a history of the english language-1

7/23/2019 A History of the English Language-1

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A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Chapter 1: Continuity and chane

By origin, English is a Germanic language, like German or Dutch or the Scandinavian

languages such as Danish or Swedish. Its most common words as well as its fundamental

grammatical structure are similar to those of the other Germanic languages. But English has

undergone a number of more radical changes than the other Germanic languages, for instanceGerman, which makes it strikingly different from them.

The historical develoment of English reflects the internal history !sounds, inflections, etc"

as well as the e#ternal history, i.e. the olitical, social and intellectual forces that have

determined the course of the develoment at different eriods. The history of the English

language is to a large e#tent the history of the foreign influences which have affected it.

$evertheless, in site of the e#tensive foreign influences, English has always remained a

Germanic language.

%s %.Baugh and Th. &able oint out in their book, the 'istory of the English (anguage is a

cultural sub)ect and *the soundest basis for an understanding of resent day English is a

knowledge of the ath it has followed in becoming what it is.+ !-/0 "

It is imortant to study the history of the English language because the future secialistsof English should know something about the structureand evolution of the English language,

about the wealth of its vocabularytogether with thesourcesfrom which the vocabulary has

been enriched and is being enriched.

It is also imortant to know something about the great social, olitical and cultural

factors which have influenced the English language0the English language of today reflects in

its entire develoment the social, olitical and cultural history of the English eole.

1ore recisely, it is necessary to study the history of the English language in order to

understand certain phonetic, grammatical and lexical henomena of the contemorary

language0

2 It is only by studying the history of the English language that we can understand the

relation betweenpronunciation andspellingin contemorary English. It thus becomes clear to

us why certain letters have no corresonding sounds in words like knee, gnat, night, sign,

doubt, debtetc., or why certain letters are ronounced in different ways, e.g. the letter a,or

the digrah ea in words like hear, dead, great, bear, hard, heart. 3r, further, why one and the

same sound can be reresented by different letters, e.g. the sound 4] can be reresented bythe letter u in words like run, sun, or by the letter oin words like come, son. &ertain sounds

can have an even more diverse reresentation, e.g. the sound 45 can be reresented by at leasteight sellings0ship, sure, tissue, moustache, ocean, conscience, motion, fuchsia.

2 There aregrammatical phenomenawhich become clear only when they are e#amined from

the oint of view of their origin. 6or instance, irregular lurals like men, feet, geese, mice, or

nouns like deer, sheep which have the same form in the lural as in the singular7 or modalverbs likemust, can, may which take nosin the 8rderson singular 9resent Tense Indicative.

2 In the field of vocabulary, we are struck by the similarity between a large number of

English andGermanwords. !house Haus, winter Winter, good gut, bring bringen,

have haben, etc", on the one hand, and between someEnglish andrench words !cousin

cousin, table table, village village, beauty beaut!, change changer, etc", on the other

hand. The coe#istence of Germanic and :omance elements within one and the same language

is e#lained by studying the history of the English language.

2 The history of the English language is also of great hel to us when studying the history of

England. Thus, for instance, it is e#tremely interesting to study such imortant historical

events as the introduction of &hristianity, the $orman &on;uest, the :enaissance, the

Industrial :evolution, the e#ansion of the British Emire, etc., in close connection with theenrichment of the English vocabulary. Thus, the &hristiani


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England into close contact with (atin civili??.

In a similar way, the 'undred @earsA ar, the :enaissance, the develoment of England as

a maritime ower, the e#ansion of the British Emire, the growth of commerce and industry,

of science and literature, have each, in its way, contributed to make the English language what

it is today.

In short, the English language reflects in its entire develoment, the olitical, social,

cultural history of the English eole.

2 1oreover, a study of the evolution of English will enable us to gras the full beauty and

significance of the imortant literary works of different eriods, e.g. G. &haucer in 1iddleEnglish, . Shakeseare in Early 1odern English, etc. %s &. (. renn uts it, *the aesthetic

areciation of Shakeseare and 1ilton is immensely ;uickened by an understanding of their

language7 the e#act shades of meaning of their words and hrases become clear only through

the consciousness of the semantic changes in the language+. !cited from E. Iarovici, -80 ?"

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Cour!e ":En#i!h $ a Ger%anic #anuae

"&1&%lthough the earliest inhabitants of Britain were not of Germanic origin, English

belongs to the Germanic languages which, in their turn, belong to the larger grou of

languages known as Indo2Euroean.

The Indo2Euroean family is comosed of the following main branches of languages0Indian, Iranian, %lbanian, %rmenian, 'ellenic Greek, Italic, Baltic, Slavic Slavonic,

Germanic, &eltic, Tocharian, 'ittite.

The Indo2Euroean languages have two main characteristics0

a"An in'#ectiona# !tructure, i.e. a grammatical system based on changes in the forms of

words by means of endings !inflections" and vowel modifications to indicate various

grammatical categories0 case, number, mood, tense7

b"%ll Indo2Euroean languages share a co%%on (ord !toc), i.e. words that resemble one

another in form and meaning !FcognateA words". This common word stock includes the names

of arts of the body, family relations, natural henomena, lants, animals, the numerals from

one to ten, etc. e shall illustrate the common Indo2Euroean vocabulary with two cognate

words from five Indo2Euroean languages. e.g. !night" 3E niht, G. $acht, (. noctis, Gk. nukts, Sl. HoJ !noch"

!brother" 3E broor, G. Bruder, (. frater, Gk. 9hrater, Sl. KLMmN !brat""&"&The Germanic languages fall into three grous0 East Germanic,"orth Germanic and

WestGermanic. These Germanic languages must have originated in a language generally

called &ommon or 9rimitive Germanic which is not reserved in any document.

"&"&1&Ea!tGer%anic

The chief reresentative of the East Germanic languages is Gothic. 6or a time, the Goths

layed a rominent art in Euroean history0 thus, the 3strogoths and Oisigoths con;uered

Italy and Sain.

The Gothic language has been reserved in a translation of the Bible made by the bisho of

the Oisigoths called ulfila, in the second half of the P thcentury. The translation is the oldest

Germanic document, three centuries older than any old English document, thus forming the

nearest aroach one can have to &ommon !or 9rimitive" German. Besides Gothic, to this

branch also belonged#urgundianand $andalic which disaeared a long time ago, leaving no

traces e#cet a few roer names. %ll these languages are e#tinct now.

"&"&"&North Ger%anic

This branch, also known as $orse !or Scandinavian" includes Swedish, Danish, $orwegian

and Icelandic. The oldest $orth Germanic documents Q some runicR inscritions !in 3ld

$orse" date from the Pth or =thcentury.

"&"&*&+e!t Ger%anic

The est Germanic languages were divided into two branches0 HighGermanand%owGerman, according to their geograhic osition0

i.High Germanis now reresented solely by German Q the literary language of Germany,

also soken in %ustria and a large art of Swit


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Because of their common ancestry, the Germanic languages are said to be enetica##y

re#ated. Early forms of English and German were once dialects of a common ancestor

called ,roto-Ger%anic, )ust as the :omance languages, 6rench, Sanish, etc., were once

dialects of (atin soken in the :oman Emire. % roto2language is the ancestral language

from which related languages have develoed. !O. 6romkin0 P="

Both (atin and 9roto2Germanic were themselves descendants of the older languagecalled Indo2Euroean !see aragrah C.."

&ld English, therefore, belonged to the (ow Germanic languages which were art of

the grou of est Germanic languages.3ld English was the result of a mi#ture of several

Germanic dialects brought to the British Isles by the %ngles, the Sa#ons and the utes. %s

English belongs to the est Germanic branch of the larger Germanic family, it shares

certain characteristics common to all the est Germanic languages. i. English, together

with other Germanic languages, shows the shifting of certain consonants. In /C> the

German hilologist acob Grimm following u a suggestion of a Danish contemorary, :.

:ask, formulated an e#lanation which systematically accounted for the corresondences

between certain consonants in the Germanic languages and those found in other Indo2

Euroean non2Germanic languages, for e#amle in (atin and Greek. This is described asGrimmAs law. Thus0

2 The consonant p in the IE !non2Germanic" languages became ' in the Germanic

languages7

2 The consonant ) in the IE !non2Germanic" languages became h in the Germanic

languages7

2 The consonant d in the IE !non2Germanic" languages became t in the Germanic

languages7

2 The consonant ' in the IE !non2Germanic" languages became . in the Germanic

languages.

IE non-Ger%anic!(atin" Ger%anic #anuae

(atin English German

p ' pater father $ater

pisces ish isch

pes ' pedem foot u(

) h centum hundred Hundert

d t duo two )wei

dens ' dentem tooth )ahn

' . frater brother #ruder

ii. 6rom the grammatical oint of view there are some similarities between English andthe other Germanic languages0

a" In English, as well as in other Germanic languages, there are two large grous of verbs0

strong verbs, which form the 9ast Tense by internal vowel changes within its stem7 and weak

verbs, which form the 9ast Tense by the addition of a suffi# containing a dental consonant 2ed

in English, 2t*e+in German.

strong Os0 trinken trankgetrunken !drink 2 drank Qdrunk"

weak verbs0fragen fragte gefragt!ask Q askedQ asked"

The attern of the strong verbs !with internal vowel change" was inherited from Indo2

Euroean, but that of the weak verbs was new and distinctly Germanic. acob Grimm called

them FweakA because, being unable to change the internal vowel, they had to resort to e#ternal

means, namely to suffi#es.

