LECTURE I
Introduction
It is well known that language, whether it is English, Armenian or any other, is a historical
phenomenon. As such it does not stay unchanged for any considerable period of time, or for any time
at all, but it is constantly changing throughout its history.
The changes affect all the spheres of the language: grammar and vocabulary, phonetics and
spelling. The changes that any language undergoes are gradual and very slow but pronounced
enough if you compare the stages of its development within a century or even half a century. You
can imagine that with the passage of time the difference between different stages of the
development of the language grows and you will easily deduce that if you speak of such a
language as English the history of which embraces over fifteen centuries you will have to analyze
and explain a great number of linguistic data characterizing the language at different stages of its
history.
We said that the history of any language is an unbroken chain of changes more or less rapid.
But though the linguistic tradition is unbroken it is impossible to study the language of over 15
centuries long without subdividing it into smaller periods. Thus the history of the English language
is generally subdivided conventionally into:
1) Old English (5lh -11th century),
2) Middle English (11th -I5th century);
3) New English (15th century - till now).
We are going to speak about the inner and the outer history of the English language. The
outer history of the language is the events in the life (history) of the people speaking this
language affecting the language, i.e. the history of the people reflected in their language. The
inner history of the language is the description of the changes in the language itself, its
grammar, phonetics, vocabulary or spelling.
It is well known that the English language belongs to the Germanic subdivision of the IndoEuropean family of languages. The direct and indirect evidence that we have concerning old
Germanic tribes and dialects is approximately twenty centuries old. We know that at the beginning
of AD Germanic tribes occupied vast territories in western, central and northern Europe. The tribes
and the dialects they spoke at the time were generally very much alike, but the degree of similarity
varied. It is common to speak about the East Germanic group of dialects - mainly spoken in central
Europe – Gothic, Vandalic, Burgundian; North Germanic group of dialects - Old Norwegian,
Old Danish, Old Swedish, Old Icelandic; and the West Germanic group of dialects - the dialects
of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians and others, originally spoken in western Europe. The first
knowledge of these tribes comes from the Greek and Roman authors which, together with
archeological data, allows to obtain information on the structure of their society, habits, customs
and languages.
The principal East Germanic language is Gothic. At the beginning of our era the Goths lived
on a territory from the Vistula to the shores of the Black Sea. The knowledge of Gothic we have
now is almost wholly due to a translation of the Gospels and other parts of the New Testament
made by Ulfilas, a missionary who christianized the Gothic tribes. Except for some runic
inscriptions in Scandinavia it is the earliest record of a Germanic language we possess. For a time
the Goths played a prominent part in European history, making extensive conquests in Italy and
Spain. In these districts, however, their language soon gave place to Latin, and even elsewhere it
seems not to have maintained a very tenacious existence. Gothic survived longest in the Crimea,
where vestiges of it were noted down in the sixteenth century.
North Germanic is found in Scandinavia and Denmark. Runic inscriptions from the third
century preserve our earliest traces of the language. In its earlier form the common Scandinavian
language is conveniently spoken of as Old Norse. From about the eleventh century on, dialectal
differences become noticeable. The Scandinavian languages fall into two groups: an eastern
group including Swedish and Danish, and a western group including Norwegian and Icelandic.
Of the early Scandinavian languages Old Icelandic is much the most important. Iceland was
colonized by settlers from Norway about A.D. 874 and preserved a body of early heroic literature
unsurpassed among the Germanic peoples. Among the more important monuments are the Elder or
Poetic Edda, a collection of poems that probably date from the tenth or eleventh century, the
Younger or Prose Edda compiled by Snorri Sturluson (1178— 1241), and about forty sagas, or
prose epics, in which the lives and exploits of various traditional figures are related.
West Germanic is of chief interest to us as the group to which English belongs. It is divided
into two branches, High and Low German, by the operation of a Second (or High German)
Sound-Shift analogous to that described below as Grimm's Law. This change, by which West
Germanic p, t, k, d, etc. were changed into other sounds, occurred about A.D. 600 in the southern
or mountainous part of the Germanic area, but did not take place in the lowlands to the north.
Accordingly in early times we distinguish as Low German tongues Old Saxon, Old Low
Franconian, Old Frisian and Old English. The last two are closely related and constitute a special
or Anglo-Frisian subgroup. Old Saxon has become the essential constituent of modern Low
German or Plattdeutsch; Old Low Franconian, with some mixture of Frisian and Saxon elements, is
the basis of modern Dutch in Holland and Flemish in northern Belgium; and Frisian survives in the
Dutch province of Friesland, in a small part of Schleswig, in the islands along the coast, etc. High
German comprises a number of dialects and is divided chronologically into Old High German
(before 1100), Middle High German (1100 - 1500), and Modern High German (since 1500).
High German, especially as spoken in the midlands and used in the imperial chancery, was
popularized by Luther's translation of the Bible into it (1522 - 1532), and since the sixteenth
century has gradually established itself as the literary language of Germany.
2. CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GERMANIC LANGUAGES
The barbarian tribes - Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Franks, Frisians, Teutons, Angles, Saxons,
Jules and Scandinavians - lived on the fringes of the Roman Empire. All these spoke Germanic
languages, which had distinctive characteristics of structure and pronunciation which are reflected
in its descendants.
2.1 PHONETICS
One of the most important common features of all Germanic languages is its strong dynamic
stress falling on the first root syllable. The fixed stress emphasized the syllable bearing the most
important semantic element and to a certain degree later contributed to the reduction of unstressed
syllables, changing the grammatical system of the languages.
The most important feature of the system of Germanic vowels is the so-called Ablaut, or
gradation, which is a spontaneous, positionally independent alteration of vowels inhabited by the
Germanic languages from the Common Indo-European period. This ancient phenomenon consisted
in alteration of vowels in the root, suffix or ending depending on the grammatical form or meaning
of the word.
There are two types of Ablaut: quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative Ablaut is the
alteration of different vowels, mainly the vowels [e] / [a] or [e] / [o]
Old Icelandic
bera (to give birth) - barn (baby)
Old High German
stelan (to steal) - stal (stole)
Cf.:
Russian
6peдy (I stroll, I wade) - 6pод (ford, wade)
Latin
tego (to cover, to cloth) - toga (clothes)
Quantitative Ablaut means the change in length of qualitatively one and the same vowel:
normal, lengthened and reduced. A classic example of the Indo-European Ablaut is the declension
of the Greek word "pater" (father):
[e:]
[e]
[-]
patēr
patĕr
patros
(nominative case,
(vocative case,
(genitive case,
lengthened stage)
normal stage)
reduced stage)
Ablaut as a kind of an internal flexion functioned in Old Germanic languages both in formand word-building, but it was the most extensive and systematic in the conjugation of strong verbs.
Another phenomenon common for all Germanic languages was the tendency of phonetic
assimilation of the root vowel to the vowel of the ending, the so-called Umlaut, or mutation. There
were several types of mutation, but the most important one was palatal mutation, or i-Umlaut,
when under the influence of the sounds [i] or [j] in the suffix or ending the root vowels became
more front and more closed. This process must have taken place in the 5th - 6th centuries and can be
illustrated by comparing words from the language of the Gothic bible (4th century) showing no
palatal mutation with corresponding words in other Germanic languages of a later period:
Goth harjis
OE here (army);
Goth dōmjan
OE dēman (deem);
Goth kuni
OE cynn (kin);
Traces of this tendency can be seen both in word-building and form-building as a kind of an
internal flexion:
OHG gast (guest) - gesti (guests)
man (man) - mennisco (human)
Speaking about Germanic consonants, we should first of all speak of the correspondence
between Indo-European and Germanic languages which was presented as a system of
interconnected facts by the German linguist Jacob Grimm in 1822. This phenomenon is called the
First Consonant Shift, or Grimm’s law.
The table below shows a scheme of Grimm's law with the examples from Germanic and other
Indo-European languages.
However, there are some instances where Grimm's law seems not to apply. These cases were
explained by a Dutch linguist Karl Verner, and the seeming exceptions from Grimm's law have
come to be known as Verner's law.
Table. Grimm's law
Indo-European
Germanic
1
voiceless stops
p t k
Lat
pater
Lat
trēs
Gk
kardia
voiceless fricatives
f
þ h
OE
fæder (father)
Goth
þreis (three)
OHG herza (heart)
2
voiceless stops
p
t k
Rus
Lat
Gk
3
voiced stops
b d g
болото
duo
egon
voiced aspirated stops
bh dh gh
Snsk bhratar
Lat
frāter, Rus бpaт
Snsk madhu
Rus мед
Snsk songha
OE
Goth
OIcl
pōl (pool)
twai (two)
ek (I)
voiced non-aspirated stops
b d g
OE
brōðor
OE
medu (mead)
OIcl
syngva (sing)
Verner's law explains the changes in the Germanic voiceless fricatives f þ h resulting from
the first consonant shift and the voiceless fricatives depending upon the position of the stress in the
original Indo-European word, namely:
Table. Verner's law
Indo-European
Germanic
p
Gk
Gk
Gk
Snsk
t
hepta
pater
dekas
ayas
k
s
b
Goth
OSc
Goth
Goth
ð/d
g z/r
sibun (seven)
faðir,
OE fæder
tigus (ten, a dozen)
aiz,
OHG ēr (bronze)
According to Verner's law, the above change occurred if the consonant in question was found
after an unstressed vowel.
2.2. GRAMMAR
One of the main processes in the development of the Germanic morphological system was the
change in the word structure. The common Indo-European notional word consisted of three
elements: the root, expressing the lexical meaning, the inflexion or ending, showing the
grammatical form, and the so-called stem-forming suffix, a formal indicator of the stem type.
However, in Germanic languages the stem-forming suffix fuses with the ending and is often no
longer visible, thus making the word structure a two-element one. Nevertheless, it should he taken
into account when explaining the differences in the categorial forms of words originally having
different stem-forming suffixes.
It should also be mentioned that Germanic languages belonged to the synthetic type of formbuilding, which means that they expressed the grammatical meanings by changing the forms of the
word itself, not resorting to any auxiliary words.
The Germanic nouns had a well-developed case system with four cases (nominative,
genitive, dative, accusative) and two number forms (singular and plural). They also had the
category of gender (feminine, masculine and neuter). The means of form-building were the endings
added to the root/stem of the noun.
The Germanic adjectives had two types of declension, conventionally called strong and
weak. Most adjectives could be declined both in accordance with the strong and weak type.
Agreeing with the noun in gender, case and noun, the adjective by its type of declension expressed
the idea of definiteness (weak declension) or indefiniteness (strong declension), the meaning which
was later to become expressed by a grammatical class of words unknown in Common Germanic the article.
The adjective also had degrees of comparison, the forms of which were in most instances
formed with the help of suffixes -iz/ōz and -ist/-ōst, but there were also instances of suppletivism,
i.e. use of different roots for different forms - a means common for many Indo-European
languages:
Goth leitils – minniza - minnists (little – less - least)
Rus
xopoший – лучше - лучший
The Germanic verbs are divided into two principal groups: strong and weak verbs,
depending on the way they formed their past tense forms.
The past tense (or preterite) of strong verbs was formed with the help of Ablaut, qualitative or
quantitative. Depending upon the phonetic root structure, the exact manifestation of Ablaut could
be somewhat different, and accordingly strong verbs were further subdivided into classes.
Weak verbs expressed preterite with the help of the dental suffix -d/-t. They also had stemforming suffixes, depending on which they fell into separate classes.
There was also a small group of highly frequent suppletive verbs forming their forms from
different roots, the same as in other Indo-European languages:
Goth im
( /I/ am)
Rus есть
was ( /I/ was)
был
The Germanic verb had a well-developed system of categories, including the category of
person (first, second, third), number (singular and plural), tense (past and present, the latter also
used for expressing future actions), mood (indicative, imperative and optative) and voice (only in
Gothic - active and mediopassive). The categorial forms employed synthetic means of formbuilding.
2.3. ALPHABET
Although the people of the Germanic tribes were mostly illiterate, some of the Germanic
nations had their own mode of writing, with a distinctive alphabet called runic, each letter of which
was called a rune. We know that runes were used to record early stages of Gothic, Danish,
Swedish, Norwegian, English, Frisian, Frankish and various tribal tongues of central Germania, and
they may also have supplied other Germanic languages without leaving any evidence surviving till
today. On archaeological grounds the earliest estant runes are dated to the second century AD. The
script continued in use in some regions throughout the Middle Ages and into early modern times.
The early runes were not written, but incised - runic script was designed for inscribing, at first
on wood, which explains many of its characteristics. Since runes were designed for incising in
wood, the letter forms, in their earliest stage, eschew curves, which are hard to cut in such a grainy
material. Letters were made up of vertical strokes, cut at right angles to the grain, and of slanting
strokes which stood distinct from it. Horizontal strokes, which would mingle with the grain and be
hard to distinguish, were avoided.
Even the earliest examples of the script show there were variations in some letter forms, so it
is not possible to give a standard pattern for the Germanic runic alphabet.
The earliest known runic alphabet had twenty-four letters arranged in a peculiar order, which,
from the values of its first letters, is known as the futhark. In early times texts could be written not
only from left to right, but from right to left equally well. Some texts could even be written with
alternate lines in opposite directions. Even in left-to-right texts an individual letter could be
reversed at whim, and occasionally a letter might be inverted. There was no distinction between
capital and lowercase letters.
The Roman equivalents for the Germanic runes given above are only approximate, for the
sounds of Early Germanic did not coincide with those of Modern English.
We do not know where and when runes were invented. The obvious similarities with the
Roman alphabet brought early scholars to the belief that the script first appeared among Germanic
peoples living close to the Roman empire, and that the runes were an adaptation of the more
prestigeous alphabet. Early finds of rune-inscribed objects in eastern Europe (Pietroassa in
Rumania, Dahmsdorf in central Germany and Kowel in the Ukraine) suggest that runes may have
been invented by Goths on the Danube or beside the Vistula. This is further supported by the
similarity of occasional runes to letters of one or other of the Greek alphabets. However, continued
discovery of early runic texts in various regions of Europe do not allow to consider the matter of
the origin of runes conclusively proven.
Be it as it may, wherever and whenever they were created, runes soon spread over the
Germanic world, and by 500 AD they are found not only in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England,
but also in Poland, Russia and Hungary, recording different Germanic languages and being cut,
stamped, inlaid or impressed on metal, bone, wood and stone.
Runes were used for many centuries and in many lands, gradually changing in their passage
through time and space. In England the script died out, superseded by Roman, somewhere in the
eleventh century; in Germany and the Low Countries - rather sooner. In Scandinavia and its
colonies, however, runes continued well into the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the later runic
inscriptions are of comparatively little interest, for there is plenty of other evidence for the state of
the language they record, whereas the early inscriptions are of great importance to the linguist, for
they record material for which there is otherwise little or no evidence.
Thus we may summarize the above discussion stating that the principal features common to
all the languages of the Germanic language area were:
(1) fixation of the main stress on the initial syllable of the word;
(2) the first, or Germanic sound shift affecting the Indo-European voiceless and voiced
stops and the spirant [s];
(3) certain vowel changes;
(4) reduction in the number of cases as compared to Common Indo-European;
(5) full development of the weak declension of the adjective with a particular categorial
meaning;
(6) development of a dental preterite and appearance of the strong/weak verb distinction;
(7) a peculiar alphabet.
LECTURE 2
ALL LANGUAGES ARE SYSTEMATIC
All languages, including of course English, are systems, or, more precisely, series of
interrelated systems governed by rules. In other words, languages are highly structured; they
consist of patterns that recur in various combinations and rules that apply to produce these patterns.
A simple English example would be the systematic alternation between a and an produced by the
rule that an is used before words beginning with a vowel sound, and a is used otherwise. Much
more complex rules account for the grammaticality of such verb phrases as might have been
picking and will have been picking but the ungrammaticality of *might will been picking or *might
been have picking.
A moment's reflection will reveal that if languages were not highly systematic and ruled,
we could never learn them and use them. Speakers learn the rules of their language(s) as children
and then apply them automatically for the rest of their lives. No native speaker of English, for
example, has to stop in the middle of a sentence and think about how to pronounce the plurals of
rate, race, or raid. Even though the plurals of all three of these words are pronounced differently,
we learned at a very young age that the different forms are predictable and how to predict them. It
is precisely in those areas of language that lack system or are exceptions to the rules that mistakes
in usage occur. Children who say "My foots are dirty" are demonstrating, not that they do not know
the rules of English, but rather that they know the rules well, although they have not mastered the
exceptions.
The interrelated systems of a language include phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon,
and semantics. Languages that have a written representation (and not all languages do) also have a
system of graphics. All languages have the same set of systems (with the possible exception of
graphics), but the components of the systems and the interrelationships among the systems differ
from language to language. All natural languages change. Because they change, they have histories.
All languages change in different ways, so their histories are different. The history of a given
language is the description of how it has changed over a period of time. The history of English is
the record of how one dialect of West Germanic has changed over the past fifteen hundred years.
Changes in language may be systematic or sporadic. The addition of a vocabulary item to
name a new product, for example, is a sporadic change that has little impact on the rest of the
lexicon. Even some phonological changes are sporadic. For instance, many speakers of English
pronounce the word catch to rhyme with wretch rather than with hatch. In their dialects an isolated
sporadic change has occurred in the distribution of vowels - parallel words such as hatch, batch,
match, or scratch have not undergone the change.
Systematic changes, as the term suggests, affect an entire system or subsystem of the
language. These changes may be either conditioned or unconditioned. A conditioned systematic
change is brought about by context or environment, whether linguistic or extralinguistic. For many
speakers of English, the short e vowel (as in bet) has, in some words, been replaced by a short i
vowel (as in bit). For these speakers, pin and pen, him and hem are homophones (words
pronounced the same). This change is conditioned because it occurs only in the context of a
following m or n.
An unconditioned systematic change is one for which no specific conditioning factor can be
identified. An example would be the tendency among many speakers of American English to move
the stress of bisyllabic words from the second syllable to the first, as in po'lice, de'fense, De'troit.
We can speak vaguely of a general historical drift of English to move the stress toward the
beginning of the word, but the fact remains that English today is characterized by variable stress
placement; indeed, many words are distinguished in pronunciation primarily on the basis of
differing stress (such as pi'ckup/pick u'p; pe'rvert/perve'rt, a'ttribute/attri'bute). We cannot
explain the change from poli'ce to po'lice as reflecting a simple underlying rule that all words
should be stressed on the first syllable.
