Bilety2kurs / Obschaya_lingvokultura

1.Classification of Germanic languages: old and new.

Genetically, English belongs to the Germanic (or Teutonic) group of languages, which is one of the 12 groups of the IE linguistic family.

	East Germanic	North Germanic	West Germanic
Old Germanic	Gothic (4th c.)		Anglian, Frisian, Jutish, Saxon, Fran-
languages (dates of	Vandalic	Old Norse or Old Scandinavian	conian, High German (Alemanic,
the earliest records)	Burgundian	(2nd-3rd c.)	Thuringian, Swavian, Bavarian)
		Old Icelandic (12th c.)	Old English (7th c.)
		Old Norwegian (13th c.)	Old Saxon (9th c.)
		Old Danish (13th c.)	Old High German (8th. c.)
		Old Swedish (13th c.)	Old Dutch (12th c.)
Modern Germanic	No living languages	Icelandic	English
languages		Norwegian	German
		Danish	Netherlandish
		Swedish	Afrikaans
		Faroese	Yiddish
			Frisian

The Germanic languages in the modern world are:

English — in Great Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the South African Republic German —Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, part of Switzerland;

Netherlandish — in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium) Afrikaans — in the South African Republic;

Danish — in Denmark;

Swedish — in Sweden and Finland;

Norwegian — in Norway;

Icelandic — in Iceland;

Frisian — in some regions of the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany; Faroese — in the Faroe Islands;

Yiddish — in different countries.

English as a mother tongue - from 250, to 300 million people who have it. The total number of people speaking Germanic languages approaches 440 million.

Plus an indefinite number of bilingual people in the countries where English is used as an official language (over 50 countries).

The Earliest Period of Germanic History. Proto-Germanic

PG is the linguistic ancestor or the parent-language of the Germanic group. It is supposed to have split from related IE tongues between the 15th and 10th с. B.C. PG is an entirely pre-historical language: it was never recorded in written form.

It is believed that at the earliest stages of history PG was fundamentally one language, though dialectally coloured. In its later stages dialectal differences grew, so that towards the beginning of our era Germanic appears divided into dialectal groups and tribal dialects.

Dialectal differentiation increased with the migrations and geographical expansion of the Teutons caused by overpopulation, poor agricultural technique and scanty natural resources in the areas of their original settlement.

PG split into 3 branches: East Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic.

East Germanic

The East Germanic subgroup was formed by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia at the beginning of our era. The most numerous and powerful of them were the Goths. They were among the first Teutons to leave the coast of the Baltic Sea and start on their great migrations

The Gothic language, now dead, has been preserved in written records of the 4th—6th c. The Goths were the first of the Teutons to become Christian.

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North Germanic

The Teutons who stayed in Scandinavia after the departure of the Goths gave rise to the North Germanic subgroup of languages. The North Germanic tribes lived on the southern coast of the Scandinavian peninsula and in Northern Denmark. The speech of the North Germanic tribes called Old Norse or Old Scandinavian. An original Germanic alphabet known as the runic alphabet or the runes.

The disintegration of Old Norse into separate dialects and languages began after the 9th c. The famous Viking Age, from about 800 to 1050 A.D., is the legendary age of Scandinavian raids and expansion overseas.

The principal linguistic differentiation in Scandinavia corresponded to the political division into Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The 3 kingdoms constantly fought for dominance. For several hundred years Denmark was the most powerful of the Scandinavian kingdoms; by the 14th c. Norway fell under Danish rule too. Sweden regained its independence in the 16th c., while Norway remained a backward Danish colony up to the early 19th c. Consequently, both Swedish and Norwegian were influenced by Danish.

The earliest written records in Old Danish, Old Norwegian and Old Swedish date from the 13th c.

