Mетоды компаративной лингвистики

Early M.E. dialects

The use of foreign language as a state one, the diversity of the dialects & the decline of the written form of English created a situation, extremely favorable for increased variation & for more intensive linguistic change. The regional M.E. dialect had developed from respective O.E. dialects.

1. The southern group included the Kentish & the South-Western dialects

Kentish was a dialect descendant of the O.E. dialect known by the same name. The south-Western group was a continuation of the O.E. Saxon dialects. Not only west Saxon, but also East Saxon. The East Saxon dialect wasn’t prominent in O.E., but became more important in Early M.E. since it made the basis of the dialect of London in the 12th & 13th centuries.

2. The group of Midlands. The central group

Corresponding to the O.E. Mercian dialect is divided into West-Midland as 2 main areas. In Middle English the Midland area became more diversified linguistically than the O.E. Mercian kingdom occupying approximately the same territory.

3. The North dialects.

Had developed from O.E. Northumbrian. In early middle English the Northern dialects included several provincial dialects. For example the Lancashire dialects and what later became known as Scottish.

In the course of Early M.E., the area of the English language in the British Isles grew. The former Celtic kingdoms fell under Norman rule. Wales was subjugated in the late 13th century.

In the late 12th century the English made their first attempt to conquer island. The invaders settled among the Irish and were soon assimilated. Though part of Ireland was ruled from England, the country remained divided & had little contact with England. The English language was used there alongside Celtic languages, Irish & Welsh were influenced by Celtic.

The Early dialectic division was preserved in the succeeding centuries, but in late M.E. the linguistic situation changed. In early M.E. while the main & state language was French, the local dialects were relatively equal. In late M.E. when English had been reestablished as the main language of administration & writing, one of the regional dialects, the London dialect, prevailed one another.

Билет №2

Изменение гласных в M. E.

Quantitative vowel changes in E.M.E.

At the end of O.E. and in the immediately succeeding centuries accented vowels underwent a number of qualitative changes, which effected the employment & the phonological staters of short & long vowels in the language. In later O.E. and in E.M.E., vowels length began to depend on phonetic conditions, the earliest of position quantitative changes was the readjust consonant clusters.

1. short vowels were lengthened before 2 home-organic consonants, a sonorant and plosive, consequently renamed or became long.

O.E. wild[i]-M.E.wild[i:]

2. all the groups of 2 or more consonants produced a reverse effect. They made the proceeding long vowel short. All vowels in this position become short

O.E.cepte-M.E. kepte

3. this alternation in the treatment of vowel quantity took place sometime later in 12 or13c. Short vowels became long in open syllables. This lengthening mainly affected the more open of that short vowels [e, a, o] But sometimes it is also found in the close vowels [I,υ(кувшинчик)] In the process of lengthening close vowels acquired more open quality

O.E. wike - M.E. weke -N.E.week

O.E. nama – M.E. name

Qualitative vowel changes in E.M.E.

Development of monophthongs.

As compared with quantitative changes, qualitative vowel changes in E.M.E. were less important. They affected several monophthongs and displayed considerable dialectal diversity. On the whole they were independent of phonetic environment. In some averse the vowel [y] [y:] developed into [e] and [e:], in others they changed into [I] and [i:]. In S-W and W-Midland the 2 vowels were sometimes preserved as [y] and [y:]. But later were moved back word and merged with [υ(кувшин)] and [u:].

In E.M.E> the long O.E. [ə:] was narrowed to [o:]. This was the early instance of the growing tendency of all long monophthongs to become closer. The tendency was intensified in late M.E. When all long vowels changed in that direction. a: become c: (c в другую сторону) in all dialects except the Northern group.

O.E. stan M.E.(northern dialect) stane N.E. stone

The short O.E.[ǽ] was replaced in M.E. by the back vowel [a] accept the naralized [ᾶ] which became [o]

O.E.pǽt-M.E. & N.E. that

O.E. earm-M.E. & N.E. arm

Development of diphthongs.

One of the most important sound changes of the E.M.E. period was the loss of O.E. diphthongs & the growth of new diphthongs with new qualitative & quantitative distinctions. Its the result of this changes, the vowel system2 set of diphthongs: long & short.

System of vowel in L.M.E.

