The common features of Germanic langs

All the Germanic Languages of the past and present have common linguistic features that are not shared by other groups of languages in the Indo-European family (Slavonic group, Romance group, etc.). These features are characteristic of the Germanic group only. They appeared during the period of the Proto-Germanм ic Language, before it split into a certain number of the Germanic languages. First of all we are going to discuss the common Germanic phonetic features: W ord Stress/Accent: Indo-European(Non-Germanic) 1. free stress (movable, i.e. can appear in any part of a word (root, prefix, suffix)); 2. pitch stress (musical)E.g.:русский б`елый

Proto-Germanic 1. fixed stress (can’t move either in form- or word-building and is usually placed on root or prefix); 2. dynamic stress (force, breath stress) E.g.: English `white

The Proto-Germanic type of stress led to the formation of the following peculiarities of the Germanic languages as compared to non-Germanic Indo-European languages: phonetic – as a result of the fixed position of the stress the unstressed syllables were becoming weaker and weaker, they got less distinct and neutral sounds (such as “schwa”) appeared; morphological – as a result of the fact that the stress was fixed on the root and the syllables following the root were always unstressed and weak, many Germanic languages began to lose suffixes and grammatical endings and became ANALYTICAL LANGS. Vowels: Vowelsundergo(подверглись) different types of changes: Qualitative change – affects the quality of a sound (e.g. [o à Λ]). Quantitative change – affects the length of a sound (e.g. [i à i:]). Dependent/positional change – a change that occurs in certain position or in certain phonetic conditions. Independent/spontaneous change – affects a certain sound in all positions irrespective (независимо) of phonetic conditions and serves to distinguish a grammatical phenomenon (ablaut). Main tendencies in Vowel Changes in the Germanic Languages: Short vowels à become neutralized. Long vowels à become short and more open. à become diphthongized and more closed.

Grimm’s law: The first Germanic consonant shifts took place in the V-II cent. BC. Jacobs Grimm’s Law. According to Grimm, he classified consonant correspondences between indoeuropean and germanic languages. There are 3 acts of this law:

1. IE plosive (stops) p, t, k correspond to G voiceless fricatives f, Ө, h. Eg: пламя – flame, пена – foam, колода – holt.

2. IE voiced plosives b, d, g, →G voiceless fricatives p, t, k. Eg: яблоко - apple, дерево – tree, ego(lat) – ic (OE).

3. IE aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh →to voiced plosives without aspiration. Eg: bhrāta(sanscr.) – brother, rudhira – red, ghostis – guest.

The second consonant shift was Carl Verner’s law. According to C.Verner all the common Germanic consonants became voiced in intervocalic position if the preceding vowel was unstressed. p-f > v t-Ө > đ, d k-x > j, g

s-s > z/r Devoicing took place in early common germanic when the stress was not yet fixed on the root. A variety of Verner’s law is rhotacism (greek letter rho). [s] →[z]→[r] we find traces of this phenomenon in form of the verb to be →was – were, is – are;. II consonant shift occurred in dialects of southern germanic. Eg: еда – eat – essen.

i-mutation (unmlaut) is a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel. Includes fronting & narrowing. Brought a complete change in vowel quality: one phoneme is replaced by another. The process began in the 5^th or 6^th c. As a result of it a new phoneme arose which was different from the original one. Interchanges in the root vowels are connected with this phenomenon. Traces of palatal mutation are preserved in many modern words & forms: mouse-mice.

 

3. The chronological division of the history of English. General characteristics of each period.

The division of the History of English into periods is based on 2 principles.

1. extra linguistic – cardinal changes in the history of people.

2. linguistic proper – cardinal changes in the structure and status of the lng itself.

Roughly covers 12 centuries. It’s divided into 3 periods. The traditional division is based on the phonetics and grammatical principles (Henry Sweet)

1. Old English (500 – 1100) – no reduction of inflexion.

A. Early OE (prewritten OE) from 450 – 700.

B. OE (written OE) 700 – 1066.

2. Middle English (1100 – 1500) – reduced inflexions, unstressed endings.

a. Early ME 1066 – 1350

b. ME (classical) 1350 - 1475

3. Modern English (1500 -...) loss of inflexion.

A. Early New English 1476 – 1660

B. Normalization Period 1660 – 1800 (age of correctness, Neo-Classical period)

C. Late NE/Mod E (including 1800 – present day English)

OE was spoken on a small territory and number of speakers was ≈ 1 mln. There were 4 dialects of OE language. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects(Written OE).

