The source of inf. About Germanic Tribes.

Purpose subject.

Purpose of this subject is a systematic study of the language, development from the earliest time to the present day. this subject is connected with lex-gy, grammar, phonetics, history of the country. if we regard the language in particular period of time it’s synchronic approach if compare in different periods it’s diachronic.

The source of inf. About Germanic Tribes.

It is based on testimonies of Greek and Roman writers. Pythias lived in the 4^th century before Christ. He sailed from his native town through the straits of Gibraltar, then along the West cost of Gaul? Along the channel, he even maybe reached the Baltic. Only a few fragments from Pythias work have been preserved by the Greek geographer Strabol and part of it by the Roman writer Pliney the Elder. Next comes the roman general, statesmen and writer J. Ceaser. In his book “Commentaries of the war in Gaul” Ceaser gives a several chapters to the Germans lived in tribes, from is notes it follows that the Teutons were Normans. Besides about the Germanic tribes there are some more testimonies by “Historia Cornelious Tacitus”.

Prehistoric Celtic Britain:

1^st race- Paleolithic(stone age)no clothes/weapons of stone/

2^nd- Neolithic(polished stone age)raised crops,weapons,animals,clothes.

3^rd- bronze age

4^th- Iberians. They have populated the Br. Isles in 3000 Bc. They were a small dark-haired race who were civilized enough for that period. They were peaceful: their culture was very high for that period.

5^th- Celts have reached the Br. Isles in 700 Bc. It was the time of so called “great migration”. The are believed to have come in 3 waves and two large groups. The Celts were very war-like people, very moveable, great wanderers and great conquerors – a very strong tribe. They lived under the tribal system in clans. They spoke the Celtic tribal tongues, which are believed to have been the remote ancestors of some tongues on the Br. Isles now, for example, of Welsh. At the very end of the first millenium BC Julius Caesar got greatly interested in the Br. Isles which were independent then. He arranged two main rades there: they took place in 54-55 and 56 BC. A real occupation by the Romans began under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD. About 25000 legionaries were landed there, well trained and well equipped. They conquered the best part, the most Furtile parts and Claudius declared the Br. Isles to be a Roman Province. So they drove the native population (the Celts) further to the West and to the North (to Wales and to Scotland), to the mountainous part. The word “England” goes back to the old combination of two words – Anglo landa. The word “Britain” goes back to the name of one of the Celtic tribes: the most powerful and the most numerous of the Celtic tribes were the Britains, the Scotts and the Pickts. “Scotland” – the land of the Scotts.

 

 

Ancient Germanic tribes and their classification. Pliney the Elder

 

1) Vindili (Gaults and Burundians; eastern part of Germanic territory)

2) Ingveoni (North-western part of g. territory, the shore of the Northern Sea including what is called now Nederland).

3) Istkveoni (the Western part of G/T on the river Ryhn, among them were francs)

4) Germioni (the South part of G/T, now it’s the southern German)

5) Pekvini or Bastarni (they lived closed to the place, which is now called Ruminia)

6) Gellivioni (Scandinavia)

 

Subdivision of the Germanic languages.

The English language belongs to the Germanic languages and the G/L is the brunch of the Indo-European language family. First it was one language, and then ethnic and linguistic disintegration within the G/L put an end to original unity and there appeared 3 subgroups of G/L.

1) East-Germanic subgroup (Gothic, Vandalic, Burgundian); all of them are dead.

2) North-Germanic subgroup (Old-Norse, Old-Scandinavian). Later it became Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. There was Islatic and Faroesa. The linguists say that Faroesa was the language of Vikings.

3) West-Germanic tribes lived in the Ouder in the Albe. And then they spread up the Ruhn. They occupied many territories and they had many dialects: Anglian, Fresion, Saeson, English, German, Dutch, Jutish.

In spite of this subdivisions G/L made a distinct group within the Indo-European linguistic group because the had many features in common.

 

The First Consonant Shift.

Correspondence between I/E and Germanic consonants may be grouped under 3 categories: 1) I/E voiceless stops: p, t, k correspond to Germanic voiceless fricatives f, đ, h 2) I/E voiced stops b, d, g correspond to the G voiceless stops p, t, k 3) I/E aspirated stops bh, dh, gh correspond to the G voiced stops without aspiration b, d, g.

An essential feature of GLs separating them from other IE languages is their consonantal system, which developed from the original IE system. These regular correspondences between the consonants of GLs and IELs were discovered and systemized by Расмус Раск and Jacob Grimm. Called Grimm’s Law, or the 1^st consonant shift.

IE	Germ	Examples
/ p /	/ f /	Lat plěnus – Eng full
/ t /	/ þ /	Gr tres – Eng three
/ k /	/ h /	Lat octo – Goth ahtau
/ b /	/ p /	RU болото – Eng pool
/ d /	/ t /	Lat duo – Goth twan
/ g /	/ k /	RU иго – Eng yoke
/ b^h /	/ b /	sanser bhratar – Eng brother
/ d^h /	/ d /	sanser madhu – OE medu
/ g^h /	/ g /	Lat hostiss - RU гость – DE gast

Instead of an expected voiceless stop in some word would appear a voiced stop. These was explained by Karl Verner.

 

 

Verner’s Low.

Not all correspondence stated in Grimm’s law are equal. In some cases in G/L we find consonants which do not fit into Grimm’s Low (pater - fadar). Explanation of this exception was offered by the Danish scholar Karl Verner. His low adds fallowing addition to the Grimm’s low. If an I/E voiceless stop was preceded by an unstressed vowel, the voiceless fricatives which developed from it an accordance with Grimm’s low, became voiced, and later this voiced fricative became a voiced stop

Unstressed vowel+voiceless stop  voiceless fricative  voiced fricative voiced stop /t/  /þ/  /ð/  /d/ In the Gr word patěr the voiceless stop /t/ was preceded by an unstressed root vowel. Under these conditions the voiceless fricative /þ/ which had developed from it in accordance with the 1^st consonant shift became a voiced fricative /ð/ and finally it developed into the voiced stop /d/, i.e. Lat patěr OE fæder /k/  /h/  /ɣ/ /g/ Besides that there is one more change under Verner’s low (s-z) In some cases s  r. In West-Germanic and N-G languages according to the linguistic phenomenon rhotasism (подчеркнутое произношение r) s  r.

