Old spelling Latin form New spelling

sutel subtilis subtle

egal eqaulis equal

dette debitum debt

doute dubito doubt

As we can see, in some words, due to etymological consideration, there appeared a consonant which nevertheless was not reflected in pronunciation.

In some cases the etymology was erroneous. Thus, in the word iland (from OE i 3 land) letter s was inserted by analogy with the word isle (from Fr. isle). OE rīm (rhyme) got such a form by analogy of the word rhythm typical of loanwords from OGrm.

 

17-18^th centuries is the period of French loanwords, characterized by their preservation of pronunciation and accent typical for French: ballet, machine, bouquet, buffet, etc.

 

17-18^th centuries is also the period of colonial expansion: control of seas, acquisition of colonies throughout the world (Bermuda, Jamaica, Bahamas, Honduras, Canada, American colonies, India, Gambia, Gold Coast, Australia, New Zealand). This led to a great number of loanwords from non-Indo-European languages, spread of English around the world.

 

LOANWORDS:

From Latin and Greek: anonymous, appropriate, atmosphere, autograph, catastrophe, climax, delirium, emphasis, encyclopedia, enthusiasm, exact, exaggerate, expectation, expensive, explain, external, fact, impersonal, relaxation, scheme, skeleton, soda, species, system, etc.

From or via French anatomy, battery, bizarre, chocolate, colonel, comrade, detail, entrance, equip, explore, invite, moustache, passport, pioneer, ticket, vase, volunteer, etc.

From or via Italian balcony, carnival, cupola, design, lottery, macaroni, opera, solo, sonata, sonnet, soprano, violin, volcano

From or via Spanish or Portuguese alligator, apricot, banana, barricade, canoe, cockroach, cocoa, guitar, hurricane, maize, mosquito, mulatto, Negro, potato, sombrero, tobacco, etc.

From other languages bamboo, ketchup (Malay), bazaar, caravan, turban (Persian), coffee, yoghurt kiosk (Turkish), cruise, easel, knapsack, landscape, yacht (Dutch), curry (Tamil), flannel (Welsh), guru (Hindi), harem (Arabic), troll (Norwegian), trousers (Irish Gaelic), etc.

The principal distinction between early- and late-modern English is vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has much more words. These words are the result of the rise of technological society. This necessitated new words for things and ideas that had not previously existed.

The industrial and scientific revolutions created a need for neologisms to describe new creations and discoveries. For this, English relied heavily on Latin and Greek. Words like oxygen, protein, nuclear, and vaccine did not exist in the classical languages, but they were created from Latin and Greek roots.

This burst of neologisms is continuing today, perhaps most visibly in the field of electronics and computers, e.g. byte, cyber-, bios, hard-drive, and microchip.

Finally, the 20th century saw two world wars, and the military influence on the language during the latter half of this century has been great. Before the Great War, military service for English-speaking persons was rare; both Britain and the United States maintained small, volunteer militaries. Military slang existed, but with the exception of nautical terms, rarely influenced Standard English. During the mid-20th century, however, virtually all British and American men served in the military. Military slang entered the language like never before. Blockbuster, camouflage, radar, roadblock and landing strip are all military terms that made their way into Standard English.

American English. Also significant at around 1600 AD was the English colonization of North America and the subsequent creation of a distinct American dialect. Some pronunciations and usages "froze" when they reached the American shore. In certain respects, American English is closer to the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some "Americanisms" that the British decry are actually originally British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost at home (e.g., fall as a synonym for autumn, trash for rubbish, frame-up which was reintroduced to Britain through Hollywood gangster movies, and loan as a verb instead of lend).

The American dialect also served as the route of introduction for many native American words into the English language. Most often, these were place names like Mississippi, Roanoke, and Iowa. Indian-sounding names like Idaho were sometimes created that had no native-American roots. But names for other things besides places were also common. Raccoon, tomato, canoe, barbecue, savanna have native American roots, although in many cases some original Indian words were mangled almost beyond recognition.

