISTORY OF ENGLISHSee also “Semantic Gaps and Sources of New Words”: HISTORY OF ENGLISH See also 'Semantic Gaps and Sources of New Words' by Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don L. F. Nilsen


HISTORY OF ENGLISH BEFORE ENGLAND: HISTORY OF ENGLISH BEFORE ENGLAND


FOUR MAJOR LANGUAGE FAMILIES: FOUR MAJOR LANGUAGE FAMILIES SINO-TIBETAN e.g. Mandarin Chinese FINNO-UGRIC e.g. Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, etc. HAMIDO-SEMITIC e.g. Arabic and Hebrew INDO-EUROPEAN e.g. Romance, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, and Celtic NOTE: GIVE OTHER LANGUAGE FAMILIES PLUS EXAMPLES:


INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES: INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES ROMANCE French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish BALTO-SLAVIC Bulgarian, Croation, Czech, Macedonian, *Old Church Slavonic, Polish, Russian, Serbian INDO-IRANIAN *Avestan, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Pashto, Persian, Urdu, CELTIC Breton, Cornish, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh GERMANIC Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, English, Flemish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Yiddish


*PROTO INDO EUROPEAN LANGUAGES(Fromkin Rodman Hyams 489): *PROTO INDO EUROPEAN LANGUAGES (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 489)


SOUND CHANGES BEFORE ENGLISH: SOUND CHANGES BEFORE ENGLISH ABLAUT UMLAUT FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT (GRIMM’S LAW) SECOND CONSONANT SHIFT (TO DISTINGUISH HOCH DEUTCH FROM PLATT DEUTCH)


ABLAUT: ABLAUT begin-began-begun break-broke-broken choose-chose-chosen come-came-come eat-ate-eaten fly-flew-flown raise-rose-risen sing-sang-sung


UMLAUT: UMLAUT child-children goose-geese man-men mouse-mice woman-women


GRIMM’S LAW: GRIMM’S LAW /bh/, /dh/, /gh/ =andgt; /b/, /d/, /g/ /b/, /d/, /g/ =andgt; /p/, /t/, /k/ /p/, /t/, /k/ =andgt; /f/, /Θ/, /h/ (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 464, 479)


GRIMM’S LAW (Herndon 413): GRIMM’S LAW (Herndon 413)


GRIMM'S LAW 1st GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT: GRIMM'S LAW 1st GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT /b/ =andgt; /p/: bursa-purse, labial-lip /d/ =andgt; /t/: decade-ten, dozen-twelve, dent-tooth, duet-two /g/ =andgt; /k/: agriculture-acre /p/ =andgt; /f/: pedestal-footnote, padre-father, plate-flat, pyre-fire /t/ =andgt; /θ/: tricycle-three /k/ =andgt; /h/: courage-hearty, corn-horn, canis-hound (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 481)


VERNER’S LAW: VERNER’S LAW 'When the preceding vowel was unstressed, /f/ /θ/ /x/ underwent a further change to /b/ /d/ /g/.' (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 481)


2nd GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT: HIGH/LOW GERMAN: 2nd GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT: HIGH/LOW GERMAN penny-pfennig too-zu water-wasser


INDO-EUROPEAN NUMBERS: INDO-EUROPEAN NUMBERS


HISTORY OF ENGLISH IN ENGLAND : HISTORY OF ENGLISH IN ENGLAND


Slide16: 499-1066: Old English 1066-1500: Middle English 1500-Today: Modern English 499: Saxons invade Britain 6th Century: Religious Literature 8th Century: Beowulf 1066: Norman Conquest 1387: Canterbury Tales 1476: Caxton’s Printing Press 1500: Great Vowel Shift 1564: Birth of Shakespeare (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 462)


GREAT ENGLISH VOWEL SHIFT(Fromkin Rodman Hyams 466): GREAT ENGLISH VOWEL SHIFT (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 466)


