What happened on the British continent before the Norman Conquest?
8th century BC: Cletic tribes inhabit England
Middle 1st century (43 AD): Roman tribes inhabit England
443 AD: Anglo-Saxon tribes gradually replace Celts
Late 6h centuy: Christianisation
7th century: establishment of 7 kingdoms
Essex
Sussex
Wessex
Mercia
Northumbria
Kent
East Anglia
Late 9th century: Danelaw
10th century: 2nd Viking Age (Cnut etc.)
What was the Norman Conquest (inc. dates)?
January 1066: King Edward the Confessor (last AS king) dies without direct heir, conlflict between
Harold Godwin, chosen successor by AS nobility
Earl of Sussex
Brother of the Queen of king Edward
William, claims throne was promised to him
Duke of Normandy
Maternal cousin of Edward
Harald Hardrada of Norway, to whom the king also promised the throne so he would not attack him
September 25th 1066: Battle of Stamford Bridge (Yorkshire), Harold defeats attack by Harald Hardrada of Norway
September 28th 1066: William lands in England in Pevensey
Army has to travel from Yorkshire to Pevensey in only 19 days
October 14th 1066: Harold dies in battle of Hastings (Norman-French Army led by Will vs. English army of Rollie)
December 25th: William crowned king of England
What were the social consequences of the Norman Conquest?
1066-1086: disposession of English nobility
Replacement of higher ecclesiastics
What were the linguistic consequences of the Norman Conquest?
Norman French (Anglo-Norman) language of ruling elite
Monarchy
Aristocracy
Archbishops
Bishops
Abbots of major monasteries
Vast majority of population continues to speak English
How did the transition from OE to ME after the Norman Conquest happen?
Middle/End of 12th centuy:
OE used in writing and OE texts copied until then
New OE texts rare after Norman Conquest
Latin and French used for
Administrative purpose
Literary purpose
Frech used as vehicle language in schools up to c. 1375
Many people bi-/trilingual in French & English, especially in the cities
Late 12th century: nwe English texts, language greatly changed -> “birth” of ME
Phonological changes
morphological reduction
New lexis
New orthography
What was the functional distribution of French, English and Latin between 700 and 1600 in law, poetry, scholarly texts and in terms of spoken language?
700-1066
Law:
90% L
10% ED
Poetry
55% ED
45% L
Scholarly texts
100% L
Spoken language
95% ED
5% L
1066-1300
60% L
30% F
50%ED
40% L
10% F
85% L
15% F
90% ED
5% F
1400-1500
Law
60% ED
35% L
80% ED
20% L
10% SE
10% L
1550-1650
100 % SE
100% SE
100% SE (1650)
Spoken language (1650)
70% ED
30 % SE
External History: What happened in 1000 AD in Great Britain?
1066: Norman Conquest
1086: completition of Domesday book (record of a survey of England property/land/workforce made for William the Conqueror)
External History: What happened in 1100 AD in Great Britain?
1154: last entry in AS chronicles
External History: What happened in 1200 AD in Great Britain?
1204/05: confiscation of land of many noblemen, above all those who lived in Englad (families with estates on both sides of the channel had to give up one or the other)
1215: 4th Laternal Council insists on minimal relgious instruction for all Christians
re-emergence of religious literature
1258: New form of government installed: council of 24 members
External History: What happened in 1300 AD in Great Britain?
1325-1384: John Wycliffe (theologian & preacher): his followers (the Lollards) translate the complete bible into English (80s &90s, Wycliffe bible)
1337-1453: Hunder Year War between English and French begins
1345-1400: Geoffrey Chaucer
1348-50: the plague/black death
1360: Treaty of Bretigny
End of first phase of HY War
Height of England hegemony
1362: Edward III opens parliament with speech in Egnlish (rather than French) -> “Statue of Pleading” enacted, which said that lawsuits were to be conducted in English
1381: peasants revolt
External History: What happened in 1400 AD in Great Britain?
1420: English official language of administration -> “Chancery English”, beginning of standardized English
1453: End of HY War, major territory loss for England
1455-1487: “War of the Roses”, political/dynastic conflict between House of Lancaster (red rose) and York (white rose)
1476: William Caxton introduces printing press in England
1485: accession of Henry VII (first Tudor king)
1492: Columbus invades America
External History: What happened in 1500 AD in Great Britain?
1525/26: Tyndale translation of new testament
1534: Act of supermacy: Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church
What was the language Situation in 12th century England?
Complex situation
lower social rank: monolingual native speakers of English
Scandinavian-English bilingual speaker (from former Danelaw area)
Monoligual French native speakers > higher social ranks
Latin speakers (Church, scholarship, public records)
-> increase of French among members of middle class
-> increase of peope learning English
mainly people from Church (who had been replaced from English ones to French ones) who wanted to interact with the common people, who spoke English
introduced French loanwords
What was the language situation in schools like in 12th century England?
Reading & writing in Latin
Knowledge expected to be generalized to English
What are some reasons for the rapid language change of Middle English?
For 200 years, ME was only a spoken langauge (records were only kept infrequently in 11th/12th century)
Written form tend to slow down/prevent language change, while unwritten language tends to change more rapidly
Geographical and social isolation of English speakers results in variety of regional dialexct
Diglossia: English as lower, socially stigmatized dialect spoken by peasants, artisan workers vs. French, language of prestige -> Language of prestige influences “lower” dialect
Which middle English dialects existed and what is characteristic of them?
Five regional dialects
BUT: dialect situation complex and fluid in terms of geographical and temporal dimension: more of a dialect continuum
Northern dialects more innovative
Likely due to Scandinavian speakers
Southern dialects more conservative
How did the written ME texts change between 1250 and 1500?
1250-1350: religious and secular literature
1350-1400: rhymed metrical verses (borrowed from French) ! revival of native alliterative verse
1400-1500: great fourteenth century work, mystery plays
What orthographic changes took place in the transition from OE to ME?
Loss of “essentially phonetic” spelling in OE
Replacement of runic letters with Latin letters
Norman scribes introduced Romance spelling conventions (sometimes due to confusion regarding Egnlish spelling)
Lack of correspondence between OE and ME later intesifide by Great Vowel Shift
How can ME be characterizised as a Creol?
Changes in ME lexicon and grammar can be explained as a result of creolization
ME as hybrid language between French and OE
Purely Germanic:
syntax
phonology
Mix between French and OE:
Lexicon affected by French
Simplification of grammar due to interference between French and English inflection
What speaks against characterizing ME as a creol language?
Theory not widely accepted
Use of French in England was quite limited
Vocabulary not main determining factor of Creolization
No structural changes can be (solely) attributed to French
Effects on English phonology minimal
Many changes in ME were already on the way in OE
English dialects most in contact with French changed the least, those with the least contact changed the most
What parts of the (Middle) English language were influenced by French, which were not influenced by French?
No influence on
Word order
Rule of concord
Influence on
Lexicon/lexical borrowing
Derivational affixes (such as -able)
Phonemicization of certain allophonic pairs
Large share of French basic vocabulary in English not only due to contact situation, but rather due to forced linguistic contact of conquerin power
How was English literature influenced after the Norman conquest?
England in 1066: relatively strong literary tradition
After Norman conquest:
new literary genres
new metres
new poetic forms
Until 1200, old OE literature was still copied
1200: change more evident, Scandinavian and Romance words more frequent
What are substrate - adstrate - superstrate languages, and how does this distinction correspond to 12the century England?
superstrate: Language of dominant group = French
Adstrate: Language of equal power = Scandinavian
Substrate: Language of dominated Group = Celtic
Which different kinds of contacts between vikings and England existed, and which one was the most influential linguistically?
Raids
Settlements -> most influential linguistically
political conquest
How many words of the English language originate in another Language (in percentage)?
More than 50% of English lexicon not of Germanic origin
Inherited: 22-27%
French: 22-35%
Latin: 22-28%
Greek: 1.6 - 5.3%
Unknown etymology: 4%
Non-european languages: 1 - 2%
Plus influences from Durc/Flemish, Arabic, Italian (ducat), Spanish (cork), Portuguese (marmalade)
44% of all English headwords are of French or Latin origin
How many words did English borrow from French during the ME period? And how many of those loanwords are still used today?
more than 10´000
75% of those loanwords are still used today
How much of the ME lexicon was made up of OE, French or Latin words respectively up until the 15th century?
Total: 53`925 words
OE: 10´000 (19%)
French: 8´600 (16%)
Latin: 6´500 (12%)
French or Latin 5`700 (11%)
-> 39% French/Latin
How were French vs. Latin loanwords different in the ME period?
Many French loanwords already had equivalent word in AS
Rise (AS) - mount (NF) - ascend
Help (AS) - aid (NF) - assistance (L)
Fair (AS) - beautiful (NF) - attractive (L)
Loanwords often had/acquired more specific meaning
Latin loans often related/more specifically about church context
Some French words were adopted to English and then changed like English words, i.e. by adding an English suffix
Gentlewoman
Gent-ly
Gentle-ness
Chronologically, how did the adoption of French and Latin loanwords into ME change between 1200 and 1500?
