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Forms of English Past and Present                                                          5.3.2009

 

 

History started in the 5th century and is still going on today

 

New words: to google, gossip, to facebook, to handbag (to convince somebody with a little bit of force)

 

Periods of the History of English:

 

  • Old English (450-1150)
  • Middle Engl. (1150-1500) Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Early Modern Engl. (1500-1700) Shakespeare English (double negations, similar to Rap)
  • Modern Engl. (1700-present)
  •  

    (Dates are not very important for the exam)

     

    Old English

     

  • 5th century (449): Britain was invaded by Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes)
  • they brought along their own dialects
  • from their arrival in Britain their language is called Old English (O.E.)
  •  

    “stanas”: means stones

    “daeg” (Sing.): Tag                “dagas” (Pl.): Tage

     

  • very different from Modern English but similar to German
  • Nouns have masculine, feminine or neuter gender as in German
  • Nouns take case endings: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative (4 Fälle)
  • Verbs have more endings than in Modern English (3rd Person  “s”, ing-Form, Past “ed”)
  • O.E. is an inflected language
  • Word order in sentences is freer à inflection in words indicates the function in the sentence
  • Vocabulary of O.E. is mostly of Germanic origin
  •  

    “oxan”: menas Ochsen

     

  • We find some Latin and Celtic loan words
  •  

    Middle English

     

  • 1066: Britain was invaded by some Norman troops and William the Conqueror (à he won, King Harold the 2nd was on the Engl. Side)
  • almost the entire British nobility died in the battle of Hastings
  • British lost because they didn’t have horses (Infantry), France (Cavalry, with horses)
  • Normans took over as the ruling class in Britain
  • Normans brought their dialects
  • Time of strong influence on English
  • Many French loan words (= words taken from an other language) were adopted
  • O.E. case endings were produced less clearly and eventually lost
  • Word order became more important
  • Is the time of levelled infelections
  • M.E. texts written shortly after the Norman conquest (1066) did not differ significantly from earlier texts
  • 1150: dividing line between O.E. and M.E. (less endings, French words)
  •  

    Early Modern English

     

  • Beginning marked by introduction of the printing press by William Caxton in 1476
  • Printing had an effect on the standardisation of the language
  • Before: books had to be copied by hand à every single book was unique (written by monks) à mistakes!
  • The Reformation in the early 16th century and the Renaissance (=rebirth; rebirth of art, science,…) had great influence on the English language
  • Many Latin and Greek loan words were adopted à influential on science
  • The levelling of inflections continued
  •  

    Modern English

     

    ·        17th and 18th centuries: codification of Standard English (=Sprachkodex)

    ·        Many dictionaries and Grammars were published

    ·        Books on right spelling, right pronunciation and right use on words were published

    ·        English developed into a World Language

    ·        Lingua franca: language of science, technology, tourism, commerce

    ·        Official language in about 60 countries

    ·        Has more speakers than any other language (if you count native and non native speakers)

    Future of Modern English

     

    ·        Internet and international communication: different varieties (American English, Indian English, Australian Englisch…) influence each other

    ·        Dominance of American Entertainment industry: influence on non American varieties of English

    ·        Changes of pronunciation, word and sentence structure will be unavoidable

     

    Diachronic Linguistics

     

  • Is the study of language from the perspective of its development through time (change: meaning of a word; “Idiot”: was a rich man who is a bit weird, now: it means just a weird man à pejorations: Verschlechterung der Bedeutung)
  • E.g. studies on the development of pronunciation or changes in the meaning of words over time
  •  

     

    Synchronic Linguistics

     

  • Looks at the English language at a given time
  • E.g. studies on the pronunciation of a word at a given time
  • Distinction between synchronic and diachronic linguistics goes back to Saussure (1857-1913)
  • Since old and new forms always co-existed for a certain time a purely diachronic description isn’t possible
  •  

     

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                                     12.3.2009

     

     

    Internal and external history of language

     

  • Internal history: All aspects of structure and how they change over time
  • External history: political events, social and economic developments, language contacts that have an influence on language development
  •  

    Sources: Early Manuscripts

     

  • Written documents
  • We know little about the spoken language of earlier periods
  •  

    Early Manuscripts

     

  • 5th century: Anglo-Saxons did not bring a writing system with them
  • Had a runic alphabet which survived in a number of stone inscriptions
  •  

     

    Sign rune: “S”                                    used during Nazi-time: SS

     

     

     elk (Elch)                                          means giant or sth. big

     

     

  • End of the 6th century: a writing system was introduced by the monks who Christianised England
  • Language of the church was Latin
  • First no need to produce texts in English (according to the monks)
  • A written form of English was developed on the basis of the Latin mode
  • Texts were first annotated with comments in English or glosses i.e. word-for-word translations that were inserted between the lines
  • From the 8th century onward we find legal texts in English, oral poetry and translations of religions and philosophical texts in Latin (Alfred the Great was responsible for these translations)
  • After 1066: French and Latin were the official languages and used for most official documents as well as for scientific writing (many French words came into the English language)
  • English continued to be used for poetry and religious literature
  • Until the 15th century texts were handwritten ; monks wrote on parchment ( = skin of sheeps) with a feather = quill
  • Difficult to determine when a manuscript was written
  • Texts could have been copies of much older texts
  • Scribes (monks) made mistakes and treated sources rather liberally
  • After 1476 (introduction of printing): attempts as standardisation of the English language (Caxton introduced printing)
  • 17th and 18th century: dictionaries and grammars were published
  • written sources tell us less about dialects differences
  •  

    Old English: Germanic dialects

     

  • O.E. period: 450-1150
  • Earliest texts date from around 700
  • They are glossaries of Latin words translated into English and some are early inscriptions and poems
  • Most extant O.E. manuscripts date from the late 9th and the 10th centuries
  •  

    Roman Britain

     

  • 55 and 54 BC Julius Caesar attacked Britain
  • met with fierce resistance form predominantly Celtic Britons
  • Caesars expedition were failures
  • 43 A.D. Roman legions were more successful
  • Romans built forts e.g. at Chester and York
  • Built a network of paved roads
  • Great defensive wall across the north of England: Hadrians Wall
  • Roman occupation was largely peaceful
  • Brought prosperity and an orderly government
  • Occupying soldiers and civil servants were mostly romanised Gauls (Gallier) from France and Celts rather than Romans
  • It can be assumed that Latin never replaced the local Celtic languages
  • There was widespread bilingualism
  • 367 A.D.: Britain was attacked by two Celtic Tribes form the north: the Picts and Scots and by Saxon pirates who landed in the east
  • Romans managed to restore peace
  • Romans had serious problems on the continent and withdrew (beginning of the 5th century)
  •  

    Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

     

  • Is an account of important events in English history
  • Was stared under King Alfred at the end of the 9th century
  • States that the invasion of Angles, Saxons and Jutes took place in the year 449
  • Britons asked the Angles for help against attacking tribes from the north, in particular the Picts
  • Angles successfully helped the Britons (won against Pics)
  • Decided to stay and settle down
  • Brought their kinsmen from their old home
  • Were primarily farmers
  • Anglo-Saxons were pagans ( dt. = Heiden)
  •  

    Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy (7 kings, 7 kingdoms)

     

  • Until the 10th century there was no one monarchy for the whole of English
  • The invaders founded several small kingdoms
  • Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex (map in the handout)
  •  

    Christianisation

     

