Topic 2: Old English period

Old English Period

We are now in topic 2, which is about the Old English period. It is important to get in mind that the main aspect treated here is the "placenames".

What you have in this part of the blog is a kind of summary of topic 2, as well as some exercises about the main aspects of the Old English Period

I hope you understand all information. If not, please, tell me.

Old English Lexicon

What is a loanword?

Loanwords are words used by speakers of one language from another different language. They are also called “borrowings”, which refers to the process of speakers adopting from a source language into their native language.  Loanwords are a consequence of cultural contact between two different languages and, although the act of borrowing can happen in both directions between two languages in contact, this borrowing usually goes from one side to another; usually from the most powerful language to the other less powerful language.

English has gone through many periods in which many words from a particular language were borrowed. These periods coincide with times of major cultural contact between English speakers and those speaking other languages. These waves of loanwords in English language during periods of strong cultural contact are not delimited, and can overlap. For example, the Norse influence on English began in the 8th century and continued after the Norman Conquest, which brought a large influx of Norman French to English language.

There are 3 main influences in Old English Lexicon: Celtic, Latin and Scandinavian influences.

CELTIC.  (Outside of place names the influence of Celtic on Old English is negligible.)

- Place Names:  Thames, Kent, York, Avon, Dover, Cumberland.

- Loan Words:  binn 'basket, crib,' crag, cumb 'valley,' torr  'projecting rock,' dun 'dark-colored,' etc.

LATIN.

  I.  The Period of Continental Borrowing.  (First to fifth centuries A.D.  Around fifty words came into the language through Germanic contact with Rome before the invasion and  settlement of Britain.)

  a.   War:  camp (L. campus) 'battle,' pil (L. pilum   'javelin,' straet (L. strata) 'road,' mil (L. milia)  'mile;'

 b.   Trade:  ceap (L. caupo) 'bargain,' pund (L. pondo) 'pound,' win (L. vinum) 'wine,' mynet (L. moneta) 'mint, coin;'

 c.   Domestic Life:  cuppe (L. cuppa) 'cup,' disc (L. discus) 'dish,' pyle (L. pulvinus) 'pillow,' cycene (L. coquina) 'kitchen,' linen (L. linum) 'linen,' gimm (L.  gemma) 'gem;'

d.   Foods:  ciese (L. caseus) 'cheese,' butere (L. butyrum) 'butter,' pipor (L. piper) 'pepper,' senep (L. sinapi) 'mustard,' cires (L. cerasus) 'cherry,' pise (L. pisum)'pea,' minte (L. mentha) 'mint.'

 e.   Other:  mul 'mule,' pipe 'pipe,' cirice 'church.'

  II.  The Period of Celtic Transmission.  (Latin words held over from the Roman occupation of Britain which ended in 410 A.D.  Almost nothing remains outside a few elements found in place names:  ceaster (L. castra 'walledencampment') found in names such as Dorchester, Winchester, Manchester, Lancaster, and wic (L. vicum) 'village,' found in Greenwich, etc.

III. The Period of the Christianizing of Britain.  (Seventh to tenth centuries A.D.  Examples below are given in modern form since most of these words have altered only slightly in form.)

 a. Religion:  abbot, alms, altar, angel, anthem, candle, collect, creed, deacon, demon, disciple, hymn, martyr, mass, nun, offer, organ, palm, pope, priest, prime, prophet, psalm, relic, rule, sabbath, temple, tunic.  

 b. Domestic Life:  cap, sock, silk, purple, chest, sack.

c. Foods:  lentil, pear, oyster, lobster, mussel, millet.

 d. Plants:  coriander, cucumber, fennel, ginger, periwinkle, pine, aloes, balsam, cedar, cypress, fig, savory, plant.

e. Learning:  school, master, Latin, verse, meter, circe, history, paper, title, grammatical, accent, brief (vb).

 f. Other:  fever, cancer, paralysis, plaster, place, sponge, elephant, scorpion, camel, tiger, giant, talent.

SCANDINAVIAN. (Mid-ninth to mid-eleventh centuries.  The initial influence was in the Danelaw, or the northern and eastern areas of England settled by the Danes.  Examples below are in modern form.)

 a.   Nouns:  band, bank, birth, booth, bull, calf (of leg), dirt, egg, fellow, freckle, guess, kid, leg, race, root, scab, score, scrap, seat, sister, skill, skin, skirt, sky, steak, trust, window.

 b.   Adjectives:  awkward, flat, ill, loose, low, meek, muggy, odd, rotten, rugged, sly, tattered, tight, weak.

c.   Verbs:  bait, call, cast, clip, cow, crave, crawl, die, droop, gasp, get, give, glitter, lift, raise, rake, scare, screech, take, thrive, thrust.