In simplest terms, all change consists of a loss of something, a gain of something, or both - a
substitution of one thing for another. Both loss and gain occur in all the subsystems of natural
languages. For example, over the centuries, English has lost the distinction between long and short
vowels (phonological loss), between dative and accusative cases (morphological loss), the regular
inversion of subject and verb after an adverbial (syntactic loss), the verb weorðan (lexical loss), the
meaning "to put into" for the verb do (semantic loss), and the letter ð (graphic loss). English has
gained the diphthong represented by the spelling oi (phonological gain), a means of making nouns
like dropout out of verb + adverb combinations (morphological gain), a distinction between past
perfect (I had painted my room) and past causative (I had my room painted) (syntactic gain) the
word education (lexical gain), the meaning of "helper" for the word hand (semantic gain), and the
distinction between the letters u and v (graphic gain).
Loss may be absolute, as exemplified by the loss of h before l, r, and n (Old English hlude,
hring, hnutu; Present-Day English loud, ring, nut), where the h (aspiration) simply disappeared.
Other loss may be the result of a merger of two formerly distinct units, as when Middle English [x],
a heavily aspirated h-like sound, collapsed with [f] in words like tough, rough, and enough. Such a
merger is sometimes called fusion.
Similarly, gain may result from the introduction of an entirely new unit; an example would be
the addition in Middle English, cited above, of the diphthong oi through such French loan words as
joy, poison, and joint. Or the gain may result from the split of a single unit into distinct units. For
instance, Middle English discret(e) underwent both semantic and graphic split to become modern
English discrete and discreet. Such a split is sometimes called fission.
Losses and gains, especially in phonology, morphology, and syntax, are normally considered
irreversible, but occasionally are only temporary. For example, several dialects of American
English had lost the phoneme /r/ except when it appeared before a vowel, but now once again have
/r/ in all positions. Conversely, the use of do as a marker of the simple indicative (as in
Shakespeare's The cry did knock against my very heart) was added in Early Modern English but has
since disappeared.
All changes, whether major or minor, conditioned or unconditioned, disrupt a language,
sometimes rather violently. But any living language is self-healing, and the permanent damage
resulting from change is usually confined to the feelings of the users of the language. Many people
deplore the recent introduction of hopefully as a sentence modifier, but the English language as a
whole is none the worse for this usage. Similarly, the distinctions in meaning lost through the
abandonment of the now nearly extinct subjunctive mood are today made through adverbs, modal
auxiliaries, and word-order changes.
Change occurs at different rates and times within the subsystems of a language. A new loan
word may be introduced and become widely accepted within a period of a few days, as with the
Russian loan sputnik in 1957. Changes in phonology, on the other hand, operate much more slowly
than isolated changes in lexicon. For any given speaker, a change in a pattern (rule) may be
instantaneous, but for the total community of speakers it sometimes takes centuries for completion.
The Great Vowel Shift of English took at least several generations to complete. (Some scholars
claim that it is still going on today, five centuries after it began.) The loss of aspiration in such
words as which, whip, and white began perhaps as long as a thousand years ago and is still not
complete for all dialects.
In sum, for all natural languages, change is both inevitable and constant; only dead languages
(languages with no native speakers) do not change. Because change is constant and has always
been so, there is no such thing as a "pure" or a "decadent language or dialect. There are only
different languages and dialects, which arose in the first place only because all languages change.
The history of the English language, then, is the record of how its patterns and rules have
changed over the centuries.
In any science, the hardest question to answer is "why?" In many cases, the question is
unanswerable. From one point of view, it is strange that human beings speak so many languages
and that these languages undergo any changes at all. Other human activities are identical and
unchanging everywhere - all human beings smile, cry, scream in terror, sleep, drink, and walk in
essentially the same way. Why should they differ in speech, the one aspect of behavior that is
uniquely human? The answer is that, whereas the capacity to learn language is innate, the particular
language that anyone uses is learned. That is, the ability to learn languages is universal and
unchanging, but the languages themselves are diverse and constantly changing. What are the forces
that trigger change? One explanation for linguistic change is the principle of least effort. According
to this principle, language changes because speakers are "sloppy" and simplify their speech in
various ways. Accordingly, abbreviated forms like math for mathematics and plane for airplane
arise. Going to becomes gonna because the latter has two fewer phonemes to articulate.
Intervocalic t becomes d because, first, voiced sounds require less energy to produce than voiceless
sounds, and, second, the speaker does not have to switch from voiced to voiceless and then back to
voiced again in a word like little. On the morphological level, speakers use showed instead of
shown as the past participle of show so that they will have one less irregular verb form to
remember.
The principle of least effort is an adequate explanation for many isolated changes, such as the
reduction of God be with you to good-bye, and it probably plays an important role m most systemic
changes, such as the loss of inflections in English. However, as an explanation for all linguistic
change, it has shortcomings. How exactly are "difficulty” and "ease" to be defined? Judging by its
rarity among the languages of the world and by how late English-speaking children master it, the
phoneme /θ/ (the first sound of think) must be difficult to articulate and hence highly susceptible to
change. Yet it has survived intact throughout the entire history of English. Further, many changes
cannot be explained either by basic communicative needs or by a principle of least effort. An
example would be the development in Middle English of the extremely complex system of definite
and indefinite articles in English, a system that is the despair of so many foreign learners of the
language. Old English got along nicely with no indefinite article at all and with a form of that as
both demonstrative and definite article.
Many languages today - for example, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese - have no articles at all.
The principle of least effort by itself simply cannot explain the rise of articles in English.
Another explanation for language change is analogy. Under analogical change, two things or
rules that were once different become identical or at least more alike. The principle of analogy is
closely related to the principle of least effort; analogy is one way of achieving least effort. By
analogy, a speaker reasons, usually unconsciously, that if A is like B in several respects, then it
must be like B in other respects. If beans is a plural noun naming a kind of vegetable and has the
singular form bean, then peas, which also names a kind of vegetable, must also be a plural and
must have the singular form pea. (Historically, peas, or pease, was an uncountable singular noun;
cf. the nursery rhyme "Pease porridge hot," which means simply "hot pea soup.") If, in noun
phrases, single-word modifiers precede the noun they modify, then in the noun phrase attorney
general, attorney must be the modifier and general, the noun. Therefore the plural of the phrase
must be attorney generals, even though general was originally an adjective.
Analogy can operate at all levels of a language. On the semantic level, many people use the
word livid to mean "bright," especially bright red, as in anger. Though historically livid means
“pale,” its sound association with vivid has led to analogical semantic change. Even spelling may
be affected by analogy. The word delight historically contained no -gh-, but acquired these letters
by analogy with such rhyming words as light, fright, sight, and might.
In general, the more common a word or construction, the less susceptible it is to change by
analogy. Less frequently used words or constructions are more likely to be altered to fit the patterns
of more common ones. Thus the verb to be remains wildly irregular in English because it is learned
so early and used so often. But the relatively uncommon verb thrive, once conjugated as thrive:
throve: thriven, is well on its way to becoming a weak (regular) verb.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PRESSURES FOR CHANGE
In discussing the history of a language, it is often useful to distinguish outer history (or
external history) from inner history (or internal history). The outer history is the events that
have happened to the speakers of the language leading to changes in the language. For example, the
Norman invasion brought French-speaking conquerors to England and made French the official
language of England for about three hundred years. As a result, the English language was
profoundly affected. The inner history of a language is the changes that occur within the language
itself, changes that cannot be attributed directly to external forces. For instance, many words that
were pronounced as late as the ninth century with a long a sound similar to that of father are today
pronounced with a long o: Old English ham, gat, halig, and sar correspond to modern home, goat,
holy, and sore. There is no evidence of an external cause for this change, and we can only assume
that it resulted from pressures within the language system itself.
Among external pressures for language change, foreign contacts are the most obvious. They
may be instigated by outright military invasion, by commercial relations, by immigration, or by the
social prestige of a foreign language. The Viking invasions of England during the ninth and tenth
centuries added, not surprisingly, many new lexical items to English. Less obviously, they
contributed to (though were not the sole cause of) the loss of inflections in English because,
although Norse and English were similar in many ways, their inflectional endings were quite
different. One way of facilitating communication between speakers of the two languages would
have been to drop the inflectional endings entirely. (Exactly the same process can be observed
today of when a speaker of Icelandic talks to a speaker of Swedish.) An example of the effects of
the prestige of another language would be the spread of /ž/ (the sound of s in usual) in French
loanwords to environments where it had not previously appeared in English; examples include
garage, beige, and genre. Foreign pressures may also take the form of contact between different
dialects of the same language. The changes cited above in my own speech resulting from contact
with a new dialect exemplify this kind of influence. Here again, sociological factors may play a
role. The reemergence of preconsonantal and final /r/ (as in harm and far) in Eastern Seaboard and
Southern American dialects certainly has been encouraged by the sociological facts that r-lessness
is frequently ridiculed in other areas of the country, that it is often associated with Black English,
and that the prestige of American English vis-`a-vis British English has increased in the past thirty
years.
Internal pressures for language change most often appear when changes in one system of the
language impinge on another system. For example, phonological changes caused the reflexes (the
“descendants” that have undergone change) of OE lætan 'to allow' and OE lettan 'to hinder' to fall
together as let. The resulting homonymy was unacceptable because the two verbs, opposite in
meaning, often occurred in identical contexts, leading to ambiguity and a breakdown in
communication. Consequently, the let that meant “hinder”' has been all but lost in modern English,
surviving only in such set phrases as let ball and the legal term without let or hindrance. On the
morphological level, the verb wear, a weak verb in OE, has become a strong verb in modern
English, despite the fact that the trend has been overwhelmingly in the opposite direction. This
change can be explained by the rhyme analogy of wear with strong verbs like bear, tear, and swear
and also, perhaps, by the semantic association of wear and tear.
Still other changes fall on the borderline between internal and external. British English still
uses stone as a unit of weight for human beings and large animals, although the weight of other
commodities is normally expressed in pounds. American English uses the pound as a measure for
both large animals and other items. One of the reasons why stone has remained in British English
may be that pound is semantically "overloaded” by being both a unit of weight and the national
monetary unit. Similarly, in some parts of Great Britain, at least, a small storage room—the
American English closet - is referred to as a cupboard. The avoidance of the term closet is probably
explained by the fact that what speakers in the United States refer to as a toilet or John is called a
W.C. (for water closet) in Britain. The mild taboo associated with the term water closet, even in its
euphemistic abbreviated form, has led to its avoidance in other contexts.
LECTURE 3
DEMARCATING THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH
Although linguistic change is a slow but unceasing process, like a slow-motion movie, so to
speak, it is impracticable to try to describe the changes in this way. Instead, we must present them
as a series of still photographs, noting what has changed in the interval between one photograph
and the next. This procedure fails to capture the real dynamism of linguistic change, but it does
have the advantage of allowing us to examine particular aspects in detail and at a leisurely pace
before they disappear. The history of the English language is normally presented in four such still
photographs - Old English, Middle English, Early New English and Modern English.
The dividing lines between one period of English and the next are not sharp and dramatic: the
English people did not go to bed on December 31, 1099, speaking Old English and wake up on
January 1, 1100, speaking Middle English. Nevertheless, the changes that had accumulated by the
year 1100 were sufficiently great to justify a different designation for the language after that date.
Old English (OE) is that stage of the language used between A.D. 450 and A.D. 1100. The
period from 1100 to 1500 is Middle English (ME), the period between 1500 and 1800 is Early
New English (ENE), and the period since 1800 is Modern English (MnE). For those familiar with
English history, these dates may look suspiciously close to dates of important political and social
events in England. The beginning of ME is just a few years after the Norman Conquest, the
beginning of ENE parallels the English Renaissance and the introduction of printing into England.
These parallels are neither accidental nor arbitrary. All of these political events are important
in the outer history of English. The Norman Conquest had a cataclysmic effect on English because
it brought thousands of Norman French speakers to England and because French subsequently
became the official and prestigious language of the nation for three centuries. The introduction of
printing, among other effects, led to a great increase in literacy, a standard written language,
concepts of correctness, and the brake on linguistic change that always accompanies widespread
literacy.
Linguistically, these demarcation points of 450, 1100, 1500, and 1800 are also meaningful.
The date 450 is that of the separation of the ' 'English'' speakers from their Continental relatives; it
marks the beginning of English as a language, although the earliest surviving examples of written
English date only from the seventh century. By 1100 English had lost so many of its inflections that
it could no longer properly be called an inflecting language. By 1500, English had absorbed so
many French loans that its vocabulary looked more like that of a Romance language than that of a
Germanic language. Further, the very rhythms of the spoken language had changed under the
influence of the differing stress patterns of these French loans. By 1800, the vast numbers of
Latinate loans brought in by the English Renaissance had been absorbed, along with hundreds of
exotic, often non-Indo-European words introduced through English exploration and colonization.
Also, the grammar of English had, in most important respects, become that of the present day.
To characterize in brief the three periods in the history of English the following is to be noted:
The Old English period which is also called the Anglo-Saxon period, extends from the
earliest times, i.e. from the arrival of the English in Britain in the second half of the V century
down to the XI century. Although the migration of the English people from the continent of Europe
took place mainly in the V and VI centuries, we have very few records of anything written in
English before about the year 700. And because the historical records of English do not go so far
back as the end of the VII century, i.e. about three centuries after the beginnings of the language,
the Old English period is usually subdivided into two sub-periods:
I) the so-called prehistoric or preliterary period, reconstructed by comparative philology,
II) the historic or literary period, recorded in the literary monuments of English.
In the Old English period the area where English was spoken was rather small, the number of
the English speaking people was limited: English was spoken only in a considerably small part of
the British Isles, the rest of the land being inhabited by the Celts who spoken various Celtic
dialects.
As the Germanic settlers of Britain represented different tribes, their language represented
tribal dialects, more or less diverse. There was no common tongue, no literary language common
for the whole country.
The Old English word-stock was in the main homogeneous; its foreign elements were few
and did not modify the character of the vocabulary as a whole.
As to its grammatical structure Old English was characterized by a highly developed
inflectional system, the latter being especially characteristic of the Old English declensions.
Peculiarities of the phonetic structure of Old English were chiefly connected with the
unstressed vowels, these distinguishing various words and different forms of one and the same
word and having thus their own phonetic value. Cf. O.E. fisces = gen. sg, fiscas = nom/acc., pl;
scipe = dat.sg; scipu = nom/acc. pl; scipa = gen.pl; the cited forms being differentiated by
contrastive vowels e – a – u in unstressed syllables.
The Middle English period extends from the XI century down to the XV century. During this
period English underwent considerable changes.
In the Middle English period the number of the English-speaking people increased. English
spread almost all over the British Isles, and penetrated also into Ireland.
The dialectal division of the language remained, the dialects being now characterized as local
dialects. Again there is no common language, no literary standard. The existence of French beside
English in some spheres of the society is also characteristic of the Middle English period, French
being the official language of the country.
In the Middle English period the English vocabulary was increased and enriched by a
considerable number of loan words from French, as well as from Latin and from the Scandinavian
dialects.
The highly developed inflectional system began rapidly breaking down in Middle English,
this calling forth the development of analytical forms in English. As a result of this, the English
word order became more fixed.
The most important change in the phonetic system in Middle English was the distraction of
differences in the unstressed vowels. The Old English unstressed vowels weakened, underwent the
process of “leveling”, fusing into a reduced “neutral” vowel. Thus the unstressed vowels lost their
phonemic value. This resulted in the confusion of many Old English grammatical forms. Cf. M.E.
fishes < O.E. fisces and fiscas.
Some other phonetic changes that took place in the Middle English period made English
sound much more like the modern language.
The New English period begins in the XV century and continues up to the present day. This
is the period when the language began to be established in its present form. Within the New English
period we distinguish the Early New English and Modern English, the former extending from the
XV century down to the XVII century. The Early New English period is often characterized as the
period of the establishment of the national literary language.
In the New English period the number of English speaking people increases still more. The
English language spreads in America, Australia, South Africa, etc.
The New English period is characterized by the establishment of the national literary
language – the so-called Standard English. The old tribal dialects gradually disappeared, their place
being taken by social dialects.
The New English vocabulary shows an enormous growth of words owing to further numerous
borrowings from the classical languages – Latin and Greek, as well as from many other languages,
particularly from some oriental ones. The growth of the so-called international fund of the
vocabulary is also worth noting.
The leveling of inflectional forms and the breaking down of the synthetical structure is going
on, the analytical structure becoming predominant in Modern English.
In unstressed syllables loss of vowels is the most important phonetic change in Modern
English, these being preserved only in most favourable positions. Cf. horses, fishes, wanted, but
dogs, cats, loved. The loss of the unstressed vowels resulted in the confusion of a great many
grammatical forms, which differed in Middle English.
The Great Vowel Shift is one of the most important changes characteristic of the stressed
vowels. The Shift led to divergence of the English spelling and pronunciation. The Latin graphical
system got broken.
The shift also resulted in a great number of diphthongs peculiar to Modern English.
In regard to all divisions of language history into periods, it must be remembered, however,
that changes in the language have always been gradual. Therefore, no sharp dividing lines can be
drawn between these periods, because in any age there must have been considerable overlapping
between old and new forms. Thus, these periods are simply more distinctly marked. These are
periods in which changes are greatly accelerated.
THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH
English is not the original language of England but, like the English people themselves, came
over from the continent of Europe.
The history of English as a separate language began in the middle of the fifth century when
the invading Germanic tribes began to conquer the Britons – the original inhabitants of Great
Britain, and to impose, on the country their own speed and social organization.
The dialects spoken by the Germanic settlers in England belonged to the Germanic (Teutonic)
branch of the Indo-European family of languages.
It is a well-known fact, that the Indo-European family comprises a great variety of languages.
It includes: Sanskrit with Prakrit and many living languages of India; Iranian with Modern Persian;
Greek; Armenian; Latin with the modern Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, French, etc.);
Celtic; Baltic and Slavonic (Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian, etc.) and some others.
The oldest representative of the Germanic language is Gothic, preserved to us in a partial
translation of the Bible by Bishop Wulfila, who lived in the IV century.
Gothic is a dead language now.
The living Germanic languages are divided into two groups:
1) the West-Germanic group including High German, Dutch, Low German, Frisian and
English,
2) the Northern or the Scandinavian group including Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and
Icelandic.
The Germanic branch of languages has a number of peculiar features in the vocabulary,
grammar and phonetics as compared with the other Indo-European languages. To gather an idea of
the peculiarities of the Germanic languages and to understand the interrelation between the
Germanic and the other branches of the family, a general picture of the grammatical and phonetic
structure of primitive Indo-European (the so-called parent language) is to be sketched.
Primitive Indo-European, which in the course of time differentiated into branches and
separate languages of the family, is supposed to have been a highly developed synthetical language,
extremely complicated and full of irregularities. Its grammar was highly inflectional the relations
between words being expressed by means of endings.
The structure of any word was characterized by three morphological elements: the root, the
suffix and the inflection.
Nouns and verbs had completely different endings, which varied with the character of the
stem, they were added to. There were three numbers in primitive Indo-European: singular, dual
and plural. This threefold division of number was inseparable from the case-endings in nouns and
from the personal endings in verbs. There were eight cases in Indo-European: Nominative,
Accusative, Dative, Genitive, Ablative, Locative, Instrumental, Vocative.
