Lecture

• External history: political/social/cultural history of the people who speak a language insofar that it is relevant for linguistic development (happening to the people who speak the language rather than the language itself)

  • French loanwords that entered Middle English after the Norman Conquest 1066

  • Development and disappearance of two second person pronouns between the 13th and the 17th century (thou/ you)

    • Normans brought French system of distinction to England, then it disappeared in the 17th century as the middle class started to rise

• Internal History: development over time irrespective of its external history (not influenced by external history)

  • Development of do-support in negated and interrogative senteces between 1500 and 1700

    • “he knows not” -> “he does not know”

    • “Knows she?” -> “Does she know?”

      -> Would’ve happened regardless of conquests etc.

  -> Not possible to draw clear line

• Late 4th century

  • History: Migration of Germanic tribes to Britain

  • Language: OE

• Late 6th century

  • History: Christianisation -> literacy -> OE documented in writing

  • Language: OE

• 1066

  • History: Norman Conquest

  • Language: Start of ME (historically)

• 1154

  • History: Last entry Anglosaxon Chronicles

  • Language: End of OE, start of ME

• 1476

  • History: Introduction of printing press in England (William Caton) -> technology leads to change of language (more readily available to everyone) -> end of ME

  • Language: End of ME

• 1485

  • History: Fist tudor king (Henry VII) -> political stability

  • Language: Early Modern English/ME

• 1492

  • History: Columbus invades America, language brought to/imposed on new places

  • Language: Early Modern English/ME

• 1525

  • History: Tyndales translation of new testament, reformation -> influence of Christian history on ME

  • Language:

• 1660

  • History: End of civil war, restoration

  • Language: Division of early and later modern English

• Development of English language

  • Prehistoric old English

  • OE: 400/700-1150

  • ME: 1150 - 1500

  • Early Modern English: 1500 - 1700

  • Modern English: 1700 - ?

A group of languages deriving from a single ancestor or parent

7139 known languages deriving from 142 families

• Language families by language count

  • Niger-Congo: 1535

  • Austronesian: 1225

  • Other: 2631

• Language families by speaker population 2021

  • Indo-European: 3.29 B

  • Sino-Tibetan: 1.4 B

  • Niger-Congo: 571 M

• Most languages spoken in Europe branches of IE-family

  • Germanic: German, English, Dutch, Danish

  • Italic: Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese

  • Slavic: Czech, Polish, Russian, Bulgarian

  • Celtic: Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic

• Non-IE languages spoken in Europe

  • Finnish

  • Hungarian

  • Turkish

• Italic

  • Latin

    • Italian

    • French

    • Spanish

    • Romanian

    • Romansch

    • Catalan

• Germanic

  • West Germanic

    • Low Saxon

      • Flemish

      • Dutch

      • Afrikaans

      • Low German

      • Frisan

    • High German

      • Yiddish

    • Old English

      • English

      • Scots

  • East Germanic

    • Gothic (dead)

  • North Germanic

    • Old Norse

      • West

        • Icelandic

        • Farose

        • Norwegian

      • East

        • Danish

        • Swedish

• Celtic

  • Goidelic

    • Irish Gaelic

    • Scotish Gaelic

  • Brythonic

    • Cornish

    • Breton

    • Welsh

• Hellenic

  • Ancient Greek (dead)

  • Modern Greek

• Tocharian (dead)

• Anatolian (dead)

• 700’000 years ago: first settlements in Britain

  • Homo erectus

  • Homo Heidelbergensis

  • Homo neandertahlensis

• Last glacial period: arrival of homo sapiens sapiens (modern man)

• 10’000 BC: Ice retreats -> settlement expands north and west

• 6’000 BC and after: land bridges flooded (glaciers melt, connection between Britain and rest of europe disappears)

• 3’000 BC: spread of agriculture

  • Stone hedge and circles

• 2’000 BC: Bronze age begins (bronze, copper, gold)

  • Trad + agriculture = population growth

• Little known about language and ethnicity of those people

• Medieval speculations: giants

• Modern Speculation:

  • Iberian people

  • Basque people

  • Semitic people

• Unlikely that those people became extinct -> presence should still be felt in British language

• Celts: diverse group of tribes

• Early Iron age: development of proto-celtic culture in Central Europe

• 800-300 BC: Celtic Expansion (Galicia, Gallia, Galatina)

  • Development of various celtic dialects

    • Continental dialect (now extinct)

    • Insular dialects (attested from about 400 AD in inscriptions)

• 55 BC: Punitive/reconnaissance expedition by Ceasar

  • By this time many celtic kingdoms, some with ties to Belgic people, which was used as an excuse by Cesar to invade

• 54 BC: Cesar wins war against Catuvellani and south-east of Britain

  • Annual tribute demanded

• 43 AD: Full scale invasion by Claudius

  • Romans landed in Kent and defeated Brits

  • Roman army divided to go on several campaigns

  • Forts built to control key points

• 51 AD: Wales conquered

• 80 AD: zenith of Roman power in Britain, rule extended to Caledonia

• 122 AD: emperopr Hadrian arrives in Britain, orders wall to be built north of the Stanegate -> dividing conquered places and places that are not yet “civilized”

  • Hadrian Wall

• Late 130s

  • Souther Scotland reoccupied

  • Construction of new wall under emperor Antonious -> Antonine Wall (142 AD)

• 163 AD: Antonine Wall abandoned in favour of Hadrians frontier

• Last decade of the 4th century: legions leave to fight civil wars of Empire

  • 408: remainder of Roman garrison crosses to Gaul

  • 410: Emperor Honorius writes to cities of Britain to look to their own defence

• Britain divided into four provinces

  • Britania prima

    • Capital: Cirencester

  • Britania secunda

    • Capital: York

  • Flavia Caesariensis

    • Capital: Lincoln

  • Maxima Caesariensis

    • Capital: London

• Life under Roman rule

  • Coloniae: communities of Roman citizens centered around fortresses

  • Civitaes: areas of self-government based on old late Iron age tribal areas with old towns and centers

• Latin toponymic elements: -caster, cester, -chester

  • From latin “castrum, -a” = a militay camp, fortified town

• Things specific to region + Latin component = new name

• Examples

  • Kornion (L) -> Ciernceaster -> Cirencester

  • Mamucion (L) -> Mameceaster -> Manchester

    
    

• Various dialects of Celts by natives

• Lation (+ other celtic and Germanic languages) by Roman colonizers

• Bilingualism amongst romanised Celts (= Language contact situation)

• Substrate language: native language

• Superstrate language: Language of colonizer/ colonial language

• Names of waterplaces tend to stay the same regardless of migration, colonization etc.

• City names etc. tend to change based on migration, colonization etc.

