The Gothic language has some other peculiarities. Every IE e becomes i in Gothic, and only before the consonants r, h, it remains as e. Every IE u preserved as u in Gothic and only before r, h, it changes into o, e.g.: Lat. sedere Goth. sitan (sit).
A special kind of vowel alternation, which is usually called gradtion or ablaut is not a specific feature of the Germanic languages. It was inherited by Germanic languages from ancient IE. The origin of gradation has nt reflect any phonetic changes but was used as a special independent device to differentiate between words and grammatical forms built from the same root. Vowel gradation is found in the process of the todays irregular verbs formation in English. It is observed in Russian: , , etc. Gradation is clearly seen in ancient Greek, more especially in conjugation: leipo (I leave) elipon (past definite) leloipa (perfect). So the root of the verb appears in three variants, distinguished by gradation: lip-leip-loip. Gradation is an independent vowel interchange unconnected with any phonetic conditions.
The principal gradation series used in the IE languages are qualitative gradation, when vowels differ only in quality (-) and quantitative one, that is interchange of short, long, zero vowels (Lat. lēgi lego). The Germanic languages employed both types of ablaut qualitative and quantitave and their combination, e.g.: Goth. itan at (qualit.), can cnawan (quant.), faran fōr (qual.-quant). The system of gradation in Germanic languages is best seen in the so-called strong verbs of the Gothic languages: reisan rise rais risum risans (i: ai i i), etc. Gradation occurs not only in root, but also in some grammatical endings of nouns and verbs.
After the changes, in Late PG, the vowel system contained the following sounds: short vowels i,e,a,o,u and long vowels i:, e:. a:, o:, u:. It is believed that in additionto these monophtongs PG had a set of dipthongs made up of more open nulei and closer glided ei, ai, eu, au and also iu. Nowadays, however, many scholars interpret them as sequences of twon independent monophtongs.
An essential feature of Germanic languages is their consonantial system. Germanic consonants are differentiated according to the place and manner of articulation. According to the place of articulation they are subdivided into labial (p, b,f), labio-dental (t, d, ƀ ) back-lingual pure (k, g, h) and back-lingual labio velar kʷ, gʷ, hʷ. According to the manner of articulation they can be noise and sonorants. Noise are plosives subdivided into voiced (b, d, g, gʷ), voiceless (p, t, k, kʷ) and fricatives subdivided into voiced (ƀ, v g, j, gʷ) and voiceless (f, þ, h, hʷ, s). Sonorants are j, w, n, l, m, n.
Comparison with other languages within the IE family reveals regular correspondence between Germanic and non-Germanic consonants. The consonants of Germanic look shifted as compared with the consonants of non-Germanic alnguages. The alteration of the consonants took place in PG, and the resulting sounds were inherited by the languages of the Germanic group.
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The changes of consonants in PG were first formulated in terms of a phonetic law by Jacob Grimm in the early 19th c. and are often called Grimms law. It is also known as the First or Proto-Germanic consonant shift (to be distinguished from the 2nd which took place in OHG in the 9th c.) By the terms of Grimms Law voiceless plosives p, t, k developed in PG into voiceless fricatives f, h, ƥ (Act I); IE voiced plosives b, d, g were shifted to voiceless plosives p, t, k (Act II) and IE voiced aspirated plosives bh, dh, gh were reflected as pure voiced plosives b, d, g (Act III), e.g.: Lat. pater Goth. fadar, Lat. tres Angl three, Lat. noctem Goth. nahts (Act I); Rus. c Goth. slepan (sleep) Rus. OE pol, ME pool, Lat. decem OE tien, NE ten, Lat. granum Goth. kaurn, ME corn (Act II); Sanscr. bhratar OE broƥar, Sanscr. madhu OE medu (honey), Lat. hostis Goth. gast, O Ind vaha Goth wiga (way) (Act III).
Another important series of consonant changes in PG was discovered in the late 19th by a Danish scholar Carl Verner. They are known as Verners law. Verners law explains some correspondences of consonants which seemed to contradict Grimms law and were for a long time regarded as exceptions. It refers to Act I. The voiceless plosives p, t, k became voiceless fricatives f, h, ƥ only in case unstressed vowels preceeded them. Otherwise they became voiced plosives b, d, g., e.g.: Lat. caput O Sax habid, Greek deka Goth tigus, O Ind matar O Sax modru.
One more voiceless fricative consonant is affected by Verners law, the consonant s. Preceeded by the unstressed vowel it became voice and changed into z in Germanic languages. Eventually this z became r in Western and Northern Germanic languages (not in Gothic). The latter change z r is called rhotacism, e.g.: Goth kiusan OE curon (NE choose), Goth. hausjan OE hieran (NE hear), Goth. was, wesum OE was, waron (was, were).
