- •Lecture 1
- •Introduction
- •Lecture 2
- •1. East Germanic Languages
- •2. North Germanic Languages
- •Icelandic (9th c. A.D.)
- •3. West Germanic Languages
- •Lecture 3 Linguistic Features of the Germanic Languages Phonetic Features
- •Lecture 4 Linguistic Features of the Germanic Languages Grammatical Features
- •Suppletion (inherited from Indo-European) – the usage of 2 or more different roots as forms of one and the same word:
- •Lecture 5 Old English Period in the History of the English Language
- •6. The Romans:
- •Old English Dialects
- •8. Christianity – 597 (6th c.)
- •Lecture 6 Old English Written Records
- •Lecture 7 Middle English Period in the History of the English Language
- •Lecture 8 Middle English Written Records
- •Lecture 9 New English Period in the History of the English Language
- •Introduction of Printing
- •Lecture 10 Phonetic Features of Old English
- •Hardening (the process when a soft consonant becomes harder)– usually initially and after nasals ([m, n])
- •Loss of Consonants:
- •Lecture 11 The Development of Vowel System in Middle English and New English
- •Quantitative:
- •Qualitative:
- •Vocalisation of [r]
- •Lecture 12 The Development of Consonant System in Middle English and New English
- •Lecture 13 Historical Background of Modern English Spelling
- •Lecture 14 Old English Morphology
- •Lecture 15 The Development of the Noun
- •Lecture 16 The Development of the Adjective
- •Lecture 17 The Development of the Pronoun. The Rise of Articles
- •Indefinite Article
- •3Rd person
- •Lecture 18 The Development of the Verb
- •Verbal Categories:
- •Voice, Aspect, Order, Posteriority
- •Infinitive
- •Formation
- •Formation
- •Formation
- •Peculiarities:
- •Formation
- •Lecture 19 The Development of the Syntactic System
- •Lecture 20 Old English Vocabulary
- •Lecture 21 Word-Formation in Old English
- •Lecture 22 Latin Borrowings in Old English Borrowings from Classical Languages (Latin, Greek) during the Renaissance
- •Many of them increased the number synonyms in English:
- •Lecture 23
- •French and Scandinavian Borrowings in English
Lecture 8 Middle English Written Records
Main Written Records of the Middle English Period
See § 292-295, p. 156-157; § 302-308, p. 160-163 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).
Geoffrey Chaucer and His Contribution
Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the most prominent authors of the Middle English Period and he set up a language pattern to be followed. He is considered to be the founder of the literary language of that period. Most authors of the Middle English Period tried to fallow this standard.
Features of the Chaucer’s Language:
Chaucer’s Language was the basis for the national literary language (15th – 16th c.).
New spelling rules (digraphs) and new rules of reading (1 letter = several sounds) appeared as compared to the Old English.
New grammatical forms appeared (Perfect forms, Passive forms, “to” Infinitive constructions, etc.).
Chaucer tried to minimize the number of the French loans in the English Language.
Chaucer introduced rhyme to the poetry.
Middle English Alphabet
The Middle English Alphabet resembled the Old English Alphabet but some changes were introduced:
th replaced ð/þ/Đ/đ;
w replaced ?;
æ, œ disappeared;
digraphs (2 letters = one sound) appeared (came from French):
th for [] and [ð];
tch/ch for [t∫];
sch/ssh/sh for [∫];
dg for [dζ];
wh replace hw but was pronounced still as [hw]!;
gh for [h];
qu for [kw];
ow/ou for [u:] and [ou];
ie for [e:].
Rules of Reading:
They resemble the modern rules, with several exceptions though:
Double vowels stood for long sounds, e.g. oo = [o:]; ee = [e:].
g = [dζ]
c = [s] before front vowels ( [i, e] ).
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g = [g]
c = [k] before back vowels ( [a, o, u] ).
y = [j] – at the beginning of the word;
= [i] – in the cases when i stood close together with r, n, m and could be confused with one of these letters or could be lost among them, it was replaced with y, sometimes also for decorative purpose.(e.g. nyne [‘ni:nə], very [‘veri]).
th = [ð]
s = [z] between vowels.
o = [o] – in most cases;
= [u] – in the words that have [Λ] sound in Modern English (e.g. some, love)
j = [dζ]
H/w:
1. § 292-295, p. 156-157; § 302-308, p. 160-163 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).
2. Using your knowledge of the Middle English spelling and the rules of reading (Lecture 8) read an abstract from the “Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer (lines 1-14) on p. 33-34 in “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and try to identify the peculiarities of the Middle English spelling and rules of reading.
Lecture 9 New English Period in the History of the English Language
In the 15th – 16th c. the feudal system started to decay and bourgeois relationships and capitalism started to develop. England became a centralised state.