Between 1200-1299 some borrowing from French
about 200 words/century
F about 15-22% of all new words
L in beginning about 10% of all new words, towards end of 13th centuy about 2% of all new words
1300-1500 spike in borrowing from French (1100 new words/century plus ca. 1000 French/Latin words)
1300-1400: F 27-40% of all new words
1400-1500: F 15-20% of all new words
Increased percentage of words whcih could be of Latin or French origin (about 10-15%) around 1350
BUT: sudden spike might be misinformation -> there were few ME texts after Norman Conquest, increased loaning could´ve taken place here already but gone unrecorded
How did the amount of French vs. English mono- and bilingual speakers develop in the ME period?
After Norman Conquest (1066-1375) many mono- and bilingual French families including royal family
Decrease in French learning after Black death (1346-1353)
English becomes common medium of communication
Overall decrease in French speakers after initial spike in Norman Conquest
In terms of borrowing from French, from which domains did the French loanwords come from?
Power (court, crown)
War (battle)
Art (image)
Religion (service)
Architecture (tower)
Fashion (garment)
Chase (sport)
Nouns: plea, suit, justice, attorney, jury
verbs: judge, sue, plead, arrest, pledge
Crimes and misdemeanors: felony, trespass, assault, perjury
property, estate, heritage
adjectives: just, innocent, culpable
OE law terms replaced by French ones
How are Anglo-Norman French and Central French different and how did those differences come about?
French nothing <-> AN /s/
Bête = beast
o Château = castle
o Forêt = forest
French: second palatalisation took place -> Change did not take place in Anglo Norman
/ka/ sound becomes /tsha/ sound
Cattle (AN) <-> chattel(s) (CF)
/ts/ becomes /s
cherry (AN) <-> cerise (F)
chisel (AN) <-> ciseau (F)
AN /w-/ corresponds to CF /g-/
reward - regard
wage - gage
ward - guard
warranty - guarantee
What phonological evidence helps to determine wheter a French loanword is an early or a late loan?
in late 13th century phonetic changes in French: French words whcih were loaned before this time correspond to the unchanged version, those who entered after the 13th century correspond to the changed versions
/dʒ/ > /ʒ/
Early loans: gentle, jewel, journes
Late loans: jabot, rouge
/tʃ/ > /ʃ/
Early loans: chai, chamber, change
Late loans: chamois, chaperon, chateau
BUT: Chivalry late loan, despite the sound
Furthermore, English underwent the great Vowel shift in 15th century: French words whcih were loaned before the 15th century were also changed accordingly, those that were adopted after 15th century did not change according to the GVS
Early loans
attire, nice, strive (i -> ai)
espouse, flour, tower (au sound)
Late loans
police, ravine (i sound)
Mousse, rouge, soup (u: sound)
How are French and Norse loanwords different?
Different linguistic and social situation of Norse compared to French
Social:
longer coexistence
French superstrate language, Norse adstrate language
French influence mainly in the South, particularly in London
French more written than spoken
Linguistically: Norse also a Germanic lanugage, adoption therefore easier
Norse loans less obviosu than French ones
Many Norse loanwords only preserved in dialects, not in standard English
Many Norse loanwords only started appearing in ME
Difference in borrowed content
Many more content words borrowed from French than from Norse
More basic terms borrowed from Norse
Function words (they, them, their, both, same, against, though)
Everyday words (want, take give, Thursday, husband)
Which parts of the English vocabulary were influenced by Norse (loanwords)?
Plancenames (-by, -thorp, -dale, -thwaite, -toft)
Personal names (-son, -sen)
Certain semantic domains (anger, bag, cake, dirt)
Doublets (skirt vs. shirt, dike vs. ditch)
Function words (they, them, both, same, again)
What clues exist to spot an English word of Scandinavian origin?
/sk/ for /sh/: skill, skin, skull, sky, skirt
/g/ for /j/: gate, egg, get, gift, give
Which different kinds of outcomes exist for the loaning of Norse loanwords?
Replacement of OE words with same origin (cognates)
ON egg replaces OE oeg
Replacement of OE words with different origin
ON talka replaces OE niman
OE word survives, but acquires Norse meaning
OE “dream” meant joy, came to acquire meaning of ON “draumr” (meaning dream)
Both words survive, one restricted to dialect
ON kirkja -> kirk, vs. PDE church
Both words survive, one undergoes semantic shift
ON sky “cloud” -> PDE sky, OE heofon -> PDE heaven
What are cognates and doublets and what is the difference between the two?
Both words with same derivational origin which developed differently
Cognates:
Related form in different languages
Doublets:
Related form in same language
What is the phonemicization of OE fricatives?
Originally OE allophonic fricatives (s - z, f - v, th ; th) were voiced or voiceless depending on position in word
voiceless at beginning or end of word or when doubled
voiced in medial position surrounded by vowels
In ME, voiced and voiceless allophones could appear in any position due to…
Loss of endings -> original middle position becomes final position
OE wif/wifan -> ModE wife
OE clathian -> PdE cloth
OE huus -> PDE house
Borrowing from French, where there was no v/f, z/s distinction
vain, veil, very, vice (v)
ease, easy, zeal (z)
Initial voicing in function words
this, that, there
initial voicing in Southern dialects -> this development already began in the Sout during the OE period (initial f, s -> v, z)
Thunder, soul, fox
Sometimes voiced fricatives in medial position as a somplification of pronounciation
nitial /ʒ/ only in relatively recent French loanwords
Which two types of vowel changes exist?
Qualitative: vowel height, rounding, backness, frontness etc.
Quantitative: length of vowel
What changes in consonant clusters took place from OE to ME?
Simplification
In /hl/, /hn/ and /hr/ the h was dropped
hlaefdige (OE) -> ladi (ME
Hnecca (OE) -> neck (ME)
Hraefn (OE) -> raven (ME)
Loss of final b after m (only in pronounciation, not in spelling)
lamb, comb, climb
Loss of w after s or t (sometimes also in spelling)
sweostor -> suster (sister)
sword, two
In general, how did the vowels change from OE to ME?
From symmetrical OE system to asymmetrical ME system
ME more diphthongs
ME more long than short vowels
New vowels in ME: ǝ, ǝ:, ɔ:
Lost vowels/diphtongs in ME: y (only short), æ, æ:, œ, œ:, eo, e:o, aea, ae:a
New diphthongs:
ei, eu, ai, au, oi, ou, ui, iu
Which changes in vowel quality took place from OE to ME (respectively from the beginning of OE to the end of OE)?
OE /a:/ -> ME /ɔ:/
From long a to long o
OE stan -> ME ston
Only in southern dialects, northern dialects preserved /a:/
Sc: stone -> sten -> a turns into e sound, o does not -> a sound must’ve been preserved and then changed during great vowel shift
Vowel reduction
OE /a/ /o/ /u/ turn into ME
Which quantiative vowel changes took place from OE to ME/ during the ME period?
750-900: pre-cluster lengthening
1000: pre-cluster shortening
1000: try-syllabic shortening
1200: open-syllable lengthening
What is a “linguistic conspiracy”?
Set of rules or historical changes
are unrelated
but appear to act together to serve a particular goal
What is pre-cluster lengthening?
PCL before homorganic elements
homorganic: same articulation point, for instance two bilabial phonemes
Vowels before
/mb/
/nd/
/ld/
/rd/
And in some dialects also /ng/, /nth/, /rl/, /rn/, /rth/, /rz/
Exceptions
When another consonant immediately follows the cluster
OE lamb -> ME la:mb, BUT lambru (pl.)
When word in question is unstressed
Examples (OE - ME)
climban - cli:mben
camb -> co:mb
findan -> fi:nde
hund -> hu:nd
What is pre-cluster shortening?
In disyllabic words
with closed syllables (CVS; CVCC), i.e. syllables end in consonant
and long, stressed vowels
Long vowel becomes short
Resulted in certain vowel alternations, i.e.
five vs. fiftenn, keep vs. kept, wise vs. wisdom
Exceptions:
Pre-cluster lengthening group (homorganic clusters)
vowel before /st/
What is trisyllabic shortening?
In trisyllabic words, the first vowel is shortened (if it is long)
ha:ligdaeg -> holiday
chri:stendom -> Christendom
led to alternations, for instance
so:uth / southern
What is Lengthening in Open syllables/ ME open syllables lengthening?
in 12th/13th century
Rules
in disyllabic words
with open syllables (first only /a/, /e/, /o/, later also /u/ and /i/
and only one medial consonant
Resutl: first vowel in lenghtened and also lowered if it is not already low
Examples
na-ma -> na:me
e-tan -> eten
no-su -> no:ze
What is the Ormulum MS?
