27/09/2012 Celtic tribes reach Britain 500B.C. The History of the (Iron Age) Indoeuropean language English Language Celts were so fragmented Dr. Gloria Cappelli and given to fighting among themselves Romans invaded Indoeuropean? Britain (55-43 B.C. – Many languages spoken in the world 410A.D.) (Europe,India, Asia…) are genetically related : They brought Latin to the British they belong to different language islands (also an families derived from a hypothetical Indoeuropean common source language) Indoeuropean? The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages including most of the major languages of Europe, the northern Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and much of Central Asia Indo-European (Indo refers to the Indian subcontinent) has the largest numbers of speakers of the recognised families of languages in the world today 1 27/09/2012 Germanic Languages? East Germanic was spoken by peoples who migrated back to south-eastern Europe . No East Germanic language is spoken today, and the only written East Germanic language that survives is Gothic North Germanic evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic (but not Finnish, which is related to Estonian and is not an Indo-European language) West Germanic is the ancestor of modern German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and English Celtic influences on English Bannock (cake) Clout (hit) Crock (container) Darn (mend) Mug Knob Pool Binn (bin) Luh (lake) Thames Avon (water) Ex (as in Exeter – water) From the original Briton settlers’ language Celtic influences on English Celtic influences on English bag clan bargain plaid slogan (a war-cry) barrel whisky basket shamrock budget gag bijou log car ribbon From Scottish and Irish Gallic words brought by the Normans in 1066 2 27/09/2012 Latin influences on English The “real” beginnings of English • port (harbor, gate, town) from Latin portus and porta The “ dark fifth century ”: • munt (mountain) from Latin mons, montem invasions by Germanic peoples from Jutland • torr (tower, rock) possibly from Latin turris and southern Denmark • wic (village) from Latin vicus. • street (Latin strata via) - Jutes • wine - Angles (whose name is the source of the words • chester/-caster (Manchester, Lancaster) ‘England’ – ‘Land of Angles’ – and ‘English’) - Saxons Roman army and merchants gave new names to - Frisians many local objects and experiences, and introduced new concepts They all spoke a language which was Germanic . 5th and 6 th Century Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) • Anglo-Saxon OE was originally written in the runic alphabet Heptarchy 3 27/09/2012 Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Most of the OE corpus is written in the Wessex dialect . Under the ruling of King Alfred, Wessex became the leading political and cultural force (end of 9th c.) However, modern Standard English descends from Mercian (dialect spoken near London in the Middle Ages). Old English Caedmon's Hymn Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard The OE corpus includes: metudæs maecti end his modgidanc uerc uuldurfadur sue he uundra gihuaes – Caedmon’s Hymn (first Christian poem) eci dryctin or astelidæ he aerist scop aelda barnum – Beowulf is the first great narrative poem in OE heben til hrofe haleg scepen. – Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (from several sources) tha middungeard moncynnæs uard eci dryctin æfter tiadæ started by King Alfred (871-ca 1154) firum foldu frea allmectigprimo cantauit Cædmon istud carmen. Much of the OE prose was translated from Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven's kingdom, Latin and was religious in nature, cf. The might of the Creator, and his thought, The work of the Father of glory, how each of wonders – Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History ( Historia The Eternal Lord established in the beginning. He first created for the sons of men Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum , 673-735) Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator, Then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind, The Eternal Lord, afterwards made, The earth for men, the Almighty Lord. Beowulf Beowulf “Beowulf”, written about 700- 750A.D., and later revised in about A.D. 1000, is considered the greatest single literary work of Old English. 