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b" There are grammatical similarities between English and other Germanic languages !in

articular German"0

2 in the con)ugation of verbs0

9resent Tense - hear -ch hre

9ast Tense - heard -ch hrte

9resent 9erfect - have heard -ch habe gehrt!9resent Tense of au#. habenQ have U 9ast 9articile"

9ast 9erfect - had heard -ch hatte gehrt

!9ast Tense of au#. haben 2 haveU 9ast 9articile"

2 there were two tyes of ad)ective declension in 3ld English as well as in other

Germanic languages0 the weak declension !when the ad)ective was receded by a determiner"

and thestrong declension !when the ad)ective was not". In the $ominative case there were

two forms0

weak decl. se goda mann!Germ. der gute /annFthe good manA " strong decl. god mann!Germ.guter /annFgood manA"2 There are grammatical similarities between English and German in the inflections for

comaring ad)ectives0 e.g. Engl. loud louder the loudest

Germ.laut lauter der *die, das+ lauteste

the synthetic genitive in Fs0

e.g. Engl. the man0s name

Germ.1er "ame des /annes2 des /annes "ame !formal, obsolete"

iii. There are similarities in the vocabulary, esecially in simle, everyday words between

English and other Germanic languages0

e.g. E.father' G.$ater2 brother ' #ruder2 sing ' singen2 good ' gut2 here ' hier

"&*& The #anuae! that preceded En#i!h in /ritain

e are so accustomed to thinking of English as the language of the British Isles that we are

likely to forget that English has been the language of the British Isles for a comaratively

short eriod. The English language was introduced into the British Isles comaratively

recently Q about the middle of the =thcentury. @et, the British Isles have been lived by man for

about =>,>>> years. During this long stretch of time the resence of a number of races can be

detected and each of the races had a language. Vnfortunately, we know ne#t to nothing about

the early languages of Britain.

"&*&1&Ce#tic

The earliest inhabitants of Britain about whose language we have reliable information are

the &elts. There were two main branches of &elts0

i. The Britannic &elts who lived in Britain7ii. The Goidelic !Gaelic" &elts who lived at first in Ireland and then sread to the East and

South East.

&eltic was the first Indo2Euroean language to be soken in the British Isles and it is still

soken in some arts of the island0

a" The language of the Britannic &elts is now reresented in Britain by Welsh which is

soken in ales. elsh is soken by about one million eole, most of whom are bilingual0

according to a census made in -= only 8W of the oulation in ales did not know English.

3ornish, which had the same origin as elsh, died out as a soken language in &ornwall

towards the close of the /thcentury.

b" The language of the Goidelic !Gaelic" &elts is now reresented by -rish !soken in

Ireland by about half a million eole, most of whom are bilingual"7 4cots Gaelic!soken inthe highlands of Scotland" and/anx!soken in the Isle of 1an".

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"&*&"& Latin

The second language to be soken in Britain was (atin which was introduced after the

:oman con;uest of P8 %D when Britain became a rovince of the :oman Emire.

In fact, the attemt at con;uering the island had started much earlier. In == B&, ulius

&aesar, having comleted the con;uest of Gaul, decided uon an invasion of Britain, but the

attack failed. The following year, =P B&, he again invaded the island and this time hesucceeded in establishing himself in the south2east. . &aesar e#acted tribute from the &elts,

which was never aid, so he again returned to Gaul, and Britain was not troubled by the

:oman armies for nearly a hundred years. In P8 %D, the emeror &laudius decided to

undertake the con;uest of the island. ithin 8 years he sub)ugated the tribes of the south 2

eastern and central regions. Subse;uent camaigns brought almost the entire island under

:oman rule with the e#cetion of some arts in ales and Scotland where most of the &elts

had fled to. The military con;uest was followed by the 5omani6ation of the rovince0

highways, roads, well2lanned towns with ublic buildings, amhitheatres, baths, etc., testify

to the introduction of the :oman way of life.

(atin was soken for about four centuries, but it did not relace &eltic as it did in Gaul.

(atin was known to the uer classes and it was the language of civil administration, thearmy, trade and, to a large e#tent, it was known by the inhabitants of the cities and towns.

'owever, its use began to decrease after the :oman troos were withdrawn at the beginning

of the =th century and did not survive the Germanic invasion, leaving comaratively few

traces.

"& *.*& The Ger%anic Con0ue!t

A'ter the year 2 an e3ent occurred (hich pro'ound#y a''ected the cour!e o' hi!tory&

In that year .ean the in3a!ion o' /ritain .y certain Ger%anic tri.e! that !ett#ed in

/ritain in the 4thand 5thcenturie! and (ho are con!idered the 'ounder! o' the En#i!h

nation&

% detailed account of the Germanic invasion is given by a monk and scholar, called the

Oenerable Bede. In his chronicleEcclesiastical History of the English 7eople, written in (atin

!Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis 8nglorum" and comleted in 8, he tells us that the Germanic

tribes who con;uered the island were the %ngles, the Sa#ons and the utes.

In fact, Britain had been e#osed to attacks from the Sa#ons much earlier than PP-, from

as early as the Pthcentury, even while the island was under :oman rule. Two other &eltic

tribes, the 9icts and the Scots had been attacking Britain from as early as 8=>. %ll these tribes

were ket out only at the rice of constant vigilance. %gainst both of these sources of attack

the :oman military organi, the &elts found themselves unrotectedand were no longer able to kee out the Germanic bands.

The8nglesoccuied some arts of Britain north of the Thames and lowland Scotland.

The 4axons,who were closely akin to the %ngles in seech and customs, occuied the

whole art of Britain south of the Thames7 they also settled in some regions north of the

Thames such as Esse# and 1iddlese#.

The9uteshad come to Britain to assist the &elts to drive away the invading 9icts and

Scots. But they liked the country, so they decided to stay and began to settle down. They

settled in Xent, Southern 'amshire, the Isle of ight.

Though the Sa#ons were numerically suerior to the %ngles, the latter were influential

enough to imose their name on the whole7 after the year >>> the country began to be called

8nglaland !YEngland", i.e. the land of the %ngles and the language was called 8nglisc!YEnglish".

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The linguistic conse;uences of the Germanic &on;uest were e#tremely imortant, for a

new language suerseded &eltic and (atin Q a Germanic language !e#cet in Scottish

'ighlands, in ales and &ornwall". This new language resulted from the fusion of the dialects

soken by the Germanic tribes who had come from the continent. The seech of the %ngles

cannot have differed very much from that of the Sa#ons or that of the utes, but those

differences that e#isted must account for the various English dialects."&& The period! in the hi!tory o' the En#i!h #anuae

The history of the English language in England begins with the settlement of the Germanic

tribes 2 the %ngles, the Sa#ons and the utes Q in Britain in PP-. The evolution of English in

the fifteen hundred years of its e#istence in England has been an unbroken one. ithin this

steady develoment, however, it is ossible to distinguish three main eriods, each of them

having certain broad characteristics0

O#d En#i!hlasted from PP- to about >=> !>?? >>".

The English language soken in Britain from the Germanic invasions of the =th century

!PP-" u to about the end of the thcentury !>=>" is now usually called &ld English, though

the term8nglo4axon is also in use. The name %nglo2Sa#on was meant to distinguish the

Sa#ons who had come to Britain, from those who remained on the continent. The term isoften used now to refer to eole of English descent. The term3ld English has the advantage,

when used together with 1iddle English and 1odern English, of ointing out the continuous

historical develoment of the English language.

6idd#e En#i!hlasted from about >=> !>?? >>" to about =>>.

6odern En#i!h0 from =>> to the resent time.

(ike all divisions in history, these eriods of the English language are matters of

convenience, and the dividing line between them is urely arbitrary, being marked by the

dates of events in English history, but each eriod has certain broad characteristics and certain

secial develoments that took lace.

%n e#amination of the changes that have occurred in English during the ast ,>>> years

shows changes in the le#icon as well as the honological, morhological, syntactic, and

semantic comonents of the grammar.

3ld English is generally referred to as the eriod of full endingsor full inflections7

1iddle English as the eriod of levelled endingsor levelled inflections and 1odern English

as the eriod of lost endingsor lost inflections.

%s far as the inflectional system is concerned, 3ld English was a !ynthetic language, i.e.

one in which the relations between words are e#ressed by inflections, whereas 1odern

English is an ana#ytica# language i.e. one in which such relations are e#ressed by form

words and fixed word order. In the course of its develoment, English has simlified its

inflectional system to a larger e#tent than all the other Germanic languages. $evertheless, it

has not become oorer in means of e#ression, because the relations between words wererendered by other means than inflections, vi


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Chapter *: OL7 ENGLISH

*&1& O#d En#i!h 7ia#ect!:

In the ?thcentury, the gradual change from clans to feudalism began and the English settled

down into a number of small kingdoms. There were seven kingdoms at the end of the ? th

century0"orthumbria, /ercia, East 8nglia, Essex, :ent, 4ussex, Wessex.3ld English was not an entirely uniform language. 3n the one hand, there were differences

between the language of the earliest written records !about >> %D" and that of the later

literary te#ts7 on the other hand, the language differed from one locality to another.

