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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

Germanic languages. Hence OE had two formal tenses: Present (e.g., he writes) and Past or Preterit(e) (e.g., she wrote).

The OE and ME form for this verb conjugation was –(e)þ/–(e)th: e.g., hē drincþ wīn (‘he drinks wine’). This historical form was gradually replaced by the dialectal variant –(e)s until the latter became the norm by 1600.

Transitive: Pertains to verbs occurring with a direct object: e.g., he has a bike. Verbs are intransitive when they take no direct object: e.g., she drives to school. Some verbs may be used either as transitive or intransitive.

Umlaut: A historical process by which back vowels were fronted and front

vowels raised; the change is most easily observed in nouns such as foot ~ feet.

Verner’s law: A sound change, first worked out by the Danish linguist Karl

Verner (1846–96), which explained a class of apparent exceptions to Grimm’s law. He found that Grimm’s law worked well whenever the stress fell on the root syllable of the Sanskrit word; but when it fell on another syllable, the consonants behaved differently. Voiceless stops then did not stay as voiceless fricatives, but became voiced stops.

Word class: A category referring to a group of words that share syntactic and

morphological characteristics. Also called part of speech. Word classes in traditional English grammar include noun (e.g., flower, persuasion), adjective

(e.g., thick, irresponsible), adverb (quickly, there, also), verb (to speak, to pronounce), pronoun (we, everybody, much), preposition (to, under), conjunction (but, as though, while).

The process of creating new words by means of either affixation or compounding.

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

Weak adjective: In Old English adjectives that are supported by a demonstrative (rather than standing on their own, as does a strong adjective) are considered weak adjectives.

Weak verb: In the Germanic languages, a verb that signals the past tense by adding a suffix. In Modern English, these suffixes have become –ed or –d. All new verbs that enter the English language (either by coinages or loans) enter as weak verbs.

Word order: Sequence in which words occur; of particular interest in Old English is the position of the verb.

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

SUPPLEMENT 1

1. Explain the following historical sound and spelling changes:

OE. āʒen > ME.(awen, oʒen) owen > E. own OE. blæst > ME. blast > E. blast

OE. brūn > ME. broun, brown > E. brown OE. būton (būtan) > ME. buten > E. but OE. cēpan > ME. keepen > E. keep

OE. clāð > ME. clooth > E. cloth [kloq], clothes [kl υðz] OE. cnāwan > ME. knowen > E. know

OE. draʒan > ME. drawen > E. draw

OE. earnian > ME. earnen > E. earn

OE. fuʒol > ME. fowel, fowl > E. fowl

OE. ʒēar > ME. yeer > E. year

OE. hāliʒ > ME. holy > E. holy

OE. healfe > ME. halfe > E. half

OE. heofon > ME. heven > E. heaven

OE. hlūd > ME. loud > E. loud

OE. hūs > ME. hous, hows > E. house

OE. leornian > ME. lernen > E. learn

OE. lōcian > ME. loken > E. look

OE. mūð > ME. mouth > E. mouth

OE. n d > ME. nede, need > E. need

OE. nū > ME. nou, now > E. now

OE. scamu > ME. shame > E. shame

OE. scēap > ME. sheep > E. sheep

OE. sceort > ME. short > E. short

OE. scūr > ME. shour > E. shower

OE. sum > ME. som > E. some

OE. þū > ME. thow > E. thou [ðaυ]

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

OE. ūre > ME. oure > E. our

OE. wæter > ME. weter, water > E. water

OE. yfel > ME. evel > E. evil

2. Show and explain the possible development of the following OE words:

OE. āð OE. bān OE. brād OE. deorc OE. eal OE. earm OE. ʒōs OE. ʒrētan OE. hrinʒ OE. hrōf OE. losian OE. mētan OE. peru OE. raca OE. rād OE. riht OE. snāw OE. tīma OE. ūt OE. weorc

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

SUPPLEMENT 2

How to Explain Historical Sound and Spelling Changes and Possible

Development of Some Old English Words

1) OE. draʒan > ME. drawen > E. draw

[Ddraγan] > [Ddrawèn], [Ddraυèn] > [dr=iz

a)In OE word draʒan letter ʒ denoted sound [γ]. In ME letter ʒ went out of use, the sound it denoted ([γ]) remained, turned into

[w](ʒ [γ] > [w] w) and then vocalized after vowels: [w] > [s].

