|
Читайте также: |
HISTORY OF ENGLISH
ENGLISH – PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
Evolution of English can be illustrated with the help of one sentence written in Old English, Middle English and Modern English.
l Once upon a time, in the days of King Alfred the Great, there was a language that looked like this: He cwæð, Soðlice sum man hæfde twegen suna. Þa cwæð se gingra to his fæder, Fæder, syle me minne dæl minre æhte þe me to gebyreð. And its speakers called it ‘English’.
l Centuries later, the language had changed substantially, and the same sentence now looked like this: And he seide, A man hadde twei sones; and the ʒonger of hem seide to the fadir, Fadir, ʒyue me the porcioun of catel, that fallith to me. The speakers of this variety also called their language ‘English’.
l Today, centuries later again, the same sentence looks like this: And he said, ‘There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’
The periods in the History of English
Historians and linguists who deal with the history of English may have different views about the historical dates which coincide with the stages of the English language development but generally they agree on three major periods:
| l Old English 450-1150 (the period of full inflections) l Middle English 1150-1500 (the period of leveled inflections) l Modern English 1500 (the period of lost inflections) | l Old English 449-1066 (the period of full inflections) l Middle English 1066-1475 (the period of leveled inflections) l Modern English 15th century onwards (the period of lost inflections) |
Ø Early Old English is viewed as pre-written functioning of the language.
Ø Formation of kingdoms transformed tribal dialects into regional (local) dialects and resulted into Written Old English (Anglo-Saxon period)
Best known texts cited as typical samples of Old English and Middle English are as follows:
l Old English: Beowulf, chronicles, riddles, prayers
l Early Middle English: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Peterborough Chronicle, Ormulum
l Late Middle English: The Canterbury Tales
l Early New English - Shakespearean English
l The New English - since mid 17th century
l Post-modern period of English – 1876-1877 marked by invention of the telephone by Alexander Bell and of the phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison
l Late English we study and speak now
| Language Stage | Beginning | Ending |
| OE Old English EOE Early Old English LOE Late Old English | ||
| ME Middle English EME Early Middle English LME Late Middle English | ||
| EMdE Early Modern English | ||
| MdE Modern English | ||
| PDE Present Day English | present |
English as an Indo-European language
| l Sanscrit pitar l Latin pater l English father l Dutch vader l Gothic fadar l German vater l Greek patēr l Old Irish athir | l Sanscrit asmi asti l Old Eng. eom (am) is l Gothic sum ist l Latin sum est l Greek eimi esti |
l The discovery of Sanscrit located in Asia, invasion of the Hun and the Turk and other Asiatic peoples, movement of population westwards. Some Asiatic peoples moved eastward. There are confirmations which appeared in the 19th century as a result of comparative studies. Now I-E languages have common words for snow and winter. It is likely that the original home for the family was in a climate that at certain seasons was fairly cold.
Harold H.Bender Home of Indo-Europeans
l There are no ancient I-E common words for elephant, rhinoceros, camel, lion, tiger, monkey, crocodile, parrot, rice, bamboo, palm, BUT there are common words spread over I-E territory for snow, freezing cold, oak, beech, pine, willow, bear, wolf, deer, rabbit, sheep, goat, eagle, snake etc. There is no common word for sea.
The branches of I-E family fall into 2 well-defined groups according to modification of consonants in each of them in comparison with parent speech:
l Centum (Latin) - Hellenic, Italic, Germanic, Celtic
l Satem (Avestan) - Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Albanian
Grimm’ s Law
l In 1822 Jacob Grimm following suggestion of Rasmus Rask, Danish philologist, formulated an explanation of systematic correspondences between certain consonants in the Germanic languages. The pronunciation of Proto-Germanic had undergone a series of startling but highly regular changes. One of the most famous of these is the First Germanic Consonant Shift, otherwise known as Grimm’s Law. The cause of sound shift (occurring as far as 5th century B.C.) is unknown, but most often attributed to contact with non-German population. The contact could have resulted from migration of German tribes or from penetration of a foreign population into Germanic territory. Whatever its cause, the Germanic sound shift is the most distinctive feature marking off the Germanic languages from the languages to which they are related.
l Some Grimm’s Law changes
| l (IE (and Latin) /p t k/ → > Germanic /f θ h/ Latin English l pater father l piscis fish l ped- foot l tres three l tenuis thin l cornu horn l cord- heart l collis hill | IE (and Latin) /b d g/ > Germanic /p t k/ l decem ten l dent- tooth l duo two l granum corn l genu knee (whose /k/ used to be pronounced) l gelidus cold |
l In 1875 Karl Verner proved that when the Indo-European accent was not on the vowel immediately preceding, such voiceless fricatives became voiced in Germanic.
Germanic Legacy of English
Ø English belongs to the Germanic family of languages, whose other members include
High German, Low German, Dutch, Faroese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish,
Icelandic, as well as the oldest attested but now extinct Germanic language, Gothic.
l Brief History of English
Дата добавления: 2015-08-03; просмотров: 86 | Нарушение авторских прав
| <== предыдущая страница | | | следующая страница ==> |
| Exchange of Impressions. Обмен впечатлениями. | | | Romanization of England |