For further information and in order to help you in the exercise you have to upload before 31th December, here you are some web pages:

Celtic Influence

Latin Influence

Scandinavian Influence

Language Change

You have here a table containing the main ideas about language change.

	Language Change
	Conscious	Unconscious
Internal	-          Spelling pronunciation -          Hypercorrection -          Overgeneralization -          Analogy -          Renewal -          Reanalysis	-          Ease of articulation -          Perceptual clarity -          Phonological symmetry -          Universal tendencies Efficiency of transparency
External	-                               Language	contact

Time periods of English: Practice

Use this link of bbc page and watch this animation about the history of English language. Click in different objects n the pictures in order to get information of different aspects from each period. Then, answer very briefly these questions:

BBC Animation

1. What relevant information about Latin words you get if you click on the bomb in Anglo-Saxon period? 

2. And in the Viking period? 

3. What can you learn if you click on the globe in the Norman Conquest period? And what information you get about the incorporation of new words in English language?  
4. You are now in the “resurgence of English”. Tell what information you get if you click in the globe

5. Tell the interesting information told about the “Great Vowel Shift” in the “The invention of printing press”. 

6. Click on the paper in “the renaissance”. You are going to listen an extract of Shakespeare´s A Midsummer Night´s Dream. Do you find it difficult to understand what is said? Why you think is easier than previous English?

7. American English features loan words from indigenous Indian languages as well as from immigrant groups. Can you tell me what are these groups? You are now in the part of “Colonialism” of this activity.

8. Why is important Samuel Jonson?
9. Which type of words entered into English language by the time of Industrial Revolution?

10. Watch carefully the last animation and make a brief summary for you to better understand your last part of this course. 

Time periods of English

A brief history of English language.

English language belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The history of the English language has traditionally been divided into three main periods: Old English (450-1100 AD), Middle English (1100-circa 1500 AD) and Modern English (since 1500). And, of course, along all its history, the English language has been influenced by a number of other languages.

Here you have the most important facts and features of the diferrent time periods of English:

Celts 500BC-43BC

Early inhabitants of these islands	The Celts are the earliest inhabitants of the British Isles to leave a mark on our language.
Celtic words	In fact, very few Celtic words have lived on in the English language. But many of our place names have Celtic origins, such as London, Dover and Kent, & the rivers Thames & Wye.

Romans 43BC-c.450AD

Romans invade and rule British Isles for over 400 years	Only around 200 Latin loanwords are inherited from the Romans - although by the 6th century the Church will have brought many more.
Roman words	Many of the words passed on from this era are those coined by Roman merchants and soldiers. These include win (wine), candel (candle), belt(belt) and weall (wall).

Anglo Saxons 449AD

Germanic tribes - Angles, Saxons and Jutes - begin to arrive	Anglo Saxon dialects form the basis of the language we now call Old English. About 400 Anglo Saxon texts survive from this era, including many beautiful poems - these tell tales of wild battles and heroic journeys.
Anglo Saxon words	Approximately one third of Anglo-Saxon vocabulary survives into modern English, including many of our most basic, everyday words: earth, house, food, sing, night and sleep. By the 7th century Latin speakers refer to this country as Anglia - the land of the Angles - a name that will later develop intoEngland.

St Augustine 597 AD

Christian missionaries arrive from the Continent	Christian missionaries, led by St. Augustine, move through the land, converting the Anglo-Saxons from their Pagan beliefs to a Catholic Christian faith. Throughout Europe, the language of the Church is Latin, and the missionaries inject hundreds of new Latin words into the English language. English is spoken differently in different counties, but four main dialects exist and resemble the English we know today. These dialects are Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon and Kentish.
Latin words	Many of the new words derived from Latin refer to religion, such as altar, mass, school, andmonk, but others are more domestic and mundane such as fork, spade, spider, tower, androse.

