The Origins and Development of the English Language

The Origins and Development of the English Language Chapter 4: The Backgrounds of English John Algeo and Thomas Pyles Michael Cheng National Chengchi University

Similarities between languages English: mom miaow-miaow me pistachio choose glide Welsh mam Chinese mi-mi Swahili mimi Italian pistacchio French choisir Swedish glida

One original language? Some languages share many common features Language family Cognates – languages within a language family Not a biological family – languages don’t get born and die at specific times, or separate creatures from their parents

Models of languages Family tree Wave model

http: //farm 1. static. flickr. com/226/472574816_7 a 659 b 8 d 85. jpg http: //www. answers. com/topic/wave-model

http: //www. intersolinc. com/newsletters/images/Language%20 Tree. gif

English – father German – Vater Dutch – vader Icelandic – faðer Norwegian – fader http: //media-2. web. britannica. com/ebmedia/34/2034 -004 -9211 C 072. gif

The language spoken in England is related to the language spoken in India http: //etc. usf. edu/maps/pages/2900/2965. jpg

The language in the Bible is related to the language in the Rig Veda

William Jones (September 28, 1746 – April 27, 1794) Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Chinese Knew 13 languages; familiar with 28 1768 Oxford 1773 law degree 1783 Supreme Court judge in Calcutta

Indian culture was a new subject for European scholarship 1786 – Sanskrit bore a resemblance to Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, and possibly Persian Sanskrit: pitar Greek: patēr Latin: pater Suggested a common root language that no longer exists

Languages from Iceland to India are related to a common language Based on the geographic locations of these languages, we now call the language that Jones hypothesized Proto Indo. European

Jones’ philologer passage, 1786 His third annual discourse before the Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (delivered on February 2, 1786 and published in 1788) with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo. European studies. This is Jones' most quoted passage, establishing his tremendous find in the history of linguistics: The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family. http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/William_Jones_(philologist)

The Proto Indo-European people Who were the people who spoke Proto Indo -European and where did they come from?

PIE dispersion hypotheses Kurgan Migration Anatolian Farmer Balkan Black Sea Flood Paleolithic Continuity Theory

Kurgan Migration--Gimbutas Cognates for: – Alder, apple, ash, beech, birch, elm, hazel, linden, oak, willow, yew – Wolf, bear, lox No common words for: – Olive, cypress, palm – Ocean Suggests inland culture in temperate zone

Kurgan Culture Herded domesticated animals Mobile – used wagons Warrior nobility Worshipped sky god associated with thunder Sun, horse, boar, snake Elaborate burials in mounds (kurgans)

Zeus pater Jupitar

5000 BCE

Kurgans 4000 BCE

3000 BCE Anatolian

Expansion 2000 BCE

Evolution 500 BCE

500 CE Huns invade from East

Medieval 1500 CE Turks invade

Indo-European languages today

World Language families

Official Indo-European languages today

Armenian homeland

Features of Proto Indo-European Types of languages: Isolating, Agglutinative, Inflective Isolating – Every morpheme forms a different word – Chinese Agglutinative (Incorporative) – – Combine grammatical morphemes with a lexical stem Grammatical morphemes are discrete & don’t change Strung onto the lexical stem Swahili, Turkish

Agglutinative example Swahili I will like you: nitakupenda – ni – ta – ku – penda – (I) (future) (2 nd person object) (verb stem: like) I liked you: nilakupenda – ni – la – ku – penda – (I) (past) (2 nd person object) (verb stem: like) I like him: nitampenda – ni – ta – m – penda – (I) (future) (him as object) (verb stem: like)

Inflective languages Inflective – Inseparable inflections are fused to the lexical stem – Greek, Latin – I love: Amo – Am – o – (love) (first person, singular, present tense, indicative)

What kind of language is English? says – inflective unfriendliness – agglutinative the, for, to, by, no – isolating

PIE Morphology Parts of speech – Nouns/Adjectives – Pronouns – Verbs – Prepositions Nouns/Adjectives and Pronouns were inflected for Case, Number, and Gender

Noun/Adj Infections: 8 cases Nominative: They saw me. (subject) Vocative: Officer, I need help. (person addressed) Accusative: They saw me. (direct object) Genitive: Shakespeare’s play. (possessor or source) Dative: Give her a hand. (indirect object, recipient) Ablative: He abstained from it. (what is separated) Locative: We stayed home. (place, where) Instrumental: She ate with chopsticks. (means, instrument)

Germanic cases Nominative: They saw me. (subject) – Vocative: Officer, I need help. (person addressed) Accusative: They saw me. (direct object) Genitive: Shakespeare’s play. (possessor or source) Dative: Give her a hand. (indirect object, recipient) • Ablative: He abstained from it. (what is separated) • Locative: We stayed home. (place, where) – Instrumental: She ate with chopsticks. (means, instrument)

