What are special linguistic features in Old English?
vocabulary
mostly West Germanic words
borrowings from Scandinavian & Latin (& Celtic)
synthetic language
numeral inflections (nominal, verbs, infinitive)
rather free word order
strong vs. weak verbs
pronunciation
similar to spelling
What are special linguistic features in Middle English?
large amount of borrowing from Anglo-Norman and French
levelled inflections
loss of most inflections
more fixed word order
more analytic language
shortenings and lengthenings of vowels in certain positions
loss of sounds
What are special linguistic features in Early Modern English?
massive expansion of English vocabulary (from Latin and Greek)
other donor languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch…)
Syntax & Morphology
very similar to Present Day English
Pronunciation
Great Vowel Shift (long vowels)
Last changeda year ago