In the conjugation system one form may have its stress on one syllable, while another form of the same verb has it on another syllable. In this way alternations within the verbal system arise, which have been named grammatical alternation.
West-Germanic languages show a peculiar phenomenon in the sphere of consonants. Every consonant (with the single exception of r) is lenghtened if it preceded by a short vowel and followed by the consonant j, e.g.: Goth. satjan OE settan (set), Goth. framian OE fremman (fulfil). This process is known as West Germanic lenghtening of consonants or West Germanic gemination of consonants.
Another process peculiar to Germanic languages was the process of disappearing of nasal ŋ before voiceless fricatives f, h, ƥ, e.g.: Sanscr. ƥoŋh O. Icel. ƥohrte (to think), Sanscr. bronhte OE brōhte (brought).
4. Basic Grammatical Features of Germanic Languages.
Principal Features of Germanic Vocabulary.
Like other old IE languages both PG and OG languages had a synthetic grammatical structure, which means that the relationships between the parts of the sentence were shown by the forms of the words rather than by their position or auxiliary words. In later history all the Germanic languages developed analytical forms and ways of word connection. In the early periods of history the grammatical forms were built in the synthetic way: by means of inflections, sound interchanges and suppletion. The suppletive way of form-building was inherited from ancient IE. The principal means of form-building were inflections. The inflextions found in OG written records correspond to the inflections used in non-Germanic languages, having descended from the same original IE prototypes. Most of them, however, were simplier and shorter, as they had been shortened and weakened in PG. The wide use of sound interchanges has always been a c characteristic feature of the Germanic group. This form-building (and world-building) device was inherited from IE and became very productive in Germanic, e.g.: Goth. bairan, O Icel bera, OE beran, NE bear. In various forms of the word and in words derived from one and the same root, the roo-morpheme appeared as a set of variants. The consonants were relatively stable, the vowels were variable.
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In early PG words consisted of 3 main components: the root, the stem-suffix and the grammatical endin. The stem-suffix was a means of word derivation, the ending a marker of the grammatical form. In late PG the old stem-suffixes lost their derivational force and merged with other components of the word, usually with the endings. The word was simplified: the three-morpheme structure was transformed into a two-morpheme structure, for example: PG fisk-a-s, Goth. fisk-s (English fish). The simplification of the word structure and the loss of stem-suffixes as distinct compomemts was facilitated or caused by the heavy Germanic word stress fixed on the root.
Most nouns and adjectives in PG and also many verbs had stem-forming suffixes. According to them they fell into groups or classes: a-stem, i-tem, ō-stem. This grouping accounts for the formation of different declensions in nouns and adjectives, and some differences in conjugation of verbs.
Groups of nouns with different stem-suffixes made distinct types of declension. So there were the following types of substantive stems in Old Germanic languages:
1. vocalic stems (-a, -ō, -i, u);
2. -n/-r/-nt-stems;
3. stems in other consonants (-s and r stems);
4. root stems.
Declension of substantives with vocalic stems has been called strong declension. Declension of substantives with n-stems was called weak declension. Consonantal declension was presented by substantives with -n/-r/-nt-stems. Substantives with root declension never had a stem-building suffix, so their stems always coincided with their roots.
The division of nouns into declensions basing on the stem-suffixes is not peculiar to Germanic alone. It is also found in other IE languages. The Germanic languages preserved the old classification of nouns with great accuray, added other distinctive features to the noun paradigm and, as a result, had a complicated system of noun declensions in the early periods of history.
Declension of adjectives differed from that of substantives. Every adjective was declined both according to the strong declension (with vocalic stem) and to the weak declension (with n-stem). Weak declension forms were used when the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the definite article. In all other cases forms of the strong declension were used. Strong declension of adjectives didnt completely coincide with strong declension of substantives. Forms of several cases corresponded to declension of pronouns. So the strong declension of adjectives as a whole was a combination of substantival and pronominal forms.
The system of verbs in old Germanic languages consists of strong and weak verbs. The terms strong and weak verbs were proposed by J. Grimm. He called the verbs strong because they had preserved the richness of form since the age of the parent-language and in this sense could be contrasted to weak verbs lacking such variety of form. The main difference between these groups lies in the means of building of principal forms: the Present tense and Participle II. The strong verbs built there principal forms with the help of root vowel interchanges plus certain grammatical endings; they made use of IE abaut with certain modifications due to phonetic changes and environment. Weak verbs derived these forms by means of dental suffixes d, -t, ƀ. These suffixes were inserted between the root and the ending. The weak verbs are a specifically Germanic innovation.
