- •1. When did the historical study of languages begin? Who was the first to prove the relations of many languages to each other and the existence of their common source?
- •2. What is the character of internal and external language changes?
- •3. What are considered to be the main reasons for language changes?
- •4. What groups belong to the Indo-European family of languages? What are Satem and Centum languages?
- •5. What group does English belong to? Name the closest linguistic relations of English.
- •6. What territory did the ancient Germanic tribes inhabited?
- •7. What are the distinctive features of Germanic languages that made them different from other Indo-European languages?
- •8. What is the nature of the First Consonant Shift? Who was the first to explain its regularities?
- •9. Who was the first to explain the irregularities in the First Consonant Shift?
- •Ie voiceless stop was preceded by an unstressed vowel, the voiceless fricative
- •10. How long is the history of the English language?
- •11. What periods do we distinguish in the History of the English language?
- •12. What languages were spoken in the British Isles before the Germanic invasion? Which of their descendants have survived today?
- •13. When did the Germanic invasion in the British Isles begin? What Germanic tribes came to live there?
- •14. What Germanic kingdoms existed on the British Isles?
- •15. How did the country acquire the name of England?
- •16. What important event took place at the end of the 8th century ad on the territory of the British Isles?
- •17. What alphabet did Anglo-Saxons used for their writings? What written records have survived from that time?
- •18. What vowels existed in Old English? How were they represented in writing?
- •19. What consonants existed in Old English? How were they represented in writing?
- •20. What main phonetic changes occurred during the Old English period?
- •Vowel changes
- •Consonants changes
- •21. What was the etymological composition of the oe vocabulary? What languages did the loan words come there from? Composition
- •Foreign influences on Old English
- •22. What word building patterns were common in oe?
- •23. What categories did the oe noun have?
- •24. What categories did the oe adjective have?
- •25. What were the classes of oe pronouns?
- •26. What categories did the oe verb have?
- •27. What were the most common syntactical patterns in oe?
- •28. Did there exist any analytical forms in oe?
- •29. What events of the Modern English period launched the process of forming the National English Language?
- •30. What important changes in phonetic system happened in Early ModE?
- •The Great Vowel Shift
- •31. What was the Nature of the Great Vowel Shift?
- •32. Describe the main changes in grammar system in Modern English.
- •33. Changes in the categories of nouns and adjectives. What old forms of substantive plural survived in ModE? Changes and features of ModE noun system
- •34. Describe the main changes in the ModE pronoun system.
- •35. Describe the main changes in the categories of verb in ModE. Changes and features of Early ModE verbal system
- •36. Describe the main changes in ModE syntax.
- •37. Describe the main changes in vocabulary system in Early Modern English.
6. What territory did the ancient Germanic tribes inhabited?
By the 1st century A.D., the writings of Caesar, Tacitus and other Roman era
writers indicate a division of Germanic-speaking peoples into tribal groupings
centred on:
the rivers Oder and Vistula (Poland) (East Germanic tribes), (the Vindili);
the lower Rhine river (Istvaeones);
the river Elbe (Irminones or Hermiones);
Jutland and the Danish islands (Ingvaeones);
the territory of Dacia, close to modern Rumania (the Peucini and
Bastarnae);
Scandinavia (the Hilleviones).
7. What are the distinctive features of Germanic languages that made them different from other Indo-European languages?
The features that characterize the evolution of Germanic from its parent Indo-
European are:
Germanic has a number of unique words: there are no similar words in other
Indo-European languages. These words may have been lost in the other Indo-
European languages, borrowed from non-Indo-European languages, or perhaps
coined in Germanic. Among these words are Modern English rain, drink, drive,
broad, hold, wife, meat, fowl, sea.
The stress in Germanic languages fell on the first syllable (except prefixes),
while in IE stress was free.
One of the main phonological and morphological instruments in Common
Germanic and practically in all Germanic languages was the Ablaut, or
Gradation, the vowel interchange in the root of nouns and verbs. This specific
feature, though known in all Indo-European groups as a phonetic means, was of
great importance particularly in Germanic, where it was sometimes used instead
of verb endings and noun inflections. The system of gradation in Germanic
languages is best seen in the so-called strong verbs.
Some Indo-European vowels changes in Germanic languages (o→a, a→o).
A consonant shift (change of sounds) occurred in Germanic. The first was
describe by Jacob Grimm and is often called “Grimm’s law”. Three groups of
consonants started to be pronounced differently in Germanic languages: IE
voiceless stops became fricatives in Germanic, IE voiced stops became
voiceless in Germanic, IE aspirated voiced stops lost aspiration in Germanic.
8. What is the nature of the First Consonant Shift? Who was the first to explain its regularities?
A consonant shift (change of sounds) occurred in Germanic. The first was describe
by Jacob Grimm and is often called “Grimm’s law”.
Three groups of consonants started to be pronounced differently in Germanic
languages:
|
IE consonants |
Corresponding Germanic consonants |
|
I. IE voiceless stops became fricatives in Germanic | |
|
P пламя (Russian) t tres (Latin) k кров (Russian) |
F flame (Old English) þ þreis (Gothic) h hrov (Old English) |
|
II. IE voiced stops became voiceless in Germanic | |
|
B болото (Russian) d duo (Latin) g genu (Latin) |
P pool (English) t twai (Gothic) k Knee (Old English) |
|
III. IE aspirated voiced stops lost aspiration in Germanic | |
|
bh bhratar (Sanscrit) gh dh Note: these consonants are ancient, they no more exist in any of Indo-European languages |
B broþor (Gothic) g d |