 

 

Earliest Germanic Alphabet.

Through the history of their development GLs used 3 diff-nt alphabets, which partly succeeded each other in time.

Runic alphabet.

Letters – runes. It is supposed that the runic ABC is based on the Latin or some other Italic alphabet, close to Latin in writing. But the material and technique of writing used by Germanic tribes used in their early times caused considerable modifications of Latin in the Runic ABC.

It is supposes that the Runic ABC originated in the 2-3 AD on the banks of the Rhine or the Danuble were Germanic tribes could come into contact with Roman culture

Since the Runic ABC was used by diff-nt Germanic tribes (Goths, A-Saxons, Scandinavians) it was adapted to the needs of each of these languages. New letters were added into in, some of the original fell out

Ulphila

Ulphila’s Gothic ABC originated in the 4^th century. It is based on the Greek ABC but has some Latin and Runic letters. This is the ABC of Ulphila’s gothic translation of the Bible. But in modern editions of Goth text a Latin transcription of the Gothic ABC is used.

Latin alphabet

It began to be used when a new technique of writing was introduced. That is spreading of color, paint on a surface instead of cutting and engraving the letters.

Introduction of the Latin ABC was stimulated by the spread of Christianity, as Christian religious texts were written in Latin.

The Latin ABC was also modified to the peculiar needs of the separate GLs.

 

 

Gradation or ablaut in G/L.

Vowel gradations was inherited by GLs from ancient IE family of languages. There are distinguished 2 kinds of gradation: qualitative & quantative

O/E vowel system.

OE vowels made a symmetrical system where short monophthongs were opposed to long ones, and short diphthong were opposed to long diphthongs

 

monophthongs	diphthongs
a æ e I o u y	ea eo ia io
a: æ: e: I: o: u: y:	ea: eo: ia: io:

OE vowels had regular correspondence in other GLs which can be reflected in the following table

	Gothic	OE	OHG
short monophtongs	/i/ fisks	/i/ fisk	/i/ fisc
/i/ stilan красть	/e/ stelan	/e/ stelan
/a/ dags	/æ/, /a/ dæʒ, daʒas	/a/ tac
/u/ fulls	/u/ full	/u/ ful
long monophthongs	/i:/ leiþan странствовать	/i:/ līþan	/i:/ lēda
/e:/ slēpan	/a:/, /æ:/ Merc slēpan, WS slǣpan	/a:/ slāfan
/ai/ stains камень	/a:/, /æ2/ (I-mut) stān, stǣ	/ei/ stein
/o:/ brōþan	/o:/ brōþor	/uo/ bruodar
/u:/ tūn поселок	/u:/ tun	/u:/ zun
diphthongs	/au:/ auk иго	/ea:/ ēāc	/ou:/ ōūch
/iu:/ diups	/eo:/ dēōp	/io:/ tīōf

As it is seen from the table, OE shows certain phonological development of its own compared with other GLs. Thus, OE has stān and hām where Gothic has stains (stone) and haims (home).

In prehistoric OE a number of combinative sound changes had taken place after which phonemic and phonetic peculiarity of ENG increased considerably.

In general the length of OE vowels was their phonemic feature, but in few cases it could develop as a result of positional change of sounds.

1. the dropping of nasals: m, n were dropped before h, f, s, θ which caused lengthening of the preceeding vowel by compensation

// Goth uns – OE ūs; fimf – fīf

2. contraction: dropping of /h/ in the intervocal position

// *fohan  fōn; *hohan  hōn

Quite often contraction might produce a long diphthong

// *slahan  *sleahan  sēān; *sehan  *seohan  sēān; *tihan  *teohan tēōn

3. nasalisation: narrowing of a vowel before the following nasal, which characteristic of West Saxon dialect

// land  lond; mann  monn (also lånd, månn as graphical variants)

 

I-mutation

It is impossible to state the exact time of I-mutation. Still taking into consideration the fact that no traces of I-mutation could be found in Gothic texts (4^th c. AD), but its results were reflected in the earliest OE texts (7 AD). Thus, we may suppose that I-mutation might have taken place in the period between 4-7 centuries. If we take into consideration that the history of the EL begins in the middle of the 5^th century, we could restrict the periodasatoion of I-mutation.

The essence of I-mutation is the fronting and narrowing of the root vowel under the influence of i/j in the immediately following syllable.

Since these sounds are very common in suffixes and word endings, I-mutation was a frequent and a systematic change. It effected the whole system of OE vowels. But for the narrowest ī and ē, both long and short vowels diphthongs and monophthongs were effected by this change.

Short monophtongs

aæe //*taljantæljantellan

ooee //*ofstianefstan (спешить)

uy //*fuljanfyllan (наполнять)

Long monophthongs

ā  æ2 //*lārian  lǣrian (учить)

ō  oe:  ē //*fōri  foet  fēt (нога)

ū  ÿ //*ontūnjan  ontÿnan (открывать)

Short diphthongs

ea  ia //*hleahian  hliehhan (смеяться)

eo  ie //*heordija  hierde (пастух)

Long diphthongs

ea:  ie: //*ʒelēāfian  ʒeliefan (верить)

io  ie: //*ʒetreowe  ʒetriewe (правдивый)

If the root vowel was short, the following consonant was doubled.

//*cnusian  cnyssan (толкать)

// *framian  fremman

NO DOUBLING IF

1) the root vowel was long

2) it was followed by a cluster of consonants

3) it was followed by r. In this case i was preserved too.

// Goth dōmjan - OE dēman (судить)

// Goth sandjan – OE sendan (посылать)

// Goth ga-sturian – OE styrian (шевелиться)

In general, I-mutation enriched the system of OE vowels, /y/ and /ÿ. being new phonemes in it /u/,/u:/. As to /oe/, /oe:/, they turned to be very unstable and soon merged with /e/ and /e:/ respectively.

