“The OXFORD HISTORY of ENGLISH”

edited by Lynda Mugglestone (OUP 2006)

1. PRELIMINARIES: BEFORE ENGLISH(by Terry Hoad)

a) LANGUAGES ON THE MOVE

Migrants from Germany spoke a range of dialects and interacted with people speaking different forms of their language, Celtic languages and a form of Latin that some used under the Roman governance of Britian.

b) LOOKING BACK: INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS

INDO-EUROPEAN group of languages. Some took distinguishable form at an early date, ex. :

- Hittite : 1700 BC or before

- early forms of Greek : 1500-1200 BC

- Sanskrit / Avestan (Iranian branch): 1000-500 BC

- Latin : non much later

Other “parent languages” were: Slavonic, Celtic, Baltic, Armenian and Tocharian (central Asia)

Proto-GERMANIC : 200 BC

Common characteristics of Indo-European languages : inflection (plurality & tense); vocabulary more subject to change (living conditions, experiences, etc)

c)THE LESS DISTANT PAST: GERMANIC PRECURSOR

Early Germanic was spoken in Denmark and Southern Sweden. Characteristics:

- only 2 basic tense forms: present and past + auxiliary

- weak (walk)+ strong (sing) verbs. Weak verbs originally from other parts of speech + increased in size

- weakstrong forms of adjectives: weak, for ex, after 'the', 'my' , to specify a particular instance

ex.: Þær wuniaÞ Þa haligan menn (weak)

There dwell the holy men

Oft halige menn wunedon on westene (strong)

Often holy men dwelt in (the)desert

- stress on the first syllable syllables at the end lost / loss of inflectional endings

Change in sound between Germanic and Indo-European: GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT / FIRST SHIFT / GRIMM'S LAW

Indo-European Germanic

p
t
k / f
Þ
X / pita – father
trayas – three
cor / kardia (Greek) - heart
b
d
g / p
t
k
bh
dh
gh / b
d
g

d)ENTERING THE HISTORICAL PERIOD: THE DIVISIONS OF

PROTO-GERMANIC

Early Germanic developed from 3rd cent BC:

NORTH = Danish / Swedish /Norwegian

EAST = Gothic

WEST = German, Dutch, Frisian and English

EAST GERMANIC – those about whom most is known are the Goths, who moved across Europe in the first 3 cent AD. Their language is known for a translation of parts of the Bible (4th cent, modern Romania). It has characterists of Protogermanic that have not survived in the other Germanic languages:

inflectional forms of verb for passive

reduplication of strong verbs (ex. gretan / gaigrot; haitan / haihait)

NORTH GERMANIC – from 2nd cent AD they left texts/inscriptions in Runic alphabet (“futhark” =from the first six characters of their alphabet). Also in Anglo-Saxon Britian. Characteristics:

suffixes added for “mediopassive” form (for 1st , 2nd and 3rd person)

suffixes were originally forms of personal pronouns (mik, sik)

definite article suffixed to its noun

WEST GERMANIC LANGUAGES: Old High German, Old Frisian, Old Saxon and Old English.

a) Old High German (Upper German= Alemannic and Bavarian; and Middle German=Franconian)

characteristics:

- SECOND CONSONANT SHIFT :

Old English / Old High German
tooth / toÞ / zan
make / macian / mahhon

- retains 3 distinct plural persons

b) Old Saxon : survives in 2 ninth-century scriptural narratives in verse, Heliand and Genesis

characteristics:

lost original n or m between a vowel and f, Þ or s. ex.:

Old Saxon Old English Old High German

five / fif / fif / fimf
journey / Siᶞ / siÞ / sind
us / us / us / unsih

c) Old Frisian: we have no direct knowledge at the period relevant to the Anglo-saxon migrations to Britian. It appears to have some deep-rooted resemblances to Old English

d) Old English : dialects spoken by Angles, Saxons and possibly Franks

characteristics:

- one form for dative and accusative (like Old Saxon and Old Frisian, different from Old Norse, Old High German and Gothic)

