Periodisation of the History of English

 

 

I	Early OE (also: Pre-writ- ten OE)	с. 450 - с. 700	OLD ENGLISH
II	OE (also: Written OE)	с. 700 - 1066
III	Early ME	1066 - с. 1350	MIDDLE ENGLISH
IV	ME (also: Classical ME)	c. 1350 -1475
V	Early NE	1476 - с. 1660	NEW ENGLISH
VI	Normalisation Period (also: Age of Correct­ness, Neo-Classical period)	с. 1660 - с. 1800
VII	Late NE, or Mod E (in­cluding Present-day English	с. 1800...... since 1945....

Commonly accepted traditional periodisation divides the History of English into three periods: Old English, Middle English, New English. Futher subdivision give seven subperiods: Early Old English and Anglo-Saxon, Early Middle English and Middle English; Early New English, Normalisation Period and Modern English. Henry Sweet’s phono-morphological periodisation is based on the state of unstressed endings. OE – the period of full endings: singan, sunu (‘sing’, ‘son’)/ ME – the period of levelled endings: singen, sune. ModE – the period of lost endings – sing, son.

Pre-Germanic Britain.

 

The history of the English language begins with the invasion of the British Isles by Germanic tribes in the 5^th c.

Pre-Germanic Britain was inhabited by the Celts. Celtic languages: the Gaelic and Britonnic branches. The Gaelic branch has survived as Irish (or Erse) in Ireland, has expanded to Scotland as Scotsch-Gaelic of the Highlands and is still spoken by a few hundred people on the Isle of Man (Manx). The Brotonnic branch is represented by Kymric or Welsh in modern Wales, and by Breton or Armorican in modern France in the area called Bretagne where the Celts came as emigrants from Britain in the 5^th c. Another Britonnic dialect – Cornish – was spoken in Cornwall untill the end of the 18^th c.

The Roman occupation in Britain.

In the 1^st c. B.C. having occupied Gaul Julius Caesar made two raids on Britain, in 55 and 54 B.C., and failed to subjugate Britain. In A.D. 43 Britain was invaded by Roman legions under Emperor Claudius and made a province of the Roman Empire. The Roman occupation lasted nearly 400 years. In A.D. 410, the Rpman troops were withdrawn to Rome by Constantine.

Germanic settlement of Britain.

The first wave of the Invaders, the Jutes or the Frisians occupied the extreme south-east: Kent and the Isle of Wight. The secong wave made up of the Saxons settled along the south coast and on both banks of the Thames. Last came the Angles and made their landing on the east coast and moved to the central parts of the island.

Formation of Germanic states.

Germanic tribes founded large kingdoms: the most powerful of them being Wessex, Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria and Kent.

The beginning of English.

Geographic separarion from the Germanic tribes as well as mixture and unification of people played an importatn role in thw development of a new Germanic language - English

Economic, historic and cultural situation.

The period from the 5^th till the 11^th century was a transitional period from the tribal and slave-owning society to feudalism. The basic economic unit was the feudal manor, a self-contained economic unit. Tribal division was gradually superseded by local division into shires and townships.

Rise of Wessex. The role of the West Saxon dialect in IX - XI centuries.

Four of the kingdoms at various times secured superiority in the country: Kent, Northumbria and Mercia in Early OE, pre-written period; and Wessex – all through the period of WrittenOE.

Scandinavian invadors.

In the 8^th c. Raider from Scandinaviamade their first attacks on England. The struggle lasted over 300 years. The Scandinavians subdued Northumbria and East Anglia, ravaged Mercia and advanced on Wessex. Wessex stood at the head of the resistance Under King Alfred by the peace treaty of 878 England was divided into two parts: Danelaw – under Danish control – and south-wesern half – under the leadership of Wessex. In 1017 uder Canute, the danish king, England became a part of Danish Empire/ On Canute’s death in 1035 England regained political independence.

The introduction of Christianity.

The first attempt was made in the 6^th c. Missioneries from Rome came to Kent, made Canterbury their center, expanded to Kent, East Anglia, Essex. Misionaries from Ireland brought the Celtic variety of Christianity to Northumbria. The introduction of Christianity gave a strong impetus to the growth of culture and learning.

Old English dialects.

The following four principal OE dialects are commonly distinguished: Kentish, West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian.

Writings in Old English.

Runic inscriptions. Old English manuscripts.”Anglo-Saxon Chronicles”, King Alfrred’s translations, “Pastoral Care”, Aelfric’s works, Wulfstan’s homilies.. Old English poetry. “Beowulf”.

Old English alphabet and pronunciation.

Old English Alphabet

 

a		n	[n], [ŋ]
æ
b		o
с	[k] or Ik']	p
d		r
e		s	[s] or [z]
f	[f] or [v]	t
з	[g], [g’], [γ] or [j]	þ	ð [ð] or [θ]
h	[x], [x']or [h]	u
i		w
		x
m		y	[y]

The lenghth of vowels is shown by a macron: bát [ba:t], NE boat, or by a line above the letter. Long consonants are indicated by double letters.

The letters f, s and ð or þ stand for voiced fricatives between vowels and also between a vowel a a voiced consonant; otherwise they indicate corresponding voicelrss fricatives.

The letter з 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.

Ōhthere sæde his hlāforde Ælfrēde

[′o:xtxere ′sæ:de his ′xla:vorde ′æIfre:de]

“Ohthere said (to) his lord Alfred

суninзе þæt hē ealra Norðmanna norþmest

[′kyniŋge θæt he: ′ealra ′norθֽmānna ′norþmest]