- •Subject and Aims of the History of English. Its Ties with Other Disciplines. Germanic Language in the System of Indo-European Family of Languages
- •1. History of English in the systemic conception of English
- •1.1. The aims and the purpose of the study of the subject
- •1.2. Connection of the subject with other disciplines
- •2. Sources of Language History
- •2.1. Writings in early English
- •3. General notes on the language study
- •3.1 The definition of the language
- •3.2 The functions of the language
- •3.3 The structure of the language
- •3.4 The language classification principles
- •3.5 Synchrony and diachrony in the language study
- •4. The comparative-historical method
- •4.1 The stages of the comparative-historical method
- •4.2 The principles of the comparative-historical method
- •4.3 The drawbacks of the comparative-historical method
- •5. The Germanic group of languages
- •The Formation of the English National Language. Periods in the History of the English Language
- •1. Territorial dialects of the period of the Anglo-Saxon invasion
- •2. The dialects of the period of the Norman Conquest
- •3. The development of the dialect of London into a national language
- •Periods in the History of the English Language
- •1. Henry Sweet and his division of the history of English
- •2. Historical periodization as offered by b. Khaimovich
- •3. T. Rastorguyeva’s periodization of the English language
- •4. The division of the history of English as suggested by V. Arakin
- •5. The periods of the development of English as offered by a. Markman and e. Steinberg
- •6. David Burnley’s periodization of the history of English
- •Common Linguistic Features of Germanic Languages
- •1. Phonetic peculiarities of the Germanic languages
- •1.1. The First Consonant Shift
- •1.2. Vowels
- •1.3. The doubling of consonants
- •1.4. Rhotacism
- •1.5. Germanic fracture (or breaking)
- •1.6. The second consonant shift
- •2. Some common grammatical features of Germanic languages
- •2.1. Form-building Means
- •2.1.1. Ablaut
- •2.1.2. Word-structure
- •2.1.3. Types of Stems
- •2.1.4. Strong and Weak Verbs
- •3. Germanic Vocabulary
- •Phonetic Changes in the Old English Period
- •The Main Features of Old, Middle, and Modern English
- •2. Old English Phonetics
- •2.1. Oe Consonants
- •2.2. Vowels
- •2.2.1. Changes of stressed vowels
- •2.2.2. Changes of unstressed vowels
- •Changes in the Middle English Orthography and Phonology
- •1. Changes in the Orthographic System
- •2. Major Changes in the Sound System
- •2.1. The Consonants
- •2.2. Consonant Changes from Old to Middle English
- •2.3. Vowels in Stressed Syllables
- •2.4. Vowels in Unstressed Syllables
- •2.5. The Formation of Middle English Diphthongs
- •The Old English Morphology
- •1. The Old English Noun.
- •2. The Old English Pronoun
- •3. The Old English Adjective
- •4. The Old English Adverb
- •5. The Numeral in Old English
- •6. The Old English Verb.
- •The Middle English Morphology
- •1. Middle English as a Period of Great Change.
- •2. The Middle English Noun.
- •3. Articles.
- •4. The me Adjective.
- •5. The me Adverb
- •6. The me Pronoun
- •7. The me Verb
- •7.1. Strong and weak verbs
- •The New English Morphology and Changes in the System of English Syntax
- •1. New English Morphology
- •2. Old English Syntax.
- •3. Middle English Syntax
- •4. New English Syntax
1.2. Vowels
The Germanic languages are also marked by some peculiarities in the development of vowels as compared with other Indo-European languages.
a) Stressed vowels.
1) The IE. ā (long [a]) > Gc. ō (long [o])
E.g. L māter, OE mōdor; U брат, OE brōþor.
2) The IE short [o] > Gc. short [a]
E.g. R гость, Gt Gasts.
Thus, the Indo-European vowels [a] and [o] got mixed in the Germanic languages. The IE long vowels [ō] and [ā] were both reflected as [ō] in the Germanic languages. The IE short vowels [o] and [a] were both reflected as [a].
b) Unstressed vowels.
Unstressed vowels underwent a gradual process of shortening and slurring until many of them were lost altogether. This process has continued with different intensity in different Germanic languages during all the investigated part of their history. Its results can be seen even in the oldest Germanic record.
1.3. The doubling of consonants
All the consonants, except [r], were doubled (in spelling) or lengthened (in pronunciation) between a short vowel and the sound [j] (sometimes [l] or [r]),
E.g. Gt saljan, OE sellan, E sell Gt bidjan, OE biddan
But: Gt fōdjan, OE fēdan
1.4. Rhotacism
In the final position the Germanic [z] was lost in the West-Germanic languages while it changed to [s] in the East-Germanic, and to [r] in the North-Germanic ones.
E.g. Gt dags, OE dæg, G Tag
In the middle position of the word Germanic [z] remained in Gothic and changed to [r] in the West-Germanic and North-Germanic languages. The change [z > r] is called rhotacism.
E.g. Gt maiza, OE mara, G mehr Gt batiza, OE betera
1.5. Germanic fracture (or breaking)
This is the process of formation of a short diphthong from a simple short vowel when it is followed by a specific consonant cluster. Thus,
a + r+cons., l+cons. => ea
æ + h+cons. => ea
e + h final => eo
Gt hargus, OE heard (hard)
Gt nachts, OE neaht (night)
Old Frisian herte, OE heorte (E heart)
1.6. The second consonant shift
The Germanic consonant shift is called the first to distinguish it from a second consonant shift, which occurred in High German dialects (that is, dialects of Southern Germany). This second shift may be illustrated by the following examples:
Common Germanic High Germanic
Gt badi (bed) Bett
OE bedd
OE dōn (do) tun
OE pōl (pool) Pfuhl
OE hopian (hope) hoffen
Gt taihun (ten) zehn
Gt itan (eat) essen
The full table of correspondences would appear to be the following:
Common Germanic High Germanic
Initially and after a After a vowel
consonant
b p p
d t t
g k k
p pf f
t z [ts] s
k kh ch [x]
The second consonant shift occurred between the 5th and 7th centuries AD, gradually spreading from South to North. A few hundred years later, between the 8th and 12th centuries, one more change took place, which gave the German consonants system its present shape. As we have seen, the common Germanic d developed into t in High German; as a result the German consonant system had no d-sound. Now a new d appeared, coming from the common Germanic þ.
Common Germanic High Germanic
Gt þreis (three) drei
Gt þu (you) du
Gt broþar (brother) Bruder