 

OE breaking 6^th c.

e  eo или æ  ea

IF 1) followed by r, l, h + consonant

or 2) h in the final position

//*ærm – earm (рука); *æhta  eahta (восемь); æld  eald (старый)

The OE breaking was a phonemic change, characteristic of the W-Saxon dialect while in the Anglean dialects (Mercian and Nothambrian) cases of it were rare.

Consequently in many W-S words containing a short diphthong Anglean dialects had a short monophthong in the same words.

WS Merc

eachte æhte

eald ald (старый)

seoh seh (увидел)

 

 

Palatal diphthongization 6^th c.

The diphthongization is caused by the preceding palatal consonant

After /k’/, /sk’/, /j/ short and long e and ǽ turned into diphthongs with a more front close vowel as their first element.

e  ie // ʒefan  ʒiefan (давать)

æ  ea // *ʒæf  ʒeaf (дал)

a  ea // *scacan  sceaco

o  eo

æ:  ea:

NB// The consonants /k’/ and /j’/ influenced only the front vowels, while the cluster /sk’/ effected also back vowels /o/, /a/.

Like OE Breaking, this change was characteristic of the WS dialect, while in the Anglean dialects, as a rule, the same words had monophthongs

WS Merc

ʒiefan ʒefan (давать)

ceaster cæster (замок)

 

The system of OE consonants

In the history of the EL consonants turned out to be far more stable than vowels and some of them remained unchanged through the whole period of their existence

// h and, c all, foa m

OE consonants can be described on the following grounds

1) place of articulation

- labial /p, b, m, f, v/

- dental /t, d, þ, ð, n, s, r, l/

- media-lingual /k’, g’, Ɣ’, x’/

- back-lingual (velar) /k, g, x, Ɣ/

- pharyngeal /h/

2) the manner of articulation

- stops /p, b, t, d, k, g, k’…./

- fricatives /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, x, x’, Ɣ’, Ɣ…/

3) voice

- voiced /b, d, g, ð, v, z…/

- voiceless /p, t, k, θ, f, s…/

4) length

- short (single) consonants /s, t, f, g…/

- long consonants (geminates) /ss, ff, tt, gg/

manner of articulation	length	voice	place of articulation
labial	dental	back- and medio-lingual	pharyngal
non-palatal	palatal
stops	short	voiceless	/p/	/t/	/k/ c	/k’/ c
voiced	/b/ /m/	/r/ /d/ /l/ /n/	/g/
geminates	voiceless	pp /p:/	tt /t:/	/k:/ cc	/k’:/ cc
	voiced	bb, mm	dd /d:/	/g:/ cʒ	/g’:/ cʒ
fricatives	short			<f-v>	<θ –ð> <s – z>	<x – x’> h <Ɣ – Ɣ’> ʒ	/h/
	geminates	voiceless	/f:/ ff	/θ:/ þþ /s:/ ss	<x: - x’:> hh

In the system of stops voiced consonants are opposed to the voiceless ones, which means that voice made a phonemic feature of stops: p-b, t-d, k-g etc.

In the system of fricatives voiced and voiceless consonants were in the relations of complementary distribution, that is in allophonic relations

System of geminates is a peculiar feature of OE consonants. Doubled cons-ts were opposed in the length to the single cons-ts.

Among stops there existed both voiced and voiceless geminates while among fricatives only voiceless geminates were resisted.

Being opposed to single cons-ts geminates participated in meaning distinguishing which proves their phonemic status in OE

// scota – шотландец, scotta – человек

The main sourse of geminates in OE was I-mutation.

ссылка // Under certain conditions I-mutation effected not only the root vowel, but the following consonant too. If the root vowel was short, the following consonant was doubled.

//*cnusian  cnyssan (толкать) // *framian  fremman

NO DOUBLING IF

4) the root vowel was long

5) it was followed by a cluster of consonants

6) it was followed by a r. In this case i was preserved too.

However geminates turned out to be rather unstable. Having appeared at the beginning of the OE period, they disintegrated at the end of it. In ModE doubling of cons-ts doesn’t indicate length of a sound. It’s rather a graphical device used to denot shortness of the preceding vowel (potter, kiss)

In OE there also was an opposition of palatal conts-tsto non-palatal ones: /k/ - /k’/; /g/ - /g’/; /x/ - /x’/; /Ɣ/ - /Ɣ’/ which disintegrated during the MidE period.

 

OLD ENGLISH. THE NOUN.

The OE noun had two grammatical or morphological categories: number and case. In addition, nouns distinguished three genders, but this distinction was not a grammatical category. The category of number consisted of two members, singular and plural. The noun had four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative. The Nom. can be defined as the case of the active agent. The Gen - case was primarily the case of nouns and pronouns serving as, attributes, to other nouns. Dat. was the chief case used with prepositions. The Acc. case was the form that indicated a relationship to a verb. Besides these functions the cases of OE nouns, especially the Ace. case, could be used in some adverbial meanings.

Morphological Classification of Nouns. Declensions.

The most remarkable feature of OE nouns was their elaborate system of declensions, which was a sort of morphological classification. The total number of declensions, including both the major and minor types, exceeded 25. All in all there were only ten distinct endings (plus some phonetic variants of these endings) and a few relevant root-vowel interchanges used in the noun paradigms; yet every morphological class had either its own specific endings or a specific succession of markers. In the first place, the morphological classification of OE nouns rested upon the most ancient grouping of nouns according to the stem-suffixes. Stem-suffixes could consist of vowels (a-stem, i-stem), of consonants (ii-stems), of sound sequences (ja-stems, -nd-stems). Some groups of nouns had no stem-forming suffix or had a "zero-suffix"; they are usually termed "root-stems" and are grouped together with consonantal stems, as their roots ended in consonants. The loss of stem-suffixes as distinct component parts had led to the formation of different sets of grammatical endings. OE nouns distinguished three genders: Masc., Fem., and Neut. In OE gender was primarily a grammatical distinction; Masc., Fern. and Neut. nouns could have different forms, even if they belonged to the same stem (type of declension).

