A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Chapter 1: Continuity and chan e By origin, English is a Germanic language, like German or Dutch

or the Scandinavian languages such as Danish or Swedish. Its most common words as well as its fundamental grammatical structure are similar to those of the other Germanic languages. But English has undergone a number of more radical changes than the other Germanic languages, for instance German, which makes it strikingly different from them. The historical develo ment of English reflects the internal history !sounds, inflections, etc" as well as the e#ternal history, i.e. the olitical, social and intellectual forces that have determined the course of the develo ment at different eriods. The history of the English language is to a large e#tent the history of the foreign influences which have affected it. $evertheless, in s ite of the e#tensive foreign influences, English has always remained a Germanic language. %s %.Baugh and Th. &able oint out in their book, the 'istory of the English (anguage is a cultural sub)ect and *the soundest basis for an understanding of resent day English is a knowledge of the ath it has followed in becoming what it is.+ !,-./0 ," It is im ortant to study the history of the English language because the future s ecialists of English should know something about the structure and evolution of the English language, about the wealth of its vocabulary together with the sources from which the vocabulary has been enriched and is being enriched. It is also im ortant to know something about the great social, olitical and cultural factors which have influenced the English language0 the English language of today reflects in its entire develo ment the social, olitical and cultural history of the English eo le. 1ore recisely, it is necessary to study the history of the English language in order to understand certain phonetic, grammatical and lexical henomena of the contem orary language0 2 It is only by studying the history of the English language that we can understand the relation between pronunciation and spelling in contem orary English. It thus becomes clear to us why certain letters have no corres onding sounds in words like knee, gnat, night, sign, doubt, debt etc., or why certain letters are ronounced in different ways, e.g. the letter a, or the digra h ea in words like hear, dead, great, bear, hard, heart. 3r, further, why one and the same sound can be re resented by different letters, e.g. the sound 4] can be re resented by the letter u in words like run, sun, or by the letter o in words like come, son. &ertain sounds can have an even more diverse re resentation, e.g. the sound 45 can be re resented by at least eight s ellings0 ship, sure, tissue, moustache, ocean, conscience, motion, fuchsia. 2 There are grammatical phenomena which become clear only when they are e#amined from the oint of view of their origin. 6or instance, irregular lurals like men, feet, geese, mice, or nouns like deer, sheep which have the same form in the lural as in the singular7 or modal verbs like must, can, may which take no s in the 8rd erson singular 9resent Tense Indicative. 2 In the field of vocabulary, we are struck by the similarity between a large number of English and German words. !house Haus, winter Winter, good gut, bring bringen, have haben, etc", on the one hand, and between some English and rench words !cousin cousin, table table, village village, beauty beaut!, change changer, etc", on the other hand. The coe#istence of Germanic and :omance elements within one and the same language is e# lained by studying the history of the English language. 2 The history of the English language is also of great hel to us when studying the history of England. Thus, for instance, it is e#tremely interesting to study such im ortant historical events as the introduction of &hristianity, the $orman &on;uest, the :enaissance, the Industrial :evolution, the e# ansion of the British Em ire, etc., in close connection with the enrichment of the English vocabulary. Thus, the &hristiani<ing of Britain in =-. brought

England into close contact with (atin civili<ation and made significant additions to the English vocabulary. The Scandinavian invasions resulted in a considerable mi#ture of the two eo les and their language. The $orman &on;uest made English for two centuries the language mainly of the lower classes while the nobles and those associated with them used 6rench on almost all occasions. %nd when English once again regained su remacy as the language of all elements of the o ulation, it was an English language greatly changed in both form and vocabulary from that it had been in ,>??. In a similar way, the 'undred @earsA Bar, the :enaissance, the develo ment of England as a maritime ower, the e# ansion of the British Em ire, the growth of commerce and industry, of science and literature, have each, in its way, contributed to make the English language what it is today. In short, the English language reflects in its entire develo ment, the olitical, social, cultural history of the English eo le. 2 1oreover, a study of the evolution of English will enable us to gras the full beauty and significance of the im ortant literary works of different eriods, e.g. G. &haucer in 1iddle English, B. Shakes eare in Early 1odern English, etc. %s &. (. Brenn uts it, *the aesthetic a reciation of Shakes eare and 1ilton is immensely ;uickened by an understanding of their language7 the e#act shades of meaning of their words and hrases become clear only through the consciousness of the semantic changes in the language+. !cited from E. Iarovici, ,-.80 ?"

Cour!e ": En #i!h $ a Ger%anic #an ua e "&1& %lthough the earliest inhabitants of Britain were not of Germanic origin, English belongs to the Germanic languages which, in their turn, belong to the larger grou of languages known as Indo2Euro eanD. The Indo2Euro ean family is com osed of the following main branches of languages0 Indian, Iranian, %lbanian, %rmenian, 'ellenic E Greek, Italic, Baltic, Slavic E Slavonic, Germanic, &eltic, Tocharian, 'ittite. The Indo2Euro ean languages have two main characteristics0 a" An in'#ectiona# !tructure, i.e. a grammatical system based on changes in the forms of words by means of endings !inflections" and vowel modifications to indicate various grammatical categories0 case, number, mood, tense7 b" %ll Indo2Euro ean languages share a co%%on (ord !toc), i.e. words that resemble one another in form and meaning !FcognateA words". This common word stock includes the names of arts of the body, family relations, natural henomena, lants, animals, the numerals from one to ten, etc. Be shall illustrate the common Indo2Euro ean vocabulary with two cognate words from five Indo2Euro ean languages. e.g. !night" 3E niht, G. $acht, (. noctis, Gk. nuktGs, Sl. HoIJ !noch" !brother" 3E broor, G. Bruder, (. frater, Gk. 9hrater, Sl. KLMmN !brat" "&"& The Germanic languages fall into three grou s0 East Germanic, "orth Germanic and West Germanic. These Germanic languages must have originated in a language generally called &ommon or 9rimitive Germanic which is not reserved in any document. "&"&1& Ea!t Ger%anic The chief re resentative of the East Germanic languages is Gothic. 6or a time, the Goths layed a rominent art in Euro ean history0 thus, the 3strogoths and Oisigoths con;uered Italy and S ain. The Gothic language has been reserved in a translation of the Bible made by the bisho of the Oisigoths called Bulfila, in the second half of the P th century. The translation is the oldest Germanic document, three centuries older than any old English document, thus forming the nearest a roach one can have to &ommon !or 9rimitive" German. Besides Gothic, to this branch also belonged #urgundian and $andalic which disa eared a long time ago, leaving no traces e#ce t a few ro er names. %ll these languages are e#tinct now. "&"&"& North Ger%anic This branch, also known as $orse !or Scandinavian" includes Swedish, Danish, $orwegian and Icelandic. The oldest $orth Germanic documents Q some runicR inscri tions !in 3ld $orse" date from the Pth or = th century. "&"&*& +e!t Ger%anic The Best Germanic languages were divided into two branches0 High German and %ow German, according to their geogra hic osition0 i. High German is now re resented solely by German Q the literary language of Germany, also s oken in %ustria and a large art of Swit<erland. ii. %ow German includes the following languages0 2 3ld Sa#on, which has become the main com onent of modern (ow German !or 9lattdeutsch"7 2 3ld 6ranconian, which is the basis of modern Dutch !in 'olland" and 6lemish !in northern Belgium"7 2 3ld 6ri!e"sian, which survives in the Dutch rovince of 6riesland7 2 3ld English, which is the basis of modern English.

Because of their common ancestry, the Germanic languages are said to be enetica##y re#ated. Early forms of English and German were once dialects of a common ancestor called ,roto-Ger%anic, )ust as the :omance languages, 6rench, S anish, etc., were once dialects of (atin s oken in the :oman Em ire. % roto2language is the ancestral language from which related languages have develo ed. !O. 6romkin0 P=," Both (atin and 9roto2Germanic were themselves descendants of the older language called Indo2Euro ean !see aragra h C.,." &ld English, therefore, belonged to the (ow Germanic languages which were art of the grou of Best Germanic languages. 3ld English was the result of a mi#ture of several Germanic dialects brought to the British Isles by the %ngles, the Sa#ons and the Sutes. %s English belongs to the Best Germanic branch of the larger Germanic family, it shares certain characteristics common to all the Best Germanic languages. i. English, together with other Germanic languages, shows the shifting of certain consonants. In ,/C> the German hilologist Sacob Grimm following u a suggestion of a Danish contem orary, :. :ask, formulated an e# lanation which systematically accounted for the corres ondences between certain consonants in the Germanic languages and those found in other Indo2 Euro ean non2Germanic languages, for e#am le in (atin and Greek. This is described as GrimmAs law. Thus0 2 The consonant p in the IE !non2Germanic" languages became ' in the Germanic languages7 2 The consonant ) in the IE !non2Germanic" languages became h in the Germanic languages7 2 The consonant d in the IE !non2Germanic" languages became t in the Germanic languages7 2 The consonant ' in the IE !non2Germanic" languages became . in the Germanic languages. IE non-Ger%anic !(atin" Ger%anic #an ua e (atin English German

pater father $ater pisces ish isch pes ' pedem foot u( )T h centum hundred Hundert dTt duo two )wei dens ' dentem tooth )ahn 'T. frater brother #ruder ii. 6rom the grammatical oint of view there are some similarities between English and the other Germanic languages0 a" In English, as well as in other Germanic languages, there are two large grou s of verbs0 strong verbs, which form the 9ast Tense by internal vowel changes within its stem7 and weak verbs, which form the 9ast Tense by the addition of a suffi# containing a dental consonant 2 ed in English, 2t*e+ in German. strong Os0 trinken trank,getrunken !drink 2 drank Qdrunk" weak verbs0 fragen fragte , gefragt !ask Q askedQ asked" The attern of the strong verbs !with internal vowel change" was inherited from Indo2 Euro ean, but that of the weak verbs was new and distinctly Germanic. Sacob Grimm called them FweakA because, being unable to change the internal vowel, they had to resort to e#ternal means, namely to suffi#es.

pT'

b" There are grammatical similarities between English and other Germanic languages !in articular German"0 2 in the con)ugation of verbs0 9resent Tense - hear -ch h.re 9ast Tense - heard -ch h.rte 9resent 9erfect - have heard -ch habe geh.rt !9resent Tense of au#. haben Q have U 9ast 9artici le" 9ast 9erfect - had heard -ch hatte geh.rt !9ast Tense of au#. haben 2 haveU 9ast 9artici le" 2 there were two ty es of ad)ective declension in 3ld English as well as in other Germanic languages0 the weak declension !when the ad)ective was receded by a determiner" and the strong declension !when the ad)ective was not". In the $ominative case there were two forms0 weak decl. se goda mann !Germ. der gute /ann Fthe good manA " strong decl. god mann !Germ. guter /ann Fgood manA" 2 There are grammatical similarities between English and German in the inflections for com aring ad)ectives0 e.g. Engl. loud louder the loudest Germ. laut lauter der *die, das+ lauteste , the synthetic genitive in Fs0 e.g. Engl. the man0s name Germ. 1er "ame des /annes2 des /annes "ame !formal, obsolete" iii. There are similarities in the vocabulary, es ecially in sim le, everyday words between English and other Germanic languages0 e.g. E. father' G. $ater2 brother ' #ruder2 sing ' singen2 good ' gut2 here ' hier "&*& The #an ua e! that preceded En #i!h in /ritain Be are so accustomed to thinking of English as the language of the British Isles that we are likely to forget that English has been the language of the British Isles for a com aratively short eriod. The English language was introduced into the British Isles com aratively recently Q about the middle of the =th century. @et, the British Isles have been lived by man for about =>,>>> years. During this long stretch of time the resence of a number of races can be detected and each of the races had a language. Vnfortunately, we know ne#t to nothing about the early languages of Britain. "&*&1& Ce#tic The earliest inhabitants of Britain about whose language we have reliable information are the &elts. There were two main branches of &elts0 i. The Britannic &elts who lived in Britain7 ii. The Goidelic !Gaelic" &elts who lived at first in Ireland and then s read to the East and South East. &eltic was the first Indo2Euro ean language to be s oken in the British Isles and it is still s oken in some arts of the island0 a" The language of the Britannic &elts is now re resented in Britain by Welsh which is s oken in Bales. Belsh is s oken by about one million eo le, most of whom are bilingual0 according to a census made in ,-=, only 8W of the o ulation in Bales did not know English. 3ornish, which had the same origin as Belsh, died out as a s oken language in &ornwall towards the close of the ,/th century.

b" The language of the Goidelic !Gaelic" &elts is now re resented by -rish !s oken in Ireland by about half a million eo le, most of whom are bilingual"7 4cots Gaelic !s oken in the highlands of Scotland" and /anx !s oken in the Isle of 1an". "&*&"& Latin The second language to be s oken in Britain was (atin which was introduced after the :oman con;uest of P8 %D when Britain became a rovince of the :oman Em ire. In fact, the attem t at con;uering the island had started much earlier. In == B&, Sulius &aesar, having com leted the con;uest of Gaul, decided u on an invasion of Britain, but the attack failed. The following year, =P B&, he again invaded the island and this time he succeeded in establishing himself in the south2east. S. &aesar e#acted tribute from the &elts, which was never aid, so he again returned to Gaul, and Britain was not troubled by the :oman armies for nearly a hundred years. In P8 %D, the em eror &laudius decided to undertake the con;uest of the island. Bithin 8 years he sub)ugated the tribes of the south 2 eastern and central regions. Subse;uent cam aigns brought almost the entire island under :oman rule with the e#ce tion of some arts in Bales and Scotland where most of the &elts had fled to. The military con;uest was followed by the 5omani6ation of the rovince0 highways, roads, well2 lanned towns with ublic buildings, am hitheatres, baths, etc., testify to the introduction of the :oman way of life. (atin was s oken for about four centuries, but it did not re lace &eltic as it did in Gaul. (atin was known to the u er classes and it was the language of civil administration, the army, trade and, to a large e#tent, it was known by the inhabitants of the cities and towns. 'owever, its use began to decrease after the :oman troo s were withdrawn at the beginning of the =th century and did not survive the Germanic invasion, leaving com aratively few traces. "& *.*& The Ger%anic Con0ue!t A'ter the year 112 an e3ent occurred (hich pro'ound#y a''ected the cour!e o' hi!tory& In that year .e an the in3a!ion o' /ritain .y certain Ger%anic tri.e! that !ett#ed in /ritain in the 4th and 5th centurie! and (ho are con!idered the 'ounder! o' the En #i!h nation& % detailed account of the Germanic invasion is given by a monk and scholar, called the Oenerable Bede. In his chronicle Ecclesiastical History of the English 7eople, written in (atin !Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis 8nglorum" and com leted in .8,, he tells us that the Germanic tribes who con;uered the island were the %ngles, the Sa#ons and the Sutes. In fact, Britain had been e# osed to attacks from the Sa#ons much earlier than PP-, from as early as the Pth century, even while the island was under :oman rule. Two other &eltic tribes, the 9icts and the Scots had been attacking Britain from as early as 8=>. %ll these tribes were ke t out only at the rice of constant vigilance. %gainst both of these sources of attack the :oman military organi<ation seems to have roved ade;uate. But the &elts who were not warriors, had come to de end on the :oman army for their rotection. Vnder :oman rule they had settled down to a more eaceful way of life and had lost some of thew military skill. &onse;uently, when the :omans withdrew in P>., the &elts found themselves un rotected and were no longer able to kee out the Germanic bands. The 8ngles occu ied some arts of Britain north of the Thames and lowland Scotland. The 4axons, who were closely akin to the %ngles in s eech and customs, occu ied the whole art of Britain south of the Thames7 they also settled in some regions north of the Thames such as Esse# and 1iddlese#. The 9utes had come to Britain to assist the &elts to drive away the invading 9icts and Scots. But they liked the country, so they decided to stay and began to settle down. They settled in Xent, Southern 'am shire, the Isle of Bight.

