Examination Questions on History of English
1. Germanic languages: their history and classification
(the common ancestor, old Germanic languages and their classification, Germanic languages in the modern world).
The common features of Germanic languages
(in phonetics: word stress, Grimm’s and Verner’s Laws, i-umlaut; in morphology; in lexis).
The chronological division of the history of English. General characteristics of the historical periods of English
(the historical periods of English, the criteria for the chronological division of the history of English, linguistic features of each period).
Scandinavian invasion and its effect on English
(the brief historical outline of the Scandinavian invasions, their effect on English vocabulary and grammar).
Norman Conquest and its effect on English
(the brief historical outline of the Norman Conquest, its effect on the linguistic situation on the British Isles, its impact on spelling traditions, on English vocabulary, phonetics and grammar).
The dialectal situation of English from a historical perspective
(Old English dialects and the linguistic situation at that period, Middle English dialects and the linguistic situation at that period, the rise of the London dialect).
Principal Old English and Middle English written records.
(the alphabets used in Old English, major written records dated back to Old English, Old English poetry, major written record dated back to Middle English).
Spelling changes in Middle English
(the influence of French scribal tradition, changes to reflect sound changes, spelling replacements to avoid confusion, ornamental reasons for spelling changes)
Old English sound system. Vowel and consonant changes in Old English
(Old English vowel system, i-umlaut, breaking; Old English consonant system, treatment of fricatives, growth of new consonants at the end of Old English).
Monophthongs in the history of English (qualitative and quantities changes)
(monophthongs in Old English, changes of unstressed vowels, quantitative changes: lengthening and shortening in Middle English, lengthening in New English due to vocalization of consonants; qualitative changes: in Middle English and in New English, Great Vowel Shift).
Diphthongs in the history of English
(diphthongs in Old English, the development of Old English diphthongs in Middle English, the rise of new diphthongs in Middle English, the rise of new diphthongs in New English due to vocalization of [r], changes of long monophthongs into diphthongs due to the Great Vowel Shift).
Consonant changes in the history of English
(growth of affricates, treatment of fricatives in Middle and New English, loss of consonants, vocalization of consonants).
Form-building means in the history of English
(principal form-building means in Old English, the history of synthetic form-building means in Middle and New English, the rise of analytical means).
Old English noun system
(grammatical categories of the Old English noun, the use of cases, noun declension, the peculiar features of a-, n-, root-stem declensions).
The simplification of the noun declension in English
(the decay of the noun declension in Early Middle English, the re-arrangement of types of noun declensions, the history of noun grammatical categories).
The development of personal pronouns in the history of English
(Old English personal pronouns, their grammatical categories, their declension, the decay of declensions and grammatical categories in Middle English, lexical replacements).
The development of the adjective in the history of English
(Old English adjective, its grammatical categories, its declension, the decay of declensions and grammatical categories in Middle English, the rise of analytical features in degrees of comparison).