Didactic poem/text which was written in a eay to teach pronounciation of two consonants
Which different phonemes turned into /o:/ /ɔ:/ /e:/ and /ɛ:/ respectively during the ME period (before the grat vowel shift)?
Who became /o:/
/o:/ -> /o:/
/ʊ/ becomes /o:/ in MEOSL
Who became /ɔ:/
/a:/ sometimes rounded and raised to /ɔ:/
/o/ sometimes became /ɔ:/ due to MEOSL
Who became /e:/
/e:/
/e:o/ -> monophtongisation, rounding
/ae:/ -> raising
/e/ -> lenghtening before consonant group
/i/ -> lengthening in open syllables, laxing (less muscular tension)
Who became /ɛ:/
aea -> monophtongisation
/e/ -> lenghtening in open syllable
How did the spelling system change in ME in terms of vowels?
Ae disappeaered
replaced by a or e
/u:/ spelled ou or ow (hus -> house)
/ʊ/ spelled u or o
o frequent when sound next to lettzers like, i m n v/u (minin environment)
Long vowels, especially e: o: /ɔ:/ and /ɛ:/ often marked by doubbling
hɔ:m = hom or hoom
How did the ME spelling system change in terms of consonants?
hw replaced by wh (hwaet -> what)
<þ> and <ð> are replaced by th (þu > thu)
OE sc replaced by sh
<ƿ> is replaced by w (ƿolde > wolde)
new graphemes are introduced for some voiced fricatives: v, z
How did the OE /a:/ sound develop differently in the North and the South?
North: nay
OE: /a:/ -> ME /a:/ -> ModE /eI/
South: no
OE /a:/ -> ME /ɔ:/ -> PDE /oʊ/
How did the vocalisation of ȝ change?
OE /ɣ/ > ME /ʊ/
OE /j/ > ME /ɪ/
after front vowels:
/ɣ/ > ME /j/ > /ɪ/
OE hreġn > ME rein
OE seġl > ME sail
OE næġl > ME nail
after backvowels or l/r: /ɣ/ > ME /w/ > /ʊ/
OE boga > ME bow
OE ploga > ME plow
OE fugol > ME fowl
OE morgen > ME morrow
How can the different English periods be characterized in terms of inflection?
OE: period of full inflection (naama, gifan, caru)
ME: period of levelled inflections (namme, given, caare)
Modern English: period of lost inflections (naam, giv, caar)
Why did inflections change from OE to ME?
Unstressed syllables in OE had full vocalic value
In ME, full/weak vowels were reduced ti schwa, written <e>
OE stanas -> ME stones
OE nosu -> ME nose
OE drifon -> ME driven
M and n are merged
Evidence found in spelling
Consequences:
Endings become levelled or weakened (less ditincitve/apparent)
Results in collapse of OE
inflectional system
Gender
Mood
Case
To solve ambiguitiy, new means of to mark had to be developed
How did ME change its inflection system to mark relation between words and resolve the newly established ambiguity?
Increased use of function words, mainly prepositions
relatively fixed word order
-> English changed from a synthetic language (OE) to an analytical one (ME)
What is a synthetic and what is an analytic language and how are they different?
Synthetic language:
Inflectional morphemes prevalent (i.e. single morphemes with multiple components or meanings)
morphemes: smallest unito of lanugage which contains meanings, i.e. roots, suffixes, affixes etc.
Analytic language:
Constructions and prepositions used to express meaning
Predominance of analytic constructions
Relative lack of bound morphology
Bound morpheme = word element which cannot stand alone, i.e. suffixed, prefixes
How did the accusative Objec - Verb Order change in Middle English chronologically?
Oacc - V: him ask
V - Oacc: ask him
1000: about 50/50
until 1200: small increase in V-Oacc usage (about 0.2 %)
from 1200 - 1300: change starts to become more prominent
60% V - Oacc
40% Oacc - V
by 1400:
85% V - Oacc
15% Oacc - V
by 1500: almost exclusively V - Oacc (about 1% Oacc - V)
How did the dativ Objec - Verb Order change in Middle English chronologically?
Odat - V: him tell
V - Odat: tell him
1000:
43% Odat - V
57% V - Odat
1100:
39% Odat - V
61% V - odat
How did the genitive wordorder change in Middle English chronologically?
N - ´s = Book Paul´s
´s - N = Paul´s book
N - of = Book of Paul
900:
47% N - s
52% s - N
0.5 N - of
30% N - s
69 % s - N
1% N of
22% N - s
77% s - N
1200:
11 % N - s
81% s - N
6% N of
1250:
0.5 % N - s
70% s - N
30% N of
1300:
0% N - s
15% s - N
85% N of
How did the morphosyntax of Nouns change from OE to ME?
Case endings disappeared: Dative and accusative merged into one
Exception of case ending disappearance:
-(e)s for genitive singular and plural
uninflected forms used for long time
Number:
plural -(e)s from masculine A-stem extended to all nouns
long time comptetition with weak noun plural -en
survives in a few exceptions: children, oxen
Zero plurals: deer, sheep
Umlaut plural: geese, feet, men, mice
Grammatical gender disappears in favour of “natural” gender
How did the morphosyntax of adjectives change from OE to ME?
strong/weak opposition decays
replaced with zero/-e distinction
Definite -e
After determiners (possessive and demonstrative pronouns) , i.e. the colde steele, this goode wife
in vocatives/direct adress: o false mordrour
in attributive plurals (two nouns together): the longe nyghtes
Zero froms
singular predicative adjectives: it was old
after indefinite determiners: a good wyf
without determiners: as hoot he was a
unaccompanied adjectives
predicative use after to be (i.e. “to be rich” -> no subject)
normally zero form for adjectives which in OE were strong and singular, but ME system not very regular
In late ME, this pattern is restricted to monosyllabic adjectives
How did the morphosyntax of comparative adjectives change from OE to ME?
Synthetic construction of OE inherited by ME
umlaut for comparatives and superlatives: long - lenger - lengest
Lenght alternations due to pre-cluster shortenings
glad - gladder - gladdest
ME addition: analytic comparison with more and most
17th century: zwo syllable rule established
in adjectives with two or more syllables, no umlaut but rather addition of -er or use of more/most
How did the morphosyntax of determiners change from OE to ME?
OE first demonstrative (inflected & gendered): se, seo, paet, pa
ME first demonstrative: uninflected the (sg) - tho (pl)
Suppletion (se, seo) eliminated
suppletion: phonetically unrelated allomorphs of same phoneme, i.e. go - went
Paet used in demonstratives and relative paradigms
OE second demonstrative pes, peos, pis, pas =
ME: this - these (proximal) and that - those (distal)
How did the morphosyntax of personal pronouns change from OE to ME?
2nd person pronouns
OE pu, pe -> ME thou, thee, ye, you for both plural and singular
by end of early modern English you - thee distinction lost -> general you for everyone remains
3rd person pronouns: m
OE he (m) and heo (f) merged into he (through monophthongisation of eo)
3rd person pronouns: f
New 3rd person pronoun she develops from demonstrative seo or from personal heo (likely a merger of these two)
she developed in the north = likely due to contact with Norse
3rd person pronuns: n
hit -> it
Plural pronouns
OE hi, hie, him, hem, hiere replaced by Scandinavian, they, them their
Three phase development completed by 15th century, started in the north
1. they (north) - here - hem (south)
2. thei - here(e)/their - hem
3. thei - their - hem/them
Dual lost by 13th century
How did the present tense change from OE to ME?
1st person singular somewhat lost in North, remains in Midlands and South
2nd person sg: OE -st/-est
N: -es
Mind: -est
South: -est
3rd sg: OE -(e)th
North: -es
Mid.: -eth/-es
South: -eth
Plural OE - ath
Mid: en/-es
South: eth
How did the morphosyntax of verbs change from OE to ME?
Disappearance of OE distinction between
II grade of 1st and 3 sg (draf)
III grade of 2nd sg and plural (driffe, drifon)
Grade reduction: levelling under singular vowel grade (only one vowel change)
OE ridan - rad - ridon - riden
ME riden - rod - riden -riden
Transfer to weak inflection
OE creopan - creap - crupon - cropne
ME crepen - crepte - crepte
Hybridisation
Transfer of forms from onse strong class to another
OE specan - spaec - speacon -specen (v)
ME speken - spak - speken - spoken
Part strong, part weak paradigms
OE swellan - sweall - swullon - swollen (iii)
Me swellen - swelled - swollen
What is the Great Vowel Shift?
Series of changes which affected only the long vowels
Raising process (all vowels raised one height)
Vowels which could not be further raised were diphthongized
Took place over long period of time, starting in ME and ending around 17th century
Usually a chain shift
Not a uniform process
Did not take place in all dialects (simulanously or at all)
How did the vowels change from ME to PDE due to the great Vowel shift?