Other reasons accounting for the division into declensions were structural and phonetic:

Monosyllabic nouns had certain peculiarities as compared to polysyllabic; monosyllables with a long root-syllable differed in some forms from nouns with a short syllable. The majority of OE nouns belonged to the a-stems, s-stems and n-stems. Special attention should also be paid to the root-stems which displayed specific peculiarities in their forms and have left noticeable traces in Mod E. Morphological Classification of Nouns in Old English Division according to stem

Division according to gender

Division according to length of the root- liable

A-stems included Masc. and Neut. nouns. About one third of OE nouns were Masc. a-stems. The forms in the a-stem declension were distinguished through grammatical endings (including the zero-ending). In some words inflections were accompanied by sound interchanges. If a noun ended in a fricative consonant, it became voiced in an intervocal position. These interchanges were not peculiar of a-stems alone and are of no significance as grammatical markers; they are easily accountable by phonetic reasons.

Note should be taken of the inflections -es of the Gen. sg, -as of the Nom. and Acc. Masc. Towards the end of the OE period they began to be added to an increasing number of nouns, which originally belonged to other stems. These inflections are the prototypes and sources of the Mod E pl and Poss. case markers -(e)s and -s. Wa- and ja-stems differed from pure a -stems in some forms, as their endings contained traces of the elements j- and -w- O-stems were all Fem., so there was no further subdivision according to gender.

The other vocalic stems, i-stems and u-stems, include nouns of different genders.

The most numerous group of the consonantal stems were n-stems. N-stems included many Masc. nouns, many Fern. nouns, and only a few Neut. nouns.

The other consonantal declensions are called minor consonantal stems as they included small groups of nouns. The most important type are the root-stems, which had never had any stem-forming suffix.

 

OLD ENGLISH. THE ADJECTIVE.

The adjective in OE could change for number, gender and case. Adjectives had three genders and two numbers. The category of case in adjectives differed from that of nouns: in addition to the four cases of nouns they had one more case, Instr. It was used when the adjective served as an attribute to a noun in the Dat. case expressing an instrumental meaning.

Weak and Strong Declension

Most adjectives in OE could be declined in two ways: according to the weak and to the strong declension. The difference between the strong and the weak declension of adjectives was not only formal but also semantic. The weak form was employed when the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the Gen. case of personal pronouns. A few adjectives were always declined strong while several others were always weak: adjectives in the superlative and comparative degrees, ordinal numerals, and the adjective ilca 'same. The strong forms were associated with the meaning of indefiniteness (roughly corresponding to the meaning of the modern indefinite article), the weak forms - with the meaning of "definiteness" (corresponding to the meaning of the definite article).

Degrees of Comparison

Like adjectives in other languages, most OE adjectives distinguished between three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The regular means used to form the comparative and the superlative from the positive were the suffixes -ra and -est/ost. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by an interchange of the root-vowel.

Some adjectives had parallel sets of forms: with and without a vowel interchange. These sets could arise if the adjective had originally employed both kinds of suffixes; or else the non-mutated vowel was restored on the analogy of the positive degree and other adjectives without sound interchanges.

OLD ENGLISH. THE PRONOUN.

OE pronouns fell roughly under the same main classes as modern pronouns: personal, demonstrative, interrogative and indefinite. Relative, possessive and reflexive pronouns were not fully developed and were not always distinctly separated from the 4 main classes. The grammatical categories of the pronouns were either similar to those of nouns or corresponded to those of adjectives. Some features of pronouns were peculiar to them alone. OE personal pronouns had 3 persons, 3 numbers in the 1' and 2nd p. (2 numbers- in the 3rd) and 3 genders in the 3'd p. The pronouns of the I" and 2ad p. had suppletive forms. The pronouns of the 3'd p. had many similarities with the demonstrative pronouns. Personal pronouns began to lose some of their case distinctions: the forms of the Dat. case of the pronouns of the V and 2d p. were frequently used instead of the Ace. The Gen. case of personal pronouns had two main applications: it could be an object, but far more frequently it was used as an attribute or a noun determiner, like a possessive pronoun.

In OE were 2 demonstrative pronouns: the prototype of NE that, which distinguished 3 genders in the sg and had I form for all the genders in the pi. and the prototype of this with the same subdivisions. They were declined like adjectives according to a five-case system. Demonstrative pronouns were frequently used as noun determiners and through agreement with the noun, indicated its number, gender and case. Interrogative pronouns had a 4-case paradigm. Some interrogative pronouns were used as adjective pronouns. Indefinite pronouns were a numerous class embracing several simple pronouns and a large number of compounds. Pronouns of different classes- personal and demonstrative- could be used in a relative function, as connectives.

 

 

OLD ENELISH. THE VERB.

The OE verb was characterised by many peculiar features. Though the verb had few grammatical categories, its paradigm had a very complicated structure: verbs fell into numerous morphological and employed a variety of form-building means. All the forms of the verb were synthetic, as analytical forms were only beginning to appear. The nonfinite forms had little in common with the finite forms shared many features with the nominal parts of speech. Grammatical Categories of the Finite Verb. The verb-predicate agreed with the subject of the sentence in 2 grammatical categories: number and person. Its specifically verbal categories were mood and tense.

Finite forms regularly distinguished between two numbers: sg and pl. The category of Person was made up of three forms: the 1 st, the 2nd the 3rd. Person was consistently shown only in the Pres. Tense of the Ind. Mood sg. In the Past Tense sg of the Ind. Mood the forms of the lst and 3rd p. coincided and only the 2nd p. had a distinct form. Person was not distinguished in the pl; nor was it shown in the Subj. Mood. The category of Mood was constituted by the Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive.

The category of Tense in OE consisted of two categorial forms, Pres. and Past. The tenses were formally distinguished by all the verbs in the Ind. and Subj. Moods.