  • End of 6th century: pope Gregory sent a mission of monks under Augustine to convert the English
  • 597: Augustinve landed in Kent, converted and became first Archbishop of Canterbury
  • end of 7th century: all of Britain was Christianised
  • not all of England was converted by Roman missionaries
  • parts of Norhumbria were converted by missionaries from Ireland with Celtic form of Christianity
  • 664: Synod of Whitby: decision taken in favour of Roman Christianity
  • monks brought literacy and learning (more people were able to read)
  • scholarly monasteries were founded e.g. in Canterbury, Jarrow and York
  • northern kingdom of Northumbria: Lindis farne Gospels: a manuscript written in Latin: was illuminated by a monk called Eadfrith who alter became the bishop of the island monastery of Lindisfarne
  • The venerable (ehrenwerte) BEDE, a Benedictine monk, who lived from about 673-735 wrote “The Ecclesiastical (kirchliche) History of the English People” (completed in 731)
  • This important document was written in Latin ( Alfred the Great translated)
  •  

    Viking Raids ( Überfälle, Raubzüge, Plünderungen)

     

  • 9th century: golden age of Anglo-Saxon church came to an end
  • attacks from peoples from Scandinavia mainly from Norway, Sweden and Denmark
  • fearless seafarers searching for plunder
  • England’s rich culture was not protected by an efficient army and not organised under a central government
  • First raids took place in spring
  • Places not too far from the shore were plundered
  • Eventually Vikings decided to stay over the winter and settled in the country
  •  

    King Alfred of Wessex (the Great)

     

  • Came to power in 871 and reigned almost 30 years until 899
  •  Successfully opposed the Vikings
  • drove them back north
  • great military leader
  • recognized the importance of learning
  • rebuilt churches
  • set up schools for his noblemen
  • set out to translate important Latin manuscripts into O.E.
  • initiated a record of historical events of the Anglo Saxons, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
  •  

    Danelaw

     

  • The territory to the north of a line that extended from Chester to London remained under Danish rule and came to be known as Danelaw
  • Today: place names with Danish endings:
  • -by: farm, town, - thorpe (village), - thwaite (an isolated piece of land) and –toft (house, grounds)

     

    ·         Alfred’s successors re-conquered much of the Danelaw

    ·         Number of Scandinavian settlers must have been very considerable

    ·         Over 1400 place names of Scandinavian origin

    ·         It is generally assumed that Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians lived together peacefully and that there was a great deal of cultural assimilation

     

     

    Youtube: Story of English Mother Tongue

     

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                           19.3.2009

     

     

    Renewed Viking Attacks

     

  • End of the 10th century: Danes renewed their attacks
  • 1016 England submitted to the Danish king Canute and became part of a large Danish empire that included both Denmark and Norway
  • 26 years later, the empire collapsed and an English king (Edward the Confessor) was restored to an independent England
  •  

    Earliest Linguistic Traces: Place Names

     

  • Latin place names
  • -chester, after Latin castra (camp, town)
  • Chester, Chichester, Colchester, Manchester, Winchester
  • Portchester (Lat. Portus = harbour and Lat. Castra)
  • Portsmouth (Lat. Portus and O.E. muða =(estuary)
  • Portsmouth (Hafen und Flussmündung)
  •  

    Celtic Place Names

     

  • Celts and Anglo-Saxons used Latin elements when they created new names for new towns
  • Place names that go back to Celtic:
  • Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Lichfield
  • Kent and London were most probably originally Celtic (Londinium?)
  • London goes back to a Celtic name and means: “the wild one”
  •  

     

    Handout: pages 11-14

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                                      26.3.2009

     

    Anglo-Saxon Poetry

     

  • 30 000 lines of O.E. poetry have survived
  • Heroic subjects, historic poems, lives of saints, lyrics, riddles and gnomic verse (short poems to aid memory à they put it in rime)
  • Poems are composed in alliterative measures (inherited from Germanic ancestors)
  • Originally many of the poems have been passed on orally form one generation to the next
  • Two traditions: pagan, oral
  • Christian tradition (poems about the saints)
  • Sometimes two traditions are interwoven (a mixture)
  • Most famous O.E. poem: Beowulf
  • 3183 lines alliteration ( = Stabreim: first two letters of a line in a rime have to be the same e.g.: Good God)
  •  

    Alliteration: Stabreime im Deutschen: Kind und Kegel, Adam und Eva

     

    Beowulf (written down at about 800) Handout: page 51

     

  • Tells the story of dragon slayer Beowulf, who goes to help the Danish king Hrothgar
  • Hrothgar’s meat hall has been ravaged by the male monster Grendel
  • Beowulf defeats Grendel
  • Grendels mother seeks revenge
  • Beowulf fights her in an underwater cavern in a lake and slays her
  • As an aged warrior who had ruled the Geates for 50 peaceful years he fights a fire breathing dragon (Geates =  Gauten: old Germanic tribe)
  • He slays the dragon but dies
  • Story plays at 600 A.C; “Beowulf” was probably written in 800 A.C.
  •  

    O.E. Vocabulary

     

  • Most of O.E. vocabulary has not survived into Modern English
  • Basis of O.E. formed by dialects of Germanic tribes
  • Contact with Celts, Roman missionaries and Viking raiders also influenced the language
  •  

    O.E. Vocabulary: Celtic Traces

     

  • Celtic place names: Devonshire
  • Contains the tribal name Dumnonir

     

    Scir à Middle English = shire = Grafschaft

     

  • Cornwall means ‘Cornubian Welsh’ (Küste von Welsh)
  • Cumberland contains the name Cymry and means ‘land of the Cymry or Britons’
  •  

     

    O.E. Vocabulary: Latin Traces

     

  • Anglo-Saxons had already had contact with roman Culture before they invaded Britain
  • Words such as church and bishop were adopted at that time
  • After their arrival in Britain the Anglo-Saxons picked up some Latin words through the Celts, which the Celts had learned during the Roman occupation
  • Most important Latin influence came through Christianisation
  • New ideas, objects and concepts had to be named
  • Abbot ( = Abt), altar (= Altar), candle (= Candela), cleric (= Klerus), epistle (= Epistula = Brief, Apostelbrief), hymn (= Hymne), martyr (= Märtyrer) mass, priest, psalm, relic, rule, shrine
  • Words that concern clothing and household: Beet (= rote Beete), lentil (= Linse), pear (= Birne), radish (=  Radi, Rettich, Kren)
  • Names of trees, plants and herbs that were important for medical purposes: Fennel (= Fenchel), lily (= Lilie, Seerose), mallow (= Malve), marshmallow (= Eibisch), myrrh (= Myrrhe)
  • Words from education: School, master
  •  

    O.E. Vocabulary: Viking Traces

     

  • Danes and Norwegians spoke slightly different dialects
  • Both were similar to those of the Anglo-Saxons
  • Considerable Scandinavian influence on the English language in all areas of daily life
  • Examples: band, bank, birth, dirt, egg, fellow, guess, kid, leg, race, seat, sister, slaughter, steak, tidings, trust, want, window
  • In many cases it is difficult to say whether a word is originally Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon
  • The sound sk changed to sh (written as sc) in early O.E.
  • In Scandinavian dialects it did not change
  • Thus, words with sh (ship, shall, fish) must be original Germanic words
  • Words with sk were borrowed later
  • Sky, skin, scrape, bask, skirt are Scandinavian words
  • O.E. scyrte à Modern English = shirt
  • O.N. skyrte à Modern English = skirt
  •  

    O.E. Vowels

     

  • Distinction between short and long vowels was important
  • Fōr means journey, for is a preposition
  • Gōd (good), god (God)
  •  dāel (portion), dæl (dell, valley)
  • Frīo (beautiful), frio (tranquillity)
  •  

    O.E. changes

     

    ·         The long vowels have undergone considerable modification

    ·         E.g.: O.E. stan > M.E. stone

    ·         O.E. gan > M.E. go

    ·         O.E. halig > M.E. holy

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                                      2.4.2009

     

    The Indo - European Family of Languages

     

  • If a separation of one from another community takes place over time differences grow up between them
  • Local dialects develop
  • Ultimately separate languages may develop
  •  

    Proto – Indo – European

     

  • Hypothesis: languages of a large part of Europe and Asia were a tone time identical – Proto – Indo – European
  •  

  • Close kinship between English, German and Latin
  •  

    Milch – milk, Fleisch – flesh, Wasser- water, Pater –father, Prates – brother

     

  • Proto – Indo European
  • 2 branches:

    Eastern: Satem

    Western: Centum

     

    Centum languages are named after the word for „hundred“= Kmtom.