[i:] -> [aɪ]
[e:] -> [i:]
[ɛ:] -> [i:]
Words with ea in spelling and i: sound likely derived from ɛ:, those with ee in spelling and i: sound likely derived from [e:]
[a] -> [eɪ]
[ɔ:] -> [əʊ] (ou sound like in boat)
[o] -> [u:]
[u:] -> [aʊ] (as in out)
From 7 long vowels to 2 long vowels and 4 dophtongs
How did the long vowels change throughrout the centuries due to the Great vowel shift?
1400
1500
1600
ModE
[i:]
[ei]
[ɛi]
[aɪ]
[e:]
[ɛ:]
[a:]
ɛ:
[eɪ]
[ɔ:]
[o:]
[əʊ]
[u:]
ou
ɔu
[aʊ]
What is a chain shift?
Sequence of interdependent sound changes
Which two kinds of chain shifts exist and how are they different?
Drag chain
One change “drags” the other bey leaving an empty space where a sound once was which needs to be filled
Push chain
One change pushes the other by taking its place, so that that sound has to find a new place -> pushes the next one
Which arguments are there for the Great Vowel Shift being a drag chain?
Otto Jespersen: in London/Cockney dialect and in Australian English, high vowels have tendency towards diphtongization
Loss of friction/fricatives leads to vowel before fricatives to become long to compensate for the loss of the fricative -> might have been further raised to avoid ambiguity, starting the vowel shift
Which arguments are there for the Great Vowel Shift being a push chain?
Austrian Linguist Karl Luick: In English dialects where /o:/ is fronted rather than raised, the /u:/ is not diphthongized
Without a push from o, the u was not diphthongized
Who was affected by the Great Vowel Shift?
Not all dialects equally affected
Northern British dialects did not lower diphtohongs /ai/ and /au/ that much
my house = mi: hu:s
Not all words of particular vowel class
The ea class: normally ɛ: became i:, but some exceptions
Swear, bear, wear (/swɛər /, /bɛər /, /wɛər/)
Great, break, steak (ɡreɪt/, /breɪk/, /steɪk/)
Dead, head, wealth (/dɛd/, /hɛd/, /wɛlθ/)
A sound might’ve prevented the shift from happening, not completely clear
The oo class: normally [o:] turned into [u:], but
book, foot, good /bʊk/, /fʊt/, /gʊd/
blood, country /blʌd/, /kʌntri/
-> possibly due to plosive sound in the end, not clear
Which vowels were lost in the Great vowel Shift and how were they reestabilished?
loss of /a:/ and /ɔ:/
New /a:/ found in words
Of French origin, often before nasals: aunt, branch, command, demand, grant
Containint ME /a/ before fricatives: laugh, craft, staff, after
Containing ME /a/ before l plus labial: calm, calf, half
Containing ME /a/ or /e/ before /r/
card, harm, aprt
star
parson (ME person)
New /ɔ:/ found in words
Of French origin, often before nasals: cause, haunt, launch, sauce
Containint ME /ɒ/ before fricatives: off, cross
Containing ME /a/ before l but not followed by a labial: call, chalk, malt, salt
Containing ME o, o:, or ɔ: before r: boar, floor, pore
What were the consequences of the Great Vowel Shift?
Mergers -> evidence in spelling
[e:] and [ɛ:] -> [i:] = beech, beach
[a] and [ai] -> [eI] = bate, bait, made, maid
ME /ɔ:/ and /o:/ = no - know, roe - row, so - sow
What possible reasons exist for the Great Vowel Shift?
Not clear
Might be due to Black Death (1348 onwards)
Massive decrease in population
Repopulation coincides with Great Vowel Shift
Different parts of Englang ight’ve met, contact situation of different dialects
Language contact between French and English
English might’ve tried to drift away from French
English begins to spell differently to reaffirm its identity
What was the literary tradition in England before and after the Norman Conquest like?
before 1066: relatively centralised country with strong literary tradition
Introduction of French as literary language brought about new literary genres, metres and poetic forms
1350-1400: rhymed metrical verses (borrowed from French) and revival of native alliterative verse
1400 - 1500: great fourteenth century works, mystery plays
Based on which clues can Norse loanwords be spotted?
How did the vocalisation of ȝ develop from OE to ME?
- OE /ɣ/ > ME /ʊ/
- OE /j/ > ME /ɪ/
after front vowels: /ɣ/ > ME /j/ > /ɪ/
o OE boga > ME bow
o OE ploga > ME plow
How did the Noun phrase Syntax change from OE to ME in terms of:
demonstratives and possessives
Determiners
Modifiers (adjectives, determiners)
OE: can together preceede nouns
ME: word order not stable
OE: not obligatory
ME: not stable yet, but moving towards a stable system
OE: agree with head in number, case and gender
ME: agreement lost due to morphological reduction
How did the verb phrase Syntax change from OE to ME in terms of:
Subject
Subject and verb
position of object
OE: not stable or necessary, syntactic function associated with particular case
ME: word order increasingly SVO, syntactic function indicated by word order
OE: Many constructions do not require a subject (pro-drop)
ME: subject position filled by dummy (h)it, impersonal constructions still frequent
OE: V2 constrains: inversion of subject and verb after pronominal temporal, locative and negative Adverb
ME: Inversion more rare after adverbial phrase, persist after negatives
OE: more flexible than PDE, case marked function
ME: development of analytic objects, order of object fixed as certain cases cannot be distinguished anymore
pronoun-noun order preferred
Which categories of ME weak verbs existed?
3 categories (OE) collapsed to 2
type 1: athematic
Construction
infinitive: deem-en, seek-en
past 1 sg.: deem-de
past participle: (y-)deem-d, (y-)souz-t
-> -t/-d added directly to stem
Derivation
descendants of OE weak class 1 and most of class 3
French loans with consonant-final stem
type 2: thematic
infinitive: her(i)en, vu(i)en
past 1 sg.: her-e-d(e), luv-(e)-de
past participle: y-her-e-d, (y-)love-e-d
-> thematic because themed vowel is added inbetween
Descendants of OE weak class 2 and OE weak class 1
French loans with vowel final stem plus some with consonantfinal stem
IME: system restructured, syllabic weak past (type 2) disappears in all contexts except in verbs with /t, d/ final (seated, defeated, wounded)
How did the anomalous verb “to be” develop from OE to ME?
spread of pres. indicativ. pl. aron from Sout
Loss of wes-forms in imperative (new be/be(th))
Loss of be form in present (am, art, is, was…)
Loss of sie- forms in present subjunctive (be, be(n), were, were(n))
How did the anomalous verb “willan wolde” develop from OE to ME?
transfer of past /o/ to present = variation between will and wol() = will vs. wont
Semantic dissociation between present and past
How did the anomalous verb “don - dyde” develop from OE to ME?
Loss of i umlaut in present (dest, deth) -> do and did still exist, but in present only do
How did the anomalous verb “gan - eode” develop from OE to ME?
loss of i-umlaut in present (gaest, gaep)
Replacement of yede/yode by new suppletive past wente (of wendan = turn)
How did the preterite present verbs develop from OE to ME?
Infinitives and particple lost in ME period (to can, canning)
Reduction of number difference in present
OE cann - cunnpn -> ME can
OE sceal - sculon -> ME shal/shel
semantic dissociation between present and past: shall - should
split into independent verbs
OE ah - agon -> owe, but OE ahte -> own
Loss of forms: OE mot - moton - moste -> ME most(e)/must(e)
Loss of verbs: witan (know), dugan (avail, be of use)
-> stabilisation of unique class of modal auxiliaries with idiosyncratic morphology and syntax
What were the finite forms of verbs like in ME?
Strong vs. weak forms whcih differ in OE
Present imeprative singular: no ending (strong) vs. -e (weak)
past indicative 1 and 3rd sg: none (strong) vs. -e (weak)
Past indicative 2nd sg.: -e (strong) vs. -(e)st (weak)
Past subjunctive singular: -en (strong) vs. -e (weak)
How did the non-finite forms of verbs develop from OE to Me chronologically?
OE
Early ME
C 1350
1450
Infinitve
writan
To writene
writen
To writenne
(to) write(n)
Present participle
writende
writende/-enne/-inge
Writing(e)/-end(e)
writing
Verbal noun
Past participle
ge-writen
gi-writen
y-/i-writ(t)en
written
How were 3rd sg. feminine and 3rd pers. pl. pronouns different in the North, the South and the Midlands of England in the Middle English period?
North
Midlands
South
3rd sg. Feminine
She/sho
She/heo
heo
3rd pl. pers. Pron.
They, them, their
They, hem, here
Hi, hem, here
How did the verbal inflections differ in the North, the South and the Midlands of England in the Middle English period?
1st sg. Present
-(e)
-e
2nd sg. Present
-es
-es -est
-(e)st
3rd sg. Present
es -eth
-eth
Plural present
-e(s)
-es -e(n)
Past participle prefix (ge-)
No
No/y-/i-
y-/i-
How did the OE a: develop differently in different ME dialects?