Each noun belonged to one of the three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter, the
division resting on grammatical, not on logical grounds.
As to its phonetic system, here also the parent language differed from the historically
transmitted Indo-European languages, having its characteristic features in consonants, vowels and
accentuation. Primitive Indo-European was rich in stops, the only fricative here being *s (with its
voiced allophone *z), the vowel system was very much like that of Greek, and as to accentuation,
very often the stress was shifted from one syllable to another according to definite rules, just as in
Modern Russian.
In historical times we find Indo-European split up into a variety of languages, each with its
own peculiarities in sounds, in grammar and in vocabulary. Thus in all the Germanic languages we
observe a considerable simplification of the earliest morphological system: they preserve only some
relies of the dual number, the system of eight cases is reduced to 4-5 cases. Another important thing
in the simplification of the tense-system in the verb and the development of the so-called weak
verbs, forming their past tense by adding the dental suffix.
The most important phonetic changes which greatly affected the whole look of the Germanic
languages were the consonant shift (often called Grimm’s law) and the stress shift.
The Consonant Shift resulted in the appearance of a great number of fricatives in the
Germanic languages. Due to this most of the old Indo-European words were changed past
recognition. According to this shift any *p, *t, *k was changed into *f, *þ, *h; any *b, *d, *g was
similarly shifted into *p, *t, *k; and any *bh, *dh, *gh became *b, *d, *g.
The following examples may illustrate the consonant shift in Germanic.
*p > *f:
*t > * þ:
*k > *h:
E. father – L. pater (cf. Arm. å³å)
E. three – L. tres; R. òðè
E. horn – L. cornu
*b > *p:
*d > *t:
*g > *k:
E. sleep – R. ñëàáûé
E. ten – L. decem; R. äåñÿòü (cf. Arm. ï³ë)
E. kin – L. genus
*bh > *b:
*dh > *d:
*gh > *g:
E. bear – Skr. bharami “I bear”; Arm. µ»ñ»Ù
O.E. medu – Skr. madhu; R. ìåä
E. guest – R. ãîñòü
The stress-shift affected the general character of the Germanic languages even more
thoroughly: the stress rules became very simple, nearly all words were stressed on the first syllable,
except verbs beginning with definite prefixes.
Thus the movable stress of Indo-European was replaced by a fixed one in the Germanic
languages.
LITERARY MONUMENTS OF OLD ENGLISH
The literary monuments of Old English, that have come down to us, are grouped into two
types from the point of view of the alphabets represented in them. These are the Old English runic
inscriptions and a great number of Old English manuscripts written in the Latin alphabet.
The monuments were composed in different Old English dialects – Northumbrian, Mercian,
West-Saxon and Kentish.
Most of the Old English literary monuments represent the West-Saxon dialect. The earliest
texts written in this dialect belong to the end of the IX century. A considerable body of Old English
prose was produced in King Alfred’s time whose reign extended from 871 to 901. Among them
Alfred’s translations of Latin books are especially to be noted. Alfred translated The Pastoral Care
(Cura Pasteralis) of Pope Gregory, the Chronical of Aresius, a Spanish clergyman, entitled Seven
Book of History against the Heathene, and the Consolation of Philosophy by Beethius, a Roman
philosopher. Among King Alfred’s translations of Latin books, the English version of Orosius’s
World History is especially valuable for Alfred’s own insertions. The most important of these,
besides being good specimens of original prose in Early West-Saxon, contain exceedingly
interesting geographical and ethnographical information of these times. Such original insertions are
the description of some parts of Europe and the narrative of Ohthere’s and Wulfstan’s voyages.
An important monument of the Old English period are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, brief
records that since the VII century, had been made in Anglo-Saxon monasteries, and were unified
and supplemented at Winchester, capital of West-Saxon England, in the second half of the IX
century. The Chronicles begin with a series of book-made annals, which start from J. Cesar and
then continue their genuine record up to different dates from the X to the XII century.
Among the monuments of the late West-Saxon prose abbat Aelfric’s works are to be
mentioned. Aelfric (955 – 1020 / 25) was the most productive writer of the late Old English period.
His language represents the classic Late West-Saxon dialect in its culmination. Aelfric’s chief
writings in English (and he wrote in Latin as well) are his numerous Homilies, his Latin Grammar
and Glossary, the Lives of Saints and translations from the Old Testament.
The Northumbrian dialect is known to us by a few monuments, the most valuable of these
belonging to the VII and VIII centuries. Among these are:Goodmen’s Hymn, the Ecclesiastical
History of Bede, the runic inscription on the Franks Casket and the inscription in verse on the
Ruthwell Cross.
The inscription on the Franks Casket (given to the British Museum by Aug. W.Franks, an
English archeologist) is a small box, made of the bone of a whale. The surface is almost entirely
covered with sculptured representations of some episodes from Old Germanic, Roman and biblical
stories, each piece of the carvings being enclosed in a frame of Old English runic inscriptions. It
represents a particularly archaic form of Old English.
Bede’s chief work, “The Church History of the English People”, written in Latin in 713, is a
very important source for the earliest history of Britain. It was translated into English in the second
half of the IX century into the Mercian dialect.
The Mercian dialect is represented by glosses and interlinear translations of Latin
ecclesiastical texts.
The Kentish is known by some private documents, belonging to the end of the VII century.
Among literary monuments of Old English the works of poetry stand somewhat apart. Of
these, first of all, the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, is to be mentioned. We do not know who
composed the epic. Its sources must have been partly mythological tales, partly heroic songs and
sagas of Scandinavian origin, some of them probably based on historical events. “Beowulf” is a
product of heathen times and reflects the customs, manners and interests of Scandinavian and
Anglo-Saxon tribes in the V and VI centuries. Te was originally composed in the Anglian dialect
ab. 700. But it has come down to us in a single manuscript, the dialect of which is on the whole
West-Saxon with some elements of the Anglian dialect.
Besides Beowulf, there are also poetical versions of Christian legends and poetical insertions
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.
Poetical monuments represent in general a mixed dialect, having in its basis the Anglian, with
some features of the West-Saxon dialect.
LECTURE 4
PECULIARITIES OF THE OLD ENGLISH ALPHABET
The Old English literary monuments represent two types of scripts, the so-called runic
alphabet and the Latin alphabet.
The runic alphabet was adopted by the Anglo-Saxons on the Continent. It represented a
special type of script used by all Germanic tribes before they became Christians.
About 600 A.D. England was Chrisstianized. It resulted in supplanting the runic alphabet by
the Latin one. But in so far as the Old English phonetic system differed greatly from that of Latin,
the Latin alphabet appeared somewhat deffective to convey the Anglo-Saxon sounds, the OE
scribes filled the want by borrowing several symbols from the runic alphabet. Finally, some letters
of the Latin alphabet were used to designate two or even more different sounds. A careful study of
the OE sound system has revealed that a set of letters s, f and þ (also shown as ð) stood for two
sounds each: a voiced and voiceless consonant. And yet, on the whole, OE spelling was far more
phonetic and consistent than MnE spelling.
The letters of the OE alphabet below are supplied with transcription symbols, if their sound
values in OE differ from the sound values normally attached to them in Latin and other languages.
Old English Alphabet
a
æ
b
c [k] or [k']1
d
e
f
[f] or [v]
ʒ [g], [g’], [γl or [j]
h [x], [x’] or [h]
i
1
m
n
[n], [ŋ]
o
p
r
s [s] or [z]
t
þ, ð [ð] or [θ]
u
w
x
y [y]2
The letters could indicate short and long sounds. The length of vowels is shown by a macron:
bāt [ba:t], NE boat (by a line above the letter); long consonants are indicated by double letters. (The
differences between long and short sounds are important for the correct understanding of the OE
sound system and sound changes, but need not be observed in reading.)
In reading OE texts one should observe the following rules for letters indicating more than
one sound.
The letters f, s and þ, ð stand for voiced fricatives between vowels and also between a vowel
and a voiced consonant; otherwise they indicate corresponding voiceless fricatives:
f OE ofer ['over]
selfa ['selva]
s
risan ['ri:zan]
þ, ð ōðer ['o:ðer]
1
2
NE over
self
rise
other
OE feohtan ['feoxtan]
oft [oft]
rās [ra:s]
ʒāst [ga:st]
ðæt [θæt]
The symbol ’ means ‘soft, palatal’.
A front labilised vowel like the vowel in Fr plume or C Bücher
NE fight
often
rose
ghost
that
wyrþe ['wyrðe]
worthy
lēoþ [leo:θ]
‘song’
The letter ʒ stands for [g] initially before back vowels, for [j] before and after front vowels,
for [γ] between back vowels and for [g’] mostly when preceded by c:
OE ʒan [g], ʒēar [j], dæʒ [j], daʒas [γ], secʒan [gg] (NE go, year, day, days, say).
The letter h stands for [x] between a back vowel and a consonant and also initially before
consonants and for [x’] next to front vowels; the distribution of [h] is uncertain:
OE hlæne [x], tāhte [x], niht [x’], hē [x] or [h] (NE lean, taught, night, he).
The letter n stands for [n] in all positions except when followed by [k] or [g]; in this case it
indicates [ŋ]:
OE sinʒan (NE sing).
The following sentences supplied with transcription and a translation into MnE illustrate the
use of the alphabet in OE. The passage is taken from Ohthere's account of his voyage round the
Scandinavian peninsula, inserted by King Alfred in his translation of Orosius’ WORLD HISTORY
(West Saxon dialect, 9th c.):
Ōhthere sæde his hlāforde Ælfrēde
['o:xtxere 'sæ:de his 'xla:vorde 'ælfre:de]
“Ohthere said (to) his lord Alfred
cyninʒe þæt hē ealra Norðmanna norþmest
['kyniŋge θæt he: 'ealra 'norθmãnna 'norθֽmest]
king that he (of) all Northmen to the North
būde ... þā fōr hē ʒiet norþryhte
['bu:de θa: fo:r he: jiet 'norθֽryx’te]
lived (had lived). Then sailed he yet (farther) northwards
swā feor swā hē meahte on þæm
[swa: feor swa: he: 'meaxte on θæ:m]
as far as he might (could) in the
ōþrum þrīm daʒum ʒesiʒlan.
[ ́o:ðrum θri:m 'daγum je'sijlan]
other three days sail”.
PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF THE OLD ENGLISH PHONETIC SYSTEM.
ACCENTUATION AND THE SYSTEM OF VOWELS
In tracing the vowel system of OE we usually distinguish between the vowels of stressed and
unstressed syllables as the English language not only nowadays but even in older times had two
distinct systems, one used in stressed and the other in unstressed syllables.
The peculiarity of OE accentuation was the same as in other Germanic languages – the
principal “dynamic” or “force” stress fell on the root syllable of the word. Word stress was fixed in
the sense that it did not shift in form-building: it remained on the same syllable in different forms of
the word.
It should be noted that the suffixes always remained unstressed. The principal stress remained
on the root when a prefix was added. With the stress falling on the root syllable, the unstressed
vowel underwent the process of weakening and disappearing.
OE vowel system / to be more correct West-Saxon vowel system / may be represented by the
following table.
FRONT
i, ī; y, ӯ
e, ē
æ, æ
HIGH
MID
LOW
BACK
u, ū
o, ō
a, å, ā
Note: According to the position of the vocal organs front and back vowels were distinguished
in OE. Distinctions were also made as to the nearness of the tongue to the palate, it being higher or
lower in the case of various vowels. Three tongue positions were noted: high, middle, low. In OE
rounded and unrounded vowels were to be distinguished as well.
Thus, the characteristic features of the OE vowel system, as compared to that of Modern
English, are the following:
1. a regular and consistent parallelism of short and long vowels;
2. the existence of rounded high and front vowels, not peculiar to Modern English.
Besides simple vowels or monophthongs, a number of diphthongs were distinguished in OE,
the second component of which being sometimes even lower (a more open sound) than the first
one. Modern English is characterized by diphthongs, the second element of which is usually a
higher vowel, this being i [ i ] or u [ u ]. This peculiarity of the Old English diphthongs accounts for
their instability and further development in English – their simplification (monophthongization) in
the Middle English period and even in Old English
SHORT
ea, eo, / ie /3 , io
LONG
ea, eo, / ie /1 , io
Vowels: from Germanic to Old English
There were four major changes in the vowels from Common Germanic to Old English:
Germanic
а
ai
au
eu
>
>
>
>
Old English
æ
ā
ēa
ēo
Each of them is different in terms of the change in place of articulation: the first involves
fronting of the original vowel, the second monophthongization, the last a lowering of the second
element; the third (au > ēa) is most peculiar, as the resulting sound bears no resemblance to the
original.
In addition to these changes three other types of change occurred: breaking, back mutation and
front mutation.
Front mutation is the most important, and it is often referred to as i-umlaut or i/j-mutation. It
is shared by all West and North Germanic languages, pre-dates written Old English and perhaps took
place around the sixth century. If a stressed syllable was followed by an unstressed syllable containing
[i] or [j], the vowel of the stressed syllable was fronted or raised. In other words, it partly assimilated
to the following high front [i] or [j]. After the mutation occurred the [i] or [j] that originally caused
mutation dropped out or changed to [e] so that it does not occur itself in the mutated words:
*bankiz > benc 'bench'; mūsiz > mӯs 'mice', plural of mūs.
This phonological change had profound morphological consequences, producing the vowel
mutation plurals, e.g. fōt-fēt 'feet', bōc-bēc 'books'. Some OE comparative and superlative adjectives
also showed mutation: strang, strengra, strengest. There is one survival of this in the adjectives in
modern English: old, elder, eldest, while all the others have been regularized.
Modern transitive-intransitive pairs derive from the mutation of old intransitive forms to
3
At the end of the IX century it became a monophthong
transitives: lie/lay, sit/set.
The chart below illustrates the OE vowel sounds, providing an example of the type of word in
which they feature, an approximate pronunciation and a gloss for each example:
OE vowels
Spelling
Sound OE word
Pronunciation Meaning
a
ā
æ
āē
e
ē
i
[a]
[a:]
[æ]
[æ:]
[ε]
[e:]
[i]
camp
wā
hæft
lāēst
tellan
eðel
hit
[kamp]
[wa:]
[hæft]
[læ:st]
[tεlan]
[e:ðel]
[hit]
battle
woe
captive
last
count
native lord
it
ī
o
ō
u
[i:]
[o]
[o:]
[u]
īs
from
hrōf
hund
[i:s]
[from]
[xro:f]
[hund]
ice
from
ice
roof
from
dog
ū
y
[u:]
[y]
[y : ]
[aeə]
[ae:ə]
fūl
yrre
[fu:l]
[yrre]
[y:stij]
[h aeəl]
[ae:əjə]
foul
anger
stormy
hall
eye
[sεolk]
[be:o]
silk
ӯ
ea
ēa
eo
ēo
[εo]}
ӯstig
heall
ēage
seolc
[e:o]
bēo
be
LECTURE 5
Linguistic Developments.
OE Grammar: the noun , the adjective, the pronoun, the verb.
The Structure of Old English
Old English is said (technically) to begin in 449 CE with the invasion of Kent by Hengest and
Horsa, although we place its start at 500 CE, since it must have taken one or two generations - at least
- for it to develop its distinctive character we do not have the first manuscript attestations of English
until about 700 CE. We know that the Anglo-Saxons spoke West Germanic, a sister dialect to Old
High German, Old Frisian, Old Low German, Low Saxon and Old Low Franconian..
Several very important features characterize OE:
(1) Old English was synthetic, or fusional, rather than analytic or isolating.
(2) The noun, verb, adjective, determiner and pronoun were highly inflected.
Consequently, word order was not as rigid as in Present-Day English.
(3) There were weak and strong declensions of nouns and adjectives.
(4) There were also weak and strong conjugations of verbs.
(5) The vocabulary of OE was overwhelmingly Germanic in character (approximately
85 per cent of the vocabulary used in OE is no longer in use in Modern English).
(6) Word formation largely took the form of compounding, prefixing and suffixing; there was
relatively little borrowing from other languages.
(7) Gender was grammatical (dependent on formal linguistic criteria), not logical or natural
(contingent on sex).
Old English Gender
Gender in OE is grammatical, not logical or natural. This means that nouns and pronouns are
followed different patterns of declension as a function of linguistic characteristics of the words (often
inherited from I-E and not visible in OE itself). wif 'wife' is a neuter noun and mann 'man' is a
masculine noun, and wifman n 'woman' is therefore masculine also, as dictated by the second
element compound. The switch to logical gender occurred partly because of the attrition of the
system of inflections, though it actually began in the OE period and was complete by the end of
Middle English. It has been suggested on the recent work in corpus linguistics that feminine nouns
kept their gender longer than masculine or neuter nouns, and this is perhaps the reason why in
Modern English 'she' is occasionally still used to refer to inanimate nouns such as of countries,
ships and the like.
Inflection in Old English
Old English was an inflected language like Latin or, to a somewhat lesser extent, German.
There were generally speaking four cases in the noun systems depending on the grammatical
function of the noun. The nominative case was used primarily for subjects, the accusative case for
direct objects, the genitive for possessives; and the dative case was used primarily for indirect objects
but had other functions as well. There were also rare traces of a fifth case, the instrumental, where
in Modern English we would use a preposition such as ‘with’ ‘by means of’(e.g. sweorde 'He
slew him with a sword'). In most instances we find that the instrumental forms have coalesced
with those of the dative. The Old English system retained the singular and plural numbers, but had
lost the dual number (used in reference to pairs of things or persons), which was present in I-E and is
retained in a few modern languages. All three original genders, i.e. masculine, feminine and neuter,
were retained in Old English.
The Noun
Nouns in Old English are divided into either vocalic or consonantal stems, depending on the
element in which the noun-stem originally ended. There are four vocalic stems -a, -o, -u and -i,
though the vowel itself was often lost in Old English, the declension being actually inherited from an
earlier form of Germanic. The i-stems, e.g., wine 'friend', for the most part joined the masculine
a-nouns and the two are therefore treated together below. The largest group of consonantal stems
was marked by the presence of n in Indo-European; other minor groups of nouns included r- and
nd- stems. Among vocalic stems, masculines consist of a-stems (and old i-stems), neuters of a-stems
and feminines of o-stems, while u-stems were either masculine or feminine. Consonant stems could be
any of the three genders.
The chart below provides a sample paradigm, in this case the masculine a-stem noun 'fish',
showing the forms which directly underlie the regular forms of the two remaining Modern English
inflections on the noun, the plural and the possessive:
Old English masculine a-stem noun
Singular
Plural
Nominative
fisc
fiscas
Accusative
fisc
fiscas
Genitive
fisces
fisca/fiscana
Dative
fisce
(Instrumental) fisce
fiscum
fiscum)
(fiscum)
The nominative/accusative plural form fiscas is the source of plural -s in Modern English,
while the genitive singular -es form is the source of the Modern English -'s possessive.