SOUND CHANGES IN ENGLISH: SOUND CHANGES IN ENGLISH Great English Vowel Shift Intervocalic Fricatives become contrastive (phonemic) Loss of Vowels in Unstressed Syllables (Suffixes) Loss of Duals Number Becomes Intimacy (thou, thee, thy, thine, ye, you) Loss of Verb Endings (-est, -eth)


Great English Vowel Shift: Great English Vowel Shift A: bāt =andgt; boat, nāme =andgt; name E: mē =andgt; me, hē =andgt; he, wē =andgt; we, gēs =andgt; geese I: wīs =andgt; wise, ic =andgt; I, mīn =andgt; my, þīn =andgt; thine, mīs =andgt; mice O: ēow =andgt; you, gōs =andgt; goose U: þū =andgt; thou, mūs =andgt; mouse (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 466)


Intervocalic Fricatives become contrastive (phonemic): Intervocalic Fricatives become contrastive (phonemic) bath vs. to bathe calf vs. to calve half vs. to half house vs. to house lath vs. lathe safe vs. to save teeth vs. to teethe use vs. to use (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 465)


Slide21: Note that before English root syllables became stressed and English suffixes lost their stress and became lost, Old English was a very highly inflected language. In fact, at that time it was a synthetic language (with many inflections) rather than an analytic language (with prepositions and auxiliaries instead of suffixes). Here is an overview of Old English inflections. Contrast it with Modern English, but don’t sweat the details.


Loss of Vowels in Unstressed Syllables (Suffixes): Loss of Vowels in Unstressed Syllables (Suffixes) Nominative: bātas (boat) stān (stone) Accusative: bāta stānes Genitive: bātas stāne Dative: bātum stāne Instrumental: bātum stān (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 468)


SINGULAR ADJECTIVES, NOUNS & PERSONAL PRONOUNS: SINGULAR ADJECTIVES, NOUNS andamp; PERSONAL PRONOUNS ADJ: N: PERSONAL PRONOUNS: 1st 2nd 3rd Nom: wīs bāt ic þū hē/hit/hēo Gen: wīses bātes mīn þīn his/his/hiere Dat: wīsum bāte mē þē him/him/hiere Acc: wīsne bāt mē þē hine/hit/hit Inst: wīse bāt mē þē hine/hit/hit


DUAL ADJECTIVES, NOUNS & PERSONAL PRONOUNS: DUAL ADJECTIVES, NOUNS andamp; PERSONAL PRONOUNS ADJ: N: PERSONAL PRONOUNS: 1st 2nd Nominative: wit git Genitive: uncer incer Dative: unc inc Accusative: unc inc


PLURAL ADJECTIVES, NOUNS & PERSONAL PRONOUNS: PLURAL ADJECTIVES, NOUNS andamp; PERSONAL PRONOUNS ADJ: N: PERSONAL PRONOUNS: 1st 2nd 3rd Nom: wīse bātas wē gē hie/hie/hie Acc: wīse bāta ūs ēow hie/hie/hie Gen: wīsra bātas ūre ēower hiere/hiere/hiere Dat: wīsum bātum ūs ēow him/him/him Inst: wīsum bātum ūs ēow him/him /him


VERBS: VERBS IND: SUBJ: IMP: PAST TENSE: SINGULAR: 1st drīfe drīfe drāf 2nd drīfest drīfe drīf drīfe 3rd drīfeþ drīfe drāf PLURAL: drīfaþ drīfen drīfaþ drīfon VERBALS: INFINITIVE: drīfan GERUND: tō drīfenne PARTICIPLE: drīfende SUPPLETIVE VERBS, which come from two different paradigms: ēom, eart, is, sindon, wæs, wære, wæron NOTE: 'go' comes from the 'to go' paradigm; but 'went' comes from the 'to wend' paradigm


Slide27: OLD ENGLISH: 'The Lord’s Prayer' Fæder ure, þou þe eart on heofonum, si þin name gehalgod. Tobecume þin rice. Gewurþe þin willa on eorþan swa swa on heofenum. Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg. And forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfaþ urum gyltendum. And ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. Soþlice. (Roberts 64)