In North and the Midlands it remained a:
Evidence in consequences of the GVS: in the North, OE /a:/ -> ME /a:/ -> ModE /eI/
in the South it turned into /o:/
Evidence in consequences of the GVS: in the South, OE /a:/ -> ME /ɔ:/ -> PDE /oʊ/
How did the OE /a/ plus nasal consonant (m, n) develop differently in different ME dialects?
in western Midlands: a plus nasal = /o/ (man -> mon)
everywhere else it stayed /a/
How did the OE ȳ, y develop differently in different ME dialects?
Kent y -> e (hyll -> hell)
South and Westmidlands: y -> u (hull)
East midlands: y -> i (hill)
How was the initial s for shall spelled different in the different ME dialects?
North: sal
South & midlands: schal/shal
How did the present participle endings develop differently in the different dialects?
North: - and(e)
South: -ing
West Mindlands: -indle, -ing
East midland: -endle, -ing
What is standard English and what is it not?
Standard English in a (dialectical) variety of English
It is NOT
an accent
a style
a language
a register
a set of prescriptive rules: variation in natural and cannot be eliminated
The same as RP
a monolithic form
What is/was spoken standard English?
supra-regional class dialect
supra-regional: not tied to specific region
Was not spoken by vast majority of population
Was exclusionary, gate-keeping function to exclude majority of population from social and professional upward mobility
its consevative form is now avoided by younger speakers
What is a dialect?
variety of a language
Distinguishable in terms of
vocabulary
What are the characteristics of standard English (which make it a dialect)?
Supra-regional currency: spoken and understood across different regions
taught in school and as a foreign language
literary canon
medium of translation of the bible
Is codified in terms of grammar and spelling through a number of mediums (dictionaries, grammar books)
Relatively stable (but has to keep up with changing culture and needs of society)
What leads to a variety being picked as a standard?
Any vernacular adequate at any given moment for group that uses it (there is a reason why group uses that specific standard)
Vercaluar which is specifically fit for one group not necessarily fit for other group
Any variety at any time can be picked to become a standard
Complex connection fo differents processees which leads to one specific variety being picked
What are the 8 different stages of standardisation?
Elimination of other variants
picking a standard variant
Acceptance of chosen variant as a standard
Diffusion: geographical diffusion aswell as spread across different mediums
maintainance: standard variety mus be maintained over certain period
Elaboration of function: Standard must have specific function
Cofidication: standard needs some agreed upon rules
prescription: creation of dictionaries, grammar books etc.
Was there a standard OE?
OE mostly not standardised, but attempts at standardisation existed
Mercian literary dialects
late 9th century: Alfred Circles
King Alfred attempted to establish a standard through court and scholars
Late West Saxon Standarad derived from king Alfred standardisation attempt
Late 10th/11th century: school ob abbot Aethelwold/Winchesters Scool
Late West Saxon Standard closest to an OE standard
In this sense OE quite standardized, but standardisation was interrupted by Norman Conquest
Which characteristics of a standard language did the West Saxon Standard (OE, king Alfred) fulfill?
Selection: Written WS privileged over other dialects
Acceptance: WSS imitated outside Wessex
Codification: Aelfrics grammar, Winchester School
Elaboration: variety was used to translate philosophical and theological texts from Latin
Was there a standard Middle English?
12th - 14th century:
no standard English
Latin and French for most supra-regional functions
14th - 15th century
Development of a new Standard
1337-1453, HY-War: English wanted an own identity -> nationalistic policies of Lancastrian monarchs push out French and replace it with English
1348-1350: Black death
English replace French with English as the teaching language in grammar schools
The importance of London
London cultural hub where many different dialects met
Center of administration
Population mainfolds, need to understand each other
Which different varieties of a Middle English standard English existed?
Central Midland Standard/Wycliffit
1300 - early 1400
Associated with translation of the Bible and other religious texts by John Wycliffe and Lolland movement
translation to make it more accessible to common people
Auchinleck
1330 - 1380
King Alexander (famous poet) wrtoe in this dialect
Scribes by Londoners as well as by native West Midlanders
Attested in a group of manuscripts produced in London
Chaucerian
1360 - 1430
Language of London in Late 1300 and early 1400
Used in civic documents and in certain poetical mediums
Chancery Standard
1430 -
Government documents produed in Lodon
Most of its spelling survives until today
What are some examples of words which correspond to the Chancery standard and survived until today?
Such(e) instead of
siche, sych, seche, swich
Much(e) instead of
moch(e)
not/night instead of
nat
How did Chancery Enlglish develop and spread according to Fisher?
Grew out of little office connected with the chancel/chapel
Chaplains worked on divine services and wrote letters for the king (king simply signed them)
Until 14th century Chaplains followed the king around the country so there was no connection to Westminster
Around 1330 - 1340s: Chancery connected to Westminster
Court gave impression that Chancery was a CLASS dialect rather than a local dialect
Chancery slowly became independent and self-perpetuating bureaucracy
1420 - 1460: English as official language of administration
At this point still focused variety of administrative English since it was not yet codified
How is Fishers depiction of the development of Chancery as the standard English variety criticized? And what is NOT criticized but rather accepted?
Fisher exagerates the importance of Chancery, since there were other offices with the regularity of spelling of Chancery
Henry IV and V had an official policy of using English in administrative documents but there is no written document declaring English the official language
Business classes had mixed language systems
Latin and Anglo Norman as matric languages
comparatively invariant spelling in both
Benskin accepts that:
Regional varieties disappeared between 14th and 15th century
Administrative documents were important in carrying the standard spelling into provinces
How was London important for the development of a standard English?
Social hub, many different dialects met here -> need for a standard to understand eachother
London achieve switched to monolingual English between 13th and 15th century
Northern features came to Lodon between 14th and 15th century
are, -s instead of -th for 3rd sg., they
Elimination of other variants (which lasted a few centuries=
What other theories (next to the theory by Fisher) exist about the spread of a standard English?
Language contact (written and spoken)
sprading out from ceners of population density to rural areas
driven by business context
Resulted in loss of regional features
Rise of living standard in 14th century
New people found their voice
monolingual English (shaped by AN) as the written standard of the trading classes
How did printing influcence the development and spread of a Standard English?
1476: Claxton establishes printing press in Westminster
At this point Chancery English the norm for official documents
Language of early printed books less standardised than that of Chancery documents
Printed language strongly influenced by Chancery Standard
are instead of be/ben
-s instead of -th for 3rd person sg.
Caxton not a professional scribe and had spent time abroad
Main goal of Caxton was to reach broad audience, not standardisation -> translated in a way that was understandable for educated people
Prints of Caxton were often close to the spelling system that was used by the writer whose work he was translating or editing
What were the different stages of standardisation of English?
Elimination of other variations + selection of Lodon accent as a standard = End of ME, beginning of EmE
Acceptance of London English as a standard
Diffusion through official documents, printing, bible
Maintenance and elaboration
1568: beginning of attempts to codify language through grammar books and lexicons
18th century: codification & prescroption
What the role of the phoneme /r/ in phonological changes in early Modern English?
/r/ somewhere between consonant and vowel, hence it had a special role
responsible for many phonological changes between 15th and 18th century
How did the phoneme /r/ influence changes of the vowels in early modern English?
From 15th century on: Epenthesis
If a long, stressed vowel was followed by /r/, a schwa was inserted between the vowel and the r
Futhermore, for some long stressed vowels they further underwent the GVS
/e/ = becomes /i/ due to GVS -> addition of schwa before r = hire (haɪər) = hear (/hɪə/)
/i/ = becomes /aI/ due to GVS -> addition of schwa before r = hire (haɪər)
/u:/ -> /aʊ/ -> + schwa =/aʊə/ for flower (“flauer”), shower, hour /haʊə/
BUT: not if r was followed by consonant
o Mourn [mɔːn]
o Source [ˈsɔrs]
/o:r/ -> /ʊə/ (as in “security” (iu)) OR merger with /ɔ:r/ -> whore, door, floor (/hɔː/, /dɔː/)
Poor, moor
ME /ɔːr/ -> ModE ɔː (loss of r) = oar /ɔː/, lore /lɔː/, more /mɔː/
/r/ before /ɛ:/= the <ea> class
Normally due to the GVS, /ɛ:/ would end up becoming /i:/ (as in sea)
This change was prevented/altered when /ɛ:/ was followed by /r/
/ɛ:r / and /a:r / were merged
Swear, bear, wear (/swɛər /, /bɛər /, /wɛə/)
Hare, pare, share [hɛː] [ʃɛː]
How did words which had an /e/ followed by /r/ change in the 15th until 18th century?