Though the Sa#ons were numerically su erior to the %ngles, the latter were influential enough to im ose their name on the whole7 after the year ,>>> the country began to be called 8nglaland !YEngland", i.e. the land of the %ngles and the language was called 8nglisc !YEnglish". The linguistic conse;uences of the Germanic &on;uest were e#tremely im ortant, for a new language su erseded &eltic and (atin Q a Germanic language !e#ce t in Scottish 'ighlands, in Bales and &ornwall". This new language resulted from the fusion of the dialects s oken by the Germanic tribes who had come from the continent. The s eech of the %ngles cannot have differed very much from that of the Sa#ons or that of the Sutes, but those differences that e#isted must account for the various English dialects. "&1& The period! in the hi!tory o' the En #i!h #an ua e The history of the English language in England begins with the settlement of the Germanic tribes 2 the %ngles, the Sa#ons and the Sutes Q in Britain in PP-. The evolution of English in the fifteen hundred years of its e#istence in England has been an unbroken one. Bithin this steady develo ment, however, it is ossible to distinguish three main eriods, each of them having certain broad characteristics0 O#d En #i!h lasted from PP- to about ,>=> !,>?? E ,,>>". The English language s oken in Britain from the Germanic invasions of the = th century !PP-" u to about the end of the ,,th century !,>=>" is now usually called &ld English, though the term 8nglo,4axon is also in use. The name %nglo2Sa#on was meant to distinguish the Sa#ons who had come to Britain, from those who remained on the continent. The term is often used now to refer to eo le of English descent. The term 3ld English has the advantage, when used together with 1iddle English and 1odern English, of ointing out the continuous historical develo ment of the English language. 6idd#e En #i!h lasted from about ,>=> !,>?? E ,,>>" to about ,=>>. 6odern En #i!h0 from ,=>> to the resent time. (ike all divisions in history, these eriods of the English language are matters of convenience, and the dividing line between them is urely arbitrary, being marked by the dates of events in English history, but each eriod has certain broad characteristics and certain s ecial develo ments that took lace. %n e#amination of the changes that have occurred in English during the ast ,,>>> years shows changes in the le#icon as well as the honological, mor hological, syntactic, and semantic com onents of the grammar. 3ld English is generally referred to as the eriod of full endings or full inflections7 1iddle English as the eriod of levelled endings or levelled inflections and 1odern English as the eriod of lost endings or lost inflections. %s far as the inflectional system is concerned, 3ld English was a !ynthetic language, i.e. one in which the relations between words are e# ressed by inflections, whereas 1odern English is an ana#ytica# language i.e. one in which such relations are e# ressed by form words and fixed word order. In the course of its develo ment, English has sim lified its inflectional system to a larger e#tent than all the other Germanic languages. $evertheless, it has not become oorer in means of e# ression, because the relations between words were rendered by other means than inflections, vi<. by form words and a fixed word order. $3TES0 5une*s"0 the characters of the al habet used es ecially in carved inscri tions by the Germanic eo les from the 8rd to the ,8th century orm words are also known as function words or grammatical words7 The term is used for a word whose role is largely or wholly grammatical, e.g. articles, re ositions, con)unctions7 they contrast with le#ical words, which carry the main semantic content.

Chapter *: OL7 ENGLISH *&1& O#d En #i!h 7ia#ect!: In the ? th century, the gradual change from clans to feudalism began and the English settled down into a number of small kingdoms. There were seven kingdoms at the end of the ? th century0 "orthumbria, /ercia, East 8nglia, Essex, :ent, 4ussex, Wessex. 3ld English was not an entirely uniform language. 3n the one hand, there were differences between the language of the earliest written records !about .>> %D" and that of the later literary te#ts7 on the other hand, the language differed from one locality to another. The manuscri ts that have been reserved enable us to establish the chief dialects. There were four dialects in 3ld English0 "orthumbrian, /ercian, :entish, West 4axon. i& The Northu%.rian 7ia#ect e#tended from the 'umber into the (owlands of Scotland. It had been brought to Britain by %nglian tribes. The dialect is reserved mainly in charters, runic inscri tions, some translations of the Bible. The most im ortant manuscri ts written in the $orthumbrian dialect are &aedmonAs Hymn, BedeAs 1eath 4ong. 1any manuscri ts seem to belong to the -th century. This dialect has a descendant in (owland Scots. ii& The 6ercian 7ia#ect8 also brought by the %ngles was s oken between the 'umber and the Thames. %s very few 1ercian te#ts have been reserved, we know ne#t to nothing about the 1ercian dialect whose descendant was to become the basis of the national language in late 1iddle English. iii& 9enti!h8 the dialect of the Sutes, was s oken in the South2East !over an area slightly larger than the resent county of Xent". This dialect is known from very few remains, a few glosses and charters. i3& The +e!t Sa:on 7ia#ect , which was s oken south of the Thames !Besse#" had been brought to Britain by Sa#on tribes. Xent was the first to gain su remacy owing to the cultural su eriority of its invaders and to the continuous contact with the continent. In the early art of the . th century $orthumbria en)oyed olitical and cultural su remacy over the other kingdoms. But in the - th century this leadershi assed to Besse#. Vnder Xing %lfred the Great, who ruled between /., Q //-, Besse# attained a high degree of ros erity and enlightenment. In the - th century, the Best Sa#on dialect began to be used as a sort of common literary language owing to the hegemony established by Xing %lfred the Great and to the influence of his writings. The ma)or art of 3ld English literature has survived in the Best Sa#on Dialect. O#d En #i!h Literature: The language of a ast time is known by the ;uality of its literature. It is in literature that a language dis lays its full ower, its ability to convey in vivid and memorable forms the thoughts and emotions of a eo le. The literature of the %nglo2 Sa#ons is one of the richest and most significant of any literature reserved among the early Germanic eo les. The oldest are several glosses and glossaries belonging to the / th and -th centuries. O#d En #i!h ,oetry is best re resented by #eowulf. It is a long oem !some 8,>>> lines" relating the life and death of a great hero Beowulf. It is at the same time a very im ortant record of the language at that time. %nglo2Sa#on oets sang of the things that entered most dee ly into their e# erience0 they sang of war, of e#ile, the sea with its hardshi s and its fascination, of minstrel life.

3ld English oetry also com rised verse ara hrases of the Scri ture !such as Genesis and Exodus by &aedmon", sacred oems by &ynewulf, legends from the lives of the saints, didactic oems, elegies. O#d En #i!h ,ro!e: In the develo ment of literature, rose generally comes late. Oerse is more effective for oral delivery because it is more easily retained in memory. It is, therefore, a rather remarkable fact that English reserved a large body of rose literature in the -th century. 3ld English rose is less interesting than 3ld English oetry. It is mostly a scholarly roduction written by monks and scholars. Still, we must mention the name of The Oenerable Bede who left us many interesting data about the history of England down to .8, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English 7eople !written in (atin". English reserved a considerable body of rose literature in the - th century also due to Xing %lfred who made considerable efforts to romote learning. In order to s read culture among his eo le he translated !or had scholars translate" several (atin works into the Best Sa#on dialect. 'e translated historical works like 3rosiusA ;niversal History or History of the World !Historia /undi" and moral treatises like BoethiusA 3onsolation of 7hilosophy !1e 3onsolatione philosophiae" in order to o ulari<e them. <he 8nglo,4axon 3hronicle, started by %lfred the Great and continued after his death u to ,,=P is a valuable historical and linguistic document of the 3ld English eriod. %nother scholar who romoted learning was the abbot %lfric. 'is works com rise a collection of homilies, a translation of the first seven books of the Bible and religious treatises. 'e also com iled a (atin Grammar in the vernacular. 9resent2day knowledge of 3ld English is rather limited7 most te#ts are written in the Best Sa#on dialect. The vocabulary of the te#ts is either highly oetic or limited to religious terms. It hardly contained any everyday words or hrases !what we might call Fcollo;uial EnglishA". In the rose works, the construction of the sentence was very much influenced by the (atin sentence. *&"& O#d En #i!h Spe##in and ,ronunciation (ike all the Germanic tribes !of Germany and Scandinavia" at a very early stage, the English used certain angular letters called runes, for writing charms and inscri tions u on monuments. The runes were angular and rectangular avoiding curves because of the writing surface !stone, sli s of wood, bark" and the writing instrument !knife". %fter the introduction of &hristianity !=-.", the English ado ted a form of the (atin al habet. S elling was phonetic in 3ld English, whereas nowadays it is etymological. The main characteristics of the s elling system of 3ld English were the following0 i. The vowel sounds were re resented by long and short mono hthongs and long and short di hthongs0 long vowels were marked by an acute accent ! macron" laced above a letter0 e.g. m=tan !meet", h>s !house", b?c !book", st@n !stone", c> !cow" ii. The digra h A was a letter, not a honetic symbol as it is now7 it re resented the sound 4Z5, as in0 bAc !back", fAder !father" iii. &onsonants were much the same as they are in 1odern English. $evertheless, a few e#ce tions can be ointed out0 2 The letter c stood for two sounds0 4k5 before consonants or before back vowels !a, o"0 crAft !craft", catt !cat", c?l !cool" 4t5 before front vowels !i, e"0 cBld !child", c=osan !choose" 2 The digra h sc stood for 45, as re resented by sh in 1odern English0 e.g. scip !shi ", fisc !fish" 2 The letter h re resented two different sounds0 initially, before vowels, it was sim ly an as irate, as it is now 4h50 e.g. h>s !house"

medially and finally !usually before consonants", it stood for the voiceless velar fricative sound 4[5 which we still find now in the Scottish dialect, i.e. a harsh, guttural fricative !e.g. in the word loch"0 e.g. rBht !right", l=oht !light", dohtor !daughter" 2 The letter corres onded to two sounds0 4g5 when it occurred initially and medially0 e.g. lAd !glad", do a !dog" 4i5 when it occurred finally0 dA !day" iv. 3ld English made use of two characters Q C and \ to re resent the sounds which are now re resented by the digra h thD e.g. Canc !thank", t?C !tooth", ba\ian !bathe" By the year ->> these two characters had been re laced by means of the digra h th under he influence of the (atin s elling of the Greek letter ] !theta" v. There were no silent consonants in 3ld English0 e.g. cniht !Y knight" vi. Double consonants usually occurred in the middle of the word0 e.g. habban !have", tellan !tell", sittan !sit" *&*& O#d En #i!h ;oca.u#ary The 3ld English vocabulary is almost urely Germanic. %n 3ld English dictionary contains about C>,>>> words of which only a few hundred are not Germanic. %bout /= er cent of the 3ld English vocabulary have gone out of use now. 1any of the 3ld English words that have disa eared were re laced in 1iddle English by other words !of 6rench, (atin origin" or are now archaic, dialectal. $evertheless, the ,= er cent of the words that have been reserved constitute the basic word stock and this is of Germanic origin. $owadays, although more than half of the words to be found in an English dictionary are of :omance origin !6rench, (atin" the basic word stock of the English language has remained mostly Germanic. Indeed, des ite large2scale borrowings, the native element !i.e. Germanic" forms the foundation of the 1odern English vocabulary !it is at the core of the language". The native word stock stands for fundamental things dealing with everyday ob)ects0 names of the nearest family relationshi s, arts of the body, lants, animals, tools, colours, everyday activities, etc. The native word stock includes au#iliary and modal verbs, ronouns, most numerals, re ositions, and con)unctions, most verbs of the strong con)ugation !irregular verbs". 6ean! o' Enrichin the ;oca.u#ary in O#d En #i!h To one unfamiliar with 3ld English, it might seem that a language which lacked the large number of words borrowed from 6rench and (atin, which now form such an im ortant art of the English vocabulary, such a language would be somewhat limited in resources. This is, however, not so. The language at that early stage showed great fle#ibility, resourcefulness. The rinci al means of enriching the vocabulary in 3ld English were word formation !building" and borrowing, the former device being much more fre;uent than the latter. *&*&1& +ord 'or%ation </ui#din = The main devices of word formation !building" were affixation and composition. The two devices were sometimes intermingled. A''i:ation a= ,re'i:e! The use of refi#es was articularly an im ortant feature in the formation of verbs. There were about a do<en refi#es which occurred with great fre;uency, such as be,, for,, e,, mis,, to,, wiC,. i. The refi# for, indicated destruction0 ford?n !kill, destroy", forsettan !obstruct". The refi# is still found in a few verbs0 forgo !give u , manage without", forsake !desert", etc.

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ii. The refi# mis, had a negative meaning as in mislBcian !dislike", mishyran !not to listen to, to disobey". The refi# survives, but it is not as roductive as it was in 3ld English0 mislead, misprint, mistake. iii. The refi# to, have the same value as the German 6er2 !FasunderA", e.g. tobrecan !destroy, break to ieces". iv. The refi# wiC, entered into more than => 3ld English verbs where it had the meaning of FagainstA. 3f the => verbs only a few are still in use now0 withstand, withdraw, and withhold !kee back, refuse to give". % very striking difference between 3ld English and 1odern English vocabulary is the fact that a large number of borrowings as well as Oerb U adverbial article combinations !F hrasal verbsA" have re laced verbs which in 3ld English were derived from other verbs with the hel of refi#es. Thus, the verb settan gave birth to besettan !a oint", forsettan !obstruct", unsettan ! ut down", wiCsettan !resist", etc. .= Su''i:e! Noun-'or%in !u''i:e! were often closely linked with the grammatical category of gender. Thus, the suffi# ere was generally used to form masculine nouns denoting rofession, e.g. fiscere !fisher", wrBtere !writer". The suffi# estre was used for feminine nouns denoting rofessions, e.g. spinnestre *woman who s ins+ !1odern English spinster Funmarried, single womanA". &ertain words came to be used as suffi#es0 thus, we find h@d !FstateA, FconditionA" in words such as cBldh@d !childhood". The word scipe !from the verb scipan Fto sha eA, Fto createA" a ears in words like freondscipe !friendshi ". Ad>ecti3e - 'or%in !u''i:e!: The suffi# ,i was used to form ad)ectives from nouns0 misti !misty" from mist2 ,Bsi !*icy" from Bs !ice". Bith the hel of the suffi# isc ad)ectives were formed from nouns0 mannisc FhumanA, FmannishA", folcisc ! o ular", 8nlisc !English". The suffi# full was used to build ad)ectives from nouns0 carefull !careful", synfull !sinful". The suffi# leas from the ad)ective leas !Fdevoid ofA, FwithoutA" served to form ad)ectives from nouns0 slApleas !slee less", m?dleas !s iritless" Co%po!ition: Bord com osition was e#tremely roductive in 3ld English, being based on self,explaining compounds. Self2e# laining com ounds are com ounds of two or more native words whose meaning in combination is self2evident. In 1odern English steamboat or railway are e#am les of such words. This ty e of com osition was e#tremely revalent in 3ld English as it is in 1odern German. Bhere 1odern English has resorted to borrowings made u of elements derived from (atin and Greek, 1odern German still refers self2e# laining com ounds. Thus, German uses the com ound !das+ ernsehen !Ffar2seeA" for television, a word whose Greek and (atin elements mean )ust what the German word does. &om ound nouns were generally formed of two nouns0 E.g. eorCcrAft !geometry", m?dCcrAft !intelligence" Sometimes the first word in the com ound was in the Genitive case0 8nlaland, i.e Fthe land of the %nglesA YEngland7 /?nandA, i.e. Fthe day of the 1oonA Y 1onday There was a close connection between derivation and composition. ^uite a number of notions which are rendered in 1odern English by means of (atin, 6rench, Greek or other loan words, were e# ressed in 3ld English by com ounds and derivatives, such as iestliCnes *iest _ guest7 liC _ gracious7 ,nes _ 2ness" _ Fhos italityA. *&*&"& Forei n in'#uence! on O#d En #i!h </orro(in !=

