History of the English Language

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History of the English Language
WS 2005/6
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Topics

• Linguistic changes grammar and lexicon
• Social and political events that influenced the
  development of the English language
• English varieties
• Mechanisms of language change

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Course script Digitale Bibliothek
Thüringen Search Diessel History of the
English Language
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What you will learn

• Why the English spelling is so odd
• Why English does not have case marking
• Why English developed a rigid word order
• Why there are regular and irregular verbs forms
• Why many English words are similar to words in
  German
• Why many English words are similar to words in
  French
• Why questions require the use of ?do
• Why English has become a world language

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Requirements
Short exam for student who started last year.
1 5 2 10 3 5 4 20 5 60
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Readings
Barber, Charles. 2000. The English Language. A
Historical Introduction. Cambridge Cambridge
University Press. Baugh, A.C. and T. Cable.
2002. A History of the English Language. London
Routledge. fifth edition Jucker, Andreas H.
2004. History of English and English Historical
Linguistics. Stuttgart Klett. Millward, C.M.
1996. A Biography of the English Language.
Boston Heinle. second edition The Cambridge
History of the English Language. Vol. I-V. 1992.
Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
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Readings
Aitchison, J. Language Change. Progress or Decay.
Cambridge Cambridge University Press. Trask,
R.L. 1996. Historical Linguistics. London
Arnold. McMahon, A.M.S. 1995. Understanding
Language Change. Cambridge Cambridge University
Press. Hock, H.H. 1991. Principles of Historical
Linguistics. Berlin Mouton de Gruyter. Croft,
W. 2000. Explaining Language Change. An
Evolutionary Approach. Harlow Longman.
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Time periods
450-1100 Old English 1100-1500 Middle
English 1500-1800 Early Modern
English 1800-present Present Day English
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Germanic
Germanic West Germanic North Germanic East
Germanic English Swedish Gothic Frisian Dani
sh Vandal German Norwegian Burgundian Yiddish
Icelandic Dutch Afrikaans
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English German Swedish sun Sonne sol house
Haus hus cat Katze kat apple Apfel äp
ple father Vater fader hand Hand hand go
gehen gar see sehen sar hear hören hö
ra run rennen rännar dream träumen drömar
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English loan words in German
English German computer Computer email Email
internet Internet jeans Jeans event Event l
aptop Laptop cool cool mountain
bike Mountain Bike absolutely absolut
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Loan words in English
take Old Norse give Old Norse they Old
Norse paper French story French force French
wall Latin street Latin school Latin kinderga
rten German
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English-German sound correspondences
English German time Zeit tongue Zunge ten zehn
tame zahm tent Zelt to zu two zwei twins Zw
illinge
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English-German sound correspondences
that das there da through durch thirsty durst
ig think denken
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English-German sound correspondences
pan Pfanne path Pfad pole Pfahl pepper Pfeffe
r pipe Pfeife plant Pflanze
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English-German sound correspondences
hate hassen eat essen let lassen grip gre
ifen deep tief sleep schafen
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IE reconstructed word forms
pes- foot ed- eat ghebh- give
aug- increase wed- water
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English-German sound correspondences
cheese child chin cheery church king
Käse Kind Kinn Kirsche Kirche König
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Loan words from French
crime crime prison prison letter lettre j
ustice justice contract contrat music musi
que demand demander pronounce prononcer propos
e proposer responsible responsable
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Cognates English-French
one un, une two deux three trois four quat
re five cinq six six seven sept
eight huit nine neuf ten dix
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Romance
French Catalan Italian Galician Spain
Sardinian Portuguese Provencal Romanian Rho
mansh
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Sound correspondences in Romance
Italian Sardinian Romansh French Spanish
Hundred Sky Stag Wax TEnto Telo TErvo Tera kEntu kElu kErbu kEra tsjEnt tsil tsErf tsairaE sa sjEl sER siR Tjen Tjelo Tjerbo Tera
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Indo-European
Germanic Greek Romance Iranian Slavic Indian B
altic Albanian Celtic Armenian
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Balto-Slavic
Balto-Slavic Baltic Slavic Latvian Lithuan
ian East Slavic West Slavic South Slavic Old
Prussian Russian Polish Serbo-Croatian Russ
ian Czech Slovene Belarusian Slovak Bulgarian
Sorbian Macedonian
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Cases in Indo-European
IE Sanskrit German English Lithuanian
NOMVOCACC GENABLDATLOCINST wlkos wlke wlkom wlkosyo wlkod wlkoi wlkei wlko vrkas vrka vrkam vrkasya vrkad vrkaya vrke vrka der den des dem he him his vilkas vilke vilka vilko vilkui vilke vilku
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Celtic
Celtic Gaelic Irish Scottish Welsh
Manx Cornish Breton
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Sanskrit
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700 English 500 Armenian 400 Gothic 0 200
Latin 400 Classical Sanskrit 800 Greek 100
0 Old Persian 1200 Hittite 1500 Vedic
Sanskrit 3000 Proto Indo-European
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Second Germanic sound shift
time Zeit tongue Zunge ten zehn that das there
da through durch pan Pfanne path Pfad pole Pfahl

