Language Change-Indoeuropean and Old English

8/3/2019 Language Change-Indoeuropean and Old English

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1. Theories and Methods of Language Change

1.1. Historical Linguistics: “[Historical linguistics] is concerned with HOW and WHY language changes”.

1.2. The Comparative Method: “Languages are GENETICALLY related to oneanother and they derive from a SINGLE original language which is called a PROTO-LANGUAGE”.

1.2.1. Technical terms:

Language family: “A group of languages which descend from the sameproto-language”. Sister language: “Languages which descend from the same commonancestor”. Cognate: “A word which is related to a word in sister languages”.

Example:

OE Gothic Greek Sanskrit eom ‘am’ im eimi asmi

1.3. Dialectology (or Linguistic Geography): “[Dialectology] is the study of regional dialects, or dialects defined by geographical regions”.


Isoglosses: “ A line on a DIALECT MAP which represents the GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS of a regional linguistic variant”. Wave theory: “ [It] refers to the study of changes due to CONTACT amonglanguages and dialects”. Focal area: “[An area] of linguistic prestige from which innovation spreadsoutwards”. Relic area: “an area where old linguistic forms are preserved”. Mutual Intelligibility: “When speakers of different linguistic entities canunderstand one another”.

1.4. Sociolinguistics: “[Sociolinguistics] refers to the study of language changein social context; in other words it deals with systemic co-variation of linguisticstructure with social structure”.


Apparent time change: “A variable is investigated AT ONE PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME (synchronic investigation)” Real time change: “[It] studies LANGUAGE CHANGE IN PROGRESS. It commonly refers to the relation between the social variable AGE and

LANGUAGE USE”.



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2. Language Change in English

2.1. External or socio-cultural changes:

Example: 1066 and the Norman Conquest of England;

2.2. Internal or structural changes:

2.2.1. Orthographic (Spelling)

Example: Middle English gh replaced Old English h in words like riht which became right as in Present Day English.

2.2.2. Phonological

Example: Old English gs /go:s/ ‘goose’ became Present Day Englishgoose /gu:s/.

2.2.3. Morphological

Example: Old English i climbe /ik klimbe/ became Present Day English I climb /a Ι kla Ιm/.

2.2.4. Syntactic

Example: Auxiliary ‘do’ for question and negative sentences. Early

Modern English ‘I doubt it not’ as opposed to Present Day English ‘I do not doubt’ .

2.2.5. Lexical

Example: In Early Modern English the word sacrilege meant ‘stealingfrom a church’; while in Present Day English it refers to ‘any serious affront to religious teaching and sensibility’.

An Old English Specimen (The Dream of the Rood: lines 1-2 [10th century]):

Hwæt! Ic swefna cyst secgan wylle,Behold! The best of dreams I shall tell,

hwæt me gemætte to midre nihte, what I dreamt in the midnight,

A Middle English Specimen (Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: lines 1-3 [15th century]):

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote When April with his showers sweet with fruit



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3. Indo-European and Germanic

3.1. Some IE and Grmc linguistic features

3.1.1. IE Vowels:

IE vowels are both long and short: /a(:)/, /e(:)/ and /o(:)/;

IE shows a phoneme which is called schwa //;

IE shows a series of sonant phonemes: semivowels [y] and resonantsphonemes: r, m, n, l.

3.1.2. Grmc Vowels

IE long vowels *

and *

> Grmc /o:/; e.g. Gotic br

þar ‘brother’, Old Norse br ∆er, OE br ∆or < IE *bhr t r;

IE short vowels *a and *o > Grmc /a/; e.g. Gotic hva ‘what’, Old Norse hvat, OEhwæt, Old Saxon hwat < IE *k w od < lat quod;

IE schwa // > Grmc /a/;

IE semivowels /y/ and /w/ > Grmc /i/ and /u/.

3.1.3. IE and Grmc Consonants

IE stop phonemes:

Labial Dental Palatal Pal Asp

Unvoiced p t k k w

Voiced b d g g w

Aspirated bh dh gh g w h

The first consonants shift or Grimm’s Law:

IE p>f t>p k>h k w >h w IE b>p d>t g>k g w > k w IE bh>b dh>d gh>g g w h> g w

Example:

IE *bher ‘bear’ > OE beran.

IE *ed ‘eat’ > OE etan.



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3.1.4. IE and Grmc Morphology

3.1.4.1. Nouns

IE shows both noun and consonant declensions.

Grmc only retains: IE *–o, *-, *-y, *-w vowel declensions and *-n consonant declension.