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3ld English was not merely the roduct of the dialects brought to England by the %ngles, the Sa#ons and the Sutes. These dialects formed its basis0 the sole basis of its grammar and the source of the largest art of its vocabulary. But there were elements of other languages which entered into 3ld English vocabulary. In the course of its e#istence in England Q .>> years 2 3ld English vocabulary was brought into contact with three other languages, the languages of the &elts, the :omans and the Scandinavians. 6rom each of these contacts, it shows certain effects, es ecially additions it its vocabulary. Ce#tic #oan (ord! 6rom the fact that the original language of Britain was &eltic, it might be e# ected that numerous &eltic elements would have become absorbed into 3ld English, but actually very few were. The relations between the Germanic invaders and the con;uered &elts have been much debated by historians. %s very few words of &eltic origin seem to have been traced in the English language, some historians assumed that the English invaders had killed all those Britons !i.e. &elts" who had not run away into the mountainous districts. In fact, the &elts were by no means e#terminated e#ce t in certain areas and in most of England large numbers of &elts were gradually absorbed by their Sa#on con;uerors. The su osition of total e#termination is ruled out from the distribution of &eltic lace names0 In the east, the bulk of the o ulation was English !i.e. %nglo2Sa#on" and the Britons who survived in that area were enslaved. The further west we go !Bales, &ornwall", the greater becomes the number of Britons in the o ulation. &eltic elements survive in lace names, es ecially in the south 2 west, e.g. /> er cent lace names in &ornwall are of &eltic origin. Thus, :ent, 1evon, 1over, 3ornwall, %ondon are of &eltic origin. But the greatest number of &eltic names survives in the names of rivers and hills. Thus, the <hames is a &eltic river name, and various &eltic words for FriverA are reserved in the name 8von !e.g. 4tratford on 8von", in the name 8ber !meaning Fthe mouth of a riverA" as found in 8berdeen !used as a refi#". % art from lace names, the influence of &eltic u on 3ld English vocabulary was an e#tremely slight one, robably because the Germanic con;uerors had enough terms to denote the various notions e#isting at the time. Latin #oan (ord! If the influence of &eltic u on 3ld English vocabulary was slight, it was doubtless because the relation of the &elts to the %nglo2Sa#ons was that of a sub)ugated race and because the &elts were not in a osition to make any notable contribution to %nglo2Sa#on civili<ation. It was ;uite otherwise with the second great influence e#erted u on English Q that of (atin Q and the circumstances under which they met. (atin was not the language of a con;uered eo le. It was the language of a higher civili<ation, a civili<ation from which the English had much to learn. &ontact with that civili<ation e#tended over many centuries0 it began long before the %nglo2Sa#ons came to Britain and continued throughout the 3ld English eriod. There were two distinct occasions on which borrowings from (atin occurred in the 3ld English eriod0 a" The first eriod of (atin borrowings Q during the :oman occu ation !P8 %D until the middle of the =th century". During the first eriod the contact was military and commercial. b" The second eriod of (atin borrowings began with the introduction of &hristianity into Britain in =-.. The contact was religious and intellectual. This was the most im ortant influence of (atin u on 3ld English. It lasted over =>> years and it brought a large number of new words into the English language.

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Even after the Danish invasion (atin remained the language of learning. This fact was going to facilitate later (atin influences as well as 6rench influences !in the 1iddle and 1odern English eriod". The words borrowed from (atin may be subdivided into several categories0 i. Terms connected with military life !introduced during the first eriod of (atin borrowings"0 e.g. wAl !`(. vallum" F wallA strAt !`(. strata via" FstreetA, FroadA The (atin word castra !cam " ac;uired in 3ld English the meaning of FtownA. It is to be found in various 3ld English lace names ending in ,cAster. In 1odern English, in the $orth and East of England, the term became s elled caster !as in %ancaster"7 in the 1idlands it became res elled cester !as in %eicester, Worcester"7 and in the South and Best it became res elled chester !as in /anchester, 1orchester+. ii. Terms connected with domestic life, clothes, food0 e.g. cBese !`(. caseus" FcheeseA7 pipor F e erA butere !`(. butyrum" FbutterA7 wBn FwineA disc !`(. discus" FdishA iii. Terms connected with tradeD e.g. pund F oundA, c=ap Fchea A, FbargainA iv. Ecclesiastical, religious terms !introduced during the second eriod of (atin borrowings"0 e.g. Almese FalmsA7 abbod FabbotA7 biscop Fbisco A7 candel FcandleA7 deofol FdevilA7 munuc FmonkA7 nunna FnunA7 preost F riestA v. Terms connected with education, learningD e.g. sc?l FschoolA7 mAister FmasterA7 fers FverseA The e:tent o' the Latin in'#uence. To be sure, the e#tent of a foreign influence is most readily seen in the number of words borrowed. The two eriods of (atin borrowings introduced about P=> words into 3ld English. %bout ,>> of these were urely learned, but the rest Q about 8=> Q may be really considered art of the English vocabulary and most of them were fully acce ted and assimilated. !The real test of a foreign influence is the degree to which a word is assimilated, i.e. how com letely a word could be derived or could be converted, )ust like native words". 1ost (atin borrowings could be converted into other arts of s eech or could be combined with native affi#es, giving many hybridR derivatives. Thus, native suffi#es such as 2h@d, ,d?m were used to turn a concrete noun !of (atin origin" into an abstract one0 martyrh@d, martyrd?m. The (atin influence of the second eriod was not only e#tensive but thorough as well and marks the real beginning of the English habit of freely incor orating foreign elements into its vocabulary. Scandina3ian #oan (ord! $ear the end of the old English eriod, the English language underwent another foreign influence Q the result of the contact with another im ortant language Q the Scandinavian !Danish". The Scandinavians were the Germanic inhabitants of the Scandinavian 9eninsula and Denmark, so they were closely related to the %nglo2Sa#ons in language and blood. 6or centuries, the Scandinavians had lived ;uietly in their northern homes, but in the / th century some changes Q ossibly economic and ossibly olitical ones Q occurred in that area ad rovoked among them a s irit of unrest and adventurous enter rise. They began a series of attacks u on all the lands ad)acent to the $orth Sea. The incursions of the Scandinavians or $orsemen Q commonly known as Oikings Q started in the year ./., gradually develo ing

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from irate raids to cam aigns of armies attem ting to con;uer territories and settle down. Xing %lfred ut u a brave struggle against them and in /./ an agreement was reached by which England was divided into two halves. The north and the East were occu ied by the Danes Q a region which came to be known as 1anelaw, that is, the country under the law of the Danes. The South and Best remained occu ied by the %nglo2Sa#ons Q region known as 4axon England. The Danes reached the eak of their con;uest and achievement in ,>,? when the Danish king &anute became king of England. %s he had also con;uered $orway, from his English ca ital, he ruled the whole Scandinavian world. %ll these events had as an im ortant conse;uence the settlement of numerous Scandinavians !Danes and $orwegians" in England, which e#erted a owerful influence and left a lasting im rint on the 3ld English language. The settlement of numerous Scandinavians accounts for the large number of laces bearing Scandinavian names. In England there are more than ,P>> laces bearing Scandinavian names0 a" Thus, there are about ?>> place names ending in Qby !the Danish word for FtownA" such as 1erby, Whitby. There are also lace names ending in Qbury !the Danish word for FboroughA" such as 3anterbury2 also in wich !the Danish term for FcreekA" such as -pswich, Greenwich. 1ost of these laces are, naturally, in the $orth and East of England, for it was here that the ma)ority of the invaders settled. Besides lace names, Scandinavian loan2words refer to0 b" War and es ecially to navy0 most of the loan words have not been reserved in the language because they were re laced by 6rench words in 1iddle English after the $orman &on;uest. c" %aw0 most Danish law terms were later re laced by 6rench words. Some words which have been reserved are0 lau !law", CrAl !thrall". d" The greatest number of Scandinavian loan2words refer to everyday life0 common lace ob)ects, customs, actions, feelings, etc. !e#am les in 1odern English"0 anger, crop, guess, scale, scar, skill, skin, want, window, happy, ill, wrong, law, ugly, to call, to die, to scare, to scream, to take, etc. In order to estimate the Scandinavian influence, it is im ortant to remember how great the similarity between 3ld English !abbreviated to 3E" and 3ld $orse !abbreviated to 3$" was. The English and the Scandinavians were able to understand one another without the hel of inter reters because a large number of words were almost identical in form and meaning. % very large number of words had the same root, only their endings were different, e.g. 3E. d?m &" d?mr2 3E. oxa , &". oxe, etc. 1any Scandinavian words that have been introduced into the language were in use side by side with the corres onding English words. Eventually, one of the following henomena occurred0 a" In some cases, it was the Scandinavian word that revailed7 e.g. the Scandinavian word syster !Y sister" re laced the 3E form sweostor. %lso, the Scandinavian taka !Y take" re laced the 3E nBman !G.0 nehmen"7 the Scandinavian angr !Y anger" re laced the 3E irre, etc. b" In other cases, it was the English word that survived, while the Scandinavian word finally disa eared or subsists only dialectally, e.g. 3.$. kirk subsists as the dialectal Scottish e;uivalent of church. c" Sometimes, both the English and the Scandinavian word were retained, develo ing a difference in meaning and E or use0 e.g. 3.E. craft ' 3.$. skill2 3.E. from ' 3.$. fro !in Fto and froA" "o ' nay2 whole ' hale !hale and hearty"7 #lossom ' bloom2 hide ' skin2 evil ' ill

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The influence of Scandinavian was not confined to nouns, ad)ectives, verbs, but it e#tended to ronouns, re ositions, con)unctions, adverbs and even a art of the fre;uently used verb is. Such arts of s eech are not often transferred from one language to another. Thus, the ronouns Ceir !they", Ceirra !their", Ceim !them" re laced the native forms hie, hiera, him robably because of the ambiguity of these forms !they might have been confused with forms of singular". The ronouns both and same are of Scandinavian origin, the re osition fro, the con)unction though. 3ne of the most significant ado tions is the 9resent Tense lural form of the verb to beD are, which re laced the native forms sind, sindon. % certain number of inflectional elements have been attributed to Scandinavian influence, among others the s of the 8rd erson singular 9resent Tense, Indicative 1ood. The Scandinavian settlers, mainly Danes and $orwegians, came to live close together with the English. The resulting mi#ture seems to have shed much of 3ld English mor hology. They also hel ed to s eed u the rocess of wearing away and levelling the intricate system of inflectional endings 3ld English had shared with the other Best Germanic dialects. Inflectional endings could become redundant because they had been losing their force and significance, which had gradually been taken over by !fi#ed" word order and other syntactic features, innovations !D. Giering, ,-.-0 ,C" In synta#, the omission of the relative ronoun in :elative &lauses and the omission of the con)unction that is in conformity with Danish usage. %lso, the use of the re osition in ost osition is not to be found in the other Germanic languages, e#ce t in Danish. e.g. <he man - talked to. *&1& O#d En #i!h Gra%%ar Grammar is the most fundamental feature that distinguishes 3ld English from 1odern English. 3ld English was a synthetic language whereas 1odern English is an analytic language. % synthetic language is one which indicates the relations of words in a sentence largely by means of inflections. In its grammar, 3ld English resembles modern German0 3ld English had a very rich inflectional system0 the noun, the ronoun, the ad)ective were declined7 the verb had distinctive endings for different ersons, numbers, tenses and moods7 the ad)ective had distinctive endings for each of the three genders. Since, during the 3ld English eriod, the endings of the noun, the ad)ective and the verb were reserved, 3ld English is generally referred to as the eriod of full endings or full inflections. 1iddle English is referred to as the eriod of levelled endings, and 1odern English the eriod of lost endings. Be shall illustrate the nature of the 3ld English inflections in the following aragra hs. *&1&1& The Noun Nu%.er and ca!e The inflection of the 3ld English noun indicated distinctions of number !singular and lural" and case !the 3ld English noun had four cases". The endings of these cases fall into certain broad categories or declensions. There is a vowel declension !also called strong declension" and a consonant declension !or weak declension" according to whether the stem ended in a vowel or a consonant in &ommon Germanic and within each of these ty es there are certain subdivisions. The stems of nouns belonging to the vowel declension ended in one of four vowels0 a, o, i or u and the inflection varies accordingly. It is im ossible here to resent the inflections of the 3ld English noun in detail. Their nature may be gathered from two e#am les of the strong declension0 st@n FstoneA !masculine" and word FwordA !neuter"0

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Sg. $. st@n !masculine" word !neuter"0 G& st@nes wordes D. st@ne worde %. st@n word 9l. $. st@nas word G. st@na worda D. st@num wordum %. st@nas word It is a arent from these e#am les that the inflection of the noun was much more elaborate in 3ld English than it is today. Even these few aradigms clearly illustrate the marked synthetic character of English in its earliest stage. The declension to which neuter nouns belonged in 3ld English differed from the declension of masculine nouns only in the $ominative and %ccusative lural !<ero ending". 3ld English nouns such as deer, swine, sheep have the same form for the singular and the lural because in 3ld English they were neuter. Some nouns formed their $ominative and %ccusative lurals in 3ld English by changing the vowel of the stem. $ot very many 3ld English nouns belonged to this declension but about half of them have ke t this method of forming the lural until the resent day, with the result that we have the lural forms men*n+ !sg. man*n"", f=t !sg. f?t", t=C !sg. t?C" etc. Gender Sust as in Indo2Euro ean languages generally, the gender of 3ld English noun was not de endent u on meaning or considerations of se#. Bhile animate nouns designating males were generally masculine !man*n+, fAder" and females were generally feminine !modor, dohtor", those indicating ob)ects !inanimate" were not necessarily neuter. 4t@n !stone" was masculine !` G. der Stein", m?na !moon" was masculine but sunne !sun" was feminine as in German !in German *der+ /ond !moon" is masculine, !die+ 4onne !sun" is feminine. ^uite often the gender of 3ld English nouns was illogical. Bords like mAden !maiden, girl", wBf !wife", cBld !child" which we should e# ect to be feminine or masculine, were in fact neuter, while wBfman !woman" was masculine because the second element of the com ound was masculine. The sim licity of 1odern English gender is one of the chief assets of the language. Gender in 1odern English is determined by meaning0 all nouns naming living creatures !beings" belong to the masculine or feminine gender, according to the se# of the individual and all other nouns !inanimate" are neuter. %ttributive gender, as when we s eak of a ship as feminine or the sun and moon as masculine or feminine is ersonification and a matter of rhetoric not grammar. *&1&"& The Ad>ecti3e The ad)ective was fully declined in 3ld English, having three genders, two numbers and four cases !sometimes also a fifth case0 the Instrumental". There were two ty es of ad)ective declension7 the strong and the weak declension. The strong declension was used with nouns that were not accom anied by a determiner. The weak declension was used with nouns that were receded by a determiner, such as a definite article, a demonstrative or a ossessive ad)ective. Strong declension ?d man*n+ Fgood manA Beak declension !e ?da man*n+ Fthe good manA The declension of the ad)ective ?d !good" in the singular0 Stron declension +ea) declension 1 6 $ 1 6 $ $. ?d ?d ?d ?da ?de ?de

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G. ?des ?dre ?des ?dan ?dan ?dan D. ?dum ?dre ?dum ?dan ?dan ?dan %c. ?dne ?de ?d ?dan ?dan ?de I. ?de ?de %s far as the comparison of adEectives was concerned, ad)ectives were com ared by adding ra for the com arative of su eriority and est ',ost for the relative su erlative0 lAd ,lAdra ,lAdost %s in other Indo2Euro ean languages the com arison of certain ad)ectives was based on different roots, forming su letive F systems0 e.g. ?d betra betst !good Qbetter Q best" yfel wyrsa wyrst !evilEbad Q worse Q worst" micel m@ra Q mAst !much Q more Q most" *&1&*& The ,ronoun: The 9ronoun com rised several categories in 3ld English0 ersonal, ossessive, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, indefinite. The per!ona# pronoun!: The ersonal ronouns in 3ld English had distinctive forms for ersons, cases, gender !for the third erson singular" and number. Besides the ordinary two numbers Q singular and the lural Q there was a third number, the dual used for two ersons or two things !first and second erson". The forms of the first erson ersonal ronoun0 sg. $. ic !I" 9l. $. w= !we" G. mBn !mine" G. >re !ours" 3b). m= !me" 3b). us !usA" Dual $. wit !we two" G. uncer 3b). unc 6rom the fre;uency if its use and the necessity for s ecific reference when used, the ersonal ronoun has reserved the system of inflections in 1odern English. The distinction between the dual and the lural, which was an unnecessary com lication in language, has disa eared in 1odern English. The de%on!trati3e pronoun: There were two fully develo ed demonstrative ronouns in 3ld English0 the 4imple demonstrative and the Emphasi6ed demonstrative. a" The 4imple demonstrative originally meant FthatA. Its meaning was often weakened e# ressing the function of the definite article. The forms of the 4imple demonstrative for the $ominative case were the following0 singular . lural 1. 6. $. !all genders" s= s=o CAt C@ 6or e#am le0 se grund Fthe groundA7 s=o eorCe Fthe earthA7 CAt land Fthe landA. b" The Emphasi6ed demonstrative corres onds to FthisA. Its forms for the $ominative case were the following0 singular lural 1. 6. $. !all genders" Ces Ceos Cis C@s *&1&1& The ;er. %s in all Germanic languages, there were two large classes of verbs0 the strong and the weak verbs. These two classes of verbs were distinguished in the following way0 a" The 7ast <ense in strong verbs was formed by vowel gradationEchange, while in weak verbs was formed by adding a dental suffi# *,de, ,te" to the stem of the resent. e.g. strong verb0 drincan dranc !drink Q drank" weak verb0 hAlan hAlde !heal Qhealed"