hat hassen eat essen let lassen grip greifen
deep tief sleep schlafen
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Numerals in Indo-European and non-Indo-European
languages
English Gothic Latin Greek Sanskrit Chinese Japanese
one two three four five six seven eight nine ten ains twai Trija fidwor fimf saihs sibun ahtau niun taihun unus duo tres quattuor quinque sex septem octo novembe decem heis duo treis tettares pente heks hepta okto ennea deka ekas dva trayas catvaras panca sat sapta asta nava dasa i erh san su wu liu chi pa chiu shih hitotsu futatsu mittsu yottsu itsutsu muttsu nanatsu yattsu kokonotsu to
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Sound correspondences in IE
English Latin Greek Irish
fish father foot for six seven sweet salt new night nine piscis pater ped pro sex septem suavis sal novus noct novem ikhthys pater pod para hexa hepta hedys hal neos nykt (en)nea iasg athair troigh do se seacht millis salann nua (in)nocht naoi
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Sound correspondences across unrelated languages
Arabic Urdu Turkish Swahili Malay
news time book service beggar xabar waqt kitab xidmat faqir xabar vaqt kitab xidmatgari faqir haber vakit kitap hizmet fakir habari wkati kitabu huduma fakiri khabar waktu kitab khidmat fakir
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Sir William Jones
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Sound correspondences between Sanskrit, Latin and
Greek
Sanskrit Latin Greek
asmi asi asti smas stha santi sum es est sumus estis sunt eini ei esti esmen este eisi
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August Schleicher
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Latin Old English Gothic
/p/ ? /f/ /t/ ? /?/ /k/ ? /x/h/ /b/ ? /p/ /d/ ? /t/ /g/ ? /k/ pedum piscis tres tu cordem centum turba crowd edo decem ager genus fot fisc three Tri thou TaU heart hundred thorp village eat ten acre kin fotus fiskis thrir thuU hairto hund itan taihun akrs kuni
IE Old English Gothic
/bh/ ? /b/ /dh/ ? /d/ /dh/ ? /d/ bhero dhura ghostis beran duru gasts baíra daúr giest
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Grimms law
p t k ? f T x/h b d g ? p t k bh dh
gh ? b d g
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Exceptions to Grimms law
p t k f T x b d g
Sanskrit Old English vártate weorTan varárta we
arT vavrtimá wurdon vavrtaná worden
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Verners law
p t k ? f T x / stressed syllable __ ?
b d g / unstressed syllable __
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Neogrammarian Hypothesis
Every sound change takes place according to laws
that admit no exceptions. Karl Brugmann
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Evidence for the IE homeland
Common words for cold winter snow honey wolf beec
h pine
No common words for ocean palm elephant camel
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Amerind hypothesis
Eskimo Na Dene Amerind
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Number of speakers
Mandarin 907 English 456 Hindi 383 Spanish 3
62 Russian 293 Arabic 208 Bengali 189 Portugu
ese 177 Indonesian 148 Japanese 126 French 12
3 German 119
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Nostratic
Indo-European Altaic Uralic Afro-Asiatic Kartvelia
n
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