The Problem of Periodization of the History of the English Language Lecture 3
1. Aim to familiarize with the problem of periodization of the history of the English language; to consider the Old English dialects.
2. Classical Periodization of the English Language History By Henry Sweet – based on presence of word-changing affixes: 1. Old English period – OE sunu (full ending); 2. Middle English period – ME sune (weak ending); 3. New English period – NE son (absence of affixes)
3. 1. Division of the English Language History into Periods Periodization based on differences in linguistic situation and the nature of linguistic changes: 1 st period - Early Old English - from the West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning of writing: a) tribal dialects of the West Germanic invaders; b) no written form of English.
3. 2. Division of the English Language History into Periods 2 nd historical period - Old English - the 8 th c. till the end of the 11 th - local or regional dialects: a) differences between the dialects grew; b) equal as a medium of oral communication, while in the sphere of writing - West Saxon, had gained supremacy over the other dialects.
3. 3. Division of the English Language History into Periods 3 rd period - Early Middle English - after 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest, up till the 14 th c. : a) greatest dialectal divergence caused by the feudal system and by foreign influences – Scandinavian and French; b) the official language in England was French (Anglo-French or Anglo. Norman); also dominant in literature.
3. 4. Division of the English Language History into Periods 4 th period – Late or Classical Middle English - later 14 th c. - end of the 15 th c. – the age of Chaucer: a) time of the restoration of English to the position of the state and literary language; b) the time of literary flourishing; c) main dialect in writing and literature the mixed dialect of London.
3. 5. Division of the English Language History into Periods 5 th period - Early New English - from the introduction of printing (by William Caxton in 1475) to the age of Shakespeare: a) the country became economically and politically unified; b) time of sweeping changes at all levels, in the first place lexical and phonetic; c) growth of the vocabulary.
3. 6. Division of the English Language History into Periods 6 th period - “the age of normalization and correctness” - from the mid-17 th c. to the close of the 18 th c. - in the history of literature – the “neoclassical” age: a) literary English differentiated into distinct styles; b) the period of “fixing the pronunciation”: The great sound shifts were over and pronunciation was being stabilized; word usage and grammatical construction were subjected to restriction and normalization
3. 7. Division of the English Language History into Periods 7 th period - Late New English or Modern English – from 19 th c. : a) the classical language of literature was strictly distinguished from the local dialects and the dialects of lower social rank; b) in 20 th c. - considerable intermixture of dialects. The local dialects were retreated and displaced by Standard English; c) vocabulary has grown on an unprecedented scale.
4. 1. Futhark, or Runic Alphabet composed by Germanic scribes in the II—III centuries AD; their angular shape is due to the material those inscriptions were made on — wood, stone, bone; letters were not written but carved on those hard materials. 1. "Franks' casket" — a small box made of whale bone, 2. the inscription on the "Ruthwell cross" — a religious poem engraved on a stone cross found in Scotland.
4. 2. Futhark, or Runic Alphabet
5. 1. Dialects in Old English the four principal Germanic tribes: Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians – 4 th and 5 th cc. : 1. by the Angles: Northumbria (north of the river Humber), Mercia (in the centre of England) and East Anglia— central eastern part of the country; 2. by the Saxons —to the south of the river Thames: Wessex, Sussex and Essex; 3. by the Jutes — Kent.
in Old English records of the 8 th and 9 th cc. – Englisc emerged as an independent language.
5. 3. Dialects in Old English the most important is the Wessex dialect: 1. the majority of Old English written records; 2. extralinguistic criteria: in the second half of the 8 th century, when the Northmen, particularly the Danes, began their devastating raids on the isles: they destroyed the dynasties of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, Wessex was left as the sole survivor, and its leaders became the leaders of the emerging nation (Alfred of Wessex).
Thank you for your attention!
6. Check yourself VARIANT A 1. 2. Describe the periodization of the English language history by H. Sweet. Why can we regard the group of OE dialects as a single language? What binds them together? VARIANT B 1. 2. Describe 3 of the 7 periods of the English language history. Why can we regard the group of OE dialects as a single language? What binds them together?
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