The manuscrits that have been reserved enable us to establish the chief dialects. There

were four dialects in 3ld English0"orthumbrian, /ercian, :entish, West 4axon.

i&The Northu%.rian 7ia#ecte#tended from the 'umber into the (owlands of Scotland. It

had been brought to Britain by %nglian tribes. The dialect is reserved mainly in charters,

runic inscritions, some translations of the Bible. The most imortant manuscrits written in

the $orthumbrian dialect are &aedmonAsHymn,BedeAs1eath 4ong.1any manuscrits seem

to belong to the -thcentury. This dialect has a descendant in (owland Scots.

ii& The 6ercian 7ia#ect8also brought by the %ngles was soken between the 'umber andthe Thames. %s very few 1ercian te#ts have been reserved, we know ne#t to nothing about

the 1ercian dialect whose descendant was to become the basis of the national language in late

1iddle English.

iii& 9enti!h8the dialect of the utes, was soken in the South2East !over an area slightly

larger than the resent county of Xent". This dialect is known from very few remains, a few

glosses and charters.

i3& The +e!t Saon 7ia#ect,which was soken south of the Thames !esse#" had been

brought to Britain by Sa#on tribes.

Xent was the first to gain suremacy owing to the cultural sueriority of its invaders and to

the continuous contact with the continent. In the early art of the th century$orthumbria

en)oyed olitical and cultural suremacy over the other kingdoms. But in the - thcentury this

leadershi assed to esse#. Vnder Xing %lfred the Great, who ruled between / Q //-,

esse# attained a high degree of roserity and enlightenment. In the - thcentury, the est

Sa#on dialect began to be used as a sort of common literary language owing to the hegemony

established by Xing %lfred the Great and to the influence of his writings. The ma)or art of

3ld English literature has survived in the est Sa#on Dialect.

O#d En#i!h Literature: The language of a ast time is known by the ;uality of its

literature. It is in literature that a language dislays its full ower, its ability to convey in vivid

and memorable forms the thoughts and emotions of a eole. The literature of the %nglo2

Sa#ons is one of the richest and most significant of any literature reserved among the early

Germanic eoles. The oldest are several glosses and glossaries belonging to the /

th

and -

th

centuries.

O#d En#i!h ,oetry is best reresented by#eowulf. It is a long oem !some 8,>>> lines"

relating the life and death of a great hero Beowulf. It is at the same time a very imortant

record of the language at that time.

%nglo2Sa#on oets sang of the things that entered most deely into their e#erience0 they

sang of war, of e#ile, the sea with its hardshis and its fascination, of minstrel life.

3ld English oetry also comrised verse arahrases of the Scriture !such as Genesis and

Exodus by &aedmon", sacred oems by &ynewulf, legends from the lives of the saints,

didactic oems, elegies.

O#d En#i!h ,ro!e: In the develoment of literature, rose generally comes late. Oerse is

more effective for oral delivery because it is more easily retained in memory. It is, therefore, arather remarkable fact that English reserved a large body of rose literature in the - thcentury.

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3ld English rose is less interesting than 3ld English oetry. It is mostly a scholarly

roduction written by monks and scholars. Still, we must mention the name of The Oenerable

Bede who left us many interesting data about the history of England down to 8 in his

Ecclesiastical Historyof the English 7eople!written in (atin".

English reserved a considerable body of rose literature in the - thcentury also due to

Xing %lfred who made considerable efforts to romote learning. In order to sread cultureamong his eole he translated !or had scholars translate" several (atin works into the est

Sa#on dialect. 'e translated historical works like 3rosiusA ;niversal HistoryorHistory of the

World !Historia /undi" and moral treatises like BoethiusA 3onsolation of7hilosophy !1e

3onsolatione philosophiae" in order to oularis!house", b?c!book",st@n!stone", c>!cow"

ii. The digrah A was a letter, not a honetic symbol as it is now7 it reresented the sound

4Z5, as in0 bAc !back",fAder !father"

iii. &onsonants were much the same as they are in 1odern English. $evertheless, a few

e#cetions can be ointed out0

2 The letter c stood for two sounds0

4k5 before consonants or before back vowels !a, o"0 crAft !craft",catt !cat",c?l !cool"4t5 before front vowels !i, e"0cBld !child", c=osan!choose"2 The digrahsc stood for 45, as reresented byshin 1odern English0 e.g.scip!shi",fisc!fish"

2 The letter h reresented two different sounds0

initially, before vowels, it was simly an asirate, as it is now 4h50 e.g.h>s!house"

medially and finally !usually before consonants", it stood for the voiceless velar fricative

sound 4[5 which we still find now in the Scottish dialect, i.e. a harsh, guttural fricative !e.g. in

the word loch"0 e.g. rBht !right", l=oht !light", dohtor!daughter"

2 The letter corresonded to two sounds0 4g5 when it occurred initially and medially0 e.g.lAd !glad", do a !dog"

4i5 when it occurred finally0 dA !day"

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iv. 3ld English made use of two characters Q Cand \ to reresent the sounds which are

now reresented by the digrah thD e.g. Canc !thank",t?C !tooth", ba\ian !bathe"

By the year ->> these two characters had been relaced by means of the digrah thunder

he influence of the (atin selling of the Greek letter ] !theta"

v. There were no silent consonants in 3ld English0 e.g. cniht !Y knight"

vi. Double consonants usually occurred in the middle of the word0 e.g. habban !have",tellan!tell",sittan !sit"

*&*& O#d En#i!h ;oca.u#ary

The 3ld English vocabulary is almost urely Germanic. %n 3ld English dictionary

contains about C>,>>> words of which only a few hundred are not Germanic.

%bout /= er cent of the3ld English vocabulary have gone out of use now. 1any of the

3ld English words that have disaeared were relaced in 1iddle English by other words !of

6rench, (atin origin" or are now archaic, dialectal.

$evertheless, the = er cent of the words that have been reserved constitute the basic

word stockand this is of Germanic origin.

$owadays, although more than half of the words to be found in an English dictionary areof :omance origin !6rench, (atin" the basic word stock of the English language has remained

mostly Germanic. Indeed, desite large2scale borrowings, the native element !i.e. Germanic"

forms the foundation of the 1odern English vocabulary !it is at the core of the language". The

native word stock stands for fundamental things dealing with everyday ob)ects0 names of the

nearest family relationshis, arts of the body, lants, animals, tools, colours, everyday

activities, etc. The native word stock includes au#iliary and modal verbs, ronouns, most

numerals, reositions, and con)unctions, most verbs of the strong con)ugation !irregular

verbs".

6ean! o' Enrichin the ;oca.u#ary in O#d En#i!h

To one unfamiliar with3ld English, it might seem that a language which lacked the large

number of words borrowed from 6rench and (atin, which now form such an imortant art of

the English vocabulary, such a language would be somewhat limited in resources. This is,

however, not so. The language at that early stage showed great fle#ibility, resourcefulness.

The rincial means of enriching the vocabulary in 3ld English were word formation

!building" and borrowing, the former device being much more fre;uent than the latter.

*&*&1& +ord 'or%ation


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% very striking difference between 3ld English and 1odern English vocabulary is the fact

that a large number of borrowings as well as Oerb U adverbial article combinations !Fhrasal

verbsA" have relaced verbs which in 3ld English were derived from other verbs with the hel

of refi#es. Thus, the verb settan gave birth to besettan !aoint", forsettan !obstruct",

unsettan!ut down", wiCsettan !resist", etc.

.= Su''ie! Noun-'or%in !u''ie!were often closely linked with the grammatical category of

gender. Thus, the suffi# ere was generally used to form masculine nouns denoting

rofession, e.g.fiscere!fisher", wrBtere !writer".

The suffi# estre was used for feminine nouns denoting rofessions, e.g. spinnestre

*woman who sins+ !1odern Englishspinster Funmarried, single womanA".

&ertain words came to be used as suffi#es0 thus, we find h@d !FstateA, FconditionA" in

words such as cBldh@d !childhood". The word scipe !from the verb scipan Fto shaeA, Fto

createA" aears in words likefreondscipe!friendshi".

Ad>ecti3e - 'or%in !u''ie!:

The suffi# iwas used to form ad)ectives from nouns0 misti !misty" frommist2 Bsi

!*icy" fromBs !ice".ith the hel of the suffi# iscad)ectives were formed from nouns0 mannisc FhumanA,

FmannishA",folcisc!oular",8nlisc !English".The suffi#fullwas used to build ad)ectives from nouns0 carefull !careful",synfull!sinful".

The suffi#leasfrom the ad)ective leas!Fdevoid ofA, FwithoutA" served to form ad)ectives

from nouns0slApleas !sleeless", m?dleas !siritless"

Co%po!ition: ord comosition was e#tremely roductive in 3ld English, being based on

selfexplaining compounds.

Self2e#laining comounds are comounds of two or more native words whose meaning in

combination is self2evident. In 1odern English steamboat or railwayare e#amles of such

words. This tye of comosition was e#tremely revalent in 3ld English as it is in 1odern

German. here 1odern English has resorted to borrowings made u of elements derived

from (atin and Greek, 1odern German still refers self2e#laining comounds. Thus,

German uses the comound !das+ ernsehen !Ffar2seeA" for television, a word whose Greek

and (atin elements mean )ust what the German word does.

