- •Contents
- •List of abbreviations
- •Preface
- •Introduction
- •Germanic languages
- •Classification of germanic languages
- •Ancient germanic tribes and their classification
- •Germanic alphabets
- •Some phonetic peculiarities of germanic languages
- •Consonants
- •The First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)
- •Ііі. Act The ie aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh changed in Gc to corresponding unaspirated plosives b, d, g, e.G.
- •Verner`s Law
- •Word – Stress
- •Stressed vowels
- •Germanic Fracture (Breaking)
- •Gradation or Ablaut
- •Unstressed Vowels
- •Grammatical peculiarities of germanic languages
- •The Noun
- •The Adjective
- •The Verb
- •Gothic Strong Verbs
- •Vocabulary
- •Old english
- •2.1. Periods in the History of English
- •2.2. Historical Background
- •2.2.1. The Roman Conquest of Britain
- •2.2.2. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
- •2.3. Alphabet and Pronunciation
- •Old English Alphabet
- •2.4. Old English Dialects and Written Records
- •2.5. Some Phonetic Changes of the Old English Period
- •2.5.1. Vowels
- •2.5.2. Old English Breaking
- •2.5.3. Palatal Mutation (I-mutation)
- •Monophthongs
- •Diphthongs
- •2.5.4. Back or Velar Mutation (Velarization)
- •2.5.5. Diphthongization of Vowels after Palatal Consonants
- •2.5.6. Lengthening of Short Vowels
- •2.5.7. Unstressed Vowels
- •2.5.8. Consonants
- •2.5.9. Palatalization of Velar Consonants
- •2.5.10. Assimilation, Metathesis, Doubling of Consonants, Loss of Consonants
- •2.6. Old English Morphology
- •2.6.1. Old English Noun: General Characteristics
- •Vowel Stems
- •Consonant Stems
- •2.6.2. Vowel Stems Strong Declension
- •2.6.3. Consonant Stems: Weak Declension, Minor Declensions
- •2.6.4. Root-Stems
- •2.6.5. Pronouns
- •2.6.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •2.6.5.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •Declension of the Demonstrative Pronoun þes
- •2.6.6. Adjectives
- •2.6.6.1. Strong Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.2. Weak Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.3. Degrees of Comparison
- •2.6.7. Adverbs
- •2.6.7.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •2.6.7.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •2.6.8. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of verbs
- •2.6.8.1. Strong Verbs
- •2.6.8.2. Weak Verbs
- •Conjugation of Weak Verbs
- •2.6.8.3. Preterite-Present Verbs
- •Conjugation of Preterite - Present verbs
- •2.6.8.4. Anomalous verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb dōn
- •Indicative mood
- •2.6.8.5. Suppletive Verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon
- •Indicative mood
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān
- •Indicative mood
- •2.7. Old English Syntax
- •2.8. The Old English Vocabulary
- •2.8.1. Word-Building
- •Suffixation
- •Prefixation
- •Composition
- •2.8.2. Borrowings
- •Latin borrowings
- •Celtic Borrowings
- •Middle english
- •3.1. Historical Background
- •3.1.1. Scandinavian Invasions
- •3.1.2. The Norman Conquest
- •3.2. Middle English Dialects Rise of the London Dialect
- •3.3. Early Middle English Written Records
- •3.4. Word Stress
- •3.5. Vowels
- •3.5.1. Unstressed Vowels
- •3.5.2. Stressed vowels
- •3.5.2.1. Quantitative Vowel Changes
- •3.5.2.2. Qualitative Vowel Changes
- •Monophthongs
- •3.5.2.3. Monophthongization of Old English Diphthongs
- •3.5.2.4. Rise of New Diphthongs
- •3.6. Evolution of Consonants in Middle English
- •3.7. Spelling Changes in Middle English
- •3.7.1. Changes in the Designation of Vowels
- •3.7.2. Changes in the designation of Consonants