The use of the Subj. Mood in OE was in many respects different from its use in later ages. Subj. forms conveyed a very general meaning of unreality or supposition. In addition to its use in conditional sentences and other volitional, conjectural and hypothetical contexts Subj. was common in other types of construction: in clauses of time, clauses of result and in clauses presenting reported speech. In presenting indirect speech usage was variable: Ind, forms occurred by the side of Subj.

The forms of the Pres. were used to indicate present and future actions. The Past tense was used in a most general sense to indicate various events in the past (including those which are nowadays expressed by the forms of the Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Present Perfect and other analytical forms). Additional shades of meaning could be attached to it in different contexts.

Until recently it was believed that in OE the category of aspect was expressed by the regular contrast of verbs with and without the prefix ze-; verbs with the prefix had a perfective meaning while the same verbs without the prefix indicated a non-completed action. In some recent explorations, however, it has been shown, that the prefix ze- in OE can hardly be regarded as a marker of aspect, it could change the aspective meaning of the verb by making it perfective, but it could also change its lexical meaning. It has also been noticed that verbs without a prefix could sometimes have a perfective meaning. It follows that the prefix ze- should rather be regarded as an element of word-building, a derivational prefix of vague general meaning, though its ties with certain shades of aspective meaning are obvious.

It is important to note that in OE texts there were also other means of expressing aspective meanings:- verb phrases made up of the verbs habban, beon and the Past or Present Participle. The phrases with Participle I were used to describe a prolonged state or action, the phrases with Participle II indicated a state resulting from a previous, completed action.

The category of voice in OE is another debatable issue. In OE texts we find a few isolated relics of synthetic Mediopassive forms. The passive meaning was frequently indicated with the help of Participle II of transitive verbs used as predicatives with the verb beon. During the OE period these constructions were gradually transformed into the analytical forms of the Passive voice. Morphological Classification of Verbs The OE verb is remarkable for its complicated morphological classification which determined the application of form-building means in various groups of verbs. The majority of OE verbs fell into two great divisions: the strong verbs and the weak verbs. Besides these two main groups there were a few verbs which could be put together as "minor" groups. The main difference between the strong and weak verbs lay in the means of forming the principal parts, or the "stems' of the verb. There were also a few other differences in the conjugations. All the forms of the verb, finite as well as non-finite, were derived from a set of "stems" or principal parts of the verb: the Present tense stem was used in all the Present tense forms, Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive, and also in the Present Participle and the Infinitive; it is.usuaily shown as the farm of the infinitive; ail the forms of the Past tense were derived from the Past tense stems; the Past Participle had a separate stem.

The strong verbs formed their stems by means of vowel gradation and by adding certain suffixes; in some verbs vowel gradation was accompanied by consonant interchanges. The strong verbs had four stems, as they distinguished two stems in the Past Tense - one for the 1 st and 3rd p. sg Ind. Mood, the other - for the other Past tense forms, Ind. and Subj.

The weak verbs derived their Past tense stem and the stem of Participle II from the Present tense stem with the help of the dental suffix -d- or -t; normally they did not change their root vowel, but in some verbs suffixation was accompanied by a vowel interchange. Both the strong and the weak verbs are further subdivided into a number of morphological classes with some modifications in the main formbuilding devices.

Minor groups of verbs differed from the weak and strong verbs but were not homogeneous either. Some of them combined certain features of the strong and weak verbs in a peculiar way ("preterite-present" verbs); others were suppletive or altogether anomalous.

 

 

THE SCANDINAVIAN INVASION

8th c. raiders from Scand.. "Danes". made first attacks of England. Struggle-300 years. The Scandinavians subdued Northumbria and East Anglia, ravaged the eastern part of Mercia and advanced on Wessex. Like Germans, founded many towns and villages in northern England: in many regions there sprang up a mixed population made up of the English and the Danes. Linguistic amalgamation was easy. since their tongues belonged to the same linguistic group. In the 12th-l3th cc. the Scandinavian element was incorporated in the central English dialects: but the historical events that led to the linguistic influence date from the 9`h and 10`h. Wessex-head of resistance. Under Alfred, it was one of the greatest figures in English history; by the peace treaty of 878 England was divided into 2 halves: the n-eastern under Danish control-Danelaw, and the south-western-under the leadership of Wessex. In the late 10th c the Danish raids were renewed again; reached a new climax in the early 11`h c., headed by Sweyn and Canute. Attacks were followed by demands for regular payments of large sums of money (called Danegeld " Danish money"), collected from many districts and towns. In 1017 Canute was acknowledged as king and England became part of a great northern empire comprising Denmark and Norway. On Canute's death (1035) his kingdom broke up and England regained political independence; by that time it was a single state divided into 6 earldoms. Most important role in the history of the English language was played by the introduction of Christianity. The first attempt to introduce the Rom Christian religion to a-Saxon Britain -6 th c during the supremacy of Kent. In 597 a group of missioanaries from Rome landed on the shore of Kent, East Anglia- Essex, and other places: movement was supported from the North; missionaries from Ireland brought the Celtic variety of Christianity to Northumbria.(the Celts had been converted to Christianity during the Roman Occupation of Britain.) In less than a cent. -all England was Christianised.=major factor in the centralization; growth of culture and learning; monasteries and monastic schools; high standard of learning was reached in the best 9th c. During the Scand. Invasion, the Northumbrian culture was largely wiped out. English culture shifted to the southern kingdoms, most of all to Wessex, where a cultural efflorescence began during the reign of Alfred(871-901) from that time till the end of the OE period of Wessex, with its capital at Winchester, remained the cultural centre of England. The phonetic and grammatical structure of these two languages was the similar. They ahd the same morphological categories, strong and weak declination of substantives falling into several types, according to the stem vowel; strong and weak declination of the adjectives; seven classes of strong and three classes of weak verbs. A considerable part of vocabulary in OE and Scandinavian was similar. In many words the root was the same, while the endings were different (fisc-fiscr-fish) Another part of Scandinavian voc-ry did not correspond to English, for example in sphere of politic and economic. Even the 3^rd person singular personal pronoun was taken from Scandinavian. Among Scandinavian loan words there were some military terms, but later they were superseded by French words. Scandinavian elements became part of many geographical names (village in Kirkby, hill in Langtoft)