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b" The 7ast 7articiple of strong verbs was formed by adding on ' ,en, and that of weak verbs by adding ,ed. e.g. strong verb0 drincan dranc Q druncon !drink Q drank 2 drunk" weak verb0 hAlan hAlde Q hAled !heal Q healed 2 healed" c" The 7ast <ense, second erson singular in strong verbs was marked by the ending e, while in weak verbs it was marked by adding est0 e.g. strong verb0 Cu n@me !you took" weak verb0 Cu d=mdest !you )udged E thought" In 1odern English these characteristics artly ersist0 a" The first one !9ast Tense" has been reserved, but the final e of weak verbs has disa eared, leaving no difference between the 9ast Tense and the 9ast 9artici le !both ended in d". b" The second characteristic !9ast 9artici le" has been reserved, e#ce t that many of the strong verbs have lost the ending Qon',en. c" The third characteristic !second erson singular" no longer e#ists. 6ood! In 3ld English there were three finite moods !the Indicative, the Sub)unctive and the Im erative" and three non2finite moods !the Infinitive, the 9resent 9artici le and the 9ast 9artici le". The Su.>uncti3e 6ood, of which there are only a few traces left in 1odern English, was widely used in 3ld English, es ecially in subordinate clauses. The underlying rinci le, which determined the use of the Sub)unctive in Subordinate clauses in 3ld English, was that the Sub)unctive was re;uired in all de endent statements which do not e# ress a fact0 e.g. ic ascode hine hwAt GAt wAre FI asked him what that were !_ was"A. The In'initi3e. There were two Infinitive forms in 3ld English0 a" The Sim le Infinitive ending in anD e.g. h= onan sinan Fhe began to singA b" The 9re ositional Infinitive was formed with the re osition to and the dative case of a verbal noun ending in anneD e.g. sele us flAsc to etanne Fgive us meat to eatA Both the an and the anne inflections were later levelled and lost and the re osition to came to be used very fre;uently with the infinitive, gradually losing its initial meaning !direction, ur ose, intention". Eventually, to was no longer felt as a re osition, but as a article, a art of the so2called (ong Infinitive. The Sim le infinitive is still used with shall, can, may, let, make, see, etc. %s far as ten!e! are concerned, the situation was rather different from what it is nowadays. Thus, the 7ast <ense indicated a ast action having no connection with the resent !i.e. corres onding to the 9ast Tense of 1odern English", or a ast action related to the resent !i.e. corres onding to the 9resent 9erfect of 1odern English". 3n the other hand, a construction corres onding to the 9resent 9erfect in later English was sometimes used for e# ressing a ast action that had no relation with the resent. It was formed with habban when the verb was transitive and with beon when the verb was intransitive. e.g. H= is ecumen. !*'e is come+" In 3ld English there e#isted no s ecial tense for denoting a ast action com leted before another ast action, i.e. there was no 9ast 9erfect. The sim le 9ast Tense was generally resorted to, the conte#t indicating the time of the action. Sometimes the construction hAfde U 9ast 9artici le was used to e# ress a ast action accom lished before another ast action, but

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the rocess was com leted only in 1iddle English, when the construction became the 9ast 9erfect. There was no 6uture Tense and the notion of futurity was either e# ressed by the 9resent Tense, sometimes together with an adverbial modifier of time or, rather infre;uently, by means of the verbs sculan and willan in association with the Infinitive. The former verb Q sculan , e# ressed the idea of obligation, the latter Q willan e# ressed the idea of wish or intention. e.g. se @st Ce ic eow asendan wille !Fthe s irit that I to you to send intendA Q the s irit that I intend to send to you" The con)ugation of the verb in 3ld English had twice as many forms as there are in 1odern English, owing to the well develo ed Sub)unctive and es ecially to the fact that the forms of the lural differed from those of the singular. *&1&4& Synta: In 3ld English, synta# was based on inflection. Oery few grammatical relationshi s de ended on form words and none de ended on word order. In 3ld English word order was not very im ortant as a means of denoting syntactic relations, owing to the rich inflectional system of the language. %s in (atin, the lace of words could be changed according to rhetorical ur oses. It was e;ually ossible to say0 4e man nam Ca b?c. !FThe man took the bookA"7 4e man Ca b?c nam2 Ca b?c nam se man. The only difference between the sentences consists in the em hasis conferred on the words in front osition. Sometimes the 3b)ect receded the Sub)ect followed by the redicate0 e.g. ela worda sprAc se enel. !F1any words s oke the angelA" The order of the main arts of the sentence !Sub)ect and 9redicate" de ended on the resence and absence of a secondary art of s eech at the beginning of the sentence. Bhen the sentence did not start with a secondary art of s eech, the usual order was subEect H predicate. Bhen the sentence began with a secondary art of s eech such as Ca !*then+", n> !*now+", ne !*not+", etc. the order was usually inverted. e.g. "e can ic n?ht sinan. !F&annot I nought sing Y I cannot sing anythingA" Chapter 1: 6I77LE ENGLISH The transition eriod in the history of English between 3ld English and 1odern English is known as 1iddle English. Its chronological limits are, however, not easy to establish, because the changes transforming any language are always gradual and cons icuous only after some time. $evertheless, it is often agreed that 1iddle English was the English s oken between,,>> Q ,=>>. 1&1& Hi!torica# out#ine o' the period In order to understand the linguistic changes that took lace in that eriod we shall outline the most im ortant historical events of that time. 1&1&1& The Nor%an Con0ue!t and it! Con!e0uence! <1?5? $ 1"??= Towards the end of the 3ld English eriod an event occurred, which had a very great effect on the English language, mainly on its vocabulary. This event was the $orman &on;uest in ,>??. The $ormans Q who lived in $ormandy, a district on the $orthern &oast of 6rance Q were among the most advanced and rogressive of the eo les of Euro e. 6or some time before the $orman &on;uest, the relations between England and 6rance had been fairly close. Bhen in ,>?? Edward the &onfessor died childless, England was faced with the choice of a successor. In the end, 'arold, the son of a Sa#on earl was elected king, but the election was challenged. Billiam, the duke of $ormandy, a cousin to the late king, believing himself entitled to the

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throne, decided to obtain the English crown by force. In Se tember he landed on the southern coast of England7 the battle was fought at 'astings ending with the victory of the $ormans. 3n &hristmas day ,>??, Billiam *The &on;ueror+ was crowned king of England. The $orman &on;uest was attended by several conse;uences0 a" %t the time of the &on;uest, the $ormans had advanced feudal institutions and this fact accelerated the full establishment of feudalism in Britain. 3ne of the most im ortant conse;uences was the introduction of a new nobility. 1any of the English higher class had been killed on the battlefield at 'astings, those who esca ed were treated as traitors and the laces were filled by BilliamAs $orman followers and for several generations after the $orman &on;uest the im ortant ositions at the &ourt were almost always held by $ormans. b" The $orman clergy were given all the im ortant ositions in the &hurch. c" Since the governing class in both State and &hurch was almost e#clusively made u from among $ormans, their influence was enormous. They used their own language, i.e. 6rench and for C>> years after the $orman &on;uest, 6rench remained the language used among the u er classes in England. %t first, those who s oke 6rench were of $orman origin, but soon, social interests made the remnants of the English ruling class learn 6rench. They reali<ed that it was to their own advantage to learn the new language and before long the distinction between those who s oke English and those who s oke 6rench was not ethnic, but largely social. 6rench was the language of the &ourt and the u er classes, while English remained the language of the masses !of the lower classes". Thus, about -> er cent of the o ulation ! easants, craftsmen, tradesmen" continued to s eak English. The situation in the 1iddle English eriod is summed u by D. Giering as follows0 *The 6rench2s eaking $ormans had consolidated their olitical ower and introduced their language into all im ortant s heres of the feudal state. %t court and in the church, in the law2 courts and the army, in the schools and in the arts, in the nobility down to the country s;uire, everywhere a northern dialect of 6rench !$orman", became the dominant language. 6or almost three centuries English continued to be s oken only by the lower classes, the masses of the eo le+ !Giering, ,-.-0 ,8". %fter the &on;uest, the $orman kings of England continued to be dukes of $ormandy and many noblemen had estates on both sides of the &hannel. Thus, there were economic links, which naturally im lied the continued use of 6rench. /ritain in the 6idd#e A e! Bhereas the serfs had houses made of mud and timber, the knights, according to their right to rule, considered themselves of Fblue bloodA and the their governing as being the rule by the best eo le, therefore started building castles of stone beginning with ,>??. There was a code of chivalry but it did not involve the relations with the lower classes, ine;uality was at the base of the social yramid. There was no galantry or romance, as it might a ear, but a cast solidarity. The knightsA duty was to rotect God and the king, give feasts, hunt, terrori<e easants. Barfare was enobling0 Edward, the Black 9rince, was an e# onent of the sense of honor and duty but led ruthless cam aigns in 6rance. Xing Sohn was famous for slitting noses and lucking out eyes. GodAs intermediary is the archbisho of &anterbury and his retenue !suita". 9o e was the feudal overlord which led to an aristocratic rebellion in ,CC8 resulting in the drawing of 1agna &arta the source of western liberties. There were three orders of the society0 the clergy, the military aristocracy and the working eo le. In ,8/, over =>,>>> easants led by the riest Sohn Ball attacked (ondon. The town was set abla<e. 1&1&"& The Ree!ta.#i!h%ent o' En #i!h <1"?? - 14??=

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Several factors led to the reestablishment of English0 i. The loss of $ormandy0 In ,C>P Xing Sohn lost $ormandy because he did not acce t the king of 6rance as his overlord. %fter the loss of $ormandy, many noblemen had to give u their estates in $ormandy. Towards the middle of the century, when they no longer had any economic interests in 6rance, English began to come into general use again. They continued to s eak 6rench, but instead of using 6rench as their mother tongue inherited from $orman ancestors, 6rench became a fashionable language en)oying great restige at most Euro ean courts. English won back its leading role as the official language of the country only towards the end of the 1iddle English eriod. This was ossible as a result of a gradual re2orientation on the art of the $orman u er classes who wanted to take a firmer hold of their English ossessions and to unite with the remaining English nobility against their common feudal enemy, the 6rench king. Bith the shift of their economic and olitical interest from $ormandy to England, English became a atriotic symbol of their new identity as Englishmen. The first English king of $orman descent to o en 9arliament in English !in ,8?8" was Edward III !Giering, ,-.-0 ,8". By the middle of the ,8th century English became the language used among the u er classes. It was at this time that the ado tion of 6rench words into the English language assumed large ro ortions. Bhile trying to e# ress their ideas in English, all those who had been usually s eaking 6rench, often sim ly had to transfer 6rench words into English and the outcome was a large scale borrowing of 6rench words. ii. Besides the loss of $ormandy, there were other factors !social, olitical and economic ones" which contributed to the disuse of 6rench0 a" The 'undred @earsA Bar !,88. Q,P=8" between England and 6rance7 b" The 9easantsA :ising of ,8/,7 c" The gradual decline of feudalism and es ecially the rise of two im ortant English s eaking social strata0 the small landowners and the town bourgeoisie, i.e. the rise of the middle class !%. Baugh, a T. &able, ,-./0 ,P,". The economic im ortance of these two classes increased with it the im ortance of the language they s oke, i.e. English. Such changes in the social and economic life enable us to understand the final trium h of English. Towards the close of the ,Pth century English was restored in law courts, in schools and at &ourt. The last ste the English language had to make in its gradual ascent was its em loyment in writing !literature", for here it had to meet the com etition of (atin as well as 6rench. It was only in the second half of the ,Pth century that English succeeded in taking the lace of 6rench and (atin in writing. 6idd#e En #i!h Literature The literature written in England during the 1iddle English eriod reflects fairly accurately the linguistic situation shown above. Three eriods can be distinguished0 a" During the first eriod !,,=> Q,C=>" F oliteA literature was written in 6rench, while chroniclers and scholars used (atin. The only works written in English were almost e#clusively religious such as the &rmulum. The outstanding e#ce tions to this kind of literature were (ayamonAs #rut and <he &wl and the "ightingale. b" In the ,8th century romances began to be translated and ado ted from the 6rench. c" The second half of the ,Pth century is an outstanding eriod in 1iddle English literature owing to Geoffrey &haucer, Billiam (angland and Sohn Bycliffe. G. &haucer is im ortant not only as the founder of English oetry, but he is e;ually im ortant because he firmly established the English literary language. The most famous of his work is <he 3anterbury

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<ales which, besides giving us in the General 9rologue a matchless ortrait gallery of contem orary ty es, constitutes in the variety of the tales a veritable anthology of medieval literature. B. (angland is the author of a long social allegory, 7iers the 7lowman. S. Bycliff was the first to attem t the translation of the Bible into English. Besides their literary value, these works rove the secure osition the English language had attained in the ,Pth century. 1&1&*& The E!ta.#i!h%ent <'or%ation= o' the Nationa# Lan ua e& The Ri!e o' Standard En #i!h 3ne of the striking characteristics of 1iddle English was its enormous variety in the different arts of the country. This variety was not confined to the forms of the s oken language, as it is to a great e#tent today, but a eared e;ually in the written literature. $evertheless, four main dialects are generally distinguished in 1iddle English0 "orthern !from the 3E $orthumbrian dialect", East /idland, West /idland !both coming from the 3E 1ercian dialect" and 4outhern !from the 3E Best Sa#on". In the ,=th century, from a country whose land was divided among great feudal lords, England started to become a national state. Bourgeois relations were develo ing ra idly. The economic relations between different arts of the country were getting stronger and it became both necessary and ossible to establish a national language that should be above all dialects and should be understood all over the country. 3ut of this variety of local dialects there emerged towards the end of the fourteenth century a written language that in the course of the fifteenth century won general recognition and has since become the recogni<ed standard in both s eech and writing. Therefore, alongside the gradual victory of English in its struggle with 6rench, another im ortant rocess took lace 2 the e!ta.#i!h%ent !'or%ation" of the nationa# #an ua e. The art of England that contributed most to the formation of this !tandard was the East 1idland district, and it was the East 1idland ty e of English that became its basis, articularly the dialect of the metro olis, (ondon. Several factors contributed to the attainment of this result0 a" In the first lace, as a 1idland dialect, the English of this region occu ied a middle osition between the e#treme divergences of the north and the south. It was less conservative that the southern dialect, less radical than the northern. In its sounds and inflections it re resents a kind of com romise, sharing some of the characteristics of both its neighbours !%. Baugh0 ,-C". b" In the second lace, the East 1idland district was the largest and most o ulous of the ma)or dialect areas. The land was more valuable than the hilly country to the north and west, and in an agricultural age this advantage was reflected in both the number and the ros erity of the inhabitants. c" % third factor was the resence of the universities, 3#ford and &ambridge, in this region. In the fourteenth century the monasteries were laying a less im ortant role in the dissemination of learning than they had once layed, while the two universities had develo ed into im ortant intellectual centres. d" The o ularity of G. &haucerAs and S. ByclifAs works su orted the diffusion of standard English. e" % very im ortant contribution to the s read of Standard English was the introduction of rinting in ,P.?. B. &a#ton, the first English rinter used the s eech of (ondon in all works he rinted. f" By far the most influential factor in the rise of Standard English was the im ortance of (ondon as the ca ital of England. Indeed, it is altogether likely that the language of the city

