a brief history of english

1. A Brief History of English Class # 25 LING 2301 11-18-08 Highlighted Dates are those that seem significant in the respect to language features that will or have changed, contact/shift and such, as well as dates that show the improvement of technology and culture that would allow language (particularly in the written form) to be preserved.Highlighted Dates are those that seem significant in the respect to language features that will or have changed, contact/shift and such, as well as dates that show the improvement of technology and culture that would allow language (particularly in the written form) to be preserved.

2. 11-18-08 2 LING 2301

3. 11-18-08 3 LING 2301 Selected Dates from Prehistory of English (pp. 15 � 17) see time line handout. 5200 BC First farmers of central Europe spread NW as far as the Netherlands 3250 BC Earliest writing from W. Mesopotamia: Pictographic clay used for commercial accounts 1900 BC Cretan hieroglyphic writing 2300 BC Beginning of full European Bronze Age 1650 BC Linear A script (Crete and the Cyclades) 1400 BC Linear B script (mainland and islands of Greece) 750 BC First Greek Alphabetic inscription 690 BC Etruscan script developed from Greek 600 BC Latin script First Greek Coins 460 BC Parchment replaces clay tablets for Aramaic administrative documents CE 125 Hadrian's Wall built CE 449 Angles, Saxons and Jutes invade Britain Things to look up if you want to know more: Proto-Indo European (PIE): Grimm's Law, Verner's Law (Consonant shifts in Germanic from PIE) Lines in Yellow covered or at least mentioned in lecture. Particularly anything related to advancements in technology as it might apply to language stabilization or change. Lines in Yellow covered or at least mentioned in lecture. Particularly anything related to advancements in technology as it might apply to language stabilization or change.

4. 11-18-08 4 LING 2301 Old English Period (p. 55). 55 BC Julius Caesar attempts to invade Britain CE 43-50 Emperor Claudius invades Britain CE 410 Romans withdraw from Britain CE 449 Angles, Saxons and Jutes invade Britain 597 St. Augustine of Canterbury re-introduces* Christianity to the English 787 Scandinavian invasion begins (Vikings) 878 King Alfred defeats the Danes at Eddington (Ethandun) Treaty of Wedmore (allows a truce b/t Scandinavians who settle on outskirts and the Anglo-Saxons in Alfred�s territory which established a line between Anglo-Saxons and Danes � Danish side referred to as Danelaw. 899 King Alfred dies 1014 King �thelred driven out by a new wave of Danish (political) aggression 1016 Danish King Cnut rules England 1042 Accession of Edward the Confessor (�thelred's son) to the throne (died w/o an heir in 1066) (* see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine_of_Canterbury for more detail) Other things in yellow that were mentioned relate to social contact / governmental rule/ religion etc. Rome invades Britain Around 150 years after Romans invade (200 AD or CE) the name �Englaland�� or �land of the Angles� was adopted after one of the Germanic tribes the Romans called �Angli� Later �Englaland� was reduced to �England�. As Romans pull out as empire is falling a power vacuum is left and as the Picts and Scots attempted to take over Vortigern (a Celtic King) asked the Jutes for help� Thus the Anglo,Saxons, and Jutes invade and take over The A-S established a Heptarchy of seven Germanic kingdoms across Britain St Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Rome to Kent ruled by King �thelbert (who had claimed soveringty over all the kingdoms in the south) to (re)introduced Christian Religion to King � continued ties to Roman Church (and language contact) Later Scandinavians attacked and moved in in three stages (raiding 787-850, settlement 850-878, and assimilation 878-1042) Danes on the throne (social power language influence) from 1016 to 1042 when �thelred�s son, Edward the Confessor took power. Edward died without an heir in 1066 leaving another power vacuum Other things in yellow that were mentioned relate to social contact / governmental rule/ religion etc. Rome invades Britain Around 150 years after Romans invade (200 AD or CE) the name �Englaland�� or �land of the Angles� was adopted after one of the Germanic tribes the Romans called �Angli� Later �Englaland� was reduced to �England�. As Romans pull out as empire is falling a power vacuum is left and as the Picts and Scots attempted to take over Vortigern (a Celtic King) asked the Jutes for help� Thus the Anglo,Saxons, and Jutes invade and take over The A-S established a Heptarchy of seven Germanic kingdoms across Britain St Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Rome to Kent ruled by King �thelbert (who had claimed soveringty over all the kingdoms in the south) to (re)introduced Christian Religion to King � continued ties to Roman Church (and language contact) Later Scandinavians attacked and moved in in three stages (raiding 787-850, settlement 850-878, and assimilation 878-1042) Danes on the throne (social power language influence) from 1016 to 1042 when �thelred�s son, Edward the Confessor took power. Edward died without an heir in 1066 leaving another power vacuum