    Centum languages include Hellenic, Italic, Germanic and Celtic branches

     

    Satem languages came from the word for „hundred“= sto.

    Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Albanian

     

  • Centum – Satem division of languages: Result of a sound change in the eastern section of the Indo – European speech community:
  •  

    K à S / SCH (Satem)

    K à C (Centum)

     

    Grimm’s law

     

  • Grimm was a Germanic philologist
  • 1882: formulated an explanation that explained correspondences between certain consonants in the Germanic languages and those found e.g. in Sanskrit, Latin and Greek
  • P in Indo – European was presented in Latin and Greek and changed to F in Germanic Languages
  • Lat.: opiscis –fish
  • Pes – foot
  • PTK changed into F D H
  • Tres – three
  • Centum – hundred
  • The reasons for this change are unknown
  •  

    Verner’s law

     

  • 1875: when the Indo – European accent was not on the vowel immediately preceding, such voiceless fricatives became voiced in Germanic
  • Đ became d
  • Past participles of verbs in O. E. showed a d e.g. cweden (to say) – cweðan
  •  

    Germanic

     

  • Proto Germanic: common from that Germanic languages had before they became separated
  • Gothic: principle language of East Germanic
  • Missionary Ulfila also known as Wulfila translated the gospels and other parts of the New Testaments into Gothic
  • North Germanic: found in Scandinavia, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands
  • Scandinavian languages fall into 2 groups:
  • Eastern Group: Swedish and Danish

    Western Group: Norwegian and Icelandic

  • Old Icelandic: The Elder or poetic Edda: collection of poems from the 10th and 11th century
  •  

    West Germanic

     

  • Divided into 2 branches:
  • High German

    Low German

  • 600 A.D. second sound shift: p, t, k, d where changed into other sounds
  •  

    Low German

     

  • Old Saxon, Old low Franconian (Fränkisch), Old Frisian, Old English, Old Saxon (basis of modern low German)
  • Old low Franconian (basis of Modern Dutch)

    Frisian survived in the Netherland province of Friesland

     

    High German

     

  • Old high German: before 1100
  • Middle high German: 1100 – 1500
  • Modern high German: since 1500
  • High German: popularized by Luther’s translation of the bible
  •  

    Celtic

     

  • At the beginning Celtic languages were widely spread
  • Celts were found in Gaul, Spain, Great Britain, western Germany and northern Italy
  • Steady retreat of Celtic: surprising phenomenon
  • Today: Celtic languages only found in far corners of France and the British Isles
  • Gallic: Languages of the Celts that were conquered by Caesar
  • Goidelic and Gaelic: Celts who were the first who came to England; they have been driven to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man
  • Their language is represented in the modern languages, like Scottish, Irish, Gaelic and Manx (Gaelic spoken on the Isle of Man)
  • Brythonic Celts: were driven westward by Germanic invaders in the 5th century
  • Their language was the basis for modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton
  •  

    Hittite and Tocharian

     

  • Hittites: References in the Old Testament (“Children of Heth”)
  • 1907: discovery of Hittite capital in Asia Minor
  • Clay tablets (Tontafeln) were found
  • Texts were written in Babylonian cuneiform characters (=Keilschrift)
  • Tocharian; fragmentary texts discovered in western China
  •  

    The Verb

     

  • There are three main kinds of Modern English verbs
  • All three can be traced back to Old English
  • 1. those who form their past tense with – ed: jump – jumped
  • 2. those who form their past tense by changing a vowel: give – gave
  • 3. Wholly irregular forms: can, will, go, be
  •  

  • Modern verbs: few inflectional endings left: - ed; third person – s ; - ing
  •  

  • Old English present tense:
  •  

    Ic lufie (I love)

    Þu lufast

    He / heo / hit    lufað

    We / ge / hi      lufiað

     

    Ic lufode (I loved)

     

  • Some of the present tense endings weakened and disappeared short after the Old English period
  • 2nd and 3rd person singular stayed on à
  • Developed into -est and -eth forms of Middle English (lovest, loveth)
  •  

    The Infinitive

     

  • -an, -ian added
  • Singan, lufian
  • Suffixes were lost during the Middle English Period and “to” came into existence as a marker of the infinitive (to sing, to love)
  •  

    The –ing Form

     

  • Equivalent form in O.E. was –ende
  • Gongende : going
  • Sprecende: speaking
  • This form hardly survived the beginning of the Middle English Period
  • Was replaced by –inge endings which in O.E. had been restricted to nouns
  •  

    The –ed Form

     

  • Shows the same kind of vowel changes and endings we still see today
  • Had a special prefix: ge- (as in all other Germanic languages)
  • Gested (settled)
  • Gelernade (learned)
  •  

    The Subjunctive

     

  • Was systematically used in O.E.
  • In subordinate clauses expressing a subjective attitude
  • E.g. sceolden: should
  • In the subjunctive mood, there is only a singular and a plural form
  • They are formed by taking the ic-form for the singular, and adding –n in plural
  • Ic / Þu / he    fremme; we / ge / hie    fremmen
  •  

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                                    23.4.2009

     

    Two expressions for “to be” = beon, wesan

     

    Middle English (Handout: page 28 – 35)

    1150 – 1500

     

    The Influence of French

     

    Middle English

     

  • English language turned from an infected language into a language with reduced inflection and a more rigid word order
  • Started out with a mainly Germanic vocabulary
  • Ended with a highly mixed vocabulary
  • Strong influence of French and Latin
  •  

    Norman Conquest

     

  • 14th of October 1066: Battle of Hasting
  • William of Normandy conquers England
  • Most of English nobility killed
  • From now on: 3 languages in active use: Latin, French (new thing that came with the Normans), and English
  • Norman French became the language of the aristocracy for the next 200 years
  • Area often referred to as the dark age in the history of the English language
  •  

    Page 23 (Robert of Gloucester)

     

    Reassertion of English

     

  • 1204: English king John came into conflict with French king Philip of France
  • King John was obliged to give up control of Normandy
  • The ruling classes in Britain were now cut off from their linguistic homeland
  • High rate of intermarriages: bilingualism was widespread
  • 1250: document: treatise on teaching English as a foreign language à shows that not all children of nobility learned French natively
  • 1258: King Henry 3rd  issued the first official document in English
  • His barons forced him to issue a declaration in which he promised to observe reforms
  • Declaration of Henry 3rd was written in French and Latin but was also translated into English
  • English orthography: party relies on O.E. tradition, partly acquires Latin and French usages
  • Every scribe uses his own orthography
  •  

    The Decline of French

     