- has a vowel e or æ (like Old Frisian) instead of a in Old High German and Old Norse

- borrowing, ex. from Celtic = king and iron

from Latin = caupo (merchant) becomes koufo, koufman, cypa, ceapmann,

kaup in the other dialects

from Latin = vinum becomes wein, vin, win

  1. BEGINNING AND TRADITIONS: OLD ENGLISH (by Susan Irvine)

Old English : c450-1150 AD – characterised by

- inflections; different cases; genders and numbers; adjectives are not invariable;

- different tenses, moods, numbers and persons

Its development has 5 historical moments:

invasion of Britian (mif 5th cent))

coming of Christianity (597 AD -Roman alphabet)

reign of King Alfred the Great in the West Saxon kingdom (871-899)+ culture

the Benedectine reform Old English “literary language” (2nd part X cent)

Norman Conquest 1066 AD

a) INVASION AND DIALECTICAL DIVERSITY

The Anglo-Saxon monk Bede (pronounced /bi:d/)describes the (conventional?)arrival of 3 tribes in 449 in his Ecclesiastica Historia Gentis Anglorum (written in Latin by 731; for a translation into English visit

Jutes Kent and isle of Wight

Old Saxons East, West and South Saxons

Angles East Anglians, Middle Anglians and Northumbrians

Various dialects were therefore spoken in different parts of Britain. For ex, of the earliest documented oral poem in Old English is Cædmon's Hymns, we have different versions/spelling. This is the beginning of the Northumbrian one (you can hear its interesting reading here:

nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard

metudæs maecti end his modgidanc

uerc uuldurfadur swe he uundra gihwaes

eci dryctin or astelidæ

he aerist scop aelda barnum

heben til hrofe haleg scepen.

tha middungeard moncynnæs uard

eci dryctin æfter tiadæ

firum foldu frea allmectig

Characteristics of old English poetic diction:

- composed in poetic lines of 4 stresses divided into two-stress half lines lonked by alliterarion

- complex syntax

- variation and repetition of sentence elements (ex vv words for God)

- poetic compound (words formed by joining together two separate existing words)

- formulæ (set phrases)

- England's identity as a Christian nation

b) CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY: ESTABLISHING A STANDARD SCRIPT

597 AD Augustine (pronunciation : and missionaries arrived in Britain Old English script based on the Roman alphabet. Before the arrival of Christian missionaries, the alphabet used was the Runic “FUTHORC” (used rom 4th to 11th cent). Examples of Old English written in runes are mainly found in stone inscriptions and coins. And also in some manuscripts. But the majority of Old English was written in the Roman alphabet that borrowed from other sources for some of the sounds not found in Latin:

Þ from Runic alphabet

Ð ð from Irish alphabet

æfrom latin

wfrom Runic 'wynn'

+ absence of j and v , rare use of q, x and z.

The introductions of the Roman alphabet paved the way for the translation of Latin works into vernacular.

c)KING ALFRED AND THE PRODUCTION OF VERNACULAR MANUSCRIPTS

In 871 Alfred ascended to the throne of Wessex. He wanted to to educate as many of his subjects as possible and make England a centre of intellectual achievement. From some of his translation works we can point out the characteristics of West Saxon dialect:

inflectional system: case, number, gender in nouns pronouns and adjectives

also in verb forms

freedom in word order (standard is Subject- Verb – Object)

West Saxon was becoming the dialect most commonly used in the writing of the vernacular. Its association with the court and with its cultural goals gave it authority and prestige.