5. 11-18-08 5 LING 2301 General OE properties When Anglo-Saxons move in the land was inhabited by Celts/Scots/Picts OE synthetic/fusional rather than analytic/isolating N, V, Adj, Det, ProN were highly inflected meaning word order would not be very ridged Strong and weak declensions of nouns and adjectives Strong and weak conjugations of verbs Word formation by compounding, prefixing and suffixing rather than borrowing Gender (like other Indo-European languages) � was a grammatical feature (based on formal linguistic criteria, not logical or "natural" classes)

6. 11-18-08 6 LING 2301 OE Consonants (very similar to modern day English) {voiced fricatives} were allophones � predictable by rules in context of voiceless segments (no contrast as in present day fan & van) It also included some clusters that no longer exist phonetically: /kn/ /gn/ (knee, gnaw)

7. 11-18-08 7 LING 2301 Vowels in OE: A major feature of vowels in OE from Germanic is called "front mutation" or "i-umlaut" If a stressed syllable was followed by an unstressed syllable containing [i] or [j], the vowel sound of the stressed syllable was fronted or raised (or partly assimilated to the following high front [i] or [j]). The vowel that caused the mutation would then be dropped out of the changed forms (so it does not occur itself in the new forms) Example: The plural for mu�s 'mouse' would have been mu�siz. The vowel of /-iz/ raised and fronted the /u�/ Then the /iz/ would be dropped Thus changed to my�s 'mice' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_Umlaut Also produced vowel mutation plurals forms such as 'foot' ? 'feet' And adjectives strang, strengra, strengest & old, elder, eldest And some verb forms lie/lay, sit/set

8. 11-18-08 8 LING 2301 OE syntax also used case inflections for grammatical function of nouns (different suffixes on nouns showing the following relations within the sentence) An example of Cases that would be inflected: Nominative case ? subjects the DOG put the bone on the pillow. Accusitive case ? direct objects the dog put THE BONE on the pillow. Genitive case ? Possessives the dog put HIS bone on the pillow. Dative case ? for indirect objects the dog put the bone on THE PILLOW. Instrumental case ? "with/or by means of" phrase (rare in OE) the dog chewed the bone WITH HIS TEETH.

9. 11-18-08 9 LING 2301 Words from Latin in OE: Some probably from regular Roman life street, wine, butter, pepper, cheese, silk, copper, pound, inch, mile. Some came in with the Church (St. Augustine 597) bishop, candle, creed, mass, monk, priest

10. 11-18-08 10 LING 2301 Words Borrowed from Scandinavian (the Danes) into OE: /sk/ shall, fish, shirt, skirt, sky, scale birth, egg, guess, root, seat, sister, tidings Other factors from Scandinavian � pronouns (they, them, their) replaced 3rd Pl inflected forms prepositions (till, fro � as in to and fro), infinitives (att + do as in 'ado') and parts of the verb 'to be' (are)