Theme 11. Linguistic features of the period

Phonology

Consonants

- addition of phonemic velar nasal [ŋ] (as a result of development of OE allophone of /n/ before /g/) and voiced alveopalatal fricative [ 3 ] (as a result of (a) borrowing from French (beige); (b) a set of sound changes called palatalization: /zj/ → /3/: seizure; /sj/ → /∫/: nation, ocean; /dj/ -> /d3/: soldier; /tj/ -> /t∫/: creature

- disappearance of allophones of / h / at the beginning of the word: heir, honest; before t: sight, caught, straight; disappearance or development into [f] in final position: sigh, tough

- loss of l after low back vowel and before labial or velar consonant: half, palm, talk

- loss of t/d in consonant clusters with s: castle, hasten.

- loss of ME intrusive t after s: listen, hustle

- g/k lost in initial position before n: gnaw, gnome, know, knight

- w was lost in initial position before r: wrong, wrinkle, wrist. W in unstressed position after consonant disappeared in words: answer, conquer, liquor, but retained in those having suffix – ward and language, conquest. In the stressed position it disappears when it is between a consonant and rounded vowel: sword, two, who, whose, whom. It is interesting that in the word whole (OE hāl – ME hōl) the letter w was introduced into spelling after sound [w] disappeared in who

- general loss of r before consonants or in final position; also regular loss of r in unstressed positions or after back vowels in stressed positions: quarter, brother

- development of palatal semivowel /j/ in medial positions (after the major stress and before unstressed vowel: tenner/tenure, pecular/peculiar

Vowels

During the 15th to 18th centuries long Vowels were affected by the so called Great English Vowel Shift, discovered by Otto Jespersen. The long vowels shifted upwards:

 

 

i: →ai

e: →i:

ε: →e: →i:

a: → ei

o: →ou

o: →u:

u: →au

Short vowels were not affected by the Great English Vowel Shift. Thus, ME sak remained ME sack, ME fish remained ME fish.

Short Vowels

-further loss of final unstressed -e (exceptions: judges, passes, wanted)

- a → æ; but æ → a before r: harm, scarf, hard; and æ → a before voiceless fricatives: staff, path; original /a/ remained when the fricative was followed by another vowel: classical, passage

- a before l → o: all, fall, walk; also after w: want, reward; but not if the vowel preceded a velar

 

Morphology and Syntax

Nouns, peculiarities:

-only two cases (common and possessive);

-two numbers (singular and plural), a few -n plurals (shoes/shoon, housen, eyen) which soon disappeared but for ox and child. Isolated plural retained in “ twelvemonth – a year”, “ fortnight – 2 weeks”, “ sennight - week” (without –es in pl).

As –es was interpreted as an indicator of the plural, Old French cerise existing as cherris was interpreted as plural and for the singular was dropped. The same with pese (peas) and rēdels (riddle). In other cases, on the contrary, -s plural was interpreted as a constituent of a word and so original form of the plural was used as sg:

bodice (корсет) ← bodies

truce (перемирие) ←trēowes (sg ←trēow, договор)

quince (айва) ← quines (sg quine)

- some unmarked genitives (mother tongue, lady slipper); -s of genitives was sometimes omitted when a word ended in a sibilant or the following word started with one (peace sake); misinterpretation of genitive ending -s as 'his' (e.g. John Browne his meaddow, Ann Harris her lot)

 

Adjectives: adjectives had lost all inflections (even –e – an indicator of weak declension and plurality) except comparative (-er) and superlative (-est) (synthetic) and more, most (analytic). These could be combined (e.g., most unkindest cut of all) for emphasis. Eventually, monosyllables started using synthetic forms and multisyllables - analytic.

 

Pronouns, peculiarities:

- the most heavily inflected word class

- development of separate possessive adjectives and pronouns (my / mine, etc); possessive of it: his → it → its sometimes spelled it's. It’s was spelled with an apostrophe until about 1800. Singular forms (thou, thy, thee) were used with familiars or when speaking to someone of a lower rank. Plural forms (ye, your, you) were used as marks of respect when addressing superiors. By the end of the 16th century, the singular forms disappeared (except among Quakers). Shakespeare’s works (17^th c) has both forms, the former – in conversation with relatives, friends and servants, to express anger and contempt.

 

Verbs: peculiarities:

- two-part verbs are very common (shorten up, wear out, cut off);

- transformation of strong verbs into weak: washen – to wash, steppen – to step, helpen – to help, though some verbs retain both forms: (shave – shaven, shaved, mow – mown – mowed). This process is not over yet; e.g. coll. knowed instead of knew, seed instead of saw.

cf. also a reverse phenomenon: OE hŷdan – hŷdde –hŷded

ME hīden – hidde –hidd

NE hide – hid – hidden

There appeared a special group of unchangeable verbs whose roots ended with –ed, -t:

cutten – cutte-cutt shutten – shutte- shutt sprēden – spredde – spred

- disappearing or losing separate forms for the past and past participle (cling/clung/clung): either past sg or past pl remained

-ing became universal present participle ending; -s and -th were the 3^rd person singular present indicative endings, eventually just -s;

- use of the gerund spread in the 16^th century. It appeared in the Middle English period, but full development of its features took place in the Early New English period. Shakespeare used both indefinite and perfect forms of infinitives. By the end of the 18^th – differentiation of the gerund and the verbal noun got fixed; 17^th – there appeared analytical forms of the gerund;

- the future tense is rendered by both will and shall irrespectively of the person and number (up to the 17^th c) (I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheek); there appeared a complicated system of the Future-in-the-Past;

- by the 18^th – the Present Perfect and Continuous aspect got fixed in their modern structure and use;

- by the 16^th – the Past Perfect got fixed (though only in object clauses), by the 18^th – in its full use;

- since the 15^th – do acquired its auxiliary function and used as an auxiliary verb.

 

Syntax

- do with negatives and in questions was often missing (they knew him not);

- inverted word order was still acceptable (follow thou me, things eternal);

- double negatives were still acceptable;

- some continued use of impersonal constructions (it likes me not, this fears me, methinks) but the former impersonal verbs were more often used personally with a nominative subject;

- Subject-Object-Verb pattern was acceptable for pronoun objects and for emphasis (as the law should them direct, Richard that dead is); Object-Subject-Verb or Object-Verb-Subject patterns were used to emphasize an object;

- influence of Latin, "elegant English," long sentences featuring subordination, parallelism, balanced clauses; bus also native traditional use of coordinators (but, and, for);

- Shakespearean clichés (vanish into thin air, flesh and blood).

SELF-ASSESSMENT TEST

Module 5

 

1. The New English period comprises the interval:

a) c. 1476 – now b) 1476-1660 c) 1660-1800

 

2. Which of the event influencing the language development of the mentioned period took place at that time?

a) industrial Revolution: more intensive urbanization, technical vocabulary based on Latin and Greek roots

b) defeat of Spanish Armada 1588, control of seas

c) Black Death

 

3. The term “ inkhorn” means:

a) a way of representing in writing regional or dialect variations by spelling words in nonstandard ways

b) a bit-by-bit, or morpheme-by-morpheme, translation of one word in one language into another word in another language, often used to avoid bringing new or loan words into the translating language

c) scientificwords from Latin or Romance languages, coined and introduced into English in the 16th and 17th centuries

 

4. Was the spelling of that time fixed yet?

a) Yes b) No

 

5. Which of the linguistic features characterise(s) the period?

a) - silent –e to mark the length

b) final –e is still pronounced

c) initial stops in clusters gn- and kn- are still pronounced

d) appearance of velar nasal [ŋ]

e) appearance of alveo-palatal fricative [ 3 ]