Over one-third of OE nouns were masculine a-stems, while a quarter were feminine o-stems, a
quarter were neuter a-stems and 10 per cent were masculine consonant stems. Added to this were
some other, minor, declensions, such as mutated plurals (fot, fet).
Old English masculine n-stem noun
Singular
Plural
Nominative guma, hunta
guman, huntan
Accusative
guman, huntan guman, huntan
Genitive
guman, huntan gumena, huntena
Dative
guman, huntan gumum, huntum
It is striking that there is no longer any differentiation in the singular outside
nominative, and, while the nominative and accusative plural are opposed to the genitive and
dative plural, the nominative and accusative plural are also exactly the same as the
accusative, genitive, and dative singular.
While the u-declension originally comprised masculines, feminines and neuters, almost
all the neuters and a large number of the masculines changed declensions. The majority of the
u-stems are still masculines, however. The chart below features one masculine (magu
'man') and one feminine (duru 'door') u-stem noun:
Old English masculine and feminine u-stem noun
Masculine
Feminine
Nominative magu maga
duru dura
Accusative magu maga
duru dura
Genitive
maga maga
dura dura
Dative
maga magum dura durum
The following overview of the set of OE nominal endings illustrates clear cases of
syncretism (falling together) of case endings: the masculine and neuter vocalic stem endings
in the singular are identical, as are the genitive and dative plural; in fact, all dative plural
forms are the same in all stem types (vocalic as well as consonantal), and the tendency is
for all genitive plural forms of vocalic stems to be the same. Greater harmony is found in the
consonantal stems, in which all genitive and dative singular forms are the same across all
genders, while there is no longer any differentiation according to gender in the plural. (NB:
elements in parentheses may or may not occur.)
The Adjective
The OE adjective is especially interesting for a variety of reasons. First, there are two
sets of forms, termed 'strong' and 'weak': the strong endings are used when the adjective is
not accompanied by a marker of definiteness - in this case an article or a demonstrative or
possessive pronoun; the weak endings occur when the adjective is preceded by a determiner.
Thus:
Gōd mann '(a) good man' vs. Sē gōda mann 'the good man'
Second, the cases of the adjective preserve a greater degree of formal differentiation than
do the cases of the noun; this is especially true of the strong adjective, in both numbers. In
addition, the adjective preserves five distinct cases (i.e., preserving a separate instrumental,
something that is no longer obvious in the noun). In the weak adjective, on the other hand,
and especially in the plural, syncretism is the rule. There are striking parallels if we compare
the weak declension of the adjective with the consonantal declension of the noun above. The
full set of adjectival forms, here with the example gōd 'good' is as follows:
M
Sg gōd
N
G gōd-es
D gōd-um
A gōd-ne
I
gōd-e
Pl
N
G
D
A
gōd-e
gōd-ra
gōd-um
gōd-e
Strong
F
M
Weak
F
N
N
gōd
gōd
gōd-a
gōd-e
gōd-e
gōd-re
gōd-re
gōd-e
gōd-es
gōd-um
gōd
gōd-e
gōd-an
gōd-an
gōd-an
gōd-an
gōd-an
gōd-an
gōd-an
gōd-an
gōd-e
gōd-a
gōd-ra
gōd-um
gōd-a
gōd
gōd-ra
gōd-um
gōd
gōd-an
gōd-ena
gōd-um
or god
gōd-an
or gōd-ra
Special points to notice are:
(1) the loss of a distinction among the three genders in the nominative singular;
(2) the realization of most forms of the weak singular adjective as gōd-an
(3) the stabilization of one form each in the genitive and dative plural for all genders; and
(4) the complete lack of gender distinction among weak adjectives in the plural.
OE Personal Pronouns
Like present -day English, OE has singular and plural forms of personal pronouns. It also
preserves (until early ME) the dual pronouns (from I-E), which are used to refer to a pair of people,
e.g. a married couple. All three persons and genders are preserved in the singular. OE has also
four cases in the pronouns still distinguishing the dative and accusative forms, which fell together by
Middle English, producing what is in ModE often referred to as the 'objective case'.
Singular
Dual
Plural
First person
I
we two
we
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
ic
mec, mē
mīn
mē
wit
unc, uncit
uncer
unc
wē
ūsic, ūs
ūser, ūre
ūs
Second person
you
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
ðu
ðec, ðe
ðīn
ðē
Third Person
Masc
Neut
he
Singular
it i
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
hē
hine
his
him
git
inc, incit
incer
inc
hit
i hit
it his
it him
is
r
r
h
h
h
h
gē
ēowic, ēow
ēower
ēow
Fem
All genders
she
Plural
they
hēo,hīe
hēo,hīe
hire
hire
hēo,hīe
hēo,hīe
hira, heora
him,heom
The Old English Verb
In the most general of terms, the verbal system as a whole was greatly simplified in comparison
with the I-E system. Old English had only two simple tenses, present and past (or preterite).
English inherited a verbal system from Germanic (and ultimately from I-E) that was frequently
characterized by vowel alternations within the root, known as Ablaut. The nature of the vowel
alternations within a paradigm depended on the class of the verb, as well as on the tense and mood of
a given form. The alternations themselves were not greatly changed from Germanic to OE, with the
exception of regular sound changes within OE and instances of analogical levelling. In addition to the
existence of different classes of conjugation (or conjugational types), the verbs are described as either
'strong' or 'weak', but the 'weak' verbs constitute the vast majority of the verbs, and the total number
of 'strong' verbs was only slightly higher than 300. In essence, the weak verbs differed from the strong
primarily in the shape of the preterite: the former had stable root vowels and tended to add a dental
ending, sometimes consisting of an extra syllable, while the latter were characterized by Ablaut
word-medially.
Strong verbs
Strong verbs are traditionally subdivided into six classes, depending on the sequences of root
vowels that appear in the different tenses. While some authors include a seventh class, which consists
of reduplicating verbs, these make up a relatively insignificant group, which we will ignore here. The
six principal classes are commonly described as follows:
Class
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
ī
ēo
i
e
e
a
Infinitive
drīfan
cēosan
bindan
beran
cweþan
faran
Preterite Sing.
ā
drāf
ēa
cēas
a
band
æ
bær
æ
cwæþ
ō
fōr
Preterite Pl.
i
drifon
u
curon
u
bundon
āē
bāēron
āē
cwāēdon
ō
fōron
Past Participle
i
drifen
o
coren
u bunden
o boren
e cweden
a
faren
As suggested above, different vowels could appear not just from one tense to another, but
also within a given paradigm- especially in the past. The simplification of the system as a whole is
mirrored in the paradigms of the indicative and subjunctive, as syncretism often took place in the set
of personal endings used. This phenomenon is especially true of the forms of the subjunctive, but is
seen in the plural of the indicative as well, as illustrated by the following sample verb,
drīfan ‘ to drive’:
Indicative
Subjunctive
Present
Present
Singular
1. drīf-e
drīf-e
2. drīf-st (-est) drīf-e
3. drīf-ð (eð)
drīf-e
Plural
1. drīf-að
drīf-en
2. drīf-að
drīf-en
3. drīf-að
drīf-en
In the present tense forms, then, syncretism has taken place in the plural of the indicative (in
which one form expresses all persons), while the subjunctive distinguishes only between singular and
plural. The same is true of the past tense forms, but note the root-vowel alternation in the
indicative:
Indicative Subjunctive
Past
Past
Singular
1. drāf
drīf-e
2. drif-e
drīf-e
3. drāf
drīf-e
Plural
1. drif-on
2. drif-on
3. drif-on
drīf-en
drīf-en
drīf-en
We note that the system is further streamlined in the following ways:
(1) the present and past forms of the subjunctive as a whole are differentiated from one
another only by vowel length in the root (long: short);
(2) there is no longer any differentiation between the first and third persons singular past
indicative;
(3) the second person singular past indicative is identical to the subjunctive form.
Clearly the gradual loss of distinction among a great many forms had to affect the further
development of verbal paradigms; the tendency towards underdifferentiation (or, to put it another way,
simplification) continued into the Middle English period. As we shall see, however, this primarily
concerns the identity of specific morphological endings; vowel alternations within the root tended to
remain, as is reflected in the system inherited by Modern English.
Weak verbs
The forms of the weak verbs depended entirely on the ending, as there were no vowel
alternations (that is, no Ablaut) within the root. Many verbs could be cited as examples here, but one
will suffice, dēman 'to judge' (NB: final -e is represented in some linguistic sources as -æ; here -e
may be taken as a normalized variant attested during the OE period):
Indicative
Subjunctive
Present
Present
Singular
dēm-e
1. dēm-e
dēm-e
2. dēm-(e)st dēm-e
3. dēm-(e)ð dēm-e
(eð)
Plural
1.dēm-að
dēm-en
Past
Past
Singular
1.dēm-de
dēm-de
2.dēm-des(t) dēm-de
3.dēm-de
dēm-de
Plural
dēm-don
dēm-den
The same remarks regarding syncretism of forms made for the strong verbs apply equally to
the weak.
Irregular verbs
'Irregular', or anomalous, verbs form an extremely small group in OE, namely the four verbs
'do', 'go', 'will', 'be'. The verb 'to be' can be cited here as an example, as it is especially noteworthy
for having two present tense paradigms, the first of which foreshadows the Modern English verb,
while the second is evident in the Modern German paradigm:
Indic. sing.
Present Past
1
2
3
eom
eart
is
beo
bist
biþ
waes
wāēre
wæs
Indic.pl.
Subj. sing
sind, sindon
sie
beoþ
beo
wāēron
wāēre
Subj. pl.
sien
beon
wāēren
LECTURE 6
ETIMOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE
OLD ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Examination of the origin of words is of great interest in establishing the interrelations
between languages and linguistic groups.
The OE vocabulary was almost purely Germanic; except for a small number of
borrowings, it consisted of native words inherited from PG or formed from native roots and
affixes.
So from the point of view of its origin the Old English vocabulary can be divided into 2
groups:
I. native words or the so-called native element of the vocabulary.
II. borrowings (loan words) characterised also as the foreign element of the vocabulary. The
bulk of the Old English vocabulary consisted of native words, borrowings constituted but a
small part of the vocabulary.
Native words were not homogeneous in their origin. They are divided into the following 3
groups from the point of view of their reflection in other Indo-European Germanic and nonGermanic languages:
1. Common Indo-European words:
Words belonging to the common IE layer constitute the oldest part of the OE
vocabulary. They go back to the days of the OE parent-language before its extension over the
wide territories of Europe and Asia and before the appearance of the Germanic group. They
were inherited by PG and passed into the Germanic languages of various subgroups, including
English.
Among these words we find names of some natural phenomena, plants and animals,
agricultural terms, terms of kinship, etc.; verbs belonging to this layer denote the basic
activities of man; adjectives indicate the most essential qualities. This layer includes personal
and demonstrative pronouns and most numerals. OE examples of this layer are: eolh, mōna,
trēōw, næʒl, beard, brōðor, mōdor, sunu, dōn, bēōn, lång, ic, mīn, þæt, twā, etc. (MnE elk,
moon, tree, nail, beard, brother, mother, son, do, be, long, I, my, that, two).
2. Common Germanic words:
The common Germanic layer includes words which are shared by most Germanic
languages, but do not occur outside the group. Being specifically Germanic, these words
constitute an important distinctive mark of the Germanic languages at the lexical level. This
layer is certainly smaller than the layer of common IE words. Semantically these words are
connected with nature, with the sea and everyday life. Some of the words did not occur in all
the OG languages. Their areal of distribution reflects the contacts between the Germanic tribes
at the beginning of their migrations: West and North Germanic languages (represented here by
OE, OHG and O Icel) had many words in common.
Common Germanic Words in Old English
OE
hand
sand
eorþe
sinʒan
findan
ʒrēne
steorfan
scrēap
fox
macian
OHG
hant
sant
erda
singan
findan
gruoni
sterban
scâf
fuhs
mahhon
Gt
handus
airþa
siggwan
finþan
-
O Icel
hond
sandr
jorð
singva
finna
græn
-
MnE
hand
sand
earth
sing
find
green
starve
sheep
fox
make
3. Specifically OE words:
The third etymological layer of native words can be defined as specifically OE, that is
words which do not occur in other Germanic or non-Germanic languages. These words are few,
if we include here only the words whose roots have not been found outside English: OE
clipian, brid, boʒ, ʒyrl, hlāford, etc. (MnE call, bird, boy, girl, lord).
FOREIGN INFLUENCES ON OLD ENGLISH
The Contact of English with Other Languages. In the course of the first 700 years of its
existence in England it was brought into contact with at least three other languages, the languages of
the Celts, the Romans, and the Scandinavians. From each of these contacts it shows certain
effects, especially additions to its vocabulary.
Celtic Place-Names and Other Loanwords. When we come, however, to seek the evidence
for this contact in the English language, investigation yields very meager results. Such evidence as
there is survives chiefly in place-names. The kingdom of Kent, for example, owes its name to the
Celtic word Canti or Cantion, the meaning of which is unknown, while the two ancient
Northumbrian kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia derive their designations from Celtic tribal names.
Other districts, especially in the west and southwest, preserve in their present-day names traces of
their earlier Celtic designations. Devonshire contains in the first element the tribal name Dumnonii,
Cornwall means the 'Cornubian Welsh', and the former county Cumberland (now part of
Cumbria) is the 'land of the Cymry or Britons'. Moreover, a number of important centers in the
Roman period have names in which Celtic elements are embodied. The name London itself,
although the origin of the word is somewhat uncertain, most likely goes back to a Celtic designation.
The first syllable of Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Lichfield, and a score
of other names of cities is traceable to a Celtic source, and the earlier name of Canterbury
(Durovernum) is originally Celtic. But it is in the names of rivers and hills and places that the
greatest number of Celtic names survive. Thus the Thames is a Celtic river name, and various
Celtic words for river or water are preserved in the names Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Dover, and Wye.
Celtic words meaning 'hill' are found in place-names like Barr (cf. Welsh bar 'top', 'summit'),
Bredon (cf. Welsh bre 'hill'), Bryn Mawr (cf. Welsh bryn 'hill' and mawr 'great'), Creech, Pendle
(cf. Welsh pen 'top'), and others. Certain other Celtic elements occur more or less frequently
such as cumb (a deep valley) in names like Duncombe, Holcombe, Winchcombe; torr (high
rock, peak) in Torr, Torcross, Torhill; pill (a tidal creek) in Pylle, Huntspill; and brocc (badger)
in Brockholes, Brockhall, etc. Besides these purely Celtic elements a few Latin words such as
castra, fontana, fossa, portus, and vīcus were used in naming places during the Roman occupation
of the island and were passed on by the Celts to the English.
Outside of place-names, however, the influence of Celtic upon the English language is
almost negligible. The relation of the two peoples was not such as to bring about any considerable
influence on English life or on English speech. The surviving Celts were a submerged people. The
Anglo-Saxon found little occasion to adopt Celtic modes of expression, and the Celtic influence
remains the least of the early influences that affected the English language.
Three Latin Influences on Old English. Unlike Celtic Latin was not the language of a
conquered people. It was the language of a highly regarded civilization, one from which the AngloSaxons wanted to learn. Contact with that civilization, at first commercial and military, later
religious and intellectual, extended over many centuries and was constantly renewed. It began long
before the Anglo-Saxons came to England and continued throughout the Old English period. For
several hundred years, while the Germanic tribes who later became the English were still
occupying their continental homes, they had various relations with the Romans through which they
acquired a considerable number of Latin words. Later when they came to England they saw the
evidences of the long Roman rule in the island and learned from the Celts additional Latin words
that had been acquired by them. And a century and a half later still, when Roman missionaries
reintroduced Christianity into the island, this new cultural influence resulted in a quite extensive
adoption of Latin elements into the language. There were thus three distinct occasions on which
borrowing from Latin occurred before the end of the Old English period, and it will be of interest to
consider more in detail the character and extent of these borrowings.
I. Continental Borrowing (Latin Influence of the Zero Period).
The first Latin words to find their way into the English language owe their adoption to the
early contact between the Romans and the Germanic tribes on the continent. Several hundred Latin
words found in the various Germanic dialects at an early date testify to the extensive intercourse
between the two peoples
The adopted words naturally indicate the new conceptions that the Germanic peoples
acquired from this contact with a higher civilization.
1) Next to agriculture the chief occupation of the Germanic tribes in the empire was war, and
this experience is reflected in words like camp (battle), segn (banner), pīl (pointed stick), weall
(wall), pytt (pit), stræt (road, street), mīl (mile), and miltestre (courtesan).
2)More numerous are the words connected with trade: cēap (bargain; cf. Eng., cheap,
chapman) and mangian (to trade) with its derivatives mangere (monger), mangung (trade,
commerce), and mangunghūs (shop), pund (pound), mydd (bushel), sēam (burden, loan), and
mynet (coin). From the last word Old English formed the words mynetian (to mint or coin) and
mynetere (money-changer).
3) One of the most important branches of Roman commerce with the Germanic peoples was
the wine trade: wīn (wine), must (new wine), eced (vinegar), and flasce (flask, bottle). To this
period are probably to be attributed the words cylle (L. culleus, leather bottle), cyrfette (L.
curcurbita, gourd), and sester (jar, pitcher).
4)A number of the new words relate to domestic life and designate household articles,
clothing, and the like: cytel (kettle; L. catillus, catinus), mēse (table), scamol (L. scamellum,
bench, stool; cf. modern shambles), teped (carpet, curtain; L. tapētum), pyle (L. pulvinus, pillow),
pilece (L. pellicia, robe of skin), and sigel (brooch, necklace; L. sigillum). Certain other words of a
similar kind probably belong here: cycene (kitchen; L. coquina), cuppe (L. cuppa, cup), disc (dish;
L. discus), cucler (spoon; L. cocleārium), mortere(L. mortārium, a mortar, a vessel of hard
material), līnen (cognate with or from L. līnum, flax), līne (rope, line; L. līnea), and gimm (L.
gemma, gem).
5)The speakers of the Germanic dialects adopted Roman words for certain foods, such as
cīese (L. cāseus, cheese), spelt (wheat), pipor (pepper), senep (mustard; L. sināpi), cisten (chestnut
free; L. castanea), cires {bēam) (cherry tree- L. cerasus), while to this period are probably to be
assigned butere (butter; L. būtӯrum), ynne (lēac) (L. ūnio, onion), plūme (plum), pise (L.pisum,
oea) and minte (L. mentha, mint). Roman contributions to the building arts are evidenced by such
words as cealc (chalk), copor (copper), pic (pitch), and tigele (tile).