West Germanic

On the eve of their “great migrations” of the 4th and 5th c. the West Germans included several tribes. The

Franconians (or Franks) occupied the lower basin of the Rhine; from there they spread up the Rhine and are accordingly subdivided into Low, Middle and High Franconians. The Angles and the Frisians, the Jutes and the Saxons inhabited the coastal area of the modern Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany and the southern part of Denmark.

In the Early Middle Ages the Franks consolidated into a powerful tribal alliance. Towards the 8th c. their kingdom grew into one of the largest states in Western Europe

The Franconian dialects were spoken in the extreme North of the Empire; in the later Middle Ages they developed into Dutch and Flemish p the language of Flanders.

2.Periodization of the history of English. (Подробнее о всех периодах - См. билет 3)

1.Old English 5-11 c.

-Early Old English; Pre-written or pre-historical period. the West Germanic Invasion (5th c.)- the beginning of writing (the close of 7th c.)

-Old English or Anglo-Saxon - Written OE 8th - end of the 11th c.

2.Middle English 11-15 c.

- Early Middle English 1066 - half of the 14th c.

- Late Middle English - the age of Chaucer later 14th - end of the 15th c.

3. Early New English 1476 – 1660, 1475 (introduction of printing) - c.1660 (the age of Shakespeare)

- Neo-classical period - the age of normalization and correctness. Dates: the mid 17th - the end of the 18th c.

4. Modern English = New English, 19th - 20th c., Normalization period. Age of Correctness.

-Late New English (Modern English), From 1800 up to the 21st c.

I	Early OE (also: Pre-writ-	c. 450 — c. 700		OLD
	ten OE)			ENGLISH
II	OE (also: Written OE)	c. 700— 1066
III	Early ME	1066—c. 1350		MIDDLE
IV	ME (also: Classical ME)	c. 1350— 1475		ENGLISH
V	Early NE'	1476 — c. 1660		EARLY NEW
				ENGLISH
		c. 1660—c.
VI	Normalisation Period	1800
	(also: Age of Correct-			NEW
	ness, Neo-Classical pe-			ENGLISH
	riod)			(also;
VII	Late NE, or Mod E (in-	c. 1800 .....		MODERN
	eluding Present-day			ENGLISH)
	English	since 1945 . .
		.
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3. A brief account of the 3 main historical periods.

The traditional periodization divides English history into 3 periods: Old English (OE), Middle English (ME) and new English (NE).

OE begins with the Germanic settlement of Britain (5th c.) or with the beginning of writing (7th c.) and ends with the Norman Conquest (1066);

ME begins with the Norman Conquest and ends on the introduction of printing (1475);

The introduction of printing is the beginning of the Modern or New English period (Mod E or NE) which lasts to present day.

1) I Early Old English; Pre-written or pre-historical period.

Dates: the West Germanic Invasion (5th c. )- the beginning of writing (the close of 7th c.)

Historical events:

1) Germanic Invasion (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians)

2)the beginning of feudalism (manors)

3)Introduction of Christianity (6-7th cc.)

Linguistic facts:

It’s the stage of tribal dialects of the west Germanic invaders (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians), which were

gradually losing contacts with the related continental tongues. There were no written form of English, the dialects were used for oral communication.

It was the period of transition from PG (Proto Germanic) to Written OE. Early OE linguistic changes, particularly sound changes, marked OE off from PG.

II Old English or Anglo-Saxon - Written OE Dates: 8th - end of the 11th c.

Historical events:

1)the Scandinavian invasions (8th c.)

2)the Norman Conquest (1066)

Linguistic Facts: The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects. Towards the end of the period the differences between the dialects grew and their relative position altered. They were probably equal as a medium of oral communication, while in the sphere of writing one of the dialects, West Saxon, had gained supremacy over the other dialects (Kentish, Mercian and Northumbrian). The prevalence of West Saxon in writing is tied up with the rise of the kingdom of Wessex to political and cultural prominence.

H. Sweet, a prominent English scholar of the late 19th c., called OE the “period of full endings”.

2) III Early Middle English Dates: 1066 - half of the 14th c.