  • 13th and 14th centuries: many new towns developed
  • Influential English- speaking middle- class developed
  • End of the 14th century: French had lost its position in England
  • 1362: first opening of parliament in English (King Edward 3rd)
  • From 1423 onwards: parliamentary records were kept in English
  • Official documents of town and guilds were also kept in English
  •  

    Early Middle English Genres

     

  • Pelerborough Chronicle: continuation of Anglo- Saxon Chronicle started by King Alfred of Wessex
  • Was written at about 1155 by a Benedicline monk
  • Covers the years 1132-1154
  • Medical handbooks (interested in herbs,...)
  • Biographies of saints
  • Homilies (=Predigten, how to interpret bible texts)
  • Religious treatises
  • Most literature was religious in nature
  •  

    Ancrene Wisse (= ein Buch)

     

    Wisse = Wissen

     

  • The Guide or Rule for Anchoresses (religiöse Einsiedlerinnen) (Wie man sich benehmen muss)
  • Composed not long after 1215
  • Author was probably an Augustinian canon (Stiftsherr)
  • Wrote a treatise for three sisters who had adopted the live of recluses (Einsiedlerinnen)
  • Five 13th century manuscripts of this text and translation into French and Latin have survived (Schweigegelübte,...)
  • Instructs nuncs (Nonnen) how they should lead their lives
  • Deals with prayers, control of the senses, regulation of feelings, confession, temptation, etc. (punishments,..)
  • Language: South-West Midland dialect
  •  

    Anmerkung: Vogt = Gutsverwalter

     

    Canterbury Tales (Handout p. 54-55)

     

  • Most famous Middle English text
  • By Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) (one of the most important poets and writers) (made fun of the French)
  • The Story of a group of pilgrims who set out for Canterbury (Chaucer is also with them)
  • Pilgrims take turns in telling stories
  • Reward for the best story: a meal
  • 23 pilgrims represent all walks of life (social classes). We find:
  • A knight and his son ( a squire = Knappe), a student from Oxford, a prioress, a nun, a monk, a parson, a friar, a priest, a pardoner, who sells indulgencies (Schulderlassscheine, if you committed a sin)
  • There are also manual labourers: a miller, a reeve, a cook and a shipman
  • Pilgrims are introduced in the prologue by the narrator Chaucer, who is himself of them
  •  

     

  • Most famous female character: Wife of Bath:
  • She is well travelled (3 pilgrimages to Jerusalem), has visited important places of Europe (Rome, Boulogne, St. James of Compostella in Spain = Jakobsweg)
  • Has had 5 husbands
  •  

    New Genres in the Middle English Period

     

  • 14th century: legal documents became more numerous
  • proclamations, petitions, testaments and wills (=letzter Wille) were all written in English
  • minutes of council meetings
  • increasing number of scientific texts
  • large collection of letters from the Paston family has survived
  • was influential family of merchants
  •  

    Middle English dialects and standardisation

     

    VERBS

     

  • In O.E. the ending for verbs in the plural present indicative (Mod.E. we, you they) is always –th
  • In northern Middle E. it is –es, in the Midland –en and in the sout –eth
  • North: lovande
  • Midland: lovende (in late Mi.E.: loving)
  • South: lovinde (in late Mi.E.: loving) –ing Form
  • Forms of the south and the Midlands fell together and became –ing in M.E. times – this form survived into Modern English
  •  

    PRONOUNS

     

  • North: they, their, them
  • South: hi, here (hire, hure), hem
  • Northern forms survived into Modern English
  • Loss of unstressed (unbetont) vowels (got lost)
  •  

    To lose a sound: syncope                  to lose a sound at the end: apocopy

     

    SOUNDS

     

  • Initial f and s often voiced in the south à v, z
  • North: for, from, fox
  • South: vor, vrom, vox
  • Northern standard survived
  • Modern English word for a female fox vixen goes back to southern form
  • Ch in the south often corresponds to k in the north:
  • North: benk, kirk
  • South: bench, chirch à southern forms are used in Modern English
  • 15th century: beginning of standardisation process
  • Still controversial what started this process and which M.E. dialect formed the basis of Modern Standard English
  • Some scholars see Chaucer as the fore father of Modern English
  • Chaucer used a conservative, poetic language
  • It is rather unlikely that it alone formed the basis of Modern English
  • Chancery clerks: the scribes in the king’s employment have played a role – however, they only produced official documents
  •  

     

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                                    30.4.2009

     

    Note: London, Cambridge, Oxford à famous triangle

     

    Middle English dialects and standardisation

     

  • William Caxton: fist printer in London, int roduced the printing press in 1476
  • Standardisation process has started earlier
  • London as a political and economic centre had a strong impact
  • London dialect in itself was not coherent
  • Many influential merchants from the East Midlands settled in London
  • Their dialect is more directly behind Modern Standard English
  •  

    Lexical inventory: French influence

     

    ·         During the first years after the conquest few words were borrowed

    ·         After 1250 those who had spoken French increasingly spoke English

    ·         A large number of French words were adopted

    ·         Most designations of high social ranks are French: noble, nobility, peer, prince, princess, duke, duchess, count, countess, squire, page (Page, Diener)

    ·         Queen, king lord, lady and earl were English

    ·         Words form government and administration: (French origins)

    ·         Crown, sate, empire, reign, royal, sovereign, majesty, tyrant, court, council, parliament

    ·         High offices and titles in administration:

    ·         Chancellor, treasurer (Schatzmeister), governor, councillor (Stadtrat), minister, mayor, constable (Beamter im öffentl. Dienst)

    ·         Terms for offices in the church: French origins

    ·         Clergy (Klerus), clerk (Geistlicher), prelate (Höherer Geistlicher), cardinal, dean (Dechant), chaplain, parson (priest), pastor (priest), vicar, abbess (Klostervorständin)

     

    Note: dean: at university = Dekan

     

  • Fundamental religious or theological concepts:
  • Saviour, trinity, virgin, saint, miracle, mystery, faith, heresy (Irrglaube), reverence, devotion, temptation, damnation, penitence, salvation
  •  

    Law

     

  • Normans introduced French as the language of the courts
  • Justice, judgment, plaintiff, defendant, judge, advocate, attorney (Staatsanwalt), verdict (Rechtsspruch, Urteil), sentence, jury fine, punishment, prison
  •  

    Fashion, food and social life

     

  • Apparel (Kleidung), garment (Kleidung), lace (Schnürsenkel), embroidery (Stickerei), cloak (Umhang), coat frock (Gehrock, Kleid), collar (Kragen)
  •  

     

    Culinary words

     

  • Dinner, supper, feast, appetite, taste, venison (deer), beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, sausage, poultry (Geflügel), biscuit, cream, sugar, spice, clove (Gewürznelke), thyme, herb and mustard
  •  

    Domestic and social life

     

  • Curtain, couch, chair, crushion, wardrobe, closet, recreation, leisure, dance, carol, melody, music, cheese, conversation
  •  

    Medicine and Science

     

  • Treatise (Wissenschaftl. Abhandlungen), study, logic, geometry, noun, clause, gender, medicine, physician, surgeon, plague, anatomie, remedy (Heilmittel)
  • Grammar of Middle English does not show any direct French influence
  • Inflections (Endungen) had undergone much simplification
  • Most frequent words were still English:
  • Eat, drink, sleep, work, play, sing, walk, rum, ride, drink, break, butter, fish, milk, cheese, wine, beer, leg, foot, hand, eye, ear, nose
  •  

    Middle English Syntax and Morphology

     

  • Decay of inflectional endings
  • Case endings of nouns and adjective were less clearly pronounced
  • No longer indicated the relation between words in a sentence
  • Language began to rely on a fixed word order and on the use of prepositions
  • Examples from Chaucer’s language:
  • Endings: Gode, on hode, in lande

     

    Note: identify Middle E. texts by prepositions, -e at the plural, weak and strong adj.