11. 11-18-08 11 LING 2301 Middle English (p. 94). 1066 Battle of Hastings; Norman Conquest (William, Duke of Normandy [2nd cousin to Edward] takes throne by force as William the Conqueror whose son William Rufus succeeded him) 1100 William II Rufus dies suspiciously in a hunting accident and his younger brother Henry takes the throne as Henry I. 1189 Richard I (the Lionheart of Robin Hood fame spoke little or no English and only spent 6 months in England) succeeds Henry II (Henry I�s Grandson) 1199 Richard died w/o heirs and his brother John was crowned King 1204 King John looses lands in Normandy (his own and that of the Barons) 1205 John looses war with France and Norman Lands belonging to Norman rulers in Britain given up 1215 The Magna Carta signed (forced upon King John by the Barons to limit the king's will to the rule of law)* Remember that Edward the Confessor died without an heir, William the Duke of Normandy � later called �the Conqueror� took it upon himself to King Richard was called the Lionheart -- a crusader he didn�t spend very much time of his reign in England. His younger Brother John then took over and was a deficient ruler who through political scandals was forced to relinquish his (and that of the other Norman Barons who lived in England) land in the North of France. The Barons then forced him to sign the Magna Carta which would limit his power as King.Remember that Edward the Confessor died without an heir, William the Duke of Normandy � later called �the Conqueror� took it upon himself to King Richard was called the Lionheart -- a crusader he didn�t spend very much time of his reign in England. His younger Brother John then took over and was a deficient ruler who through political scandals was forced to relinquish his (and that of the other Norman Barons who lived in England) land in the North of France. The Barons then forced him to sign the Magna Carta which would limit his power as King.

12. 11-18-08 12 LING 2301 Middle English (p. 94). 1216 Henry III acquires the throne Thus marking the end of Northern French domination and began Southern French domination 1272 Edward I (Henry III�s son) takes the throne (as the "first King for generations to have a good command of English") 1362 Parliament opened in English (Time of Chaucer 1340�1400) 1381 Peasants' Revolt (increased the importance of English to give the lower persons a voice in the affairs of the country) 1476 Caxton introduces the printing press (by 1500 35,000+ books have been printed � most in Latin) 1489 French no longer used as the language of Parliament 1272 The French language dominated England�s courts until Edward I took the throne as the first King to have a good command of English By the middle of the 13th century foreign-language books were being written presumably to teach the children of the nobility French as their native language was most likely English Chaucer 1340-1400 Technology: The Printing Press introduced in 1476 By 1489 the quality of French was apparently poor enough that it was no longer used even in Parliament.1272 The French language dominated England�s courts until Edward I took the throne as the first King to have a good command of English By the middle of the 13th century foreign-language books were being written presumably to teach the children of the nobility French as their native language was most likely English Chaucer 1340-1400 Technology: The Printing Press introduced in 1476 By 1489 the quality of French was apparently poor enough that it was no longer used even in Parliament.

13. 11-18-08 13 LING 2301 General Changes During the Middle English period saw changes such as the loss of inflections, the development of more fixed word ordering and a great deal more borrowing. While many consonants did not change some did. For instance � Loss of w between Consonants and /o/ Vowel: swa ? so & hwa ? ha ('who') Loss of some final consonants: drivan ? drive Simplification of /sw/ cluster: swuster ? suster 'sister' Loss of initial /h/ in words: hring ? ring & hrof ? rof ('roof'') Loss of inflections (suffixes on the ends of words to indicate case) Gaps in inflection system gave space for new prepositions conversion of other forms: along (OE adj ? prep) compound prep: out + of, in + to ? into, borrowed : except from Latin, till from ONorse, according to, around, during from French