 

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

Soon after Canute's death (1042) and the collapse of his empire the old AS line was restored but their reign was short-lived. The new English king, Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), who had been reared in France, brought over many Norman advisors and favourites: distributed among them English lands and wealth to the considerable resentment of the Anglo-Saxon nobility and appointed them to important positions in the government and church hierarchy. He not only spoke French himself but insisted on it being spoken by the nobles at his Court. William, Duke of Normandy. visited his court and it was rumoured that Edward appointed him his successor. In many respects Edward paved the way for Norman infiltration long before the Norman Conquest. However, the government of the country was still in the hands of Anglo-Saxon feudal lords, headed by the powerful Earl Godwin of Wessex. In 1066, upon Edward's death, the Elders of England (OE' Witan) proclaimed Harold Godwin king of England. As soon as the news reached William of Normandy, he mustered a big army by promise of land and plunder (one third of his soldiers were Normans, others. mercenaries from all over Europe) and, with the support of the Pope, landed in Britain.

In the battle of Hastings, fought in October 1066, Harold was killed; and the English were defeated. This date is commonly known as the date of the Norman Conquest, though the military occupation of the country was not completed until a few years later. After the victory at Hastings, William by-passed London cutting it off from the North and made the Witan of London and the bishops at Westminster Abbey crown him king. William and his barons laid waste many lands in England, burning down villages and estates. They conducted a relentless campaign of subjugation, devastated and almost depopulated Northumbria and Mercia, which tried to rise against the conquerors. Scores of earthen forts and -wooden stockades, built during the campaign. were soon replaced by huge stone Norman castles. Most of the lands of the Anglo-Saxon lords passed into the hands of the Norman barons, William's own possessions comprising about one third of the country. The Normans occupied all the important posts in the church, in the government, and in the army.

Following the conquest hundreds of people from France crossed the Channel to make their home in Britain. Immigration was easy, since the Norman kings of Britain were also dukes of Normandy and, about a hundred years later, took possession of the whole western half of France, thus bringing England into still closer contact with the continent. French monks, tradesmen and craftsmen flooded the south-western towns, so that not only the higher nobility but also much of the middle class was French.

 

London dialect.

In the 14^th century there developed the process of the rise of the national language. This language was based on the London dialect. Its cause was the great shift in social structure which characterized the English that period. It was the time when new elements made themselves felt inside the feudal society. These elements were the town merchants, who were the bearers of a new social structure, which was to replace feudalism. Growth of commerce, industry, development of many circulations. These were the manifestations of social changes. They marked the end of feudal and the formation of new society. In the 14^th century there ere 3 main groups of dialects in English: northern, midland, southern. The dialects differed from each other by essential phonetic and morphological features. These differences corresponded to the territorial position among the dialect belonged to the London dialect. After the Norman conquest London became the capital of England. London is situated on the Thames. It lays on the boundary between the midland and the southern dialect. In 13^th century it already showed a mixture of midland and southern elements. The later it prevailed. To the end of the 14^th century London dialect became influential in other parts o the country. That was to the growth of its importance as economical and political center. London’s geographical position was extremely favorable for the quick growth of its political importance and its role as the birthplace of a national language. Many roads along which England in trade was conducted crossed in London. Thanks to the great depth of the Thames sea ships could be easily reach London and it became the center of national trade. London’s role as a trade center attracted people from every part of the country and that’s why elements of other dialects penetrated into London English dialect. Thus, the London dialect, which became the base of the national language, was a complex formation, which reflected different influences connected with the social and political life of that period. It contain alongside east midland, south-eastern elements and partially south-western elements. The London dialects of those centuries is represented by several important documents: the proclamation of Henry III, poems by Adam Devy, Geoffrey Chauser.

 

Vocalization of fricatives.

During the ME period all English diphthongs turned into monophthongs and thus the OE system of diphthongs disintegrated, but parallely in the same period a group of new diphthongs was developed having as a resource vocalization of fricatives y, y’, x, x’. In OE the first pair was spelt through the letter з, the second pair – through the letter h, but in ME the diagraph h was introduced to reflect x, x’. Of these 3 fricatives 2 were palatal x’, y’, the palatal fricatives in combination with a preceded vowel yielded diphthongs in i, and velar fricatives yield in u. It is supposed that palatal x’, y’ were the first to be involved into the process of vocalization: the first of them began to vocalize in OE, the second x’ in the beginning of the ME. The OE combination æy’ developed in the ME into the diphthongs ai and ey’ – ei (dæg-dai) in ME texts there can be found the cases of the intermediate state of vocalization reflected in spelling mæig, dæiз. Here the weakened palatal y’ is preceded by the newly developed vocalic glide i. it should be mentioned that the diphthong ai and ei were very similar to their phonetic features and soon they merged, which explains modern pronunciation of the words: say, day, lay, may. Originally, they had the diphthong ai. The palatal fricative x’ usually occurred after the close vowel I together with which it didn’t produce a diphthong but a long monophthong i: (cniht-kniht, knixt-kni:t). Even if x’ occurred open vowels the final results of its vocalization through the gradual stage of it’s development was the same (heah-heihhigh(hi:)). Non palatal fricatives x, y were usually preceded by Λ or o. after their vocalization there developed 2 diphthongs: au and ou (ay-aw-au, oy-ow-ou). Here again the intermediate stage of vocalization of y into u, which was w (drayan-drawen-drauen). If y was preceded by the close u, vocalization resulted in the development of the long monopthong u: (fluyol-flu:l). velar y could be vocalized after l, r (boryah-borəu). the vocalized fricatives x together with the preceding vowel produced diphthong au and ou (brohte-broute). Of the 4 fricatives above mentioned x was the latest to be vocalized and it’s change was not of a universal character. Alongside u glide serving as the second element of the diphthong au, ou it could also developed into another fricative which was f (laugh, rough, enough) or remanded unchanged. Thus, during the OE period the OE system of diphthong was superseded by a new system. OE diphthongs of the ea or eo type had the second element open or half open, while in the new diphthong of the ai or au type it was close. Thus, numerous qualitative and quantitative changes of the ME period affected all kinds of vowel phonems. In the process of these changes short vowels tended to became wild and long vowels-narrow. All OE diphthongs became monothongs. Instead on the bases of vocalized fricatives a new system was developed. These new diphthongs were: ai, ei, au, oy. In ME vowel length lost its phonemic value and as a result a strickt system of long and short vowels disappeared. The system of ME monophthongs appeared.