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would have become the revailing dialect without the hel of any of the factors reviously discussed. In doing so, it would have been following the course of other national tongues Q 6rench as the dialect of 9aris, S anish as that of &astile, etc. !Baugh0 ,-P". (ondon was, and still is, the olitical and commercial centre of England. It was the seat of the court, of the highest )udicial tribunals, the focus of the social and intellectual activities of the country. The history of Standard English is almost a history of (ondon English. 1&"& The #in ui!tic characteri!tic! o' 6idd#e En #i!h 1&"&1& 6idd#e En #i!h Spe##in and ,ronunciation In the ,Pth and ,=th centuries a er began to be used for manuscri ts instead of archment which was very e# ensive. The growing number of schools im lied an ever increasing necessity of manuscri ts. But since most of the te#ts were written in 6rench or (atin, whenever an English te#t was co ied its s elling was influenced by these two languages. %s most of the scribes were $orman, the 6rench methods of re resenting sounds began to revail. There were certain vowels and consonants which did not e#ist in 6rench and which the $orman scribes found rather difficult to re resent. That is why certain symbols which had e#isted in 3E but did not e#ist in 6rench s elling were discarded0 ,. 6rench had neither the symbol A nor the sound 4Z5. That is why the symbol A gradually disa eared from te#ts and was re laced by a or e0 e.g. 3E lAd Y 1i.E glad 3E slApan I 1i.E slepan !later on the vowel e was doubled" C. The symbols C and did not e#ist in 6rench0 these signs were re laced by th. 8. % new letter Q g Q was introduced at the beginning of the 1iddle English eriod !abbreviated to 1iE" to re lace in initial and final osition. e.g. 3E od Y 1i.E god P. The grou of consonants sc which rendered the sound 45, in 3E was re laced by sh in 1i.E0 e.g. 3E. scip Y 1i.E. ship =. % number of 6rench re resentations of sounds were introduced0 ou, ow !in final osition" for the sound 4u05 e.g. 3E l>d I 1iE loud2 3E c> Y 1iE cow 3E c was re laced by k after n and before front vowels !i" e.g. 3E drincan Y 1iE drinkan ?. (ong vowels were no longer indicated by a macron ! b " as they had been in 3ld English7 they began to be doubled0 e.g. 3E ?s Y 1iE goos2 3E f?t I 1iE foot 'owever, B was not doubled because of the similarity of J and >, which would have brought about misunderstanding. In the ,=th century the scribes began to add a final e to the stem in order to show that i was long0 e.g. 3E. wBf Y 1iE wife By analogy with such s ellings, other monosyllabic words such as goos, hors added a silent e to their stems0 goose, horse. 1ost of these changes in s elling were due to the res elling of English by $orman scribes according to 6rench s elling traditions. $aturally, the falling out of use of s ecial marks for long vowels, the introduction of new symbols weakened the honetic character of English s elling0 honetic rinci les were mi#ed u with 6rench s ellings and with conservative 3ld English s ellings. 1&"&"& 6idd#e En #i!h Gra%%ar The most im ortant changes affecting the language during the 1iddle English eriod were the further levelling and reduction of 3ld English inflectional endings !they were much
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reduced both in number and com le#ity". Some were the result of the $orman &on;uest and the conditions which followed in the wake of that event. 3thers were a continuation of tendencies that had begun to manifest themselves after the Scandinavian invasion. It was in this eriod that the change from a redominantly inflectional !or synthetic" to a more synta#2orientated !analytic" grammatical structure could be regarded as a breakthrough !D. Giering, ,-.-0 ,8". The Noun The rocess of the decay of the inflectional system of the noun develo ed more ra idly in the $orth, where it was su orted by the mi#ing of English and Scandinavian dialects. a= Gender. The inflections indicating the gender of a noun began to be discarded. In 1iddle English we witness the elimination of 3ld English grammatical gender !the weakening of inflections led to the loss of the old grammatical gender". In the $orth, where inflections were weakened earlier, grammatical gender disa eared first7 in the South it lingered longer because the decay of inflections was slower. .= Nu%.er. In early 1iddle English there remained only two methods of indicating the lural0 the *e+s for masculine nouns !strong declension" and the en for weak declension. In late 1iddle English the *e+s lural s read ;uickly and it became the normal lural ending of nouns, with a few e#ce tions0 oxen, children, brethren and a few more which have changed in the meantime0 eyen. c= Ca!e. The masculine nouns !those belonging to the strong declension" were reduced to two cases in 1iddle English0 The common case !$ominative, Dative, %ccusative" and the 9ossessive !Genitive" case. The neuter nouns !weak declension" had no case forms at all. The two main ty es of declension !strong and weak" of 1iddle English can be illustrated by two nouns ston !stone", masculine and eye, neuter. Stron Decl. +ea) Decl. Sg. l. sg. l. &ommon case ston stones eye eyen 9ossessive stones stones eye eyen !genitive" The rocess of dro ing the inflections was also due to the growth of other means of indicating grammatical relations, i.e. of indicating the function of words in the sentence. ,repo!itiona# phra!e! began to be used more and more often instead of case forms, namely the to,phrase instead of the Dative and the of,phrase instead of the Genitive. In 3ld English the re osition to had generally indicated direction and the re osition of had meant FfromA, Fout of. In 1iddle English the meaning of both re ositions was weakened0 to and sometimes for indicated the Indirect 3b)ect, i.e. the 3b)ect towards which the action was directed and for which it was erformed. &f fre;uently indicated ossession. It is difficult to know whether these re ositional hrases came into use in order to com ensate for the loss of inflections or )ust to make the meaning of cases clearer, thus rendering their inflection unnecessary, levelling them and finally discarding them. Bhat is most robable is that at first, these re ositions began to be used to give more syntactic force to the inflections and when, in 1iddle English the inflections were levelled and therefore lost their distinctive ower, the re ositions became absolutely necessary to show the res ective syntactic relations. The Ad>ecti3e The ad)ective was influenced by the loss of grammatical gender and by the loss of most case inflections of the noun. !In 3ld English the ad)ective had agreed with the noun in gender, case, number". There remained only a few traces of the number distinctions and the distinctions between the strong and the weak declension. In 3ld English a weak ad)ective !i.e. an ad)ective

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accom anied by a determiner" had five distinct singular and lural forms which indicated both case and number by means of the endings0 2 a, ,e, ,an, ,ene, ,um. In 1iddle English all these endings were levelled to eD Stron declension +ea) declension !Det U %d) U $oun" Singular hard harde 9lural harde harde The result was that in the weak declension there was no longer any distinction between the singular and the lural, since both ended in e. Bhen in the ,Pth century final 2e ceased to be ronounced, it became a mere feature of s elling. The ad)ective had become an uninflected word by the close of the 1iddle English eriod. Besides the synthetic com arison !formed by means of the suffi#es er, ,est.' ,ost" in the ,Pth century, ad)ectives were often com ared analytically !with more and most"0 e.gcwhich partie is the bettre and more profitable. !G. &haucer, <he 3anterbury <ales" The ,ronoun The ,er!ona# ,ronoun In the 9ersonal ronoun the losses were not so great. 'ere there was greater need for se arate forms for the different genders, cases and accordingly, most of the distinctions that had e#isted in 3ld English were retained. The 9ersonal ronoun suffered the following changes in 1iddle English0 ,. The dual number !wit _ we two" disa eared in the ,8th century. C. The forms of the Dative and %ccusative cases merged into one form called the 3b)ective case0 me, him, her. 8. The forms they, them, which are due to the Scandinavian influence re laced the 3ld English ronouns hB, hem. The 7e%on!trati3e ,ronoun In 3ld English the Demonstrative 9ronoun had two numbers, three genders and four or five cases. In 1iddle English the sim lification of the inflectional system of the demonstrative ronoun consisted in the elimination of gender distinctions and the reduction of the number of cases. 3f the numerous forms of s = !1", s=o !6", CAt !$" for singular $ominative, we have only s= I the, and CAt I that surviving through 1iddle English and continuing in use today. The form s = I the began to be used as a definite article7 that continued to be used in the function of demonstrative ronoun. The ;er. % art from some levelling of inflections and the weakening of endings in accordance with the general tendency, the rinci al changes in the verb during the 1iddle English eriod were0 ,. The con)ugation of the verb was sub)ected to serious modifications in 1iddle English. Thus, owing to the weakening of vowels in unstressed syllables, the difference between the endings an !in the 3ld English Im erative and Infinitive", ,on !Indicative ast lural", 2en !9resent and 9ast Sub)unctive7 also 9ast 9artici le of strong verbs" was lost. The final consonant n was gradually weakened and lost in 1iddle English eriod, e#ce t in the 9ast 9artici le of certain strong verbs. C. The serious losses suffered by the strong conEugation. The number of weak verbs became much larger than the number of strong verbs for the following reasons0 i. $early a third of the strong verbs in 3ld English died out in the 1iddle English eriod7 ii. The large number of 6rench verbs which were borrowed during the 1iddle English eriod reinforced the weak con)ugation7 iii. The attern of analogy, i.e. the tendency of language to ada t a more com le# form to a sim ler one, is e#em lified by the number of verbs which had belonged to the strong con)ugation in 3ld English but which became weak in 1iddle English0 climb, help, walk, etc.

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iv. In a number of cases, some verbs which had belonged to the strong con)ugation in 3ld English and which later became weak verbs, have reserved the strong form of 9ast 9artici le !in *e+n " only when they are used as ad)ectives0 laden !`load", molten !`melt", rotten !`rot", shaven !`shave", misshapen, cloven. 8. The 3ld English refi# to the 9ast 9artici le Ke, was reduced to y, in 1iddle English !later on y, disa eared altogether leaving no traces of this refi#". e.g. 3E es=on I 1i.E. yseon P. The verbs shal and, to a certain e#tent, will were fre;uently used in 1iddle English to denote a future action0 e.g. cof which - tolde yow and tellan shal. =. The &ontinuous %s ect a eared in 1iddle English but it was not often resorted to. Synta: ,. The decay of inflectional endings had an e#tensive influence on synta#, in articular on word order. So long as inflections served to indicate the case of nouns !their function in the sentence", word order was com aratively unim ortant, but when, for e#am le, the $ominative and the %ccusative came to be identical in form, a fi#ed word order was necessary as a means of denoting syntactic relations. The sub)ect generally receded the redicate e#ce t when the sentence began with an adverbial modifier, e.g. Wel coude he sittan on hors. !FBell could he sit on the horseA" The ressure e#erted by the more and more rigid character of word order accounts for certain changes connected with im ersonal verbs0 the former indirect ob)ects receding them became sub)ects0 3E /e wAs eiefan a b?c L (ate 1iE - was given a book C. In 1iddle English it was still ossible to use several negative words in the same sentence0 e.g. Me neshulen habben no best bute cat one. !F@ou should have no animal but one catA" The negative words no, noht !FnoughtA" which were laced after the verb and em hasi<ed the negative article ne, receding the verb, gradually became inde endent of the article and ousted it com letely. 1&"&*& 6idd#e En #i!h ;oca.u#ary The develo ment of the vocabulary in 1iddle English is due to the inner resources of the language, as well as to the borrowing of words from other languages. 1&"&*&1& The inner re!ource! o' the #an ua e in 6idd#e En #i!h They were re resented by a" %ffi#ation7 b" &om osition7 c" &hanges of meaning. a= A''i:ation 3ld English had enlarged its vocabulary chiefly by a rich use of refi#es and suffi#es. In the 1iddle English eriod there is a visible decline in the use of these old methods of word formation. 1any of the 3ld English refi#es and suffi#es gradually lost their roductivity ! artly or com letely" because of the large influ# of 6rench words. i& ,re'i:e! . 6or e#am le, the refi# for, !corres onding to the German ver,+ which was used to intensify the meaning of a verb or to add the idea of something detrimental, destructive became obsolete in 1iddle English. The only verbs in which for, occurs had their origin in 3ld English0 forgive, forget, forsake, forswear, forbid, forgo. The refi# to, !corres onding to the German 6er," has left no traces at all. 3ther refi#es have lost their roductivity0 be,, mis,, un2. Thus, the negative refi# un,, found in words such as unable, unbold !timid", unfrend !hostile", unhonourable !dishonourable", unmovable !immovable" Q began to share its roductive ower with refi#es of 6rench or (atin origin such as dis,, in,, re,.

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ii& Su''i:e!& % similar decline is observable in the formative ower of certain suffi#es which were widely used in 3ld English. The loss here is erha s less distinctly felt because some im ortant suffi#es remained in full force in 1iddle English, such as0 ,er*e+D formed agent nouns from verbs or other nouns0 baker, fisher7 ,ness*e"0 formed nouns from ad)ectives0 brihtnesse !brightness", frelnesse !frailty"7 ,ful0 was used to form ad)ectives from nouns and verbs0 forgetful, rihtful !rightful, )ust". But other suffi#es, e;ually im ortant were lost !e.g. Qend which was used to form agent nouns from verbs" or were diminished in roductivity0 ,dom, ,hood, ,ship. .= Co%po!ition $ot only affi#ation but also com osition lost some of its roductive ower in 1iddle English. The ractice of combining native words into self2inter reting com ounds was not abandoned in 1iddle English, but in many cases where a new word could have been easily formed on the native model, a ready2made 6rench word was borrowed instead. 6or instance, in 1iddle English com ound nouns were of two ty es0 2 endocentric !one element of the com ound determines another"0 rainbowe !rainbow", aleh>s !alehouse", hangeman !hangman"7 2 e#ocentric !noneEneither of the elements determines another"0 pickepurse ! ick ocket", redbrest !redbreast". c= Chan e! o' %eanin %nother im ortant means of enriching the vocabulary was &hange of meaning. The meanings of words are not fi#ed, they are liable to change. There are several causes for changes of meaning0 some social, some sychological, some urely linguistic. It has been observed that, in their develo ment of meaning words often ursue certain tendencies. The chief trends of semantic change are0 e#tension of meaning, narrowing of meaning, elevation of meaning, degradation of meaning. i& E:ten!ion o' %eanin !or Genera#i@ation" refers to the henomenon when the meaning is widened, generali<ed from one narrow field to a wider one0 e.g. husband originally meant *master of a house+7 in 1iddle English it began to be used with the meaning of *a man to whom a woman is married+. The word holiday originally meant Fholy dayA, a day of religious significance. But in 1iddle English semantic change e#tended the meaning of holiday to what it is in 1odern English0 Fany day on which we do not have to workA. Nuarantine once had the restricted meaning of Fforty daysA isolationA. ii& Narro(in o' %eanin !or Specia#i@ation" refers to the case when the word ac;uires a more restricted, s eciali<ed sense. e.g. meat originally meant Fany kind of foodA. Thus, in the Bible, God says of the herbs and trees, *to you they shall be for meat+ !Genesis ,0 C-, cited from 6romkin a :odman, ,--/0 P?8". To a s eaker of 3ld English meat meant FfoodA while flesh meant FmeatA. But in 1iddle English semantic change narrowed the meaning of meat to what it is in 1odern English0 it began to refer to one s ecial ty e of food Fedible fleshA. The earlier meaning still survives in the com ound sweetmeat !a sweet or cake", also in the saying Fone manAs meat is another manAs oison. Wade in 3ld English meant Fto goA but in 1iddle English it began to be used with the meaning of Fto walk through water, mudA iii& E#e3ation o' %eanin im lies the rocess by which the new meaning of a word ac;uires a higher status in com arison with the initial one. e.g. knight !3E cniht" originally meant Fa boyA, Fa servantA7 in 1iddle English it began to be used with the meaning of Fman raised to honourable military rankA.

