ELMAR H. ABDULRAHIMOV MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC AZERBAIJAN UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES ELMAR H. ABDULRAHIMOV THE ABC OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (“Инэилис дилинин тарихи” фянниndян дярс вясаити) Азярбайъан Республикасы Тящсил By the order of Minister назиринин 29.04.2005-ъи ил of Education of Azerbaijan тарихли 293 sайлы ямри иля чапа Republic the stamp was given тювсийя едилмишдир. (Order No. 293, on 29.04.2005) Baku - - 2005 2 Редактор: Editor: филолоэийа елмляри намизяди, associate professor, candidate досент М.М.Пашайева of Philology M.M.Pashayeva Ряйчиляр: Reviewers: филолоэийа елмляри доктору, Doctor of Philology, профессор Я.Я.Абдullaйev, professor A.A.Abdullayev, филолоэийа елмляри намизяди, candidate of Philology, досент С.Н.Ъавадова associate professor S.M.Javadova All rights reserved. 2005. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording without written permission of the publishers. 4306010000 A 49-05 026 © Мцтяръим, 2005 3 C O N T E N T S Preface …………………………………………….. 4 List of Abbreviations and Symbols ……………….. 6 Section I. Reference Tables ………………..…….. 8 List of Inflectional Suffixes …….…….. 108 List of Derivational Suffixes ………..… 115 List of Derivational Prefixes ………..... 119 Some Proverbs Displaying the Survivals from Old and Middle English …………. 121 The Life of Unusual Words …………… 132 An Excerpt from Ælfric’s Cosmology (Old English Text) and its Essential Vocabulary ……………….…………… 142 Section 2. Glossary of Terms ……………………... 166 Section 3. Chronology of Historical Events affecting the English Language ..……… 239 Chronology of the English Language and Literature ……………..…………... 243 1. Historical Phonetics and Spelling …... 251 2. Historical Grammar ……………..….. 254 3. Historical Lexicology ……….……… 258 Bibliographical References and Background Reading …………………………. 260 4 PREFACE The present manual is intended for students and post- graduate students of English language departments at universities, as well as those who are interested in the historical development of the English language. Students and teachers of English may obtain some historical insights into the development of different aspects, irregularities and inconsistencies of present-day English and find the manual of some interest. The manual consists of three sections. The first section includes illustrated reference tables with examples making the linguistic notions easier to remember. Phonetic, grammatical and lexical development and changes in the history of English are treated systematically and in chronological sequence. The schemes and tables can be used as an aid to the thorough study of linguistic phenomena in different periods of English. This section also includes a list of inflectional and derivational suffixes used in different periods and some proverbs displaying the survivals from the Old and Middle English. The second section contains a glossary of terms used in the course of the history of the English language, which are helpful to the reader in understanding the linguistic changes in the English historical phonetics, spelling, grammar and lexicon. The third section includes chronology of phonetic, grammatical and semantic changes and historical events affecting the development of the English language and literature. The manual is also supplemented with an excerpt from the original Old English text of “De Temporibus Anni” by Ælfric, the Anglo-Saxon author with its Azerbaijani translation 5 and the analysis of the essential vocabulary made by the editor of this manual associate professor M.M.Pashayeva. The goal of presenting the course of the History of the English Language is to make it accessible to a reader. The selected bibliography has been brought up to date and some suggestions for supplementary reading have also been introduced. I am indebted to my teacher and editor of this manual associate professor M.M Pashayeva and its reviewers for their suggestions and helpful comments. The Author 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS A.,acc. accusative (case) c. century cf. confer, compare cons. consonant D. dative (case) e.g. for example (Latin: exempli gratia) EModE Early Modern English ENE Early New English f. feminine gender Fr. French G. Genitive (case) Gk. Greek Goth. Gothic IE Indo-European Ins. Instrumental case i.e. that is (id est) irreg. irregular Lat. Latin m. masculine gender ME Middle English ModE Modern English n. 1.noun; 2.neuter N., nom. Nominative North. Northern OE Old English OHG Old High German OIcl. Old Icelandic ON Old Norse O.Sax. Old Saxon O.Sc. Old Scandinavian PG Proto-Germanic 7 p., pers. person pl. plural pres. present (tense) p.t. past tense pp past participle Rus. Russian Scand. Scandinavian