Booklet_4th_ed_12-13_injaz

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

pencil crayon (coloured pencil), click (kilometer), beer parlour (pub), Canuck (nickname for a Canadian), Anglophone / Francophone. Speling is more common to AmE than BrE: Can (=AmE) – tire, radio program vs BrE: tyre, radio programme; Can (=BrE) – centre, colour vs AmE center, color. Canadian influence is stronger, and Canadians employ truck for lorry, fender for mudguard, trunks for boots, locomotive for engine.

Australian and New Zealand English have few differences, except Australia was originally settled as a penal colony and New Zealand was not. NZE and AusE are overwhelmingly similar in most linguistic aspects; they are no more different (if not less different) than the Northern and Southern varieties of the United States. The most distinctive difference between NZE and AusE is in the pronunciation of vowels. New Zealanders were more attached to the Received Pronunciation of the upper class in England, so their dialect is considered closer to British English. The Australian tendency to generally modify names and other terms (such as “arvo” for “afternoon”) distinguishes it from other varieties including NZE, and moreover, adds to the characterization of the culture as informal. Australian English is particularly interesting for its rich store of highly colloquial words and expressions, which often involve shortening a word. Sometimes the ending –ie, –o, –oh is then added, for example: truckie (truck driver), milko (a person who delivers the milk), journo (journalist), uni (university), bizzo (business), oldies (adults, parents), beaut (short for beautiful, means ‘great’), pressie (present, gift), biggie (‘a big one’), Oz (Australia), Aussie (Australian), Kiwi (New Zealander), G’day (short for ‘Good day’), ambos (paramedics, from ‘ambulance’), arvo / arvie (afternoon). The lexicon is perhaps the system that displays the most difference both from other varieties of English and between NZE and AusE. These differences are largely because of the incorporation of words from indigenous languages in each country. Most of these words are used for indigenous flora or fauna, as well as for place names. NZE tends to follow British stress patterns. NZers say laDboratory rather than Dlaboratory, or aluDminium rather than aDluminium. However, despite this

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

overall trend, there are some words which follow a more American pattern in NZE.DSpectator,Ddictator and Dfrustrate, for instance, may be stressed on the 1st syllable in New Zealand. Most of the vocabulary (95 per cent) used in New Zealand is common to the English speaking world, with only 5 per cent being narrowly restricted to New Zealand, used only by New Zealanders and not by people outside New Zealand. The most obvious examples would be words taken from Maori or words which relate specifically to New Zealand society, events or artifacts. It could also include words like aerial top-dressing, a New Zealand invention from the 1940s which in other places is called crop-dusting. Although most of the vocabulary used in New Zealand is also British English, there are some words which New Zealand shares with places other than Britain. Australia is a close neighbour and there is a large shared vocabulary with Australia, most of which began life in Australia and quickly moved across the Tasman. Words like dinkum (meaning genuine, true, first-rate) or skite (meaning to boast or brag) are heard in both countries and have been described as ‘Australasianisms’. There are also words that New Zealand English shares with American English. New Zealand cars have American mufflers rather than British silencers. In New Zealand English today, Maori words are used for many birds: kiwi, tui, weka, takahe, pukeko, the endangered kakapo and the extinct moa. New Zealand trees include rimu, totara, kauri, pohutakawa, nikau, ponga, rata, matai. Words for fish include hapuka, moki, terakihi, and for shellfish pipi, toheroa. Katipo is the name of a poisonous spider and the weta is a large cricket-like insect. In the early period of settlement, it was common to find items of flora and fauna with two names, both Maori and English, but today the English name has become archaic, and the Maori name is most commonly used. Maori has been a prolific source of place names from the most northern point of the country (Cape Reinga) to the most southern (Tiwai Point). Other proper names include the word Maori itself, derived from an adjective meaning ‘ordinary’ or ‘usual’. The name Pakeha, applied to New Zealanders of European descent, has uncertain origins, and provides a useful contrast to Maori. The early Maori loan words in

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

English are commonly used within New Zealand, but they are not known in the wider English-speaking world. Apart from words like kiwi, Maori, and perhaps mana and moa, the use of Maori loan words is restricted to New Zealand English. Australians use some phrases that are combinations of British and American terms, such as ‘rubbish truck’. Rubbish is commonly used in the UK, and truck is commonly used in American English. Some AusE terms come from aboriginal speech (names of fauna, artifacts): boomerang, corroboree, dingo, kangaroo, kookaburra, galah, koala, barramundi, wallaby. Also there are numerous place-names, such as Woolloomooloo, Coonabarabran, Parramatta.

Indian English is characterized by sounding more formal than other varieties of English. It has retained in everyday usage words that are found more in the classics of 19-century literature than in contemporary TV programs. Indian English is characterized by treating mass nouns as count nouns, frequent use of the "isn't it?" tag, use of more compounds, and a different use of prepositions.