Vikings 789AD

The year 789 sees the first Danish invasion of Britain	For a hundred years the Vikings control most of Eastern England, before being pushed back into the North East of the country by King Alfred the Great. They remain in power in the North East until the late 900s, in an area then known as Danelaw. During this time King Alfred uses the English language to develop a sense of national identity amongst the English.
Norse words	These raiders and settlers bring almost 2000 new words into the English vocabulary. Words derived from Norse include anger, awkward, cake, die, egg, freckle, muggy, reindeer, silver, skirt andsmile. Many Northern English dialect words still bear traces of Scandinavian languages, as do many place names such as Whitby and Grimsby.

Normans 1066

The Normans invade	The Normans transform England, both culturally and linguistically. For over 300 years French is the language spoken by the most powerful people - royalty, aristocrats and high-powered officials - some of whom can't speak English at all. French is used in political documents, in administration, and in literature. Latin is still the language of the church and of scholars, but most of the general population speak English in their everday lives.
French words	Thousands of French words become embedded in the English vocabulary, most of which are words of power, such as crown, castle, court, parliament, army, mansion, gown, beauty, banquet, art, poet, romance, chess, colour, duke, servant, peasant, traitor  and governor.

100 Years War 1337-1450s

100 Years War fought between England and France	Following the 100 Years War, many people regard French as the language of the enemy. The status of English rises. The universities of Oxford & Cambridge are established. Literacy increases but books are still copied by hand and are therefore extremely expensive.
New Latin words	Many thousands of Latin words come into the language, most of which are connected to religion, medicine, law or literature. These words include scripture, collect, immortal, history, library, solar, recipe and genius.

Renaissance 1476-1650

A time of great cultural and intellectual development	In 1476, Caxton introduces the printing press to England. He prints all kinds of texts: mythic tales, popular stories, poems, phrasebooks, devotional pieces & grammars. In the following 150 years around 20,000 books are printed. Books become cheaper and are therefore increasingly popular. Literacy rates rise. Printers have to make a choice about which words, grammar and spellings to use. The choices they make help to set and spread a standard language. They base their decisions on the dialects of the South East - the most socially and economically influencial region. But these rules are not set in stone, and people continue to speak in different accents and dialects, and to write with different spellings. Over the next 200 years wonderful discoveries and innovations are made in the fields of art, theatre and science. There is a fresh interest amongst scholars in classical languages, while intrepid explorers and opportunistic traders travel to the New World.
New words	With these fresh findings come new words from across the globe, including atmosphere, explain, enthusiasm, skeleton and utopian (from Latin);bizarre, chocolate, explore, moustache andvogue (from French); carnival, macaroni andviolin (from Italian) harem, jar, magazine andsherbet from Arabic); and coffee, yoghurt andkiosk (from Turkish); tomato, potato and tobacco(from Spanish)

1700s

An age of dictionaries, grammars and rules and regulations	Human knowledge continues to stretch into new areas, with discoveries in the fields of medicine, astrology, botany & engineering. Many scholars believe that the English language is chaotic, and in desperate need of some firm rules. Books teaching 'correct' grammar, pronunciation & spelling are increasingly popular. Samuel Johnson publishes his famous dictionary in 1755.
Derided words	Words hated by Johnson, and omited from his dictionary, include bang, budge, fuss, gambler, shabby, and touchy.

Industrial Revolution 1760-1800s

Transformation of the western world	In an age of inventions and contraptions, of science & industry, of expanding cities & smog-gurgling factories the language must swell to accommodate new ideas.
New words	Newly coined words include biology, taxonomy, caffeine, cityscape, centigrade, watt, bacterium, chromosome  and claustrophobia. In the world of burgeoning capitalism, money can suddenlyslump, inflate, boom and cause depressions.Victorian writers pen over 60,000 novels.

1900s - Present Day

English of today	A century of world wars, technological  transformation, and globalisation. The language continues to grow, expanding to incorporate new jargons, slangs, technologies, toys, foods and gadgets.
Familiar words	It is in this century that we get doodlebugs, gasmasks, gobstoppers, mini skirts and modsand rockers; we enjoy dim sum, cappuccino, chicken tikka masala and pizzerias; we talk ofchavs, mingers and weirdos; and we are addicted to tellies, websites, cybercafes and compact discs.

References:

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language by David Crystal

Words in Time by Geoffrey Hughes

Indo-European Society: Practice

Find examples of weather, flora and fauna that explain why scholars think that PIE homeland was northerly. 

This link can help you in this task: Indo European Fauna

Weather	Flora	Fauna

Indo-European Society

It is known how Indo-European society was thanks to the reconstructed vocabulary.

Here, you have a kind of summary with the main ideas of how these people were. 