MIDDLE ENGLISH, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: MIDDLE ENGLISH, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote The droght of March hath perced to the roote… When April with its sweet showers The drought of March has pierced to the root…. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 462, 469)


Slide29: MIDDLE ENGLISH, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Ther was also a nonne, a Prioresse, That of hir smyling was ful symple and coy, Hir gretteste oath was but by Seinte Loy, And she was cleped Madame Eglentyne. Ful wel she song the service dyvyne, Entuned in hir nose ful semely. And Frenshe she spak ful faire and fetisly After the scole of Stratford-atte-Bowe, For Frenshe of Parys was to hir unknowe. (Roberts 67-68)


EARLY MODERN ENGLISH: Shakespeare’s Hamlet: EARLY MODERN ENGLISH: Shakespeare’s Hamlet A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 462)


THE KING’S ENGLISH: THE KING’S ENGLISH Name the ruler who settled: Charleston Georgia Jamestown Louisiana North and South Carolina Virginia and West Virginia Williamsburg


TODAY: ENGLISH AS A WORLD LANGUAGE: TODAY: ENGLISH AS A WORLD LANGUAGE In Hong Kong you can find a place called the 'Plastic Bacon Factory.' In Naples, there is a sports shop called 'Snoopy’s Dribbling,' while in Brussels there is a men’s clothing store called 'Big Nuts,' which has a sign saying 'SWEAT—690 FRANCS.' This was for a sweatshirt.


Slide33: In Japan you can drink 'Homo Milk' or 'Poccari Sweat' (a popular soft drink, eat some chocolates called 'Hand-Maid Queer-Aid,' or go out and buy some 'Arm Free Grand Slam Munsingswear.' (Nilsen andamp; Nilsen 164) (from Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way)


Slide34: ! ANACHRONISM # 1: Pease porridge hot. Pease porridge cold. Pease porridge in the pot nine days old. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 476) EXPLANATION: On the first day of a march, prisoners used to be served hot pea soup. On the second day they were served cold pea soup. And on the ninth day of the march they would be served pea soup that had been in the pot for nine days.


!!ANACHRONISM # 2: !!ANACHRONISM # 2 Bob Newhart does a sketch in which Sir Walter Raleigh telephones the West Indies Company in London. He was reporting on his voyage to the New Land of America. Since Sir Walter Raleigh is on the telephone, we can only hear one side of the conversation:


Slide36: !!! 'What is it this time, Walt? You got another winner for us do you? Tobacco? What’s tobacco, Walt? It’s a kind of leaf and you bought 80 tons of it? … You take a pinch of tobacco and shove it up your nose and it makes you sneeze. I imagine it would, Walt…'. The skit ends with, 'You’re going to have a tough time telling people to stick burning leaves in their mouth.' (Nilsen andamp; Nilsen 31)


Slide37: References # 1: Aitchison, Jean 'Language Change: Progress or Decay? (Clark, 431-441). Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. New York, NY: William Morrow, 1990. Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa, eds. Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th Edition. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark, eds. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers, Ninth Edition. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005. Fennell, Barbara A. A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 2001.


Slide38: References # 2: Falk, Julia. 'To Be Human: A History of the Study of Language' (Clark, 442-476). Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. An Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007. Herndon, Jeanne H. 'Comparative and Historical Linguistics' (Clark, 411-419). Moore, Samuel and Albert Marchwardt. Historical Outlines of English Sounds and Inflections. Ann Arbor, MI: Wahr, 1969. Nilsen, Alleen Pace. 'Changing Words in a Changing World.' Living Language. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999, 427-473.


Slide39: References # 3: Nilsen, Alleen Pace. 'Technology and Language Change.' Living Language. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999, 379-426. Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000. Ohio State University Files. 'The Family Tree and Wave Models' (Clark 416-419). Roberts, Paul 'A Brief History of English' (Clark, 420-430, Eschholz, 61-71.). van Gelderen, Elly, A History of the English Language. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 2006.