II. Latin through Celtic Transmission (Latin Influence of the First Period)
The Celts, indeed, had adopted a considerable number of Latin words - more than 600 have been
identified - but the relations between the Celts and the English were such, that these words were not
passed on. Among the few Latin words that the Anglo-Saxons seem likely to have acquired upon
settling in England, one of the most likely is ceaster. This word, which represents the Latin castra
(camp), is a common designation in Old English for a town or enclosed community. It forms a
familiar element in English place-names such as Chester, Colchester, Dorchester, Manchester,
Winchester, Lancaster, Doncaster, Gloucester, Worcester, and many others. Some of these refer
to sites of Roman camps, but it must not be thought that a Roman settlement underlies all the towns
whose names contain this common element. The English attached it freely to the designation of any
enclosed place intended for habitation, and many of the places so designated were known by quite
different names in Roman times. A few other words are thought for one reason or another to belong
to this period: port (harbor, gate, town) from L. portus and porta; munt (mountain) from L. mōns,
montem; torr (tower, rock) possibly from L. turris, possibly from Celtic; wīc (village) from L.
vīcus. All of these words are found also as elements in place-names. It is possible that some of the
Latin words that the Germanic speakers had acquired on the continent, such as street (L. strāta
via), wall, wine, and others, were reinforced by the presence of the same words in Celtic. At best,
however, the Latin influence of the First Period remains much the slightest of all the influences that
Old English owed to contact with Roman civilization.
III. Latin Influence of the Second Period: The Christianizing of Britain. The greatest
influence of Latin upon Old English was occasioned by the conversion of Britain to Roman
Christianity beginning in 597. The religion was far from new in the island, because Irish monks
had been preaching the gospel in the north since the founding of the monastery of Iona by
Columba in 563. However, 597 marks the beginning of a systematic attempt on the part of Rome to
convert the inhabitants and make England a Christian country. According to the well-known story
reported by Bede as a tradition current in his day, the mission of St. Augustine was inspired by an
experience of the man who later became Pope Gregory the Great. Walking one morning in the
marketplace at Rome, he came upon some fair-haired boys about to be sold as slaves and was told
that they were from the island of Britain and were pagans. “‘Alas! what pity,’ said he, ‘that the
author of darkness is possessed of men of such fair countenances, and that being remarkable for
such a graceful exterior, their minds should be void of inward grace?’ He therefore again asked,
what was the name of that nation and was answered, that they were called Angles. ‘Right,’ said he,
‘for they have an angelic face, and it is fitting that such should be co-heirs with the angels in
heaven. What is the name,’ proceeded he ‘of the province from which they are brought?’ It was
replied that the natives of that province were called Deiri. ‘Truly are they de ira,’ said he,
‘plucked from wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ. How is the king of that province called?’
They told him his name was Ælla; and he, alluding to the name, said ‘Alleluia, the praise of God the
Creator, must be sung in those parts.’” The same tradition records that Gregory wished himself to
undertake the mission to Britain but could not be spared. Some years later, however, when he had
become pope, he had not forgotten his former intention and looked about for someone whom he
could send at the head of a missionary band. Augustine, the person of his choice, was a man well
known to him. The two had lived together in the same monastery, and Gregory knew him to be
modest and devout and thought him well suited to the task assigned him. With a little company of
about forty monks Augustine set out for what seemed then like the end of the earth.
The third period of Latin influence on, the OE vocabulary began with the introduction of
Christianity in the late 6th c. and lasted to the end of OE.
Numerous Latin words which found their way into the English language during these five
hundred years clearly fall into two main groups:
(1) words pertaining to religion,
(2) words connected with learning.
The rest are miscellaneous words denoting various objects and concepts which the
English learned from Latin books and from closer acquaintance with Roman culture. The
total number of Latin loan-words in OE exceeds five hundred, this third layer accounting
for over four hundred words.
The new religion introduced a large number of new conceptions which required new
names; most of them were adopted from Latin, some of the words go back to Greek
prototypes:
OE apostol
MnE apostle from L apostolus
from Gr apóstolos
antefn
anthem
antiphōna
antiphona
biscop
bishop
episcopus
episcopos
candel
candle
candēla
clerec
clerk
clēricus
klerikós
dēofol
devil
diabolus
diábolos
mæsse
mass
missa
mynster
minster
monastērium
munuc
monk
monachus
monachós
cyrice < Gr. kuriacon (ÏÇñ³ÏÇ) “of the Lord”
Mn.E. church
English “The house of the Lord”
Armenian “The day of the Lord”
To this list we may add many more modern English words from the same s ource: abbot,
alms, altar, angel, ark, creed, disciple, hymn, idol, martyr, noon, nun, organ, palm, pine
('torment'), pope, prophet, psalm, psalter, shrine, relic, rule, temple and others.
After the introduction of Christianity many monastic schools were set up in Britain. The
spread of education led to the wider use of Latin: teaching was conducted in Latin, or
consisted of learning Latin. The written forms of OE developed in translations of Latin texts.
These conditions are reflected in a large number of borrowings connected with education, and
also words of a more academic, "bookish" character. Unlike the earlier borrowings scholarly
words were largely adopted through books; they were first used in OE translations from Latin,
e.g.:
OE scōl
NE school
L schola (Gr skole)
scōlere
scholar
scholāris
māʒister
master, ‘teacher’
magister
fers
verse
versus
dihtan
‘compose’
dictare
Other modern descendants of this group are: accent, grammar, meter, gloss, notary,
decline.
A great variety of miscellaneous borrowings came from Latin probably because they
indicated new objects and new ideas, introduced into English life together with their Latin
names by those who had a fair command of Latin: monks, priests, school-masters. Some of
these scholarly words became part of everyday vocabulary. They belong to different semantic
spheres: names of trees and plants - elm, lily, plant, pine; names of illnesses and words
pertaining to medical treatment - cancer, fever, paralysis, plaster; names of animals - camel,
elephant, tiger; names of clothes and household articles - cap, mat, sack, sock; names of foods
- beet, caul, oyster, radish; miscellaneous words - crisp, fan, place, spend, turn.
From the beginning, the English did not hesitate to hybridize by combining Latin roots with
native prefixes or suffixes and by forming compounds consisting of one Latin and one English
element. Thus OE bemūtian 'to exchange for' has an English prefix on a Latin stem (L. mutare).
OE candeltrēow 'candelabrum' has a Latin first element and an English second element (trēow
'tree').
Latin influence on OE vocabulary is also occasionally reflected in calques, or loan translations,
in which the semantic elements of a foreign word are translated element by element into the
borrowing language. For example, Latin unicornis 'unicorn' was loan-translated as ānhorn 'one
horn', and OE tofealdan 'to come to land' is a calque of Latin applicare. Probably the best-known
OE calque is godspell 'gospel', literally "good news," from Latin evangelium.
Good examples of translation-loans are the Germanic names of days.
L. Lunnae dīes =
O.E. Mōndan dæʒ “ day of the moon”
L. Martis dīes =
O.E. Tiwes dæʒ
Tiw was a Germanic God identified with the Roman Mars
L. Mercuri dīes =
O.E. Wōdnes dæʒ
Woden was a Germanic God.
L. Iowis dīes =
O.E. þūnres dæʒ
L. Jupiter
=
O.E. þūnr
L. Veneris dīes =
O.E. Friʒe dæʒ
Friʒe was a Germanic goddess corresponding to Roman Venus
L. Sōlis dīes =
O.E. Sunnan dæʒ “ day of the sun”
The only exception was Saturday.
L. Saturni dīes =
O.E. Sætern dæʒ
The number of translation-loans was great in O.E. religious literature.
THE FOREIGN ELEMENT IN OLD ENGLISH
The number of borrowings in Old English was rather limited. However, already in Old
English we find a number of Latin borrowings as well as Celtic and Slavonic ones. There were
about 400 Latin words in Old English. They were borrowed at various times and in various ways. A
part of Latin words belonged to the so-called “popular” borrowings i.e. words which were
borrowed in the result of lively intercourse between the two peoples, the Romans and Germanic
tribes. Others belonged to the so-called “bookish” or the “scientific” borrowings i.e. words
borrowed through religious literature. A number of Latin words were borrowed directly from Latin
others through Celtic. Chronologically there are singled out three layers of Latin borrowings:
1. the first layer is known as “Continental” borrowings. These are words borrowed by the
Anglo-Saxons before they settled in Britain i.e. when they still lived in the continent if Europe.
These words are found in all other Germanic languages. The words of this layer reflect the
economic and cultural relations between the Romans and the Germanic tribes. It was through trade
relations that elements of Roman civilisation and culture began to enter the life of the Germanic
tribes.
e.g. O.E. cēāpian - “to sell, to trade in”
This root of the word is preserved in the adjective cheep.
e.g. O.E. pūnd
“pound”
O.E. ynce
“inch”
O.E. mynet
“mint”
The names of the goods also belong to this layer.
e.g. O.E. wīn
“wine”
cease
“cheese”
cyrse
“cherry”
pipor
“pepper”
plume
“plum”
The influence of Roman culture and mode of life is also seen in the borrowings as:
e.g. O.E. cōc
“cook”
cycene
“kitchen”
cytel
“kettle”
dīsc
“dish”
cuppe
“cup”
Some words are connected with the construction work. During the rule of Britain the Romans
built many wide and long roads and their Latin name “strata”, “via” - “a powerful road” was
borrowed by the Anglo-Saxons. Thus, O.E. stræt originally meant a road but as there were many
settlements along these roads and many houses on both sides of them, the word began to denote a
street.
e.g. O.E. weall
“wall”
cēālc
“chalk”
pāl
“pole”
pytt
“pit” (яма)
2. To the second layer belonged those words which were borrowed from the Celts (Britains)
who in their turn had borrowed them from the Romans during the Roman rule in Britain. This layer
consists of a small group of words mostly names of Roman settlements and Roman military camps
which had been built by the Romans during their rule. These words survive in Mn. E. as place
names or their parts.
Mn.E. Chester < O.E. ceaster “city” < L. castra “a military camp”
Winchester, Mancnester, Rochester, Doncaster, Lancaster.
Gloucester
[glo:stə]
Worcester
[wu:stə]
Leicester
[lestə]
O.E. wīc < L. vīcus “village, an inhabited place”
wich / wick
Greenwich, Norwich, Harwich
Cheeswick
Lincaln < L. colonia
O.E. port < L. portus
Portsmouth
Bridgeport
Devonport
3. the most considerable Latin influence upon the O.E. vocabulary was due to the
introduction of Christianity at the end of 6th at the beginning of the 7th century. As a result of this
many words connected with religion and learning were borrowed into English. The majority of
these words are of Greek origin as religious books were first written in Greek and only then
translated into Latin.
e.g. O.E. deaful
“devil”
enʒel
pāpa
munuc
nunna
“nun”
clerec
biscop
O.E. maʒester
prēōst
biscop
cyrice < Gr. kuriacon (ÏÇñ³ÏÇ) “of the Lord”
Mn.E. church
English “The house of the Lord”
Armenian “The day of the Lord”
scōl
Latin influence upon the O.E. vocabulary is also seen in a number of the so-called
translation-loans (калька) i.e. words made up from the material of the native language but on the
pattern of the source language. Good examples of translation-loans are the Germanic names of
days.
L. Lunnc dies =
O.E. Mōndan dæʒ
L. Martis dies =
O.E. Tiwes dæʒ
Tiw was a Germanic God identified with the Roman Mars
M. Mercuri dies=
O.E. Wōdnes dæʒ
Woden was a Germanic God.
M. Iowis dies =
O.E. Pūnres dæʒ
Jupiter
L. Veneris dies =
O.E. Friʒe dæʒ
Venus
M. Sōlis dies =
O.E. Sunnan dæʒ
The only exception was Saturday.
M. Saturni dies =
O.E. Sætern dæʒ
The number of translation-loans was great in O.E. religious literature.
Gospel < O.E. ʒōd spell = “blessing news”.
LECTURE 7
LOST VOCABULARY
A large proportion of the rich Old English vocabulary has been lost. Estimates vary; most
assume that between 65 percent and 85 percent of the OE lexicon has been lost since OE times.
Why should any words be lost? There are many reasons for it, and for some words, multiple
reasons.
1. In a few cases, words seem to simply "wear out." Sound changes reduce them to
the point where there is phonetically so little left that they are replaced by longer,
more distinctive forms. This is probably what happened to OE ēa 'river, stream'
(which does survive, however, in the first syllable of island, though the word has
been respelled by false analogy with Latin insula). The first-person singular nominative pronoun
came close to extinction when OE ic [ič] lost its final consonant and was reduced to [i]; lengthening
the vowel saved it.
2. Words may be lost when sound changes make two previously distinct words identical.
English usually tolerates the resulting homophones if they do not lead to confusion; hence reed (OE
hrēod) and read (OE rædan) both survive in MnE. However, if the two words are members of the
same word class and are used in similar contexts, unacceptable ambiguity can arise. As was
mentioned earlier, when sound changes made OE lætan 'let, allow' and OE lettan 'hinder, delay'
identical in pronunciation (MnE [lεt]), one had to give way because both were transitive verbs used
in similar contexts. The let meaning "hinder" does survive marginally in let ball (in tennis) and the
legal phrase without let or hindrance, but it would be impossible in the context of "I won't let
you." For a similar reason, English borrowed the ON third-person plural personal pronouns. Sound
changes had made the words for "he" and "they" and the words for "her" and "their" identical in
most dialects. Although English had lost and was losing many other grammatical distinctions
expressed by inflections, the singular-plural distinction continued strong, so some of the original
native forms had to be replaced.
3. Thousands of words are lost because of cultural and technological changes; in a sense, it is
not so much the words that are lost as it is their referents. Because our social and legal system is
entirely different from that of the Anglo-Saxons, we have no need for the OE words like ofweorpan
'to stone to death'. Technological changes have eliminated the referents for æwul ‘basket with a
narrow neck for catching fish', sædlēap 'sower's basket', and tænel 'wicker basket'.
4. Taboos are responsible for the loss of some words. Words for death and dying, for
example, are often replaced by euphemisms, which themselves become tainted by their meanings
and are in turn replaced by other words or euphemisms. OE had an extremely common verb,
gewītan, meaning "to go away." By late OE, it had become a common euphemism for "to die."
The ultimate loss of gewītan from the language is probably the result of its unpleasant
associations with death.
5. Semantic changes in one area of vocabulary may set off a chain reaction that ends
up with some words being squeezed out in a kind of linguistic musical chairs. OE
weorðan 'to become, happen; passive auxiliary' was one of the most frequently used
words in the language and seemingly would have had an excellent chance of survival.
OE also had the verbs cuman 'to come, go', gān 'to go, come', and becuman 'to come, approach,
arrive, happen, come to be'. Over the years, the present clear distinction between come and go arose,
and the usefulness of becuman in the meaning of "come" declined. In Middle English, a new verb
happen was created from the Old Norse loan hap; happen now encroached on another meaning of
both weorðan and becuman. The French loanwords approach and arrive further invaded what had
once been the territory of becuman. At the same time, from OE times on, weorðan
had had a rival in bēon 'to be' as the passive auxiliary. By the twelfth century, become was being
used in close to its present meaning of a change in state, a slight extension of its OE meaning ''come
to be." Because the use of weorðan as a passive auxiliary was simultaneously giving way to be,
becuman and weorðan were now in direct competition for the one remaining area of meaning,
change of state. By the fourteenth century, it was clear that become was winning, and the last
citation of worth as a verb dates from the fifteenth century. Though we cannot explain why
worth should be lost and become retained, the process whereby one of them became
redundant can be traced.4
This is not to imply that a language never can have two ways of expressing the same meaning
or grammatical distinction. For example, MnE uses both get and be as passive auxiliaries.
However, there is a definite stylistic difference between the two; I got fired is both stronger and
more casual than I was fired. Moreover, the general tendency is to have only one form to express
basic grammatical concepts. Certainly it is hard to imagine any way of expressing the progressive
in MnE except by be + -ing or the agent of a passive construction except with by.
6. If two dialects of a language use different words to refer to the same concrete object,
confusion results when speakers of the two dialects try to communicate. For ex ample, Americans
from one part of the country are often puzzled to discover that what they call a ground squirrel is
called a gopher in another part of the country. If the different dialects merge through continuous
contact, one of the terms is likely to be abandoned. The existence of three words meaning "spider"
in Old English - ātorcoppe, lobbe, spiðra - may have led to the loss of ātorcoppe and lobbe from
standard English (though attercop survives dialectally).
The process can be accelerated if a loanword from another language adds to the number of
synonyms. In OE, both hyht and hopa meant "hope"; hyht had the additional meanings of "faith
in" and "joy." When trust was borrowed from Old Norse and joy from Old French, hyht lost its
unique territory and became vulnerable to extinction. This vulnerability was only increased when, by
Middle English, the word hyʒt (OE hyht) had become identical in pronunciation to another noun
meaning "haste," adding homonymy to dialect confusion.
7. Fashion leads to the loss of many vocabulary items. This may involve the higher prestige of
urban over rural forms, of upper-class words over what are perceived as lower-class words, or of
foreign words over native words. After the Conquest, the higher prestige of French as the language
of the conquering and ruling class led to the loss of many Old English words. Examples include the
replacement of OE þēod by French people, of sīþ by journey, of wuldor by glory, of æðele by noble,
and of feorh by spirit.
OLD ENGLISH SEMANTICS
SEMANTIC CATEGORIES
Semantics is the most difficult aspect of language to treat systematically because it is the
interface between language and the real world - and the real world is notoriously complex and
unpredictable. Experience can be categorized not only in many different ways, but also in several
ways simultaneously. As an example, consider two semantic areas that have been widely studied in
recent years, primarily because they are more obviously structured than and hence more amenable to
analysis than most aspects of meaning. The two areas are kinship terms and colour terms. In both
these areas, we find differences between Old English and Present-Day English. Obviously, there has
been no change in possible biological relationships of human beings or in the rods and cones of the
human eye between Old English times and today. Therefore, if we find differences in the semantic
systems, they reflect, not differences in the real world, but differences in the way human beings
interpret it.
Considering all the distinctions that could be made in kinship relationships, OE
MnE are really very similar. Neither has core terms expressing order of birth (Chinese, for example,
has separate terms for a person's older and younger siblings). Both OE and MnE are "egooriented"; that is, the same individual may be sister to one person, daughter to another, mother
to a third, and aunt to a fourth; the term used to describe the relationship varies according to the
4
Another contributing factor may have been avoidance of homophony. Worth as verb was identical in so to the adjective
and noun worth, whereas become was unique.
individual speaker or subject of conversation. OE and MnE also share terms for the members of
the nuclear family: OE mōdor, fæder, sunu, dohtor, sweostor, brōðor. Both distinguish sex in most
terms (MnE cousin is an exception ), and both normally distinguish biological from legal
relationships: OE dohtor versus snoru ‘daughter-in-law’.
