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HISTORY OF ENGLISHSee also “Semantic Gaps and Sources of

New Words”

by Don L. F. Nilsen

and Alleen Pace Nilsen

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HISTORY OF ENGLISH BEFORE

ENGLAND

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FOUR MAJOR LANGUAGE FAMILIES

SINO-TIBETANe.g. Mandarin Chinese

FINNO-UGRICe.g. Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, etc.

HAMIDO-SEMITICe.g. Arabic and Hebrew

INDO-EUROPEANe.g. Romance, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, and Celtic

NOTE: GIVE OTHER LANGUAGE FAMILIES PLUS EXAMPLES:

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INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

ROMANCEFrench, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish

BALTO-SLAVICBulgarian, Croation, Czech, Macedonian, *Old Church Slavonic,

Polish, Russian, Serbian

INDO-IRANIAN*Avestan, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Pashto, Persian, Urdu,

CELTICBreton, Cornish, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh

GERMANICAfrikaans, Danish, Dutch, English, Flemish, German, Icelandic,

Norwegian, Swedish, Yiddish

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*PROTO INDO EUROPEAN LANGUAGES(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 522)

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SOUND CHANGES BEFORE ENGLISH

ABLAUT

UMLAUT

FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT (GRIMM’S LAW)

SECOND CONSONANT SHIFT (TO DISTINGUISH HOCH DEUTCH FROM PLATT DEUTCH)

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ABLAUT

begin-began-begun

break-broke-broken

choose-chose-chosen

come-came-come

eat-ate-eaten

fly-flew-flown

sing-sang-sung

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UMLAUT

child-children

goose-geese

man-men

mouse-mice

woman-women

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GRIMM’S LAW

/bh/, /dh/, /gh/ => /b/, /d/, /g/

/b/, /d/, /g/ => /p/, /t/, /k/

/p/, /t/, /k/ => /f/, /Θ/, /h/(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 510-511, 513)

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GRIMM’S LAW (Herndon 413)

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GRIMM'S LAW 1st GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT

/b/ => /p/: bursa-purse, labial-lip

/d/ => /t/: decade-ten, dozen-twelve, dent-tooth, duet-two

/g/ => /k/: agriculture-acre

/p/ => /f/: pedestal-footnote, padre-father, plate-flat, pyre-fire

/t/ => /θ/: tricycle-three

/k/ => /h/: courage-hearty, corn-horn, canis-hound(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 510-511, 513)

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VERNER’S LAW

“When the preceding vowel was unstressed, /f/ /θ/ /x/ underwent a further change to /b/ /d/ /g/.”

(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 513)

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2nd GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT: HIGH/LOW GERMAN

penny-pfennig

too-zu

water-wasser

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INDO-EUROPEAN NUMBERS

ENGLISH:

one

two

three

four

five

SPANISH:

uno

dos

tres

quatro

cinqo

GERMAN:

eins

zwei

drei

fier

funf

FRENCH:

un

deux

trois

quatre

cinque

PERSIAN:

yek

do

seh

chahar

panj(FRH [2011] 535)

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HISTORY OF

ENGLISH IN ENGLAND

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499-1066: Old English1066-1500: Middle English1500-Today: Modern English

499: Saxons invade Britain6th Century: Religious Literature8th Century: Beowulf1066: Norman Conquest1387: Canterbury Tales1476: Caxton’s Printing Press1500: Great Vowel Shift1564: Birth of Shakespeare

(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2007] 462)

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GREAT ENGLISH VOWEL SHIFT(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 493-494)

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SOUND CHANGES IN ENGLISH

1. Great English Vowel Shift

2. Intervocalic Fricatives become contrastive (phonemic)

3. Loss of Vowels in Unstressed Syllables (Suffixes)

4. Loss of Duals

5. Number Becomes Intimacy (thou, thee, thy, thine, ye, you)

6. Loss of Verb Endings (-est, -eth)

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Great English Vowel Shift

A: bāt => boat, nāme => name

E: mē => me, hē => he, wē => we, gēs => geese

I: wīs => wise, ic => I, mīn => my, þīn => thine, mīs => mice

O: ēow => you, gōs => goose

U: þū => thou, mūs => mouse (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 493-494)

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Intervocalic Fricatives become contrastive (phonemic)

bath vs. to bathe

calf vs. to calve

half vs. to half

house vs. to house

lath vs. lathe

safe vs. to save

teeth vs. to teethe

use vs. to use(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2007] 465)

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Note that before English root syllables became stressed and English suffixes lost their stress and became lost, Old English was a very highly inflected language.