/e/ followed by /r/ was lowered to /a/ spelling
first in 13th century
quite established in 16th century
By 18th century
Reflexes of /a/ kept in Germanic words
Heart, star, dark
/e/ reintroduced in loans
mercy, serve, certain
What are the nurse mergers?
Changes in 18th century which affected
/ir/
/ur/
/er/
those were changed to /ɜ:/
= dirt (/dɜ:t/), stir, earth, turn
Only in mainland Englsih
Not in Scots and partially in Irish English
How did /a/ and /au/ change in ME and EmE?
ME /a/ and /au/ were raised to /æ/ = bat, catch, January
Exception: in southern mainland english, /æ/ changed to /æ:/ and eventually back to /a/…
before voiceless fricatives (laugh, staff, path) except for /ʃ/ (ash, cash)
before nC (dance, advance)
Before /r/: bar, car, far
How did ME /u/ develop in Early Modern English?
ME /u/ (and sometimes long version u:) is lowered and rounded to Modern English /ʌ/ in Souther Mainland English dialects
bus, but, cousin, cut
blood, flood
Change prevented when /u/ comes after labials
bull, pull, put, push
BUT: not in romance loans (pus, bugger)
What phonemes were lost from ME to EModE?
OE/ME /x/ [x, ç] are lost
Short vowel + velar = lengthening of vowel which later led to transformations accoding to GVS and dropping of velar
bog/boh -> bo:g -> bu:(x) -> bau (bow)
night -> nict -> ni:t -> nait
Alternative: verlar reinterpreted as labiodental, maintained the fricative
laughter, cough, through, enough
What phonemes were added from ME to EModE?
[ŋ]
in OE and ME: only before /k, g/
In ModE independent phoneme through the loss of /g/
16th century: loss of g at the end of words
17th century: loss of g even in medial position
[ʒ]
introduction because of French loanwords (i.e. rouge)
Development through palatalization of /zj/ in weak syllables
decision, pleasure
What is rhoticity and which dialects are rhotic, which aren’t?
non-rhotic: Long term loss of post-vocalic /r/ completed by 1800
car, cardinal, morning, hour
Rhotic
Irish
Scots
North American English
In Britain prestige accents are non-rhotic, in US they are rhotic
How were (double) consonant simplified from ME to (E)ModE?
Loss of w
Two
Who
Write
Except if W after s: Swear, swim, swing
Loss of /p/ in loanwords from Greek and Latin
psychology, pneumonia
16th century: Loss of b after /m/
lamb, climb, comb, womb
17th century: loss of /k/ and /g/ before n
knee, gnat
What changed from ME to (E)ModE in terms of yod-dropping?
Dropping after /l/ (not pronounced blju)
preserved after
velars (huge)
labial (fume, lube, lewd)
Describe the rise of a social accent.
18th century: increase in work on elocution
19th century: obsession with inappropriate usage
shibboleths
What are shibboleths?
Words or sounds which are hard to pronounce and thus can distinguish between groups (i.e. higher vs. lower class, foreigner vs. local)
From hebrew “Password” = words which give you access to certain group
Characteristics of English shibboleths
Clipping of final consonant: comin’, goin’ (= lower class)
h-dropping: ‘ave, ‘eat (= lower class)
hypercorrect h-insertion (hour, heir, honest)
How did (written) English expand after 1500?
late 16th century onwards: Invention and expansion of printing
Texts translated from Latin and French to English -> Latin graudally replaced as written language for the learned
Codification of English in lexicons and grammar books
Expansion of London English
Standard English overtakes very fast in poetry and law documents, almost finished by the end of 15th century
Overtake in scholary texts finished around 1650
Overtake in spoken language took the longest as it competed with English
18th century: peak of French in natural sciences and technology
19th century: Peak of German
What can be said about the loans which entered English after the 15th century/during the Early Modern English period?
from 1550 - 1650: around 6k - 8k new words
Peak in new words between 1800 and 1950 (11k - 16k new words all 50 years), most of all between 1850 and 1900
Peak did not correspond to introduction of printing press/amount of printed books
Most loans which entered English in 16th/17th century were Latin loans
overall increase in Latin and decrease in French loans
What kind of words were borrowed in the Early modern English period?
Mainly basic words/content words (no function words)
Adjectives, verbs, nouns
Some loans necessary because there was no corresponding Germanic word (i.e. democracy)
Many borrowings from Greek through “medium” Latin
What motivated people to increase their borrowing in the Early Modern English period?
1500 - 15'80: English seen as unsuitable for a lot of subjects such as religion because
It lacked the prestig of Latin and French
It did not have a technical vocabulary
-> Borrowing as a possible solution to make English a more suitable/decent language
What were the attitudes towards borrowing like in the Early Modern English period?
1500 - 1580: Some supported it as it could transfrom English into a more “suitable” and prestige language
1561: John Cheke: fear that English as a “pure” langauge will perish if it borrows too much
Early 17th century: Inkhorn controversy
Thomas Willson: criticism of superfluous borrowing -> inkhorn as words which are superfluous and unnecessarily complicated
1660: Over the course of the 17th century inkhorn controversy dies out, is replaced by a criticism of an overuse of Frenchbased loans
18th century: impact of French still cause of concern
What were the consequences of borrowing in Early Modern English?
“hard words”
Words whose etymology is hard to understand
Often very specific meaning
rarely used in everyday language
very far from Germanic equivalent
Examples: appendix, hereditary, pneumonia
Consequences of hard words:
Hard words become social classifiers
First dictionaries were list of hard words
Clipping: hard words were clipped/shortened to facilitate their use
Aeroplane -> plan
refrigerator -> fridge
Barssière = bra
Popular folk etymology: hard words aquired meaning of something else because their etymology was hard to understand so it was adapted in a way that it made sense
Richness in near synonyms
near synonyms = words with very similiar meaning
Dissociation with lexical field = two words refer to same entity but have completely different etymology
can also be for words from different categories, i. e. verb and noun
Word - verbal
Ear - auditive
Mouth - oral
Tooth - dental
Lungs - pneumonia
What are malaproprisms?
Ludicrous misuse of words, especially mistaking a word for another (i.e. alligator instead of allegedly)
What is folk-etymology?
Popular perversion ot the form of a word in order to render it apparently significant
What were the origins of word formation parts in Early Modern English?
Germanic and French/Latin (but less Germanic)
Romance elements more frequent as
bases
affixes
Which different kinds of prefixes exist?
Temporal (pre-, post-, ante-)
Locative (mid-, fore-. inter-)
Negatives (un-, non-)
Intesifying (hyper-, super-, sub-)
Quantitative (mono-, poly-, multi-)
How were loaned nouns altered in the Early Modern English period?
Compounding: words of different origins just put together
also combinations of noun-noun, noun-verb etc.
Conversion: changing word class of a word without derivation, i.e. without adding a suffix/prefix or anything
Verb -> noun: shudder, whisper
Adjective -> noun: fluid, human
Noun -> verb: bottle, pocket, group, silence
Particle -> verb: foward, near, humph
Also conversion to adverb
Which constructions were mainly affected in Early Modern English by do support/do periophrasis?
Negatives
in ME/OE: addition of negative particle: You NOT wear wigs
Negatives in EmodE: rise of do-support for lexical verbs: You don’t wear wigs
Interrogatives
in OE/ME: inversion of verb and Subject: You wear wigs vs. Wear you wigs?
in EmodE: rise of do-support for lexical verbs
Do you wear wigs?
How was the verb “do” used in Old English?
As a lexical verb: “You do your work”
Ellipsis; to avoid repeating a verb: “He creaved the mineral and so did she”
Causative: *He who does make him wear wig” -> he who causes him to wear wigs
When did do-periphrasis fist appear in the English language and what was it like?
In early ME: appearance of new construction formed by do + infinitive verb
Only in declarative sentences (you do wear wigs)
Semantically the same as the present tense
What two theories exist regarding the origin of do-periphrasis?
Causative hypothesis
Celtic hypothesis
What is the causative hypothesis?
Hypothesis on how do-periphrasis came to be in EModeE/in the English language
Idea: Causative do-use was misinterpreted as a perfective marker in reanalysis since the prefix ge- which used to fulfill this role was lost
perfective: completed action
Perfective marker was eventually interpreted as auxiliary
-> pragmatic shift as cause of creation of do-periphrasis
What is the Celtic hypothesis?
before late 13th century: first attestation of do-periphrasis in Cornish and Welsh
Do in affirmative statemets still survives to this day in dialects that are close to the area of Welsh and Cornish
Describe the rise of do-periphrasis in the English language chronologically.
1400: First appearance in affirmative declaratives, quickly ceases to be popular
1500-1600:
Steep rise in usage of do-periphrasis in interrogatives (negative and affirmative questions)
Less steep rise in negative imperatives and negative declaratives
1600-1700:
NQ and AQ in 100% of sentences by end of 1700
Steep rise in NI and ND, also reach the 100% mark around 1700
What is important about the structure of do-periphrasis?
sentences with do-support have the same structure as senteces with other auxiliaries
Sentences with do-support have the Subject-Object-Verb structure which is the hallmark symbol of Modern English Syntax
Verbs need do-support of they are lexical verbs instead of modals
How was do-support used by the end of the 18th century?