  -> Same thing happened with Britain/Celts

• Some examples:

  • Carr = rock

  • Combe = Valles

  • Crag = Steep, rugged rock

  • Avon < abona (river)

  • Axe = esca = Water

  • Thames = dark river (tamar, Tame, Thame)

• British Isles

  • Ireland

  • Scotland

  • Wales

  • Cornwall

  • Isle of Man

• Brittany

• Cape Breton Island (Canada)

• Patagonia (Argentina)

• Goidelic/ Gaelic = Q-celtic (*kw became *k)

  • Scots Gaelic

  • Irish Gaelic

  • Manx (dead)

  • Cape Breton Gaelic (Canada)

• Brythonic - British = P-Celtic (*kw became *p)

  • Welsh

  • Cornish

  • Breton

• Spoken natively only along western Cosat of Ireland (Gaeltacht, ca. 3% of population)

• National laguage (co-official with English) of Republic of Ireland

• in 2007, 357’000 (7.8% of total population) considered themselves fluent in Irish

• 60’000 native speakers (1.2% of population), mostly in Hebrides

• Not official language in UK

• Spoken on Isle of Man (well, not anymore)

• Last native speaker died in 1974

• Spoken in Cornwall

• Last known fluent speaker died in 1777

• Spoken in Wales

• Official language of Wales

• Surviving celtic language with most speakers

  • 611’000 speakers (21.7% of population of Wales, half of them considering themselves fluent)

    
    

• Spoken in Brittany (France) (From Southern England around 5th century)

• 206 active speakers (less than 5% of population, 61% of those 60+ years old)

• Spoken in Nova Soctia, Canada (Mainly Cape Breton Island)

• Community of about 2000 speakers

• Originally runic Alphabet/furhorc

• 597 AD Christianisation of Britain (Augustines mission)

• Roman alphabet lacked some letters for sounds of Oldenglish

  • no w -> aopted runic letter wynn (looks like a p)

  • no th sound

    • Adopted runic thorn (p with longer line on top)

    • later introduction of second letter for th sound -> eth (looks a bit like a d) (not originally from runic alphabet)

  • Two lower vowels (/a/ and /ae/) both represented in runes (/ae/ = ash)

  • Yogh = looks like a g

• OE spelling much more phonetic than ME spelling

  • Close to one letter = one sound ideal

• Every written letter is pronounced, no silent sound

  • i.e. kn = k n, not “n”

• Double consonants are pronunced longer

  • biddan -> bid-dan

• Vowel lentght distinctive in OE, since different length = different meaning

• Stress generally on first syllable

  • 1st syllable typically root of word

• In compounds, the first element is stressed, second element recives secondary stress

• Prefixes are generally stressed

• Exception

  • ge- and be- prefix NEVER stressed

  • For- prefix rarely stressed

  • In verbs, the rootverb is stressed, not the prefix

• 7 letters (a, æ, e, i, o, u, y), 14 sounds (long, short)

• /i/, /i:/, /y:/ /y/ /e/ /e:/ /ae/ /ae:/ /u:/ /u/ /o:/ /o/ /a:/ /a/

  • Y kind of like a long/short ü

• like [dʒ] as in jungle

• Spelling does not determine voiced/voiceless sound

• [n] as in sin

• [ŋ] (singer, finger)

  • Before velar sounds [g, k]

• voiceless/voiced distinction

• Voiceless [f]

  • At the beginning of a word

  • At the end of a word

  • When doubled

  • before silent c

    • example: finger, wife

• Voiced [v]

  • Between voiced sounds

    • Example: wives, love

• voiceless/voiced distinction

• Voiceless [s]

  • At the beginning of a word

  • At the end of a word

  • When doubled

  • before silent c

    • example: cost, sin, house

• Voiced [z]

  • Between voiced sounds

    • Example: rise, houses

• voiceless/voiced distinction

• Voiceless [Þ]

  • At the beginning of a word

  • At the end of a word

  • When doubled

  • before silent c

    • example: tooth, thigh, south

• Voiced [ð]

  • Between voiced sounds

    • Example: feather

• [g]

  • Next to backvowels (a, o, u)

  • Before other consonants

• [ɣ]

  • Between backvowels

  • Between [l, r] and backvowels

  • Final after backvowels

• [j]

  • Next to front vowels/diphtongs

    • yard, year

• [k] (like cat, car)

  • Next to backvowels [a, o, u]

  • Before other consonants

• [[tʃ] (like cheese, chicken)

  • Next to frontvowels [i, e, y]

• [h] (voiceless)

  • At the beginning of syllables

    • as in “hot”

• [x]

  • Afer backvowels [e, o, u]

    • As in “ach”

• [ç]

  • After frontvowels [i, e, y]

    • As in “ich”

• Placenames

• Archeological evidence of settlements and cemeteries

• Genetic sources

• Written sources

  • Gildas, De excidio et conquest Brianniae (c.540)

  • Bede

  • Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

• Romans had relocated between 380 and 408

• Some roman structures still around, but many cities abandoned, trade mevoed

• Some religious structures of the Romans (Christianity) remaind

• in 433, Britons asked Romans for help, but they were busy fighting Attila

• Britons asked Angles for help

• From the Jutes (Norwegians) came…

  • The Cantware (inhabitants of Kents)

  • Withware (Isle of Wright)

• From the Old Saxons came…

  • South- and West-Saxons

• From the Angles (Denmark) came…

  • East and Middle Angles

  • Mercians

  • Northumbrians

• New settlers of Britain

  • Saxons

  • Angles

  • Jutes

  • Danes

  • Frisians

  • Franks

  • others

• Late 4th century: early settlers

• 450: Peak Migration intensified after final departure of Romans and reached (Hengest & Horsa event)

• 470-490: More settlers to south and south-east

• 500: Britions reunited under Abrosius Aurelanius, fight and defeat Saxons at Mount Badon c. 500

  • Migration goes down for a while, back up in 550

• 550: new wave of migration

• Anglian Kingdom

  • Northumbria

  • Mercia

  • East Anglia

• Saxon Kingdom

  • Wessex

  • Essex

  • Sussex

• Jutish Kingdom

  • Kent

• Excavation place (remains of whole burial ship)

• documents settlement history of Anglosaxons

• Sometimes burials (and the change of burials) is a clear indicator that population has changed

• Leftovers allow reconstruction of how things looked/were build

• Excavation place discovered in 2009

• Gold and jewlery was probably hidden during Viking invasion

• Romans

  • 597: Mission of St. Augustine

    • Converted kings of

      • Kent

      • Essex

      • East Anglia

      • Northubria

        -> Essential to first convert aristocrats to have a chance at converting wider society

    • Foundation of Archbishopric of Canterbury and York

    • Country was almost pagan at this point

    • Wanted to make London the center of Christianity but failed, so it became Kent

    • Members of first mission (Augustine) directly involved in conversion of English (mainly kentish) people

      • Preaching at the courts of kings and aristocracy

      • Setting up dioceses

      • Founding monasteries, building churches

      • Estabilishing schools -> vernacular writing

  • 669: Consecration of Theodore as archbishop of Canterbury

    • Brought a lot of books and scholars with him -> Latin was spoken fluently for a few decades after his arrival in Kent