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The Old Germanic languages have a system of two tenses, present and past. Originally the distinction was not between tenses, but between aspects, that is between forms characterizing the way the action is developing. Every strong verb is characterized by four basic forms: the infinitive, the past singular, the past plural, the second participle. All strong verbs fall into seven classes according to the type of gradation: reisan-rais-risum-risans; kuisan-kaus-kusum-kusans; bindan-band-bundum-bundans; stilan-stal-stelum- stuland; giban-gaf-gebum-gibans; faran-fōr-fōrum-farans; haitan-haihait-haihaotum-haitans / letan-lailōt-lailōtum-letans.
The weak verbs are a specifically Germanic innovation, for the device used in building their principal forms is not found outside the Germanic group. They built the Past tense and Participle II by inserting a special suffix between the root and the ending. So suffixes d, -t, ƀ were the markers of the Past and Participle II. Weak verbs in Germanic languages except Gothic had 3 classes. They derived their past tense and second participle by means of a dental suffix. So suffixes d, -t, ƀ were the markers of the Past and Participle II, gor example: O Icel kalla kallaƀa - kallaƀr (call-called), OE macian macode macod (makemade).
The most ancient etymological layer in the Germani vocabulary is made up of words and roots shared by most IE languages. They refer to a number of semantic spheres: natural phenomena, plants and animals, terms of kinship, verbs denoting basic activities of man, some pronouns and numerals. In addition to roots the common IE elements include other component of words: word-building affixes and grammtical inflexions. Words which occur in Germanic alone and have no parallels outside the group constitute the specific features of the Germanic languages. They appeared in PG or in later history of separate languages form purely Germanic roots. Semantically they also belong to basic spheres of life: nature, sea, home life. The specifically Germanic layer includes not only roots but also affixes and word-building patterns: Gt. hus, drigkan, land O Icel hûs, Drekka, land, OE hŭs, drincan, land, Germ. Haus, trinken, Land.
Both etymological layers of the vocabulary the IE and the specifically Germanic layer are native words. In addition to native words the OG languages share some borrowings. Probably they were made at the time when the Germanic tribes lived closed together as a single community, that is in late PG, for example: Celt. isarno, Goth. eisarn, O Icel isarn, OE iren (iron). It is known that the Teutons may have learnt the processing of iron from the Celts. A large number of words must have been borrowed from Latin prior to the migration of West Germanic tribes to Briatin. These words reflec the contacts of the Germanic tribes with Rome and the influence of the Roman civilization on their life; they mostly refer to trade and warfare, for example: L pondō, prunus O Icel pund, ploma, OE pund, plume NE pound, plum.
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5. Periods in the History of the English Language
The historical development of a language is a continius uninterrupted process without sudden breaks or rapid transformations. The commonly accepted traditional periodization divides English into three periods: Old English (OE), Middle English (ME) and New English (NE). OE begins with the Germanic settlement of Britain (5th c.) or with the beginning of writing (7th c.) and ends with the Norman Conquest (1066); ME begins with the Norman conquest and ends on the introduction of printing (1475), which is the start of Modern English or New English period; the New period lasts to the present day.
Each periods is marked by a set of specific features of phonology, grammar and vocabulary. The English scholar Henry Sweet (1845-1921), author of a number of works on the English langauge and on its history, proposed the following division of the history of English according to the state of unstressed endings:
1st period, Old English the period of full endings (any vowel may be found in an unstressed ending);
2nd period, Middle English the period of levelled endings (vowels of unstressed endings have been levelled under a neutral vowel);
3rd period, New English the period of lost endings (endings are lost).
Sweets classification is based on both phonetic (weakening and loss of unstresse vowel sounds) and morphological (weakening and loss of grammatical morphemes) features. Anyhow it is considered to be arbitrary by some scholars. It is true that in OE period any vowel could be found in the ending and the majoruty of the parts of speech are connected with the other words in the sentences by means of endings. The period of levelled endings in reality contains the levelled vowel in the ending, but at the same time lots of endings were already list. The period of lost endings present-day English is not totally devoid of endings, some paradigmatic forms are still made by means of endings, scarce as they are.
Division into chronological periods should take into account external and internal (extra- and intralinguistic) factors. The following periodization of English history is partly based on the conventional three periods; it subdivided the history of the English language into seven periods taking into account differing in extra- and intralinguistuic factors.