3.1.4.2. Adjectives

IE and Grmc show both strong and weak adjectival declensions:

1) se mann is eald (the man is old)2) se ealda mann (that man is old)

3.1.4.3. Verbs

Grmc shows (as opposed to IE):

1) Strong verbs (PDE irregular verbs)2) Weak verbs (PDE regular verbs)



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4. Old English

4.1. Dating:

Proto-OE (c. 425-700)

Classical-OE (c. 700-900) Late-OE (c. 900-1100)

4.2. Political History:

Germanic settlement (c. 449) Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy (7th c.) Danes Invasion (8th c.) King Alfred’s Reign (8th c.)

4.3. Dialects of Old English:

Northumbrian Mercian Kentish West-Saxon

4.5. Old English (West-Saxon) linguistic features

4.5.1. Writing System:

<a, æ, e, i, o, u, y>

<ea, eo, ie>

<b, d, l, m, n, p, t, w>

<þ> (thorn) and <Þ> (wynn) derive from Anglo-Saxon versions of the Runicalphabet

<ð> (eth) was a native innovation

<q, k, s, z> were used rarely

4.5.2. Phonological System:

vowels:

i(:) y(:) u(:)e(:) o(:)

æ(:) a(:)



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Example:

st n /sta:n/ ‘stone’ glæd /glæd/ ‘glad’

diphthongs:

//, /:/, //, /:/ and rarely // and /:/

Example:

eald /ld/ ‘old’,

eorl /rl/ ‘noble’,

h eran /h:ran/ ‘to hear’

consonants:

Recall that in OE:

1) there is no phonemic /h/.2) there is only one set of fricatives.3) there is no phonemic velar nasal //.

4) <g> represents depending on position: stop phoneme [g] , semivowel [j]and velar fricative [].



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Example:

gn [ga:n] ‘to go’ ge [je] ‘you’ dagas [da az] ‘days’

4.5.3. Morphological System

4.5.3.1. Nouns

Vocalic stems (strong nouns)

masculine and neuter a-stems < IE *–o (including the *-ja , *-wa sub-stems);

feminine -o stems < IE *–a (including the *-j

, *-w

sub-stems);

masculine, feminine and neuter -u stems < IE *–u.

Recall:

Word: root+stem+ending

Example:

Grmc nom sg of ‘King’ /kunin +a+z/

Consonant stems (weak nouns)

n stems which can refer to any of the three OE genders

Note: there are also minor –r and –nd stems declensions

Example :

a stem noun declension (masc st n ‘stone’)

Singular Plural

nom st n nom st nas gen st nes gen st na dat st ne dat st numacc st n acc st nas



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n-stem non declension (masc guma ‘man’)

Singular Plural

nom guma nom guman gen guman gen gumena dat guman dat gumum acc guman acc guman

4.5.3.2. Adjectives:

strong adjective declension weak adjective declension

Recall that:

the strong declension is used: ‘when the adj is not accompanied by for example an article, a possessive etc…’.

the weak declension is used: ‘when the adj is preceded by a determiner (that,this etc…)’.

OE adjective declensions follow the OE noun declensions except for gen pl - ena .

adjective comparison (similar to PDE):

Example:

blind, blindra, blindost ‘blind, blinder, blindest’

lang, lenger, lengest ‘long, longer, longest’

4.5.3.3. Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

1st Person

Singular Pluralnom ic w gen min redat m sacc m s



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2nd Person

Singular Plural Dual

nom þ g wit

gen þ n ower uncer dat þ ow uncacc þ ow uncit

3rd Pers Singular

Masc Fem Neut

nom h ho (h e, h ) hit gen his hire hisdat him hire himacc hine h e, h hit

Plural (all genders)

nom h e (h , ho)gen heora, hira dat him, heom

acc h e (h , ho)

Demonstrative Pronouns :

First type. It corresponds to PDE ‘that’ :

masc. sefem. seoneut þæt

Recall that: se is also used to indicate the efinite article PDE ‘the’.