To sum up the results of Early M.E. vowel changes it is necessary to observe the system of vowels. In L.M.E. the system of vowels was no longer symmetrical. The O.E. balance of long & short vowels had been disrupted and was never restored again.

Correlation through quantity can no more be regarded as the basis of phoneme’s oppositions in the vowels system.

Monophtongs Short: i e a o u Long: i: e: a: o: u: ə: З:

Diphthongs

short: ei əi oi au

long: au: ou:

Билет №5

Consonants ME

English consonants were on the whole far more stable than vowels. A large number of consonants have probably remained unchanged through all historical periods. Thus we can assume that the sonorants [m, n, l], plosives [p, b, t, d] and also [k, g] in most positions have not been subjected to any noticeable changes. The most important developments in the history of English consonants were the growth of new sets of sounds, - affricates and sibilants.

Growth of sibilants and affricates

 

In OE there were no affricates and no sibilants, except [s, z]. the new type of consonants developed from OE palatal plosives [k, g], which had split from the corresponding velar plosives [k] and [g], and also from the consonant cluster [sk]. The three new phonemes which arose from these sources were [t?], [dз] and [?]. In Early ME they began to be indicated by special letters and digraphs, which came into use mainly under the influence of the French scribal tradition ch, tch, g, dg, sh, ssh, sch. As a result of these changes and also as a result of the vocalization of the consonant system in Late ME was in some respects different from the OE system.

 

 

Билет №6

Grammar of Middle English

 

In the course of ME the grammatical system of the language underwent profound alteration. English has been transformed from synthetic, or inflected, language with a well-developed morphology into a language of the analytical style. In ME grammatical forms could be built in the analytical way with the help of auxiliary words. In the synthetic forms of the ME the means of form-building were the same as before. They are inflections, sound interchanges & suppletion. The division of words into parts of speech has proved to be one of the most permanent characteristic of the language.

 

The noun.

The OE noun had the grammatical category of number and case. The most numerous OE morphological classes of nouns were r-stems or long-stems and n-stems. Even in late OE the endings used in these types were added by analogy to other kinds of nouns, especially if they belonged to the same gender. The decline of the OE declension system lasted over 300 years & revealed considerable dialectal differences. It started in the North of England & gradually spread South words. Simplification of noun morphology affected the grammatical categories of the noun in different ways.

The category of gender. In the 11th & the 12th c. the weakened & level endings of adj. & adj. pronouns seized to indicate gender of the noun. Semantically gender was associated with the differentiation of sex & therefore the formal grouping into genders was superseded by a semantic division into an animate & inanimate nouns with a further subdivision into males & females. In ME gender is a lexical category like in Modern English.

The category of case. The number of cases in the noun paradigm was reduced from 4 to 2 in late ME. The syncretism (неравномерное развитие системы, состоящей из нескольких частей) of cases was a slow process which went on step by step. Even in OE the forms of the nominative & accusative cases weren’t distinguished in the Pl & in some coincided also in the Sg. In EME they fell together in both numbers. Only the genitive case was kept separate from the other forms, which had more explicit formal distinctions in Sg than in the Pl.

In the 14th c. the ending –es of the genitive Sg had become almost universal but there were several exceptions, nouns which were used in the uninflected forms. In the Pl the genitive case had no special marker, it was not distinguished from the common case. The formal distinction between cases in the Pl was lost accept in the nouns which didn’t take –es in the Pl. several nouns with a weak Pl form in –en or with a vowel interchange such as oxen or men, added the marker of the genitive case –es to these forms (oxennes & mennes).

The reduction in the number of cases was linked up with a change in the meanings & functions in the surviving forms. The common case which resulted from the fusion of 3 OE cases assumed all the functions of the former nominative, accusative & dative and also some functions of the genitive case. The ME common case had a very general meaning which was made more specific by the context. These means are: preposition, the meaning of the word predicate & the word order. With the help of these means it could express various meanings formally belonging to different cases. The genitive case is used only attributively to modify a noun.

 

The category of number. This category proved to be the most stable. The Pl forms in ME show obvious traces of numerous OE noun declantions. In late ME the ending –es was the prevalent marker of nouns in the Pl (stone-stones). The ME Pl ending –en is used as a variant marker with some nouns lost its former productivity so in standard Modern English it’s found only in oxen & children. The adjective.