&omound nouns were generally formed of two nouns0

e.g. eorCcrAft !geometry", m?dCcrAft !intelligence"

Sometimes the first word in the comound was in the Genitive case0

8nlaland, i.e Fthe land of the %nglesA YEngland7/?nandA, i.e. Fthe day of the 1oonA Y 1onday

There was a close connection between derivation and composition. ^uite a number of

notions which are rendered in1odern English by means of (atin, 6rench, Greek or other loanwords, were e#ressed in 3ld English by comounds and derivatives, such as iestliCnes*iest _ guest7liC _ gracious7nes _ 2ness"_ FhositalityA.

*&*&"& Forein in'#uence! on O#d En#i!h > years 2

3ld English vocabulary was brought into contact with three other languages, the languages of

the &elts, the :omans and the Scandinavians. 6rom each of these contacts, it shows certain

effects, esecially additions it its vocabulary.

Ce#tic #oan (ord!


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6rom the fact that the original language of Britain was &eltic, it might be e#ected that

numerous &eltic elements would have become absorbed into 3ld English, but actually very

few were.

The relations between the Germanic invaders and the con;uered &elts have been much

debated by historians. %s very few words of &eltic origin seem to have been traced in the

English language, some historians assumed that the English invaders had killed all thoseBritons !i.e. &elts" who had not run away into the mountainous districts. In fact, the &elts

were by no means e#terminated e#cet in certain areas and in most of England large numbers

of &elts were gradually absorbed by their Sa#on con;uerors. The suosition of total

e#termination is ruled out from the distribution of &eltic lace names0 In the east, the bulk of

the oulation was English !i.e. %nglo2Sa#on" and the Britons who survived in that area were

enslaved. The further west we go !ales, &ornwall", the greater becomes the number of

Britons in the oulation.

&eltic elements survive in lace names, esecially in the south 2 west, e.g. /> er cent lace

names in &ornwall are of &eltic origin. Thus,:ent, 1evon, 1over, 3ornwall, %ondon are of

&eltic origin.

But the greatest number of &eltic names survives in the names of rivers and hills. Thus,the > years and it brought a large number of

new words into the English language.

Even after the Danish invasion (atin remained the language of learning. This fact was

going to facilitate later (atin influences as well as 6rench influences !in the 1iddle and

1odern English eriod".

The words borrowed from (atin may be subdivided into several categories0

i. Terms connected with military life!introduced during the first eriod of (atin borrowings"0

e.g. wAl !`(. vallum" F wallA

strAt !`(. strata via" FstreetA, FroadA

The (atin wordcastra !cam" ac;uired in 3ld English the meaning of FtownA. It is to befound in various3ld English lace names ending in cAster. In 1odern English, in the $orth

C


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and East of England, the term became selled caster !as in%ancaster"7 in the 1idlands it

became reselled cester !as in%eicester, Worcester"7 and in the South and est it became

reselledchester!as in/anchester, 1orchester+.

ii. Terms connected with domestic life, clothes, food0

e.g. cBese !`(. caseus" FcheeseA7pipor FeerA

butere !`(. butyrum" FbutterA7 wBn FwineA disc !`(. discus" FdishA

iii.Terms connected with tradeD

e.g. pund FoundA, c=ap FcheaA, FbargainA

iv.Ecclesiastical, religiousterms !introduced during the second eriod of (atin borrowings"0

e.g. Almese FalmsA7 abbodFabbotA7 biscopFbiscoA7

candelFcandleA7deofol FdevilA7 munuc FmonkA7

nunnaFnunA7preostFriestA

v. Terms connected with education, learningD

e.g. sc?l FschoolA7mAister FmasterA7fers FverseA The etent o' the Latin in'#uence.

To be sure, the e#tent of a foreign influence is most readily seen in the number of wordsborrowed.The two eriods of (atin borrowings introduced about P=> words into 3ld English.

%bout >> of these were urely learned, but the rest Q about 8=> Q may be really considered

art of the English vocabulary and most of them were fully acceted and assimilated. !The

real test of a foreign influence is the degree to which a word is assimilated, i.e. how

comletely a word could be derived or could be converted, )ust like native words".

1ost (atin borrowings could be converted into other arts of seech or could be

combined with native affi#es, giving many hybridR derivatives. Thus, native suffi#es such as

2h@d, d?m were used to turn a concrete noun !of (atin origin" into an abstract one0

martyrh@d, martyrd?m.

The (atin influence of the second eriod was not only e#tensive but thorough as well and

marks the real beginning of the English habit of freely incororating foreign elements into its

vocabulary.

Scandina3ian #oan (ord!

$ear the end of the old English eriod, the English language underwent another foreign

influence Q the result of the contact with another imortant language Q the Scandinavian

!Danish".

The Scandinavians were the Germanic inhabitants of the Scandinavian 9eninsula and

Denmark, so they were closely related to the %nglo2Sa#ons in language and blood. 6or

centuries, the Scandinavians had lived ;uietly in their northern homes, but in the / thcentury

some changes Q ossibly economic and ossibly olitical ones Q occurred in that area ad

rovoked among them a sirit of unrest and adventurous enterrise. They began a series ofattacks uon all the lands ad)acent to the $orth Sea. The incursions of the Scandinavians or

$orsemen Q commonly known as Oikings Q started in the year /, gradually develoing

from irate raids to camaigns of armies attemting to con;uer territories and settle down.

Xing %lfred ut u a brave struggle against them and in // an agreement was reached by

which England was divided into two halves. The north and the East were occuied by the

Danes Q a region which came to be known as1anelaw,that is, the country under the law of

the Danes. The South and est remained occuied by the %nglo2Sa#ons Q region known as

4axon England. The Danes reached the eak of their con;uest and achievement in >? when

the Danish king &anute became king of England. %s he had also con;uered $orway, from his

English caital, he ruled the whole Scandinavian world.

8


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%ll these events had as an imortant conse;uence the settlement of numerous

Scandinavians !Danes and $orwegians" in England, which e#erted a owerful influence and

left a lasting imrint on the 3ld English language.

The settlement of numerous Scandinavians accounts for the large number of laces bearing

Scandinavian names. In England there are more than P>> laces bearing Scandinavian

names0 a" Thus, there are about ?>>place namesending in Qby!the Danish word for FtownA" such

as 1erby, Whitby. There are also lace names ending in Qbury !the Danish word for

FboroughA" such as 3anterbury2also inwich!the Danish term for FcreekA" such as-pswich,

Greenwich. 1ost of these laces are, naturally, in the $orth and East of England, for it was

here that the ma)ority of the invaders settled.

Besides lace names, Scandinavian loan2words refer to0

b" War and esecially to navy0 most of the loan words have not been reserved in the

language because they were relaced by 6rench words in 1iddle English after the $orman

&on;uest.

c" %aw0 most Danish law terms were later relaced by 6rench words. Some words which

have been reserved are0 lau!law",CrAl !thrall". d" The greatest number of Scandinavian loan2words refer to everyday life0 commonlace

ob)ects, customs, actions, feelings, etc. !e#amles in 1odern English"0 anger, crop, guess,

scale, scar, skill, skin, want, window, happy, ill, wrong, law,ugly, to call, to die, to scare, to

scream, to take, etc.

In order to estimate the Scandinavian influence, it is imortant to remember how great the

similarity between 3ld English !abbreviated to 3E" and 3ld $orse !abbreviated to 3$" was.

The English and the Scandinavians were able to understand one another without the hel of

interreters because a large number of words were almost identical in form and meaning. %

very large number of words had the same root, only their endings were different, e.g. 3E.

d?m &" d?mr2 3E.oxa &". oxe, etc.

1any Scandinavian words that have been introduced into the language were in use side by

side with the corresonding English words. Eventually, one of the following henomena

occurred0

a" In some cases, it was the Scandinavian word that revailed7 e.g. the Scandinavian word

syster !Y sister" relaced the 3E formsweostor. %lso, the Scandinavian taka!Y take" relaced

the 3E nBman !G.0 nehmen"7 the Scandinavian angr!Y anger" relaced the 3E irre, etc.

b" In other cases, it was the English word that survived, while the Scandinavian word

finally disaeared or subsists only dialectally, e.g. 3.$. kirksubsists as the dialectal Scottish

e;uivalent of church.

c" Sometimes, both the English and the Scandinavian word were retained, develoing a

difference in meaning and or use0 e.g. 3.E. craft ' 3.$.skill2 3.E.from ' 3.$.fro !in Fto and froA"

no ' nay2 whole ' hale !hale and hearty"7

blossom ' bloom2 hide ' skin2 evil ' ill

The influence of Scandinavian was not confined to nouns, ad)ectives, verbs, but it

e#tended to ronouns, reositions, con)unctions, adverbs and even a art of the fre;uently

used verb be. Such arts of seech are not often transferred from one language to another.

Thus, the ronouns Ceir !they", Ceirra !their", Ceim !them" relaced the native forms hie,

hiera, himrobably because of the ambiguity of these forms !they might have been confused

with forms of singular". The ronouns both and same are of Scandinavian origin, the

reositionfro, the con)unction though.