Historical events:

1)the Scandinavian invasions (8th c.)

2)the Norman Conquest (1066)

3)a linguistic gap

4)stabilizing of feudalism (vassals, knights, freemen, serfs)

Linguistic Facts:

Under Norman rule the official language in England was French, or rather its variety called Anglo-French or

Anglo-Norman', it was also the dominant language of literature.

The local dialects were mainly used for oral communication and were but little employed in writing. Towards the end of the period their literary prestige grew, as English began to displace French in the sphere of writing, as well as in many other spheres. Dialectal divergence and lack of official English made a favourable environment for intensive linguistic change.

Early ME was a time of great changes at all the levels of the language, especially in lexis and grammar. English absorbed two layers of lexical borrowings: the Scandinavian element in the North-Eastern area and the French element in the speech of townspeople in the South-East, especially in the higher social strata. Grammatical alterations were so drastic that by the end of the period they had transformed English from a highly inflected language into a mainly analytical one.

IV Late or Classical Middle English - the age of Chaucer Dates: later 14th - end of the 15th c.

Historical events:

1)growth of towns, schools

2)decline of feudalism (taxes, expensive rent, villagers went to towns)

3)Parliament

4)The Peasant's revolt (Wat Tyler - 1381)

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Linguistic Facts:

Сhaucer’s language was a recognised literary form, imitated throughout the 15th c. Literary flourishing had establishing effect on language, so that the rate of linguistic changes was slowed down. At the same time the written forms of the language developed and improved.

The written records of the late 14th and 15th c. testify to the growth of the English vocabulary and to the increasing proportion of French loan-words in English. The phonetic and grammatical structure had incorporated and perpetuated the fundamental changes of the preceding period. H. Sweet called Middle English the period of “levelled endings”. The verb system was expanding, as numerous new analytical forms and verbal phrases on the way to becoming analytical forms were used alongside old simple forms.

3) V Early New English

Dates: 1475 (introduction of printing) - c.1660 (the age of Shakespeare)

Historical events:

1)the country became economically and politically unified

2)the progress of culture, education, literature favoured linguistic unity

3)the London dialect had become a compromise between various types of speech

4)William Caxton published the first printed book in English

5)the Hundred Years War (1337 - 1453) (lost Breton and Burgundy)

6)the War of Roses (1455 -1485) (Henry Tudor is the 1st absolute monarch)

7)the English Reformation (1534)

Linguistic Facts:

The Early NE period was a time of sweeping changes at all levels, in the first place lexical and phonetic. The growth of the vocabulary was a natural reflection of the progress of culture in the new, bourgeois society, and of the wider horizons of man’s activity.

The loss of most inflectional endings in the 15th c. justifies the definition “period of lost endings” given by H.

Sweet to the NE period. The inventory of grammatical forms and syntactical constructions was almost the same as in Mod E, but their use was different. The abundance of grammatical units occurring without any apparent restrictions, or regularities produces an impression of great “freedom of grammatical construction”.

VI Neo-classical period - the age of normalization and correctness Dates: the mid 17th - the end of the 18th c.

Historical events:

1)the 1st Civil War (1624 - 1648)

2)the English revolution (The Bill of Rights 1689)

3)the Restoration (Charles 2 was returned to his kingdom)

4)the defeat of France in the Americas and the conquest of large parts of India.

5)The Industrial Revolution

Linguistic Facts:

In the history of the language this period is often called “the age of normalisation and correctness”, in the history of literature — the “neoclassical” age. This age witnessed the establishment of “norms”, which can be defined as received standards recognised as correct at the given period. The norms were fixed as rules and prescriptions of correct usage in the numerous dictionaries and grammar-books published at the time and were spread through education and writing.

During the 18th c. literary English differentiated into distinct styles, which is a property of a mature literary language.

It is also important to note that during this period the English language extended its area far beyond the borders of the British Isles, first of all to North America.

