Literature

A) Principal:

1. Історія англійської мови / Навчальний посібник для самостійної роботи студентів-філологів, що вивчають англійську мову як фах. – Полтава, 2002. – C. 18-24.

2. Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. – M., 1983. – Chapter V (P.57-58).

3. Zaitseva S.D. Early Britain. – M., 1981. – Chapter III, IV, V (P.47-79).

B) Supplementary:

1.Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. – М., 1985. – С. 22-24.

2. Залесская Л.Д. Пособие по истории английского языка для заочных отделений факультетов английского языка педагогических институтов. – М., 1984. – С.15-18.

3. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка. – СПб., 1999. – С. 10-11.

4. Tokareva E. Pages of History. Great Britain, the USA. – M., 1985.

Chronological Divisions of the History of English. Historical Outline of the oe Period. Oe Dialects. First Anglo-Saxon Written Records. Oe Alphabet.

1. Chronological Divisions in the History of English.

Short Survey of the Periods.

In all language histories divisions into periods and cross-sections of a certain length, are used for teaching and research purposes though in fact the historical development of a language is a continuous uninterrupted process without sudden breaks or rapid transformations. Therefore any periodisation imposed on language history by linguists, with precise dates, is artificial. The commonly ac­cepted, traditional periodisation divides English history into three periods: Old English (OE), Middle English (ME) and New English (NE), each of the periods has a few sub- periods.

Old English period:

1. Early OE (pre-written period) – V-VII c (from the settlement of Germanic tribes on the isles till the first written records found).

2. Late OE (Anglo-Saxon) – VIII c – 1066 (from the first written records till the Norman conquest of Britain).

Middle English Period

3. Early ME (French/Anglo-Norman language as official) – 1066-1350.

4. Late ME (the English of Chaucer) – 1350-1475 (restoration of English to the position of a state language).

5. Transition ME (Classical ME, The English of Caxton) – 1475-1500.

New English period

6. Early NE (the age of Shakespeare and formation of the national English Language) – 1500-1660.

7. Late NE (Neo-Classical period, the period of normalisation of English) – 1660-1800.

Modern English

8. Early Mod E (establishing of English standard national language and spreading of English all over the world) – XIX c-1945.

9. Present-day English (becomes gradually an international language) – since 1945 till present time.

2. Historical Outline of the OE period.

a) Danish Raids.

At the end of the 8^th century (in 793) the Danes, well-armed Germanic tribes that lived to the North of Britain and were conquering one territory after another, began to attack Britain to conquer and settle in the new lands. (Their earliest raids were for plunder only). The Danes had large fleet and they were bold and skilful seamen. That was the 4^th conquest of Britain. Once more the cattle were driven off, the houses burnt, churches and monasteries plundered and the people slain.

The Danish raids were successful because the kingdom of England had neither a regular army no fleet in the North Sea to meet them.

Northumbria and East Anglia suffered most from the Danish raids. All the territory north of the Thames (that is Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia) was in the hands of the invaders and became a part of vast Danish empire called Danesland. Only Wessex was not conquered. Before the Danes conquered the North, they had made an attack on Wessex, but in 835 King Egbert defeated them. Thus the Danes came into conflict with the strongest of all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Wessex). In 871 the Danes invaded Wessex again. King Alfred, king Egbert’s grandson, who has just become a new king of Wessex (871-899), organized resistance against the invaders. Alfred managed to raise the army and stopped the Danes. He made reforms in the army and according to new army rules every free man had to serve and to come provided with the proper weapons. The landowners were ordered to come with good armour and on horseback. The number of trained fighting men grew considerably in the result of Alfred’s reforms. During the reign of Alfred (who was called Alfred the Great) the first British Navy was built. Many places were fortified.

Danes attacked once more in 876 and in 878 but in the result of all Alfred’s reforms Anglo-Saxons won several victories over the Danes. Alfred was also a good diplomat and he managed to sign peace treaty with the Danes, he needed peace to continue his reforms. By the peace treaty of Wedmore in 878 the Danish leader Guthrum agreed to withdraw from Wessex and from Mercia. (The great Roman road, called Watling Street, became the boundary separating the Danelaw (Danesland) from Wessex.

b) Reign of King Alfred and His Reforms.

In the peace that followed, Alfred extended and consolidated the shire system of local government, and supervised finance, the administration of justice, and the codification of the law. He also revived learning by establishing a school at his court, to which he invited scholars and encouraged writing in the Anglo-Saxon tongue and opened more schools. Books on religion, history and philosophy were translated from Latin so that Anglo-Saxons could read them in their native tongue to understand better. He himself translated Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care and some other books from Latin into Anglo-Saxon.

Alfred demanded that all priests should learn Latin, as the Bible and the service-books were written in Latin. It was the duty of the clergy to understand Latin. Alfred ordered that the learned men should begin to write a history of the country. In several monasteries the learned monks collected together all that was known of the early history of the country and began to keep a record of the outstanding events of each year. Thus was written a history of England called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was continued for 250 years.