Second type. It corresponds to PDE ‘this’:

masc þs

fem þs

neut þis



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4.5.3.4. Verbs

In OE there are two main categories of verbs:

Strong (vowel grades or ablaut; e.g. b e ran, b æ r, b ron, b o ren ‘to bear’ )

Weak (dental suffix; e.g. m ken [inf], m kede )

Examples:

Bindan ‘to bind’ (strong declension)

Pres Ind Singular Plural (all persons) Pret Singular Plural (all persons)

1 blinde band2 blindest blindaþ bunde bundon 3 blindeþ band

Pres Conj Singular Plural Pret Conj Singular Plural

binde binden bunde bunden

Imp Singular Plural Inf bindan

bind bindaþ Pres Part bindedePast Part ge bunden

Trymman ‘to strenghten’ (weak declension)

Pres Ind Singular Plural Pret Singular Plural (all persons)

1 trymme trymede2 trimmest trymmaþ trymedest trymedon 3 trymmeþ trymede

Imp Singular Plural Inf trymman

tryme trymmaþ Pres Part trymmende Past Part trymed



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4.5.4. Syntax

Word Order

(1) Ða ic ∆a ∆is eall gemunde, ∆a gemunde

When I then this all remembered, then remembered

ic eac hu ic geseahI also how I saw

(2) O V S

þa stowe habbaþ giet his ierfenumanhis successor still have that place

(3) (X) V S

þy ilcan geare gesette Ælfred cyning Lundenburgthe same year besieged king Alfred London

(4) (X) S V

and on Pasches he weas on Noethamtuneat easter he was in Northampton

4.5.5. Vocabulary

Borrowings:

Celtic borrowings

geographical names:

Avon PDE ‘river’; e.g. AvonExe, Esk, Axe, Ux PDE ‘river’ ; e.g. Ex-ter, Ax-minster, Ux-bridge, Ouse <

Usk Aber PDE ‘mouth of a river’; e.g. Aber-deen, Ber-wick Car, Caer PDE ‘castle’; e.g. Car-diff Combe PDE ‘hollow in a hill side’Pen PDE ‘mountain’; e.g. Pen-nine rangeInch PDE ‘Island’; e.g. Inch cape

names of objects

Brock PDE ‘a badger’Brock PDE ‘hence crockery’

Dun PDE ‘brown’ Taper PDE ‘a small wax candel’



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Latin borrowings

We distinguish two main stages of influence as far as the Old English period isconcerned:

First period , a.d. 43-410. Roman occupation of Britain; e.g. caster/chester <Lat.castrum PDE ‘camp or fortified place’ such as Lancaster, Manchester, Leicester,coln PDE ‘colony’, port PDE ‘harbour’, street PDE ‘road’< Lat. str ta ‘paved road’, wall OE ‘weall’< Lat. ‘vallum’ PDE ‘a rampart’, wick/wich OE ‘wic’ whose meaningis ‘a town or village’, wine OE win< Lat. winum

Second period , a.d. 596-1110. The Christian convertion of Germanic populationsin England; e.g. church terms such as: altar, candle, chalice, cowl, creed, cup,disciple, font, mass, nun, shrine, shrive etc.., church terms of Greek or Hebrew origins borrowed via Latin like for example: alms, angel, anthem, apostle, bishop,canon, Christ, church, clerk, devil, martyr, minster, monk, pashal, pope, priest,scholl, stole etc..., trade words and articles of commerce such as: box (chest), cap,cheese, fan, fork, kettle, linen, mat, mint pease, pear, penny, pound, sock, spend,ton, tun etc..., miscellaneous; e.g. belt, box, castle, fever, hemp, kitchen <Lat.coquina, lake, milt, noon, pillow, pine, pipe, prime, sole, tunice, turtle, verse etc...

Danish borrowings

Nouns; e.g. stag, bark, bulk, fellow, husband, kid, leg, sister, skirt, sky, trust, window, wing

Verbs; e.g. bask, call, cast, dash, die, gasp, glimmer, are 3rd pl of am), rouse,rush, smile, take, whirl Adjectives and adverbs; e.g. both, bound, harsh, ill, loose, same, scant, sly,their, tight, ugly, weak Pronouns; e.g. they, them, their

Compounding: prefixation and suffixation

Recall: prefixes alter the meaning of words while suffixes alter their functions. The former are placed at the beginning of a word while the latter at theend of it.

OE prefixes:

OE æfter>PDE ‘after’; e.g. PDE afterwards, afterthought, afterlife etc...OE bi>PDE ‘by’; e.g. bypath, byword, byway etc...OE off>PDE ‘off’; e.g. offspring, offshoot etc...OE ofer>PDE ‘over’; e.g. overlook, overworked etc...

OE suffixes:

OE -cræft>PDE ‘craft(ability)’; e.g. speechcraft, witchcraft etc...



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OE -dom>PDE –dom ‘judgment, jurisdition’; e.g. freedom, earldom etc...OE -shipe >PDE –ship ‘shape, mode’; e.g. friendship, scholarship etc...OE -wif>PDE –wife ‘woman’; e.g. midwife



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Language Change-Indoeuropean and Old English

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