Snsk. Sanskrit sg. singular str.v. strong verb v. verb w.v. weak verb - over a vowel indicates that the vowel is long. > stands for “changed to, becomes” < stands for “changed from, derived from” * marks hypothetical (i.e.supposed) forms / 1. it indicates alternation of sounds; 2. it is placed between variants of a grammatical form or a morpheme. ỹ it denotes a long vowel [y:] in Old English ǽ it denotes a long vowel [æ:] in Old English 8 S E C T I O N 1. REFERENCE TABLES Table 1 Two Approaches to the Language Study Synchronic Diachronic (“syn” - with, “chronos” (“dia” - through, “chronos” - time in Greek, i.e. - time, i.e. of continuous simultaneity). time). It deals with the study of It concerns the study of language at the present language in its historical situation. development. Table 2 Similarity in the Vocabulary of English and Other Languages English German English French summer Sommer autumn autumne winter Winter river riviere sing singen change changer long lang army armee sit sitzen general general Other Germanic Romance English languages languages German Frieden peace French paix Swedish fred (cf. OE frið) Latin pace Dutch vrede Spanish paz German Heer army French armee (cf. OE here) 9 Table 3 Germanic Group of Languages East Germanic North Germanic To this group belonged 1.Danish Gothic, Vandalic and 2.Swedish Burgundian. But they 3.Norwegian are dead languages. 4. Icelandic 5.Faroese W e s t G e r m a n i c English German Dutch spoken spoken by (Netherlandish) today by people people in two spoken in in Great Britain dialects: Holland. and abroad 1. Low (USA, German Canada, 2. High Ireland, New German Zealand, Its writing Australia). belongs to the Its writing 8th century. belongs to the 7th century. Flemish Frisian Yiddish spoken in Belgium. spoken in now spoken Its writing is Latin Northern by people in Netherlands Poland, Germany, Rumania, Hungary 10 Table 4 Writing of the Germanic Languages 1. Runes 2.Gothic or The Latin Alphabet. These Vulfilian This alphabet began inscriptions Alphabet to be used in were written on This writing Germanic the cliffs, on the was languages after the stones, on the founded by spreading of abornments. West Christianity. This alphabet Gothic bishop Beginning with the was used in the Vulfila 7th –9th centuries 2nd and 3rd at the end of the texts were centuries of our the 4th century. written in Latin era for religious alphabet in the purposes. Germanic languages. Table 5 Two Consonant Shifts in Germanic Languages The first shifting occurred before the 4th century; the second had been completed by the 8th c. The first relates to the Low German group; the second to the High German. Indo-European Low German High German bh b p (b) dh d t gh g k (g) b p ff (f) d t zz (z) g k hh (h) p f t th k h 11 Table 6 Jacob Grimm’s Law Indo-European Germanic 1 voiceless stops voiceless fricatives p t k f þ h Lat. pater OE fæder “father” Lat. trēs Goth þries “three” Gk. kardia OHG herza “heart” 2 voiced stops voiceless stops b d g p t k Rus. болота OE pōl “pool” 11 Lat. duo Goth twai “two” Gk. egon OIcl ek “I” 3 voiced aspirated stops voiced non-aspirated stops bh dh gh b d g Snsk bhratar OE brōðor “brother” Rus. брат Snsk madhu OE medu “mead” Rus. мед *Snsk songha OIcl syngva “sing” 12 Table 7 Karl Verner’s Law Indo–European Germanic p t k s b ð d g z r Gk. hepta Goth. sibun “seven” Gk. pater OSc. Faðir; OE fæder “father” Gk. dekas Goth. tigus “ten, a dozen” Goth. aiz, OHG ēr “bronze” OE cēosan cēas curon coren “to choose” OIcl. kiόsa kaus kørom kørenn 12 Goth. kiusan kaus kusum kusans Table 8 Voicing of Consonants Medial f → v septēm-séven, carpēre-hárvest Medial θ → ð pitār-fáther Medial s → z → r IE *wes → Germanic *wæs →OE wǽron →were Medial x → γ → g IE *dherāgh → OE dragan → draw IE bh → b t → θ θ → ð stress shift *bhratēr > *brotόr > *broθόr > *broðόr > *brόðor > brother 13 Table 9 J. Grimm’s Law and K.Verner’s Law Grimm’s law Verner’s law IE [t] > Common Germanic; [θ] > [ð] > [d] Latin: pater English: fæder “father”[`fa:ðя] I II III IV cweðan cwæð cwædon cweden (“say”, strong verb V) Rhotacism [s] > [z] > [r] 13 cēosan сēas curon coren (“choose”, strong verb II) Table 10 Old English and Gothic Strong Verbs Forms I II Past III Past IV Past Class, Language Infinitive Tense Sing. Tense Pl. Participle I Old English rīsan rās rison risen Gothic reisan rais risum risans II Old English cēosan cēas curon coren Gothic kiusan kaus kusum kusans III Old English bindan band bundon bunden Gothic bindan band bundum bundans 14 Table 11 Periods of the History of English Old English Middle English New English V c-XI c. XI c.-XV c. XVc.(1475)-up to (449-1066) (1066-1475) the present 14 period period present English English English Late New Vc.-VII c. Early New Pre-written The Age of Written OE VIII c.-XI c.