ISTORY OF ENGLISH
LECTURE 1
Indo-European
and Germanic
Lei ZHU
Shanghai International Studies University
1 The historical perspective
送杜少府之任蜀州
【唐】王勃
城闕輔三秦，
風煙望五津。
與君離別意，
同是宦遊人。
海內存知己，
天涯若比鄰。
無為在歧路，
兒女共沾巾。
1 The historical perspective
詩經·魏風·碩鼠
第二章
碩鼠碩鼠，無食我麥。
三歲貫女，莫我肯德。
逝將去女，適彼樂國。
樂國樂國，爰得我直。
1 The historical perspective
Chinese
ɤ（Beijing）
ŋɔk（Nanchang） < *ŋɑk（Middle Chinese） < *ŋak（Old Chinese） 鰐
ŋəːk（Guangzhou）
Zhuang
ŋəːk
Tai
龍
龍
1 The historical perspective
When I was ten I was suddenly confronted with the
anguish of moving from the only home I had ever
known. My whole life, brief as it was, had been spent in
that big old house, gracefully touched with the laughter
and tears of four generations.
When the final day came, I ran to the haven of the
small back porch and sat alone, shuddering, as tears
welled up from my heart. Suddenly I felt a hand rest on
my shoulder. I looked up to see my grandfather. “It
isn’t easy, is it, Billy?” he said softly, sitting down on
the steps beside me.
Unit 1 Never Say Goodbye (Book 1)
1 The historical perspective
• In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth. And the earth was without form,
and void; and darkness was upon the face of
the waters. And God said, Let there be light:
and there was light. And God saw the light,
that it was good: and God divided the light
from the darkness. And God called the light
Day, and the darkness he called Night. And
the evening and the morning were the first
day.
Genesis
1 The historical perspective
• Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and
for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in
privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in
discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement
and disposition of business. For expert men
can execute, and perhaps judge of
particulars, one by one; but the general
counsels, and the plots, and marshalling of
affairs, come best from those that are
learned.
Francis Bacon: Of Studies
1 The historical perspective
•
•
•
•
Madame Chairman, Mrs. Vice-president, Honored Guests, Faculty and
Friends: I feel most deeply honored to have been invited to speak to
such an illustrious gathering tonight and to be given the privilege of
representing my distinguished colleagues, especially Dr. Monrovia,
who have been engaged in a very demanding research project in the
field of sociolinguistics, an area of study which we feel has great
potential for your profession also.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m exceedingly grateful to have been asked by
our chairman, Dr. Jean Monrovia, to present our recent findings on the
topic of “Research and Developments in Sociolinguistics”, and hope it
will prove useful to those of you engaged in teaching English.
Good evening, Friends, Our chairman, Jean Monrovia, asked me to
share some of my current research in sociolinguistics, and I hope it
will be useful to you in your English classes next week.
Jean asked me to come on over and rap a bit about the stuff I’m into in
sociolinguistics. Maybe it’ll help in teaching those English classes,
and I hope you won’t be turned off with some of the technical jargon
and stuff.
1 The historical perspective
Oppressi bello longo et a deis aversi, duces Graecorum, iam
post decem annos, magnum equum ligneum arte Minervae
faciunt. Uterum multis militibus complent, equum in litore
relinquunt, et ultra insulam proximam navigant. Troiani nullas
copias aut naves vident; omnis Troia gaudet; panduntur portae.
De equo, autem, Troiani sunt incerti. Alii eum in urbem duci
cupiunt; alii eum Graecas insidias appellant. Primus ibi ante
omnes, de arce currens, Laocoon, sacerdos Troianus, haec
verba dicit: “O miseri cives, non estis sani! Quid cogitatis?
Nonne intellegitis Graecos et insidias eorum? Aut invenietis in
isto equo multos milites acres, aut equus est machina belli,
facta contra nos, ventura in urbem, visura casas nostras et
populum. Aut aliquid latet. Equo ne credite, Troiani: quidquid id
est, timeo Danaos et dona gerentes!” Dixit, et potentem hastam
magnis viribus manus sinistrae in uterum equi iecit; stetit illa,
tremens.
From Wheelock’s Latin, adapted from the Aeneid by Virgil
1 The historical perspective
We can take to people (喜欢), take them up
(培植), take them down (把……的气焰压下去),
take them off (嘲弄地学……的样子) or take
them in (欺骗); keep in with them (不断地
讨……的好), or round them (说服), or on with
them (与……融洽地相处); do for them (照应),
do with them (与……相处), or without them
(没有……也行), and do them in (欺骗); make
up to them (巴结), set them up (资助) or down
(申斥) or hit them off (逼真地模仿).