Do becomes obligatory in the grammatical structure of English
Negation: “He hasnt worn wigs” <-> “he didnt wear wigs”
Inversion “Has the wig been worn?” <-> “Did he wear wigs?”
Code “She was rewarded and so was he” <-> “She got rewarded and so did he”
Emphasis: “He wore wigs” <-> “He did wear wigs”
Which verbs resist do-support?
In negation
Care
Come
Doubt
Have
Know
Mistake
Speak
In interrogation
Dare
Do
Hear
Mean
Need
Say
Think
How was the progressive constructed in Early Modern English?
Construction of be plus -ing (“What are you reading?”) develops in ME
Not clear where -ing construction comes from, maybe Celtic origni
Still unsettled in 16th and 17th century
Do alternative: “What do you read?”
How was the passive constructed in Early Modern English?
There was no progressive passive, active progressive was used to express the passive
One would say “the house is building” but not “the House is being built”
There was no confustion between active and passive, distinction was based on the fact that
Active had animate subject
Passive had inanimate subject
Get-passive did not exist yet, developed in late EmodE
Be-passive: “you were hurt”
Get-passive “you got hurt”
Get-passive used in interrogatives with do-support, i.e. “Did you get hurt?”
Get passive was used with agentive subject, i.e. when the agent is also the subject
How did the introduction of do-support in the English language influence the Early Modern English perfect usage?
Auxiliaries of the perfect: be and have
In ME and OE:
Be with intransitives (“ich bin geblieben”)
Have with transitives (“Ich habe ihr gesagt” -> with object)
in EmodE
Have gains ground
Do used almost exclusively with verbs indicating states, i. e. contious tense (like, love, believe)
Perfect in EmodE optionals, perfect less common than preteriete
In EmodE perfect could be used with an adverbial of time to link the action with the past
“…which I have forgot to do yesterday”
What did the connection between nouns and possessives look like in Early modern English?
Zero possessives: Mikes book
Possessives with pronouns instead of genitive s
Mike his book
His not really used as a pronounc since it was also used when a feminine noun would´ve been expected -> rather a homophone of the genitive
Ofte possessive with prouns if genitive s would have been followed by another s, as in “Mike´s sentence”
What was the construction of plural nouns like in Early modern English?
Plural construction slowly itching towards regularisation
-s plural slowly erasing -en plurals, but EmodE still had more -en plurals than present day English
Describe the development of the use of personal pronouns in the Early Modern English period.
between 14th and 16th century: You (accusative plural) became standardises as nominative, pushed out yet
1600: Thou as marked form which carries special implications of prestige while you is the normal unmarked
Thou dies out at beginning of Early Modern English period
Late 16th century: Creation of its by adding -es to it, spread rapidly
1620: Use of its normal
1660: hem last recorded, weak form em popular in plays
Describe the development of the use of poossessive pronouns in the Early Modern English period.
Beginning of Early Modern English period: mine/thine used when preceeding a vowel, my and thy used before consonants
During EME period my and thy become more popular at expense of mine and thine
Describe the usage of reflexive pronouns in the Early Modern English period.
development of -self form (myself, yourself) to form reflexives
Still useage of ordinary personal pronouns for reflexive forms
Use of simple self in empathic pronouns rare
Empathic pronouns: Noun plus reflexive = “I myself” “The queen herself”
Around 1500: First appearance of plural forms for -self (themselves) alongside forms like them self
1550: plural forms for -self are the norm
Describe the usage of adjectives in the Early Modern English period.
Disappearance of strong/weak distinction
Indeclinable
Free variation between analytic/periphrastic (more pretty) and synthetic/inflectional (prettier)
Sometimes even mix of periphrastic and inflection (more prettier)
Mutated comparative and superlative forms (lenger, lengest)
Overall quite equal distribution of inflectional and periphrastic variation across centuries, peak of inflectional adjectives between 1850 and 1900 (about 70% of cases)
Describe the usage of second person singular verbs in the Early Modern English period.
Concord with thou -> morpheme -est
Occasionally also -es found
Previous northern variation
-es frequent in verbs which ended in -t because of the weird construction it would´ve resulted in
First tense in marking (i. e. -ed for past), then person marking (i. e. -est for second person singular) -> walk-ed-est
Have was ussually contracted to hast instead of hauest, but hauest also occasionally found in 16th century
Describe the usage of third person singular verbs in the Early Modern English period.
-eth or -es
-th instead of -eth ending in…
Do (doth)
Have (hath)
Say (saith)
By 1600, people would often write -eth but pronounce it -es
The -es ending was more likely to be used…
By female writers
In the phonological context of liquids (l, r)
In the phonological context of stops (b, p, d, t)
In the phonological context of sibiliant (s, z)
In the phonological context of vowels
In verbs other than do and have
Describe the usage of past tenses and past participles in the Early Modern English period.
same function as today, but actual form sometimes different than today
Veriant forms
Strong verbs vs. weak verbs
Tendency for strong verbs to become weak -> sometimes weak verbs would become strong aswell
EME variations
The past tense of strong verbs
In EME the singular and plural stems of strong verbs are used as temporal variants, i.e. sang and sung or rid and rod
Analogy: past tenses of strong verbs adapted to past tenses of weak verbs
Analogy: complex word form is changed and adapted to already existing simpler structure
What is the history of how English came to Scotland?
500 AD: Angles living in present day Scotland
Dynastic ties, i.e. Malcolm III married West Saxon Princess Margaret 1070
AS immigration following Norman Conquest
1603: union of crowns
1707: union of parliaments, English established as national language
What are the general characteristics of Scots/Scottish?
Standardized English variety spoken in Southern Scotland
Rather conservative phonology
Rhotic language
How is the Scottish vowel quality different from the vowel quality of British English?
Preservation of short vowel distinction, i. e. short vowels merged to schwa if they came before /r/ and the /r/ sound was sometimes lost, but this did not happen in scottish
beer pronounced bi:r, poor pronounced pu:r
First and fern du not contain schwa, but rather I or ɜ
Lack of distinction between ʊ and u, both pronounced with u -> pool and pull both pronounced like pool, foot and boot both pronounced like boot
Lack of distinction between Æ and ɑ (ample vs. sample)
I and schwa might be neutralized (sound the same)
How is the Scottish vowel quantity different from the vowel quantity of British English?
most vowels in Scottish long
all short vowels (except I and schwa) lengthened
before voiced fricatives
before r
at the end of words
How do the Scottish diphthong differ from British English diphthongs?
some diphthongs monophthongs
həʊm -> ho:m
ɡreɪt -> gret
Some diphthongs split into other diphthongs
aɪ has split into
əɪ (as in side)
ae (as in sighed)
aʊ can be centralized to əʊ (so the vowels in mouth would be pronounced like the vowels in show)
How do the Scottish consonants differ from British English consonants?
Scottish is rhotic
No h- or yod-dropping
Hw and w are distinguished
Voiceless stops lightly aspirated
Existence of /x/ even in English words like night
θ in certain words which would demand ð
How do the Scottish grammar differ from British English grammar (in terms of plurals, definite articles, pronouns, prefixes)?
Remnant plural forms with -en (shoon instead of shoes)
Use of definite article (the) where English would use indefinite
Personal pronoun: use of second person singular thou, new creation of yous
Use of a- affix where English would use be- prefix
How do the Scottish negation differ from British English negation?
use of No or nae
Typically contracted to form terms such as canno, didnae, hadnae
multiple negatives possible
How does the Scottish use of modals differ from British English use of modals?
Will has replaced shall (Will I open the window?)
Can/get to instead of may
Shoud/want instead of ought
Multiple modals possible
Infinitival marekr to may precede a modal, as in ´”Id like to could to that”
No dummy do necessary
How do the Scottish verb tenses differ from British English verb tenses?
Passive may be marked with frae (from) or by
Progressive with state verbs widely spread (Im needing to see you)
Also: need without to be (my hair needs washed)
Use of past tense when perfect is expected
Where is Scottish spoken and by whom?
More adolescent speakers than other age groups, but it doesnt survive because they have no one to talk to
Overall gradual decrease in Gaelic speakers
Mainly used in informal spaces
52% speakers Outer hebrides
5% highland, Inverness, Argyll and Bute
10% in Glasgow, 5878 speakers, absolute largest number of speakers
Describe the history behind the contact between the Irish and the English.