The 18th c. has been called the period of "fixing the pronunciation”.

VII Late New English or Modern English Dates: 19th - 20th c.

Historical events:

6)The growth of the British Empire in the 19th c.

7)The increased weight of the United States.

Linguistic Facts:

By the 19th c. English had achieved the relative stability typical of an age of literary florescence and had

acquired all the properties of a national language, with its functional stratification and recognised standards (though, like any living language, English continued to grow and change).

The dialects were used in oral communication and, as a rule, had no literary tradition. The 20th c. witnessed considerable intermixture of dialects.

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The expansion of English overseas proceeded together with the growth of the British Empire and with the increased weight of the United States.

English has spread to all the inhabited continents. Some geographical varieties of English are now recognised as independent variants of the language.

In the 19th and 20th c, the English vocabulary has grown on an unprecedented scale reflecting the rapid progress of technology, science and culture and other multiple changes in all spheres of man’s activities. Some pronunciations and forms have become old-fashioned or even obsolete, while other forms have gained ground, and have been accepted as common usage.

4. The prehistory of Britain. The Celts in Britain, their way of life and religion.

There were several waves of people coming from the continent, some of them probably spoke an IndoEuropean language. They were hunters and animal keepers.

Henge civilization – after 3000 BC

great circles of earth banks and ditches with wooden buildings and stone circles inside

henges (=dolmen) were centres of religious, political and economic power

A farming society – 1300 BC

family villages and fortified enclosures appeared across the landscape

more advanced metal working skills (namely, bronze swords)

The Celts in Britain

The Celts appeared in Britain around 700 BC, they came from Central Europe.

Highland

Scotland

The Celts Wales

Ireland

Cornwall

Pre-Germanic Britain.

The Celts were:

the Picts

the Scots

the Britons and etc.

Celtic languages were divided into two brunches – the Gaelic and the Britonic.

The Gaelic brunch:

Irish – Ireland

Scotch – Gaelic – Scotland

Manx – the Isle of Man

The Britonic (British) brunch:

Welsh – Wales

Breton – Brittany (in France)

Cornish – Cornwall

The characteristics of the Celts

Were a tribal society organized of kings, kingship groups, clans and tribes

Were successful farmers growing enough food

Built hill forts and houses inside them which later became sort of towns and were used as local economic centres

Trade was important for their political and social contacts

They exported corn and animals, hunting dogs and slaves (most of them were prisoners of war)

The Celts by the beginning of our era

That was a period of transition from primitive communal society to class society. The tribal nobility was made up by their elders, military leaders and warriors who were beginning to seize much land and cattle from themselves.

There appeared first tribal kingdoms.

Ancient Celts.

There are no written records about their religion. They are considered to have been heathens (pagans), their religion was polytheistic. Celts were animists, believing that all aspects of nature contained spirits (trees, streams, sky, sea etc.)

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Tribal Gods of Insular Celts:

God of thunder

Of tribal protection

Of healing

Goddess of water

Of horses

5.The Roman civilization in Britain. Latin as the first written language in Britain

The Roman civilization in Britain. Celtic & Roman paganism. The Roman conquest

Julius Caesar's two raids on Britain:

-in 55 BC a Roman army of 10 000 men crossed the Channel

-in 54 BC Caesar came with larger forces but failed to subjugate Britain.

A province of the Roman Empire

In 43 AD Britain was invaded by Roman legions under the Emperor Claudius. The Romans established a

Romano-British culture across the southern part of Britain. The Romans stationed about 40 000 in Britain but they couldn't conquer the territory of modern Scotland.

Roman Britain

Towns ( 20% mixed population) were basis of Roman administration & civilization. London, which grew along the banks of the River Thames & had the population of 20 000 people, was a trading centre & the biggest capital

in Europe. Romans built the London Bridge - the 1st stone bridge across the Thames.