In the course of the ME period the adj. lost all its grammatical categories with the exception of the degrees of comparison. By the end of the OE period the agreement of the adj. with the noun had become looser & in the course of early ME it was practically lost. Though the grammatical category of the adj. reflected those of the noun, most of them disappeared even before the noun lost respective distinction.

The 1st category to disappear was gender which seized to be distinguished by the adj. in the 11th c.. the number of the cases shown in the adj. was reduced. The instrumental case had fused with the dative by the end of OE. Distinction of other cases of early ME was unsteady. As many variant forms of different cases which arose in early ME coincided. In the 13th c. case could be shown only by some variable adj. endings in the strong declantion. Towards the end of the century all case distinctions were lost. The strong & weak forms of adj. were often confused in early ME texts. The general tendency towards an uninflected form affected also the distinction of number though number was certainly the most stable nominal category in old period. In the 14th c. Pl forms were sometimes contrasted to the Sg forms with the help of the ending E in the strong declantion. A new Pl ending S appeared. The use of S is attributed either to the influence of French adj. or to the ending S of nouns. In the age of Chaucer the paradigm of the adj. consisted of 4 forms, distinguished by a single vocalic ending E.

 

Development of the gerund.

The new verbal known in modern grammars as the gerund appeared in ME. The gerund can be traced to 3 sources:

1. –unζ /-inζ

2. the present participle

3. the infinitive

 

In OE the verbal noun derived from transitive verbs, took an object in the genitive case which corresponded to the direct object of the finite verb.

 

Verbs.

Many markers of the grammatical forms of the verb were reduced, leveled & lost in ME. Number distinctions were not only preserved in ME but even become more regular. But towards the end of the period they were neutralized in most positions. The differences in the forms of person were maintained in ME. The distinction of tenses was preserved in the verb paradigm through all historical period. As before past tense was shown with the help of the dental suffix in the weak verbs & with the help of the root vowel interchange in the strong verbs. The system of verbals consisted of the infinitive & 2 participles. The main trend of their evolution in ME can be defined as gradual loss of most nominal features & growth of verbal features. The infinitive lost its inflected form (so-called dative case) in early ME. The prep. tōr which was placed in OE before the inflected infinitive to show direction or purpose, lost its preposition force & changed into a formal sign of the infinitive. The distinctions between 2 participles were preserved in ME. Participle 1 had an active meaning & expressed a process or quality simultaneous with the events described by the predicate of the sentence. Participle 2 had an active or passive meaning depended on the transitivity of the verb and expressed a preceding action or its result in the substinate situation.

 

Degrees of comparison.

In ME the degrees of comparison could be built in the same way, only the suffixes had been weakened to -er, -est and the interchange of the root-vowel was less common than before. Since more adjectives with the sound alteration had parallel forms without it, the forms with an interchange soon fell into disuse (long, lenger, lengest and long, longer, longest).

The most important innovation in the adjective system in the ME period was the growth of analytical forms of the degrees of comparison. It's noteworthy that in ME, when the phrases with ME more and most became more and more common, they were used with all kinds of adj, regardless of the number of syllables and were even preferred with mono- and disyllabic words.

Thus Chaucer has more swete, better worthy. The two sets of forms, synthetic and analytic, were used in free variation until 17th and 18th c., when the morden standart usage was established.

 

 

Билет №7

East-germanic branch

The E-G subgroup was founded by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia at the beginning of our era. The most numerous and powerful of them were Goths. The gothic language (now dead) has been preserved in written records of the 4th and 5th centuries. The Goths were the 1st of the all teutons to become Christian. In the 4th century Ulfilas, a west-gothic bishop, made a translation of the Gospels from Greak into Gothic, using a modified form of the Greak alphabet. Parts of Ulfilus Gospels, a manuscript of about 200 pages, probably made in the 5th or the 6th centuries have been preserved and are kept now in Sweden. It is written on red parchment with silver and golden letters and is known as a Silver Codex (Codex Argenteus). Ulfilus Gospels were first published in the 17th century and have been thoroughly studied by the 19-20 centuries. The other E-G languages, all of which are dead, have left no written traces.

Geoffrey Chaucer

 

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400?) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin.

Chaucer was born circa 1343 in London, though the exact date and location of his birth are not known. His father and grandfather were both London vintners and before that, for several generations, the family members were merchants in Ipswich. His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker. In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffrey's father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the twelve-year-old boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the £250 fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure, upper middle-class, if not in the elite. John married Agnes Copton, who, in 1349, inherited properties including 24 shops in London from her uncle, Hamo de Copton, who is described as the "moneyer" at the Tower of London.