14. 11-18-08 14 LING 2301 ME Vowels Long vowels: raised and rounded of /a/ so /a/ ? /o:/ ban ? bon 'bone' & bat ? bot 'boat' unrounding of /y:/ to /i:/ bryd ? /brid/ 'bride' One of the most significant changes in ME was the "general obscuring of unstressed syllables" which is one of the fundamental causes of the loss of inflection. Many unstressed vowels ? schwa /? and many unstressed final vowels were eventually lost OE oxa ? ME ox? 'ox' OE foda ? ME fod? 'food' Other vowels were lengthened before /ld/, /mb/, & /nd/ such as: ??ld ? ?i:ld 'child' (but not if a 3rd syll as in ??ldr?n) a, e, and o also got longer in "open syllables of disyllabic words� (meaning those syllables in a word that are CV rather than CVC) nam? ? na:m? Or shortened in some context like before double consonants and clusters cepte [ke:pt?] ? cept [kept] Also diphthongs started to develop where vowels were followed by glides (/w/ & /j/) and the velar fricative /?/, and as in claw, day, new, grow, bow, owe, & joy.

15. 11-18-08 15 LING 2301 �Social Status� of French and Borrowed Words: With William I's conquest much of the nobility in both church and state was now made of Normans rather than English. Thus "French" was associated with higher status while English was the language of "the masses". THUS, many of the native terms for livestock remained � ox, sheep, swine, deer, calf� The French words were used for the flesh of these however, as it was probably more commonly eaten by the upper classes (the lower class diet consisting of more grains and such). beef, mutton, pork, bacon, venison, veal� It appears that since the �common� people took care of the livestock while it was alive those terms stayed Anglo-Saxon. However between the pasture and the plate the name was chaged as it became �a dish� rather than an animal. Meat wound have been luxury for the commoner whose diet was quite a bit more simple relying on grains and such than meats. The nobility however could probably have meat whenever desired.It appears that since the �common� people took care of the livestock while it was alive those terms stayed Anglo-Saxon. However between the pasture and the plate the name was chaged as it became �a dish� rather than an animal. Meat wound have been luxury for the commoner whose diet was quite a bit more simple relying on grains and such than meats. The nobility however could probably have meat whenever desired.

16. 11-18-08 16 LING 2301 Words from French (cont): Similarly the power dichotomy is seen in the French origin of: master, servant, bottle, dinner, supper, banquet (smith & baker remained from OE origin) while butcher, barber, carpenter, draper, grocer, mason & tailor are all French. The core of family life remained English (possibly used more regularly): Mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter But extended family was influenced by French: uncle, aunt, cousin, nephew, niece or hybrids: grandmother, grand� father, son, daughter, etc. Numbers and body parts generally kept their English names except for the word face.

17. 11-18-08 17 LING 2301 Other French semantic fields of borrowed words: Government & Administration: parliament, bill, act, council, county, tax, custom Law & Property: court, assize, judge, jury, justice, prison, chattel, money, rent Titles: Prince, duke, marquis, viscount, baron War: battle, assault, siege, standard, banner, fortress, tower

18. 11-18-08 18 LING 2301 Early Modern English (p. 135). 1509 Henry VIII 1534 Act of Supremacy (Henry�s succession from the Catholic Church and influence of Latin) 1536 Monasteries dissolved and England becomes a Protestant country Statutes incorporates all of Wales with England 1539 English translation of the Bible in every church 1574 First company of Actors and the building of theatres (time period of William Shakespeare 1564 � 1616) 1584 Colonist at Roanoke 1600 English E. India Co. Formed

19. 11-18-08 19 LING 2301 Early Modern English (p. 135). 1603 James I in Power 1607 Colony planted by London Co. at Jamestown 1611 King James Bible published "To provide a politically more acceptable alternative to the Geneva Bible and to shore up the position of the king, while at the same time criticizing the clergy and casting aspersions on 'Popish persons'." Later became "the Authorized Version" used overwhelmingly in Britain until 1960's 1616 John Bullokar publishes An English Exposition (English dictionary) 1640 approximately 20,000 book titles available in English 1755 Samuel Johnson publishes a 2 volume set comprising of 2300 pages and 40,000 entries A Dictionary of the English Language (The original purpose was �to 'fix' the language and establish a standard for the use of words and their spellings�) 1775-1783 American war of Independence 1788 Penal Colonies established in Australia