Together with the previous vowel this [s] formed a diphthong: [a + s] > [aυ]. So, in ME the word was first pronounced as [Ddrawèn], then [Ddraυèn].

b)In ENE diphthong [aυ] turned to [i], the unstressed ending levelled and was finally lost.

2) OE. cēpan > ME. keepen > E. keep

[Dke:pan] > [Dke:pèn] > [kgp]

a)In OE letter ‘c’ denoted sound [k]. In ME, following the Norman-French norms, to preserve the pronunciation of the first root letter, it was substituted by a newly borrowed from French letter ‘k’ (spelling changes). In ME long vowel sound [e:] began to be denoted with the help of a newly introduced digraph ‘ee’. The unstressed ending ‘an’ leveled to ‘en’ [-èn].

b)In ENE, long vowel [e:] turned into long vowel [g] (the Great Vowel Shift), the unstressed ending levelled and was finally lost.

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

3)OE. hlūd > ME. loud > E. loud

[hled] > [led] > [l~sd]

a) In ME long sound [e] began to be denoted with the help of a new digraph ‘ou’ introduced under Norman French influence (spelling changes). Initial ‘h’ was lost before [r, l, n] both in spelling and pronunciation (simplification of some consonant groups in ME).

b) In ENE long vowel [e] turned into diphthong [~sz= (the Great Vowel Shift).

4)OE. cniht > ME. knight > E. knight

[kniχt] > [kniχt], [kngt] > [n~ft]

a)In OE letter ‘c’ denoted sound [k]. In ME, following the Norman-French norms, to preserve the pronunciation of the first root letter, it was substituted by a newly borrowed from French letter ‘k’ (spelling changes). Sound [χ] in spelling began to be denoted by a newly introduced digraph ‘gh’ (spelling changes). Later consonant sound [χ] denoted by ‘gh’ in the middle of words was lost in pronunciation before ‘t’ (development of sound [χ] denoted by ‘gh’), the preceding vowel [f] was lengthened and turned into [g]K

b)In the ENE period, long vowel [g] turned into a diphthong [~f] (the Great Vowel Shift). Consonant combination / cluster ‘kn’ simplified in pronunciation: kn [kn] > kn [n] (simplification of some consonant groups in ENE).

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

5) OE. cild > ME. child > E. child

[`áäÇ]I=[`gäÇ] > [`gäÇ] > [`~fäÇ]

a)In OE letter ‘c’ denoted sound [k], which palatalized to [kD] and turned into [`] (palatalization of velar consonants). ‘ld’ is a homorganic consonant cluster, so vowel sound [á] lengthened in pronunciation before it (quantitative changes of vowels in the ME period): [á] > [g].

b)In ENE the long vowel [g] turned into a diphthong [~f] (the Great Vowel Shift).

6)OE. rād > ME. rood > E. road

[rod] > [rid] > [rèsd]

a)OE long vowel [o] turned to [i] (qualitative changes of vowels in the ME). This long open vowel sound was first denoted by digraph ‘oo’, later, it began to be denoted with the help of a newly introduced digraph ‘oa’ (spelling changes in ENE).

b)According to the Great Vowel Shift, long open vowel [i] turned into diphthong [èszK

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

SUPPLEMENT 3

Jeoffrey Chaucer (1340 – 1400), The Canterbury Tales

THE PROLOGUE

When in April the sweet showers fall

And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power

As brings about the engendering of the flower, When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath Exhales as air in every grove and heath

Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run, And the small fowl are making melody

That sleep away the night with open eye

(So nature pricks them and their heart engages) Then people long to go on pilgrimages

And palmers long to seek the stranger strands Of far-off saints, hollowed in sundry lands…

*****

An Oxford Cleric, still a student though, One who had taken logic long ago,

Was there; his horse was thinner than a rake, And he was not too fat, I undertake,

But had a hollow look, a sober stare; The thread upon his overcoat was bare. He had found no preferment in the church

And he was woo unworldly to make search For secular employment. By his bed

He preferred having twenty books in red And black, of Aristotle’s philosophy, Than costly clothes, fiddle or psaltery. Though a philosopher, as I have told,

He had not found the stone for making gold. Whatever money from his friends he took He spent on learning or another book

And prayed for them most earnestly, returning Thanks to them thus for paying for his learning. His only care was study, and indeed

He never spoke a word more than was need, Formal at that, respectful in the extreme, Short, to the point, and lofty in his theme. A tone of moral virtue filled his speech And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.

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