Chaucer's first major work, The Book of the Duchess, was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster (who died in 1369). It is possible that this work was commissioned by her husband John of Gaunt, as he granted Chaucer a £10 annuity on 13 June 1374. This would seem to place the writing of The Book of the Duchess between the years 1369 and 1374. Two other early works by Chaucer were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. Chaucer wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held the job of customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. Also it is believed that he started work on The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s. Chaucer is best known as the writer of The Canterbury Tales, which is a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral at Canterbury; these tales would help to shape English literature.

The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer drew on real life for his cast of pilgrims: the innkeeper shares the name of a contemporary keeper of an inn in Southwark, and real-life identities for the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, the Man of Law and the Student have been suggested. The many jobs that Chaucer held in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator—probably exposed him to many of the types of people he depicted in the Tales. He was able to shape their speech and satirize their manners in what was to become popular literature among people of the same types.

Chaucer's works are sometimes grouped into, first a French period, then an Italian period and finally an English period, with Chaucer being influenced by those countries' literatures in turn. Certainly Troilus and Criseyde is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry, little known in England at the time, but to which Chaucer was probably exposed during his frequent trips abroad on court business. In addition, its use of a classical subject and its elaborate, courtly language sets it apart as one of his most complete and well-formed works. In Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer draws heavily on his source, Boccaccio, and on the late Latin philosopher Boethius.

However, it is The Canterbury Tales, wherein he focuses on English subjects, with bawdy jokes and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has cemented his reputation.

Chaucer also translated such important works as Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). However, while many scholars maintain that Chaucer did indeed translate part of the text of The Romance of the Rose as Roman de la Rose, others claim that this has been effectively disproved. Many of his other works were very loose translations of, or simply based on, works from continental Europe. It is in this role that Chaucer receives some of his earliest critical praise. Eustache Deschamps wrote a ballade on the great translator and called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385 Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower, Chaucer's main poetic rival of the time, also lauded him. This reference was later edited out of Gower's Confessio Amantis and it has been suggested by some that this was because of ill feeling between them, but it is likely due simply to stylistic concerns.

One other significant work of Chaucer's is his Treatise on the Astrolabe, possibly for his own son, that describes the form and use of that instrument in detail. Although much of the text may have come from other sources, the treatise indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents. Another scientific work discovered in 1952, Equatorie of the Planetis, has similar language and handwriting compared to some considered to be Chaucer's and it continues many of the ideas from the Astrolabe. Furthermore, it is a famous example of early European encryption. The attribution of this work to Chaucer is still uncertain.

 

 

Билет №9

North-germanic branch

The teutons who stayed in Scandinavia after the departure of the Goths, gave rise to the N-G subgroup of languages. The N-G tribes lived on the Southern Coast of the Scandinavian peninsular and in the northern Denmark since the 4th century. The speech of the N-G tribes showed little dialectal variation until the 9th century and is regarded as a sort of common N-G parent language called Old-North or Old-Scandinavian. It came to us in runic inscription objects dated from the 3d to the 9th century. The disintegration of Old-North into separate dialects and languages began after the 9th century when the Scandinavians started out on their sea voyages. The principal linguistic differentiation in Scandinavia corresponded to the political division into Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The three kingdoms couldn’t constantly fight for dominants and the relative position of three languages altered. The earliest written records in old Danish, Norwegian and Swedish date from the 13th century. In the later middle ages with the growth of capitalist relations and the unification of the countries, Danish and then Swedish developed into national literary languages. Norwegian was the last to develop into an independent national language. In addition to these 3 languages the N-G subgroup includes 2 more languages: Icelandic and Faroese. Old Icelandic written records date from the 12th and the 13th century-an age of literary flourishing. The most important records are: the Elder Edda (Poetic Edda), about the 12th century, and the Old Icelandic Sagas.