     

  • Only distinction that is marked on nouns is the plural: -es, -ys, -is, -en
  • And the possessive: -s, -es
  • ADJECTIVES (strong and weak)
  • Monosyllabic adjectives ending in a consonant show the O.E. distinction between strong and weak declension
  • The strong form does not inflect, the weak form adds –e
  • The weak form is used when the adjective is preceded by a definite article or a possessive:
  • The younge sonne, this odde man, his owene good à zu seinem eigenem Besten
  • -e is also added to monosyllabic adjectives ending in a consonant that qualify a plural noun
  • olde books
  • The difference between strong and weak declension still exist in Modern German
  • Der alte Man, ein alter Mann
  • Comparison adj. In Chaucerian grammar:
  • Depe – depere – depest
  • God (e) - betterebest(e)
  • I, IK, Ich. Due to dialectical variation which Chaucer imitates in the Canterbury Tales à he shows dialects in there
  • Thow, thou are mere spelling variants
  • Chaucer already uses a system in which the plural forms ye, yow and youre can be used to a single addresser to express politeness and respect
  • As in Modern English there is a distinction between strong and weak verbs
  •  

    Strong verb:

     

  • Knowe(n)       knew   knowe(n)
  •  

  • Breake(n)      brak    broke(n)
  •  

    Weak verbs:

     

  • Daunce(n)      daunced         daunce
  •  

    (Handout page 40)

     

  • Past participles are sometimes preceded by y-/i- (a reduced form of the O.E. prefix ge)
  • Ycleped (getratscht), ycome(n) (gekommen) à sign for Middle English texts
  • The infinitive often ends –en, n but also accurs without ending
  • The third person of the verb ends in –eth (Sg.) and –en (Pl.)
  • Verbs ending in –d or –t often shows simplifaction
  • E.g. wente instead of wenteth, rit instead of rideth, sit instead of siteth, writ instead of writeth
  •  

  • Subjunctive report hypothetical facts, wished for circumstances or possibilities
  • They also express the speaker attitude (wishes, possibilities)
  •  

  • Subjunctives end in –e:
  • And though that he were worthy, he was wys (wise=weise)
  • And although that he was wealthy, he was wise
  • The subjunctive is often used in clauses beginning with though and lest and the verb hopen
  • Lest: ,damit nicht; ,dass nicht etwas passiert
  •  

     

     

     

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                                 7.5.2009

     

    Personal Pronouns

     

    The Personal Pronouns in Old English

     

  • Distinctive forms for all genders and persons
  • O.E. had a dual form, which disappeared in the 13th century (wit we two, yit ye to)
  • Duals were rarely used
  • Duals formed in Pidgin languages:
  • Youmi (you and me)
  •  

    The Personal Pronoun

     

  • I had the sound value of  Latin [i]
  • Why do we use capital I for [ai]: ?
  • Possible explanation: in manuscripts letters were crammed together
  • capital I was used to make the pronoun visible
  • French influence on the development of personal pronouns
  • After the Norman conquest: French official prestigious language
  • Polite form of addressing people was introduced:
  • tu – vous distinction
  • Middle English:
  • thou [u:]
  • ye [je] = polite form
  • King was addressed with ye (pluralis majestatis)
  • Chaucer used both forms
  •  

    O.E.

     

  •    Þ- Þē   (Sg.) Dat./Acc.
  •     gē- ēow   (Pl.) Dat./Acc.
  •  

    M.E.

     

  • Thou – thee (Sg.) Dat./Acc.
  • Ye – you (Pl.) Dat./Acc.
  •  

     

  • Higher ranking people addressed lower ranks in the singular
  • Cromwell (1560-1617): thou undemocratic
  • Polite form for everybody was introduced in 17th century: you
  • Ye – you: simplification: only one plural form
  •  

    The Great Vowel Shift

     

  • i à ai (as in “find”)
  • e à i (as in “feel”)
  •  

  • U à au (as in “mouse”)
  • O à u ( as in  “moon”)
  •  

  • Short vowels were similar in Middle and Modern English
  • Sounds of the long stressed vowels changed their place of articulation
  • originally vowels had contental values (sounded like in Latin)
  • During the Great vowels shift the two highest vowels became diphthongs and the other five underwent an increate in tongue height (p. 39)
  • oo was shortened from [u:] to [u] in many cases before k, d and less commonly t, e.g. book, good, foot, took
  • shortening occurred for some instances of ou: country, could
  • Not all words underwent certain phases of the Great Vowel Shift
  • ea did not take the step to [i:] in great, break, steak, swear, bear
  • father failed to become [:  ]
  •  

    Sound Changes

     

  • Changes that made English different from German
  • Some changes took place when the English were still on the continent (5th century)
  • Other changes happened in England
  • There are 2 types of changes:
  •  

    1. spontaneous changes: form of the word does not give away the reason e.g ei à oa Stein > stõa, Geiß > Goaß > goat
    2. combinatorial changes: systematic: e.g. first and second century AD

     

  • lengthening of vowels after loss of nasals
  • Proto German uns > Ang. F. *us > O.E. us
  • Schwyzerdütsch: unsrig (“unsriger”)
  • Gans > gãs > O.E. gōs > M.E. goose
  • a > o in front of a nasal
  • mann > mon (Mensch, Mann = O.E. guma)
  • wifmon: Frauenmensch à used for women in general
  • a >  æ no nasal (Aufhellung)
  • dag > dæg
  • Verdumpfung: in front of West Germanic nasals:
  • a / ā > o
  • TauÞ> Zanth (hochdeutsch Lautverschiebung t – z) >  tāÞ    >    tōÞ    > tooth
  • Aufhellung of diphthongs: e.g. Gothic (East Germanic) augo > O.E. eage > M.E. eye
  •  

     

    i-Umlaut

     

  • term coined by Grimm
  • Became a German loan word in the English language:
  • Back vowels became front vowels
  • Front vowels were raised one step forward
  • Irregular plurals through the change in the i-Umlaut (parallels in German)
  • Germanic *musi > mysi > mice (German: i-Umlaut: Maus – Mäuse)
  • *fot > foti > foeti > feti > feet (Fuß – Füße)
  • Mann > manni > meni > men
  •  

    The Renaissance

    (1500-1650)

     

  • 1500-1700 Early Modern English period
  • printing press led to spread of popular education
  • by 1640: 20 000 titles had appeared
  • at Shakespeare’s time (1564-1616) half of the people could at least read
  • 17th and 18th centuries: number of schools increased
  • Rise of the literary genre of novel (Defoe)
  • English faced three great problems:
  •  

    1. recognition in the field of science and learning
    2. establishment of a more uniform orthography
    3. necessary enrichment of vocabulary to meet the new demands

     

    Orthography

     

  • letters inserted in words that were not pronounced because the corresponding Latin words was spelled that way:
  • e.g.  b in debt, doubt, or gh in delight, light
  • optional letters inserted in extra spaces to justify a line
  • attempts to bring about agreement;
  • 1568: Thomas Smith: The correct and Emended Writing of the English language
  • Smith increased the alphabet to 34 letters (marked long vowels)
  • 1570: John Hart A Method or Comfortable Beginning for All Unlearned, Whereby They May Bee Taught to Read English
  • 1580: William Bullokar: Booke at Large, for the Amendment of Orthography for English Speech
  • 1582: Richard Mulcaster: Elemntarie
  • General table for the spelling of 7000 most common words
  • 1755: publication of Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary
  •  