d)THE BENEDICTINE REFORM AND THE REGULATION OF OLD ENGLISH

monastic reform (The Monastic Reform Movement that restored the Benedictine Rule to England's undisciplined monastic communities peaked during the era of Dunstan, Æthelwold, and Oswald)

text in vernacular for didactic purposes need to establish a standard literary language

based on West Saxon

ex. works of Ælfric (Winchester School): grammar revision

four main extant poetic codices: the Exeter book

the Vercelli book

the Cædmon manuscript

the Beowulf manuscript

all mainly written in West Saxon. Nowithstanding the efforts of Ælfric and other writers associated with his school, there was still considerable variation in Old English linguistic usage

e) THE CONQUEST: A LANGUAGE IN TRANSITION

CHANGES in the transitional stage between Old and Middle English:

less inflextions

c before a, o, u and k before e, i, y

reduction of adjective inflection

3. CONTACTS AND CONFLICTS : LATIN, NORSE AND FRENCH (by Matthew Townend)

a) THE MULTILINGUAL MIDDLE AGES

Complex multilingualism of medieval England:

- Bede (first half VIII cent) : 5 languages: British, Irish, Welsh, Pictish and Latin

- royal document mid X cent: recognizes people speaking Norse, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon. The text is in Latin

- a monk in early 13th cent about his abbot hero who could speak French, Latin and English

b) THE LANGUAGES OF MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

Celtic: (or Brittonic Celtic or British)= language of people who occupies the country before the arrival of Anglo-Saxons. Spoken in Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Cumbria. Had little impact on English: fewer than a dozen words borrowed from Celtic into English in the Anglo-Saxon period

Latin: spoken through medieval period. Arrived with missionaries in 597. Anglo-saxons mau have encountered spoken Latin among Romano-British peoles they conquered. Always a learned second language + the language of the Church

Norse: especially in North and east of England. Only spoke, never written down. Spoken till 11th cent. NB: Danish king Knut (1016-1042)

French: upper and middle classes

From mid 12th cent most members of the aristocracy were bilingual: their mother tongue English + French.

1250-1300 ENGLISH! French international language outside England

Literary culture in England in 3 languages: Latin French and English (also some Norse)

c) CONTACT SITUATIONS

Norse and English: bilingual society made up of monolingual speakers of different languages who coud somehow understand each other

French and English: no mutual form of intelligibility. The majority of population was monolingua, and they spoke English. French speakers a minority

Latin: language of conversation and debate in many ecclesiastical environments

borrowing & imposition:

borrowing= borrowed from another language by speaker of a native language

imposition= introduced into recipent language by a bilingual person

d) CONSEQUENCES FOR ENGLISH

loanwords : incorporation of a lexical item from the sourse language into the lexocon of the recipient language (ex OE 'munuc' (monk) from Latin 'monacus')

loan translation (calque): the elements from source language are tranlated into recipient language (ex OE'wellwillende' from 'benevolens', 'anhorn' from 'unicorn')

semantic loan : the form remains the same but the meaning is replaced by the meaning of the souce language (ex OE 'synn', which meant crime, took the meaning of 'peccatum')

Latin loans are conventionally subdivided into early popular loans (arising through oral contact, till 600) and learned ones (via Christianization and books)

Norse loans : forms introduced through borrowing (10th -11th cent) and those through imposition (11th and 12th cent)

French loans: an earlier group from Norman french, later from central French

Loanwords: mainly nouns and adjectives (more than verbs and adverbs)

  • ex Peterborough Chronicle :we can notice the demise of of the Old English inflexional system and the transition to rthe relatively uninflected state of Middle English
  • English passes from being a synthetic language (grm relationships are expressed morphologically through the addition of inflections) to an analytic one (grm relationships expressed syntactically )
  • Norse-English: intelligible languages; inflextions were non-functional in Norse-English communication. They decayed in favour of a relatively fixed word-order. Inflextion decay apeared to have happened first in north and esat England

4. MIDDLE ENGLISH – DIALECTS AND DIVERSITY (by Marylin Corrie)

a) DIALECTAL VARIATION IN WRITTEN MIDDLE ENGLISH

The major dialect areas: Old English to Middle English

b) MIDDLE ENGLISH BEFORE AND AFTER 1350

c) STANDARDIZATION

5. FROM MIDDLE TO EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (by Jeremy J. Smith)

a) LEXICON

b) GRAMMAR

c) TRANSMISSION: WRITING AND SPEECH

d) THE ARRIVAL OF PRINTING