- •Федеральное агентство по образованию
- •Contents
- •Introduction the subject of the history of the english language. The indo-european family of languages. Germanic languages. The periods in the history of english 5
- •Indo-European Language Family 6
- •Variant I 86
- •Causes of language changes
- •Historical Linguistics
- •Indo-European Language Family
- •Indo-European languages tree
- •Germanic Languages
- •Peculiarities of Germanic languages
- •Germanic people. Origin and culture
- •Germanic Alphabet
- •Periods in the History of English
- •The Old English period: brief outline and main features
- •The Middle English period: brief outline and main features
- •The Modern English period: brief outline and main features
- •The old english period Historical Background: Prehistoric Britain, Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon Britain
- •Old English Writings
- •How Do We Know What Old English Pronunciation Was Like?
- •The Old English Sound System
- •Phonetic Changes in Old English
- •Vowel changes
- •Consonants changes
- •Old English Grammar The Old English Noun
- •The Old English Pronoun
- •Interrogative pronouns
- •Indefinite pronouns
- •The Old English Adjective
- •The Old English Verb
- •Irregular (anomalous) verbs.
- •The Old English Numeral
- •The Old English Adverb
- •The Old English Auxiliary Words
- •The Old English Syntax
- •Old English Vocabulary Composition
- •Word building
- •Foreign influences on Old English
- •The middle english period Historical background: Medieval Britain
- •Changes in Spelling
- •Phonetic Changes in Middle English
- •Vowel changes:
- •Changes in Middle English Grammar
- •Changes in Middle English Vocabulary
- •The modern english period Historical background: Tudor Britain, Stuart Britain
- •General Changes in Modern English Phonology
- •The Great Vowel Shift
- •Early Modern English Grammar Changes and features of ModE noun system
- •The Modern English Pronoun
- •Changes and features of Early ModE verbal system
- •Early Modern English Syntax
- •Features of Early ModE vocabulary:
- •Part II The Old English Period
- •Part III the Middle English period
- •Part IV The Modern English Period
- •Appendix 1: British History Timeline
- •Appendix 2: Control tests
- •Part III.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from Hamlet by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Variant II
- •Instructions: Basing on the Grimm’s law, explain the correspondences of underlined sounds in the following words of the common root from Germanic and non-Germanic Indo-European languages.
- •Instructions: Provide grammatical analysis of the suggested elements from the sentence below:
- •Verbs — strong or weak type, define tense, aspect, mood, person, number.
- •Part III.
- •Instructions: Read the passage in Middle English, analyze the part in bold and do the tasks below.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from Hamlet by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Variant III.
- •Part III.
- •Instructions: Read the passage in Middle English, analyze the part in bold and do the tasks below.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Variant IV
- •Part III.
- •Instructions: Read the passage in Middle English, analyze the part in bold and do the tasks below.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Variant V
- •Part III.
- •Instructions: Read the passage in Middle English, analyze the part in bold and do the tasks below.
- •Task IV.
- •Instructions: Read the following extract from the Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare and do the tasks below.
- •Related reading
- •Internet resources
- •Г. А. Васильцова история английского языка и введение в специальную филологию
The old english period Historical Background: Prehistoric Britain, Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon Britain
Before the Germanic settlers arrived in Britain and became the first speakers of "English," other peoples had claimed the island as their home. The first inhabitants for whom we have linguistic knowledge were the Celts, who arrived around the time of the Bronze Age (2000–500 B.C.). They were almost certainly the first speakers of an Indo-European language to arrive.
In 55 B.C.E. Julius Caesar attempted an invasion of Britain, but he was not to succeed until the following year (54 B.C.E.). How successful he was, however, is perhaps suggested by the fact that the tribute Caesar demanded before returning to Gaul was never paid.
In 43 C.E., the Emperor Claudius, with 40,000 men, was far more successful, although the Romans never penetrated far into Wales or Scotland. Hadrian's wall marks extent of the Roman Governor Agricola's rule northward. The lands south of the Wall were ruled by Romans for over 300 years. The Romans built roads, baths (such as those at Bath), temples, and introduced Christianity. By the end of the Roman occupation, the subjugated Celts had apparently lost the ability to defend themselves against the Picts and Scots from the north. When the legions withdrew in 410 C.E. to defend the diminishing Empire, the Celts began to look elsewhere for defensive aid.
The origin of English is customarily linked to the date 449 AD. This is the year in which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the issuing of an invitation by Vortigern (king of the British, or Celts) to the "Angle kin" (Angles, led by Hengest and Horsa) to help them in their defense against the Picts. In return for their military assistance, the Chronicle says the Angles were granted lands in the southeast. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of three peoples of Germanie": "of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle documents the subsequent influx of "settlers," and over the course of the next century-and-a-half the newcomers establish seven kingdoms, known as the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. The earlier Celtic inhabitants were dubbed Wēalas, the plural form of wealh — meaning "foreigner, stranger, slave" — from which comes Welsh.
Figure 4
Anglo-Saxon invasion
The terms English, England, and East Anglia are derived--fairly transparently--from words referring to the Angles: Englisc (vernacular writers referred to themselves by this term), Angelcynn, and Englaland.
Egbert, the West Saxon chief, having reclaimed his throne from Mercian dominance, ruled all of England and Wales from 830 until his death in 839. His son, Æthelwulf maintained his father's kingdom and around 849 he added Berkshire to the holdings of the West Saxon kingdom. In 855, while on pilgrimage to Rome, he married Judith (then thirteen years old), daughter of Charles the Bald, the king of the West Franks. Meanwhile, his oldest son, Æthelbald, and the nobles of Wessex, stripped Æthelwulf of his kingship, and West Saxon kingdom was sundered, with Æthelbald getting Wessex and Æthelwulf taking Kent and other parts of SE England. When Æthelwulf died in 858, his second son, Æthelberht, took over those provinces. The elder son, Æthelbald, married his father's young widow (Judith). When he died in 860, Æthelberht reunited the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. But he died five years later, without heir, and his younger brother Æthelred became king. Unfortunately for Æthelred, the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, "Ivar the Boneless" (born with gristle instead of bone) and Halfdan, led the Danish in an attack on England, landing in East Anglia. Burgred, the king of Mercia, had married Æthelred's sister, and now asked Æthelred for help. Æthelred and his brother Alfred joined the Mercians, but eventually, they had to pay the Danes for a peace.
In 871 Æthelred died, and even though he left heirs, Alfred was acknowledged as king. He became known to history as Alfred the Great (871–899). In 886, he established a West Saxon occupation of London, giving the Saxons renewed hope in their fight against the Danes. Those areas of England not subject to Danish rule united under Alfred.
Alfred was instrumental in the establishment of literary language, and he produced translations of the Bible, Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, Orosius, Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People), Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. He has come to be known as the Father of English prose, a tradition carried on and developed by Ælfric and Wulfstan.
Generally, when we study Old English today, our source of texts is predominantly West Saxon, since Alfred's influence helped to establish that dialect as a sort of literary standard. But there were other dialects, the other three being Northumbrian, Mercian and Kentish.
Figure 5
Main Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms