English language (history)

Germanic languages have four common characteristics:

1. Great consonant shift ( Grimms Law) 2. Adjectival declension

3. Stress system

4. Verb system

Great consonant shift: p --- f t --- th k --- h

e.g. Sanscrit p pitar pad

Latin pater pes,pedis

OE f father foot

Sanscrit t trayas

Latin tres tenis (CR.) tanak (CR.) trn

OE th three thin thorn

Sanscrit k cata cunas

Latin centum caput canis

OE h hundred head hund

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b --- p d --- t g --- k

e.g. CR. dubok slab

OE deep sleep

Latin duo domare

OE two tame

Latin genu ego

OE knee Ic

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b --- b p --- p g --- g

e.g. Sanscrit bu bhar OE be bear

Sanscrit da dvar OE do door

Sanscrit gans gostis OE goose guest (Latin hostis)

Adjectival declension - weak and strong

e.g. se goda man (weak)

(an ) god man (strong)

Stress system

family, familiar, familiarity (stress shifts)

love, lovely, loveliness, loveless (stress stays on the same syllable)

Verb system

lufian - luvode ( to love) weak (today regular verbs)

singan sang - sungon - gesungen strong ( today irregular)

OLD ENGLISH PERIOD

(600-1100)

OE Consonants

All consonants were pronounced, no silent consonants (e. g. writan,

gnawan, cnawan)

Letter c pronounced as /k/ or //.

/k/ in the vicinity of back vowels e.g. coin, boc, corn

// in the vicinity of front vowels e.g. cild, cirice, cealk

Letter g was pronounced as /g/ or /y/

/g/ back vowels of consonants e.g. guma (man); grindan ( grind), gold

/y/ in the vicinity of front vowels e.g. gievan (give), gear (year), halig

(holy), daeges (days)

(So give is not an Anglo-Saxon word, it came from Scandinavian)

Consonant group /sc/ pronounced as // e.g. sceap ( sheep), scort (short), scafian (shave)

Letter f was pronounced as /f/ or /v/

e.g. wif (wife), fot (foot),

wifes /vives/ Intervocalically as /v/

Letter s was pronounces as /s/ or /z/.

e.g. ceas /s/

ceosan /z/ Intevocalicaly as /z/

OE Vowels

Long a: ham ( home) Short a man

ae: daed (deed) ae glaed

e: fet (feet) e well

i: wif (wife) i sittan

o: god (good) o God

u: hus (house) u ful

y: mys (mice) y synn

I-mutation

Change of back vowels into front vowels under the influence of i/j

1. Plural of nouns gos + /iz/ ges

fot + /iz/ fet

boc + /iz/ bec

2. Abstract nouns lang + /ithu/ length

strang + /ithu/ strength

full + /ithu/ fylth (foul - filth)

3. Verbs from nouns fod + /jan/ fedan ( feed)

blod + /jan/ bedan (bleed)

from adjectives full + /jan/ fyllan ( fill)

4. Comparatives and

superlatives old + /ira/ eldra

old + /ista/ eldsta

Angla + /isc/ English Wales + /isc/ Welsh

Morphology

NOUNS OE gender was grammatical and natural

e.g. wifman (woman) was masculine in OE because it is a compound

and the last part is man (masculine). So grammatical gender masculine

but natural gender feminine.

Declensions

a. Masculine declension of words ending in a consonant

N hund hundas

G hundes hunda

D hunde hundum

A hund hundas

b. N-declension (masculine)

N oxa oxan

G oxan oxena

D oxan oxum

A oxan oxan

c. Neuter declension ending in a consonant

N sceap sceap

G sceapes sceapa

D sceape sceapum

Also:: deer, swine, horse, gear (years today but two-year-old child)

e.g. His hors were gode (His horses were good)

d. Declension with I-mutation (masculine and feminine)

N gos ges

G gese gosa

D ges gosum

A gos ges

PRONOUNS

Personal pronouns

N Ic we u (thou) ge

G min ure in (thine) eower

D me us e (thee) eow

A me us e (thee) eow

N he heo hit hie (they)

G his hiere(heore) his hiera

D him hiere him him

A hine hie hit hie

Interrogative pronouns

N hwa (who) hwaet (what)

G hwaes hwaes

D hwaem hwaem

A hwone hwaet

Reflexive pronouns

Accusative of personal pronouns used for reflexive

E.g. He hit hine (he hit himself)

seolf (self) was used only for emphasis

Adverbs

Three ways of forming adverbs

1. hlud (loud) + e hlude freondlic + e freondlice (friendly)

2. glaed + lice glaedlice (gladly)

3. adding -es ones (once), elles (else), nightes (nigths)

daeges (days)

Verbs

inf. p.t.sg. p.t. pl. p.part.

strong: drifan - draf - drifon - gedrifen ( to drive)

ceosan - ceas - curon - gecoren ( to choose)

singan - sang - sungon - gesungen

weak: (d/t) hieran - hierde -hierdon -gehierd (to hear)

settan -sette - setton -gesett ( to set)

lufian -lufode -lufodon - gelufed ( to love)

Present tense

strong verbs: sg. I drif-e pl. drifath

thu drif-st

he drif-th

weak verbs: sg. I lufi-e pl. lufiath

thu luf -ast

he luf-ath

Past tense

strong verbs sg. draf weak verbs lufode

drife lufodest

draf lufode

pl. drifon pl. lufodon

In ME plural forms were not used any more.

VOCABULARY

Words borrowed (loanwords) from Indo European

day, sun, night, moon, wind, thunder, earth, fire water, cow, goose,

mouse, wolf

erian (to plough); mawan ( to maw)

Latin influence

three periods 1. infuence on the continent

2. during Christianisation

3. after Christanisation

1. Words accepted on the continent

e.g. street (strata via); wall (vallum) mile (mille passus), pound

(pondus), biship (episcopus); church ( gr. kiriakon); cheese (caseus), wine

( vinum)

Names of the days of the week are related to Gods:

Saturday - Saeturnesdaeg ( day of Saturn)

Sunday - (day of the sun)

Monday - (day of the Moon)

Tuesday - Tiu (god of war)

Wednesday - (Woden, Roman god Mercury)

Thursday - Thor ( or Jupiter)

Friday - Frei or Frigi (equivalent to Venera)

2. Words accepted before Christianization

A small group of words like: castra - OE caester like Winchester,

Lancaster. Word lake ( from Latin lacus)

3. After Christianization

Language connected to church: alms, abbot, angel, candle, church,

deacon, devil, martyr, minister, monk, mass, nun, priest, psalm, pope, etc.

Transformations: monasterium - munasterium - mynster - minster. Or

moneta - muneta - mynet -minst

Some