1163: first Anglo-Norman settlement established around Doublin (the Pale) -> Entrance of English presence in Ireland
1172: Henry II Lord of Ireland (Norman King)
1600s: End of Irish-Gaelic predominance in Ireland because of…
Defeat of the Irish under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
Influx of English settlers during reign of James I
Efforts by Cromwell to dominate the Irish
Plantation schemes
17th century: migration of protestants from southwest Scotland
1800: Acts of Union, Ireland becomes part of England -> steady decline of Gaelic
1831: introduction of National Schools, English-medium only
1850: Great potato famine, English dominant in Ireland
End of 19th century: 80% of Irish population monolingual English speakers
1921: Partition of Ireland into a Southern Republic of Ireland and British Northern Ireland
How is the dialects spoken in the Southern Republic of Ireland different than the dialect spoken in British Northern Ireland?
Different development of English and Gaelic through the island
RoI:
Hiberno English
rural and urban varieties
Influenced by migration from West country and west midlands of England who settled in Doublin
NI:
Ulster-Scots/Scots-Irish: variation brought by Lowland Scots to Ulster
Northern Hiberno-English
Stron similiarities to Scottish
trade connection for centuries
Influenced by migration of Scottish protestants in 17th century
1607: intensive Scott settlements in Ulster
What is the status of Irish in Ireland?
1937: English official second language of IReland
English official language in Northern Ireland
Since 2022 Irish also an official language
What are some main characteristics of irish phonology?
Rather conservative
Vowels not reduced before /r/
rhotic dialect
What is special about the Irish vowel system?
Vowels not reduced to /r/
/ɜ/ and /e/ not raised to /i:/ in ea words (easy, steal, cheat, leave)
Sometimes /ɜ/ and /e/ merge to /ɜ/ before n (i.e. pen and pin are homophones, both sounding like pen)
E and o tend to be monophthongs
What can be said about the use of diphthong in Irish?
ɔɪ and aI merged to əɪ (boi and buy therefore homophones)
No diphthong in words like bay, plate, weight, but rather monophthong e
What is special about the Irish consonant system?
no h- or yod-dropping
Characteristic intonation pattern: HRT declarative sentences can end with a rising pitch
Distinction between h and hw
interdental fricatives (th) are realized as dental (t, d)
What can be said about Irish stress patterns?
postponed stress on verbal suffixes
in polysyllabic words stress on vowel after consonant cluster
What can be said about Irish verb tenses patterns?
be after (v)-ing instead of perfect (“He is after getting up” instead of “he just got up”)
Use of do be (v)-ing/adjective for habitual action
Will instead of shall
Progressive or present instead of past tense
What can be said about the use of “small words” in Irish (if/when, articles, though, since?)
And for all subordinate conjunctions (if, when etc.)
Use of definite article where English would use indefinite
But instead of though
From instead of since
It cleft to emphasizes (Its a nice girl, she is)
What can be said about the speakers of Irish?
Between 1861 and 1926 significantly fewer Irish-speakers than non-Irish speakers (20 - 80 ratio)
Since 1946 somewhat increase in Irish speakers (up to 40%)
A lot more Irish speakers among 12-15 y. o. than other age group
Number of people able to speak irish in 2016:
1`751`420 (40%)
Decrease of 13k from 2011
More women (55%) than men (45%)
How did the use of tense change from OE to ME?
Both have present and preterite (more change in strong/weak distinction etc.)
How did the use of mood change from OE to ME?
In OE:
indicative
Subjunctive
Imperative
In ME
Loss of morphological distinction between indicative, subjunctive and imperative
How did the use of voice change from OE to ME?
active/passive
Periphrastic passive: formed with beon and worphan + part participle
ME
Active/passive
Worthen overtaken by ben in periphrastic passive
Which periphrastic constructions developped from OE to ME (chronologically)?
Word oder fixation
Complex periphrastic forms develop: progressive
Late 14th century:
Perfect (she has worked)
Pluperfect (she had been working)
14th century: future (she will enjoy)
16th century: future perfect (she will have enjoyed and all passive froms)
Contributory influences of Celtic and French
How did the periphrastic construction of progressive come about in ME?
expanded construction: BE + present participle (-ende)
Early ME morphological confusion affects ending of
present participle (-nde)
infinitive -(n(ne))
verbal noun (-ung)
-> -ing form expands functionally
How did the periphrastic construction of perfect and pluperfect come about in ME?
Habben perfect much more frequent than earlier in ME, especially in more colloquial style
pluperfect refers to completed actions in the past
How did the usage of ben (to be) and habben (to have) change in periphrastic constructions in the ME period?
habben ousts ben in formation of perfect except in
set expressions
mutative constructions
intransitive verbes (no direct object)
state/place change
Greater functional load of ben in
progressive
perfect
passive
How did the role of modal auxiliaries change from OE to ME?
Common development in core modals (will, shall, may, mot, can)
Modals lose non-finite forms (to can vs. canning)
Modals move towards intransitive forms
Notational, more lexical meaning lost
Modals can no longer take object (i can this)
Tense differences no longer indicate temporal pupose, but rather subjunctve (could =/= tense meaning)
relation between modals and folllowing infinitve verb becomes closer
Complex modal constructions deriving from French: to be to, to have to, to be able to
How did the role of modals shall and will change from OE to ME?
Shall and will take on future marker function
Shall retains meaning of obligation and necessity
Used in prophecies, commands and instructions -> frequent with 3rd person
Grammaticalizes earlier than will
Wil retains meaning of volition
Used in promises, wishes and resolutions -> frequent with 1st person
Probably more frequent in popular style
What is Schneiders model and which five phases are described in it?
Model describes how development of New Englishes around the world is shaped by similar processes characterised by consisent
sociolinguistic situation
Language contact situation
Five phases
Foundation
English begins to be used on rgular basis in a country which was not English-speaking before
Exonormative Stabilization
Political and social stabilization
English spoken regularly in a new environmen within resident community of expatriate speakers that provide most of the usage
Nativization
Central phase of lunguistic and cultural transformation
Traditional realities, identities, sociopolitical alignment change and are replaced by a new reality
Development of lingiustic indiosyncrasies
Awareness of deviance from old norm, which leads to discussion
Language changes at all levels
Endonormative Stabilization
Acceptance of an indigenous linguistic group
Creation of new linguistic standards
No more conservative attitudes
Differentiation
Linguistic and cultural indipendence has developped
New dialects emerge with new sociolinguistic interpretations
How did the English arrive to America and what happened to those settlements?
1584: Roanoke island: no one knows what happened to those people
1607: Jamestown
Rhotic accent
More rounded words
Initial voicing of fricative /s/
1620: Plymouth/Boston
Non-rhotic accent
H-dropping
Be in past perfect
What is the source of the features of North American English?
In England London played a central role in standardization
Affected by ongoing language change in South and East Midlands
Settler of North America often came from
Northern England
Scotland
Ireland
-> did not share (all) Southern innovations!
English norms were also seen as repressive and degenerate, therefore they were avoided
Insofar NA English is much more conservative than British Englihs (preserving features of 18th century British English)
But there was still a certain tendency to copy from the English
What is Koinezation? How does it happen?
Emergence of new homgenous variety of a language in a country
Language contact situation leads to
Levelling: levelling out of minority/marked speech forms
Focusing: reduction of available forms
Simplification: Reduction of irregularities
Results in
Historically mixed and synchronically stable dialect with features from different dialects
Intradialect forms: forms/features that were not present in any of the dialects/variations involved in the language contact (i. e. new creation)
Was early NA English a koine?
No argument: evidence that there wasnt a great variety of English dialects in NA
Yes arguments
Major language contact development
Around middle of 18th century: full koine stage reached
1780: partial decline of koine when other influences from other languages became apparent (new British settlers, slaves from Africa)
Probably koinezation far more gradual and eventually incomplete
How can koinezation be studied?
Document the input varieties of the settlers
Document the maintenance of linguistic patterns past settlement period
Develop a scenario in which minority patterns could’ve been maintaine
How did Canadian English develop?
At first French settlement & control
17th century: first English settlements
1783: Arrival of emigrants from the US following the declaration of independence
Emigrants who were loyal to the British crown and thus fled the US
Northern dialects of US brought to Canada
1816-1857: Napoleonic war, new wave of British settlements (over 1 million people)
Ties with British English much stronger
Dialects of many places still reflect settlement history
Irish based in Newfoundland
Scotsbased in Cape Breton an Nova Scotia
What can be said about the phonology of General American and General Canadian?
Most varieties rhotic
NAE preserves ae in staff, grass, example
many varieties preserve hw cluster
No initial h dropping
t voicing in intervocalic position
latter/ladder
metal/meddal
Yod-dropping
How are General American and General Canadian English different than British English in terms of grammar?
Inflected subjunctive
Singular verbs agree with collective noun
The government + plural vs. the government + singular in BE
Forms of pat and past participle differ
Objects after intransitive verb
Which languages are spoken in Canada (with respective percentages)?
58% English
22.3% Immigrant
21.4% French
0.6% Aborginal
What is the status of aborginal languages in Canada?
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