Old English Period
The first pre-written or pre-historical period which may be termed Early Old English, lasts from the West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning of writing, that is from the 5th c. to the close 5th c. It is the stage of tribal dialects of the West Germanic invaders (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians), which are gradually losing contacts with the related continental tongue. The tribal dialects were used for oral communication, there being no written form of English
The second historical periods extends from the 8th century till the end of the 11th (Old English or Anglo-Saxon). It can also be called Written OE as compared with the pre-written Early OE period. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects. Towards the end of the period the differences between the dialects grew and their relative position altered. They were probably equal as a medium of oral communication, while in the sphere of writing one of the dialects, West Saxon, had gained supremacy over the other dialects (Kentish, Mercial and Northumbrian). The prevalence of West Saxon in writing is tide up with the rise of kingdom of Wessex to cultural and political prominence.
In general Old English was a typical Old Germanic language, with a purely Germanic vocabulary and a few foreign borrowings; it displayed specific peculiarities, owing ti intensive changes which took place in Early Old English. As far as grammar is concerned, OE was an inflected or synthetic language with a well-developed system of morphological categories, especially in the noun and adjective, and with an elaborate grouping of all inflected parts of speech into morphological classes.
Middle English Period
Middle English period is subdivided into Early Middle English (1066-1350) and Late or Classical Midlle English period (1360-1475), Early New English period (1475-1660).
The third period, known ad Early Middle English, starts after 1066, the year of Norman Conquest, and convers the 12th, 13th and half of the 14th century. It was the stage of the greatest dialectical divergence caused by the feudal system and by foreign influences- Scandinavian and French. The dialectical division of present-day English owes its origin to this period of history.
Under Norman rule the official language in England was French, or rather its variety called Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French; it was also the dominant language of literature. There is an obvious gap in the literary tradition in the 12 c. The local dialects were mailnly used for oral communication and were but little employed in writing. Towards the end of the period their literary presige grew, as English began to displace French in the sphere of writing, as well as in many other spheres.
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Early ME was a time of great changes at all levels of the language, especially in lexics and grammar. English absorbed two layers of lexical borrowings: the Scandinavian element in the north-tastern area (due to the Scandinavian invasion since the 8th c.) and the French element in the speech of townpeople in the south-east, especially in the higher social strata (due to the Norman Conquest). Phonetic and grammatical changes proceeded at a high rate, unrestricted by written tradition. Grammatical alterations were so drastic that by the end of the period they had transforned English from a highly inflected language into mainly analytical one; for the most part, they affected the nominal system. Accordingly, the role of syntactical means of word connection grew.
Classical Midlle English period (1360-1475) embraces the age of Chaucer, the greatest English medieval writer and forerunner of the English Renaissance. It was the time of restoration of English to the position of the state and literary language and he time of literary flourishing. The main dialect used in writing and literature was the mixed dialect of London. Chaucers language was a recognised literary form, linguistic changes slowed down. The written records of the late 14th and 15th c. testify to the growth of the English vocabulary and to the increasing propotion of French loan-words in English. Most of inflections in the nominal system in noun, adjectives, pronouns had fallen together. The verb systen was expanding, as numerous new analytical forms and verbal phrases on the way to becoming analytical forms were used alongside old simple forms.
The fifth period Early New English lasted from the introduction of printing to the age of Shakespeare, that is from 1475 to 1669. The first printed book in English was published by William Caxton in 1475. It was a time of great historical consequences: under growing capitalistic system the country became economically and politically unified; the changes in the political and social structure, the progress of culture, education and literature favoured linguistic unity. The growth of the English nation was accompanied by the formation of the national English language.
The Early NE period was a time of sweeping changes at all levels, in the first place lexical and phonetic. The growth of the vocabulary was a natural reflection of the progress of culture in the new, bourgeois society and of wider horizons of mans activity. Extensive phonetic changes were transforming the vowel system, which resulted, among other things, in growing gap between the written and spoken forms of the word. The inventory of grammatical forms and syntactic constructions was almost the same as in Modern English.
New English or Modern English Period
New English period comprises Normalization Period (1660-1800) and Late New English or Modern English (since 1800) including present-day English (since 1945).
Normalization period is the age of establishment of norms, which can be defined as received standards recognised as correct at the given period. The norm were fixed as rules and prescriptions of correct usage in the numerous dictionaries and grammar-books published at the time and were spread through education and writing. During this period the English language extended its area far beyond the borders of the British Islaes, first of all to North America.