    • Wanted to strengthen school in Kent

• Irish

  • 563: Irishman Columba founded Scottish School of Iona

  • King Oswals of Northumbria converted while in exile among Scots

  • Late 6th-7th century: Mission of the Scottish church of Iona

  • Christianization of Northumbrians

  • 635: Foundation of Lindisfarne monastery by Aidan

  • Aidan and Irish followers and their pupils re-estabilished Christianity in

    • Essex

    • Introduced it ino Mercia

• Gallic

  • Mission from paris basin, Burgundy & northern Italy

• Locals

• Important Monasteries in Northumbria

  • Lindisfarne

  • Jarrow

• 663 Synod of Whitby

  • Romans and Irish had different ideas about Christianity

  • Romans won -> Irish church becomes part of Roman church

• 787: Three ships of raiders arrive at Portland (Wessex)

• 793: Sak of Lindisfarne (easy target because monastery)

• 830-840: attack on…

  • Wessex

  • Kent

  • Cornwall

• 850-860: Viking beginn to stay in Britain over winter

  • Bring women, peasants etc. -> settlement

• 860-870: Vikin raids on

  • East Anglia

  • Mercia

  • Northumbria

  • Wessex

• 878: battle of Edington (King Alfred vs. Guthrum) -> kind of succesful, Country divided into English law and Danelaw

• 879/80: settlement of East Anglia

• Danelaw vs. English Law: country divided

• After estabilishing Danelaw some peace for a while, English even manage to reconquest some spaces from Vikings

• 910-920: West-Saxon reconquest under Edard the Elder

• 919-950: Danish kingdom of York

• 980: renewal of Viking raids on England

• 991: Vikings attack

  • East Anglia

  • defeat English at Maldon

  • paid 10’000 pounds of tribute by Aethelred the unready

• 997-1002: annual raids continue

• 1016-35: King Cnut, manages to incorporate into one big country

  • England

  • Denmark

  • Norway

  • Southern Sweden

    -> does not last long, 1040 English kings reestabilished

• 1066: Norman conquest

• “-by” suffix = “farmstead, village” -> Begby, Bellerby

• “-thorp” suffix = “secondary settlement” -> Carthorpe, Towthorpe

• “-toft” suffix = “site of a house, homestead” (Lowestoft)

• Hybrids: Grimston (Scandinavian Grims + OE tun)

• Native word-stock & borrowings from other languages

  • OE-word stock mainly native

  • Most new words created from native resources (i.e. compounds and the like)

  • much less borrowing than in PDE

  • small amounts of borrowing from

    • Celtic

    • Latin

    • Old Norse

• a lot more prefixes (for same word/verb)

• More compounding

• Kennings = non-transparent, imaginative compounds

  • Flesh-hoard, bone-house = body

  • Swan-road, whale-road = sea

• number

  • OE

    • Singular sometimes markes

    • many regular plural morphemes

  • PDE

    • singular unmarked

    • One regular plural morpheme

• gender

  • OE

    • masculine, feminine, neuter (grammatical gender, everynoun)

    • 3rd sg pronouns agree in person, number and gender with their antecedente

  • PDE

• case

  • OE

    • nominative

    • accusative

    • dative

    • genitive

    • instrumental

• subject (agent, doer, possesor of attributes)

• subject complement

  • Pronoun (she ist the queen)

  • adjective following “to be” (i.e. tobe sleepy)

• Direct adress (“vocative)

  • “You murderer”

• Direct object (of Verb)

  • He touched the door

• PP-complement for some prepositions (not relevant anymore fpr PDE)

  • he rides through the town

• Time (without preposition)

  • The next day he left

• indirect object (of verb; recipien/beneficiary)

  • he gives the man the dog

• Direct object (of selected verbs)

  • the queen helps the king

• possessive (of body parts)

• PP-complement (some prepositions, e.g. to)

  • he rides to the prince

• time (w/o preposition)

  • at times

• Other relations (causes, experiences, ADJ-complement)

  • the king liked pears (Dem König gefallen…)

• Direct object (of selected verbs)

• PP-complement (few prepositions, e.g. andlang/along)

• time (w/o prepositions)

• Other relations

• instrumental, means of action

  • Open the Door with the key

• PP-complement (few preps, e.g.mid (along with)

• time (w/o prep)

• Inflection does not result in change of word class (noun still noun, even if it is feminine, accusative and plural)

• ususally produces a predictable, nonidiosyncratic (= not unique) change of meaning

• Derivation = creating new word (often by adding suffix/prefix, compounding etc.)

• strong vs. weak

  • most nouns strong

• athematic

• minor declension

• 60% of all OE nouns strong m/n

• 25% strong fem nouns

• m/n: a-stem nouns

• f: o-stem nouns

• Influenced PDE noun endings (-s plural) due to analogy, inconicity (adding something (instead of changing something in the middle of the word) to indicate the plural made sense) and salience (they were frequent)

• Masc

  • Nom/acc plural = -as ending

• Neut

  • Nom/acc pl.: -u/- ending

• Fem

  • Nom/acc pl. -a, -e

  • Nom sg: -u, -

  • acc sg: -e

In common for all strong noungs

• gen pl. -a (- sometimes -ena for feminine pl.)

• dat. sg. -e

• dat. pl. -um

• Short nouns

  • (C)VC

  • (C)VVC

• long nouns

  • CV:V, (C)VCC, CV:VC, CVVCC

• n-stem nouns

  • in sg. acc, dativ, gen (m/n/w)

  • in pl.

    • Nom/Acc: -an

    • Gen: ena

    • D: -um

• Also called root-consonant stem nouns/ i-mutation nouns

  • Nouns that (before OE) ended with -iz, which led to the vowel before to become more like i (assimiliated)

    • manniz -> men

      • -iz was dropped, vowel changed

• Those nouns have

  • no ending in nom/acc (sg & pl)

  • no ending in dat and inst. sg.

  • -es gen. sg. ending

  • -a gen. plk. ending

  • - um dat. ending

    
    

• -u nouns

• z-nouns

• r-nouns

  • relationship/kinship nouns

• th nouns

• Syncopation: two- or more syllabic words -> second vowel deleted when ending added

• changes in stem vowels: fricatives, h-loss, vowel alternation

  • sg wealh - pl wealas (h dropped -> maybe add -h after suffix?)