However, OE tended to put less emphasis on generation differences beyond the nuclear
family; mago was simply a male relative, nefene could be either a granddaughter or a niece, and a
nefa could be a nephew, a second cousin, a stepson, or a grandson OE also lacked separate terms
for the marriage relationship; OE wīf meant simply ''woman,'' and OE hūsbonda meant ''male
head of the household." On the other hand the distinction between maternal and paternal relatives
was more specifically made in OE. A maternal uncle was ēam, but a paternal uncle was fædera; a
geswigra was a sister's son.
In MnE, when we use the word color, we usually are thinking of only one aspect of color-hue,
the dimension of color that ranges from red, orange, yellow, green, blue violet, and back to red.
However, the human eye perceives other dimensions of color, including lightness (how "light" or
"dark" the color is), saturation (the amount of gray in the color; its vividness), luster (the amount
of light seemingly reflected from the surface), and scintillation (sparkling or twinkling). OE had
most of the basic hue words of MnE, including, at least, words for red, yellow, green, violet, white,
black, and gray. However, for reasons unknown, these terms for hue were used rather infrequently,
at least in surviving texts. Texts rarely mention, for example, the hue of a person's hair, complexion,
or clothing. This omission is somewhat surprising because other Germanic cultures like Icelandic
and neighboring Celtic cultures such as the Welsh and Irish pay particular attention to hue in their
surviving texts.
On the other hand, colour terms referring to saturation, lightness, luster, and scintillation
appear frequently in OE texts. It is not always possible to be sure precisely what some color words
meant, so the glosses are only approximate.
Saturation
Lightness
fealu ‘dusky’
dunn ‘dingy’
scīr ‘bright’
hasu ‘ashen’
græg ‘grey’
beorht ‘bright’
hār ‘hoary’
wann ‘dark’
torht ‘bright’
healfhwīt ‘half-white’
scīma ‘brightness’
dungræg ‘dusky’
hādor ‘brightness’
brūnwann ‘dusky’
æscfealu ‘ash-colored’
Luster
lēoma ‘gleam’
glæd ‘shining’
blīcan ‘glitter’
lӯman ‘shine’
brūn’having metallic luster’
Scintillation
spircan ‘sparkle’
scimerian ‘shimmer’
blēobrygd ‘scintillation’
brigd ‘play of color’
bregdan ‘play of color’
tӯtan ‘sparkle’
It might be tempting to suggest that speakers of OE tended to ignore hue because, first, their
culture lacked the wide array of chemical dyes that makes us so conscious of hue today. Second,
OE speakers had little artificial lighting in a country notorious for cloudy days and long dark
winters. The cones of the eye, required for perceiving hue, do not function well in dim light.
However, this theory does not explain why Celtic speakers and other Germanic speakers in
equally gloomy land reveled in terms descriptive of hue.
In sum, it is dangerous to insist on one-to-one correspondences between a language and the
culture that speaks this language. For example, if the proverbial man from Mars examined only the
etymology of many common MnE expressions, he might conclude that English speakers are highly
religious. Our first meal of the day is "breaking a fast." When we part, we ask the blessing of God
upon each other ("goodbye" is historically from "God be with you"). Given the slightest emotional
disturbance, we invoke a deity (Good Lord! Good heavens! My God! God only knows!) or call
down a curse {What the devil! To hell with it! Damn it all!). The fact is that there is no tidy and
reliable relationship between a culture and the semantic systems of its language.
LECTURE 8
In English history the Middle English period is marked by 2 important historical events,
which influenced the further development of the English language. These were the Scandinavian
invasions on the one hand and the Norman Conquest on the other hand. Due to these conquests
English came into contact with 2 different languages: Scandinavian dialects (Danish, Swedish,
Norwegian) and French, and underwent the influence of the languages. Especially important was
the influence of Scandinavian dialects as the fusion of English with the Scandinavian dialects
brought about considerable changes in the grammatical structure, especially in English
morphology. (The process of reduction of unstressed syllables was strengthened and accelerated
under the Scandinavian influence).
The Relation of the Two languages. The relation between the two languages in the district
settled by the Danes is a matter of inference rather than exact knowledge. Doubtless the situation
was similar to that observable in numerous parts of the world today where people speaking
different languages are found living side by side in the same region. Although in some places the
Scandinavians gave up their language early there were certainly communities in which Danish or
Norse remained for some time the usual language. UP until the time of the Norman Conquest the
Scandinavian language in England was constantly being renewed by the steady stream of trade and
conquest. In some parts of Scotland, Norse was still as late as the seventeenth century. In other
districts in which the prevailing speech was English there were doubtless many of the newcomers
who continued to speak their own language at least as late as 1100 and a considerable number who
were to a greater or lesser degree bilingual. The last-named circumstance is rendered more likely by
the frequent intermarriage between the two peoples and by the similarity between the two tongues.
The Anglian dialect resembled the language of the Northmen in as number of particulars in which
West Saxon showed divergence. The two may even have been mutually intelligible to a limited
extent. Contemporary statements on the subject are conflicting, and it is difficult to arrive at a
conviction. But wherever the truth lies in this debatable question, there can be no doubt that the
basis existed for an extensive interaction of the two languages upon each other, and this conclusion
is amply borne out by the large number of Scandinavian elements subsequently found in English.
The Norman Conquest took place in 1066 and was headed by the Norman Duke William the
Conqueror. The Normans were Scandinavians by origin (O.E. Norpmånn). During the 9 th and 10th
centuries they occupied a considerable part of the Northern district of France where the Dukedom
of Normandy was formed. After several generations the Normans became Romanized as having
conquested politically and economically they were greatly influenced by the conquered as to their
culture and language. The fact is that they were out off from a steady intercourse with their
Scandinavian relatives and thus they adopted the higher culture of France and French language.
And when in 1066 the Normans conquered England they already spoke French (the Northern
dialect of French). Thus in linguistic respect the Norman Conquest there began a long period of
bilinguism in the country as the Norman nobility who formed the upper classes of English society
spoke French while the Anglo-Saxons, especially the peasantry spoke English.
THE MIDDLE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
SCANDINAVIAN BORROWINGS AND THEIR INFLUENCE OF
THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Scandinavian borrowings present great variety as to their semantics though words of
everyday life prevail over any other words. Chronologically, the first significant new source of
loanwords in ME was Scandinavian. (At this time, the differences among Danish, Swedish, and
Norwegian were so slight that it is unnecessary to try to distinguish them; hence we use the more
general terms Norse or Scandinavian.) Many of the Scandinavian words that first appear in writing
during ME were actually borrowed earlier, but, particularly in a society with a low literacy rate,
there is a lag between use in speech and first appearance in writing. When they were written down,
it was usually first in the North and the East Midlands, those regions with heaviest Norse settlements.
Only later did they spread to other areas of England.
The listing below is not exhaustive. The Scandinavian element in English amounts to over
650 words.
Nouns –
birth, booth, bull, crook, dirt, down, fellow, freckle, gap, guess,
husband, kid, leg, link, loan, root, skill, score, sky, tidings, trust,
window.
Adjectives awkward, flat, ill, loose, low, meek, odd, rotten, scanty, sly, ugly, wrong.
Verbs –
to busk, to call, to cast, to crawl, to die, to drop, to gasp, to glitter, to
lift, to nag, to raise, to scatter, to screech, to take.
A quick perusal of these lists reveals that almost all these words are so common. English
today, so native in appearance, that it is hard to believe that they are loans from another language.
Part of their familiarity is explainable by the fact that they have been in the language for so long that
they have had plenty of time to become fully assimilated. Further, Scandinavian is so closely
related to English that these loans "feel" like English.
Some of the Norse loans (such as both, call, and take) express such basic concepts that we feel
that they must be native words, that Old English could not have done without them. Old English
did have its own terms for the concepts, but, unlike the majority of ME loans from French or Latin,
Norse loans often supplanted rather than supplemented native vocabulary. Thus Norse call replaced
OE hātan, both replaced OE bā, and take replaced OE niman and fōn. In other instances, the Norse
loan took over only part of the domain of the native English word, while the English word survived
in a narrowed usage. For example, ON sky replaced OE heofon as the general term for the upper
atmosphere, but heaven survives, especially in the sense of "dwelling-place of God." Occasionally,
both the native word and the Norse loan survive as almost complete synonyms; few people could
specify any distinct difference in meaning between Norse crawl and native English creep.
In addition to its contributions to the general vocabulary, Norse introduced a number of new
place-name elements into English, especially into the areas heavily settled by the Scandinavians.
Chief among these were –beck ‘brook’, -by ‘town’, -dale ‘valley’, -thorp ‘ village’, -thwaite
‘piece of land’, and –toft ‘piece of ground’: Griezebeck, Troutbeck, Thursby, Glassonby,
Knarsdale, Uldale, Braithwaite, and Seathwaite.
Finally, Norse influence was heavy at about the time the English began to us surnames, so
Norse was able to give English the common surname suffix -son. The suffix proved so popular
that it was attached not only to first names of Norse origin (Nelson, Anderson), but also to native
English names (Edwardson, Edmundson) and even to French names (Jackson, Henryson). English
did not, however, adopt the Scandinavian practice of using -datter 'daughter' as a surname suffix
for females.
The Scandinavian words that made their way into English were not confined to nouns and
adjectives and verbs but extended to pronouns, prepositions, adverbs, and even a part of the verb to
be. Such parts of speech are not often transferred from one language to another. The pronouns they,
their, and them are Scandinavian. Old English used hīe, hiera, him. Possibly the Scandinavian
words were felt to be less subject to confusion with forms of the singular. Moreover, though these
are the most important, they are not the only Scandinavian pronouns to be found in English. A late
Old English inscription contains the Old Norse form hanum for him. Both and same, though not
primarily pronouns, have pronominal uses and are of Scandinavian origin. The preposition till was
at one time widely used in the sense of to, besides having its present meaning; and fro, as the
equivalent of from, survives in the phrase to and fro. Both words are from the Scandinavian.
From the same source comes the modern form of the conjunction though, the Old Norse
equivalent of OE þēah. The Scandinavian use of at as a sign of the infinitive is to be seen in the
English ado (at-do) and was more widely used in this construction in Middle English. The adverbs
aloft, athwart, aye (ever), and seemly, and the earlier heþen (hence) and hweþen (whence), are all
derived from the Scandinavian. Finally the present plural are of the verb to be is a most significant
adoption. While we aron was the Old English form in the north, the West Saxon plural was
syndon (cf. German sind), and the form are in Modern English undoubtedly owes its extension to
the influence of the Danes. When we remember that in the expression they are both the pronoun
and the verb are Scandinavian, we realize once more how intimately the language of the invaders
has been rooted in English.
Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether we have a Scandinavian borrowing or a mere
influence of the Scandinavian word upon the meaning or the form of the corresponding English
word. Thus Modern English “dream” in its pronunciation goes back to the O.E. “drēām”, but its
meaning is influenced by the Scandinavian words as O.E. “drēām” had the meaning of “joy,
triumph”.
The Scandinavian influence is often told upon the form of the word:
Mn.E. give < Sc. gefa
Mn.E. get < Sc. geta
The O.E. forms were “ʒiefan” [jievan], “ʒietan” [jietan].
O.E. ʒiefan > M.E. yiven
O.E. ʒietan > M.E. yiten, yeten
Had the M.E. form survived in Mn.E., we should have had “yive” and “yet”, but not “give”
and “get”.
The Scandinavian influence upon the English vocabulary led to the development of AngloScandinavian etymological doublets, which appeared due to the fact that both the English and the
Scandinavian word having the same origin survived in English. The phonetic difference between
them was later used for their semantic differentiations and as a result then developed 2 different
though etymologically identical words:
English
shirt Sc.
skirt
shatter
scatter
shriek screech
With the preservation of the combination “sc” peculiar to the Scandinavian dialects and with
its change into “sh” peculiar to English.
English
road Sc.
raid
whole hale
to rear
to raise
In connection with Scandinavian influence there developed also Anglo-Scandinavian
semantic doublets, i.e. peculiar synonyms, which appeared due to the fact that both the English and
the Scandinavian words survived in English. Later on they were differentiated in their meaning and
often the appearance of the Scandinavian word led to the narrowing of the meaning of the
corresponding English one.
Mn.E. to starve
<
Sc. to die
< O.E. steorfan
Mn.E. craft
<
Sc. skill
Mn.E. hide
<
Sc. skin
Mn.E. sick
<
Sc. ill
Mn.E. heaven
<
Sc. sky
Thus, the Scandinavian borrowings not only enriched the English vocabulary, but at the same
time they had influenced upon it. This influence led to the disappearance of the number of words,
to the change of their meaning and to the rise of etymological doublets and synonyms.
FRENCH BORROWINGS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH
The penetration of French borrowings into English was gradual (beginning with the 11th
century). The strongest French influence however is marked in the 14th century. It is important to
note that during the 11th -12th century it was Norman French which had immediate influence upon
English whereas beginning with the 13th century when Norman French began to die out there began
the influence of Parisian French i.e. of the central dialects which lie in the basis of literary French.
Unlike the Scandinavian borrowings French borrowings belong to definite semantic spheres.
French words are in their bulk borrowed by the ruling feudal class and are therefore of
“aristocratic” character reflecting the interests, tastes and mode of life of the Norman nobility. Here
belong:
1. titles and ranks of respect: feudal, vassal, noble, prince - princess, baron - baroness,
peer, emperor - empress, duke - duchess, count - countess, squire - squires, marquise marquis, miss, Mrs., majesty.
All designations of rank except King, Queen, Lord, Lady, Earl are of French origin.
2. words relating to Government and the highest administration: to govern, governor,
government, serve, service, servant, state, country, power, crown, parliament, council,
authority, court, courtier, realm, reign, royal, treaty, tax, tyrant, subject, public, liberty,
rebel, rebellion, exile, treason, traitor.
3. words relating to law court: innocent, just, justice, justify, judge, jury, crime,
punishment, prison, advocate, evidence, proof, complaint, sentence, verdict, to accuse,
condemn, acquit, force.
4. As the management of military matters was also in the hands of the Norman nobility we
find a number of military words, such as: war, peace, victory, defeat, siege, to siege, battle,
banner, army, regiment, soldier, officer, sergeant, lieutenant.
5. Among French borrowings there are a number of words relating to the mode of life of
aristocracy, the names of precious stones, to cookery, some towncrafts, art, literature, religion:
a) leisure, pleasure, feast, dance, appetite, taste, supper, dinner, dress, gown, frog,
attire, coat, petticoat, cloak, collar, veil, lace, embroidery, fashion,
b) diamond, emerald, sapphire, ruby, amber, turquoise, amethyst, garnet.
c) beef (ox, cow - Anglo-Saxon), mutton (sheep - Anglo-Saxon), veal (calf - AngloSaxon), pork (bacon, pig, swine - Anglo-Saxon).
d) city, towncrafts, merchant, tailor, painter, butcher, carpenter, mason (whereas the
craftsmen living in the village retain Anglo-Saxon names: shoemaker, blacksmith,
spinner, weaver.
e) art, music, beauty, figure, colour, paint, sculpture, architecture, arch, tower, pillar,
column, palace, cast, cathedral, literature, prose, poet, chronicle, story, tragedy,
comedy, romance, volume, chapter, title, prologue, preface, parchment, pen, paper.
f) religion, pray, prayer, preach (v), to repent, to confess, sacrifice, adore, devotion,
obedience, faith, baptism, image, crucifix, passion, temptation, saint, charity, mercy,
virtue, virgin, chapel, etc.
Among French borrowings there are words, which at first sight seem to be quite common not
relating to the life of aristocracy, e.g. table and chair. However, the close examination of these
words convinces us of the fact that their penetration into English is also connected with the life of
aristocracy. The corresponding Anglo-Saxon words denoting the same notions are:
board < O.E. bord
stool < O.E. stōl
which denote rough furniture whereas table and chair denoted refined pieces of furniture which first
appeared at the feudal castles. French borrowings like the Scandinavian ones led to the
development of Anglo-French etymological doublets which had definite sources:
1. a part of Anglo-French etymological doublets developed on the basis of the common
Indo-European element of the vocabulary in the Germanic and Romance languages. To such
doublets belonged:
brother = friar
fatherly = paternal
2. some Anglo-French etymological doublets appeared due to the fact that English borrowed
one and the same French word twice from different French dialects:
Norman
catch
Parisian
chase
cattle
chattels
canal
channel
3. Latin - French etymological doublets which appeared due to the fact that English
borrowed one and the same Latin word twice: once directly from Latin and for the 2nd time the
same Latin word through French:
MnE sure – secure (from O Fr seure and L securum)
MnE defeat – defect (from O Fr defait and L defectum)
MnE pursue – prosecute (from O Fr persuir and L prosecutum)
MnE vowel – vocal (from O Fr vouel and L vocalem)
French influence led also to the development of Anglo-French semantic doublets that’s
peculiar synonyms, one of them native, the other French. It goes without saying that when both the
native and the French words having the same meaning survived in the language, they underwent
semantic changes and were differentiated in their meaning and use. The differences that have
developed in course of time between the two synonyms, when both have survived, are chiefly the
following: the native word has the strongest association with everything primitive, fundamental,
popular, while the French word is often more formal, more polite, more refined and less emotional.
The difference between the English word and its French synonym is usually the following.
The English word is colloquial, its French synonym is more bookish. Or the English word is
associated with everything popular, primitive and its French synonym is more polite, more refined:
to begin - to commence
to feed - to nourish
to look - to regard
to look for - to search
to hinder - to prevent
to hide - to conceal
to wish - to desire
help - aid
life - existence
ship - vessel
tongue - language
friendship - amity
hearty - cordial
inner (outer) - interior (exterior)
In the result of changes that took place in M.E. the English vocabulary became mixed, this
being the most characteristic feature of M.E. vocabulary as compared with that of O.E. This mixed
character of the English vocabulary later became stronger leading to modern state of things with its
complicated interrelation between the native and foreign elements.
LECTURE 9
PHONETIC PECULIARITIES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE MIDDLE
ENGLISH PERIOD
REDUCTION OF NON-STRESSED VOWELS
In the OE period there were full endings – i.e. the vowel sounds /a, o, u, e/ were fully
pronounced in the unstressed position /in the unstressed endings/.
In the ME period all the unstressed vowels gradually turned into the neutral sound /ə/ which
was introduced by the letter “e”. It especially affected the unstressed vowels in the inflexions.
Finally most of the OE inflexions were levelled. For instance:
OE
fiscas
fisces
rison
talu
talum
ME
fishes
fishes
risen
tale
talen
[fiəs]
[fiəs]
[rizən]
[ta:lə]
[ta:lən]
The reduction of the non-stressed vowels had greatly contributed to the destruction of the
system of inflexions of the English language in the Middle English period.