Noun/Adj Number and Gender Number: singular, plural, dual Gender: male, female, neuter

Proto Indo-European Nouns Singular Nom. *ekwos Voc. *ekwe Acc. *ekwom Gen. *ekwoso Dat. *ekwōy Abl. *ekwōd Loc. *ekwoy Ins. *ekwō Plural Nom/Voc *ekwōs Acc. *ekwons Gen. *ekwōm Dat. /Abl. *ekwobhyos Loc. *ekwoysu Ins. *ekwōys

Pronouns Cases (3) Number (3) Gender (3) Person: first, second, third

Verb Inflections Person Number Aspect (kind of like tense): Completion, duration, repetition of action Voice Mood

IE Verb Aspect Present: continuing action in progress Imperfect: continuing action in the past Aorist: momentary action in past Perfect: completed action Pluperfect: completed action in the past Future: actions to come (Evolved into only present and past tense in Germanic languages)

IE Voice Active Passive Middle (reflexive) Germanic lost the passive and middle voices and expressed these notions by phrases rather than inflections

IE Mood Indicative: statements or questions of fact Imperative: expressing commands Optative: expressive wishes Subjunctive: expressing will Injunctive: expressing unreality

IE Mood evolution into Germanic Indicative: statements or questions of fact – Imperative: expressing commands Optative( Subjunctive): expressive wishes • Subjunctive: expressing will • Injunctive: expressing unreality

Proto Indo-European was an inflective language: Verb inflections English Sanskrit Greek Latin I-E I bear you bear he bears bharā-mi bhara-si bhara-ti pherō pherei-s pherei ferō fer-s fer-t *bherō *bheresi *bhereti we bear you bear they bear bharā-mas phero-mes feri-mus bhara-tha phere-te fer-tis bhara-nti phero-nti feru-nt *bheromes *bherete *bheronti

Word Order Greenburg (Some Universals of Grammar) SVO languages: – verb + object: The workman made a horn. – noun + modifier: the size of the building – conjunction + noun: the Senate and the House – preposition + object: Harold fought with him. SOV languages usually reverse these features

Word Order Most Indo-European languages are SVO Proto Indo-European was SOV Proto-Germanic had more SOV characteristics than modern German English is evolving to being more SVO in characteristics – 10 th century 84. 4% of possessives before nouns – 14 th century 15. 6% of possessives before nouns – the building’s size vs. the size of the building

PIE Phonology Prosody: – Accent (stress) based on pitch differences – Free accent: could occur on different syllables depending on the form of the word Germanic Prosody – – Word stress based on loudness not pitch Primary stress on root syllable Weak stress on other syllables Intermediate stress on secondary root or prefix Later Germanic word stress became fixed on first syllable

PIE Consonants Stops, Fricative, Resonants, Laryngeal Fricative [s] Resonants [m, n, l, r, j, w] Stops: Voiceless Voiced Aspirated Bilabial Dental Velar Labiovelar p t k kw b d g gw bh dh gh ghw

First Sound Shift – Grimm’s Law In the first millennium BCE IE stops transformed into different stops in Germanic languages Probably took several centuries to complete the change

Voiced aspirated stops Indo-Euro Latin Greek Germanic bh bhrāter f-/-bfrāter ph b brother dh dhug(h)tēr f-/-bth thugatēr d daughter gh ghosti h-/-d-/-ghostis kh g guest

Voiceless stops Indo-Euro Latin Greek Germanic p pətēr p pater p t treyes t tres t k krnk cornuk f father θ three h horn

Voiced stops Indo-Euro b treb/abel- d dwō/drew Latin b trabs b (Russian) jabloko p thorp/apple d duo d (Greek) drūs (oak) t two/tree Germanic g genu-/gwen g genu g (Greek) gunē k knee/queen

Exceptions After s – spuo – spit – stella – star After voiceless stop – octo – eahta – capto - hafta

More Exceptions PIE – pətēr Latin – pater Greek – patēr English – father Gothic – fadar [faðar] Icelandic faðir Old English – fæder [fæðer]

Verner’s Law: Surrounded by voiced sounds after unstressed syllable IE voiceless Germanic stops p f Verner’s Law β Exception b t θ ð d k x/h γ g s z r

Examples of Verner’s Law was – were exert, exist vs. exercise, exigent OE: leosan “to lose” vs. -loren “lost” (lovelorn)

http: //www. danshort. com/ie/iecentum. htm http: //www. danshort. com/ie/iesatem. htm

Colin Renfrew’s tree

Major Changes from PIE to Germanic

West Germanic Languages