End of the Roman control of Britain

The Roman Empire began to collapse. The Scots & the Picts were becoming more and more active. Germanic tribes on the continent began to raid the coasts of Gaul. In AD 409/410 Rome pulled its last soldiers out of Britain never to return.

The first Germanic settlement in Britain - AD 449.

Roman religion - polytheistic.

Latin	Celtic
Apollo	Bellenos
Mercury	Lugus

Latin as the first written language in Britain

Linguistic situation

Latin was introduced into Britain at the time of the Claudian invasion in 43 AD & remained in official use

until the withdrawal of Roman garnisons at the beginning of the 5th c. The Romans brought the skills of reading anв writing to Britain. The Romans did not try to impose their language.

The Celtic peasantry	Town dwellers	The richer landowners in the country
Illiterate & only Celtic-	Spoke Latin & Celtic with	Used Latin
speaking	ease

Many native Britons chose to learn Latin. Some grew up in Latin-speaking households, as the Celts were assimilated into the world of conquerors

-through involvement with the colonial administration

-through commerce

-by intermarriage.

The Celts living in the Southeast of the island were gradually romanized. The romanization couldn't but affect the English language.

6. The Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) invasion of Britain

From the middle of the III century AD, the Romans grew weaker and weaker as the Germanic tribes on the continent invaded more and more Roman lands.

In 410 AD the Romans finally left Britain.

At first, the Germanic tribes only raided Britain, but after 430 AD they began to settle.

West Germanic tribes

Angles

Saxons

Jutes

Frisians

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449 AD – first Germanic settlement in Britain.

Germanic invasion

Was not an arrival of a unified army but the arrival and penetration of various uncoordinated bands of adventurers, beginning in the second half of the fifth century and going on through the sixth century.

Prior to their migration to Britain they had lived on the continent, inhabited the northern coast of Germany and the south of Denmark.

The occupation of England by the Germanic tribes was a long struggle with the native population of the British Isles – the Celts.

3 waves of invaders:

1.The Jutes/the Frisians

2.The Saxons

3.The Angles

The Germanic settlement of the British Isles

Vortigern was a British warlord, invited two chieftains of the Jutes, Hengist and Horsa, to fight against the Picts and the Scots. As a result, his enemies were ousted to remote parts of the country: Cornwall, Wales, parts of Scottish Lowlands.

Over the sea to Brittany

The invaders were illiterate and warlike

They kept their own language and didn’t learn the language of the British Celts VI century: Anȝli, Anȝlecyn, Anȝlecynnes land

Ɛnȝle, Ɛnȝla-land (the land of Angles)

Ɛnȝlisc

The invaders called the British Celts ‘wealas‘ meaning foreigners, later – servants, the name Welsh derives from here.

The Romans	The Germanic tribes
Governed the British Celts	Came in larger numbers
Didn’t take their lands	Settled on the lands belonging to the British Celts

Tribes/kingdoms

Jutes	Kent
Frisians	No kingdom of their own
Angles	East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria
Saxons	Wessex, Sussex, Essex

Anglo-Saxon way of life

Cultivated land, bred cattle, were warriors, lived in family villages

Created such institutions as the King’s Council (Witenagemot=the Witan) OE witena ȝemōt – meeting of wise men

Anglo-Saxon administrative division

Shire (OE scīr) – a Saxon word established by the end of the X century County – a Norman word

A shire reeve – the king’s local administrator

Anglo-Saxon technology in agriculture Anglo-Saxons used:

Heavy ploughs with more oxen to pull them

Larger fields divided into thin stripes

One for planting spring crops

Another for autumn crops

Others kept for animals to feed

Cut down forests to farm the land and drained the wet land

Local villagers came to pay taxes

Justice was administered

Men met together to join the army

A manor house with land		Lords of manors (aldermen) – local officers
An estate		By the XI century – warlords, earls
		Elected officials in local government
		High ranking nobilities
Class system
1.	King	4.	Workers on land
2.	Lord	5.	Men of learning
3.	Soldiers

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7. Introduction of Christianity: Celtic and Norman Church.