Scottish English (SE) today can be used as a blanket term to cover both regional and social varieties along a linguistic continuum. Individuals, taking account of external factors such as context of situation, education, social class, etc., can move along the continuum in either direction, but some individuals will inevitably have a stronger attraction to one pole than the other. Both styledrifting and code-switching are common. Scottish Standard English (SSE) is much closer to Standard English. Its characteristic features are limited Scottish grammar, vocabulary and idiom, but still with Scottish accent. It is used by middle-class Scots and by working-class Scots in formal situations. Dense/Broad/Dialect Scots (SC) (e.g. Doric, Glaswegian) uses distinctive local vocabulary, grammar and strong local accent. It is generally used by workingclass Scots. The Scottish pronunciation of consonants is largely the same as for most other accents of English. Perhaps the most obvious distinguishing phonological feature of SE is its rhoticity – i.e., retention of post-vocalic /r/ in words such as car. Although this is a feature which strongly marks Scottish speakers out from the majority of British Standard English speakers (note that

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

Irish English retains its rhoticity and there are one or two exceptions in EnglishEnglish), rhoticity is a feature which is found in some other world Englishes, being shared with many but not all varieties of American English and with most varieties of Canadian English. The Great Vowel Shift did not proceed as far in Scotland as it did in the south, SE does not have phonemic vowel length. As to morphology, in the written and spoken modes, the past tense and past participle (marked by –ed in Standard English) in regular verbs are indicated variously by

–it, –d, and –t depending on regional and phonological factors. Present participle endings may be –in or –ing. SE has a three-way deictic system in demonstratives (this, that, thon/yon). The diminutive suffix –ie is common and fairly productive, e.g., wifie (‘woman’, derogatory); mannie (NE SC ‘man’). Some irregular plurals survive, for example, een (eyes), shuin (shoes), kye (cows) – although many of these are dying out. In SE, the definite article is used in some contexts where Standard English has no determiner, for example, with illnesses (the cold), with institutions (the school, the hospital), with periods of time (the day – today). Because SE shares much of its linguistic heritage with English-English, it is not surprising that these varieties share significant amounts of “common core” vocabulary arising from their shared Old English ancestry, and shared Old Norse and French loanwords. SE also has uniquely Scottish loans from other languages, including a few from Gaelic. Two further characteristic features of Scots lexis must be mentioned; firstly, that Scottish lexis can be heavily regionalized (e.g., “the little finger” is crannie in the NE but pinkie elsewhere in Scotland), and secondly, that SC lacks an agreed spelling system, even though there have been numerous attempts to recommend certain spellings based on criteria such as etymology and phonology. The same word may be spelled in a variety of ways, depending on a range of factors such as the date of the text, its regional origins, or simply the writer’s preference, although there are certain spelling conventions which are quite widely used. In addition to that, one of the biggest problems has been the lack of generation of Scots vocabulary for technical and learned registers.

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

Modern linguistic studies reflect the global dominance of the American media and music industries, with Hollywood movies being shown and American TV serials being aired (frequently undubbed) on all continents, and it results from the modern facilities for travel and personal contact (tourism, business travel, also student exchange, and, increasingly, the internet).

Of course, the impact of American English on other world Englishes varies from one region to another and is difficult to generalize, but some broader statements can be made. Words travel easily, so the majority of new Americanisms used elsewhere are from the lexical level. Words which seem to be spreading widely and rapidly include gas, guy(s), Hi, movie, truck, Santa (Claus), and station wagon, and adolescent slang and fashion terms like man as a form of address or cool meaning ‘very good’. To this may be added older words which have been internationalized so strongly that their American origin may no longer be recognized in many communities, like radio (for older British wireless), commute, fan, star, know-how, break even, or let’s face it. As to pronunciation, rhoticity and “jod-deletion” in words like new, tune are widely perceived as “American” and may be adopted for this effect; and for certain words putatively American pronunciations are getting more widespread, e.g., research stressed on the 1st and primarily on the 2nd syllable, schedule with /sk- /, lieutenant with /lu:-/, etc. The spelling center is clearly preferred over centre outside specifically British spheres of influence, and program rather than programme is also used widely, not only in computing contexts. On the level of syntax, hopefully used as a sentence adverbial and patterns like do you have seem to be diffusing from the US. American influence can even modify the meaning of words, as in the case of billion, which now means ‘a thousand million’ rather than ‘a million million’ even in Britain.