In fact, at that time it was a synthetic language (with many inflections) rather than an analytic language (with prepositions and auxiliaries instead of suffixes).

Here is an overview of Old English inflections. Contrast it with Modern English, but don’t sweat the details.

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Loss of Vowels in Unstressed Syllables (Suffixes)

Nominative: bātas (boat) stān (stone)Accusative: bāta stānes

Genitive: bātas stāne

Dative: bātum stāne

Instrumental: bātum stān

(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 494)

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SINGULAR ADJECTIVES, NOUNS & PERSONAL PRONOUNS

ADJ: N: PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

1st 2nd 3rd

Nom: wīs bāt ic þū hē/hit/hēo

Gen: wīses bātes mīn þīn his/his/hiere

Dat: wīsum bāte mē þē him/him/hiere

Acc: wīsne bāt mē þē hine/hit/hit

Inst: wīse bāt mē þē hine/hit/hit

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DUAL ADJECTIVES, NOUNS & PERSONAL PRONOUNS

ADJ: N: PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

1st 2nd

Nominative: wit git

Genitive: uncer incer

Dative: unc inc

Accusative: unc inc

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PLURAL ADJECTIVES, NOUNS & PERSONAL PRONOUNS

ADJ: N: PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

1st 2nd 3rd

Nom: wīse bātas wē gē hie/hie/hie

Acc: wīse bāta ūs ēow hie/hie/hie

Gen: wīsra bātas ūre ēower hiere/hiere/hiere

Dat: wīsum bātum ūs ēow him/him/him

Inst: wīsum bātum ūs ēow him/him/him

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VERBS

IND: SUBJ: IMP: PAST TENSE:SINGULAR:1st drīfe drīfe drāf2nd drīfest drīfe drīf drīfe3rd drīfeþ drīfe drāf

PLURAL: drīfaþ drīfen drīfaþ drīfon

VERBALS:INFINITIVE: drīfanGERUND: tō drīfennePARTICIPLE: drīfende

SUPPLETIVE VERBS, which come from two different paradigms: ēom, eart, is, sindon, wæs, wære, wæronNOTE: “go” comes from the “to go” paradigm; but “went” comes from

the “to wend” paradigm

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OLD ENGLISH: “The Lord’s Prayer”

Fæder ure,

þou þe eart on heofonum,

si þin name gehalgod.

Tobecume þin rice.

Gewurþe þin willa on eorþan swa swa on heofenum.

Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg.

And forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfaþ urum gyltendum.

And ne gelæd þu us on costnunge,ac alys us of yfele.

Soþlice.(Roberts [2009]: 76)

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MIDDLE ENGLISH, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote

The droght of March hath perced to the roote…

When April with its sweet showersThe drought of March has pierced to the

root….(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 489, 496)

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MIDDLE ENGLISH, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

Ther was also a nonne, a Prioresse,

That of hir smyling was ful symple and coy,

Hir gretteste oath was but by Seinte Loy,

And she was cleped Madame Eglentyne.

Ful wel she song the service dyvyne,

Entuned in hir nose ful semely.

And Frenshe she spak ful faire and fetisly

After the scole of Stratford-atte-Bowe,

For Frenshe of Parys was to hir unknowe.

(Roberts [2009]: 90)

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EARLY MODERN ENGLISH: Shakespeare’s Hamlet

A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2007] 462)

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THE KING’S ENGLISHName the ruler who settled:

Charleston

Georgia

Jamestown

Louisiana

North and South Carolina

Virginia and West Virginia

Williamsburg

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TODAY: ENGLISH AS A WORLD LANGUAGE

In Hong Kong you can find a place called the “Plastic Bacon Factory.”