3ne of the most significant adotions is the 9resent Tense lural form of the verb to beDare, whichrelaced the native formssind, sindon.

P


15/63

% certain number of inflectional elements have been attributed to Scandinavian influence,

among others thesof the 8rderson singular 9resent Tense, Indicative 1ood.

The Scandinavian settlers, mainly Danes and $orwegians, came to live close together with

the English. The resulting mi#ture seems to have shed much of 3ld English morhology.

They also heled to seed u the rocess of wearing away and levelling the intricate system

of inflectional endings 3ld English had shared with the other est Germanic dialects.Inflectional endings could become redundant because they had been losing their force and

significance, which had gradually been taken over by !fi#ed" word order and other syntactic

features, innovations !D. Giering, --0 C"

In synta#, the omission of the relative ronoun in :elative &lauses and the omission of the

con)unction that is in conformity with Danish usage. %lso, the use of the reosition in

ostosition is not to be found in the other Germanic languages, e#cet in Danish.

e.g.


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It is aarent from these e#amles that the inflection of the noun was much more elaborate

in 3ld English than it is today. Even these few aradigms clearly illustrate the marked

synthetic character of English in its earliest stage.

The declension to which neuter nouns belonged in 3ld English differed from the declension

of masculine nouns only in the $ominative and %ccusative lural !


17/63

%s in other Indo2Euroean languages the comarison of certain ad)ectives was based ondifferent roots, forming suletiveF systems0

e.g.?d betra betst !good Qbetter Q best" yfel wyrsa wyrst!evilbad Q worse Q worst"

micel m@raQ mAst !much Q more Q most"

*&&*&The ,ronoun: The 9ronoun comrised several categories in 3ld English0 ersonal,

ossessive, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, indefinite.

The per!ona# pronoun!: The ersonal ronouns in3ld English had distinctive forms for

ersons, cases, gender !for the third erson singular" and number. Besides the ordinary two

numbers Q singular and the lural Q there was a third number, the dual used for two ersons or

two things !first and second erson". The forms of the first erson ersonal ronoun0

sg. $. ic !I" 9l. $. w= !we"

G. mBn !mine" G. >re !ours"

3b). m= !me" 3b). us !usA"

Dual $. wit!we two"

G. uncer 3b). unc

6rom the fre;uency if its use and the necessity for secific reference when used, the

ersonal ronoun has reserved the system of inflections in 1odern English. The distinction

between the dual and the lural, which was an unnecessary comlication in language, has

disaeared in 1odern English.

The de%on!trati3e pronoun: There were two fully develoeddemonstrative ronouns in

3ld English0 the 4imple demonstrative and theEmphasi6eddemonstrative.

a" The 4imple demonstrative originally meant FthatA. Its meaning was often weakened

e#ressing the function of the definite article. The forms of the 4imple demonstrative for the

$ominative case were the following0

singular . lural

1. 6. $. !all genders"

s= s=o CAt C@

6or e#amle0se grund Fthe groundA7s=o eorCe Fthe earthA7CAt land Fthe landA.

b" The Emphasi6eddemonstrative corresonds to FthisA. Its forms for the $ominative case

were the following0

singular lural

1. 6. $. !all genders"

Ces Ceos Cis C@s

*&&&The ;er.

%s in all Germanic languages, there were two large classes of verbs0 the strongand theweak verbs. These two classes of verbs were distinguished in the following way0

a" The 7ast


18/63

weak verb0Cu d=mdest !you )udged thought"

In 1odern English these characteristics artly ersist0

a" The first one !9ast Tense" has been reserved, but the final e of weak verbs has

disaeared, leaving no difference between the 9ast Tense and the 9ast 9articile !both ended

ind".

b" The second characteristic !9ast 9articile" has been reserved, e#cet that many of thestrong verbs have lost the ending Qon'en.

c" The third characteristic !second erson singular" no longer e#ists.

6ood!

In 3ld English there were three finite moods !the Indicative, the Sub)unctive and the

Imerative" and three non2finite moods !the Infinitive, the 9resent 9articile and the 9ast

9articile".

The Su.>uncti3e 6ood, of which there are only a few traces left in 1odern English, was

widely used in 3ld English, esecially in subordinate clauses. The underlying rincile,

which determined the use of the Sub)unctive in Subordinate clauses in 3ld English, was that

the Sub)unctive was re;uired in all deendent statements which do not e#ress a fact0

e.g. ic ascode hine hwAt 3At wAreFI asked him what that were !_ was"A.

The In'initi3e. There were two Infinitive forms in 3ld English0

a" The Simle Infinitive ending inanD

e.g. h= onan sinan Fhe began to singA b" The 9reositional Infinitive was formed with the reosition toand the dative case of a

verbal noun ending inanneD

e.g.sele us flAsc to etanne Fgive us meat to eatA

Both theanand theanneinflections were later levelled and lost and the reosition to

came to be used very fre;uently with the infinitive, gradually losing its initial meaning

!direction, urose, intention". Eventually, towas no longer felt as a reosition, but as a

article, a art of the so2called (ong Infinitive. The Simle infinitive is still used with shall,

can, may, let, make, see, etc.

%s far as ten!e!are concerned, the situation was rather different from what it is nowadays.

Thus, the 7ast


19/63


20/63

laces were filled by illiamAs $orman followers and for several generations after the

$orman &on;uest the imortant ositions at the &ourt were almost always held by $ormans.

b" The $orman clergy were given all the imortant ositions in the &hurch.

c" Since the governing class in both State and &hurch was almost e#clusively made u from

among $ormans, their influence was enormous. They used their own language, i.e. 6rench

and for C>> years after the$orman &on;uest, 6rench remained the language used among theuer classes in England. %t first, those who soke 6rench were of $orman origin, but soon,

social interests made the remnants of the English ruling class learn 6rench. They reali??.

There was a code of chivalry but it did not involve the relations with the lower classes,

ine;uality was at the base of the social yramid. There was no galantry or romance, as it

might aear, but a cast solidarity. The knightsA duty was to rotect God and the king, give

feasts, hunt, terrori


21/63

ancestors, 6rench became a fashionable language en)oying great restige at most Euroean

courts.

English won back its leading role as the official language of the country only towards the

end of the 1iddle English eriod. This was ossible as a result of a gradual re2orientation on

the art of the $orman uer classes who wanted to take a firmer hold of their English

ossessions and to unite with the remaining English nobility against their common feudalenemy, the 6rench king. ith the shift of their economic and olitical interest from $ormandy

to England, English became a atriotic symbol of their new identity as Englishmen. The first

English king of $orman descent to oen 9arliament in English !in 8?8" was Edward III

!Giering, --0 8".

By the middle of the 8thcentury English became the language used among the uer

classes. It was at this time that the adotion of 6rench words into the English language

assumed large roortions. hile trying to e#ress their ideas in English, all those who had

been usually seaking 6rench, often simly had to transfer 6rench words into English and the

outcome was a large scale borrowing of 6rench words.

ii. Besides the loss of $ormandy, there were other factors !social, olitical and economic

ones" which contributed to the disuse of 6rench0a" The 'undred @earsA ar !88 QP=8" between England and 6rance7

b" The 9easantsA :ising of 8/7

c" The gradual decline of feudalism and esecially the rise of two imortant English

seaking social strata0 the small landowners and the town bourgeoisie, i.e. the rise of the

middle class !%. Baugh, T. &able, -/0 P". The economic imortance of these two

classes increased with it the imortance of the language they soke, i.e. English.

Such changes in the social and economic life enable us to understand the final triumh of

English. Towards the close of the P thcentury English was restored in law courts, in schools

and at &ourt.

The last ste the English language had to make in its gradual ascent was its emloyment in

writing !literature", for here it had to meet the cometition of (atin as well as 6rench. It was

only in the second half of the Pthcentury that English succeeded in taking the lace of 6rench

and (atin in writing.

6idd#e En#i!h Literature

Theliterature written in England during the 1iddle English eriod reflects fairly accurately

the linguistic situation shown above. Three eriods can be distinguished0

a" During the first eriod !=> QC=>" FoliteA literature was written in 6rench, while

chroniclers and scholars used (atin. The only works written in English were almost

e#clusively religious such as the &rmulum. The outstanding e#cetions to this kind of

literature were (ayamonAs#rut and


22/63

&1&*& The E!ta.#i!h%ent


23/63

&"& The #inui!tic characteri!tic! o' 6idd#e En#i!h

&"&1& 6idd#e En#i!h Spe##in and ,ronunciation

In the Pth and =thcenturies aer began to be used for manuscrits instead of

archment which was very e#ensive. The growing number of schools imlied an ever

increasing necessity of manuscrits. But since most of the te#ts were written in 6rench or(atin, whenever an English te#t was coied its selling was influenced by these two

languages. %s most of the scribes were $orman, the 6rench methods of reresenting sounds

began to revail. There were certain vowels and consonants which did not e#ist in 6rench and

which the $orman scribes found rather difficult to reresent. That is why certain symbols

which had e#isted in 3E but did not e#ist in 6rench selling were discarded0

. 6rench had neither the symbol Anor the sound 4Z5. That is why the symbolA gradually

disaeared from te#ts and was relaced bya ore0

e.g. 3E lAd Y 1i.E glad 3E slApan 1i.E slepan !later on the vowele was doubled"

C. The symbolsCand did not e#ist in 6rench0 these signs were relaced by th.

8. % new letter Q g Q was introduced at the beginning of the 1iddle English eriod!abbreviated to 1iE" to relace in initial and final osition. e.g. 3E od Y 1i.E god P. The grou of consonantssc which rendered the sound 45, in 3E was relaced by shin1i.E0

e.g. 3E.scipY 1i.E.ship

=. % number of 6rench reresentations of sounds were introduced0

ou, ow!in final osition" for the sound 4u05

e.g. 3El>d 1iEloud2 3E c> Y 1iEcow

3Ec was relaced byk after n and before front vowels !i" e.g. 3E drincan Y 1iE

drinkan

?. (ong vowels were no longer indicated by a macron ! " as they had been in 3ld English7they began to be doubled0

e.g. 3E ?s Y 1iEgoos23E f?t 1iEfoot 'owever, B was not doubled because of the similarity ofI and>, which would have brought

about misunderstanding. In the =thcentury the scribes began to add a final e to the stem in

order to show that i was long0

e.g. 3E. wBf Y 1iE wife

By analogy with such sellings, other monosyllabic words such asgoos, horsadded a silent

e to their stems0goose, horse.