 

Middle English dialect.

During the ME period the whole system of OE vowel suffered considerable changes either quantitative or qualitative. Quite often these changes had dialectal peculiarities. In ME old-English dialects regrouped in accordance with their geographical position. There were the fallowing essential groups: the northern dialects: it had developed from OE Northumbrian dialect. In ME it also comprised the dialects from Yorkshire and Lancashire. The midland dialect: they had developed from Mercian dialect. It was represented in ME by 2 main areas – east and west midland. The southern dialect: it comprised OE Kentish, west-Saxon, east-sakson dialects. East-Saxon dialect was not important in OE, but it became very important in ME, since it was the part of London dialect and it established its priority over other dialects.

 

THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT.

The early modern period had a numerous vowel changes. The most prominent is the great vowel shift. It affected the system of long vowels, all of which changed their quality after the shift. They either narrowed or developed into diphthongs. The shift can be defined as an independent phonetic conditions for it can be traced in the syllable or in the word. But never the less it affected every stressed long vowel in any position. i: - ai (c∫i:ld-c∫aild), e: - i: (ke:pn – ki:p), E: - e: - i: (mE:l – mi:l), a: - e: - ei (na:m - neim), o: - o: - ou (ro:d – roud), o: - u: (mo:n – mu:n), u: - au (mu:s – maus).

Spelling changes: 1) though, the shift affected the pronounsiation of all the words containing long vowels, yet it was not followed by any regular spelling changes. And few graphic replacements introduced in the 16^th century failed to reflect a systematic character of the changes. Thus, the diagraphs ee and iewere used for the sound e:, while the diagraph ea was introduced to reflect E:. But the further merging of e: and E: in i: made their graphic distinguishes useless (meet-meat, steal-steel). In the similar way 2 diagraphs were introduced to represent o: o: (oo-o:, oa-O:). This innovation proved to be more useful as diagraphs still indicate 2 different sounds in Mod.E: oo-u: (room, mood), oa-ou (boat, phoan). 2) Mute e during the period there was introduced another thing to indicate the lengths of the vowels. That was the final mute e. It produced the position of the open syllable for the root vowel and starting with the 13^th century an open syllable had been lengthening posing. And during the great vowel shift these mute e began to be adopted even to the words, where it have benn never spelt before, and where it was to serve as a signal of a long open vowel (ban-bon-bone, lic-lik-like). 3) Alphabet. During the shif even the names of some letters were changed: a-ei, e-I, i-ai, be-bi, ka-kei. But not only the names of the leters, but also their values had changed. Before the shift the letter i stood for the sound i:. after the shift it began to denote 2 sounds, which are different in their qualities: i, ai (bit-bait). Similar changes happened to some other vowels: a (mad-made); u (cub-cube); e (pit-pet), o (god-gold). In general after the shift the gap between the spoken and written forms of words increased and the spelling system became more conservative and conventional than before. Though, in general the shift was the series of constant and systematic changes, still there are some cases, which need explanation and comments. First of all it concerns the origin of diphthong ei in the word brake, steak. Henry Wyld made a supposition, that this irregular pronunciation might have been influenced by a certain dialects. But he didn’t mansion any particular dialects. The second interpretation is given by Jasperson. In seems to be more convincing. He thought, that during the shift 2 long vowels a: and e: might have some intermediate stages of development, which were common, which had caused the pronunciation of diphthong ei and the words above mentioned. Being a systematic change of considerable results the shift posed a number of serious problems to scholars. The problems are connected with a chronological frame of the shift and its causes direction of change and their phonemic values.

 

 

Vocalization of fricatives

Here such pairs as /x/ - /x’/, /Ɣ/ - /Ɣ’/ were affected. After their vocalization during the MidE period the system of consonant was reduced by four sounds.

Dropping of /l/ before /ʧ/

//OE /ælc/  EMidE elch  LMidE ech ‘each’

// smylc  swulch  such ‘such’

Dropping of /v/ before /d/

// OE hæfde  EMidE havde  LMidE had(e) > had

Voicing of /s/>/z/, /f/>/v/ in the southern dialects

Midland sēn – South zēn (‘seen’)

In general consonant changes of the MidE period were of a phonemic character since they resulted either in the development of new phonemes or their disappearance.

Thus, OE v-f, ð-θ all got in MIdE the status of separate phonemes.

Besides such new phones as /ʧ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/ and the phoneme /ŋ/ enriched the system of MidE consonants.

Vocalization of fricatives was a reverse. After two pairs x-x’ and Ɣ-Ɣ’ had disappeared.

Simplifying changes of consonants moved MidE words nearer to their modern shape.

 

 

Mid. E. grammar. Verb.