  • OE sg daeg = dagas (turn a into ae)

• -w, g- before ending

  • sg. here = pl. hergas

  • sg. beadu = pl. beadwa

• front vowels

  • i (:)

  • e (:)

  • ae (:)

  • y(:)

  • oe(:)

• back vowels

  • u(:)

  • o(:)

  • a(:)

• Diphtongs

  • eo / e:o

  • aea / ae:a

• Vowel system symmetrical: for every short vowel corresponding long vowel

• Rounded frontvowels (y, oe) unstable

  • Formed relatively late through i-mutation

  • Unrounded again soon from OE to ME (oe -> e, y -> i)

  
  

• Old English rhotic

• rhotic = r pronounced (like in irish dialect)

  
  

• Spontaneous/unconditioned sound changes ocurr regardles of the words environment

  • Development of Westgermanic /a/ /a:/

  • Development of Westgermanic Diphtongs

• comibartory/conditioned sound changes ocurr based on words environment

  • Breaking

  • Palatal diphtongisation

  • Restoration of /a/ /a:/ before backvowels

  • I-mutation

• Westgermanic /a(:)/ became OE /æ/ /æ(:)/

  • i. e. Hand -> Hænd

• BUT: WGmc /a/ /a:/ + nasal (m, n) = OE /o/

  • Kamen -> comen

• WG /ai/ became OE /a/

• WG /au/ became OE /æ:a/ (spelled ea)

• Linguistic change from prehistoric OE to OE

• æ / e / i + H, H + consonant, L + C, r + C =

  • æ = /æa/ (spelled ea)

  • e = eo

  • i = io

• Regional variation, not in all dialects of OE

• When /æ/ comes after backvowel (a, o, u) it turns into a

  • dæg -> dagas

• Consonants: sc, c, g (/j/) +

• /æ/, /e/ =

• /ea/, /ie/

• If a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable containing /i/ or /j/, the stressed vowel is raised/fronted (a -> æ, y -> i, u -> y etc.)

• In prehistoric OE, after the mutation had taken place, the unstressed suffix (-iz) which caused change in first place was dropped or changed to [e] or schwa -> cause not visible anymore

• Visible in…

  • root of nouns: goose -> geese

  • 2nd and 3rd person sg. of certain verbs (ich helfe, du hilfst, er hilft)

  • Comparative of certain adjectives

• Personal (I, You, She, He)

• Possessive (my, his, yours)

• Demonstrative (that, those)

• Interrogative (what, how, which)

• Indefinite (some, any)

• Relative (which, that, who)

• 1st and and 2nd person possesive pronouns (but not 3rd person possessive pronouns) agree with the noun they refer to and are declined like adjectives

  • You see your queen

    • Queen f. sg. acc -> your has to be declined like that (. acc., depending on noun class strong/weak)

• phrasal unit consisting of

  • a noun

  • optional modifier

    • determiner

    • quantifier

    • adjective phrase

• Both OE and PDE noun phrases have definite and indefinite NP

• Unlike PDE, OE noun modifierts (quantifiers, adjectives, determiners) agree with noun in

  • number

  • gender

  • case

• i.e. Gmc dag-a-z

  • root = dag

    • indicates semantic meaning

  • thematic element: -a-

    • signals declension class

  • inflection: -z-

    • forms relations with other words

• Root + thematic element = stem

  • gives name to Gmc declensions

• vowel stems

  • -a- (masc.,neut.) -> stan, stanas

  • -o-(fem.) -> giefu

  • Less frequent: -i- (m, f, n), -u- (m, f)

• consonant stems

  • weak -n- declension (m, f, n): guma - guman

  • minor declenisons (minor because less frequent)

    • Athematic (root) nouns (m, f)

    • r-nouns for relationships (m, f): faeder, modor

    • -nd- (m): freond

    • dental stems (m, f, n): monaph

• Masculine, feminine, neuter

• Grammatical but mostly arbitrary

• tendency to use he and heo anaphorically to refer to nouns with male and female referent

• OE gender in 95% of cases same as German gender

• casus rectus: nominative

• casus obliqui: all other cases, i.e. dative, accusative, genitive and instrumental

  • instrumental not explicitly expressed in OE nouns

  • rather in adjectives and demosntratives

• When two things have a different function, but the same form, i.e. when nom. pl. inflection is the same as acc. sg. inflection

• Pronouns agree with nouns in terms of

  • gendernumber

  • number

  • case

  • person (first, second, third)

    • Additional to singular and plural: dual

      • us two, you two, those two etc.

• First demonstrative: (se, seo): indicates definiteness

• Second demonstrative (pes, peos): indicates proximity

• Instrumental demonstratives: associated with demonstratives associated with instruments, i.e. digging with a shoveö

• In PDE definite/indefinite articles (I saw a woman/ I met the king) obligatory with most singular common nouns -> not in OE

• Demonstrative (se, pes) pronouns used like definite articles

• Noun without determiner signals that it is not definite

• Other way to signal definiteness in OE: adjectives (strong declensino: indefinite)

• Determiners: the (definite), a (indefinite)

• Pronominal and adjective function (i.e. used as pronouns or adjectives)

• also used in construction of subordination types

  • relative (i.e. “se be” = “that which”

  • Adverbial (for paem phe = “because”)

• modifying se covers domains of PDE…

  • …demonstrative that

  • …definite article the

• BUT

  • can be used with proper name (se Thomas)

  • Often absent where PDE would require an article or demonstrative

  • Can be used with possessive

• OE adjectives modified basd on NP, therefore agree with nouns in terms of

  • number

  • case

  • gender

• Adjectives can further have strong/weak declension, which indicates the nouns (in)definiteness

  • For nouns, strong (vocalic)/weak (consonantal, n-inflection) difference is about classification -> a noun can NOT be both strong and weak

  • For adjectives, strong/weak indicates definiteness

    • weak adjectives: definiteness (Der gute König)

      • often -an declension

      • no instrumental case

      • also used in possessives

    • strong adjectives: indefiniteness (Ein guter König)

      • also used with numerals and quantifiers

• NP are definite when they are introduced by a demonstrative (the, that etc.) or possessive (my, your etc.)

  -> if noun phrase with the/that/my/your etc. -> weak adjective

• Some adjectives cannot be declined, they just are the way they are

• Comparative (i.e. “more beautiful”)

  • always weak declension

  • -ora, -ira

• Superlative (i.e. “the most beautiful”)

  • strong and weak declension

  • -ost, -est

• Periphrastic (i.e. “more” easy, “most” easy, where more/most are written/said) very rare in OE

  
  

• Numerals like adjectives

• Aan (one) usually declined like strong adjectives

• twega/twa (“two”) and prie/preo (“three”) own declension system

• 4+ not declined

• Strong verbs

  • Derived from indo-European

  • Tense formed with

    • Ablaut

    • Vowel gradation

  • Today mostly irregular verbs

• Weak verbs

  • Germanic creation

  • Past tense + participle II created with dental suffix /d/ or /t/

  • Today mostly regular verbs

• Irregular verbs

  • Individual conjugation patters

  • mix of features of strong and weak verbs

  • Today: irregular verbs and modal verbs

• Ablaut = internal vowel alternation marking grammatical distinction

• Part of strong verbs declension

• Can be

  • Qualitative: change of vowel/phoneme

  • Quantitative: change in vowel length

  • Both qualitative and quantitative

• Germanic creation

• Derived from

  • nouns

  • strong verbs

  • Adjectives

• Weak verbs normally causative

• IE: bitan, bat -> bat -jan- (iE) -> baetan (= cause to bite)