    Note: English crash course: 2000 -3000 words (you need to survive)

     

    Language Purism

     

  • Opposition against inkhorn terms (i.e. terms which were only understood by those who could read and write and had an inkhorn (=Tintenfass at home)
  • Thomas Wilson: Arte Rhetorique (1533)
  • Sir John Cheke: [..] our tung should be written clean and pure, unmixed and unmanaged with borrowings from
  •  

     

     

     

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                          14.5.2009

     

    Renaissance (1500-1650)

     

    (Da Vinci, Galileo)

     

    Adaptions from Latin

     

  • Cutting of the Latin ending: e.g.: consult- consultare
  • nouns ending –tas à -ty
  • L. Brevitas – brevity (=Kürze)
  • Nouns ending –antia, mentia à ancy, ency: e.g. constancy, emergency
  • Adjective ending –ibilis à ble
  • Considerable
  • -ate verbs: formed from L. Past participle: creat, consolidate
  •  

    Borrwings

     

  • Some words were borrowed more than once:
  • Episopus, discus: O.E. bishop and dish (kommt von “Scheibe”)
  • Borrowed later: episcopal, disc
  • Some words were popular and then disappeared e.g to deruncinate (=to weet) (=Wurzel ausreißen)
  • It is not always possible to say whether a word was taken over diretly from Latin or indirectly form French
  • E.g. verbs consist or explore could be both, Latin or French
  •  

    Grammatical Features

    (1500-1650)

     

    Handout p. 41

     

  • 17th century: certain survivals of old weak plural form –n
  • e.g. Shakespeare: eyen (=eyes), shoon (=shoes)
  • His genitive: ‘s written seperately
  • The group possessive: the king of England’s nose
  • The writer of the book’s ambition
  • 3 changes concerning personal pronouns
  • Disuse of thou, thy, thee
  • Substitution of you for ye
  • Introduction of its as the possessive of it
  • 15th century: which begins to alternate with that –survives in Our father, which art in heaven
  • 16th century: development of the pronoun who as a relative
  • Elizabethan English: Common to use interrogative form without an auxiliary:
  • Macbeth: Goes the king hence today? (Right would be: Is the king going hence today?)
  • Progressive forms are rarely used: Polonius: What do you read my Lord? (Right would be: What are you reading?)
  • Impersonal uses of verbs are very common. It yearns me not, it dislikes me. (Shakespeare)
  • By the end of 16th century. –s predominant ending for verbs (3rd person Sg.)
  • Many strong verbs became weak
  • Sometimes strong forms altrnative with weak forms:
  • Holp beside helped
  • Sew beside sowed
  • Omission of the article:
  • Shakespeare: creeping like snail (article “the” is left out), with this mile and half (“a” is left out)
  • Use of double negation permitted: I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get no sleep
  • Thou hast spoken no word all this while – nor understood none either (Handout p. 56)
  •  

    Sonnet

     

  • Ital. Sonetto = little son
  • Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets
  • Shakespear’s first sonnet was dedicated to Willhelm Herbert (W.H.), who paid for his life, 19 years old, beautiful
  • Sonnet: 14 lines   
  •  4 QUATRAIN 
  •  iambic pentameter
  •  

    The 19th century and after

     

    Influences affecting the English language

     

  • 1805: Napoleonic war: Nelson’s victory over Napoleon Bonaparte at Trafalgar à England gained naval supremacy and control over most of the world’s commerce
  • Rise of British Empire: empirial holdings
  •  

    The Decling of the British Empire

     

  • Independence of larger colonies
  • Rapid development of the United States
  • Forms of English spoken in these territories became important varietes:
  • American English
  • Canadian English
  • Indian English
  •  

    New Words from Science

     

    Medicine

    ·         EKG (electrocardiogram) (misst Herzfrequenz)

    ·         CAT scan (computerized axial tomography)

    ·         AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) (Acronym, LASER as well)

     

    Electricity: dynamo, alternating current, direct current

     

    Chemistry: alkali, formaldehyde

    Psychology: schizophrenia, introvert, extrovert, behaviourism

     

    World War 1st: no man’s land

    World War 2nd: black out

     

    Automobile industry:

     

    ·         Verb to park no used for cars only

    ·         Parking space, A.E. truck, B.E. lorry, clutch (=Kupplung), gearshift, cruise, control

     

    Film, radio, television: cinema, moving, picture, screen, projector, close up, 3D

     

    Computer: PC, byte, cursor, modem, software, download

    New meanings of: mouse, terminal, chip, network, workstation

     

    Sources for new Words

     

  • Borrowings from other language:
  • French: perfume, aperitif, chauffeur
  • Italian: ciao, confetti, vendetta
  • Spanish: bonanza, rodeo, machismo, tortilla, tacco
  • German: schadenfreude, weltanschauung, festschrift, gestalt, kindergarten, rucksack, doppelgänger, abseilen, zeitgeist, third reich
  • Russian: vodka, glasnost, perestroika
  • Hungarian: goulash
  • Czech: robot (=arbeiten)
  •  

  • Compounding: (you put two words together)
  • Fire extinguisher, housewife, lipstick, life-style
  • Compounds with Greek and Latin elements:
  • Greek: eu- meaning well e.g. euphemism
  • -scope meaning watcher: telescope, stethoscope, bronchoscope
  • Greek + Latin: automobile (auto = Greek, means self, selbstverantwortlich), (mobile = Latin, means movable, beweglich)
  •  

  • Latin prefixes: trans-, post-, pre-, sub-
  • Transcontinental, transsexual, transform, transcription, postgraduate, preschool, subway
  •  

  • Coinage: Words are result of deliberate invention: most of them were brands
  • Kodak: cameras (originally trademark)
  • Kleenex (Taschentücher), xerox (copy)
  • Hoover (Staubsauger)
  •  

  • Words from proper names:
  • Tabasco: river in Mexico
  • Camembert: village in France
  • Sandwich: Earl of Sandwich
  • Colt: name of its inventor (Revolver)
  • To boycott: Captain Boycott (agent of Irish landowner who refersed to accept rents)
  • Old Words with new meanings

     

  • Skyline: formerly horizon, now: skyline of New York
  • To broadcast: originally had reference to seed, now: to transmitt
  • Cabaret: is an old word for shed and later meant small drinking place. Today: type of nightclub
  •  

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                          28.5.2009

     

     

    The influence of Journalism

     

    ·         Informal and colloquial style

    ·         E.g.: to back a candidate, a go-between, these were all expressions that became popular because journalists used them in their articles

    ·         Expressions from sports: crestfallen (entmutigt, geknickt), neck on neck (Kopf an Kopf), out of the running (aus dem Spiel), down and out (pleite)

     

    Changes of meaning

     

    ·         Extension: Lovely: originally meant “worth to be loved”

                      Great: originally meant “large in size”

    Today you also say a lovely building, a great movie...