Unlike the age of Shakespeare, this period discouraged variety and free choice in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The great sound shift were over and pronunciation was being stabilized. Word usage and grammatical construction were subjected to restriction and normalization. The morphological system, particularly the verb system, acquired a more strict symmetrical pattern. The formation of new verbal grammatical categories was completed. Syntactical structures were perfected and standardised.
The English language of the 19th and 20th century represents the sevent period in the history of English Late New English or Modern English. By the 19th century English had achieved the relative stability typical amd acquired all the properties of a national language, with its functional stratification and recognised standards. The classical language of literature was strictly distinguished from the local dialects and the dialects of lower social ranks. The 20th century witnessed considerable intermixture of dialects. The local dialects are now retreating, being displaced by Standard English. The best form of English, the Received Standard and also the regional modified standards are being spread through new channels: the press, radio, cinema and television.
The expansion of English overseas proceeded together with the growth of the British Empire in the 19 th and with the increased weight of the United States after the War of Independence and the Civil War. English has spread to all the inhabited continents.
In the 19th and 20th c. the English vocabularly has grown on an unpredented scale reflecting the rapid progress of technology, science and culture and ohe multiple changes. In all spheres of mans activities. Linguistic changes in phonetics and grammar have been confined to alterations in the relative frequency and distribution of linguistic units: some pronunciations and forms have become old-fashioned or even obsolete, while other forms have gained ground and have been accepted as common usage.
Though most of these changes are difficult to notice and to define, its apparent that an English speaker of the 1950s or 1980s uses a form of language different from the used by the characters of Dickens and Thackerey. Therefore it may be fully justified in treating the 19th and 20th centuries as one historical period in a general survey of the history of English. But in order to describe the kind of English used today and to determine the tendencies of its develoment scholars singled out the present-day English period.
6. Old English Period. Historical Background. Germanic Settlement of Britain. Old English Dialects. Written Records and Manuscripts
The history of the English language begins with the invasion of the British Isles by Germanic tribes in the 5th c. of our era. Prior to the Germanic invasion the British Isles must have been inhabited for at least fifty thousand years. Archeological research has uncovered many layers of prehistoric population. The earliest inhabitants of the British Isles were Iberian people. They were not Indo-Europeans. In the eight century B.C. the Gaels from the Celtic tribes appeared in Britain. Other Celtic tribes (the Gaels, the Britons, the Belgae) came to Britain in three waves and immediately preceded by Teutons. Economically and socially Celts were a tribal society made up of kins, kinship groups, clans and tribes. They practised a primitive agriculture and carried on trade with Celtic Gaul.
The first millenium B.C. was the period of Celtic migrations and expansion. Traces of their civilization are still found all over Europe. Traces of their civilization are still found all over Europe. Celtic languages were spoken over extensive parts of Europe before our era. Later they were absorbed by other IE languages.
In the 1st century B.C. Gaul was conquered by the Romans. Having occupied Gaul Jukius Caesar made two raids on Briatin, on the 55 and 54 B.C. The British Isles had long been known to the Romans as a source of valuable tin ore. Caesar attacked Britain for economic reasons to obtain tin, pearls and corn, - and also for strategic reasons, since rebels and refugees from Gaul found support among their British kinsmen. Although Caesar failed to subjugate Britain, Roman economic penetration to Britain grew: traders and colonists from Rome came in large numbers to settle in the south-eastern towns. In 45 A.D. Britain was again invaded by Roman legions under Emperor Claudius and towards the end of the century was made a province of the Roman Empire. A great number of military camps were established. They eventually developed into English cities (Man chester, Win chester).
The Roman occupation of Briatin lasted nearly 400 years; it came to an end in the early 5th c. A.D. In 410 A.D. the Roman troops were oficially withdrawn to Rome by Constantine. This temporary withdrawal turned out to be final, for the Empire was breaking up due to internal and external causes, particularly the attacks of barbarian tribes (including Teutons) and the growth of independent kingdoms on former Roman territories. The expansion of Franks to Gaul in the 5th c. cut off Briatin from the roman world.
After the departure of the Roman legions the richest and most civilised part of the island, the south-east, was laid waste. Many towns were destroyed. Constant feuds among local lanlords as well as the increased assaults of the Celts from the North and also he first Germanic raids from the North Sea proved ruinous to the civiliation of Roman Britain.
Undoubtedly, the Teutons had made piratical aids on the British shores long before the withdrawal of the last Roman legions. The Britons fought among themselves. The 5th c. A.D. was the age of increased Germanic expansion. About the middle of the century several West Germanic tribes overran Briatian and, for the most part, had colonised the island by the end of the century, though the invasion lasted in the 6th century.
