History of the English Language
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Early Modern English
Mrs. Halverson: English 9A Intro to Shakespeare’s Language: Early Modern English Romeo and Juliet was written around 1595, when William Shakespeare was about 31 years old. In Shakespeare's day, England was just barely catching up to the Renaissance that had swept over Europe beginning in the 1400s. But England's theatrical performances soon put the rest of Europe to shame. Everyone went to plays, and often more than once a week. There you were not only entertained but also exposed to an explosion of new phrases and words entering the English language for overseas and from the creative minds of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The language Shakespeare uses in his plays is known as Early Modern English, and is approximately contemporaneous with the writing of the King James Bible. Believe it or not, much of Shakespeare's vocabulary is still in use today. For instance, Howard Richler in Take My Words noted the following phrases originated with Shakespeare: without rhyme or reason flesh and blood in a pickle with bated breath vanished into thin air budge an inch more sinned against than sinning fair play playing fast and loose brevity is the soul of wit slept a wink foregone conclusion breathing your last dead as a door-nail point your finger the devil incarnate send me packing laughing-stock bid me good riddance sorry sight heart of gold come full circle Nonetheless, Shakespeare does use words or forms of words that have gone out of use. Here are some guidelines: 1) Shakespeare uses some personal pronouns that have become archaic. -
Influences on the Development of Early Modern English
Influences on the Development of Early Modern English Kyli Larson Wright This article covers the basic social, historical, and linguistic influences that have transformed the English language. Research first describes components of Early Modern English, then discusses how certain factors have altered the lexicon, phonology, and other components. Though there are many factors that have shaped English to what it is today, this article only discusses major factors in simple and straightforward terms. 72 Introduction The history of the English language is long and complicated. Our language has shifted, expanded, and has eventually transformed into the lingua franca of the modern world. During the Early Modern English period, from 1500 to 1700, countless factors influenced the development of English, transforming it into the language we recognize today. While the history of this language is complex, the purpose of this article is to determine and map out the major historical, social, and linguistic influences. Also, this article helps to explain the reasons for their influence through some examples and evidence of writings from the Early Modern period. Historical Factors One preliminary historical event that majorly influenced the development of the language was the establishment of the print- ing press. Created in 1476 by William Caxton at Westminster, London, the printing press revolutionized the current language form by creating a means for language maintenance, which helped English gravitate toward a general standard. Manuscripts could be reproduced quicker than ever before, and would be identical copies. Because of the printing press spelling variation would eventually decrease (it was fixed by 1650), especially in re- ligious and literary texts. -
Phonetic and Phonological Petit Shifts
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Yamagata University Academic Repository Phonetic and phonological petit shifts TOMITA Kaoru (English phonetics) 山形大学紀要(人文科学)第17巻第3号別刷 平成 24 年(2012)2月 Phonetic and phonological petit shifts Phonetic and phonological petit shifts TOMITA Kaoru (English phonetics) Abstract Studies of language changes and their approaches are surveyed in this study. Among the changes, vowel shifts and consonant shifts observed in the history of language and modern English, and stress shifts in present-day English are introduced and discussed. Phonological studies of these sound changes, generally, present rules or restrictions. On this basis, it is proposed that consonant changes, vowel changes or stress shifts are better observed in several types of language or social contexts. It is especially emphasized that the phenomena of language changes in a real situation are to be found by observing words, phrases, sentences and even paragraphs spoken in quiet or hurried situations. Introduction Phonetic science states that language sound change is depicted as a phonetically conditioned process that originates through the mechanism of speech production. This standpoint is criticized from a large body of empirical evidence that has important consequences. Some propose frequency in use while others propose gender as the factor to explain sound changes. Sociolinguists claim that explanations that put an emphasis on language contexts or social contexts would lead the phonetic and phonological studies into the exploration of language sound changes in real situations. This paper surveys language sound changes, such as historical vowel shifts and consonant shifts, and stress shifts, with an explanation from the phonetic or social standpoints. -
The Iafor European Conference Series 2014 Ece2014 Ecll2014 Ectc2014 Official Conference Proceedings ISSN: 2188-112X
the iafor european conference series 2014 ece2014 ecll2014 ectc2014 Official Conference Proceedings ISSN: 2188-112X “To Open Minds, To Educate Intelligence, To Inform Decisions” The International Academic Forum provides new perspectives to the thought-leaders and decision-makers of today and tomorrow by offering constructive environments for dialogue and interchange at the intersections of nation, culture, and discipline. Headquartered in Nagoya, Japan, and registered as a Non-Profit Organization 一般社( 団法人) , IAFOR is an independent think tank committed to the deeper understanding of contemporary geo-political transformation, particularly in the Asia Pacific Region. INTERNATIONAL INTERCULTURAL INTERDISCIPLINARY iafor The Executive Council of the International Advisory Board IAB Chair: Professor Stuart D.B. Picken IAB Vice-Chair: Professor Jerry Platt Mr Mitsumasa Aoyama Professor June Henton Professor Frank S. Ravitch Director, The Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Dean, College of Human Sciences, Auburn University, Professor of Law & Walter H. Stowers Chair in Law USA and Religion, Michigan State University College of Law Professor David N Aspin Professor Emeritus and Former Dean of the Faculty of Professor Michael Hudson Professor Richard Roth Education, Monash University, Australia President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Senior Associate Dean, Medill School of Journalism, Visiting Fellow, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge Economic Trends (ISLET) Northwestern University, Qatar University, UK Distinguished Research Professor of Economics, -
