History of the English Language

WS 2005/6

Topics

• Linguistic changes: grammar and lexicon

• Social and political events that influenced the

development of the English language

• English varieties

• Mechanisms of language change

Course script

Digitale Bibliothek Thüringen

Search: Diessel – History of the English Language

What you will learn:

• Why the English spelling is so odd

• Why English does not have case marking

• Why English developed a rigid word order

• Why there are regular and irregular verbs forms

• Why many English words are similar to words in German

• Why many English words are similar to words in French

• Why questions require the use of ‛do’

• Why English has become a world language

Short exam for student who started last year.

Requirements

1 5%

2 10%

3 5%

4 20%

5 60%

ReadingsBarber, Charles. 2000. The English Language. A Historical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Baugh, A.C. and T. Cable. 2002. A History of the English Language. London: Routledge. [fifth edition]

Jucker, Andreas H. 2004. History of English and English Historical Linguistics. Stuttgart: Klett.

Millward, C.M. 1996. A Biography of the English Language. Boston: Heinle. [second edition]

The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. I-V. 1992. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Readings

Aitchison, J. Language Change. Progress or Decay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Trask, R.L. 1996. Historical Linguistics. London: Arnold.

McMahon, A.M.S. 1995. Understanding Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hock, H.H. 1991. Principles of Historical Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Croft, W. 2000. Explaining Language Change. An Evolutionary Approach. Harlow: Longman.

Time periods

450-1100 Old English

1100-1500 Middle English

1500-1800 Early Modern English

1800-present Present Day English

GermanicGermanic

West Germanic North Germanic East Germanic

English Swedish Gothic

Frisian Danish Vandal

German Norwegian Burgundian

Yiddish Icelandic

Dutch

Afrikaans

English German Swedishsun Sonne sol house Haus huscat Katze katapple Apfel äpplefather Vater faderhand Hand handgo gehen garsee sehen sarhear hören hörarun rennen rännardream träumen drömar

English Germancomputer Computeremail Emailinternet Internetjeans Jeansevent Eventlaptop Laptopcool coolmountain bike Mountain Bikeabsolutely absolut

English loan words in German

take Old Norsegive Old Norsethey Old Norsepaper Frenchstory Frenchforce Frenchwall Latinstreet Latinschool Latinkindergarten German

Loan words in English

English-German sound correspondences

English Germantime Zeittongue Zungeten zehntame zahmtent Zeltto zutwo zweitwins Zwillinge

English-German sound correspondences

that dasthere dathrough durchthirsty durstigthink denken

English-German sound correspondences

pan Pfannepath Pfadpole Pfahlpepper Pfefferpipe Pfeifeplant Pflanze

English-German sound correspondences

hate hasseneat essenlet lassen

grip greifendeep tiefsleep schafen

IE reconstructed word forms

*pe:s- ‘foot’*ed- ‘eat’*ghebh- ‘give’*aug- ‘increase’*wed- ‘water’

English-German sound correspondences

cheesechildchin

cheerychurch

king

KäseKindKinnKirscheKirche

König

Loan words from French

crime crimeprison prisonletter lettrejustice justicecontract contratmusic musiquedemand demanderpronounce prononcerpropose proposerresponsible responsable

Cognates: English-French

one un, unetwo deuxthree troisfour quatrefive cinqsix sixseven sept eight huitnine neuften dix

Romance

French CatalanItalian GalicianSpain SardinianPortuguese ProvencalRomanian Rhomansh