OE was a typical OG l-ge, with a purely G vocab. and few foreign borrowings it displays specific phonetics pecularities; well-developed system of morphological categories.

In ME the nominal system was much simpler (2 tense forms), word order was not fixed. Early ME was a time of great changes at all the levels of the l-ge especially in grammar and lexis. Most of the inflections in the nominal s-m were fallen together. H.Sweet called ME the period of “levelled endings”.

 

 

4. The Scandinavian invasion and its effect on English.

By the end of the 8-th cent Britain was often invaded by Vikings (Danes from Denmark and Northmen from Scandinavia). England was invaded by Danes, Scotland and Ireland by Northmen. At first they came in small groups, than in large bands conquering territories one after another. Wessex kingdom under Alfred the Great began to struggle. But still Scandinavian invasion had made some effect on English:

1. words beginning on “sk” (sky, skirt, skin)

2. the system of personal pronouns (they, them, their)

3. the form ‘are’ of the verb to be/

4. the ending–s- for Present Simple, 3-rd person singular (in verbs) (he makes).

5. the system of personal names ending on –son-: Davidson, Richardson, Jefferson.

6. there are more then 1500 words of Scandinavian origin in ModE: sister, bad, fog, cake, get, again etc.

[sk’] → [s] NE Etymological doublets in

ME

→ [sk] Sc skjorte (Sc) – skirt (NE)

scierte (OE) – shirt (NE)

The influence was felt in 2 spheres

§ vocabulary – law, husband, loose, root, sky, smile, want;

§ morphology – the verb system was expanding.

 

 

5. The Norman Conquest and its effect on English.

The last of the invaders to come to Britain were the Normans from France. In 14 October 1066 Duke William of Normandy defeated the English at the battle of Hastings and established his rule in the country as King of England. He is known as William the Conqueror. They started a new period in England, which is known as Norman period. The Normans settled in the country and the French language became the official language of the ruling class. This explains the great number of French words in English (80%) – boots, pearl, beef, biscuit, home, sir, council, tax. Originally they were also Germanic tribes, but having won the territory of France, they practicaly assimilated with the people of France and took its high culture and language. 1. French is the lang. of upper classes.

2. Many synonyms appeared: Eg: language (Fr) – tongue (Engl); 3. lange, huge (Fr) – great (Engl)

4. French effected all aspects of life:

= Government and administration: nation, people.

= Legislation: eg.: judge, court.

= Military term: navy, war.

= Literature and arts: music/

= Education: ink, college.

= Fashion: dress.

= Trade, profession: tailor, grocer.

= Religion: pray.

= Cooking: roast, fry, boil.

Engl → ox – beef ← French

pig - pork

↓ ↓

anim. food

75% of words have survived in NE.

 

6. The dialectal situation of English from a historical perspective.

The ancient Germanic tribes occupied a comparatively small territories in the North-West of Europe, they spoke similar dialects. These dialects → common germanic, it lasted till the beginning of our era. In the V cent germanic tribes migrated to the British Isles. They were Saxons, Jutes, Angles. The language of this tribes serves as a basis for the formation of OE. They spoke 4 dialects: Kentish (Jutes); West-Saxon /Wessex (Saxon); Mercian (Angles); Northumbrian (Angles) – north to r. Humber.

In the IX cent – during the reign of King Alfred (871-899) the Great, when Wessex became the most powerful kingdom and led the successful war against the Scandinavians. Since him the dialect of Wessex became more popular and got the status of written standard. Most OE written records that came to us are in the Wessex dialect (“Beowulf”, Anglo-Saxon chronicles). The first historian who started to record the history of the Germanic tribes on the British Isles and is considered to be the first English historian is Bede the Venerable, an English monk, who wrote “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People”. The most important dialect in the Old English period was the WEST SAXON DIALECT.