5 Middle English
A CONCISE HISTORY OF ENGLISH 5 Middle English 5.1 Historical background of Middle English Th e development of the English language was strongly infl uenced by political changes following the Norman Conquest. In 1066, the Norman army led by William the Con- queror (Duke of Normandy) defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings and killed the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold II. Th is event foreshadowed the end of the Old English and the beginning of the Middle English period. Th e linguistic eff ects of the ar- rival of the Normans became apparent with considerable delay, therefore the beginning of the Middle English period has been set by scholars to the end of the 11th century or even a later date. Th e traditional periodization distinguishes three subperiods of Middle English: Early Middle English (1100–1250), Ordinary Middle English (1250–1400), and Late Middle English (1400–1500). However, recent research suggests that Old English was not only spoken but also written for almost one hundred years aft er the Norman Conquest. Da Rold et al. (2010) suggest the following modifi cation of the traditional periodization: Updated Old English (1066–1150) Early Middle English (1150–1325) Late Middle English (1325–1500) When William the Conqueror became King William I of England, the Normans (Norsemen who had previously conquered Northern France) seized political, econom- ic, military, and religious power. Th ey became the lords of the Anglo-Saxon population, which, however, continued to speak English. Th e Normans spoke Norman French and at the beginning of their rule, most of them did not learn English and could not com- municate with the Anglo-Saxon population. -
Boofi 6HEEH SIATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY I
RUNIC EVIDENCE OF LAMINOALVEOLAR AFFRICATION IN OLD ENGLISH Tae-yong Pak A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 1969 Approved by Doctoral Committee BOOfi 6HEEH SIATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY I 428620 Copyright hy Tae-yong Pak 1969 ii ABSTRACT Considered 'inconsistent' by leading runologists of this century, the new Old English runes in the palatovelar series, namely, gar, calc, and gar-modified (various modi fications of the old gifu and cën) have not been subjected to rigorous linguistic analysis, and their relevance to Old English phonology and the study of Old English poetry has remained unexplored. The present study seeks to determine the phonemic status of the new runes and elucidate their implications to alliteration. To this end the following methods were used: 1) The 60-odd extant Old English runic texts were examined. Only four monuments (Bewcastle, Ruthwell, Thornhill, and Urswick) were found to use the new runes definitely. 2) In the four texts the words containing the new and old palatovelar runes were isolated and tabulated according to their environments. The pattern of distribution was significant: gifu occurred thirteen times in front environments and twice in back environments; cen, eight times front and once back; gar, nine times back; calc, five times back and once front; and gar-modified, twice front. Although cen and gifu occurred predominantly in front environments, and calc and gar in back environments, their occurrences were not complementary. 3) To interpret the data minimal or near minimal pairs with the palatovelar consonants occurring in front or back environments were examined. -
Ingo Berensmeyer Literary Culture in Early Modern England, 1630–1700
Ingo Berensmeyer Literary Culture in Early Modern England, 1630–1700 Ingo Berensmeyer Literary Culture in Early Modern England, 1630–1700 Angles of Contingency This book is a revised translation of “Angles of Contingency”: Literarische Kultur im England des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, originally published in German by Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2007, as vol. 39 of the Anglia Book Series. ISBN 978-3-11-069130-6 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-069137-5 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-069140-5 DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110691375 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Control Number: 2020934495 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available from the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. ©2020 Ingo Berensmeyer, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston The book is published with open access at www.degruyter.com. Cover image: Jan Davidszoon de Heem, Vanitas Still Life with Books, a Globe, a Skull, a Violin and a Fan, c. 1650. UtCon Collection/Alamy Stock Photo. Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Preface to the Revised Edition This book was first published in German in 2007 as volume 39 of the Anglia Book Series. In returning to it for this English version, I decided not simply to translate but to revise it thoroughly in order to correct mistakes, bring it up to date, and make it a little more reader-friendly by discarding at least some of its Teutonic bag- gage. -
Old English Feet
7. Old English Feet Chris Golston California State University, Fresno 1. Introduction In this chapter I show that the Beowulf poet carefully avoids lines whose halves are identical in terms of stressed (x) and stressless (.) syllables. The half-line (x.x.), for instance, is happily paired with anything but another (x.x.), despite the fact that (x.x.) is by far the commonest half-line type in the poem. Statistical analysis shows that this avoidance is not by chance and suggests that having identical adjacent half-lines is unmetrical in the poem. The same appears to be the case for half-lines identical in weight: a half-line with heavy and light syllables that runs (HLHL) does not pair with one that runs (HLHL). The results are obtained by looking at each and every syllable in the poem, regardless of stress, morphological status, or position within the line. This shows that Beowulf meter strictly regulates every syllable in the poem. Theories that ignore pre-tonic syllables (Bliss 1958), syllables that occur in prefixes (Russom 1987), stressless syllables in general (Keyser 1969, Fabb & Halle 2008), or stress in general (Golston & Riad 2001) cannot account for this fact. An adequate theory of OE meter must include stress, quantity, and the avoidance of identical half-lines. 2. Variation We may begin with a metrical scansion of the first part of the poem, where the first syllable of every lexical root (noun, verb, adjective) is stressed (x) and all others are stressless (.): (1)!Beowulf lines 1-11 Hwat, w" g#r-dena in ge#r-dagum, ! . -
Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation
ORIGINAL PRONUNCIATION – Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. THE ORIGINAL PRONUNCIATION (OP) OF SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLISH by PAUL MEIER Based on the work of David Crystal in Early Modern English (EME) with embedded sound files ORIGINAL PRONUNCIATION THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET I have used the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent in the text the sounds you hear me making in the recordings. While only a few of my readers may be familiar with this alphabet, I have found that simply seeing the sounds represented visually this way strongly reinforces what you are hearing; and, as its name implies, the IPA, among many phonetic systems, has been the international standard since the early twentieth century. When I was a student at the Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama in London, I had a wonderful phonetics teacher, Greta Stevens, who painstakingly demonstrated the sounds in class until her students “fixed” the sounds associated with each symbol. We also were able to purchase the huge, old 78 r.p.m. discs with Daniel Jones, the father of the system, speaking the cardinal vowels. Under Miss Stevens’ superb tutelage, I took my studies as far as I could, culminating in the rigorous proficiency examination administered by the International Phonetics Association. It is a testament to her skill that, among those gaining the IPA Certificate of Proficiency that year, 1968, I was the high scorer. My love of phonetics and its ability to record the way humans speak has never diminished. -
Introduction to the History of the English Language
INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Written by László Kristó 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 4 NOTES ON PHONETIC SYMBOLS USED IN THIS BOOK ................................................. 5 1 Language change and historical linguistics ............................................................................. 6 1.1 Language history and its study ......................................................................................... 6 1.2 Internal and external history ............................................................................................. 6 1.3 The periodization of the history of languages .................................................................. 7 1.4 The chief types of linguistic change at various levels ...................................................... 8 1.4.1 Lexical change ........................................................................................................... 9 1.4.2 Semantic change ...................................................................................................... 11 1.4.3 Morphological change ............................................................................................. 11 1.4.4 Syntactic change ...................................................................................................... 12 1.4.5 Phonological change .............................................................................................. -
Lexical Phonology and the History of English
LEXICAL PHONOLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH APRIL McMAHON Department of Linguistics University of Cambridge PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011±4211, USA www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia # April McMahon 2000 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2000 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Times 10/13pt. [ce] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data McMahon, April M. S. Lexical Phonology and the history of English / April McMahon. p. cm. ± (Cambridge studies in linguistics; 91) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 47280 6 hardback 1. English language ± Phonology, Historical. 2. English language ± History. 3. Lexical Phonology. I. Title. II. Series. PE1133.M37 2000 421'.5 ± dc21 99±28845 CIP ISBN 0 521 47280 6 hardback Contents Acknowledgements page xi 1 The roÃle of history 1 1.1 Internal and external evidence 1 1.2 Lexical Phonology and its predecessor 5 1.3 Alternative models 13 1.4 The structure of the book 33 2 Constraining the model: current -
1 Old English Phonology After Our First Few Lessons Using This Language
1 Old English Phonology After our first few lessons using This Language, A River, I’ve decided that you need supplementary materials that are a little bit clearer and more schematic, as well as a little bit more complete. The following pages are intended to supplement the material on pp. 125-132. The Old English Alphabet The Anglo-Saxons acquired the alphabet that they used in manuscripts from Christians who led efforts to convert them from the 580s onward. The Christians, as the inheritors of Roman textual traditions, used the Latin alphabet. When Christian monks began writing down Old English texts, they discovered that Old English included a number of sounds that the Latin alphabet did not represent easily. For this reason, they adapted a few runic characters into the Latin alphabet that they used to represent Old English. A momentary digression about Runes The runic alphabet was used throughout Northern Europe among communities who spoke languages that were part of the larger Germanic language family, but it was an alphabet that was best adapted for carving and inscription on stone, wood, metal, and bone rather than for writing on parchment or vellum. The oldest surviving artifact that certainly reflects a runic text is a bone comb from approximately 150AD found in a bog in Denmark (Looijenga 161). The inscription reads ᚺᚫᚱᛃᚫ: “harja.” The text may mean “warrior,” or “member of the Harii tribe,” or “hair.” Personally, I have always preferred the last interpretation because it seems like an amusingly obvious thing to put on a comb. In any case, the runic alphabets employed single graphical representations for phonemes that Germanic languages had but that Latin did not: <æ> ‘æsh’, which is also the character used in the IPA for the low front vowel phoneme in English /æ/; <þ> ‘thorn’, which represented the phoneme /θ/; <ƿ> ‘wynn’, which represented the phoneme /w/.