6. The way of pronunciation the word seizure obtained since the Early New English period is named

a) back mutation b) palatalisation c) i-umlaut

7. Which of the following changes in pronunciation took place in the Early new English period:

a) w dropped after s or t: sweostor → sister

b) w got lost in initial position before r: wrong, wrinkle, wrist

c) l got lost in the vicinity of palatal c in adjectival pronouns: ælc, swilc → each, such

d) final b got lost after m but retained in spelling: lamb, comb, climb

e) initial stops in gn- and kn- are still pronounced

f) g/k got lost in initial position before n: gnome, knight

g) g lost in -ng in a final position, producing the phonemic velar nasal

h) use of ou instead of u: hus → house

i) addition of a new phonemic sound called schwa - ә

8. The Great Vowel Shift - a massive sound change affecting

a) diphthongs b) diphthongoids c) long vowels d) short vowels e) all vowels

 

9. The Great Vowel Shift occurred during

a) the 15^th to 18^th centuries b) the 11^h to 14^th centuries c) the 19^th century

10. As a result of the Great Vowel Shift

a) short vowels shifted downwards

b) diphthongs became monophthongs

c) long vowels shifted upwards

d) diphthongoids turned to monophthongs

11. As a result of the Great Vowel Shift [i:] turned into

a) i b) ai c) iə d) u

 

12. As a result of the Great Vowel Shift [e:] turned into

a) i b) ai c) iə d) i:

 

13. As a result of the Great Vowel Shift [a:] turned into

a) ei b) ai c) Λ d) æ

 

14. As a result of the Great Vowel Shift [o:] turned into

a) o b) u c) oi d) əu

 

15. As a result of the Great Vowel Shift [u:] turned into

a) o b) au c) u d) əu

 

16. The Great Vowel Shift didn’t take place in the words where the vowel was followed by

a) m b) s c) r

 

17. Which of these were inherent in the Early New English noun?

a) four cases – Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative

b) two cases – common and possessive

c) -n in the plural in a few dialects – shoon, housen, eyen

d) plural formed by means of suffixes –as, -a, -u

e) isolated plural forms – twelvemonth

f) the category of gender

 

18. Shall and will in the future tense were used

a) for the 1^st person sg and pl and for the 2^nd, 3^rd persons sg and pl respectively

b) irrespectively of the person and number

c) were presented by should and would - forms respectively

 

19. Was do used in its auxiliary function yet?

a) yes b) no

20. Monosyllabic adjectives formed the superlative degree of comparison by means of

a) suffix –est

b) suffixes –est, -ost

c) suffix –est and often - a quantifier most

d) suffixes –est, -ost and often - a quantifier most

21. The pronoun ye

a) is used with familiars or when speaking to someone of a lower rank

b) is used as marks of respect when addressing superiors

c) fell out of use by the time

 

22. Familiar for the 2^nd person singular thou disappeared

a) by that time

b) by the end of the 16th century

c) by the end of the 11th century

23. TheEarly New English syntax is characterized

a) by a fixed word order b) by a relatively free word order c) by a free word order

 

24. Are double negatives still acceptable?

a) yes b) no

25. The words progress, probability, bizarre were borrowed from

a) Greek b) French c) Spanish

26. Match the words with the languages they were borrowed from:

1) balcony a) French

2) progress b) Italian

3) anarchy c) Spanish

4) cockroach d) German

5) leprechaun e) Japanese

6) ketchup f) Chinese

7) soy g) Dutch

8) shampoo h) Greek

9) landscape i) Hindi

10) waltz j) Celtic

 

 

MODULE 6

MODERN English

Objectives:

1) to understand some main linguistic feature of the period

2) to understand sources of enrichment of the vocabulary of the period

3) to know the history of elaborating the Oxford English Dictionary