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i3& 7e radation o' %eanin refers to the rocess when a neutral word becomes de recating in meaning. Thus, cnafe !` G. :nabe" originally signified Fa boyA but in 1iddle English it began to be used with the meaning of FknaveA. 1&"&*&"& /orro(in ! The greatest number of words borrowed in the 1iddle English eriod came from 6rench and (atin. The French in'#uence on the 3oca.u#ary The end of the 1iddle English eriod witnessed an enormous influ# of thousands of 6rench words. Since that time borrowing has won a favourite lace in English word2formation. 6rench influence did not begin immediately after the $orman &on;uest when there was a well2marked se aration between the two languages. This influence was strongest in the years ,C=> Q ,P>>, i.e. after the loss of $ormandy and the reestablishment of English. 6rench has enriched the English vocabulary by about ten thousand words, three ;uarters of which are still in current use. Besides, the im ortance of the 6rench influence is not to be )udged only by the number of the words borrowed, but also by their freOuency of use and by their degree of assimilation. 1any of the words borrowed from 6rench were connected with the develo ment of feudalism, and with the life, ideas, customs and tastes of the $orman nobility. The 6rench loan words may be divided into the following grou s according to the main s heres of activity they belong to0 a" Bords reflecting feudal administration0 state !` dtat", mayor !` maire", realm, govern, government, court, prince, noble, duke, sovereign, maEesty, reign, royal, revenue, etc. b" Bords connected with law. %s 6rench was the language of the law courts for a very long time, most legal terms are of 6rench origin0 Eustice, sentence, prison, defence, defendant, crime, accuse, plea, to plead, Eudge, Eudgment. c" Bords connected with army and military life. The im ortant art layed by war in feudalism, the control of the army and the navy by the 6rench2s eaking aristocracy, the wars waged with 6rance, all these factors contributed to the ado tion of numerous 6rench military terms, such as0 captain, lieutenant, spy, army, battle, siege, enemy, regiment, combat, etc. d" :eligious, ecclesiastical terms. The fact that the ma)or art of the higher clergy were of $orman origin accounts for a large number of 6rench words such as0 religion, sermon, saint, miracle, clergy, friar, pray, baptism, hermit. e" Terms connected with art, literature, science. The cultural and intellectual interests of the ruling class are reflected in words ertaining to the arts, architecture, science, medicine, etc0 art, paint*ing+, prose, pain, poison, ointment, logic, grammar, etc. f" Terms reflecting fashion, meals, social life0 dress, garment, robe, button, fashion, dinner, appetite, taste2 beef, veal, mutton, pork, Eoy, pleasure, leisure, dance, music, ease, etc. 1any of the 6rench words that were borrowed had a meaning already e# ressed by an English word. In such cases two linguistic henomena ha ened0 i. one of the two words disa eared7 ii. where both survived, they were differentiated in meaning. i. 3ne of the two words !6rench or English" disa eared0 2 Sometimes, after a time, it was the 6rench word that went out of use0 e.g. 3E amity was used for some time in 1iE alongside friendship but was finally re laced by friendship2 amity is now used in very formal style. 3E moiety !`6. moitid" was finally re laced by half. 2 In a great many cases it was the 3ld English word that died out0 e.g. The 3.E. ACele was re laced in 1i.E. by the 6rench word noble, and ACeling became nobleman.

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3E oldhord was re laced in 1i.E by the 6rench word tresorI treasure !1od.E". %lthough the com ound went out of use, the se arate words have been retained0 gold, hoard !* ile+". 3E erihte was re laced in 1iE by the 6rench word Eustice. The 3.E. d?m was re laced in 1i..E. by the 6rench word Eudgment. But the 3.E. word has survived in some s ecial senses0 Fthe day of doomA or FdoomsdayA !_ the day of )udgment"7 Fto be doomed to oblivionA !_ to be condemned by fate toc", or F to meet one0s doom0. The 3.E. d=man was re laced in 1i.E. by the 6rench word to Eudge. The 3.E. word has survived in some s ecial senses0 Fto deem it right E ro erA !_ to think E to hold an o inion". ii. Bhen both the English and the corres onding 6rench words survived, they were maintained and they were generally differentiated in meaning. Thus, there a eared stylistic differences )ustifying the retention of both words in the language. %s a rule, the native word 2 English 2 had a concrete character, it referred to everyday life and therefore it was referred in informal style, having a more emotional sense7 the loan2word 2 6rench 2 had a more bookish, more abstract character and it was referred in formal style. There are numerous e#am les of two le#ical items, one Germanic and one :omance, for one single conce t in English0 hearty ' cordial, help ' aid, deep ' profound, begin ' commence, ask ' demand, hide ' conceal, wedding ' marriage, wish ' desire, freedom ' liberty, child ' infant , work ' labour, life ' existence, etc. :eferring to the air of words hearty and cordial, %. Baugh a Th. &able write0 PIn the fifteenth century hearty and cordial came to be used for feelings which were su osed to s ring from the heart. Etymologically they are alike, coming res ectively from the 3ld English and the (atin words for FheartA. But we have ke t them both in the language because we use them with a slight difference in meaning, hearty im lying a certain hysical vigour, as in a hearty dinner, cordial a more ;uiet or conventional manifestation, as in a cordial reception. * !,-./0 ,/>" Because of the concrete value, the English word has a stronger emotional colouring than the 6rench one. Thus, hearty welcome is warmer than cordial welcome !3. Ses ersen, ,-==0 ,>P+. %lso, referring to the difference between help and aid, 3tto Ses ersen writes0 *Help e# resses greater de endence and dee er need than aid. In e#tremity we say FGod help meeA rather than FGod aid meeA In time of danger we cry FhelpQ helpeA rather than FaidQ 8idA 4c5Help includes aid, but aid may fall short of the meaning of help.+ !,-==0 ,>8" In the same way, the English have ke t a number of words for smell. The common word in 3ld English was stench. During the 1iddle English eriod this was su lemented by the word smell !of unknown origin" and the 6rench words aroma, odour, and scent. To these the English have since added stink !from the verb" and perfume and fragrance, from 6rench. 1ost of these have s ecial connotations and smell has become the general word. 4tench now always means an un leasant smell !Baugh a &able, ,-./0 ,/>". Oery often, the difference in origin has develo ed into a difference in meaning. %n interesting grou of words illustrating the rinci le is ox, sheep, swine, and calf beside the 6rench e;uivalents beef, mutton, pork, and veal. The 6rench words rimarily denoted the animal, as they still do, but in English they were used from the beginning to distinguish the meat from the living beast. %longside of 6rench words, many 6rench word2building elements entered the English language0 9refi#es0 dis, ' des2 !disdain, destroy2 disown, dislike !with English roots"7 en, *enEoy, encircle+.

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Suffi#es0 ,ence' ,ance *defence, obedience2 ignorance, arrogance+2 ,tion *corruption, attraction+2,ment *treatment, government2 fulfilment !hybrid"7 ,ess !princess, goddess !hybrid"7 2able' ,ible0 admirable, terrible, readable !hybrid". It must not be thought that the e#tensive modification of the English language caused by the $orman &on;uest had made of it something else than English. The language had undergone much sim lification of its inflections, but its grammar was still English. It had absorbed several thousand 6rench words as a natural conse;uence of a situation in which large numbers of eo le were for a time bilingual and then gradually turned from the habitual use of 6rench to the habitual use of English. It had lost a great many native words and abandoned some of its most characteristic habits of word2formation. But great and basic elements of the vocabulary were still English. %s %. Baugh and Th. &able rightly oint out, *Bhile we are under the necessity of aying considerable attention to the large 6rench element that the $orman &on;uest brought directly and indirectly into the language, we must see it in ro er ers ective. The language which the $ormans and their successors finally ado ted was English, and while it was an English changed in many im ortant articulars from the language of Xing %lfred, its redominant features were those inherited from the Germanic tribes that settled in England in the fifth century+ !,-./0 ,/=". The Latin in'#uence on the 3oca.u#ary % great number of words were borrowed from (atin in the ,P th and ,=th centuries. This is ;uite natural, for (atin was the language of theology and learning. Besides, the influence of 6rench words facilitated the ado tion of (atin words. The new borrowings were learned words and they enetrated into the language through literature, es ecially through the numerous translations from (atin made at that time. (atin borrowings in 1iddle English belong to different s heres, mainly social life, law, medicine, science, religion E theology, literature. It is unnecessary to attem t a formal classification of these borrowings. Some idea of their range and character may be gained from a selected but miscellaneous list of e#am les0 e.g. abEect, allegory, conspiracy, custody, homicide, immune, incredible, incumbent, index, infancy, inferior, infinite, innate, intellect, legal, promote, prosecute, prosody, rational, script, scripture, secular, solar, submit, summary, testify, testimony, tract, etc. 1any of these borrowings introduced into the language suffi#es and refi#es which began to be used for forming derivatives !some of these affi#es reinforcing the corres onding 6rench ones"0 9refi#esD ab,, ad,, con,, dis,, im, ' in,, pro,, re,, sub, Suffi#es0 ,able ' ,ible, ,ent, ,al, ,ous, ,ive. Synony%! at three #e3e#! The richness of the English language in synonyms is largely due to the mingling of English !native", 6rench and (atin elements. This may be seen in the grou s of synonyms where a difference between collo;uial, literary and learned terms is ;uite a arent. The English term is more collo;uial in style, the 6rench term is literary7 the (atin term is generally more learned or bookish0 e.g. En #i!h rise ask fast fire holy French mount demand E ;uestion firm flame sacred Latin ascend interrogate secure conflagration consecrated

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Chapter 4: 6O7ERN ENGLISH This eriod falls into three stages0 ,. Early 1odern English0 the ,?th and ,.th centuries C. The ,/th century 8. (ate 1odern English0 the ,-th and C>h centuries 4&1& Ear#y 6odern En #i!h The beginnings of the modern eriod are, at the same time, the beginnings of the :enaissance in England0 the ,?th century was the eriod of magnificent flourishing of science, art and literature. In the ,?th century, the English language faced a number of roblems, the most im ortant of which was the struggle with %atin in science and literature, i.e. the struggle for recognition in the fields where (atin had, for centuries, been su reme. %lthough towards the end of the 1iddle English eriod the English language had attained an established osition as the language of literature, there was still a strong tradition according to which (atin was used in all fields of knowledge. This idea was strengthened by the revival of Greek and (atin learning. %ccording to this tradition, it was considered that English was not fit to e# ress serious thought and it was used only for light literature. 'ere are a few e#am les of writers or scientists who thought that their writings would last only if they were written in (atin0 Th. 1ore wrote his ;topia in (atin in ,=,?, and the book was translated into English only 8= years later, long after his death. 6r. Bacon ublished his hiloso hical work 1e 8ugmentis in (atin. This work was an e# anded version of <he 8dvancement of %earning. 'owever, as we a roach the end of the ,? th century we see that English had slowly won recognition as a language of serious thought. % number of factors contributed to this victory0 2 the rising bourgeoisie defended the national language7 2 the :eformationD contributed to the victory of English7 2 the struggle between English and (atin had a commercial as ect, as well0 the market for English books was much larger than the market for (atin books. In the ,?th century there is a considerable body of literature defending the English language against those who com ared it unfavourably to (atin or other modern tongues, atriotically recogni<ing its osition as the national s eech, considering that it was fit for literary use. The roof that English was fit for literary use came from a large number of remarkable literary works, written in the ,?th and ,.th centuries. The works written by B. Byatt, Surrey, E. S enser, &h. 1arlowe, B. Sonson, B. Shakes eare Q in the ,? th century7 by S. 1ilton, S. Dryden, B. &ongreve in the ,.th century show, indeed, that English has won recognition as a language of serious thought. 4&1&1& Spe##in in Ear#y 6odern En #i!h

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In the ,? th century, s elling was e#tremely com licated. It was no longer honetic and it was not yet fi#ed. In 1iddle English the $orman scribes had introduced a great deal of confusion which was increased because certain s ellings became conventional, while ronunciation went on changing. In a number of cases the discre ancy between sounds and their gra hic re resentation became even more striking when certain etymologists inserted letters in words where they were not ronounced. Thus, the 1i E dett, borrowed from 6. dette was res elt in E1E as debt, i.e. the consonant b was introduced, so that the word could be traced back to (atin debitum. The 1i E dout, borrowed from 6. doute*r+ was res elt in E1E as doubt, i.e. the consonant b was introduced, so that the word could be traced back to (atin dubitare. 1any of the new s ellings were wrong even from the etymological oint of view. Thus, many words were res elt on account of analogy. The 1i E sent !derived from (. sentire or 6. sentir" was res elt in E1E as scent, i.e. the consonant c was introduced on account of the analogy with words that were ronounced in the same manner !e.g. science+. Therefore, the introduction of the consonant c was not correct from the etymological oint of view. In the first half of the ,? th century s elling was so unstable that it varied from one writer to another and, sometimes, one and the same writer s elt certain words in several ways. Thus, 1atthew Green wrote0 felow, felowe, fellow, fellowe. !cited from Iarovici, ,-.80 ,=," Therefore, the im ortant roblem in the ,?th century was to bring about greater agreement in the writing of English0 numerous attem ts were made to draw up rules and to sim lify the very com licated s elling. %s a result of these attem ts0 2 certain unnecessary letters were eliminated, such as final e0 e.g. faerie Oueene *1od.E. fairy Oueen+ 2 or, it became the custom to use i initially and medially and y finally. That accounts for the s ellingsD beauty beautiful2 dry drier. By ,?=> English s elling, in its modern form, had been ractically established. But ronunciation went on changing. The numerous and im ortant honetic modifications that occurred later are not reflected in s elling !which had become fi#ed by that time". Therefore, the main causes of the discre ancy between s ellings and ronunciation are0 a" the arbitrary modifications brought about by certain etymologists and scribes7 b" the fact that s elling had become fi#ed by ,?=> but ronunciation went on changing. 4&1&"& ,ronunciation in Ear#y 6odern En #i!h The most striking changes undergone by the sounds of the English language were the following0 a" The com lete alteration of most vowel sounds in stressed syllables. %ll long stressed vowels came to be ronounced with a greater raising of the tongue and closing of the mouth, e.g. e I i2 o I u7 those vowels in which the tongue could not be raised without becoming consonantal, i.e. i, u Q became di hthongs0 i Y 4ai5, u Y 4au5. The ma)or change in the history of English that resulted in new honemic re resentations of words and mor hemes took lace a ro#imately between ,=>> and ,?>>. It is known as <he Great $owel 4hift. Thus, the five long or tense vowels of 1iddle English underwent the following change0 Shift E#am le 6idd#e 6odern 6idd#e 6odern En #i!h En #i!h En #i!h En #i!h 4i05 T 4ai5 4mi0s5 T 4mais5 mice 4u05 T 4au5 4mu0s5 T 4maus5 mouse 4e05 T 4i05 4ge0s5 T 4gi0s5 geese 4o05 T 4u05 4go0s5 T 4gu0s5 goose 405 T 4e05 4n0m5 T 4ne0m5 name

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These changes are among the most dramatic e#am les of regular sound shift. The honemic re resentation of many thousands of words changed. Today, some reflection of this vowel shift is seen in the alternating forms of the mor hemes in English0 please pleasant, serene serenity, sane sanity, crime criminal, sign signal, and so on. 3nce, the vowels in each air were the same. Then the vowels in the second word of each air were shortened by a rule called the Early /iddle English $owel 4hortening rule. %s a result The Great Oowel Shift, which occurred later, affected only the first word in each air. The second word, with its short vowel, was unaffected. This is why the vowels in the mor hologically related words are ronounced differently today, as shown in the table below !6romkin a :odman, ,--/0 P=?"0 E''ect o' the ;o(e# Shi't on 6odern En #i!h 1i. E. Shifted Short Bord with Bord with Oowel Oowel &ounter art Shifted Oowel Short Oowel f ai i divine divinity g au u rofound rofundity h i i serene serenity j u o fool folly k e Z sane sanity The Great Oowel Shift is a rimary source of many of the s elling inconsistencies of English because the s elling system still reflects the way words were ronounced before the Great Oowel Shift took lace. The vowels of unstressed syllables had a tendency to weaken and often to disa ear in ronunciation0 different 4ldifrnt5, medal 4lmedl5, etc. b" %mong the changes that a eared in consonant sounds the most im ortant are the artial or total silencing of certain consonants0 i. the gradual silencing of 4r57 it had been rolled in 1iddle English !as it still is at resent in Scotland"7 in E1E it ac;uired a dull sound at the beginning of words and in the middle of words between two vowel sounds !e.g. rat, /ary"7 in the middle and at the end of words it has been com letely silenced !e.g. arm, far". ii. The weakening of consonant grou s0 2 4w5 was silenced in the grou wr7 wrong, write, wring2 2 4h5 was silenced in the grou wh0 where, which, whip2 2 4k5 was silenced in the grou kn0 know, knife, knot2 2 4l5 was silenced in the grou lk, lm, lfD walk, calm, half. 2 Oery often when a word ended in a combination of two consonants *mb, mn+ the second one was dro ed0 climb, comb, autumn, column2 2 Bhen a word contained a combination of three consonants the one in the middle was sometimes dro ed0 bustle, castle, handsome, grandmother, handkerchief, etc. Such honetic changes widened even further the discre ancy between s elling and ronunciation. 4&1&*& Gra%%ar in Ear#y 6odern En #i!h %fter the essential grammatical changes that had occurred in 1iddle English, the evolution of 1odern English grammar seemed rather uneventful. Grammar underwent few changes in Early 1odern English. % very im ortant characteristic of Early 1odern English grammar was lack of stability7 certain old forms survived while certain new ones came into use. There were very few inflections left. The Noun The only inflections retained in the noun were those marking the category of number !the lural" and case !the ossessive singular".