West-germanic branch

Around the beginning of our era there would be west-german tribes, dwelt in the lowlands between the Older and the Alb, bordering on the Slovenian tribes in the east and the Celtic tribes in the south. On the eve of their great migrations of the 4th-5th centuries the W-G included several tribes. The main tribe was the tribe of Franconians or Francs. Later they subdivided into low, middle and high Franconians. In the early middle ages the Francs consolidated (объединились) into a powerful tribal alliance. Towards the 8th century their kingdom grew into one of the largest states in Western Europe. The Eastern part, the East Franconian Empire, comprised several kingdoms. The franconian dialects were spoken in the North of the Empire. The high Germanic dialects consolidated into a common language known as Old High German.

 

Pronouns

In Early Modern English, there were two second-person personal pronouns: thou, the informal singular pronoun, and ye, which was both the plural pronoun and the formal singular pronoun (like modern French tu and vous or the German du and Sie). (Thou was already falling out of use in the Early Modern English period, but remained customary for addressing God and certain other solemn occasions, and sometimes for addressing inferiors.) Like other personal pronouns, thou and ye had different forms depending on their grammatical case; specifically, objective form of thou was thee, its possessive forms were thy and thine, and its reflexive or emphatic form was thyself, while ye's objective form was you, its possessive forms were your and yours, and its reflexive or emphatic forms were yourself and yourselves.

 

In other respects, the pronouns were much the same as today. One difference is that, much as a becomes an before a vowel, my and thy became mine and thine before vowels as well; hence, mine eyes, thine uncle, and so on.

 

Pronouns

 

The King James Version of the Holy Bible intentionally preserved in Early Modern English archaic pronouns and verb endings that had already begun to fall out of spoken use

 

In Early Modern English, there were two second-person personal pronouns: thou, the informal singular pronoun, and ye, which was both the plural pronoun and the formal singular pronoun (like modern French tu and vous or the German du and Sie). (Thou was already falling out of use in the Early Modern English period, but remained customary for addressing God and certain other solemn occasions, and sometimes for addressing inferiors.) Like other personal pronouns, thou and ye had different forms depending on their grammatical case; specifically, the objective form of thou was thee, its possessive forms were thy and thine, and its reflexive or emphatic form was thyself, while the objective form of ye was you, its possessive forms were your and yours, and its reflexive or emphatic forms were yourself and yourselves.

 

The pronoun, "it," and its possessive form, "its," were not available to sixteenth-century authors, who had to choose from "he," "she," "his," "hers." The possessive was also lacking, for instance, John Lyly's most famous work is entitled "Euphues His England" since "Euphues' England" was not yet an option.

 

In other respects, the pronouns were much the same as today. One difference is that, much as a becomes an before a vowel, my and thy became mine and thine before vowels as well; hence, mine eyes, thine uncle, and so on.

 

 

a b In a deliberately archaic style, the possessive forms are used as the genitive before words beginning with a vowel sound (eg thine eyes) similar to how an is used instead of a in a similar situation. This practice is irregularly followed in the King James Bible, but is more regular in earlier literature, such as the Early Modern English texts of Geoffrey Chaucer. Otherwise, "my" and "thy" is attributive (my/thy goods,) and "mine" and "thine" are predicative (they are mine/thine). Shakespeare pokes fun at this custom when the character Bottom says "mine eyen" in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

a b From the early Early Modern English period up until the 17th century, his was the possessive of the third person neuter it as well as of the 3rd person masculine he. Later, the neologism its became common. "Its" appears only once in

Shakespeare's writings are universally associated with Early Modern English.

 

Билет №13

Verbs

Many makers of the grammatical forms of the verbs were reduced, leveled and lost in M.E. Number distinctions were not only preserved in M.E. but even became more consistent and regular but towards the end of the period they were neutralized in most positions. The differences in the forms of tended was preserved in the verb paradigm through all historical periods. As before past tense was shown with the help of dental suffix in weak verbs and with the help of the rute vowel interchange in the strong verbs. The system of verbals in O.E. consisted of the infinitive & 2 participles. The main trend of their evolution in M.E. can be defined as gradual loss of most features and growth of verbal features. The infinitive lost its inflected form (so called dative case) in Early M.E. The preposition to which was placed in O.E. before the inflected infinitive to show direction or purpose lost its prepositional force and changed into a formal sign of the infinitive. The distinction between 2 participles were preserved in M.E. Participle 1 had an active meaning and expressed a process or quality simultaneous with the events described by the predicate of the sentence. Participle 2 had an active or passive meaning depending on the transitivity of the verb & expressed a preceding action or its result in the subsicuent situation.

