History of the English Language WS 2005 6

History of the English Language WS 2005/6

Topics • Linguistic changes: grammar and lexicon • Social and political events that influenced the development of the English language • English varieties • Mechanisms of language change

Course script Digitale Bibliothek Thüringen Search: Diessel – History of the English Language

What you will learn: • Why the English spelling is so odd • Why English does not have case marking • Why English developed a rigid word order • Why there are regular and irregular verbs forms • Why many English words are similar to words in German • Why many English words are similar to words in French • Why questions require the use of ‛do’ • Why English has become a world language

Requirements Short exam for student who started last year. 1 5% 2 10% 3 5% 4 20% 5 60%

Readings Barber, Charles. 2000. The English Language. A Historical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baugh, A. C. and T. Cable. 2002. A History of the English Language. London: Routledge. [fifth edition] Jucker, Andreas H. 2004. History of English and English Historical Linguistics. Stuttgart: Klett. Millward, C. M. 1996. A Biography of the English Language. Boston: Heinle. [second edition] The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. I-V. 1992. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Readings Aitchison, J. Language Change. Progress or Decay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Trask, R. L. 1996. Historical Linguistics. London: Arnold. Mc. Mahon, A. M. S. 1995. Understanding Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hock, H. H. 1991. Principles of Historical Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Croft, W. 2000. Explaining Language Change. An Evolutionary Approach. Harlow: Longman.

Time periods 450 -1100 Old English 1100 -1500 Middle English 1500 -1800 Early Modern English 1800 -present Present Day English

Germanic West Germanic North Germanic East Germanic English Swedish Gothic Frisian Danish Vandal German Norwegian Burgundian Yiddish Icelandic Dutch Afrikaans

English sun house cat apple father hand go see hear run dream German Sonne Haus Katze Apfel Vater Hand gehen sehen hören rennen träumen Swedish sol hus kat äpple fader hand gar sar höra rännar drömar

English loan words in German English computer email internet jeans event laptop cool mountain bike absolutely German Computer Email Internet Jeans Event Laptop cool Mountain Bike absolut

Loan words in English take give they paper story force wall street school kindergarten Old Norse French Latin German

English-German sound correspondences English time tongue ten tame tent to twins German Zeit Zunge zehn zahm Zelt zu zwei Zwillinge

English-German sound correspondences that there through thirsty think das da durch durstig denken

English-German sound correspondences pan path pole pepper pipe plant Pfanne Pfad Pfahl Pfeffer Pfeife Pflanze

English-German sound correspondences hate eat let hassen essen lassen grip deep sleep greifen tief schafen

IE reconstructed word forms *pe: s*ed*ghebh*aug*wed- ‘foot’ ‘eat’ ‘give’ ‘increase’ ‘water’

English-German sound correspondences cheese child chin cheery church Käse Kind Kinn Kirsche Kirche king König

Loan words from French crime prison letter justice contract music demand pronounce propose responsible crime prison lettre justice contrat musique demander prononcer proposer responsable

Cognates: English-French one two three four five six seven eight nine ten un, une deux trois quatre cinq six sept huit neuf dix

Romance French Italian Spain Portuguese Romanian Catalan Galician Sardinian Provencal Rhomansh

Sound correspondences in Romance Italian Hundred TEnto Telo Sky TErvo Stag Tera Wax Sardinian k. Entu k. Elu k. Erbu k. Era Romansh tsj. Ent tsil ts. Erf tsaira. E French sa sj. El s. ER si. R Spanish Tjen Tjelo Tjerbo Tera

Indo-European Germanic Romance Slavic Baltic Celtic Greek Iranian Indian Albanian Armenian

Balto-Slavic Baltic Slavic Latvian Lithuanian East Slavic West Slavic South Slavic Russian Polish Serbo-Croatian Russian Czech Slovene Belarusian Slovak Bulgarian Sorbian Macedonian Old Prussian

Cases in Indo-European IE NOM VOC ACC GEN ABL DAT LOC INST Sanskrit German English Lithuanian *wlk+os **wlk+e **wlk+om **wlk+osyo **wlk+od **wlk+oi **wlk+ei **wlk+o vrkas vrkam vrkasya vrkad vrkaya vrke vrka der he den des him his dem vilkas vilke vilka vilko vilkui vilke vilku

Celtic Gaelic Irish Scottish Welsh Manx Cornish Breton

Sanskrit

700 English 500 400 Armenian Gothic 0 200 Latin 400 Classical Sanskrit 800 Greek 1000 Old Persian 1200 Hittite 1500 Vedic Sanskrit 3000 Proto Indo-European

Second Germanic sound shift time tongue ten Zeit Zunge zehn that there through das da durch pan path pole Pfanne Pfad Pfahl hat eat let grip deep sleep hassen essen lassen greifen tief schlafen

Numerals in Indo-European and non-Indo. European languages English Gothic Latin Greek Sanskrit Chinese Japanese one ains unus heis ekas i hitotsu two duo dva erh futatsu three twai Trija tres treis trayas san mittsu four fidwor quattuor tettares catvaras su yottsu five fimf quinque pente panca wu itsutsu six saihs sex heks sat liu muttsu seven sibun septem hepta sapta ch’i nanatsu eight ahtau octo okto asta pa yattsu nine niun novembe ennea nava chiu kokonotsu ten taihun decem dasa shih to deka

Sound correspondences in IE English Latin Greek Irish father foot for piscis pater ped– pro ikhthys pater pod– para iasg athair troigh do six seven sweet salt sex septem suavis sal hexa hepta hedys hal se seacht millis salann new night nine novus noct– novem neos nykt– (en)nea nua (in)nocht naoi

Sound correspondences across unrelated languages news time book service beggar Arabic xabar waqt kitab xidmat faqir Urdu xabar vaqt kitab xidmatgari faqir Turkish haber vakit kitap hizmet fakir Swahili habari wkati kitabu huduma fakiri Malay khabar waktu kitab khidmat fakir

Sir William Jones

Sound correspondences between Sanskrit, Latin and Greek Sanskrit asmi asti smas stha santi Latin sum es est sumus estis sunt Greek eini ei esti esmen este eisi

August Schleicher

Latin Old English Gothic /p/ /f/ pedum piscis fot fisc fotus fiskis /t/ /θ/ tres tu three [Tri] thou [Ta. U] thrir thu. U /k/ /x/h/ cordem centum heart hundred hairto hund /b/ /p/ turba ‘crowd’ thorp ‘village’ /d/ /t/ edo decem eat ten itan taihun /g/ /k/ ager genus acre kin akrs kuni IE Old English Gothic *bhero *dhura *ghostis beran duru gasts baíra daúr giest /bh/ /b/ /dh/ /d/

Grimm’s law *p t k f T x/h *b d g ptk *bh dh gh bdg

Exceptions to Grimm’s law [p t k] [f T x] [b d g] Sanskrit vártate varárta Old English weor. Tan wear. T vavrtimá vavrta: ná wurdon worden

Verner’s law [p t k] [f T x] / [stressed syllable] __ [b d g] / [unstressed syllable] __

Neogrammarian Hypothesis Every sound change takes place according to laws that admit no exceptions. [Karl Brugmann]

Evidence for the IE homeland Common words for: No common words for: cold ocean winter palm snow elephant honey camel wolf beech pine

Amerind hypothesis Eskimo Na Dene Amerind

Number of speakers Mandarin 907 English 456 Hindi 383 Spanish 362 Russian 293 Arabic 208 Bengali 189 Portuguese 177 Indonesian 148 Japanese 126 French 123 German 119

Nostratic Indo-European Altaic Uralic Afro-Asiatic Kartvelian