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a= Nu%.er. The lural in s has become the only regular form. &ertain nouns, robably due to their fre;uent use maintained their old lurals. Some in *e+n maintained their old weak !neuter" lural, e.g. ox oxen, child Q children7 also, those based on internal vowel change, e.g. foot feet, tooth teeth, man men, etc7 the invariable nouns !with unchanged lurals" from the 3E neuter ones0 sheep, deer, swine. $ouns which had been borrowed from other languages in 3ld English and 1iddle English had generally taken the inflections characteristic of English words. But loan 2 words belonging to the modern eriod often retain their original !foreign" lural0 axes, phenomena, stimuli, etc. $evertheless, in contem orary English there is a tendency to regulari<e some foreign lurals !e.g. symposia or symposiums" or to maintain the foreign lurals only as scientific terms !e.g. formulas used in everyday language while formulae is restricted to scientific usage". .= Ca!e& The system of declension which had gradually narrowed to two case forms by the th ,= century !3b)ective and 9ossessive", maintained itself in Early 1odern English and it has survived down to our days. $evertheless, an im ortant change occurred little by little, namely the narrowing of the s here of the inflected Genitive !in Q es" to nouns denoting living beings. Towards the end of the ,.th century the Genitive singular ending in Q es began to be re laced by Rs and about a century later, the a ostro he came to be used for the Genitive lural. The Ad>ecti3e By the end of the 1iddle English eriod, the ad)ective had already lost all its endings, so that it no longer e# ressed distinctions of gender, number and case. The chief interest of this art of s eech in the modern eriod is in the forms of the com arative and su erlative degrees. The two methods commonly used to form the com arative and su erlative !the synthetic and analytical com arison", with the endings Qer and est and with the adverbs more and most, had been customary since 3ld English times. But there was much variation in their use0 in the si#teenth century these were not always recisely those now in use. &om arisons found in Shakes eareAs works like certainer, honester, famousest, honourablest, are now re laced by the analytical forms. 3n the other hand, monosyllabic ad)ectives often formed their com arative and su erlative analytically, e.g. -ngratitude more strong than traitor0s arms. Double com aratives or double su erlatives were ;uite fre;uent in Early 1odern English. e.g. -0m more better than 7rospero. !The Tem est" %et not my worser spirit tempt you again. !X. (ear" cin the calmest and most stillest night. !'enry IO" The chief develo ment affecting the ad)ective in modern times has been the gradual settling down of usage so that monosyllables take Qer and est while most ad)ectives of two or more syllables take more and most. The ,ronoun The ronoun underwent certain rather im ortant changes. The per!ona# pronoun The si#teenth century saw the establishment of the ersonal ronoun in the form which it has had ever since. In attaining this result three changes were involved0 a" the disuse of thou, thy, thee7 b" the substitution of you for ye as a nominative case7 c" the introduction of its as the ossessive of it. a" The forms of the ersonal ronoun0 ye, you, your*s+ had begun to be used as a mark of res ect in addressing a su erior, maybe under the influence of 6rench usage in court circles. The old forms thou, !$om.", thee !3b).", thy ! oss. %d).", thine !9oss. 9ron." were used as e# ressions of intimacy or for addressing social inferiors. (ittle by little, the forms ye, you, your*s+ became the usual ronouns of direct address irres ective of rank or intimacy. It was

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only in the ,?/h century that the forms thou !$om.", thee !3b).", thy !9oss. %d).", thine !9oss. 9ron." disa eared com letely, they fell into disuse, e#ce t in certain dialects and in oetry. b" %t first, there had e#isted a clear distinction between ye !used only as Sub)ect in the sentence _ $ominative" and you !used as 3b)ect _ Dative or %ccusative". In the ,?th century the two forms began to be used rather indiscriminately, until ye eventually disa eared and you became generali<ed as the $ominative and %ccusative form. Thus, we find in the literary works of the time e#am les of fluctuation between ye and you. e.g. <herein, ye Gods, you make the weak most strong. !Shakes eare, S. &aesar" 4tand sirs, and throw us that you have about ye. !Shakes eare, <he <wo Gentlemen of $erona" c" %n interesting develo ment in the ronoun at this time was the formation of a new ossessive neuter, its. The ersonal ronouns of the third erson singular, he, she, it, had a distinctive form for each gender in the nominative and ob)ective cases. % need seems to have been felt for a distinctive form in the ossessive case as well0 his, her, its. The ersonal ronoun they began to be used indefinitely !i.e. as the sub)ect of an indefinite im ersonal sentence" instead of the 3ld English and 1iddle English man, mon. e.g. <hey say if ravens sit on hen0s eggs, the chickens will be black. The re'#e:i3e pronoun The refle#ive ronouns a eared in the ,?th century and they began to re lace the ersonal ronouns in those constructions in which the ronouns were co2referential. But in Early 1odern English the refle#ive ronouns were not consistently used7 therefore, we still find ersonal ronouns in cases in which we would use refle#ive ronouns in &ontem orary English0 e.g. How she opposes her against my will. !Shakes eare" The re#ati3e pronoun %nother im ortant develo ment was the use of who as a relative ronoun. :efinements in the use of subordinate clauses are a mark of maturity in style. %s the loose association of clauses !parataxis" gives way to more recise indications of logical relationshi and subordination !hypotaxis", there is need for a greater variety of words effecting the union !Baugh0 CPP". 3ld English had no relative ronoun ro er. It made use of the definite article s= !1", s=o !6", CAt !$", which, however it was felt in 3ld English times, strikes us as having more demonstrative force than relative. Early in the 1iddle English eriod CAt !that" became the almost universal relative ronoun, used for all genders. In the fifteenth century which begins to alternate fairly fre;uently with that. %t first it referred mostly to neuter antecedents, although occasionally it was used for ersons, a use that survives in the (ordAs 9rayer &ur father, which art in heaven. But the tendency to em loy that as a universal relative has never been lost in the language. It was not until the si#teenth century that the ronoun who as a relative came into use. The earlier use of who as an interrogative in indirect ;uestions a ears to have been the im ortant source of the new construction0 the se;uence Whom do you wantm !direct ;uestion" , <hey asked whom you wanted !indirect ;uestion", - know the man whom you wanted !relative" is not a difficult one to assume. In any case, our resent2day wides read use of who as a relative ronoun is rimarily a contribution of the si#teenth century to the language !Baugh0 CPP". &mission of the relative pronounD In Early 1odern English the relative ronoun was fre;uently omitted, even when it had the syntactic function of sub)ect. e.g. - have a brother is condemned to die. !Shakes eare, 1easure for 1easure" <here0s somebody wants to see you. The inde'inite pronoun There were some old forms of indefinite ronouns that were used in Early 1odern English. 8ught !something, anything", which survives today only in hrases such as Ffor aught I knowA, was fre;uently used during the :enaissance0

8=

e.g. -f thou remember0st aught ere thou comest here. !The Tem est" "ought or "aught !nothing" was still in current use u to the middle of the ,.th century. The com ound indefinite ronouns somebody, anybody, nobody, something, anything, nothing a eared in Early 1odern English. The ;er. Some im ortant changes occurred in the con)ugation of the verb. The inflection for the 8 rd erson singular 9resent Indicative had been *e+th in the South and South East of England all through the 1iddle English eriod. In the ,= th century, in the $orth, forms ending in s had a eared from time to time and their number increased in the ,?th century, es ecially in collo;uial use. During the first half of the ,. th century *e+th continued to be used ;uite often in writing, but s became universal in the s oken language. 6or a time, the two endings !in Qeth and s+ were indiscriminately used, sometimes in one and the same te#t. It has been observed that in the rose arts of Shakes eareAs lays, 2 s revails and Qth generally seems to belong to solemn s eeches rather than to everyday talk. e.g. (ady 1acbeth0 He has almost supp0dD why have you left the chamberm 1acbeth0 Hath he asked for mem (ady 1acbeth0 :now you not he hasS Similar fluctuations can be seen in the form of the second erson singular, 9resent Indicative ending in st !or art for be". Such forms normally occurred with the ronoun thouD e.g. -f thou remember0st aught ere thou comest here. !Shakes eare Q The Tem est" The form in st was gradually re laced by the form of the second erson lural !without any ending" used with the ronoun you. Instances of both forms are sometimes found in one and the same te#t0 <hou art the truest friend in the worldTMou wrong her. !&ongreve" Such fluctuations illustrate the gradual disa earance of the category of number in the second erson of the verb in 1odern English. In Early 1odern English the ten!e! of the verb were generally the same as they are today. 'owever, intransitive verbs of motion usually formed the 9resent 9erfect with the au#iliary be instead of have0 <he deep of night is crept upon our talk. !Shakes eare 2 S. &aesar" Whither are they vanishedm !Shakes eare Q 1acbeth" The resent distinctions between the 7ast <ense and the 7resent 7erfect were not yet very clear in Early 1odern English, as one can see in0 Mou spoke not with her since. !Shakes eare QXing (ear" - have drunk poison while he utter0d it. !Shakes eare" %s far as the Future was concerned, we notice that the weakened le#ical meaning of shall and will was more obvious than it had been in 1iddle English. e.g. He that Ouestioneth much, shall learn much. !6. Bacon" The grammars written in the ,? th century do not mention any differences of use between shall and will for e# ressing future time. The Continuou! A!pect develo ed very slowly in 1odern English. Its forms were more fre;uent in Shakes eareAs works than they had been in &haucerAs but they were still very rare. Thus, addressing 'amlet, 9olonius asks, FWhat do you read my lordmA !and not FWhat are you readingmA". The e#tension of the rogressive forms to the assive !<he house is being built" was an even later develo ment. It is only since the ,-th century that the &ontinuous %s ect has come into wide use. The use of do as a du%%y au:i#iary in Interrogative and $egative sentences. Towards the close of the ,= th century the verb to do had begun to be used as a dummy au#iliary in Interrogative and $egative sentences. This tendency grew stronger in the ,? th and

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,.th centuries. It was robably due to the fact that to do was to be found ;uite often in affirmative sentences with an em hasi<ing function0 -f you do meet Horatio andTbid them make haste !Shakes eare Q 'amlet" %lthough in Early 1odern English we still find constructions of Interrogative and $egative sentences formed without the au#iliary do, from time to time we come across the new forms with do. e.g. Goes the king hence todaym !Shakes eare Q 1acbeth" <hey perceive not how time moves. !Shakes eare 2 %s @ou (ike It" What do you read my lordm m !Shakes eare Q 'amlet" &h, my lord, dost thou lie so lowm !Shakes eare Q S. &aesar" The number of 3er. $ ad3er.ia# partic#e combinations began to grow in Early 1odern English. The few verb adverb combinations that had e#isted in 1iddle English had e# ressed a concrete, s atial meaning. In other words, they had reserved both the meaning of the verb and that of the adverb. The meaning of the hrasal verb is the fairly literal sense of the verb and the adverbial particle in combination, the article merely im lying a certain intensification of the idea conveyed by the verb, e.g. to climb up, to fall down. But in Early 1odern English these combinations grew more and more numerous and their meaning became less and less self2evident. e.g. "or am - yet persuaded to put up in peace what already - have foolishly suffered. !Shakes eare 2 3thello" Thus the grou put up was assing from the notion of s ace to the resent2day meaning of FtolerateA. They suggest com arison with verbs having se arable refi#es in German, and to a smaller e#tent with English verbs like withstand, overcome. The latter were much more common in 3ld English than they are today, their gradual disuse being one of the conse;uences of the $orman &on;uest. Synta: In the s here of synta#, we find certain im ortant changes, some of which are connected with the evolution of the mor hological structure of the language. Thus, the com lete disa earance of agreement is due to the fact that the ad)ective has become an invariable art of s eech, as well as to the loss of nearly all the ersonal infle#ions of the verb. In Early 1odern English we still find instances of two or even more than two negations in one and the same sentence0 e.g. Met, Rt was not a crown neither. !Shakes eare Q S. &aesar" In the ,? th century impersonal sentences were still fre;uent, but they began to be su erseded by ersonal sentences. Thus, we find sentences such as F -t likes me wellA. !Shakes eare Q The Tamingc", alongside of F- do not like this tune.A !Shakes eare Q The Two Gentlemen of Oerona" % henomenon which belongs both to mor hology and synta#, as well as to le#icology, and which became very fre;uent in Early 1odern English is con3er!ion or 'unctiona# !hi't. &onversion !or <ero2mor heme derivation" is the rocess whereby one word is created from another without any change of form !Bolton, ,--80 C=.". &onversion became ;uite fre;uent in Early 1odern English owing to the loss of most endings and inflections. Thus, the 3E verb andswarian and the 3E noun andswaru became in 1iE answeren !v." and answere !n."7 In E1E they merged into one and the same form answer !verb and noun". %lso0 3E 1iE E1E Oerb lufian loven love $oun lufu love love 3n the analogy of such e#am les there a eared in Early 1odern English numerous shifts from verb to noun and from noun to verb.

