LECTURE 1. INTRODUCTION

Plan

1. The Subject of the History of the English language

2. 2 approaches to the language study.

3. The driving forces of the linguistic changes.

4. The aims of the study of the History of the E.l.

5. The connection with other subjects.

6. The Indo-European language family.

7. The Germanic group of languages.

8. Chronological divisions of the history of English

The language changes with time considerably.

1. To explain the peculiarities of the language and the causes of these peculiarities we must study the language’s history.

The purpose of the subject is a systematic study of the language evolution from the earliest times to the present day.

In studying history we do not only state facts but also are trying to find causal ties between them. It is not easy, because many facts, phenomena and their causes belong to the remote past.

2. There are 2 basic approaches to the study of the language.

The Synchronic approach is connected with the study of a language at one historical period only.

The Diachronic approach states the changes that occur in the language during some period of time. The best way to study history of the language is to combine both approaches

3. We know that l. changes with time, but what makes it change?---------(“ Driving Forces”)

4. What are the aims of the study of the history of the E.l.?

 

1. It supplies explanations for the regular features of the language and its specific peculiarities and exceptions.	For a better understanding of a modern language
2. It gives material for theoretical issues of the lang., or general linguistics.	For the subject of general linguistics
3. It provides the student of English with a broader philological outlook. The hist. of the E.l. shows the place of English in the linguistic world, it reveals its contacts with other related and unrelated tongues.	For a student of Modern English.

 

5. History of English is connected with other disciplines: history of Britain, literature, etc.

It gives material for General linguistics and General linguistics explains, classifies facts, given by History. It is also linked with the present-day English and its disciplines: theoretical grammar, phonetics, lexicology. It shows how different aspects of the l. have been developing.

6. English is known to belong to the so-called Indo-European family of languages. The Indo-European languages are the descendants of a single unrecorded language spoken over 5000 years ago in the steppe regions north of the Black sea. This single language split into dialects in the 3^rd millennium BC. These dialects developed into separate languages and were carried by migrating tribes into different regions of Europe and Asia. These languages, past and present, can be grouped into the following main branches: Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Italic, Germanic, Armenian, Celtic, Albanian, Tocharian, Baltic and Slavic.

The first linguists to propose and study the Indo-European family were Sir William Jones (Britain, 1786), Rasmus Rask (,Denmark 19^th c.) Jacob Grimm (19^th c., Germany)

 

 

INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY

 

 

Anatolian* GreekArmenian Albanian Tocharian

 

Indo-Iranian: Italic: Germanic: Celtic: Baltic: Slavic:

Sanskrit Latin English Irish Latvian Russian

Hindi Italian German Scottish Lithuanian Polish

Persian French Dutch Welsh Serbian

Bengali Spanish Norwegian Manx Bulgarian o Portuguese Swedish

Rumanian Danish

Gothic

*(Dead languages are in the italic type)

 

7. The E.l. refers to the Germanic group. Other Germanic languages are: Icelandic, Norwegian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Gothic, Afrikaans, Yiddish and others.

These Germanic languages once were a single language (about 2000 years ago), called Common Germanic language. They share some distinctive features and can be opposed to other I-E languages.

In Phonetics. Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law outline the peculiarities of the consonant system of the Germanic languages. In the vowel system, the type of ablaut, or gradation, common to Germanic languages, differs from the other I-E type. I-E: e-o-0, CG: i-a-0.

Russian (I-E): Выб е ру – выб о р – выбрал --------- Gothic (Common Germanic): K i usan – k a us – kusum - kusans

In Grammar. In the sphere of the noun Germanic languages had 4 cases, 3 genders, several types of declension. Every adjective had a weak and a strong declension. The system of the verb consisted of several elements: 7 classes of strong verbs (forming their past and participle II by the change of the root vowel), 4 classes of weak verbs (deriving their forms with the help of a dental suffix).

The earliest Germanic texts belong to the 2^nd-3^rd centuries AD. The Runic alphabet was used in them, but they were too short to give enough information about the language. The earliest longer document is the translation of the Bible into Gothic made by Ulfilas in the 4^th century. In the 8^th century two epic poems appeared: “The Song of Hildebrandt” in Old High German and “Beowulf” in Old English.

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