1ost of these changes in selling were due to the reselling of English by $orman scribes

according to 6rench selling traditions. $aturally, the falling out of use of secial marks for

long vowels, the introduction of new symbols weakened the honetic character of Englishselling0 honetic rinciles were mi#ed u with 6rench sellings and with conservative 3ld

English sellings.

&"&"& 6idd#e En#i!h Gra%%ar

The most imortant changes affecting the language during the 1iddle English eriod were

the further levelling and reduction of 3ld English inflectional endings !they were much

reduced both in number and comle#ity". Some were the result of the $orman &on;uest and

the conditions which followed in the wake of that event. 3thers were a continuation of

tendencies that had begun to manifest themselves after the Scandinavian invasion.

It was in this eriod that the change from a redominantly inflectional !or synthetic" to a

more synta#2orientated !analytic" grammatical structure could be regarded as a breakthrough

!D. Giering, --0 8".The Noun

C8


24/63

The rocess of the decay of the inflectional system of the noun develoed more raidly in

the $orth, where it was suorted by the mi#ing of English and Scandinavian dialects.

a= Gender. The inflections indicating the gender of a noun began to be discarded. In 1iddle

English we witness the elimination of 3ld English grammatical gender !the weakening of

inflections led to the loss of the old grammatical gender". In the $orth, where inflections were

weakened earlier, grammatical gender disaeared first7 in the South it lingered longerbecause the decay of inflections was slower.

.= Nu%.er. In early 1iddle English there remained only two methods of indicating the

lural0 the *e+sfor masculine nouns !strong declension" and theenfor weak declension. In

late 1iddle English the*e+slural sread ;uickly and it became the normal lural ending of

nouns, with a few e#cetions0 oxen, children, brethrenand a few more which have changed in

the meantime0 eyen.

c= Ca!e. The masculine nouns !those belonging to the strong declension" were reduced to

two cases in 1iddle English0 The common case !$ominative, Dative, %ccusative" and the

9ossessive !Genitive" case. The neuter nouns !weak declension" had no case forms at all. The

two main tyes of declension !strong and weak" of 1iddle English can be illustrated by two

nounsston !stone", masculine and eye, neuter.Stron Decl. +ea)Decl.

Sg. l. sg. l.

&ommon case ston stones eye eyen

9ossessive stones stones eye eyen

!genitive"

The rocess of droing the inflections was also due to the growth of other means of

indicating grammatical relations, i.e. of indicating the function of words in the sentence.

,repo!itiona# phra!e!began to be used more and more often instead of case forms, namely

the tophraseinstead of the Dative and the ofphrase instead of the Genitive.

In 3ld English the reosition tohad generally indicated direction and the reosition of

had meant FfromA, Fout of. In 1iddle English the meaning of both reositions was

weakened0 toand sometimesfor indicated the Indirect 3b)ect, i.e. the 3b)ect towards which

the action was directed and for which it was erformed. &ffre;uently indicated ossession.

It is difficult to know whether these reositional hrases came into use in order to

comensate for the loss of inflections or )ust to make the meaning of cases clearer, thus

rendering their inflection unnecessary, levelling them and finally discarding them. hat is

most robable is that at first, these reositions began to be used to give more syntactic force

to the inflections and when, in 1iddle English the inflections were levelled and therefore lost

their distinctive ower, the reositions became absolutely necessary to show the resective

syntactic relations.

The Ad>ecti3e The ad)ective was influenced by the loss of grammatical gender and by the loss of most

case inflections of the noun. !In 3ld English the ad)ective had agreed with the noun in gender,

case, number".

There remained only a few traces of the number distinctions and the distinctions between

the strong and the weak declension. In 3ld English a weak ad)ective !i.e. an ad)ective

accomanied by a determiner" had five distinct singular and lural forms which indicated both

case and number by means of the endings0 2a, e, an, ene, um. In 1iddle English all these

endings were levelled toeD

Strondeclension +ea) declension

!Det U %d) U $oun"

Singular hard harde 9lural harde harde

CP


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The result was that in the weak declension there was no longer any distinction between

the singular and the lural, since both ended ine. hen in the Pthcentury final 2eceased to

be ronounced, it became a mere feature of selling. The ad)ective had become an uninflected

word by the close of the 1iddle English eriod.

Besides the synthetic comarison !formed by means of the suffi#es er, est.' ost" in the

Pth

century, ad)ectives were often comared analytically !with moreand most"0 e.gwhich partie is the bettre and more profitable. !G. &haucer,


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=. The &ontinuous %sect aeared in 1iddle English but it was not often resorted to.

Synta

. The decay of inflectional endings had an e#tensive influence on synta#, in articular on

word order.

So long as inflections served to indicate the case of nouns !their function in the sentence",

word order was comaratively unimortant, but when, for e#amle, the $ominative and the%ccusative came to be identical in form, a fi#ed word order was necessary as a means of

denoting syntactic relations.

The sub)ect generally receded the redicate e#cet when the sentence began with an

adverbial modifier, e.g. Wel coude he sittan on hors. !Fell could he sit on the horseA"

The ressure e#erted by the more and more rigid character of word order accounts for

certain changes connected with imersonal verbs0 the former indirect ob)ects receding them

became sub)ects0

3E /e wAseiefan a b?c J (ate 1iE- was given a book C. In 1iddle English it was still ossible to use several negative words in the same sentence0

e.g. Ke neshulen habben no best bute cat one. !F@ou should have no animal but one

catA" The negative words no, noht!FnoughtA" which were laced after the verb and emhasi


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$ot only affi#ation but also comosition lost some of its roductive ower in 1iddle

English. The ractice of combining native words into self2interreting comounds was not

abandoned in 1iddle English, but in many cases where a new word could have been easily

formed on the native model, a ready2made 6rench word was borrowed instead. 6or instance,

in 1iddle English comound nouns were of two tyes0

2 endocentric !one element of the comound determines another"0 rainbowe !rainbow",aleh>s !alehouse", hangeman !hangman"7

2 e#ocentric !noneneither of the elements determines another"0 pickepurse !ickocket",

redbrest!redbreast".

c= Chane! o' %eanin

%nother imortant means of enriching the vocabulary was &hange of meaning. The

meanings of words are not fi#ed, they are liable to change. There are several causes for

changes of meaning0 some social, some sychological, some urely linguistic. It has been

observed that, in their develoment of meaning words often ursue certain tendencies. The

chief trends of semantic change are0 e#tension of meaning, narrowing of meaning, elevation

of meaning, degradation of meaning.

i& Eten!ion o' %eanin!or Genera#i@ation" refers to the henomenon when the meaningis widened, generali


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6rench influence did not begin immediately after the $orman &on;uest when there was a

well2marked searation between the two languages. This influence was strongest in the years

C=> Q P>>, i.e. after the loss of $ormandy and the reestablishment of English.

6rench has enriched the English vocabulary by about ten thousand words, three ;uarters of

which are still in current use. Besides, the imortance of the 6rench influence is not to be

)udged only by the numberof the words borrowed, but also by their freMuency of useand bytheir degree of assimilation.

1any of the words borrowed from 6rench were connected with the develoment of

feudalism, and with the life, ideas, customs and tastes of the $orman nobility. The 6rench

loan words may be divided into the following grous according to the main sheres of activity

they belong to0

a" ords reflecting feudal administration0 state !` tat", mayor !` maire", realm, govern,

government, court, prince, noble, duke, sovereign, maesty, reign, royal, revenue,etc.

b" ords connected with law. %s 6rench was the language of the law courts for a very long

time, most legal terms are of 6rench origin0 ustice, sentence, prison, defence, defendant,

crime, accuse, plea, to plead, udge, udgment.

c" ords connected with army and military life. The imortant art layed by war infeudalism, the control of the army and the navy by the 6rench2seaking aristocracy, the wars

waged with 6rance, all these factors contributed to the adotion of numerous 6rench military

terms, such as0 captain, lieutenant, spy, army, battle, siege, enemy, regiment, combat, etc.

d" :eligious, ecclesiastical terms. The fact that the ma)or art of the higher clergy were of

$orman origin accounts for a large number of 6rench words such as0 religion, sermon, saint,

miracle, clergy, friar, pray, baptism, hermit.

e" Terms connected with art, literature, science. The cultural and intellectual interests of the

ruling class are reflected in words ertaining to the arts, architecture, science, medicine, etc0

art, paint*ing+, prose, pain, poison, ointment, logic, grammar, etc.

f" Terms reflecting fashion, meals, social life0 dress, garment, robe, button, fashion, dinner,

appetite, taste2 beef, veal, mutton, pork, oy, pleasure, leisure, dance, music, ease, etc.