THE VERB. NON - FINITE FORMS. The development of the non-finite forms: the infinitive and the participles may well be described as gradual verbalization. The OE Infinitive was a verbal noun. During the MEP the Infinitive lost all its noun features except for some of his syntactic functions. It’s suffix -an was reduced and dropped -an>-en>-e>zero. As to the particle «to» it was a preposition. With the meaning of purpose (у мод. (после них) глаголов нет «to»б т.к. они не выражают значение цели). The same is true of the participle. The EP lost its nominal morphological characteristic (and the category of agreement with the noun). Alongside this loss the Infinitive and the P. began to develop verbal features and categories. The Gerund is a much later development. FINITE FORMS. The classes (4 classes in OE) of verbs were in the main preserved. The speakers still distinguished the classes. But there were certain very important developments. The number of strong verbs was reduced from 300 in OE to 200 in ME. At the same time some strong verbs became weak, they lost their vowel gradation and took on the dental suffix: to help, to climb, to walk and some others. At the same time there was a mixture of classes: strong verbs remained strong, but they changed their class, their gradation (4^th <>5^th - more often): to speak (5 в 4). As to the weak verbs the 3^rd class stop existing: two classes. The suffixes were -du and -ed. The most regular was the second weak class - it later gave us the standard suffix -ed for standard or regular verbs. The MEP witnessed the development of weak verbs which then turned into regular verbs. A great number of verbs joined the class of regular verbs. The new formations which joined the group of regular verbs were French (and some other languages). As to the preterit-present verbs they preserved their modal meaning, but their paradime had changed greatly. Towards the end of the MEP they lost their infinitive and participles and turned into defective verbs. Some of their old forms were dropped or gave rise to other words: cunning < can (cunnan); own (owe) < ought (aзan). As to the suppletives they have always been the same: to be, to go. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANALUTICAL FORMS. In OE there were only 4 grammatical categories. They are the Tense (Present & Preterit), the Mood, Person and Number. All of them were synthetic. But during the MEP some other categories which were mainly analytical appeared. One of the first to develop was the category of time correlation. In OE there were many constructions with the verb «to have» in its main meaning +an object +an attribute, which referred to the object (to have something done). Later this construction developed into the Perfect Form. We see it when Participle II lost its agreement with the object and when later the object took the position after the Participle. This process was going in the middle of the MEP => «to have done something». The Continuous forms developed in the same way. From a free form combination to a morphological form. In the beginning it was a compound nominal predicate with the verb «to be» as a link-verb and Participle I as a predicative. And originally it didn’t express a process, it meant only permanent characteristic as a Present indefinite now. The Continuous form acquired its modern meaning much later in the 16^th century, even after Shakespeare. The process which took place was the same as with the Perfect form: originally the Participle agreed with the subject, but then it lost its category of agreement and became a part of the Continuous form. The same process took place with the Passive which developed from a free word combination to a fixed morphological form. Originally it was a compound nominal predicate with the verb «to be» + Participle II as a predicative. Gradually the Participle lost its agreement with the subject of the sentence. As we know the Future Tense Form was not represented in the OE and developed only during the MEP. It developed from a combination which was a compound verbal modal predicate with the verb «shall» and «will». But even in the time of Shakespeare this combination could be still to either as a modal predicate or as a Future form. The Perfect Continuous Form was one of last to appear. It appeared at the beginning of the NEP. And the last to appear was the Continuous form of the Passive which began developing only in the 19^th century. In OE we may find passive infinitive, though no passive forms far finite forms may be found. Other analytical non-finite forms developed during the MEP, but only after corresponding analytical forms of finite forms had developed. The gerund was also one of the last to appear. There are several theories concerning the development of the Gerund and the most current of them is that it developed as a mixture of Participle I and the verbal noun with the preposition «on» in the function of the predicative (He was on hunting. OE).

NEP.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTIC. The NEP begins in the 15^th century. So the NEP is the period from the 15^th century up to our time. There are subdivisions here: - early NE, which is the period of the development of the E nation as a nation from the political point of view and the period of the formation of the uniform literary language and of the establishing of the literary norm.Unlike the borderline between the ancient times and the OEP, and the borderline between the OEP and the MEP when there some cataclysms, battles and so on, the borderline between the MEP and the NEP is not so historically marked. There were no cataclysms, nevertheless some very important events and particular events took place in the country and new conditions came into play.As early as the 13^th century within the feudal system new economic relations began to take shape. The villains were gradually superseded by copy-holders (пожизненные арендаторы). New industries and trade began to develop; new crafts appeared and these very new crafts began to be separated from agriculture. Together with the decay of the feudal system, the development of new relations within the feudal system, the development of new industries and crafts new social groups into being: artisans, rich merchants, owners of workshops, money lenders - they were typical of the capitalist system. It couldn’t but change the situation in the country in all its spheres. The most crucial periods were the 15^th and the 16^th centuries. A new mode of production developed rapidly, new industries sprang into existence. The development of industry required new resources and new markets. So it was a period of great projects, of great maritime projects. All this changes influenced the cultural situation in the country: different regions of the country, which had been isolated before, were brought together through commerce, transportation, trade. It stimulated the necessity to have greater contacts and a uniform language.The process of the formation of the uniform language was further supported by printing. The first printer was William Caxton (the second part of the 15^th century). He founded the first printing house (before that all written matter was written in hand). Caxton printed his first book in 1476 in the London dialect which strengthened it.At first glance it may seem that the process of the development of the national language was a peaceful process, but in reality it was a painful process. Many people, who were more or less concerned with writing: writers, scholars, had their hands in the development of the language. They had heated discussions as to how the language should develop.There were 3 main groups of opinions: 1)the language can borrow as many words from other languages as possible => it would enrich the language. 2)strongly against borrowings: English should remain a monosyllabic language as it was.(Спенсер - Fair e Queen - старался показать, что он приверженец старины). 3)«leave the language as it is and let it develop by itself» (это не цитата!).Unification: it was a period of normalization, which achieved not by itself, but through the activity of many people. As to the spelling, they were trying to work out certain general fixed rules of spelling, but at the beginning of the NEP the spelling varied from writer to writer yet. For example, Sir John Cheke doubled his vowels to mark their length. The first grammars and the first comprehensive and fundamental dictionaries appeared. Bullocar «Brief Grammar for English». New genres sprang into existence during the early NEP: the genre of newspaper - Still and Edison - they started newspaper in England. Sentimentalism, realistic novels began to develop. It was then that the novel was born. (рубет 17-18 вв.).

Purpose subject.

Purpose of this subject is a systematic study of the language, development from the earliest time to the present day. this subject is connected with lex-gy, grammar, phonetics, history of the country. if we regard the language in particular period of time it’s synchronic approach if compare in different periods it’s diachronic.

The source of inf. About Germanic Tribes.