-
440
Roman Conquest
The Roman conquest in ≈ 55-43 AD, the first written records of England’s history. Romanization:
1) the conquest of southern Britain
2) the conquest of northern Britain
3) the division of Britain into 2 province Anglo-Saxons received an enormous boost when Christianity brought its huge Latin vocabulary to England in AD 597. -
449
Germanic Tribes ≈ 449 AD
The invading Germanic tribes, including: Anglo-Saxons, Angles and Jutes
1) Destroying Roman civilization
2) Organization of society
3) English language -
Period: 450 to 1100
Old English
≈ 450-1100 AD Old English – the earliest form of the English language – was spoken and written in Anglo-Saxon Britain from c. 450 CE until c. 1100 (thus it continued to be used for some decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066) -
460
Dialects of Old English
1) Northumbrian - North of the Humber, Spoken by Angles
2) Mercian: Between the Humber and the Thames, Spoken by Angles
3) West Saxon
4) Kentish: Southeast of Britain, Spoken by Jutes -
470
Vocabulary of Old English
Parts of Speech: Nominal Parts of Speech, Verbs
Peculiarities: Declension system, Present & Past Tenses,
Two Imperative Forms -
480
Records of Old English
Anglo-Saxon chronicles (late 9th century)
The Ecclesiastical History of The English People (Venerable bede, 731 AD)
Beowulf (circa 1000) -
480
Grammar of Old English Period
Grammar -
500
Spelling & Pronunciation of Old English Period
Phonetic peculiarities: Pronunciation (long vowels instead of diphthongs)
Spelling (some letters no longer existing – ð and Þ) -
793
Scandinavian Invasion ≈ VIII-X centuries AD
Scandinavian invasion ≈ VIII-X centuries AD Vikings speaking Old Norse started changing the structure of the English language. -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English
≈ XI – XIV centuries AD -
1100
Historical events
Norman invasion → 1066: William the Conqueror Results: New nobility
Replaced positions in the church
French - language of upper classes 1362 Edward III Addressing Parliament in English -
1150
Vocabulary of Middle English Period
-
1200
Grammar of Middle English Period
Synthetical language > Analytical language
Parts of Speech: Nominal Parts of Speech, Verbs
Peculiarities: Reduction in declension system, Reduction in number of strong verbs French borrowings
Situation with native words
Word-formation within the language -
1300
Records of Middle English Period
The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer, between 1387 and 1400)
Document Oxford Provisions (1258)
The Ormulum (12th century) -
1350
Spelling & Pronunciation
∂ and Ө → th
ch → [ʃ] and [tʃ]
last consonants → not pronounced -
1400
Dialects of Middle English Period
Northern: North of the Humber
East Midland: Between the Humber and the Thames
West Midland: Between the Humber and the Thames
Southern: South of the Thames
West Saxon + Kentish -
1500
Historical events
Renaissance (14th century to 17th century)
Reformation (1517)
Printing (1440)
Black Death (1346-1352) -
Period: 1500 to
Early Modern English
≈ XIV – XVII centuries AD -
Dialects
Northern, West Midlands, East Midlands, Southern, Kentish -
Vocabulary
Latin & Greek borrowings + elevated words
Printing → new terms: ≈1454 → Johannes Gutenberg
(Germany) ≈1470 → William Caxton (Britain) -
Grammar
System of English pronouns → formed
Verbs → more auxiliary verbs
Nouns & adjectives → lost endings
Long vowels: long vowels & diphthongs [o:] → [u:]
e.g. boot, root
[ε:] → [i:]
e.g. meet, feet
[i:] → [ai]
e.g. bite, pile
[u:] → [aυ]
e.g. out, stout
[o:] → [oυ]
e.g. boat, road
[a:] → [ei]
e.g. name, flame -
The Great Vowel Shift: Dates & Linguists
the major phonetic change of the medieval period = 1300-1500
Otto Jespersen
Danish linguist
Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (1909), Vol.1
coined the term GVS -
Records
John Milton William Shakespeare -
Historical events
Enlightenment
Industrial Revolution
Growth of British Empire
American Revolution
Slave Trade -
Period: to
Late Modern English
≈ XVIII - XIX century – up to now The Industrial Revolution, which needed new terms for objects and concepts that did not previously exist, and the growth of the British Empire, during which time English absorbed numerous foreign words and made them its own, resulted in the accumulation of many additional words in Late Modern English. -
American Variants
General American (Northern + Western)
Eastern type
Southern type -
Vocabulary
Expansion factors: influence of other languages (colonialism), territorial segregation (American independence), need for new terms (industrial development) -
Grammar
Prescriptive, Classical Scientific, Structural, Transformational , Cognitive
Should be logical, i.e. - no double negatives in one sentence - split infinitives, etc.
1762 → Robert Lowth, A Short Introduction to English Grammar -
Dialects
British: English (northern, southern), Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland -
Accents
American based: American, canadian
English based: British, Irish, Australian, New Zealand
New Englishes: Asian, African, Austronesian -
Records
1755 Samuel Johnson's dictionary
1783-1786 → Blue-Backed Speller
1828 → An American Dictionary of the English Language
1857, 1884, 1928, 1933, 1989 - The Oxford English Dictionary