Sound correspondences in Romance

Italian Sardinian Romansh French Spanish

HundredSkyStagWax

TEntoTeloTErvoTera

kEntukElukErbukEra

tsjEnttsiltsErftsairaE

sa sjElsERsiR

TjenTjeloTjerboTera

Indo-European

Germanic GreekRomance IranianSlavic IndianBaltic AlbanianCeltic Armenian

Balto-Slavic

Balto-Slavic

Baltic Slavic

Latvian

Lithuanian East Slavic West Slavic South Slavic

Old Prussian

Russian Polish Serbo-Croatian

Russian Czech Slovene

Belarusian Slovak Bulgarian

Sorbian Macedonian

Cases in Indo-European

IE Sanskrit German English Lithuanian

NOMVOCACCGENABLDATLOCINST

*wlk+os**wlk+e**wlk+om**wlk+osyo**wlk+od**wlk+oi**wlk+ei**wlk+o

vrkasvrkavrkamvrkasyavrkadvrkayavrkevrka

der

dendes

dem

he

himhis

vilkasvilkevilka

vilkovilkuivilkevilku

Celtic

Celtic

Gaelic

Irish Scottish Welsh Manx Cornish Breton

Sanskrit

700 English

500 Armenian

400 Gothic

0

200 Latin

400 Classical Sanskrit

800 Greek

1000 Old Persian

1200 Hittite

1500 Vedic Sanskrit

3000 Proto Indo-European

Second Germanic sound shift

time Zeittongue Zungeten zehn

that dasthere dathrough durch

pan Pfannepath Pfadpole Pfahl

hat hasseneat essenlet lassen

grip greifendeep tiefsleep schlafen

Numerals in Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages

English Gothic Latin Greek Sanskrit Chinese Japanese

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

ains

twai

Trija

fidwor

fimf

saihs

sibun

ahtau

niun

taihun

unus

duo

tres

quattuor

quinque

sex

septem

octo

novembe

decem

heis

duo

treis

tettares

pente

heks

hepta

okto

ennea

deka

ekas

dva

trayas

catvaras

panca

sat

sapta

asta

nava

dasa

i

erh

san

su

wu

liu

ch’i

pa

chiu

shih

hitotsu

futatsu

mittsu

yottsu

itsutsu

muttsu

nanatsu

yattsu

kokonotsu

to

Sound correspondences in IE English Latin Greek Irish

fishfatherfootfor

sixsevensweetsalt

newnightnine

piscispaterped–pro

sexseptemsuavissal

novusnoct–novem

ikhthyspaterpod–para

hexaheptahedyshal

neosnykt–(en)nea

iasgathairtroighdo

seseachtmillissalann

nua(in)nochtnaoi

Sound correspondences across unrelated

languages

Arabic Urdu Turkish Swahili Malay

newstimebookservicebeggar

xabarwaqtkitabxidmatfaqir

xabarvaqtkitabxidmatgarifaqir

habervakitkitaphizmetfakir

habariwkatikitabuhudumafakiri

khabarwaktukitabkhidmatfakir

Sir William Jones

Sound correspondences between Sanskrit,

Latin and Greek

Sanskrit Latin Greek

asmiasiastismassthasanti

sumesestsumusestissunt

einieiestiesmenesteeisi

August Schleicher

Latin Old English Gothic

/p/ /f/

/t/ /θ/

/k/ /x/h/

/b/ /p/

/d/ /t/

/g/ /k/

pedumpiscis

trestu

cordemcentum

turba ‘crowd’

edodecem

agergenus

fotfisc

three [Tri]thou [TaU]

hearthundred

thorp ‘village’

eatten

acrekin

fotusfiskis

thrirthuU

hairtohund

itantaihun

akrskuni

IE Old English Gothic

/bh/ /b//dh/ /d//dh/ /d/

*bhero*dhura*ghostis

berandurugasts

baíradaúrgiest

Grimm’s law

*p t k f T x/h

*b d g p t k

*bh dh gh b d g

Exceptions to Grimm’s law

[p t k]

[f T x] [b d g]

Sanskrit Old Englishvártate weorTanvarárta wearTvavrtimá wurdonvavrta:ná worden

Verner’s law

[p t k] [f T x] / [stressed syllable] __

[b d g] / [unstressed syllable] __

Neogrammarian Hypothesis

Every sound change takes place according to laws that admit no exceptions.

[Karl Brugmann]

Evidence for the IE homeland

Common words for:

cold

winter

snow

honey

wolf

beech

pine

No common words for:

ocean

palm

elephant

camel

Amerind hypothesis

Eskimo

Na Dene

Amerind

Number of speakers

Mandarin 907

English 456

Hindi 383

Spanish 362

Russian 293

Arabic 208

Bengali 189

Portuguese 177

Indonesian 148

Japanese 126

French 123

German 119

Nostratic

Indo-European

Altaic

Uralic

Afro-Asiatic

Kartvelian