20. 11-18-08 20 LING 2301 EME Change in Consonants: Loss of /l/ after low back vowels and before labial or velar consonants almond, folk, palm but not after other vowels film, hulk� Loss of /t/ or /d/ in consonant clusters with /s/ castle, hasten, handsome, landscape loss of initial /k/ and /g/ before /n/ knock, knee, knight, gnome,� Loss of /w/ before /r/ wreak, wrong � Loss of /r/ before /s/ ME bares ? bass (a type of fish) In 18th century /r/ was lost in standard English before a consonant and word finally.

21. 11-18-08 21 LING 2301 EME Changes in Vowels: Unstressed vowels were reduced to [?] or [?] in ME and continued in EME The Great Vowel Shift http://facweb.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/seehear.htm http://facweb.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/what.htm http://courses.fas.harvard.edu/%7Echaucer/vowels.html (see other ppt and handout on language change Clark Language� p 250, 337

22. 11-18-08 22 LING 2301 EME Pronouns: Main Significant change in Early Modern English was the shift to using you for 2nd person over other choices of 2nd person pronouns

23. 11-18-08 23 LING 2301 EME Verbs: 100+ of around 300 previously strong verbs {those irregular forms like ride/rode/(has) ridden or sink/sank/(has) sunk} have been made weak {jump/jumped}. For Example: help, brew, climb, bide (from bide/bided instead of bode/bided/bidden), crow, flay, mow (mow mowed mowed/mown), dread, wade verbs that are still irregular (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_irregular_verbs)

24. 11-18-08 24 LING 2301 EME Nouns: Possessives based on a contraction of the possessive pronoun (e.g. his) The King his crown ? the King's crown But was attached to the head noun as in "The King's Crown of England" (maybe would have been like The King his Majesty of England) Rather than our modern day "The King of England's crown".

25. 11-18-08 25 LING 2301 EME Vocabulary: Due to increased communication and the expansion and new experience due to colonialism English speakers were coming into contact with ideas and phenomena that they had not encountered before. The vocabulary had to adjust to this. Many new words (in many cases illustrated by the vocabulary of Shakespeare) are coming into the lexicon. agile, critical, demonstrate, emphasis, horrid, impertinency, modest, prodigious, accommodation, apostrophe, assassination, dexterously, frugal, obscene, pedant, premeditated, reliance, vast� Other words at this time coming in via the Renaissance: Ambuscade, armada, barricade, bastinado, cavalier, mutiny, palisade, pell-mell, renegade�

26. 11-18-08 26 LING 2301 Latin and Greek (the Renaissance) Again Latin and Greek were seen as scholarly languages � as the crusaders started to learn about the science of the Arabs who had translated many of the works from Latin and Greek. Many modern languages were being advocated as a medium of learning. While English eventually became accepted by the academe many of the Science and Literary authors such as Sir Francis Bacon, John Milton, and Sir Isaac Newton wrote their major works in Latin. Eventually the use of Latin declined, but the vocabulary was brought into English to "fill the gaps" Some words were borrowed from Greek via Latin or French: anachronism, climax, pathetic, system, & antithesis Interesting to note that rather than write in Latin, the authors just started to borrow Latin words into English.Interesting to note that rather than write in Latin, the authors just started to borrow Latin words into English.