In Naples, there is a sports shop called “Snoopy’s Dribbling,”

while in Brussels there is a men’s clothing store called “Big Nuts,” which has a sign saying “SWEAT—690 FRANCS.” This was for a sweatshirt.

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In Japan you can drink “Homo Milk” or “Poccari Sweat” (a popular soft drink, eat some chocolates called “Hand-Maid Queer-Aid,” or go out and buy some “Arm Free Grand Slam Munsingswear.”

(Nilsen & Nilsen 164)(from Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way)

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!ANACHRONISM # 1:

Pease porridge hot.

Pease porridge cold.

Pease porridge in the pot nine days old.

(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2007] 476)

EXPLANATION: On the first day of a march, prisoners used to be served hot pea soup.

On the second day they were served cold pea soup.

And on the ninth day of the march they would be served pea soup that had been in the pot for nine days.

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!ANACHRONISM # 2

Bob Newhart does a sketch in which Sir Walter Raleigh telephones the West Indies Company in London.

He was reporting on his voyage to the New Land of America.

Since Sir Walter Raleigh is on the telephone, we can only hear one side of the conversation:

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!!“What is it this time, Walt? You got another winner for us do you? Tobacco? What’s tobacco, Walt? It’s a kind of leaf and you bought 80 tons of it? … You take a pinch of tobacco and shove it up your nose and it makes you sneeze. I imagine it would, Walt…”.

The skit ends with, “You’re going to have a tough time telling people to stick burning leaves in their mouth.”

(Nilsen & Nilsen 31)

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!!!Web Site

History of Five Religions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-sIF78QYCI

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References:References:

Aitchison, Jean “Language Change: Progress or Decay? Aitchison, Jean “Language Change: Progress or Decay? (Clark, Eschholz & Rosa, [1998]: 431-441).(Clark, Eschholz & Rosa, [1998]: 431-441).

Bryson, Bill. Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That WayThat Way. New York, NY: William Morrow, 1990. . New York, NY: William Morrow, 1990.

Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa, eds. Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa, eds. Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th EditionEdition. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark, eds. Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark, eds. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers, 10Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers, 10 thth Edition Edition. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.

Fennell, Barbara A. Fennell, Barbara A. A History of English: A Sociolinguistic A History of English: A Sociolinguistic ApproachApproach. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 2001.. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 2001.

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Falk, Julia. “To Be Human: A History of the Study of Language” Falk, Julia. “To Be Human: A History of the Study of Language” (Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 442-476). (Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 442-476).

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. “Language Change: The Syllables of Time.” An Introduction to Language, 9th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2011, 488-539.

Herndon,Herndon, Jeanne H. “Comparative and Historical Linguistics” Jeanne H. “Comparative and Historical Linguistics” (Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 411-419).(Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 411-419).

Moore, Samuel and Albert Marchwardt. Moore, Samuel and Albert Marchwardt. Historical Outlines of Historical Outlines of English Sounds and InflectionsEnglish Sounds and Inflections. Ann Arbor, MI: Wahr, 1969.. Ann Arbor, MI: Wahr, 1969.

Nilsen, Alleen Pace. “Changing Words in a Changing World.” Nilsen, Alleen Pace. “Changing Words in a Changing World.” Living Living LanguageLanguage. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999, 427-473.. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999, 427-473.

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Nilsen, Alleen Pace. “Technology and Language Change.” Nilsen, Alleen Pace. “Technology and Language Change.” Living Living LanguageLanguage. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999, 379-426.. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999, 379-426.

Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.

Ohio State University Files. “The Family Tree and Wave Models” Ohio State University Files. “The Family Tree and Wave Models” (Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 416-419).(Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 416-419).

Roberts, Paul “A Brief History of English” (Clark [1998]: 420-430, Roberts, Paul “A Brief History of English” (Clark [1998]: 420-430, Eschholz, Rosa & Clark [2009]: 84-93]). Eschholz, Rosa & Clark [2009]: 84-93]).

van Gelderen, Elly, van Gelderen, Elly, A History of the English LanguageA History of the English Language. . Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 2006.Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 2006.