• Often i-mutation because of -j-

• Class I:

  • -j- suffix -> i-mutation

  • often gemination (doubling of consonants)

    • BUT: r prevents gemination

  • also some class I verbs with unmutated past tense -> presumably -j- never part of stem

• Class II:

  • -oj- suffix

  • no i-mutation

• Class III:

• Anomalous

  • Suppletive verbs

    • Several different (lexical) stems used to for preterite and/or present form

    • Beon - eom/eart/is/sindon

    • gan - eode - gegan

      • PDE: go - went - gone

  • other idiosyncrasies (NOT suppletive)

    • don - dyde - gedon (“do”) (odd preterite)

    • wilan - wolde (odd present indicative and preterite)

• Preterite present verbs

  • A few verbs which combine strong and weak declension

    • ablaut in present (-> from strong declension)

    • dental sffix in past (-> from weak declension)

  • Originally strong verbs whose preterite in Germanic came to acquire present tense meaning -> new preterite formed with dental suffix

    • i.e. “knew” = if one kne something in the past, they probably still know it now

  • Semantically divided into

    • modal verbs (auxillary verbs which express necessity or possibility, such as “should”, “could”, “must”)

    • Verbs of mental perception (know, think etc.)

    • Verbs of possession: agan - ah/agon (pres.) — ahte (pret) (= to have)

• Time-relationships other than past and present were expressed

  • implicit in context

  • with help of contextual features such as adverbs

• Compound tense in OE

  • Rise of compound tense in OE

    • Use in future

      • Sculon (should) + infinitive

    • Use in past tense

      • Heafde + ge-(verb)

    • Use in perfect

      • Beon for intransitive verbs (need no object to make sense)

      • Habban for transitive verbs (needs object to make sense)

  • Could be used, but wasn’t yet officially part of OE grammar and thus not necessary

• Grimms law: Proto-Indoeuropean voiceless stops (p, d, k) became Germanic voiceless fricatives (f, th, s)

• Verners law/exception:

  • PIE voiceless stops (p, d, k) became Germanic voiced stops (b, t, g, y)

  • Rule applied if PIE accent/stress on immediately preceding syllable

• Therefore the following changes apply:

  • f <-> b/v

  • Th <-> d/th

  • s <-> z > r

  • h <-> g/Y

  • hw <-> gw

• Futhorc = Anglo-Saxon runes/alphabet -> carved into hard material like stones, so quite angular

• Introduction of paper/softer materials by Romans/Christianity -> softer and imported alphabet, some letters taken over (like the thorn)

• Also changes in punctuation and conventions (such as how a poem is written)

• scip -> ship

  • sc -> sh

• OE ecg -> edge

  • cd -> dg

  • Change from OE to ME

• Disappearance of thorn (replacement with th)

  • gradual change from OE to ME

• Lexical loss: words are not used anymore

  • OE “witan” -> Still survived in German “wissen”

  • OE “Here” (Army -> German “Heer”)

  • OE "Galdor” = song

  • OE “Ymbe” = around

• Lexical additions: new words added to vocabulary

  • Street, sock, window, church etc.

  • Additions from

    • Latin

    • Norse

    • French

    • Greek

    • Dutch

    • Arabic

    • etc.

• Broadening/generalization: from specific meaning to more general meaning

  • Mill = specifically corn mill -> more generally place where things are made

  • dog = breed of doge -> any dog

• Narrowing/specialization: from general to more specific meaning

  • Hound = any dog -> specific breed of dog

  • Deer = any animal -> deer

  • Meat = any food -> meat

• Semantic shift: Change of meaning, though not specifically to better/worse or more specific/general meaning

  • write = scratch -> write

• Pejoration: Development of a words towards a more negative meaning

  • Silly = blessed -> foolish

  • Knave = boy -> villain

• Amelioration: development of a word towards a more positive meaning

  • knight = servant -> nobleman

  • marchal = somebody in charge of horses -> somebody in charge of cavalry

-> Often a mix of semantic changes instead of a word changing specifically and only in terms of narrowing/broadening, amelioration/pejoration

• Phoneme addition:

  • Zodica: ME [sodiak] -> PDE [zeudiak]

• Phoneme loss:

  • Loss of ç, loss of kn

  • Knight: ME [kniçt] -< PDE [nait]

• obscure: spontaneous drift/trend of a language

• Mechanical

  • Speech defects, false teeth, adenoids -> dialectical variations and change

  • Articulatory settings of a language (position of tongue, lips, jaw) may cause preference for fronting, raising, retraction etc.

  • Variation in speech production: for instance we don’t talk the same way to children as adults, something like this might spreach and change the language as a whole

  • Suprasegmental features (stress and intensity, pitch, intonation, tempo, qunantity of rhythmic patterns)

    • increased stress -> lenghtening of syllable (often s lengthened due to stress)

    • less stress -> lowering and centralization

      • I > ə

      • [ʊ] > [ə, ʌ]

    • Forceful style vs. relaxed style

  • Language contanct: influence of substrata, neighboring languages

  • Social: change in fashion, socially accepatble/rejected features

• Metathesis: reversal of letters withing words

  • OE/ME brid -> PDE bird

• Consonant Cluster reduction

  • OE hlaford -> PDE lord

• Assimilation

  • Palatalization: consonants become softer (skip -> ship)

  • I-mutation

• Apocope: reduction of unstressed syllable -> final stress lost

  • Child -> tschail

• Syncope: loss of stressed segment in medial position

  • family -> fam’ly

• Loss of weak declension in adjectives from OE to ME -> new marker for definiteness necessary -> rise of demonstratives

• Phonological changes lead to morphological changes after certain time, and those lead to further changes in language

• Loss of inflections from OE led to the necessity of demonstrating relations between words in another way -> from flexible to fixed word order in sentences

• individual patterns, e.g. negation

• Loss of second person singular

• OE: ge (2nd sg.) and phu (2nd pl.)