27. 11-18-08 27 LING 2301 Dictionaries A popular time for dictionaries to be printed to help standardize the large influx of words or to "help fix" the language. Johnson � "The chief intent is to preserve the purity and ascertain the meaning of our English idiom�"

28. 11-18-08 28 LING 2301 Present-Day English (pp. 167 � 168) 1844 First Telegraph line used b/t Washington and Baltimore 1865 Atlantic cable completed 1870 Compulsory Education in Britain (led to leveling of dialects and slowed down the pace of linguistic change) 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone 1877 Edison invents the phonograph 1899 First magnetic sound recordings 1903 Orville and Wilber Wright make the first successful flight 1914�1918 WWI 1921 British Broadcasting Corporation founded (BBC) 1925 John Logi Baird transmits a picture of a human face via television 1927 Charles Lindberg � first �nonstop� transatlantic flight 1929 First use of teleprinters and teletypewrighters First scheduled TV broadcast in NY 1936 BBC London television service begins 1939�1945 WWII 1942 First computer developed in the US 1947 Transistor invented at Bell Labs 1951 Color TV introduced into USA 1968 Intelsat communication satellite launched. Here it is important to note the increase in technology (reminder � 460BC parchment replaces Clay tablets etc. especially the printing press in late 1476�s) Also note here that in 1870 compulsory education in Britan began to �standardize� or possibly level off dialectal differences Phonograph � allows for recording voices WWI � bringing many dialects together in Military units (also �making the world smaller� in terms of communication) BBC � regular news broadcast Invention of the �computer� Here it is important to note the increase in technology (reminder � 460BC parchment replaces Clay tablets etc. especially the printing press in late 1476�s) Also note here that in 1870 compulsory education in Britan began to �standardize� or possibly level off dialectal differences Phonograph � allows for recording voices WWI � bringing many dialects together in Military units (also �making the world smaller� in terms of communication) BBC � regular news broadcast Invention of the �computer�

29. 11-18-08 29 LING 2301 PDE varies very little from EME. Remnants of the previous case system are limited to the pronouns (I, me, he, him, she, her� the shift from whom to who is currently underway as in "To whom did you send the letter?" vs. "To who did you send the letter") Currently uses more comparatives and superlatives than inflectional ones (for instance shift to more & most over �er & �est) or even double forms the most coolest� .

30. 11-18-08 30 LING 2301 New words in PDE New words (neologisms) � or uses of old words for a new idea are formed for all kinds of reasons: kingon � an unexplained icon that appears on a computer screen mickey � the unit of measuring a computer mouse distance � .005 inch shareware crippleware � demo software that lacks the full features netpreneur � internet entrepreneur Others?

31. 11-18-08 31 LING 2301 PDE affixation using affixes in more productive manner un� un-American, un-English, un-freedom �ee franchis-ee, contract-ee� �ize burglarize (From the verb to burgle which was a backformation of the older noun burglar by analogy with the �er (one who does) suffix) regularize, hospitalize

32. 11-18-08 32 LING 2301 PDE Borrowing Current changes between EMW and PDE are mostly in the lexicon. Much of this is due to developments of scientific�technological vocabulary and the rapid progress of computer/communications technology. Some borrowing from Japanese (e.g. karaoke, hibachi, etc.)

33. 11-18-08 33 LING 2301 More focused on Global society: In late 1800s and early 1900 in Britain, the Agricultural Revolution as well as Technological Revolution brought people off the farms and out of rural life into the cities (as few as 22% lived in rural areas by 1911). The new call was for factory workers and prompted urbanization. While urbanization "promotes diversity" it also brings cultures and language varieties in to contact leading to "uniformity". As people come together they tend to accommodate to one another, developing compromise forms of behavior (including language) in order to maximize intelligibility and to achieve the greatest amount of social acceptance by those to whom they are speaking. Increased communications and social mobility also have the impact of helping to standardize the language and development of rules of English grammar and usage.

34. 11-18-08 34 LING 2301 On to become a World Language Two major forms of English today are American English, and British English. However there are also many others. Some 1st language speakers (e.g. Australia, possibly India, Singapore) some 2nd (or more) e.g. Parts of Europe, Countries in the South, East and West of Africa, China, Korea, Japan, etc. (More on that when we get to the Global language section).

35. 11-18-08 35 LING 2301 for more on History of English http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/hel/hel.html