Some consonants, especially “n” and “m” were also reduced in the final position in the
Middle English period and in many instances were dropped altogether.
E.g. OE
OE
wīrtan
rīsan
>
>
ME
ME
write (n)
rise (n)
In pronouns the final consonant “n” was pronounced only before words which began with a
consonant. In Modern English the consonant “n” survived in the so-called “absolute” form of the
possessive pronoun “mine”.
E.g. my friend
a friend of mine
The Middle English phonetic law of preservation or loss of the final n is reflected in the
two forms of the indefinite articles –a, an in Modern English, while in the possessive pronouns the
two variations with or without a final n became differentiated as the absolute and the conjoined
forms: mine- my, thine- thy.
Thus, the most important change in the phonetic system of Middle English is the destruction
of differences in unstressed vowels which led to the loss of their phonetic value. This resulted in the
confusion of many grammatical forms differentiated formally by unstressed vowels.
The final /e/ disappeared in Late ME though it continued to be spelt as –e. When the ending- e
survived only in spelling, it was understood as a means of showing the length of the vowel in the
preceding syllable and was added to words which did not have this ending before:
E.g. OE stān, rād and ME stoon, stone, rode.
Thus in ME and NE we can no longer subdivide the vowels into two distinct sub-systemsthat of stressed and unstressed vowels /as done for OE/.
QUANTITATIVE CHANGES OF ENGLISH VOWELS
IN EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH
The earliest of positional changes was the readjustment of quantity before some consonant
clusters; it occurred in early ME or perhaps even in late OE.
1. Short vowels were lengthened before homorganic consonants: -ld, -mb, -nd
E.g. OE wild – ME wild [wi:ld].
OE mind – ME mind [mi:ld].
OE cild – ME child [t∫i:ld].
If a third consonant followed these combinations lengthening did not take place.
E.g. OE cildru – ME children [t∫ildrən].
2. All other groups of two or more consonants produced the reverse effect: they made the
preceding long vowel short, and all vowels in this position became or remained short.
E.g. OE cēpte – ME kepte [´keptə].
Another important alternation in the treatment of vowel quantity took place later in the 12th
or 13 century.
th
3. Short vowels became long in open syllables. This lengthening mainly affected the more
open of the short vowels /e/, /a/,/o/. The short vowel sounds /i/ and /u/ were narrow and as a rule
were not lengthened.
Quantitative Vowel Changes in Late Old English
and Early Middle English
Phonetic conditions
Change
Examples
illustrated
OE
ME
Before
homorganic Vowels become cild
child [ti:ld]
consonant sequences: long
findan
finden [´fi:ndən]
sonorant plus plosive
climban
climben [´kli:mbən]
(ld, nd, mb)
cold
cold [´ko:ld]
feld
[fe:ld]
fundon
founden [´fu:ndən]
gold
Before
other Vowels become fīftiʒ
consonant sequences
short
fēdde
mētte
wīsdōm
In open syllables
Vowels become mete
long and more stelan
open
macian
talu
nosu
stolen
gold [go:ld]
fifty [´fifti]
fedde [´feddə]
mette [´mettə]
wisdom [´wizdəm]
mete [´mε:tə]
stelen [´stε:lən]
maken [´ma:kən]
tale [´ta:lə]
nose [´no:zə]
stolen [´sto:lən]
NE
child
find
climb
cold
field
found (past of
find)
gold
fifty
fed
met
wisdom
meat
steal
make
tale
nose
stolen
QUALITATIVE VOWEL CHANGES
1. Development of the Short and Long Vowel a, ā.
OE short vowel “a” usually remained unchanged in ME.
E.g. OE abbod - ME abbot
OE “å” /nasalized “a”/ developed differently in various dialects. In most Middle English
dialects it changed into “a”. In West Midland it changed into “o”:
E.g. OE
lånd
mån
lånʒ
ME
land/ lond
man / mon
lang / long
OE long “ā” also developed in different ways in different dialects. In the Northern dialect
it remained unchanged, while in Midland and Southern it changed into long open “ō”.
E.g.
gān
stān
rād
OE
ME
gōn
stōn
rōd
2. Development of Short and Long Vowels “æ”, “æ”.
The short vowel “æ” changed into “a” in most of the ME dialects.
E.g.
OE
wæs
æpple
þæt
ME was
apple
that
In the West Central and Kentish dialects the short vowel “æ” changed into “e”.
ME “ă” /Northern, Central, Southern/
OE æ
ME “ĕ” / West Central, Kentish/.
The long vowel “æ” changed into long open “ę” in the Wessex dialect. In all the other
dialects it changed into the long close vowel “ẹ”
ME “ę” / the Wessex dialect/
OE æ
ME “ẹ” / Northern, Central, Southern/.
3. Development of the Short and Long Vowel “y”, “ӯ”.
The OE vowel “y” disappeared in the ME period. In Northern dialect “y” changed into
“i”, in Western dialects – into “u” and in the Southern dialects - into “e”.
OE
y
i / Northern/
u / Western/
e / Southern/
first
OE fyrst
fillan
furst
OE fyllan
ferst
fellan
bisy
busy
besy
OE bysig
fullan
OE byrgian
birien
burien
berian
As it is seen from the above examples literary English reflects the Northern development
of the vowel. In some cases, however, other dialectial forms penetrated into literary English and
often with a rather complicated interrelation between spelling and pronunciation as spelling
reflects one dialectial form, pronunciation – the other as in the words bisy and bery.
DEVELOPMENT OF DIPHTHONGS
Contraction
All Old English diphthongs were contracted (became monophthongs) at the end of the
Old English period.
Periods
Sounds
ēo>ē
ēa>ę
eo >e
ea>a
■'■'"
bbb
se
eal
Old English
dēop
brēad
seofon
eald
Middle English
deep
bread
seven
ald
But instead of the former diphthongs that had undergone contraction at the end of the Old
English period there appeared in Middle English new diphthongs. The new diphthongs sprang into
being due to the vocalization of the consonant [j] after the front vowels [e] or [æ] or due to the
vocalization of the consonant [ j ] or the semi-vowel [w] after the back vowels [o] and [a].
E.g.
ll
Old English
dæʒ>daʒ
MiddleEnglish
h >dai
New English
day
weʒ>weʒ
>wei
way
grēʒ>greʒ
>grei
grey
draʒan>drawen
an
boʒa>bowe
>drauen
draw
>boue
bow
Thus in Middle English there appeared four new diphthongs: [ai], [ei], [au], [ou].
The letter “k” was introduced to denote the consonant sound / k / before front vowels, and the
letter “c” was used to denote the consonant / k / before back vowels and consonants, except “n”.
e.g. cēpan
- ME kepen
cind
kind
can
can
After short vowels the consonant / k / was denoted by the diagraph “ck”.
e.g. OE bæc - ME back
The diagraph “gh” was used by the Norman scribes to denote the consonant /x/, especially
before / t /.
e.g. OE nyht - ME night /niht/
brōhte broghte /bro:ht /.
The letter "v" was used to introduce the voiced variant of the OE consonant /v/ in the
intervocal position.
e.g. OE lufian - ME loven /luvən/.
The French scribes also used diagraphs for denoting silibants and affricates. For instance, the
silibant / ∫ / was indicated by the diagraph "sh", the affricate / t∫ / by the diagraph "ch", /dʒ/ -by
"dg”.
e.g. OE fisc - ME fish
OE ecg - ME edge
sceal
shall
cild
child
cēōsan
chesen
The diagraph "ph" stood for the voiceless consonant sound /f/ in Greek and Latin borrowings.
e.g. ME Zephirus, phylosophy.
For letters indicating two sounds the rules of reading are as follows.
G and C stand for /d / and / s / before front vowels and for /g / and / k / before back ones.
Y stands for /j/ at the beginning of words, otherwise it is equal to the letter ī.
The letters TH and S indicates voiced sounds between vowels and voiceless sounds initially,
finally and next to voiceless consonants.
As stated before, O usually stands for /u/ next to letters whose shape resembles the shape of
the letter U. To determine the sound value of O one can look up the origin of the sound in OE and
the pronunciation of the word in NE: the sound /u/ did not change in the transition from OE to ME;
in NE it changed to /∧/. It follows that the letter O stood for /u/ in those ME words which contain
/∧/ today, otherwise it indicates /o/.
THE ORIGIN OF MIDDLE ENGLISH VOWELS
ME short vowels developed either from OE short vowels or from OE short diphthongs,
sometimes long vowels as well yielded ME short sounds.
Thus, ME short / i / arised from:
1. OE short i, OE drincan – ME drinken;
2. OE short y, OE fyllan – ME fillen
3. OE ie,
OE giefan – ME given;
4. OE long ī, OE wīsdom –ME wisdom
ME short / e /:
1. OE short e, OE helpan – ME helpen;
2. OE short eo,
OE heorte – ME herte;
3. OE short y /in the Southern dialects/, OE byrgan – ME beryen
4. OE long ē, OE mētte – ME mette.
ME short / u /:
1. OE short u, OE sunu – ME sone;
2. OE long ū, OE hūsbōnda – ME husband;
ME short / o /:
1. OE short o, OE bord – ME bord
2. OE å,
OE lång – ME long / lang
ME short / a /:
1. OE short a, OE abbod – ME abbot;
2. OE å,
OE månn – ME man;
3. OE æ,
OE hæt – ME hat
4. OE ea,
OE heard – ME hard.
OE long vowels also suffered some drastic changes in ME period.
ME long /i /:
1. OE long i, OE wrītan – ME wrīten;
2. OE long y, OE fӯr – ME fīr;
3. OE short i + a cluster of two homorganic consonants, OE cild – ME child.
ME long close / ẹ/:
1. OE ē, OE hēr – ME hẹr;
2. OE eō, OE seōn – ME sẹn;
3. OE short e + a cluster of two homorganic consonants, OE feld – ME fẹld;
ME long open / ę/:
1. OE long æ, OE sæ – ME sę;
2. OE ēā,
OE ēāst – ME ęst;
3. OE short e in the open syllable, OE mete – ME męte.
ME long / u /:
1. OE long u, OE hūs – ME hous;
2. OE short u + a cluster of two homorganic consonants, OE funden- ME founden
ME long close /ọ/:
1. OE long o, OE don – ME doon;
2. OE short o + a cluster of two homorganic consonants,OE wolde- ME wọlde /Mn would
/
ME long open /o/:
1. OE long a, OE stan – ME ston;
2. OE short o in the open syllable, OE open – ME open
ME long / a / always arised from short / a/ and / å/ in the open syllables /stressed/,
1. OE scacan – ME shāken;
2. OE nåma – ME nāme.
Middle English Vowels (the Age of Chaucer, Late 14th c.)
Monophthongs
Diphthongs
Short i
e
a
o
u
ei
ai
oi
au
ou
Long
i: e: ε:
a: o: o:
u:
Lecture 10
GENERAL SURVEY OF GRAMMAR CHANGES
IN MIDDLE AND NEW ENGLISH
The grammar system of the language in the Middle and New English periods underwent
radical changes. As we remember, the principal means of expressing grammatical relations in Old
English were the following:
- suffixation
- vowel interchange
- use of suppletive forms,
all these means being synthetic.
In Middle English and New English many grammatical notions formerly expressed
synthetically either disappeared from the grammar system of the language or came to be expressed
by analytical means. There developed the use of analytical forms consisting of a form word and a
notional word, and also word order, special use of prepositions, etc. - analytical means.
In Middle English and New English we observe the process of the gradual loss of declension
by many parts of speech, formerly declined. Thus in Middle English there remained only three
declinable parts of speech: the noun, the pronoun and the adjective, against five existing in Old
English (the above plus the infinitive and the participle). In New English the noun and the pronoun
(mainly personal) are the only parts of speech that are declined.
THE NOUN
MIDDLE ENGLISH
MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION
In Old English there were three principal types of declensions: a-stem, n-stem and root-stem
declension, and also minor declensions - i-stem, u-stem and others. These types are preserved in
Middle English, but the number of nouns belonging to the same declension in Old English and
Middle English varies. The n-stem declension though preserved as a type has lost many of the
nouns belonging to it while the original a-stem declension grows in volume, acquiring new words
from the original n-stem, root-stem declensions, and also different groups of minor declensions and
also borrowed words. For example:
Old English
Middle English
a-stem
singular stān (stone)
singular stōn
plural stānas
plural stōnes
n-stem
singular nama (name)
singular name
plural namen
plural namen
root-stem
singular bōc (book)
singular book
plural bēc
plural bookes
Borrowed singular
corage (courage)
plural
corages
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES
There are only two grammatical categories in the declension of nouns against three in Old
English: number and case, the category of gender having been lost at the beginning of the Middle
English period.
Number
There are two number forms in Middle English: Singular and Plural. For example:
Old English
Middle English
Singular
fisc
fish
stān
stōn
nama
name
Plural
fiscas
fishes
stānas
stōnes
naman
names
Case
The number of cases in Middle English is reduced as compared to Old English. There are
only two cases in Middle English: Common and Genetive, the Old English Nominative, Accusative
and Dative case having fused into one case - the Common case at the beginning of Middle English.
For example:
Old English
Middle English
Nominative
stān nama }
Accusative
stān naman }
Common case stōn name
Dative
stāne naman }
Genitive
stānes naman
Genitive case stōnes names
Thus we see that the complicated noun paradigm that existed in Old English was greatly
simplified in Middle English, which is reflected in the following:
1) reduction of the number of declensions;
2) reduction of the number of grammatical categories;
3) reduction of the number of categorial forms within one of the two remaining grammatical
categories - the category of case.
NEW ENGLISH
The process of the simplification of the system of noun declension that was manifest in
Middle English continued at the beginning of the New English period.
Morphological classification
In Old English we could speak of many types of consonant and vowel declensions, the a-, nand root-stem being principal among them. In Middle English we observe only these three
declensions: a-stem, n-stem, root-stem. In New English we do not find different declensions, as the
overwhelming majority of nouns is declined in accordance with the original a-stem declension
masculine, the endings of the plural form -es and. the Possessive -s being traced to the endings of
the original a-stem declension masculine, i.e.:
Old English
Middle English
Nominative & Accusative
Common Plural
Plural ending
-as
ending
-es
Genitive Singular
Genitive Singular
ending
-es
ending
-s
Of the original n-stem and root-stem declensions we have in New English but isolated forms,
generally referred to in modern grammar books as exceptions, or irregular noun forms.
Origin of modern irregular noun forms
All modern irregular noun forms can be subdivided into several groups according to their
origin:
a) nouns going back to the original a-stem declension, neuter gender, which had no ending in
the nominative and accusative plural even in Old English, such as:
sheep - sheep (OE scēap - scēap)
deer - deer (OE dēor — dēor) |
b) some nouns of the n-stem declension preserving their plural form, such as:
ox - oxen (OE oxa — oxan)
c) the original s-stem declension word
child - children (Old English cild — cildru)
In Middle English the final vowel was neutralised and the ending -n added on analogy with
the nouns of the original n-stem declension. This shows that the power of the n-stem declension
was at the time still relatively strong.
d) remnants of the original root-stem declension, such as:
foot - feet (OE fōt - fēt)
tooth - teeth (OE tōð - tēð)
e) "foreign plurals" — words borrowed in Early New English from Latin. These words were
borrowed by learned people from scientific books who alone used them, trying to preserve their
original form and not attempting to adapt them to their native language. Among such words are:
datum - data, automaton - automata, axis - axes, etc.
It should be noted that when in the course of further history these words entered the language
of the whole people, they tended to add regular plural endings, which gave rise to such doublets as:
molecula - moleculae and moleculas,
formula - formulae
and formulas,
antenna - antennae and antennas,
the irregular form being reserved for the scientific style.
Grammatical categories
The category of gender is formal, traditional already in Old English; in Middle English and
New English nouns have no category of gender.
The category of number is preserved, manifesting the difference between singular and plural
forms.
The category of case, which underwent reduction first to three and then to two forms, in New
English contains the same number of case-forms as in Middle English, but the difference is the
number of the nouns used in the Genitive (or Possessive) case - mainly living beings, and the
meaning - mainly the quality or the person who possesses something.
the boy's book
a women's magazine
a two miles' walk
Inanimate nouns are not so common:
the river's bank
the razor's edge
In Modern English, however, we observe a gradual spreading of the ending -s of the
Possessive case to nouns denoting inanimate things, especially certain geographical notions, such
cases as "England's prime minister" being the norm, especially in political style.
THE ADJECTIVE
Only two grammatical phenomena that were reflected in the adjectival paradigm in Old
English are preserved in Middle English: declension and the category of number.
The difference between the Indefinite (strong) and the Definite (weak) declension is shown
by the zero ending for the former and the ending -e for the latter, but only in the Singular. The
forms of the Definite and the Indefinite declension in the Plural have similar endings.
For instance:
Singular
Plural
Indefinite
a yong squier
yonge
Definite
the yonge sonne
The difference between number forms is manifest only in the Indefinite (strong) declension,
where there is no ending in the Singular but the ending -e in the Plural.
In New English what remained of the declension in Middle English disappeared completely
and now we have the uninflected form for the adjective used for all purposes for which in Old
English there existed a complicated adjectival paradigm with two number-forms, five case-forms,
three gender-forms and two declensions.
As we have seen above, all grammatical categories and declensions in Middle and New
English disappeared. Contrary to that degrees of comparison of the adjective were not only
preserved but developed in Middle and New English. For example:
Table. Degrees of Comparison
Degree
Period
Old English
Middle English
New English
Old English
Middle English
New English
Old English
Middle English
New English
Positive
heard
hard
hard
eald
ald
old
ʒōd
ʒood
good
Comparative
heardra
heardre
harder
ieldra / yldra
eldre
elder
betera
bettre
better
Superlative
heardost
heardest
hardest
ieldest
eldest
eldest
betst
best
best
It should be noted, however, that out of the three principal means of forming degrees of
comparison that existed in Old English: suffixation, vowel interchange and suppletive forms, there
remained as a productive means only one: suffixation, the rest of the means seen only in isolated
forms. At the same time there was formed and developed a new means - analytical, which can be
observed in such cases encountered, for instance, in the works of J. Chaucer, as:
comfortable - more comfortable.
THE PRONOUN
In Old English all pronouns were declined, and the pronominal paradigm was very
complicated. In Middle English the system was greatly simplified and nowadays what remained of
the pronominal declension is mainly represented by the declension of the personal pronoun and on
a small scale - demonstrative and interrogative (relative).
Case
The four-case system that existed in Old English gave way to a two-case system in late
Middle English and in New English. The development may be illustrated by the following scheme
of the pronominal paradigm.
Personal Pronouns
Old English
Middle English
New English
Nominative
Ic
=>
Nominative
I
=>
Nominative I
Accusative
mec
Dative
mē
Objective
me =>
Objective
me
Possessive Pronouns
( from OE Gen. )
=>
myn(e)/ my
my/mine
Gender
As a grammatical phenomenon gender disappeared already in Middle English, the pronouns
he and she referring only to animate Itions and it - to inanimate.