A most important role in the English language was played by the introduction of Christianity. The first attempt to introduce the Roman Christian religion to Anglo-Saxon Britain was made in the 6th c. during the supremacy of

Kent. In 597 a group of missionaries from Rome dispatched by Pope Gregory the Great (“St. Augustine’s mission”) landed on the shore of Kent. They made Canterbury their centre and from there the new faith expanded to Kent, East Anglia, Essex, and other places. The movement was supported from the North; missionaries from Ireland brought the Celtic variety of Christianity to Northumbria. (The Celts had been converted to Christianity during the Roman occupation of Britain.) In less than a century practically all England was Christianised. The strict unified organisation of the church proved a major factor in the centralisation of the country.

The introduction of Christianity gave a strong impetus to the growth of culture and learning. Monasteries were founded all over the country, with monastic schools attached, where the monks taught poetry and Latin as well as Christianity. Religious services and teaching were conducted in Latin. A high standard of learning was reached in the best English monasteries, especially in Northumbria, as early as the 8th and 9th c. There was the famous monastery of Lindisfarne, founded by Aidan, who had come with the Irish priests; the monastery of Jarrow, where the Venerable Bede, the first English historian, lived and worked. The monks began to write in Old English, which was unusual: people in other North European countries didn’t begin writing in their own language until much later. By the 8th c. England was a centre of learning in Western Europe.

Celtic Church, which was interested in the hearts of ordinary people, was in the long run retreated. Roman Church, which was interested in authority and bringing the king to the new faith, extended its authority even in Celtic parts of the island.

8. Tribal and territorial dialects in OE.

The Germanic tribes who settled in Britain in the 5-6th cc. spoke closely related tribal dialects belonging to the West Germanic subgroup. Their common origin and their separation from other related tongues as well as their joint evolution in Britain transformed them eventually into a single tongue, English. Yet, at the early stages of their development in Britain the dialects remained disunited.

The following four principal OE dialects are commonly distinguished:

Kentish, a dialect spoken in the area known now as Kent and Surrey and in the Isle of Wight. It had developed from the tongue of the Jutes and Frisians.

West Saxon, the main dialect of the Saxon group, spoken in the rest of England south of the Thames and the Bristol Channel, except Wales and Cornwall, where Celtic tongues were preserved.

Mercian, a dialect derived from the speech of southern Angles and spoken chiefly in the kingdom of Mercia, that is, in the central region, from Thames to the Humber.

Northumbrian, another Anglian dialect spoken from the Humber north to the river Forth (hence the name- North-Humbrian).

The boundaries between the dialects were uncertain and probably movable.

By the 8th c. the centre of English culture had shifted to Northumbria, which must have brought the Northumbrian dialect to the fore; yet, most of the writing at that time was done in Latin.

9. Alphabets, written records and literature in OE.

The earliest appearances of the Old English language are found in inscriptions written using the runic Futhoric alphabet.

Once Old English started to be used more commonly for writing, the Latin alphabet was adopted and adapted. The ligature Æ/æ (called ‘ash’), earlier used by scribes to represent the Latin diphthong ae, came to stand as a full letter on its own. Two runes – Þ/þ (called ‘thorn’) and Ƿ/ƿ (called ‘wynn’) - from Futhoric were retained to represent sounds with no corresponding letters in the Roman alphabet. The letter Ð/ð (called ‘eth’), developed first in Irish writing, was also employed, being generally interchangeable with Þ/þ.

Old English Written Records

The earliest written records of English are inscriptions made in a special runic alphabet. The two best known runic texts are the inscription on the Frank’s Casket and the short passage on the Ruthwell Cross, which was also

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found in the later manuscripts. Our knowledge of the OE language comes from manuscripts written in Latin letters. Latin in England was the language of the church, writing and education, and the monks were the only literate people.