     

    ·         Narrowing of meaning: a word gradually acquires a more restricted sense:

    Doctor: originally referred to a learned man in theology, law and many other fields, today the word doctor is only used to refer to a person who is working in a medical field

     

    ·    Degeneration of meaning: smug (selbstzufrieden)- was originally a good word meaning   “neat” (gepflegt)

     

    ·    Regeneration of meaning: words like: coax, shabby, stingy, touchy, wobbly that are not accepted as Standard English but do belong to Slang

     

    Slang

     

    ·   Webster defines it as “low” and “vulgar” and unmeaning language

    ·   Many words that were once considered as slang words now belong to standard language, e.g.: what on earth? a row (Auseinandersetzung)

    ·   Also: boom, slump, crank (Spinner, Griesgram), fad (Modetorheit)

     

    Cultural levels and functional varieties

     

    ·   Different Englishes and language levels

    ·   Local dialects

    ·   Class dialect

    ·   Technical and occupational vocabularies

    ·    Slang

    ·   Spoken standard: language heard in the speech of educated people

    ·   Literary standard

    ·   Popular speech

     

    Accents and dialects in English

     

    ·   Accent: refers to pronunciation only!

    ·   Dialect: refers to variation in grammar and vocabulary

    ·   Regional variation: differences between one place and another

    ·   Social variation: differences between different social groups

    ·   Basilects: dialects associated with working class occupations and persons who are less privileged

    ·   Acrolects: prestigious forms of speech spoken by people with higher education and social status

     

        Received Pronunciation RP

     

    · Has often been referred to as Oxford English, BBC English and the Queen’s English

    · Linguists coined the expression: non-regional pronunciation NRP

    · Traditional received pronunciation

    · Modern non-regional pronunciation

     

     

    World Englishes

     

    · Categorization of World Englishes:

       Inner Circle- Outer Circle- Expanding Circle

    · Inner Circle: The States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Ireland- all places were English is a     mother tongue

    · Outer Circle: India, Sri Lanka, South East Asia, parts of Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific- countries which were former colonies of Britain

    · Expanding Circle: China, Japan, Europe... –countries were Ebglish is spoken and taught as a foreign language

     

    Variation: Classification System

     

    · Prof. Wells: Systemic variation: one accent possesses more or fewer phonemes than another accent in a particular part of the sound system, e.g.: Northern English lacks the contrast between /a/ and  /o/; such varieties have no phoneme /a/ as found in other types of English

     

    · Distributional variation: two accents may have the same system, but environments, in which a particular phoneme may occur, differ from another.

    E.g.: in rhotic accents the /r/ is pronounced wherever it occurs

            In non- rhotic accents the /r/ is only pronounced before a vowel

     

    · Lexical variation: where a phoneme chosen for a word or a specific set of words is different in one accent as compared with another; e.g: in the BATH words (bath, pass, dance) the /a/ is pronounced as in BATH, in Northern English or in the Midlands the /a/ is pronounced like in TRAP

     

    · Realisational Variation: all variations that have not been mentioned in any of the categories so far, e.g.: initials /p,t,k/ are pronounced and aspirated in most accents but are unaspirated in Lancashire, South Africa and most Indian English

     

    English Dialects

     

    · English Dialect regions from North to South: (how do they pronounce “Come Down”?)

    · kɅm du:n - area : Kam Duhn

    · kum du:n – area: Kum Duhn

    · kum dɘun – area: Kum Daun

    · kɅm dɘun – area: Kam Daun

     

    Cockney

     

    · Cockney uses rhyming slang

    · Uncle Bert = shirt

    · Uncle Fred = bread

    · Uncle Ned = bed

    · Trouble and Strife = wife

    · Cockney is a broad accent of London

    · Term “Cockney” comes from a tale of a fool who believed in a “cocken ey”, i.e: the egg of a cock (das Ei eines Hahnes)

    · Speakers come from the East End of London

    · Pronunciation associated with the sound of Bow Bells from the St. Mary-le Bow Church

     

    Features of Cockney:

     

    · Non rhotic

    · H-dropping

    · The /t/ is replaced by a glottal stop

    · Postvocalic /l/ is very dark sounding, like /u/

    · j- dropping

    · rhyming

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                           4.6.2009

     

    West Country

     

    · it is consistently rhotic

    · there is variable h- dropping and extensive glottalization

    · initial /ð/ is often replaced by a /d/

    · shows great deal of consonant assimilation and elision

    · STRUT vowel is close (kurz ausgesprochen)

    · A number of BATH words are pronounced with the TRAP vowel

    The Midlands- Birmingham

     

    · It is non-rhotic

    · Has variable h-dropping

    · /r/ is  frequently realized as an alveolar tap

    · Medial and final /ng/ sounds like only /g/

    · BATH words generally have the TRAP vowel

    · The LOT rather than the STRUT vowel is used for /one/ and /none/

    · There are wide glides like in Cockney in words like /always/days/over/ (-> they sound more like awaii, daiis…)

    · You find extended intonation patterns with sudden sharp falls

     

    Northern Accent

     

    · Spoken in Lancaster and Yorkshire

    · Variable h- dropping

    · The definite article is replaced by /t/ which is often glottalized or elided, e.g.: in t’toilet

    · /p,t,k/ tend to have weak aspiration, = lenis fortis problem ( if words like k,t,p aren’t pronounced in the proper way)

    · PPRICE vowels have a narrow glide and sound rather like a long /a/ vowel, e.g.: motorbike, Hyde

    · TRAP is retracted (zürückgenommen), e.g.: Ashton, back

    · Lack of a STRUT vowel, FOOT being used where other varieties have STRUT, e.g.: coming, bus, up

    · TRAP vowel is used with most BATH words, e.g.: asked

    · Southerner’s often accuse Northerner’s of having a flat intonation

     

     Geordie (Newcastle)

     

    · No h- dropping

    · Non-rhotic

    · Medial /p,t,k/ are reinforced with a glottal stop, e.g.: paper, better

    · /l/ is clear in all contexts, e.g.: still, little

    · /r/ is sometimes realized as uvular fricative, e.g.: grain, green, very

    · The STRUT vowel doesn’t exist, e.g.: crumbs, run

    · An extra vowel /a/ is used for THOUGHT words spelled with –al; e.g.: walk (wa:k), talk (ta:k), yawn (ja:n)

    · MOUTH may be replaced by /u/, e.g.: house (hus)

    · FACE and GOAT are steady vowels

    · Lilting intonation with many final rising patterns

     

    American English

     

    · Consonants:

    · General American GA is rhotic, e.g.: worker (wɜrkɘr)

    · /t/ is voiced in medial position

    · /t/ is neutralized in writer and rider

    · Most Americans have /j/ dropping following the dental and alveolar consonants, e.g.: studio, nude (nud), duke (duk)

    · Some American speakers have dark /l/ in all contexts, e.g.: level (ɫevɫ)

     

    · Vowels:

    · r-colouring

    · The GOAT vowel is usually more back and rounded, e.g.: solo (soulou)

    · TRAP is used in all the BATH words except for father, e.g.: bath, laugh, chance, ask

    · No difference between: merry- Mary- marry

    · Words ending in –ile have /ɘl/ or /l/ in GA compaired to /ail/ in NRP, e.g.: fertile, messile

     

     

    · Stress:

    · Words ending in –ary, -ory take a secondary stress, e.g.: military, arbitrary

    · Words from French: final syllable stress: ballet (bælei), perfume (prfjum)

     

    · Stress Shift:

    · Address (‘ædres) – NRP (ɘ’dres)

    · Cigarette ( sigɘret) – NRP (sigɘ’ret)

     

    · Consonant variance:

    · Figure (‘figjer) – NRP (‘figɘ)

    · Erase (i’reis) – NRP (i’reiz)

     

    · Vowel variance:

    · Anti (‘æntai) – NRP (‘ænti)