- •3.8. Changes in the Grammatical System
- •3.8.1. Preliminary Remarks
- •3.8.2. The Noun
- •3.8.2.1. Gender
- •3.8.2.2. Number
- •3.8.2.3. Decay of Noun Declensions
- •3.8.3. The Adjective
- •3.8.3.1. Declension of Adjectives in Late Middle English
- •3.8.3.2. Degrees of Comparison
- •3.8.4. Adverbs
- •3.8.4.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •3.8.4.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •3.8.5. The Pronoun
- •3.8.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •3.8.5.2. Possessive pronouns
- •3.8.5.3. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •3.8.5.4. Rise of the Articles
- •3.8.6. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of Verbs
- •Conjugation of Verbs Past Indicative
- •3.8.5.1. Changes in the Morphological Classes of Verbs in Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.1. Strong Verbs
- •3.8.6.2. Weak Verbs
- •3.8.6.3. Preterite-present Verbs
- •3.8.6.4. Suppletive verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.5. Rise of Analytical Forms
- •Future Forms
- •Perfect Forms
- •Passive Forms
- •Continuous Forms
- •3.8.7. Development of the Syntactic System
- •3.9. Middle English Vocabulary Changes
- •3.9.1. Native Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.2. French Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.3. Scandinavian Borrowings
- •3.9.4. French Borrowings
- •New english
- •4.1. The formation of the English National Language
- •4.2. Changes in Pronunciation
- •4.2.1. Development of Unstressed Vowels
- •4.2.1.1. Loss of unstressed –e [ə]
- •4.2.1.2. Loss of Vowels in Intermediate Syllables
- •4.2.2. Stressed Vowels
- •4.2.2.1. The Great Vowel Shift
- •4.2.2.2. Shortening of Long Vowels
- •4.2.2.3. Development of Short Vowels
- •4.2.2.4. The Development of the New Short [л]
- •4.2.2.5. Changes in Diphthongs
- •4.2.2.6. Vowel Changes under the Influence of Consonants
- •4.2.3. Consonants
- •4.2.3.1. Voicing of Voiceless Consonants
- •4.2.3.2. Loss of Consonants Development of [X]
- •Simplification of Consonant Clusters
- •4.2.3.3. Change of [d] to [ð] when Close to [r]
- •4.2.3.4. Development of Sibilants and Affricates in Early New English
- •4.3. Changes in Spelling
- •4.4. Local Dialects in New English
- •4.4.1. Scottish Dialect
- •4.4.2. Northern Dialects
- •4.4.3. Western, Central and Southern Dialects
- •4.5. Some Essential Grammatical Changes of the New English Period: Morphology
- •4.5.1. The Noun
- •4.5.1.1. Number
- •4.5.1.2. Cases
- •4.5.2. The Pronoun
- •4.5.2.1. Personal Pronouns
- •4.5.2.2. Possessive Pronouns
- •4.5.3. The Adjective
- •4.5.4. The Adverb
- •4.5.5. The Verb
- •4.5.5.1. Personal Endings
- •4.5.5.2. Changes in Strong Verbs
- •4.5.5.3. Changes in Weak Verbs
- •4.5.5.4. Rise of Invariable Verbs
- •4.5.5.5. Changes in Preterite-Present Verbs
- •4.5.5.6. Irregular Verbs
- •4.6. New English Syntax
- •4.7. New English Vocabulary Changes
- •4.7.1. Latin Loanwords
- •4.7.2. Latinization of French Loanwords
- •4.7.3. Greek loanwords
- •4.7.4. French Loanwords
- •4.7.5. Mixed vocabulary of New English
- •4.7.6. Italian and Spanish Loanwords
- •4.7.7. Russian Loanwords
- •4.8. The Expansion of English
- •4.9. The English Language in the usa
- •4.9.1. Some peculiarities of American Pronunciation
- •4.9.2. American Spelling
- •4.9.3. Some peculiarities of American Grammar
- •4.9.4. Vocabulary of American English
- •Conclusion
- •Bibliography
Prefixation
The prefixes mis- and un- were the most productive in OE and they survived in ModE.
The prefix mis- denotes negation or bad quality: misdōn (do badly) < dōn (do), mislīcian (displease) < līcian (like), misfaran (go astray) < faran (go).