• ME: Singular for politeness (thou), plural for all others (inc. 2nd sg -> you)

• PDE: you for everyone, 2nd sg & pl

• extra-linguistic reasons

  • Changes in the world

  • cultural contact

  • migration

  • Social reasons

    • social identity

    • social status

  • Language acquisition and interaction

    • acquisition: change in generation

    • interaction: accomondation to other peoples speech

  • Structural

    • System-internal pressure

• intralinguistic reasons

  • Function

    • Avoidance of ambiguity

    • desire for expressiveness

    • iconicity

    • economy of effort

    • rule-extension (misunderstanding rule and overusing it until it becomes “new rule”)

    • analogy

    • reanalysis

    • grammaticalization

    • transparency principle

    • naturalness

• Extension of morphological entites

• i.e. Plural -s, -en, -ru

  • ME shoon -> shoes

  • Mice/mouse -> mouses for computer mouse

• Past tense marking

  • strive - strove - striven -> originally word taken from french, but decllined like this because it is similiar to “drive”

• When things are ambiguous they are reanalyzed and (sometimes) changed

• Example: modals

  • Modals had several meanings

  • Over time reanalyzed so they only have one meaning -> became grammatical verbs instead of lexical ones

    • example kan (know)

• Example: progressive

  • Two verbs which often appear next to eachother are at some point interpreted as belonging together and creating meaning together

    • “When he was in the temple, teaching his disciples”

      • originally: “When he was in the temple, teaching his disciples”

      • New: He was teaching his disciples in the temple (was teaching together)

• Christian view -> Jerusalem at the center

• Asia on top

• Until end of the 18th century: biblical view

  • “Whole world had one language (Hebrew) until the destruction of the tower of babel (miracle of the Pentecost) -> all languages derived from hebrew

• Positivism

  • empirical data

  • formal logic

  • comparative method

• Sir William Jones

  • believed that

    • Greek, Sanskrit and Latin

    • Gothic and Celtic and Persian

  • all derived from same family

• Jones gave rise to “comparative linguistics”

• Relations between languages

  • Genetic linguistics = genetic relations between languages -> roots and branches of languages

    • i.e. relationship between Latin and French

  • Contact linguistics

    • language change through language contact instead of due to common ancestry

    • i.e. using word “computer” in German/”Anglizismen”

  • Typological linguistics

    • structural similiarities without common genetics or historical connectedness -> similiarities because of fundamental features that are inherently part of every language

• 50’000 - 100’000 years ago: development of language likely, 100’000 often proposed (but no written records thereof)

• 10’000 years ago/8000 BC: languages which were spoken at this time can be reconstructed by comparing different early languages, but no written record

• 8000-9500 years ago/ 7500 - 6000 BC: Minority view of origin of IE: -> spoken at this time in Anatolia (Turkey), language arose with the spread of farming

• 6000 years ago/4000 BC: Majority view of origin of IE: IE spoken at that time in modern day Ukraine

• 3700 +/- 1000 years BC: latest date at which IE is expected to have been spoken

• 5000 years ago/ 3000 BC: earliest written records (of any language), but most written records more recent

• 1600 BC: Anatolian/Hittie language

  • source: culeyform clay tablets

• 1500 BC: Sanskrit/Indo-Aryan

  • source: Vedas go back to at least 1500 BC

• 1400 BC: Greek -> inscriptions in syllabic scropt

• 8h century BC: Greek -> literary texts in Greek alphabet

• 6th-7th century BC: Old Iranian: Avestan

  • 6th century Old Persian

• 6th century BC: Latin inscriptions

• 3rd centuy BC: literary Latin texts

• 400 AD: earliest written records of Germanic

  • Gothic biblical translation by Wulfila, written in Greek based alphabet

  • Runic inscriptions in Proto-Norse

• 700 AD onwards: documentation of English

• Regional continuity/Multiregional model:

  • Homo sapiens interbred with earlier populations (homo neanderthalensis and homo erectus)

• Out of Africa II/African eve: recent african origin, later expansion of Homo sapiens replacing earlier populations

  -> merging with older humans or erasing them essentially

• 160-120’000 years ago: Africa

• 120’000-90’000 years ago: Israel, Arabia

• 60-45’000 years ago:

  • Turkey

  • Mediterranean Europe

  • India

  • China

  • Australia

• 45-20’000 years ago

  • Northern Europe

  • Siberia

  • Far east

• 15’000 years ago: Americas

  
  

• A few assumptions

  • Physical features necessary to handle language -> large brain, articulation organs

    • brain size of Neanderthal 1’200-1’750 cubuc cm

    • brain size of humans 1’000-2000 cubic centimeters

  • Behavioral prerequisites of language -> assumption: people must’ve been able to speak to pass on those inventions, must’ve lived in a community etc.

    • fire use

    • complex tool kit

    • artefacts

    • burials

• 1859, Charles Darwin: the Origin of Species -> not only species evolve, also language

• Method to discover relationships between languages and reconstruct dead languages

• Steps

  1. Hypothetize that certain languages may be related

  2. Eliminate languages which are clearly not related

  3. apply systematic methodology (= comparative reconstruction) to

     1. establish genetic relationship of (recorded) related languages

     2. reconstruct (unrecorded) “parent languages”

• Rules:

  • When sound is similiar in many cognates but different in only a few, it is likely that the many cognates retain the original sound (so the original word/phonology sounded more like them than like the exception)

  • Souns in cognates must be derivable from reconstructed souns in as few steps as possible

  • The reconstructed changes must be phonetically plausible

  • Loss or merger more likely than addition or split

• Additionally:

  • often done first on basic parts of language, such as numerals

    
    

• Use of linguistic data (=lexical items) to draw conclusions about

  • the environment and

  • culture of people who spoke

    • an unrecoreder but reconstructed language

• Idea: if we can reconstruct a word for something, they must’ve known that thing

• Often evidence based on

  • flora

  • fauna

  • climate

    • Sometimes not clear, for instance a word for a tree could have multiple meanings (different types of trees)

• Many different theories

• Main theories

  • Marija Gimbutas (1956): Kurgan Hypothesis

    • Based on excavations of horses and chariot -> military equipment and it’s spread

    • Connection between artefacts found in specific space and its spread to other negihbouring places

    • iE origin according to this theori in Caucasus

  • Colin Renfrew (1987): Anatolian Hypothesis

    • Home of iE in Anatolia (Turkey), spread from there based on agriculture -> Farming diffusion

    • Assumes that iE people were farmers who spread to places of hunters and gatherers and brought agriculture there

• Which theory is right?

  • Based on genetic data etc. it could be confired that both theories are right

  • Originally iE homo lived between Caucasus and turkey

  • 8000 years ago: migration from Anatolia

  • 7000 years ago: first major stop in Caucasus

  • From Caucasus bigger spread to other places

• Languages which derivate from Proto-Indoeuropean split itno

  • Languages where PIE palatals (/k/) continued as velars: k -> c

    • Greek

    • Latin

    • Anatolian

    • Germanic

    • Italic

    • Tocharian

  • Languages where PIE palatals (/k/) continued as sibliants: k -> s/sh

    • Indo-Iranian

    • Balto-Slavic

    • Armenian

    • Albanian

  -> Grouping based on similiar development

• One of the earliest Germanic texts (4th - 6th century)

• Translation of bible gospels into Gothic

• Writing resembles greek writing -> Wulfua probably knew/spoke Greek

• Early Germanic text (early 5th century)

• Replica of twin golden horns (original stolen and melted down) found at Gallehus in Sout Jutland

• Runic inscription around the rim -> because of runes/inscription on hard material rather short inscription

• Short text with alliteration -> attempt at poetry (works according to Germanic laws of poetry)

• First and second merger

  • iE /a/ and /o/ -> Gmc /a/

    • Latin octo -> Gothic ahatau (German Acht)