    · Clerk (‘klɜrk) – NRP (kla:k)

     

    · Setting:

    · R-colouring of adjacent consonants: the /r/ in partner also influences the pronunciation of the /t/ and the /n/

     

    · Intonation:

    · Fewer rapid pitch changes (Americans don’t go up and down with their voice like the British)

    · Rises and falls more spread out

     

     

     

     

    Celtic influenced varieties

     

    Scottish

     

    · Rhotic, e.g.: burst, dinner hall

    · /r/ is realized with a strong tap

    · Systemic variation: an extra consonant: the phoneme /x/ (ch) is used, e.g.: Loch Ness

    · A dark variety of /l/ is realized in all contexts, e.g.: absolutely, looked

    · Words like wood and took are pronounced with the GOOSE vowel

    · Scottish FACE and GOAT words are steady, e.g.: dayroom, chased, going

    · The KIT vowel is very open and similar to /ɘ/, e.g.: think, big

    · Radically different from the norm are:

    good = KID (gid)

    home = FACE (hem)

    dead = FLEECE (did)

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Forms of English Past and Present                                                          18.06.2009

     

    Handout page 87-91

     

    Irish English

     

    · Divided into:

    · Southern Irish English: spoken in the Republic of Ireland

    · Northern Irish English: spoken in the British province of Northern Ireland and also in the adjacent parts of the Irish Republic

    · Ireland has its own Celtic language called Irish

    · Irish has had an influence on Irish English

     

     

    · No h-dropping

    · Ɵ/ð are replaced by t/d, e.g.: think, third, fourth

    · Word final /t/ may be pronounced as a weak fricative, e.g.: that- thað

    · Sequences such as /rm/ or /lm/ may be realized with an /ɘ/ insertion, e.g.: film-filɘm

    · The FLEECE vowel is used in happy words rather than KIT, e.g.: holy family (familie)

    · GOOSE is a wide glide, e.g.: two

    · Rural southern Irish has an extended lilting intonation range

     

    Northern Irish English

     

    · Similar to Scots

    · No h-dropping

    · Rhotic

    · Some speakers have dental /t/ before /r/, e.g.: country

    · Many speakers have clear /l/

    · Characteristic intonation: more rising than falling tunes

     

     

    Welsh

     

    · Liveliest of the Celtic languages

    · H-dropping

    · Non rhotic

    · /r/ is realized as a tap

    · /l/ is clear in all contexts

    · Vowels in words like came, amazed, home, spoke are pronounced with hardly any glide

    · Abrupt falls and rise-falls

    · The rhythm of Welsh gives the impression of  the lengthening of consonants

     

    Scouse (Liverpool)

     

    · Lobscouse = a stew made of cheap meat, potatoes and ship’s biscuit gave the inhabitants of Liverpool the nickname “Scousers”

    · Variable h-dropping

    · /r/ is realized as a tap

    · Medial /t/ often shows t-voicing

    · Many speakers frequently replace Ɵ/ð by t/d

    · The intonation is characterized by rise-fall intonation patterns

     

    World Accent Varieties

     

    · Southern Texas

     

    · Southern States: poorer and more backward parts of USA

    · Stereotypes: amusing, uneducated language

    · Southerners try to modify their speech and make it sound close to the Northern variety

    · Variable non-rhotic

    · “horn” pronounced without /r/

    · “far” pronounced with /r/

    · /z/ replaced by /d/: wasn’t – wadn’t

    · Breaking: inserting an /ɘ/ between a vowel and the following consonant

    · They wouldn’t say “don’t” but “do not”: That we do not have over here

    · Drawling: slow and long drawn, extended intonation tunes

     

     

    · Colloquial American English

     

    Simple past tense used as past participle:

     

    · Me and Bob have swam in that pond lotsa times

    · She’d sang that song (instead of: she had sung)

     

    Participle used as simple past:

     

    · I seen somethin’ real strange last night

    · Everybody knows he done it

    · Ain’t, gonna, wanna- often used

    No third person “s”

     

    · He swim in that river every day of his life

     

    Plural subject and singular be

     

    · Them kittens is really startin’ to aggravate me

    · They was there all night

     

    Singular subject and plural

     

    · Well it sure don’t help things none

    · That meatloaf don’t look too healthy

     

    Multiple negation

     

    · He didn’t do nothin’ all day

    · Don’t be sitting there telling me no lies or nothing

     

    Ain’t:

     

    · Be+not: They ain’t gonna be there = they aren’t gonna be there

    · Have+not: we ain’t gone to that church for a long time = We haven’t gone to that church

     

    Comparison:

     

    · -er/more and –est/ most

    · Ain’t nobody around here more cheaper that Bill

    · That was the bestest chocolate I’ve ever ate

     

    Absence of adverbial –ly

     

    · This pie is awful good

    · He treated her wrong

     

    Good and descriptive adjective

     

    · If you don’t get out of that draft, you’re gonna get good and sick

    · I’m sure by now everybody is good and hungry

     

     

     

    · Canadian English

     

    · Population: 33 million people

    · Official languages: 67% English, 21% French

    · Minority languages: Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish, Italian

    · Widespread English- French bilingualism (especially in Quebec)

    · H- pronouncing

    · Rhotic

    · T-voicing

    · BATH words have TRAP vowels

    · Terminal rise intonation patterns

    · Close to General American

     

     

    · Australian

     

    · Young variety

    · Becoming one of the main standard forms of  English

    · Most of the population came from the British Isles

    · Varieties sound very similar all over the country

    · Non- rhotic

    · Broad accents show h-dropping

    · Regular medial /t/ voicing

    · /l/ is very dark

    · Vowels are similar to British English

    · Wide glides in “break”, “go home”

     

     

    · Indian English

     

    · One of the major world varieties (30 million speakers)

    · Term refers to English spoken in all the southern Asia area: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka

    · Other languages: Hindu, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi

    · English had to be introduced as an official language because of the many other languages spoken

    · Indian English refers to second language English –ESL

    · Rhotic

    · Many consonants are retroflex, i.e.: the tongue is placed behind the alveolar ridge and may even be curled back to touch the palate

    · /th/ replaced by /t/ and /d/

    · Initial and medial /v/ are strong taps

    · /ptk/ are unaspirated

    · /bdg/ are always voiced

    · Unexpected intonation patterns- syllable timed rhythm

     

     

    · Pidgin and Creoles

     

    · Pidgin: language that developed for some practical purpose such as trading among groups who did not know each other’s languages

    · Term comes from the Chinese word for “business”

    · English Pidgin: Pidgin draws its vocabularies from the English language

    · E.g.: “gras” – from English “grass”

    · In Tok Pisin it means “hair”

    · Mousgras= > mous = mouth + gras = grass (moustache)

     

    · Gras bilong head = hair

     

    · Characteristics:

    · Simple grammar

    · Inflectional suffixes and nouns are rare

    · Plural: tu buk = two books

    · Syntax: Your head will get well again = Baimbai hed bilongyu i-arait gain. (By and by the head bilong to you will be alright again)

     

     

    · Creole

     

    · If Pidgin becomes first language and is taught to children at school, Pidgin turns into a Creole language

     

     

    · Vocabulary:

    · Agreement: yesa

    · Annoy: hamback

    · Baby: pikinini

    · Theft: house piksa

    · Thing: samting

    · Wet season: taim bilong ren

    · Wife: meri

     

    · Tok Pisin (spoken in Hawaii)

    · Well: is tap gut

    · What for: bilong wanem?

    · Dress: klos meri

    · During: long taim bilong

     

     


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