The first written English words were the place names and personal names inserted into the Latin texts. Then there appeared Gospels and other religious texts with word-to-word interlinear translations (as in Lindisfarne Gospels).

The pieces of Old English poetry also appeared inserted in the Latin texts. All in all we have 30,000 lines of OE verse from many poets of some three centuries. The names of these poets are unknown except Caedmon and Cunewulf (both Northumbrians).

OE is restricted to three subjects:

heroic

religious

lyrical

Many OE poems were passed orally from generation to generation before they were first written down in Northumbrian dialect. But they have survived only in West Saxon copies made much later in 10th-11th c.

Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.

This epic poem Beowulf (means bear: bee-wolf) was probably written down in the middle of the 7th c. after having been passed orally from generation to generation. The only existing manuscript dates back to the 10th c. The original dialect of the poem was Northumbrian. It was copied by West Saxon scribes who introduced West Saxon forms.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by King Alfred.

Since the 8th c. the British Isles were attacked by Scandinavians: first by Danes and later by Norwegians. By the end of the 9th c. the Danes occupied some part of England called Danelaw.

When Alfred the Great came to the throne of Wessex (reigned 871-899) he reconquered Danelaw and started improving the state of learning in the country. He imported teachers from Europe who helped to translate Latin books into West Saxon English. This way much of Latin prose was translated into OE (including the Ecclesiastical History of Bede).

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the AngloSaxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. Multiple copies were made of that original which were distributed to monasteries across England, where they were independently updated. In one case, the Chronicle was still being actively updated in 1154.

Nine manuscripts survive in whole or in part, though not all are of equal historical value and none of them is the original version. The oldest seems to have been started towards the end of Alfred's reign, while the most recent was written at Peterborough Abbey after a fire at that monastery in 1116. Almost all of the material in the Chronicle is in the form of annals, by year; the earliest are dated at 60 BC (the annals' date for Caesar's invasions of Britain), and historical material follows up to the year in which the chronicle was written, at which point contemporary records begin. These manuscripts collectively are known as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

10. Etymological Survey of the Old English language. Means of word-building.

Extensive vocabulary of OE consisted of about 30000 words. Most of them were native words. The three main layers in the native OE words are:

1)common IE words. The oldest part of the OE vocabulary. These words go back to the days of the IE language before its extension over the wide territories of Europe and Asia and before the appearance of the Germanic group. Among these words we find names of some natural phenomena (“mona” – moon), plants and animals (“treow”

–tree, “eolh” – elk; cat, goose, etc.), agricultural terms (“sawan” – sow), names of parts of the human body (“beard”

–beard), terms of kinship (“modor” – mother, “sunu” – son); adjectives indicate the most essential qualities (“niwe”

–new, “long” – long); this layer includes personal and demonstrative pronouns and most numerals (“ic” – I, “min” – my, “þaet” – that, “twa” – two).

2)The common Germanic layer includes words which are shared by most Germanic languages but do not occur outside the group. This layer is smaller. Semantically these words are connected with nature (“land” – land,

“eorþe” – earth), with the sea (“sae” – sea, “sand” – sand) and everyday life (“hand” – hand, “findan” – find,

“macian” – make). Many pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal and auxiliary verbs belong to this group (and, must, have).

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3) Specifically OE, that is words that do not occur in other languages. “brid” – bird, “wifman” – wife,

“hlaford” – lord (“hlaf – loaf, “weard” – keeper), “hlaefdige” – lady (“dige” – knead).

There are two ways of enriching vocabulary: external (result of contacts of the peoples) and internal. About 600 words were borrowings. They came from two sources:

1)Celtic. Very few. Abundant borrowing from Celtic is to be found only in place-names (Ouse, Avon.