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

PRACTICAL TASKS

PRACTICAL TASK 1

PROTO-GERMANIC AND OLD ENGLISH SOUND SYSTEM AND SPELLING

Exercise 1. Compare words from Indo European languages. Explain the origin of the underlined consonants in Old English words:

1.Latin decem, Russian десять – Old English tīen (English ten)

2.Sanskrit rudhira – Old English rēad (English red)

3.Sanscrit bhrātár – Old English brōþor (English brother)

4.Sanscrit dantan, Latin dentem – Old English tōþ (English tooth)

5.Latin sedere, Russian сидеть – Old English sittan (English sit)

6.Latin piscis – Old English fisc (English fish)

7.Latincordis,GreekKardia–GermanHart,OldEnglishheorte(Englishheart)

8.Sanscrit tanu, Latin tenuis – Old English þynne (English thin)

9.Sanscrit napāt – Old English nefa (English nephew)

10.Latin ego – Old English ic (English I)

11.Latin nox (noctis) – Old English niht (English night)

12.Gothic hausjan – Old English hīeran [h ran] (English hear)

13.Gothic satjan – Old English settan (English set)

14.Greek poda, Latin pedem – Old English fōt (English foot)

15.Latin centum – Old English hund(red) (English hundred)

16.Sanscrit admi, Latin edō – Old English etan (English eat)

17.Latin genus – Old English cynn (English kin)

Exercise 2. Explain the origin of the underlined vowels:

1.Old Greek mānod - Old English mōnaþ (English month)

2.Gothic munþ - Old English mūþ (English mouth)

3.Proto-Germanic haims – Old English hām (English home)

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

4.Latin frāter – Old English brōþor (English brother)

5.Gothic wōpjan - Old English wēpan (English weep)

6.Gothic haldan - Old English healdan (English hold)

7.Old German Sanw - Old English sånw (English song)

8.Old Norse draumr - Old English drēam (English dream)

9.Gothic ahtauOld English eahta (English eight)

10.Latin hortus – Old High German wart (‘yard, garden’)

Exercise 3. How can you account for the difference in the roots of the following words (the forms of the verb ‘to lose’): lose – lost – lorn (lorn – poetic, archaic form of Participle II)?

Exercise 4. How can you explain the difference in root vowels of the following Old English words: dōm (‘judgment; law; fame’) – dēman (‘judge, condemn’) / Gothic dōmjan?

Exercise 5. Match the following Old English words (1-11) with the related Modern English ones (A-K). There is an example (0) at the beginning:

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

Exercise 6.Give the ModE equivalents of the following OE words:

Exercise 7.

Lat. trans (через) – E. … rough;

Lat. … luvia (дощ) – E. flow;

Lat. … ucere (вести) – E. tag;

Latin … rānum (seed, grain, kernel) – E. corn;

Rus. …о (preposition) – E. to;

Greek stembein (тупотіти) – E. stam …;

Sanscr. pattra (пір’я) – E. … ea … er;

Greek eikanos (півень) – E. … en;

Greek graphein (писати) – E. … arve;

Sanscr. dhavati (текти) – E. … ew;

Lat. … icere (показувати) – E. teach;

Russian вы … ра – E. otter;

Greek keuthein (to conceal) – E. … ide;

Latin geledus – E. … old

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

PRACTICAL TASK 2

MIDDLE ENGLISH SOUND AND SPELLING CHANGES

Exercise 1. Show the possible changes in spelling and pronunciation of the following Old English words in Middle English:

Example: OE. hrōf [hrl:f] > ME. roof [rl:f]

ō > oo – spelling changes; hr > r – simplification of hr, hl, hn.

1.OE. æt_________________________________________________

2.OE. dæw________________________________________________

3.OE. sunu_______________________________________________

4.OE.niht________________________________________________

5.OE. þāncian____________________________________________

6.OE. tæcan______________________________________________

7.OE. lufian______________________________________________

8.OE. blōd_______________________________________________

9.OE. sum________________________________________________

10.OE. wrindan____________________________________________

11.OE. healf______________________________________________

12.OE. nēodian___________________________________________

Exercise 2. Pronounce the following words the way they were pronounced in Middle English:

Exercise 3. Find the length of the stressed vowels in the following words in the Middle English period:

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

Exercise 4. Explain the development of the following (a – j) words in Middle English:

a)OE. eall >ME. all (NE. all)_________________________________

_______________________________________________________

b)OE. þrīe(masc.), þrēo, þrīo(fem.) > ME. three (NE. three)_______

________________________________________________________

c)OE. strēam >ME. streem (NE. stream)________________________

________________________________________________________

d)OE. beofor, befor >ME. bever (NE. beaver)_____________________

________________________________________________________

e)OE. nacod >ME. naked (NE. naked)__________________________

________________________________________________________

f)OE. cradol > ME. cradle (NE. cradle)_________________________

________________________________________________________

g)OE. ēare >ME. ere (NE. ear)_______________________________

________________________________________________________

h)OE. mōna > ME. moone (NE. moon)_________________________

________________________________________________________

i)OE. prician >ME. priken (NE. prick)__________________________

________________________________________________________

j)OE. styrian >ME. stiren (NE. stir)____________________________

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