  • iE /a:/ and /o:/ -> Gmc /o:/

    • Greek phrater -> OE bro:phor

• Grimms Law (1st consonant shift) & Verners law

• Accent shift: from dynamic word stress to stress in fixed position -> rootinitial syllable stressed

• Rise of new categories: development of weak inflection-system for adjectives

• Development of new class for weak verbs with dental past tense

1. Class: affected by i-mutation

2. Class: not affected by i-mutation

3. Class: Pretty much all kinds of alternations

   • belonging to this class: habban (have), libban (live), secgan (say), hycgan (think)

   • Affected by

     • Gemmination

     • i-mutation

     • Verners law

     • Syncopations (different forms for same declension, i.e. haefede/haefde)

• Pariciple 1 (present)

  • Persent + -end suffix (i.e. fremman -> fremmende)

  • i.e. “spielend”

• Participle 2

  • Strong verbs: Ge- + grad 4 of ablaut + -n (ridan -> geriden)

  • weak verbs: ge - + stem + -d/-t-/-th: gremman -> gefremed

    • i.e. “gespielt”

• Infinite

  • uninflected: +-an suffix (fremman)

  • inflected: to + -enn: to fremmenne

Verbs which incorporate the “not” into the lexe, so witan (to know) becomes nytan (not know), habben (to have) becomes nabban (not have) etc.

• Verb belongs to

  • Strong class V or VI

  • OR

  • Weak class I

• Beom stem: invariable fact or future

• Eom stem: expresses present

• Imperative: commands, often at beginning of a sentence followed by a pronouns

  • i.e. “Go!”

• Indicative: True propositions

• Subjunctive:

  • Doubtful propositions (i.e. “if you loved me, you would let me…")

  • Obligations, desires: “I wish I were here” “You better stop”

  • Reported speech: “He told me he was going to”

  • Hortative subjunctive: something like a wish and a command, like “god save the queen”

Agreement in gender, case, number and/or person between different words that share a reference

• Split subject: i.e. “A and his sons comes tomorrow”

  • Would have to be plural, but is singular because subject was split

• Subject-less classes: Subject not explicitly stated, implied by declension of verb (kind of like italian, “Vado via” without an explicit “io”

  • Sometimes has to be deciphered based on context

• Impersonal subject

  • non-canonical subject: Subject in dative/accusative (i.e. “Dem König gefallen die Birnen”)

    • often about hunger, thirst and liking

  • placed holders, dummy subjects

    • “It is fitting that he will be well taught…”

      
      

• Noun inflection simplified from eight cases down to four (plus some residuals)

  • Germanic: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive, (instrumental)

  • Additionally in IE: Vocative, Ablative, Locative

• Verb inflection simplified

  • Loss of most tenses and aspect distinctions

  • With italic: generalized IE perfecte tense for past tense

  • Development of new composite forms

    
    

• Germanic (and Balto-Slavic) develop new weak inflection system for adjectives

• Germanic develops new class of weak verbs with dental pas-tense suffix

• Lexical change: Germanic innovations which do not have IE cognates

  • Bone, broad, cliff, drink, drive, even, fowl, ground, hand

• With Balto-Slavic: display of -m- (OE -um) suffix in dative/instrumental plural

  
  

• Centum-satem split within IE families

  • Gmc in centum group

• Two vowel mergers

• Accent shift to root-initial syllables

• Consonant shift

  • First consonant shift (500 BC, from IE to Protogermanic)

    • Grimms Law & Verners Law

    • Distinguishes Germanic from other IE languages

  • Second consonant shift (500700 AD)

    • From Westgermanic to High German -> Distinguishes high German from other West Germanic languages

• Rasmus Kristian Rask (1787-1832): noted crucial correspondence between “Thracian” (Proto Indoeuropean) and Gothic (Proto Germanic)

• Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785-1863)

  • Wrote “Deutsche Grammatic, Band I” (1819-22)

  • Provided wider demosntration of the law, established two major features

    • Feature-shift identical regardless of articulatory position of consonants

    • Shifts are interrelated

    • Shifts are system-preserving

  • Grimms term: Lautverschiebung

• From voicelss stops to voiceless fricatives

  • IE: *p t k kw -> Gmc: f th h hw

    • Latin pater -> english father

    • Centum -> hundred

    • Greek kardia -> English heart

    • Quod -> what

• From voiced stops to voiceless stops

  • IE b d g gw -> Gmc: p t k kw

    • Latin labium -> Swedish läpp

    • Latin genu -> German knie

• From voiced aspirated stops to voiceless stops

  • IE: bh dh gh gwh -> b d g gw

    • Sanscrit bhrata -> English brother

• Consonannt clusters

  • Consonant clusters with s: If there was an s before the consonant that would be changed, the change did not take place

    • Latin spuere -> IE spiwan

    • Latin stare -> OE standan

  • Consonant clusters with t (pt, kt)

    • only prevented consonant shift if consonant close to t

• Verners law

• If IE stress was on the preceding syllable, the IE voiceless stops (p t k kw) did not turn into fricatives but rather into voiced stops:

  • p -> b (instead of f)

  • k -> g (instead of h)

  • t -> d (instead of th)

  • s -> z (or r) -> only consonant affected by Verners law which wasnt affected by first consonant shift

    
    

• Can be seen in Germanic “fader” (from pater, should be father)

• Most visible in declension of strong verbs

  • weorthan - wearth - wurdon - geworden

    • originally a t

  • Teon - teah - tugon - getogen

    • originally a k which turned into g or h

  • ceosan - ceas - curon - gecoren

• 500-700 AD, from Westgermanic to High Germanic

  
  

• North less affected than south

• Benrath line

  • Line from Cologne to Leipzig

    • places above less affected by 2nd consonant shift

• Speyer line

  • Above: Frankfurt, Cologne, Luxembourg (between Benrath and Speyer line) -> medially affected

  • Below: Strasbourg (strongly affected)

• Low German least affected, Upper German most affected

  • Very visible in Swiss German (i.e Kind -> Chind)

• Freer order than in present day English (today subject - verb - object order) because inflection signifies relation

• Slight tendency to put Verb in 2nd place in clause in OE, regardless of what the first element is

• Often heavy stuff towards the end, light stuff at the beginning

  • Pronouns often short and easy -> often early in the sentence

  • Verb typically a bit heavier -> when short subject, verb might be moved towards the end

  • Also with indirect - direct object

• Adverbs even more flexible than in PDE (can be pretty much anywhere)

• Words who share same etymological origin but developed differently in different cognates/branches of the language and were eventually “readopted” by one language, where they were given a slightly different semantic meaning

• I.e. PIE “brether” (brother) became

  • Sanskrit: “bhratr” -> Romani “phral” -> readopted by English as “pal” (= friend)

  • Latin “frater” -> Old French “frere” -> readoptet by English as friar (brother of a religious order)

  • Proto Germanic: “brother” -> OE “brothor” -> English “brother”

• Derivational morphology: creation of new word with new semantic/meaning, done with…

  • Suffixation: adding suffix to noun, verbs, etc.