Thames, Dover; “-comb” – Duncombe, “-torr” – Torcross, “-llan” – Llanelly, “-pill” – Pylle). Hybrids: with Latin (Manchester, Winchester, Devonport), with Germanic (Yorkshire, Cornwall, Salisbury). Outside of place-names Celtic borrowings in OE were very few (bin, cradle, cross, crse).

2)Latin. 3 periods: words were borrowed

on the mainland prior to the migrations;

in Britain through Romanized Celts;

after the introduction of Christianity.

The borrowings pertain to war (“mil” – mile, “weall” – wall, “straet” – street), trade (“flasce” – flask, “ciest” – chest, “pund” – pound, “ynce” – inch, ounce), agriculture (“win” – wine, “ciese” – cheese), building (“cealc” – chalk, “coper” – copper) and home life (“disc” – dish, “cytel” – kettle, “pyle” – pillow). Components in place-names: Latin “castra” (Chester, Lancaster), “colonia” (Colchester, Lincoln), “vicus” (Norwich), “portus”

(Bridport). The third period: words connected with religion (apostle, bishop, clerk, devil, monk, abbot, altar, angel, idol, pope, temple) and learning (school, master, verse, grammar, meter). Miscellaneous borrowings: names of animals (camel, tiger, elephant), plants (lily, plant), illnesses (cancer, fever), clothes (cap, sock), foods (oyster, radish), others (spend, turn). These borrowings assimilated fast. There were translation-loans: Monday – Monan-daeg – day of the moon (Latin “Lunae dies”), Tuesday – Tiwes-daeg – day of Tiw (Latin “Martis dies”), gospel – “godspell”, goldsmith

– “goldsmiþ”. Translation-loans show the resistance of OE to borrowing foreign words.

According to their morphological structure OE words fell into three main types: 1)Simple words (“land”, “singan”).

2)Derived words (“be-ginnan”, “ge-met-ing”). 3)Compound words (“mann-cynn”, “scir-ge-refa”).

WORD-DERIVATION.

Sound interchanges in the roots were frequent but they were an additional feature which helped to distinguish between words built from the same root (singan – song). The changes were caused by the suffix i/j which didn’t exist by that time (“fod” – “fedan” – earlier “fedjan” –food –feed; “full” – “fyllan” – full – fill).

The word stress helped to distinguish nominal parts of speech from verbs. The verb had unaccented prefixes while the corresponding nouns had stressed prefixes.

Prefixation was a productive way of building new words in OE. The most frequent OE prefixes were: a-, be-, for-, fore-, ge-, ofer-, un-. Of these only unwas common with nouns and adjectives, the rest were mainly verb prefixes.

Suffixation was by far the most productive way of word derivation in OE. Suffixes could refer a word to another part of speech. OE suffixes: 1) old stem-suffixes, which had lost their productivity, but cold still be distinguishable in some words as dead or non-productive suffixes; 2) derivational suffixes proper inherited from PIE or PG; 3) new suffixes. 1. –o-, -i/j-, -t and other suffixes that must have been productive at earlier stages of history and had left their traces.

Suffixes of nouns:

a) agent nouns. Unproductive –a (“hunta” – hunter). –ere – productive (fiscere, leornere). For feminine nouns - -estre (spinnestre). –ing was used to build patronymics (“Centing” – a man coming from Kent).

B) abstract nouns. –þ reinforced by the addition of a vowel (“lengþu” – length, “strengþu” – strength), - nes/-nis (“blindnis” – blindness) – from adjectives. From verbs - -ing/-ung (“earning” – earning).

A most important feature of OE suffixation is the growth of new suffixes from root-morphemes (-dom, -had, - lac, -scipe, -raeden – “freodom”, “cildhad” – freedom, childhood).

In the derivation of adjectives we find suffixes proper such as –ig, -isc, -ede, -sum, -en (“modig” – proud,

“Englisc”, “longsum” – lasting, “hocede” – hooked. The suffixes (–lic) + -e turned an adjective into an adverb. Verb suffixes were few and non-productive.

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