 

Билет №14

Early M.E. dialects

The use of foreign language as a state one, the diversity of the dialects & the decline of the written form of English created a situation, extremely favorable for increased variation & for more intensive linguistic change. The regional M.E. dialect had developed from respective O.E. dialects.

1. The southern group included the Kentish & the South-Western dialects

Kentish was a dialect descendant of the O.E. dialect known by the same name. The south-Western group was a continuation of the O.E. Saxon dialects. Not only west Saxon, but also East Saxon. The East Saxon dialect wasn’t prominent in O.E., but became more important in Early M.E. since it made the basis of the dialect of London in the 12th & 13th centuries.

2. The group of Midlands. The central group

Corresponding to the O.E. Mercian dialect is divided into West-Midland as 2 main areas. In Middle English the Midland area became more diversified linguistically than the O.E. Mercian kingdom occupying approximately the same territory.

3. The North dialects.

Had developed from O.E. Northumbrian. In early middle English the Northern dialects included several provincial dialects. For example the Lancashire dialects and what later became known as Scottish.

In the course of Early M.E., the area of the English language in the British Isles grew. The former Celtic kingdoms fell under Norman rule. Wales was subjugated in the late 13th century.

In the late 12th century the English made their first attempt to conquer island. The invaders settled among the Irish and were soon assimilated. Though part of Ireland was ruled from England, the country remained divided & had little contact with England. The English language was used there alongside Celtic languages, Irish & Welsh were influenced by Celtic.

The Early dialectic division was preserved in the succeeding centuries, but in late M.E. the linguistic situation changed. In early M.E. while the main & state language was French, the local dialects were relatively equal. In late M.E. when English had been reestablished as the main language of administration & writing, one of the regional dialects, the London dialect, prevailed one another.

Билет №2

Mетоды компаративной лингвистики

The pre-written history of English & cognate languages was first studied by methods of comparative linguistic in the 19th century (by this linguists discover the kinship of what is known as the Indo-European family of languages now known & grouped them into Slavonic, Celtic, Roman & others). Modern linguists have improved only methods of comparative linguistic implied in the 19th century. In addition to extend reconstruction which was based on comparing different languages the recently formulated methods of internal reconstruction study the history from internal sources alone. This method is based on the assumption that every language is a well-organized & well-balanced structure of elements.

It has long recognized that a living language can never be absolutely static. It develops together with the speech community. The great absurge of interest in theoretical linguistics & the beginning of serious scientific researches date from early stages of living languages called for theoretical interpretation of linguistic revolution.

19. Reestablishment of English as the language of state and literature. + возвышение лондонского диалекта

The domination of the French language in England came to an end in the course of the 14th century. Little by little the Normans & the English drew together & intermingled. In the 14th century Anglo-Norman was a dead language. The Member of known French had fallen. Anglo-Saxon compositions had lost their audience & had to be translated on English. Towards the end of the 4th English had taken a place of French. English was the dominant language of all social classes & all regions.

The dialect division, which evolved in Early M.E. was in whole preserved in later period. In the 14th & 15th c. we find the same grouping of local dialects. The history of the London Dialect reveals the sources of the literary language in late middle English & also the main source & basis of the literary standard both in its written & spoken forms.

The History of London extends back to the Roman period. Even in O.E. times London was the biggest town in Britain. The capital was transported to London 2 years before the Norman conquest. The dialect of London was fundamentally East-Saxon. In terms of the M.E. division it belonged to the south-west dialect group. Later the speech of London was becoming more mixed. East-Midland gradually prevailed over the Southern features. It can be explained by the migration of the population. The mixed dialect of London which had extended to the 2 universities (Oxford & Cambridge) ousted (выгонять) French from speeches and from the sphere of writing.

The flourishing of literature, which marks the 2nd half of the 14th century testifies of the complete reestablishment as the language of writing. The literary text of the late 14th c. received in numerous manuscripts belonged to a variety of genres. Poetry was more prolific than prose. Jeffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) was the most outstanding figure of that time. Chaucer was born in London about the year 1340 and had the most varied experience as student courtier, official & member of parliament. He never wrote in any other language than English. The culmination of Chaucer’s work as a poet is his great unfinished collection of stories “the Canterbury tales”. Chaucer literary language, based on the mixed London dialect is known as classical M.E.

 

Билет№3