  • Prefixation: adding prefix to certain words

  • Compounding: reuniting two stems to create new word

    -> normally results in more specific meaning

• Inflectional morphology: changing inflection of a word, no new meaning, serves to signal grammatical/syntactic function

• Specific subgroup of compounds -> poetical compounding

• “Kennings” from “kennen” because one needs to know the meaning of kennings to understand them, hard to decipher just based on word stems

• Kennings often about battles/war or the sea

  • Ban-cofa = Bone chamber = body

  • Herou-wulf = fierce wolf = warrior

• Cultural loanwords: adopting the word of another language as well as the meaning of the concept/object the word describes, because the word/concept does not (yet) exist in recipient language

  • Examples: computer (adoption into German language), pizza, pasta (adoption into English language)

  • Special fields of knowledge can be associated with specific donor language

• Core loanwords: duplication of elements that are present in recipient language (there is already a word for that thing, but the word from that thing from another language is adopted into recipient language and adopted word is used slightly differently)

  • Are associated with prestige, often words first adopted by and/or from socially more powerful community (Scandinanvian loand in Danelaw, French loans after Norman conquest)

  • Replace native expressioin with same semantic meaning (i.e. “wer” (OE) lost and replaced by “husband” (Scandinavian)) or

  • introduce semantic/pragmatic differentiation (i.e. F. “mutton” more prestigious lamp/sheep)

• Very few loanwords given the extensive contact with the Celts

  • Number of Celtic loanwords in English in general: 597

• Three periods of loaning

  • Continental loanwords which also ocurred in other Germanic languages

    • Ambeht = servant, service

    • Rice = rule, reign

  • Loanwords from the settlement periods

    • Bannuc = flat, round bread

    • Bratt = cloak

    • Penn = hill, top

  • Loanwords from Christianization period

    • ancor = hermit

    • Cross

    • Dry = magician, sorcerer

• Categorization 1

  • Continental loanwords: before migration to Britain (pre 450)

  • Insular loanwords (after migration to Britain, post 450)

    • 450-600: settlement period

    • 600-950: Pre-Benedictine refomre period (pre Christianization)

    • 950-1066: Post-Benedictine reform period (post Christianization)

• Categorization 2

  • Early/pre Chrisian loanwords: Continental loanwords & settlement period (pre 450 until 600)

  • Late loanwords: pre- and Post-Benedictine Period (600-1150)

• Loanwords from pre 450 AD

• Borrowed from vulgar (= spoken) Lating

• C. 170 everyday words

• Have congates in other Germanic languages

• Prominent categories

  • Plants/animals

    • piper, elephend

  • Food/household items

    • candela

    • win < vinum

  • Buildings/constructions

    • weall < vallum

  • Dress

    • belt < balteus

    • cemes < camisia

  • Military/legal

    • Camp, campian, cempa < campus

  • Commercial

    • manger, mangia < mango

• 450-600, pre-Christianization

• Borrowed in Britain via Celtic language or British Latin (celticised Latin)

• c. 100 Items (not all of them can surely be attribtued to this time/Latin loanwords)

  • ceaster < castra

  • Munt < mons

  • port < portus, porta

• 600-1150, post Christianisation

• Anglo-Saxons speaking, writing, singing and translating in Lating, variation acquired in classroom/schools (which were estabilished by the church) -> predominantly loanwords connected to education or religion

  • canon < canon

  • fers < versus

  • studdian < studere

  • alter < altar

  • predican < predicare

  • sacred < sacredos

• Meaning borrowed rather than form

  • Option 1, analogy: Source language and native language share one meaning for same word, an additional meaning from donor language is added

    • Lingua lat. “tongue, language” -> “tongue” comes to mean language aswell in OE/English (before only meant body part)

  • Option 2: new meaning transfered without a shared meaning

    • Res publica > cynedom now means Res Publica, even though very different concept

• Loan-translations/calques: each element of the mode replicated in recipient language, word for word translation

  • miseri-cors -> mild-heort

  • nocti-coarx = noeht-hrefn

• Loan-rendition

  • At least one morphological element is semantically equivalent to the model

    • discipulus = leorningcniht

      • still contains learning aspect, but has added cnith

• Loan-creation

  • No elements correspond directly to the model (only idea loaned)

    • Diluvium = cwide-flod (death flood)

• Scandinavian laonwords way more visible in Middle English than in Old English

• Where Danelaw ruled more scandinavic loanwords

• Written record of Danelaw almost non-existent

• Examples of scandinavian loanwords in OE

  • Grith (=protection) < Old Norse Grith (“home, peace”)

  • Lagu “the body of rules” < ON “lagu”, something fixed

  • Utlage (= a person declared to be outside the law) < OI utlagi

    -> many loanwords about Vikings or the law

• Scandinavian borrowing over time replaced many etymologically identical native words (words with same origin which developped differently)

  • Oe aeg, ME ey, ON egg -> PDE “egg”

  • OE gietan, ME yet, ON geta -> PDE get

  • OE wax, ME wok, ON veikr -> PDE weak

• Scandinavian borrowing over time replaced synonymous native words

  • OE niman, ME nimen, ON taka -> take

  • OE seax, ME sax, ON knift -> knife

• Scandinavian borrowing led to semantic change (usually narrowing/specialization) of native words

  • OE heofon = ON sky -> sky now general, heaven specific religious meaning

  • OE sterorfan = ON deyia = die now general, starve specific

• Some scandinavian borrowing survived only in Northern Dialects

• Rhythmical patterns based on line of four stresses

• Strong medial dividions (caesure) into two-stress phases (half lines: a and b)

• Structural alliteration linking the two halves

• A type: / x / x (stressed — unstressed — stressed — unstressed) (= trochaic)

  • Gomban gyldan

• B type: x / x / (unstressed — stressed — unstressed — stressed) (= iambic)

  • on flodes aecht

• C-Type: x // x (unstressed — stressed — stressed — unstressed)

  • On geardagum

• D-Type (also secondary stress included)

• Primary stress

  • Always: nouns, adjectives

  • Usually: infinitives, participles

  • sometimes: finite verbs

  • in emphatic position: adverbs

• Secondary stress

  • Often: compounds

  • Sometimes: finite verbs

• Unstressed

  • Conjunctions

  • Demonstatives

  • Prepostions

  • Prefixes, suffixes

• Not necessarily same letter, but same sound

• Alliteration always on stressed syllable

• Alliteration links first and second half of verse

• Can be done as

  • Both stresesd syllables in first half alliterate with first stressed syllable in second half line

    • o   Gomban gyldan; thäae waes god cyning

  • Either of the stressed syllables in first half-line alliterate with first stressed syllable in second half

    • On flodes aeht feor gewitan

• Poetic words: beorn, guma, rinc, secg -> all meaning warrior man

• Use of archaic full froms (genimeth for genimth)

• Lots of compounds & kennings