1 The historical perspective
I got on horseback within ten minutes after I got your
letter. When I got to Canterbury, I got a chaise for town;
but I got wet through, and have got such a cold that I
shall not get rid of in such a hurry. I got to the Treasury
about noon, but first of all got shaved and dressed. I
soon got into the secret of getting a memorial before
the Board, but I could not get an answer then; however
I got intelligence from a messenger that I should get
one next morning. As soon as I got back to my inn, I
got my supper and then got to bed. When I got up next
morning, I got my breakfast, and having got dressed, I
got out in time to get an answer to my memorial. As
soon as I got it, I got into a chaise, and got back to
Canterbury by three, and got home for tea. I have got
nothing for you, and so adieu.
E. C. Brewer: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
1 The historical perspective
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep—
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. ’Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die—to sleep.
To sleep—perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
Shakespeare: Hamlet
1 The historical perspective
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or natures changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Shakespeare: Sonnet 18
1 The historical perspective
• Time
Old English:
tima
tid
extension
division
“Time and tide wait for no man.”
1 The historical perspective
• Winter
Her kynegils feng to rice. on weast
seaxum. & heold xxxi (an-ond-þritig) wintra.
In this year (611) Cynegils succeeded to the
West Saxon kingdom and reigned for 31 years.
1 The historical perspective
1 The historical perspective
Modern English (ModE)
period, epoch
era, age, occasion, moment
term, semester
2 Going beyond English
2 Going beyond English
?
449
古英语（Old English）
1150
中古英语（Middle English）
1450
早期现代英语（Early Modern English）
1700
现代英语（Modern English）
2 Going beyond English
Icelandic
Norwegian
Swedish
English
Danish
Dutch
German
French
Latin
Greek
3 The prehistory of English
• Language families
Indo-European language family
Genders (性), numbers (数), and cases (格):
阳性
m(asculine)
阴性
f(eminine)
中性
n(euter)
单数
sg./singular
双数
dual
复数
pl./plural
主格
Nom(inative)
a friend
属格
Gen(itive)
a friend’s / of a friend
与格
Dat(ive)
to a friend
宾格
Acc(usative)
(call/invite/…) a friend
离格
Abl(ative)
from a friend
具格
Ins(trumental)
with a friend
位格
Loc(ative)
at a friend
呼格
Voc(ative)
Oh, friend
Indo-European: Sanskrit
Gitagovinda 1.11
Gitagovinda 2.11
nibhṛta-nikuñja-gṛhaṃ gatayā
vasantam
niśi
rahasi
nilīya
secret-bush-shelter
going
night darkness having-hidden staying
m. Acc.
f. Ins.
Loc.
cakita-vilokita-sakala-diśā
Loc.
m. Acc.
rati-rabhasa-bhareṇa hasantam
shaking-eyesight-all-direction
desire-force-much
laughing
f. Ins.
m. Ins.
m. Acc.
sakhi he keśi-mathanam
friend oh devil-destroying
f. Voc.
m. Acc.
udāram
privileged
m. Acc.
ramaya mayā saha madana-manoratha-bhāvitayā sa-vikāram
make-stay
me
Imperative
Ins.
with
passion-eagerness-generated
f. Ins.
with-feeling
m. Acc.
Indo-European: (Homeric) Greek
Germanic
(1) stressing the first syllable of the root
(2) compounds preferred to derivatives
(3) two-tense system
I work
I have worked
I will work
I am working I have been working I will be working
I worked
I had worked
I would work
I was working I had been working I would be working
Germanic
(4) Sound changes
e.g. Grimm’s Law:
bʰ → b → p → f
dʰ → d → t → θ
gʰ → g → k → x
gʷʰ → gʷ → kʷ → xʷ
4 A gimpse at Old English
From The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Peterborough)
4 A glimpse at Old English
Brittene igland is ehta
hund
mila
lang,
and
twa
? g [j] > s
h [x / ç] > gh
long aher
> oa
hund brad. And
sind
th
Lat. insula > isle
fight
(13< feohtan
cen.)
on
þisi >iglande
fif<geþeode,
long
i [aı] oak
ac
th cen.)
igland
>
island
enough
(16
< genoh
englisc, and brittisc,
and
find < findan boat < bat
wilsc, and scyttisc, and
pyhtisc, and boc leden.