1any of the 6rench words that were borrowed had a meaning already e#ressed by an

English word. In such cases two linguistic henomena haened0 i. one of the two words

disaeared7 ii. where both survived, they were differentiated in meaning.

i. 3ne of the two words !6rench or English" disaeared0

2 Sometimes, after a time, it was the 6rench word that went out of use0

e.g. 3E amitywas used for some time in 1iE alongsidefriendshipbut was finally relaced by

friendship2 amity is now used in very formal style.

3E moiety !`6. moiti" was finally relaced by half.

2 In a great many cases it was the 3ld English word that died out0

e.g. The 3.E. ACele was relaced in 1i.E. by the 6rench word noble, and ACelingbecame nobleman.

3Eoldhord was relaced in 1i.E by the 6rench wordtresor treasure !1od.E".%lthough the comound went out of use, the searate words have been retained0 gold, hoard

!*ile+".

3Eerihte was relaced in 1iE by the 6rench wordustice.The 3.E. d?mwas relaced in 1i..E. by the 6rench word udgment. But the 3.E.

word has survived in some secial senses0 Fthe day of doomA or FdoomsdayA !_ the day of

)udgment"7 Fto be doomed to oblivionA !_ to be condemned by fate to", or Fto meet one0s

doom0.

The 3.E. d=manwas relaced in 1i.E. by the 6rench word to udge.The 3.E. word

has survived in some secial senses0 Fto deem it right roerA !_ to think to hold anoinion".

C/


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ii. hen both the English and the corresonding 6rench words survived, they were

maintained and they were generally differentiated in meaning. Thus, there aeared stylistic

differences )ustifying the retention of both words in the language. %s a rule, the native word 2

English 2 had a concrete character, it referred to everyday life and therefore it was referred in

informal style, having a more emotional sense7 the loan2word 2 6rench 2 had a more bookish,

more abstract character and it was referred in formal style.There are numerous e#amles of two le#ical items, one Germanic and one :omance, for one

single concet in English0 hearty ' cordial, help ' aid, deep ' profound, begin ' commence,

ask ' demand, hide ' conceal, wedding ' marriage, wish ' desire, freedom ' liberty, child '

infant, work ' labour,life ' existence, etc.

:eferring to the air of words hearty and cordial, %. Baugh Th. &able write0NIn the

fifteenth century hearty and cordialcame to be used for feelings which were suosed to

sring from the heart. Etymologically they are alike, coming resectively from the 3ld

English and the (atin words for FheartA. But we have ket them both in the language because

we use them with a slight difference in meaning, heartyimlying a certain hysical vigour, as

in a hearty dinner, cordial a more ;uiet or conventional manifestation, as in a cordial

reception. * !-/0 />" Because of the concrete value, the English word has a strongeremotional colouring than the 6rench one. Thus, hearty welcome is warmer than cordial

welcome !3. esersen, -==0 >P+.

%lso, referring to the difference between help and aid, 3tto esersen writes0 *Help

e#resses greater deendence and deeer need than aid. In e#tremity we say FGod help meA

rather than FGod aid meA In time of danger we cry FhelpO helpA rather than FaidO 8idA

45Helpincludes aid, but aid may fall short of the meaning of help.+ !-==0 >8"

In the same way, the English have ket a number of words forsmell. The common word in

3ld English wasstench. During the 1iddle English eriod this was sulemented by the word

smell !of unknown origin" and the 6rench words aroma, odour, and scent. To these the

English have since addedstink!from the verb" andperfume andfragrance, from 6rench. 1ost

of these have secial connotations andsmellhas become the general word. 4tenchnow always

means an unleasant smell !Baugh &able, -/0 />".

Oery often, the difference in origin has develoed into a difference in meaning. %n

interesting grou of words illustrating the rincile is ox, sheep, swine, and calfbeside the

6rench e;uivalents beef, mutton, pork, and veal. The 6rench words rimarily denoted the

animal, as they still do, but in English they were used from the beginning to distinguish the

meat from the living beast.

%longside of 6rench words, many 6rench word2building elements entered the English

language0

9refi#es0 dis ' des2 !disdain, destroy2 disown, dislike !with English roots"7 en *enoy,

encircle+. Suffi#es0 ence' ance *defence, obedience2 ignorance, arrogance+2 tion *corruption,

attraction+2ment *treatment, government2 fulfilment !hybrid"7 ess !princess, goddess

!hybrid"7 2able' ible0 admirable, terrible, readable !hybrid".

It must not be thought that the e#tensive modification of the English language caused by

the $orman &on;uest had made of it something else than English. The language had

undergone much simlification of its inflections, but its grammar was still English. It had

absorbed several thousand 6rench words as a natural conse;uence of a situation in which

large numbers of eole were for a time bilingual and then gradually turned from the habitual

use of 6rench to the habitual use of English. It had lost a great many native words and

abandoned some of its most characteristic habits of word2formation. But great and basic

elements of the vocabulary were still English. %s %. Baugh and Th. &able rightly oint out,*hile we are under the necessity of aying considerable attention to the large 6rench

C-


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element that the $orman &on;uest brought directly and indirectly into the language, we must

see it in roer ersective. The language which the $ormans and their successors finally

adoted was English, and while it was an English changed in many imortant articulars from

the language of Xing %lfred, its redominant features were those inherited from the Germanic

tribes that settled in England in the fifth century+ !-/0 /=".

The Latin in'#uence on the 3oca.u#ary % great number of words were borrowed from (atin in the Pthand =thcenturies. This is

;uite natural, for (atin was the language of theology and learning. Besides, the influence of

6rench words facilitated the adotion of (atin words. The new borrowings were learned

words and they enetrated into the language through literature, esecially through the

numerous translations from (atin made at that time. (atin borrowings in 1iddle English

belong to different sheres, mainly social life, law, medicine, science, religion theology,

literature.

It is unnecessary to attemt a formal classification of these borrowings. Some idea of their

range and character may be gained from a selected but miscellaneous list of e#amles0

e.g. abect, allegory, conspiracy, custody, homicide, immune, incredible, incumbent, index,

infancy, inferior, infinite, innate, intellect, legal, promote, prosecute, prosody, rational, script,scripture, secular, solar, submit, summary, testify, testimony, tract, etc.

1any of these borrowings introduced into the language suffi#es and refi#es which

began to be used for forming derivatives !some of these affi#es reinforcing the corresonding

6rench ones"0

9refi#esD ab, ad, con, dis, im ' in, pro, re, sub

Suffi#es0 able ' ible, ent, al, ous, ive.

Synony%! at three #e3e#!

The richness of the English language in synonyms is largely due to the mingling of

English !native", 6rench and (atin elements. This may be seen in the grous of synonyms

where a difference between collo;uial, literary and learned terms is ;uite aarent. The

English term is more collo;uial in style, the 6rench term is literary7 the (atin term is generally

more learned or bookish0

e.g. En#i!h French Latin

rise mount ascend

ask demand ;uestion interrogate

fast firm secure

fire flame conflagration

holy sacred consecrated

Chapter4: 6O7ERN ENGLISH This eriod falls into three stages0

8>


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1& Early 1odern English0 the ?thand thcenturies

"& The /thcentury

*& (ate 1odern English0 the -thand C>hcenturies

4&1& Ear#y 6odern En#i!h

The beginnings of the modern eriod are, at the same time, the beginnings of the

:enaissance in England0 the ?th

century was the eriod of magnificent flourishing of science,art and literature.

In the ?thcentury, the English language faced a number of roblems, the most imortant

of which was the struggle with %atinin science and literature, i.e. the struggle for recognition

in the fields where (atin had, for centuries, been sureme.

%lthough towards the end of the 1iddle English eriod the English language had attained

an established osition as the language of literature, there was still a strong tradition according

to which (atin was used in all fields of knowledge. This idea was strengthened by the revival

of Greek and (atin learning. %ccording to this tradition, it was considered that English was

not fit to e#ress serious thought and it was used only for light literature.

'ere are a few e#amles of writers or scientists who thought that their writings would last

only if they were written in (atin0 Th. 1ore wrote his ;topiain (atin in =?, and the bookwas translated into English only 8= years later, long after his death. 6r. Bacon ublished his

hilosohical work 1e 8ugmentis in (atin. This work was an e#anded version of


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analogy with words that were ronounced in the same manner !e.g.science+. Therefore, the

introduction of the consonant cwas not correct from the etymological oint of view.