Number
The three number system that existed in Early Old English Singular, Dual, Plural) was
substituted by a two number system eady in Late Old English.
THE ARTICLE
The first elements of the category of the article appeared already Old English, when the
meaning of the demonstrative pronoun was , and it approached the status of an article in such
phrases as:
sē mann (the man), sēo sæ (the sea), þæt lond (the land).
However, we may not speak of any category if it is not represented by an opposition of at
least two units. Such opposition arose only jn Middle English, when the indefinite article an
appeared.
The form of the definite article the can be traced back to the Old English demonstrative
pronoun sē (that, masculine, singular), which in the course of history came to be used on analogy
with the forms of the same pronoun having the initial consonant [] and began to be used with all
nouns, irrespective of their gender or number.
The indefinite article developed from the Old English numeral ān. In Middle English an split
into two words: the indefinite pronoun an, losing a separate stress and undergoing reduction of its
vowel, and the numeral one, remaining stressed as any other notional word. Later the indefinite
pronoun an grew into the indefinite article a/an, and together with the definite article the formed a
new grammatical category — the category of determination, or the category of article.
Summary
The system of the declinable parts of speech underwent considerable simplification, at
the same time developing new analytical features:
1. Reduction in the number of the declinable parts of speech.
2. Reduction in the number of declensions (whatever is preserved follows the a-stem
masculine).
3. Reduction in the number of grammatical categories
4. Reduction in the number of the categorial forms (the category of number of personal
pronouns and case — of all nominal parts of speech)
5. Formation of a new class of words — article.
LECTURE 11
SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONDITIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT
AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL LITERARY ENGLISH
At the end of the M.E. period in the history of England 2 important phenomena are outlined
which marked the transition from M.E. to New English:
1. the abolition of French
2. the establishment of the National Literary language.
At the close of the M.E. period French ceased to be used as the official language of the
country, English regained its position as spoken language of all classes of England. Moreover in the
XII c. English came to be used in the political life and in official government documents. In the 2nd
half of the 14th c. English was introduced in Parliamentary proceed. In 1362 Edward the III
opened Parliament in English and announced English the language of law proceedings and the
language of learning at schools. In the 1st half of the XV c. English regained its position of the
official language.
Parallel to the abolition of French and closely connected with it was the establishment of the
national Literary English. The process of establishment of the Standard English was very
complicated and lasted a very long period of time. It began at the end of the XIV c. and continued
up to XVII c. this period of time being characterized as the period of establishment of Standard
English.
The growth of Standard English was connected with the increase of town population,
development of bourgeoisie, the establishment of capitalism.
Thus in the XIV c. a considerable growth of towns is observed. Beginning with the XIV c.
the wool-manufacturing industry began to develop. With the development of this new form of
production and with the rise of the capitalist exploitation the economic significance and the
influence of the mid-class increased. Bourgeoisie came to play an important part in social life. The
rise of the bourgeoisie was connected with the rise of the gentry (people of good births and
positions) and franklins (petty and small landlords). All these social classes as well as the peasantry
were the bearers of English. The growth of all the above-mentioned classes led to the strengthening
of the position of English in all spheres of life.
English began supplanting French from literature. It’s true Latin continued to be used by
scholars but English alone showed a decided game in all departments of literature. Thus Geoffrey
Chaucer (1340 – 99) began to use English throughout his words and was followed by a school
which imitated its great master. About the same time when Chaucer created his works the
performer John Wyclif who had used Latin as a natural language of learning began to displace
Latin among scholars and translated the Bible into English.
In connection with the rise of Standard English the following is to be noted:
1. It has been customary to regard Chaucer as the “father of Mn.E.” and attribute to his genius
the literary language of England.
2. Others consider that the creator of the literary English was John Wycliff whose translation
of the Bible was read all over the country.
3. A third group of investigators attaches great importance to the language of London public
documents – state and court documents of the time. However, the rise of Standard English doesn’t
depend on the desire or activity of an individual.
The development of the English society made it necessary that a certain variety of English not
restricted in dialectal boundaries should be established. With the industrial development and the
rise of new social relations life itself demanded the unification of the language accepted as the
standard of the whole people. Having brought forward this demand life created favourable
conditions for its establishment. Gradually one or another of the dialects of English ceased to be
written. Only one – the Midland dialect as the variety of it spoken in London, the chief city, came
to be used as the Standard written language. We see the beginning of this speech in the works of
Chaucer. His English was that of his native city London, but it was Chaucer’s good fortune to write
also in the English language of the chief city of the realm, in the language which was inevitably to
become the language of after ages, so that his works have been easily read and appreciated in the
centuries after his death. Thus, Chaucer was in no sense the creator of Lit. English. His service is
that he chose to write in English rather than in French and Latin, but he did not create the language.
He only used the language, created by the English people. The same must be said of Wycliff and
other authors.
The establishment of Lit. English was accompanied by the expansion of English in various
spheres of life. This expansion manifested itself in the exclusion of French, later also Latin from
such spheres of life where English was not formally used. The exclusion of French was
accompanied by an exclusively great influence of French upon English. French influence upon the
English vocabulary was the strongest when French abandoned its position and retreated before
English. This happened because French was supplanted by English from such spheres of life where
English had not been used and therefore was not fit for such use, lacking words to express the
corresponding ideas. This resulted in the borrowing of numerous French words into English. The
same about Latin.
In the 16th c. during the Renaissance the strong influence of the classical language especially
of Latin upon English is observed. Through Italy and France the Renaissance came to be felt in
England as early as in the 14th c. and since then the invasion of classical terms has never stopped, it
being especially strong in 16-19 cc. Exclusively great Latin influence upon English during the
Renaissance is also accounted for by the fact that English came to be used as the language of
science, philosophy, publicity, etc. that’s how it penetrated into such spheres of life where only
Latin had been used. In this connection it’s interesting to mention the “History of Utopia” of
Thomas More which was written in Latin and was published in 1516. In 1551 Ralph Robinson
translated it into English. Trying to be accurate he rendered a single Latin word by two or three
parallel English equivalents. This was because either the corresponding words didn’t exist in
English or they were not worked out as scientific terms. In many other cases he simply used the
Latin word or even after translating the Latin word into English he gave the Latin equivalent in
brackets. This created favourable conditions for the invasion of Latin words into English.
With the formation of the English nation and development of national culture writers and
scholars pay much attention to the normalization of English. In the 16 c. there existed in England a
strong desire to improve English and place it if possible on the level with the classical languages. In
this connection of great importance was the introduction of printing. In 1476 William Caxton
brought the first printing press to England and set it up at Westminster. He had lived for 35 years in
Netherlands where he got thoroughly acquainted with the art of printing before he brought the first
printing press to England. Caxton’s translations from French were the first books printed in
English. Many books were issued at Westminster about one third of this being Caxton’s own
translations from French. But even in publishing the books of other writers he was not only the
printer and the publisher of these books but also the editor of this publications, who tried to find
standard forms commonly used and understood by everybody.
In connection it should be said that so great was the effect of printing upon the development
of the National language that the year 1476 – the date of the publication of the 1st English book is
regarded by many as a turning point in English linguistic history and the start of a new period.
Thus, the literary form of English came into existence in the age of Chaucer and was later fixed and
spread with the introduction of printing and was further developed as the National literary language
during the rise of the literature during 16-17 cc., the best representatives of which are William
Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Edward Spencer, Christopher Marlow, Ben Johnson, Francis
Bacon, Philip Sidney and others. They all wrote in what is known now as the Early New English,
Literary Language which was represented by a variety of literary styles and was characterised by
the rapid growth of the vocabulary, freedom in creating words and meanings.
In all these qualities the language of Shakespeare excels that of his contemporaries.
LECTURE 12.
THE PHONETIC STRUCTURE OF MODERN ENGLISH
THE MODERN ENGLISH UNSTRESSED VOWELS
One of the outstanding changes in the vowel system as we pass from Middle English to
New English is the loss of many final vowels in unstressed syllables. The loss of unstressed vowels
resulted in the reduction of the Middle English disyllabic words into monosyllables.
Cf.
ME sone [ sunə ]
MnE son
[ sлn ]
ME loven [ luvən ]
MnE love [ lлv ]
dayes [ dæiəs ]
days [ deiz ]
looked [ lo:kəd ]
looked [ lukt ], etc.
In connection with the loss of unstressed vowels it should be remembered that only
completely unstressed vowels were lost. Vowels with secondary or tertiary (weak) stress remained.
Moreover, even completely unstressed vowels might be preserved in some peculiar cases. This
happened when the loss of the vowel might lead to cluster of consonants and no obscurity of the
semantic structure of grammatical forms. Thus the unstressed vowels were preserved in such cases
as: horses, bushes, dishes (plural), or horse’s, actress’s, fox’s (possessive); in the 3rd person sg. (he)
wishes, teaches, dresses; in the past and the past participle of weak (standard) verbs like: wanted,
hated, loaded, etc. These are in fact the new existing phonetic variations of the corresponding
endings as iz, id pronounced [iz], [id].
The loss of unstressed vowels resulted in the disappearance of vowel inflections (endings)
in English. Because so many final vowels, which had already been weakened in Middle English,
vanished completely by the modern period, the three stages of the language: Old English, Middle
English and New English, are often called respectively: the period of “full endings”, the period of
“reduced (or levelled) endings” and the period of “lost endings”.
One important result of this loss is that there is often no longer any distinguishing mark
between the form of a noun and a verb. Thus, the verb OE lufian and the noun OE lufu are both
levelled under MnE love. In consequence it became very easy for a word to change from one part
of speech to another by conversion.
IMPORTANT CHANGES OF STRESSED VOWELS IN NEW ENGLISH
(1) THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT
The transition from Middle English to Modern English is marked by a striking series of
sound changes, which are difficult to date with any great degree of exactness. The most striking of
them, the so-called “Great Vowel Shift” is among the earliest changes, probably going back to the
XV century. The exact chronological boundaries of the shift are questionable. The change was
evidently gradual with divergence in different dialects. It probably began in the XV century and
was going on up to the XVII – XVIII centuries.
The Great Vowel Shift touched on the long vowels, in the result of which all the Middle
English long vowels acquired a new quality. The change consisted in the narrowing of long vowels:
open (low) vowels became half-open, half-open (mid) vowels changed into half-closed, and halfclosed vowels into closed (high). As to the narrowest vowels, ī and ū, they changed into
diphthongs.
At the close of the English period the following long vowels were to be found:
ī
ū
ē
ō
ę
ō
ā
After the first general narrowing of all the long vowels, which took place in the XV century,
later in the XVI – XVII centuries new changes take place which lead to a new narrowing or
diphthongization.
Thus, in the result of the Great Vowel Shift, instead of the Middle English system of long
vowels, the following system of long vowels develops in New English:
ai
au
i:
u:
ei
ou
The following examples illustrate changes by the Great Vowel Shift:
(1)
ME ā
>
New Engl.
ē
> MnE
[ ei ]
ME tāke
NE
tēk
MnE
[ teik ]
nāme
nēm
[ neim ]
māke
mēk
[ meik ]
(2)
ME ē
>
NE
ē
>
MnE [ īi ]
sē (sp. sea)
sē
sīi = sea
lēden
lēd
līid = lead
spēken
spēk
spīik = speak
(3)
ME ē
>
NE
[ īi ]
sē(n) >
sīi = see
mēten >
mīit = meet
kēpen >
kīip = keep
(4)
ME ī
>
NE
ij
ai
MnE ai
kīnd >
kaind
chīld >
t∫aild
wrīte >
rait
tīme >
taim
(5)
ME ō
>
NE
ō
MnE ou
bōt (sp. boat) NE
bōt
MnE bout =
boat
ōk
ōk
ouk =
oak
stōn
stōn
stoun =
stone
gō(n)
gō
gou =
go
(6)
ME ō
>
MnE [ u:u ]
mōn (sp. moon)
mūn =
moon
fōd (sp. food)
fūud =
food
dōn
MnE dūu =
do
(7)
ME ū
>
NE
uw
MnE au
hūs (sp. hous)
haus =
house
hū
(sp. hou)
hau
=
how
nūn (sp. noun)
naun =
noun
The Great Vowel Shift led to radical changes of the system of long vowels in English. The
change, however, did not find its reflection in English orthography as by the time the shift took
place the English spelling had already been fixed and stabilized. This resulted in the fact that in
English a considerable divergence of spelling and pronunciation is observed as the modern spelling
reflects, as a rule, the Middle English pronunciation, whereas the new pronunciation as based on
the phonetic standard of Modern English.
Due to the Great Vowel Shift vowel letters of the Latin alphabet acquired a new phonetic
designation – each of the letters came to have a double pronunciation designating two sounds of
different quality. Cf. bit – bite, met – mete / be, hop – hope, cap –cape, etc. In consequence of
this the old rules of the alphabet got loose, the whole system of the Latin script was broken.
The Great Vowel Shift touched also the names of letters of the English alphabet. Thus the
letter a ( = a:) came to be named
ei, k ( = ka:) > [ kei ], h (āche) eit, etc.
This accounts for the divergence in the names of Latin letters in English and in other
European languages.
(2) CHANGES of ER > AR
At the beginning of the XV century the short e when followed by r in the same syllable,
changed into a, thus er > ar. In most cases the change finds its reflection in spelling, as the change
was rather an early one. Examples are:
ME fer
MnE far
NE
[ fa: ]
herte
hart
heart
werre
war, etc.
In some cases, however, the change did not influence the spelling, the latter reflecting the
Middle English pronunciation. Examples are: MnE clerk [ kla:k ], sergeant [ sə:dgənt ], also
such proper names, as: Derby [də:bi], Berkley [bə:kli], Berkshire [bə:k∫aiə], etc.
The change of er > ar, widely spread during the XV – XVI centuries, was later counteracted
partly by spelling and partly by dialectal variations as in some dialects the change did not take
place. Besides, the fact that many of the English speaking people knew foreign languages,
especially Latin, also favoured this counteraction. Owing to this counteraction, in many scientific
words er was reestablished, this developing into [ə:]. Cf. university, convert, perfect, certainly,
etc. Thus, ar appears to be characteristic of the most common words of everybody use while in the
so-called “bookish” words the pronunciation with ar = [ə:] is looked upon as a vulgarism. Cf. e.g.
such forms, as [ ́sə:tnli ] for [ ́sə:tnli ], [́sə:vənt] for [́sə:vənt] as well as [́və:siti ] for
[́junivə:siti].
(3) CHANGE of ME “A”
The ME a in most cases changed into [ æ ] in New English. The change may be traced in
the interrelation between the spelling and the pronunciation of such words, as: that, back, land,
camp, thank, shall, can, etc. This palatalization of the ME a > MnE [ æ ] did not take place in the
combination [ wa ], where under the influence of the preceding labial consonant the vowel was
rounded and changed into [ o: ]. The change took place at the close of the XV century and did not
find its reflection in spelling. Examples are: watch, what. quality, want, wander, etc.
A specific development of a is observed before l of the same syllable, short o having
similar development in the same position. The influence of
l manifested itself in the
diphthongization of the preceding vowel: al - aul; ol - oul. The diphthong au, thus developed, later
changed into [ o: ]. Cf. chalk ME chaulk, MnE [t∫o:lk] > [t∫ o:k]: also: talk, all, fall, call, etc.
When l was followed by such labial non-plosives as m, f, v the diphthong au > [a:]. Cf.
calm, palm, calf, half, calves, halves.
(4) DELABIALIZATION of U
In the XVII century the short u lost its lip-rounding and became a simple unrounded u ,
designating by the letters u or o . Cf. ME cuppe MnE [k∧p], ME up MnE [∧p], ME sone > s∧n,
ME loven > l∧v, etc.
The change of u > [∧] took place in many dialects, and especially in the Midland dialect
which lay in the basis of literary English. In some dialects, however, and especially in the South
short u survived and a number of Southern forms with u penetrated into literary English,
particularly in cases when favourable conditions existed for its preservation, namely when ŭ was
preceded by an initial labial consonant: Cf. put, pull, full, bush, though in some other cases we
observe a normal change of u > [∧], as in but, pulse, etc.
QUANITATIVE CHANGES OF VOWELS IN NEW ENGLISH
In early New English quantitative changes of vowels are observed, the most important of
these being:
(a) Shortening of ē > ĕ before [d ] and [ θ ].
Shortening took place in nouns, adjectives, while the long vowel survived in verbs. It took
place before the shift of ē > [i:] and in most cases did not find its reflection in spelling, so that in
spelling we still find the diagraph ea . Cf. ME hed > MnE head [hed], ME led > MnE lead [led],
ME bred > MnE bread [bred], ME ded > MnE dead [ded], ME dep > MnE death [deθ], ME
brēp > MnE [breθ], etc.
In verbs shortening did not take place probably because the consonant following the vowel
often moved away to the next syllable as shown by leading, breathing, and by analogy with these
forms others also preserved the long vowel. Besides, shortening in verbs was prevented also by the
fact that in a number of verbs quantitative variations of vowels served to differentiate tenses: Cf.
lead – led, feed – fed, read – read, red, etc. A new shortening in these verbs would lead to fusion
of the present and the past.
(b) Shortening of ū (ME ō) > ŭ
This case of shortening was not a regular one. Most frequently it took place before k ,
sometimes before d and t also before thorn [ð]. as long ū , undergoing shortening, came of the
ME ō by the Great Vowel Shift, the shortened vowel is designated by the diagraph oo. Cf. book,
took, look, forsook, cook, also foot, good, stood, etc.
It is worth noting that in some cases not only shortening but also delabilization of the
shortened ŭ (ū) is observed. Cf. flood, blood, other, brother, mother, etc. This difference in the
further development of u / ū in such words as good and flood, stood and blood and the like is
probably accounted for by the fact that in different words shortening of ū > ŭ took place in various
times and was probably connected with different tendencies in different dialects. Thus, ME bōok
(XV c.) [bu:k] > [bu:k] (XVI c.), [bu:k] (XVIIc.) > [bŭk ], ME flōod > [flu:d] – flud > [flud].
(c) Lengthening of [æ] > [a:] is observed in various conditions with differences in various
dialects. Most common are the cases of lengthening æ > æ > a: before r . Cf. hard, part, bar, car
MnE < hærd, pært, bær, cær.
In the Southern dialects the lengthening took place also before voiceless fricatives s, f, θ,
often when followed by t . Cf. past, last, fast, after, path, bath, etc.
These Southern forms later penetrated into the literary language.
A consonant combination of a nasal + voiceless consonant, i.e. ns, mp, nt also caused
lengthening in the Southern dialects, though these cases are limited and are mainly to be found in
French borrowings: Cf. example, dance, glance, chance, aunt and also answer (a Germanic
word).