4 27/09/2012 Old English – Lexical Influences Old English – Lexical Influences • OE vocabulary: almost purely • E.g. ‘ be ’, ‘ water ’, and ‘ strong ’ derive Germanic from Anglo-Saxon roots • The ‘Germanic’ language replaced • Also cf. Latin (esp. in everyday mann >> man wif >> wife/woman communication) cild >> child hus >> house • Few words survive in present day god >> good etan >> eat English. But about half of the most drincan >> drink libban >> live commonly used words have Old foethan >> fight English roots Old English – Lexical Influences Old English – Lexical Influences Borrowings of Germanic origin in Borrowings of Germanic origin in contemporary English: contemporary English: (1) Dutch , including Flemish and Low (4) Norse : anger, blink, blur, call, die, dirt, German : bluff, boss, brandy, bully, cookie, doze, egg, fellow, flat, flaw, gasp, gaze, cruise, dope, drill, drum, golf, landscape, glitter, happen, harsh, kick, kilt, law, leg, skipper, sledge, sleigh, slim, snap… loan, nasty, odd, raise, root, scalp, seat, (2) German : Fahrenheit, hamburger, skid, skill, skin, skull, sky, sniff, squeal, hamster, kindergarten, kitsch, leitmotiv, take, they, ugly, want, weak, window... schwa... (5) Norwegian : fjord/fiord, ski, slalom… (3) Icelandic : geyser, saga… Old English – Lexical Influences Old English – Lexical Influences Latin loan words in Old English: Viking raids brought many ‘North prestige borrowings Germanic’ words into the language, (esp. for animals, food, drink, household particularly in the north of present-day items, clothing, buildings and settlements, England military domain, commerce, ecclesiastical Examples: domain…): -‘dream ’, which had meant ‘joy’ until the catte ( cat ), plante ( plant ), win ( wine ), cyse Vikings imparted its current meaning on it (cheese ), disc ( dish ), belt ( belt ), weall ( wall ), from the Scandinavian cognate ‘ draumr ’ ceaster ( town ), diht ( saying ), mangian - sk-words : sky, skin, skill, scrub, skirt (trade ), ceapian ( buy ), maesse ( mass ), - g-words : get, give, egg munuc ( monk )… 5 27/09/2012 Old English – Lexical Influences Old English – Lexical Influences Scandinavian place names: More Scandinavian loan words: -by farm, town: Grimsby, Whitby anger, bag, bank, birth, cake, crawl, fog, -thorpe village: Althorpe, Linthorpe gap, happy, husband, kid, knife, leg, neck, -thwaite isolated piece of land: outlaw, race, scare, seat, sister, smile, Applethwaite, Braithwaite steak... Other: -son Stevenson, Johnson OE is the language spoken by Angles, pronouns/adj. they, them, their Saxons, Jutes, with Scandinavian verb to be are influences prepositions ‘to’ and ‘fro’ Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Structural development Structural development Word-building in OE : Word-building in OE : Affixation and compounding Kennings: for alliteration and metrical structure in poetry): vivid figurative descriptions (from Old Norse poetic treaties). They were used to describe - godspel >> god ‘good’ + spel ‘tidings’ ( gospel ) things allusively, often in compounds - frumweorc >> frum ‘beginning’ + weorc ‘work’ ( creation ) - sunnandæg >> sunna ‘sun’s’ + dæg ‘day’ ( Sunday ) - Mynstermann >> mynster ‘monastery’ + mann ‘man’ (monk ) - hronrad >> whale + road ‘ sea ’ - dœgred >> dœg ‘day’ + ‘red’ ( dawn ) - anpaðas >> one + paths ‘ a route along which only one - eorÞcraft >> eorÞ ‘earth’ + ‘craft’ ( geometry ) person may pass at a time ’ (connotation of danger) - banhus >> bone + house ‘ a person’s body ’ - modcrœft >> mood + craft ‘ intelligence ’ Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Structural development Structural development Syntax in OE : Syntax in OE : OE grammar was similar to that of Latin and present-day German Word order in OE was much more varied than in Modern English A synthetic language : nouns, verbs, adjectives, – Was he the man in secular life settled definite article and pronouns were highly inflected – he never any poem learned (in contemporary E. - from Caedmon story, from a translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical The def. article, nouns, adjectives, pronouns were History , in Cambridge Encyclopaedia). inflected for number , case (grammatical function), gender , i.e. different morphemes/endings signalled this information. In OE, the varying forms of nouns, Verbs had different endings depending on number , adjectives, articles tell us how the parts of person , tense , and mood the sentence relate to each other 6 27/09/2012 Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Structural development Structural development Syntax in OE : Syntax in OE : • In Modern E, the difference between (1) and (2) is a matter of word order: • Among the most typical kinds of word order in OE: SOV (esp. in dependent clauses) (1) the woman saw the man • Stylistic variation OVS/XVS (X= other (2) the man saw the woman constituent) • Questions were formed with subject-verb • cf. OE inversion (1) seo/NF cwen geseah Þone/AM guman • Negative sentences were formed with the particle (2) se/NM guma geseah Þa/AF cwen ‘ne’ at the beginning of the clause + V + S (1.a) Þone guman geseah seo cwen (masculine object + feminine subject) Old English (460 – 1066A.D.) Middle English (1066-1500 A.D.) Structural development Syntax in OE : 1066 A.D. • Little