In the first half of the ? thcentury selling was so unstable that it varied from one writer

to another and, sometimes, one and the same writer selt certain words in several ways. Thus,

1atthew Green wrote0felow, felowe, fellow, fellowe.!cited from Iarovici, -80 ="

Therefore, the imortant roblem in the ?th

century was to bring about greater agreementin the writing of English0 numerous attemts were made to draw up rulesand to simlify the

very comlicated selling. %s a result of these attemts0

2 certain unnecessary letters were eliminated, such as final e0 e.g.faerie Mueene *1od.E.

fairy Mueen+

2 or, it became the custom to use i initially and medially andyfinally. That accounts for the

sellingsD beauty beautiful2 dry drier.

By ?=> English selling, in its modern form, had been ractically established. But

ronunciation went on changing. The numerous and imortant honetic modifications that

occurred later are not reflected in selling !which had become fi#ed by that time".

Therefore, the main causes of the discreancy between sellings and ronunciation are0

a" the arbitrary modifications brought about by certain etymologists and scribes7 b" the factthat selling had become fi#ed by ?=> but ronunciation went on changing.

4&1&"& ,ronunciation in Ear#y 6odern En#i!h

The most striking changes undergone by the sounds of the English language were the

following0

a" The comlete alteration of most vowel sounds in stressed syllables. %ll long stressed

vowels came to be ronounced with a greater raising of the tongue and closing of the mouth,

e.g. e i2 o u7 those vowels in which the tongue could not be raised without becoming

consonantal, i.e. i, uQ became dihthongs0 i Y 4ai5, u Y 4au5. The ma)or change in the history

of English that resulted in new honemic reresentations of words and morhemes took lace

aro#imately between =>> and ?>>. It is known as


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i serene serenity

j u o fool folly

e Z sane sanity

The Great Oowel Shift is a rimary source of many of the selling inconsistencies of

English because the selling system still reflects the way words were ronounced before the

Great Oowel Shift took lace. The vowels of unstressed syllables had a tendency to weaken and often to disaear in

ronunciation0

different4difrnt5, medal 4medl5, etc.

b" %mong the changes that aeared in consonant sounds the most imortant are the artial

or totalsilencingof certain consonants0

i. the gradual silencing of 4r57 it had been rolled in 1iddle English !as it still is at resent in

Scotland"7 in E1E it ac;uired a dull sound at the beginning of words and in the middle of

words between two vowel sounds !e.g. rat, /ary"7 in the middle and at the end of words it has

been comletely silenced !e.g. arm, far".

ii. The weakening of consonant grous0

2 4w5 was silenced in the grou wr7 wrong, write, wring22 4h5 was silenced in the grou wh0 where, which, whip2

2 4k5 was silenced in the grou kn0 know, knife, knot2

2 4l5 was silenced in the grou lk, lm, lfD walk, calm, half.

2 Oery often when a word ended in a combination of two consonants*mb, mn+ the second one

was droed0climb, comb, autumn, column2

2 hen a word contained a combination of three consonants the one in the middle was

sometimes droed0bustle, castle, handsome, grandmother, handkerchief, etc.

Such honetic changes widened even further the discreancy between selling and

ronunciation.

4&1&*& Gra%%ar in Ear#y 6odern En#i!h

%fter the essential grammatical changes that had occurred in 1iddle English, the evolution

of1odern English grammar seemed rather uneventful. Grammar underwent few changes in

Early 1odern English. % very imortant characteristic of Early 1odern English grammar was

lack of stability7 certain old forms survived while certain new ones came into use.

There were very few inflections left.

The Noun

The only inflections retained in the noun were those marking the category of number !the

lural" and case!the ossessive singular".

a= Nu%.er. The lural inshas become the only regular form. &ertain nouns, robably due

to their fre;uent use maintained their old lurals. Some in *e+nmaintained their old weak

!neuter" lural, e.g. ox oxen, childQ children7 also, those based on internal vowel change,e.g.foot feet, tooth teeth, man men, etc7 the invariable nouns !with unchanged lurals"

from the 3E neuter ones0sheep,deer, swine.

$ouns which had been borrowed from other languages in 3ld English and 1iddle English

had generally taken the inflections characteristic of English words. But loan 2 words

belonging to the modern eriod often retain their original !foreign" lural0 axes, phenomena,

stimuli, etc. $evertheless, in contemorary English there is a tendency to regulari


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the narrowing of the shere of the inflected Genitive !in Qes" to nouns denoting living beings.

Towards the end of the thcentury the Genitive singular ending in Qesbegan to be relaced

byPs and about a century later, the aostrohe came to be used for the Genitive lural.

The Ad>ecti3e

By the end of the 1iddle English eriod, the ad)ective had already lost all its endings, so

that it no longer e#ressed distinctions of gender, number and case.The chief interest of this art of seech in the modern eriod is in the forms of the

comarative and suerlative degrees. The two methods commonly used to form the

comarative and suerlative !the synthetic and analytical comarison", with the endings Qer

andest and with the adverbsmore andmost,had been customary since 3ld English times.

But there was much variation in their use0 in the si#teenth century these were not always

recisely those now in use. &omarisons found in ShakeseareAs works like certainer,

honester, famousest, honourablest,are now relaced by the analytical forms. 3n the other

hand, monosyllabic ad)ectives often formed their comarative and suerlative analytically,

e.g.-ngratitude more strong than traitor0s arms.

Double comaratives or double suerlatives were ;uite fre;uent in Early 1odern English.

e.g.-0m more better than 7rospero. !The Temest" %et not my worser spirit tempt you again. !X. (ear"

in the calmest and most stillest night. !'enry IO"

The chief develoment affecting the ad)ective in modern times has been the gradual

settling down of usage so that monosyllables take Qer andest while most ad)ectives of two

or more syllables takemore andmost.

The ,ronoun

The ronoun underwent certain rather imortant changes.

The per!ona# pronoun

The si#teenth century saw the establishment of the ersonal ronoun in the form which it has

had ever since.

In attaining this result three changes were involved0 a" the disuse of thou,thy, thee7 b" the

substitution ofyou foryeas a nominative case7 c" the introduction of itsas the ossessive of

it.

a" The forms of the ersonal ronoun0 ye, you, your*s+had begun to be used as a mark of

resect in addressing a suerior, maybe under the influence of 6rench usage in court circles.

The old forms thou, !$om.", thee !3b).", thy !oss. %d).", thine !9oss. 9ron." were used as

e#ressions of intimacy or for addressing social inferiors. (ittle by little, the formsye, you,

your*s+ became the usual ronouns of direct address irresective of rank or intimacy. It was

only in the ?/hcentury that the forms thou!$om.", thee!3b).", thy!9oss. %d).",thine !9oss.

9ron." disaeared comletely, they fell into disuse, e#cet in certain dialects and in oetry.

b" %t first, there had e#isted a clear distinction between ye!used only as Sub)ect in thesentence _ $ominative" andyou!used as 3b)ect _ Dative or %ccusative". Inthe ?thcentury

the two forms began to be used rather indiscriminately, until ye eventually disaeared and

youbecame generali


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The ersonal ronoun theybegan to be used indefinitely !i.e. as the sub)ect of an indefinite

imersonal sentence" instead of the 3ld English and 1iddle English man, mon.

e.g.


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e.g. (ady 1acbeth0He has almost supp0dD why have you left the chamber

1acbeth0 Hath he asked for me

(ady 1acbeth0:now you not he hasQ

Similar fluctuations can be seen in the form of the second erson singular, 9resent

Indicative ending inst!or artfor be". Such forms normally occurred with the ronoun thouD

e.g.-f thou remember0st aught ere thou comest here.!Shakeseare Q The Temest" The form in stwas gradually relaced by the form of the second erson lural !without

any ending" used with the ronounyou. Instances of both forms are sometimes found in one

and the same te#t0


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intensification of the idea conveyed by the verb, e.g. to climb up, to fall down. But in Early

1odern English these combinations grew more and more numerous and their meaning

became less and less self2evident.

e.g."or am - yet persuaded to put up in peace what already - have foolishly suffered.

!Shakeseare 2 3thello"

Thus the grouput upwas assing from the notion of sace to the resent2day meaning ofFtolerateA. They suggest comarison with verbs having searable refi#es in German, and to a

smaller e#tent with English verbs like withstand, overcome. The latter were much more

common in 3ld English than they are today, their gradual disuse being one of the

conse;uences of the $orman &on;uest.

Synta

In the shere of synta#, we find certain imortant changes, some of which are connected

with the evolution of the morhological structure of the language. Thus, the comlete

disaearance of agreement is due to the fact that the ad)ective has become an invariable art

of seech, as well as to the loss of nearly all the ersonal infle#ions of the verb.

In Early 1odern Englishwe still find instances of two or even more than two negations in

one and the same sentence0e.g. Ket, Pt was not a crown neither. !Shakeseare Q . &aesar"

In the ?th century impersonal sentenceswere still fre;uent, but they began to be

suerseded by ersonal sentences. Thus, we find sentences such as F-t likes me wellA.

!Shakeseare Q The Taming", alongside of F- do notlike this tune.A !Shakeseare Q The Two

Gentlemen of Oerona"

% henomenon which belongs both to morhology and synta#, as well as to le#icology,

and which became very fre;uent in Early 1odern English is con3er!ionor 'unctiona# !hi't.

&o

a history of the english language-1

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