- They had gods associated with the day and the sky à Nature was very important for them.

- Patriarchal, patrilineal and patrilocal society –the father was the most important figure; the male was the head of the society and women had to go to live with husband and husband´s family.

- Houses were built forming villages, which were the seat of the tribe, clan or family. In villages, the household was the social unit.

- Agricultural society, as it has been found much vocabulary related with grains, crops and farm animals.

- Wealth was measured with livestock, with cattle.

- Advanced domestic skills and tools

- Society based on the principle of reprocity – exchanges, hospitality, compensation, etc., were important. 

But, where they lived?

It seems to be that they lived all together and then each group migrated to another part of Europe, Asia and India. The problem here is to localize the PIE society geographically. As there is no archeological evidence, scholars look to all reconstructed vocabulary to establish PIE homeland. They find northerly:

- Land

- Weather

- Flora

- Fauna

But this data seems to be not conclusive as it cannot be established what type of flora, fauna or weather there was in each territory in 5 millennia ago. So, faced with many unknown variables, some scholars have despaired of being able to locate the homeland of PIE society.

Supposed spread of PIE Language. 

Indo-European Family: Practice

1. Use this link to learn more about the relationship there is between Indo-European languages, in order to compare them. It will serve you to answer question D of your work which had to be uploaded before 31th December: Help to answer question D

2. As well, you have here a very well tool that will help you to compare English words with PIE words, and the other way around. It is simply a PIE translator which you can use only for curiosity and to try translations from English to PIE words and also the other way around: PIE translator

Families of languages: the Indo-European family

Important facts:

-          Of the 6,000 languages of the world, 140 are Indo-European.

-          Almost half of the world´s population speaks an Indo-European language.

-          Most of the major European languages are Indo-European, but not Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian or Basque.

        

        Proto-Indo-European family tree.

Doblets and triplets: Practice

Look up on a monolingual dictionary the meaning of the following doublets. Can you find semantic differences between both synonyms? 

Doom/judgment

House/mansion

Hearty/cordial

Wish/desire

Ox/beef

Hide/conceal

Wedding/marriage

Pig/pork

Love/charity

Freedom/liberty

Rise/mount/ascend

Room/chamber



Rememeber: follow this link to get the proper definition of doublets and triplets: Cognates, doublets and triplets

Proto-Language: PIE

The proto language is the single, common source which a group of genetically related languages shared. It has been conserved records of some proto languages, but most of existing proto languages is not recorded.

Moreover, Sir William Jones said that maybe the original source if the Indo-European languages “no longer exists” and, of course, PIE is unattested, it has been conserved no records. And Proto Germanic –the original language of all Germanic languages- is also unattested.

RECONSTRUCTION

Though deductive processes, scholars are able to partially reconstruct an unattested proto-language. It is possible, above all, regarding the vocabulary and the structures of languages. And, as it is not recorded, all reconstructed words must be marked by an asterisk.

For the process of reconstruction, it is used the comparative method, which uses sister languages and cognates. 

* Sister languages: languages assumed to be genetically related descendent of a common language.*Cognates: forms od a same word existing in different languages. They are similar, but not identical, and the process of identifying cognates presupposes the recognition of sound changes of one and the other language compared.  


Steps of reconstruction

  1.      Eliminating borrowing words
 2.    Establishing cognate sets
 3.    Sound correspondences are traced. 

The work of reconstruction is very hard, and many works of reconstruction, as well as of structure and vocabulary has been done. For reconstructions, the inflections can be used, as the recorded ancient Indo-European languages preserved in writing are also inflected. In the same way –still regarding the work of reconstruction-, it is known that PIE had a number of noun classes and a case system.


But, what is a cognate? And what are doublets and triplets? Follow this link and get a proper definition: 

Cognates, doublets and triplets

Grimm´s Law: Practice

And here, you have a very easy exercise about Grimm´s Law. Feel free to make it, as it has not been much treated in class. In the case you do it, the solution will serve you in helping of other exercises you have to upload in campus. 

As, well, use this link to answer question D of the exercise you have to upload before 31th December 

PRACTISE.

Exercise Grimm´s Law

PIE	Grmc.	Mod.E.
Mük	Mü__on	Mow
Mod	Mo__jan	Meet
Gerbh	__er__an	Carve
Ghalgh	__al__	Gallows
Tel	__il	deal
Dhren	__ren	drone

The answers to this question are going to be uploaded after 31th December.