O.E. Mod.E.

geard yard

gieldan yield

geolu yellow

Words with the initial 'g' result from the Scandinavian influence, they continue Northern forms. Cf.:

geat gate

gift gift

gegn again

Which of the Middle English dialects came to be the basis for Standard English? It was the East Midland type of English, particu­larly the dialect of London. Linguists usually refer to at least several causes which contributed to this result:

1) Midland English occupied a middle position. It shared some of the characteristics of both its neighbours: the Southern and the Nor­thern dialects.

2) The East Midland district was the largest, most populous, eco­nomically and politically most important area.

3) The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were situated in this district. They were important intellectual and cultural centres.

3. Standard English owes much to London English. In fact, “the history of Standard English is almost a history of London English” [Baugh 1978: 194]. London was the seat of the court, the focus of the social and intellectual activities of the country. London speech was constantly interacting with local speech. At first Southern characteristics were predominant in London English, but it ended as a Midland dialect.

In the latter part of the 15th century the London standard had been accepted, at least in writing, in most parts of England. The introduction of printing in 1476 was another factor in the dissemination of London English. W. Caxton, the first English printer, used the current speech of London in the books issued from his press.

In the 16th century the problem of orthography became evident. It was necessary to establish a more uniform orthography. Noman scribes introduced considerable confusion when they tried to write English, which they didn't know quite well. They carried over habits, which they had formed in writing French. The confusion was in­creased when certain spellings gradually became conventional while the pronunciation slowly changed. Still, by 1550 most of the features of English spelling were clearly becoming established. English spelling in its modern form had been practically established by about 1650. A comprehensive historical analysis of English speech – spelling correspondences is provided by Pumpyansky [1963].

In the Renaissance (1500—1650) education became a new fac­tor promoting a standard, uniform language. Later unification of lan­guage also resulted from ease of travel and communication.

The 18th century is characterized (according to Baugh 1978) by further efforts 1) to stan­dardize (i.e. to reduce the language to rule); 2) to refine (to remove supposed defects and introduce certain improvements); 3) to fix the English language permanently in the desired form. All these tenden­cies resulted in the publication in 1755 of «A Dictionary of the En­glish Language», by Samuel Johnson. This was the first dictionary aimed at recording usage. It had its defects, of course, because it was compiled by one man. By contrast, the first French dictionary was compiled by a large group of academicians. Yet, this dictionary (Johnson's) was sort of cornerstone in the process of the standar­dization of English.

Another result of the efforts to refine English consisted in the introduction of some rules which were never observed in speech. Two negations were considered to be wrong, some grammarians insisted on governing the use of shall and will, etc. At the root of all the mistakes of language reformers was their ignorance of the pro­cesses of linguistic change. Changes in language are often unrea­sonable and cannot be fully predicted. No authoritative decree can help.

The inadequacy of the existing dictionaries of English became a serious problem in the 19th century. In 1857 the Philological Society in London appointed a committee to lay down the historical priniples on which a new dictionary should be compiled. The aims of the project were to record every word, which could be found in En­glish from about the year 1000 and to reflect the historical develop­ment of each word in all its forms, spellings, uses and meanings. Each entry was to be supplied with a full selection of quotations from English writings. Hundreds of readers all over the world began to send in material for the dictionary. The future volumes grew out of that nucleus. In 1879 the Oxford University Press (an important publishing house) started to finance and publish the society's dictio­nary. James A. H. Murray was to be its editor. Henry Bradley, Wil­liam A. Craigie and Charles. T. Onions were appointed members of the editorial staff. The dictionary was given the title The Oxford English Dictionary. It fills 10 large volumes and treats 240,165 main words. Some Supplements were published later [for details, see Baugh 1978: 331 – 336].

The spread of English to many parts of the world in the 19th and 20th centuries has practically changed the conception of what is traditionally called Standard English. The United States, Canada, and Australia have their own standards. Moreover, the linguistic situation in Great Britain is gradually acquiring new features [Bubennikova 2004]

References

Baugh, A.C. A History of the English Language [Текст] / A.C. Baugh, Th. Cable. – London, 1978. – 438 p.

Bubennikova 2004 – Бубенникова О. А. О языковой ситуации в современной Англии Германистика в России. Традиции и перспективы: Тезисы научно-методического семинара. Новосибирск, 2004. С.7 – 11.

Pumpyansky1963 - Пумпянский А.Л. Английский литературный язык. М., 1963.

Shveitser 1996 – Швейцер А. Д. Роль инновационных и реликтовых элементов в формировании норм кодифицированного литературного языка // Языковая норма. Типология нормализационных процессов. М.: ИЯ РАН, 1996. С. 68- 78.

Yartseva 1969 - Ярцева В.Н. Развитие национального литературного английского языка / В. Н. Ярцева. – М.: Наука, 1969. – 285 с.

Yartseva 1985 - Ярцева В.Н. История английского литературного языка IX—XV вв. / В.Н. Ярцева. – М.: Наука, 1985. – 247 с.

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