The prefix un- has a negative meaning: uncuþ (unknown), unfæʒer (unfair) < fæʒer (fair), unfrið (war) < frið (peace). Sometimes it means «bad»: undǣd (misdeed).
Composition
Composition was widely used in OE. Many nouns, adjectives and verbs were formed by joining two (or more) stems: Nouns were built on the following patterns:
noun + noun: hwæl (whale) + hunta (hunter) > hwælhunta – a hunter for whales
adjective + noun : hāliʒ (holy) + dæʒ (day) > hāliʒdæʒ - a holiday
Adjectives were built on the patterns:
noun + adjective: win (wine) + sǣd > winsǣd (satiated with wine)
adjective + adjective: īs (ice) + ceald (cold) > īsceald (icecold)
The most peculiar pattern of compound adjectives was the so-called «bahuvrihi» type:
adjective + noun as the second component of an adjective: stiþ (strong) + mōd (character) > stiþmōd (brave), mild (mild) + heort (heart) > mildheort (merciful).
Sometimes the first component takes the form of the Genetive case: Mōnan-dæʒ (Moon’s day) – Monday; Tiwes-dæʒ (literally Tiw’s day – the war god’s day) – Tuesday; Wednes-dæʒ (Woden’s day - the war god’s day) –Wednesday; þunres-dæʒ (Thunor’s day, the god of thunder’s day) – Thursday; Friʒe-dæʒ (Friya’s day) – Friday; Sæternes-dæʒ (Saturn’s day) – Saturday; Sunnan-dæʒ (Sun’s day) – Sunday.
The names of the days of the week remind us that early Englishmen were pagans and worshiped the sun, and the moon and many gods.
Compound verbs are rare: efenþrōwian (literally suffer together) – sympathize.
2.8.2. Borrowings
Borrowed words constituted only a small part of the OE vocabulary (about 600 words) but they are of great interest to a student of English as they reflect the contacts of the English with other cultures. OE borrowings come from two sources: Latin and Celtic.
Latin borrowings
The role of the Latin influence on the OE vocabulary was determined because of such events as the Roman occupation of Britain (for almost 400 years), the influence of the Roman civilization and the conversion of the English to Christianity.
There are two layers of Latin borrowings in OE. The 1-st (oldest) layer contains words taken over either directly from the Romans before Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain or from Romanized inhabitants of Britain. The 2-nd layer consists of words taken over after the introduction of Christianity.
The 1-st layer indicated new things and concepts unknown to the ancient Britons before their contact with Romans, e.g., some articles of trade and agricultural products. Though Germanic settlers kept domestic animals and knew milk it was from Romans that they learned how to make butter and cheese. From them they learned about other fruit, vegetables and spices.Germanic settlers knew only apples. Romans were the first to grow cherries in England.
So the first layer denoted:
Fruit, vegetables and spices: pere < L pirum (pear), plume < L prunus (plum), cieres < L cerasum (cherries), bete < L beta (beet), pēse < L pisum (peas), plante < L planta (plant), pipor < L piper (pepper), mint < L menta (mint)
Agricultural products: wīn < L vinum (wine), butere < L butyrum (butter), cīese < L cāseus (cheese).
Words connected with cooking: cycene < L coquina (kitchen), myln < L molina (mill), cuppe < L cuppa (cup), disc < L discus (dish).
Words of measurement: pund < L pondō (pound), ynce < L uncia (inch), mynet < L moneta (mint).
Words pertaining to military affairs: mīl < L millia passum («a thousand steps») – mile, weall < L vallum – wall, strǣt < L strāta via («a paved road»), the meaning of the word changed when houses began to be built along the roads, hence street.
The 2-nd layer consists of words directly or indirectly belonging to the sphere of religion and church: bīscop < L episcopus < Gk episcopos (bishop), prēost < L presbyter (priest), munuc < L monachus Gk < monachus (monk), candel < L candela (candle), scōl < L schola < Gk skhole (school), māʒister < L magister – (master).