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The fact that the ad)ective had lost all its case, number and gender infle#ions accounts for its being turned more and more often into a noun. This ha ened not only with words of 3ld English origin, but also with those borrowed from other languages !es ecially 6rench and (atin", e.g. effective from 6rench7 abstract, from (atin. Shakes eare resorted to conversion very fre;uently, for e#am le, he often turned nouns into verbs0 cudgelling oneUs brains2 beggaring all description, etc. The further loss of inflectional endings had as an im ortant conse;uence a greater de endence on fi#ed word order. The main sentence attern consists of Sub)ect Q Oerb Q 3b)ect. This has come to be regarded as the FnaturalA word order in declarative sentences. Stuart :obertson rightly oints out that *through the function of inflection, the word was generally autonomous in 3ld English, while in 1odern English grammatical autonomy has shifted to the word2grou . Be are more de endent u on conte#t than Xing %lfred was7 for us the order of words indicates more Q indeed, sometimes everything Q about their grammatical function, whereas in 3ld English that was im licit in the form of the word. Thus, as the language has changed from inflectional or synthetic structure to analytic structure, individual words have gained sim licity of form or fle#ibility of function7 but within the sentence they have lost freedom of movement, and have become more de endent u on one another !,-=/0 ,P=" 4&1&1& The Enrich%ent o' the ;oca.u#ary in Ear#y 6odern En #i!h The :enaissance was a eriod of increased activity in all fields. The flourishing of classical studies, the e#tensive study of (atin and Greek authors, the am le use of (atin as the international language of science, introduced into English a large number of (atin and Greek borrowings. The closer contact with Italian arts and literature, the connection with the $ew Borld Q all these factors o ened u new hori<ons, also bringing along large2scale borrowings from Italian, S anish, 9ortuguese. 1any of the new words were absolutely necessary, for the vernacular was not ade;uate to meet the ever growing demand of the economic, olitical, scientific and cultural life of the time. $ew words were articularly needed in various technical fields in which English was oor. By far the greater art of the additions to the English vocabulary in the eriod of the :enaissance was drawn from sources outside of English. Latin and Gree) .orro(in ! It was articularly during the time of the :enaissance or the age of new learning that the influence of (atin and Greek reached un recedented heights. 1uch more than 6rench, (atin left its im rint not only on the vocabulary, but also on English grammar. (atin synta# is reflected in com le# structures !absolute constructions" with artici les, infinitives and gerunds as com onents. &ertain writers of that time tried in an e#aggerated manner, to imitate (atin atterns, e.g. Sydney in his 8rcadia0 #ut then, 1emagoras assuring himself, that now 7arthenia was her own, she would never be his, and receiving as much by her own determinate answere, not more desiring his own happiness, VTW the wicked 1emagoras desiring to speak with her, with unmerciful force, rubbed all over her face a most horrible poisonD the effect whereof was such that never leper looked more ugly than she didD which done, having his men and horses ready, departed away in spite of her servants. Sydney used as many as four artici ial constructions in Qing before the main verb !FrubbedA". The final art of the sentence begins with a (atini<ed assive absolute construction !Fwhich doneA" with the ersonal ronoun FheA omitted before Fde artedA in the truly (atin fashion. !D. Giering, ,-.-0 ,P". The ma)or art of (atin and Greek terms were and have remained learned words, but many of them are ;uite indis ensable today. They have generally entered the language

8/

through the medium of writing. 'ere are some e#am les of (atin and Greek loan words !the latter having come in through (atin"0 allusion, animal, apology, apparatus, appropriate, atmosphere, autograph, axis, climax, conspicuous, crisis, drama, emphasis, exert, expensive, genius, insane, Eunior, omen, parenthesis, pathetic, pauper, pneumonia, scheme, skeleton, system, tactics, etc. Bords like anonymous, catastrophe, polemic, tantali6e, thermometer, tonic, etc. were taken straight from Greek. 3n enetrating into the English language some words maintained their original form, e.g. climax, appendix, axis, delirium. 3ther words underwent changes0 a" Some words cut off their ending, e.g. to consult !` (. consultare+, to permit !`(. permittere+, exotic !` (. exoticus+ b" a great number of words changed their endings0 2 the (atin ending Qus in ad)ectives became Qous0 conspicuus I conspicuous 2 the (atin ending Qtas in ad)ectives became Qty0 brevitas I brevity Sometimes the same word was borrowed more than once in the course of time0 a" Some words had been borrowed in 3ld English and again later in Early 1odern English0 e.g. (atin discus a eared in 3E as disc I dish and was again borrowed later in E1E as discus !in s orts Fdiscus throwingA and disc FrecordA". b" % large number of (atin words enetrated into the English language in 1iddle English !in a $orman 6rench form" and they were reintroduced in Early 1odern English !in a (atin form" sometimes with a different meaning. Two or more words that have come from the same source but that followed different routes of transmission are called doublets. 'ere are a few e#am les of such doubletsD Latin word 6idd#e En #i!h Ear#y 6odern En #i!h !French form" !Latin form" abbreviare abridge abbreviate corpus corps !grou " corpse !dead body" exemplum sample example factum feat fact fragilem frail fragile historia story history radius ray radius pauperum poor pauper maEorem mayor maEor securum sure secure %s may be seen from these e#am les, the difference in meaning is sometimes a rather slight, insignificant one, the more recent borrowing merely having a more learned or more abstract character, e.g. in airs like ray and radius, poor and pauper. But the difference in meaning is ;uite often a very im ortant one, e.g. corps and corpse, mayor and maEor. There were also cases of Greek doublets such as the following0 Gree) (ord /orro(ed in /orro(ed in Ear#y 6idd#e En #i!h 6odern En #i!h adamanta diamond adamant phantasia fancy fantasy phantasma phantom phantasm paralysis palsy paralysis

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The abundance of 6rench words borrowed during the 1iddle English eriod made the ado tion of (atin words in Early 1odern English easier and it is often very difficult to know whether a word introduced during the :enaissance was borrowed straight from (atin or through 6rench. Oerbs like consist or explore could have come either from the (atin consistere and explorare or from the 6rench consister and explorer. % certain number of (atin abbreviations enetrated into the English language0 a.m. !(. ante meridiem _ Fbefore noonA"7 e.g. !(. exempli gratia _ Ffor e#am leA"7 i.e. !(. id est _ Fthat is to sayA"7 p.m. !(. post meridiem _ Fafter noonA"7 vi6. !(. videlicet _ FnamelyA"7 etc. !(. et cetera _ Fand so onA". (atin technical terms and hrases were also ado ted, and some of them later assed into a wider circulation. 3thers have remained art of the s ecial terminology of law, trade, medicine, etc. 'ere are some such words and hrases0 ad hoc, alter ego, corpus delicti, in memoriam, non compos mentis, per annum, per diem, sine die, sine Oua non, etc. Other .orro(in ! During the :enaissance foreign borrowings were not limited to words taken from (atin and Greek. The ma)or art of the loan 2 words ado ted during the :enaissance were Q besides (atin and Greek Q 6rench, Italian and S anish. In Early 1odern English many of the French words were borrowed after ,?>>, es ecially after the :estorationR. The :estoration brought back the feudal aristocratic culture alongside a new wave of 6rench influence. The 6rench borrowings belonging to the Early 1odern English eriod are different from those ado ted during the 1iddle English eriod. a" 1ost of them are restricted to articular categories of words, i.e. they reflect the reoccu ations of the aristocracy and of the educated eo le, or else they are technical terms. b" Vnlike the 6rench words borrowed during the 1iddle English eriod which were com letely assimilated, the new loans were not fully assimilated and are still felt as aliens0 2 They often have the stress on the last syllable, as in 6rench !whereas the older borrowings had the stress on the first syllable"0 e.g. ambuscade 4Zmbslkeid5, bi6arre 4bil<05, genteel 4denlti0l5 2 They have fre;uently reserved the 6rench ronunciation of their vowels and consonants0 e.g. naXve 4n0li0v5, machine 4mli0n5, champagne 4Zml ein5, bourgeois 4lbuw05, prestige 4 reslti05 ! ronunciation of the grou s ch , ge"7 ballet !final t is not ronounced" 4lbZlei5, debris !final s is not ronounced" 4ldeibri05, 2They kee the diacritic marks, e.g. caf!, clich!, fianc!. % number of Ita#ian words were ado ted, mostly terms related to arts and literature0 canto, cupola, fresco, sonnet, stan6a, violin, etc. The total number of words added to the English language during the :enaissance amounts to about ,>,>>>. 1any of them died out sooner or later, but about half of them became a ermanent art of the English language. %lthough not all borrowings were absolutely necessary, they have contributed to the wealth of synonyms that we find in English. This wealth of synonyms enriches the language and hel s writers to avoid re etition on the one hand, and to em hasi<e certain ideas, on the other. Thus, in 5ichard --- Shakes eare s eaks of *blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion+. In conclusion, the 3ld English element !the Germanic words" forms the foundation and framework of the English language. The (atin and Greek element has im roved and enriched the scientific terminology of the language, its ower of e# ressing abstract thoughts, as well as its synonymy. $3TES0

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D <he 5eformation was a religious movement for reform of the :oman &atholic &hurch, resulting in the establishment of :eformed or 9rotestant &hurches !The movement was begun by 1. (uther in Germany, S. &alvin in 6rance". R The :estoration _ the eriod of the reestablishment of the monarchy in England after ,??> when &harles II became king. AUESTIONS FOR 7ISCUSSION: ,. 'ow do Early and 9resent2day English differ in the form and use of ronounsm C. &ite a few ad)ectives that still fluctuate between inflectional and analytical com arison in current English, as they did in Early 1odern English. 4&"& The 1Bth century 6rom the linguistic oint of view, the ,/ th century was characteri<ed by attem ts made to standardi<e, im rove !refine" and fi# the English language. Such intellectual tendencies are seen ;uite clearly in the following directions. a" The English made attem ts to establish an English %cademy !to follow the e#am le of the 6rench %cademy" in the effort to set u a standard of correctness. b" English le#icogra hy made a substantial contribution towards standardi<ing the language. The earliest dictionaries were etymological dictionaries. It was Dr. Samuel SohnsonAs 1ictionary of the English %anguage !,.==" that was the landmark in the develo ment of English le#icogra hy. In this dictionary, le#icogra hical techni;ue a roaches contem orary standards. c" In the first treatises on English grammar the early grammarians had the following aims0 2 To stabili<e English by setting u certain rules which should govern the language. They did not recogni<e the im ortance of usage as the basis of correctness. 2 To oint out errors in order to correct and im rove the language. 2 They based their methods of a roach on reason, etymology and the e#am le of (atin. The achievements of the ,/ th century grammarians were enormous because they attem ted to give order to a body of linguistic material which had not been systemati<ed or arranged until then. They settled a large number of dis uted oints. 3n the other hand, their greatest weakness, drawback was their failure to recogni<e the im ortance of usage in language. In other words, they did not reali<e that changes in language could not be checked by linguistic decrees. 1any of the rules that are now acce ted were first set down in the grammars of the eighteenth century, e.g.0 2 The interdiction of the double negation. :obert (owthD stated the rule that we are now bound by0 *Two negatives in English destroy one another, or are e;uivalent to an affirmative.+ 2The interdiction of the double com arative or the double su erlative 2 The use of the com arative rather than the su erlative where only two things are involved !the larger, not the largest, of two" 2 $on2gradableR ad)ectives, such as perfect, round, chief, should not be com ared !more perfect, etc" 2 The differentiation of between and among, etc. 2 The ro er case after than and as was a ;uestion that troubled the eighteenth century grammarians greatly !He is taller than -, or me". But :obert (owth e# ressed the view that has since been acce ted, that the ronoun is determined by the construction to be su lied or understood !He is older than she2 He likes you better than me".

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2 It was not until the second half of the eighteenth century that the rescri tions governing the use of shall and will were e# licitly defined0 sim le futurity is e# ressed by shall in the first erson, by will in the second and third. In the ,/ th century the stream of English may be said to have become fi#ed in its ermanent course. Briters beginning with Defoe, Swift, Steele, %ddison, and 9o e, continued by Sohnson, 6ielding, Sterne, Goldsmith and 'ume set down standards of clarity and ease of com rehension still res ected today. $3TES0 D :obert (owth, 4hort -ntroduction to English Grammar !,.?C", ;uoted in %. Baugh0 . C./" R Vngradable0 in grammar, the term is used to refer to various items which do not show the ability to take com arison. See :. ^uirk0 C8P 4&*& Late 6odern En #i!h The 12th century and a'ter <the 'ir!t ha#' o' the "?th century= The events of the nineteenth century and twentieth centuries affecting the English2s eaking countries have been of great olitical and social im ortance, but in their effect on the language they have not been of a revolutionary character. The success of the British on the sea in the course of the $a oleonic Bars, culminating in $elsonAs famous victory at Trafalgar in ,/>=, left England in a osition of undis uted naval su remacy and gave her control over most of the worldAs commerce. The great reform measures Q the reorgani<ation of arliament, the revision of the enal code and the oor laws, the restrictions laced on child labour, and the other industrial reforms Q were im ortant factors in establishing English society on a more democratic basis. The establishment of the first chea news a er !,/,?" and the im roved means of travel and communication brought about by the railway, the steamboat and the telegra h had the effect of uniting more closely the different arts of England and of s reading the influence of the !tandard !peech. 4&*&1& Spe##in 9resent2day s elling is very com licated. The causes of this situation may be summed u in the following way, now that the stages of the develo ment of the English language have been studied in turn0 ,. 9resent2day s elling generally re resents the ronunciation of (ate 1iddle English7 therefore, it does not reflect the im ortant sound changes that occurred in Early 1odern English and even later. C. Besides certain 3ld English s elling conventions which have been reserved, others have been ado ted, es ecially 6rench and to a certain e#tent, (atin and even Greek ones. That is why there are different s ellings for one and the same sound and, on the other hand, one s elling for different sounds. 4&*&"& Gra%%atica# tendencie! The several factors already discussed as giving stability to English grammar Q the rinting ress, o ular education, im rovements in travel and communication, 2 have been articularly effective in the century )ust assed. Oery few changes in the grammatical forms are to be observed0 a" In collo;uial s eech there is a certain tendency towards an even further #o!! o' in'#ection!: Q The use of who instead of whom in the function of 3b)ect in the interrogative0 e.g. Who do you want to seem !in collo;uial s eech instead of0 Whom do you want to seeS

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2 This tendency is also seen in the fact that the Genitive !the %nalytical genitive, in articular" is often re laced by the Im licit Genitive !the meaning of the Genitive is e# ressed )ust by word2order". e.g. 3uts in Government expenditure2 <he ;nited "ations &rgani6ation2 <he YZth century literature2 8 ten per cent wage increase, etc. In informal collo;uial s eech, the tendency to use me, him, her, us, them in em hatic osition instead of -, he, she, we, they is even stronger than it was before. 3ne fre;uently hears sentences like RWho0s thereS -t0s me. ' -t0s only us.00 <hat0s him all right.0 %ccording to S. :obertson, the henomenon is due to the fact that *the sense of case has become so weakened in 1odern English and the force of word order so dominant, that the latter overrides the former. 4c5 The ob)ectives of the ersonal ronouns have been gaining at the e# ense of the nominatives, which tend more and more to be used only when they are immediately followed by a redicate.+ !,-.-0 C-=" b" %mong the ma)or changes in the grammar of English are those concerning the com arison of ad)ectives. :eferring to these, &h. Barber writes *The tendency has been for more ' most to encroach on Qer' ,est, and it is now normal to say -t0s more common than - thought, and He is the most clever of the three. %mong the younger generation, it is even becoming normal to use more' most with monosyllables, and you hear things like He was more rude than expected. The trend from Qer' ,est, to more' most is in line with the broad develo ment of English over the last thousand years0 it is a change from the synthetic to the analytic, from the use of inflections to the use of grammatical words and word 2 order.+ !0 C/8 2 P" c" %s far as the 3er. is concerned, the following tendencies can be mentioned0 i. The rocess of regulari<ing !tron 3er.!, which has been going on for centuries, continues to re lace FirregularA forms by more FregularA ones. The tendency of strong verbs to develo weak forms is to be seen in such recent formations as thrived !instead of throve, thriven"7 beseech has two forms in use now0 the irregular form besought and the regular one0 beseeched !1acmillan0 ,,?". $ewly formed verbs !converted from nouns" have continued to )oin the weak con)ugation. e.g. to welcomeD <hey welcomed us with open arms. <he announcement will be widely welcomed. The forms broadcast and broadcasted are to be found side by side in 1acmillan dictionary !C>>C0 ,.>"7 also forecast and forecasted !op. cit.0 ==C" ii. The Su.>uncti3e 6ood is not so e#tensively used as it was in 3ld English. The 9resent Sub)unctive has been growing more and more obsolete, surviving only in oetry, high rose and official documents0 -t was decided that the meeting be reconvened. In many cases the 9resent Sub)unctive is re laced by the 9resent Indicative or by a Sub)unctive e;uivalent !au#iliaries such as should, may, might, would". -t was decided that the meeting should be reconvened. There is an increasing tendency to re lace the Sub)unctive form were by the form was in the first and third erson singular, on the analogy of all other verbs in which The 9ast Sub)unctive is homonymous with the 9ast Indicative0 e.g. -f - was not ill - should go to the concert. !instead of0 -f - were not illc" - wish - was c!instead of - wish - were c" Bhat was left of the Sub)unctive 1ood in occasional use has disa eared e#ce t in conditions contrary to fact0 -f - were youT iii. There is a well2marked tendency to generali<e the use of will !in the 6uture Indicative" and that of would !in the 9resent &onditional or 6uture in the 9ast" in the first erson singular and lural, a tendency which is erha s artly due to %merican influence.

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e.g. - will ' shall stay. -f - wanted your help - would ' should come to you at once. iv. % wide e#tension of the use of pro re!!i3e 'or%! is one of the most im ortant develo ments of the English verb in the modern eriod. The chief factor in their growth is the use of the Qing form as a noun governed by the re osition on, e.g. He burst out on laughing 2 This weakened to He burst out a,laughing , and finally to He burst out laughing. In the same way, He was on laughing became He was a,laughing and finally0 He was laughing. Today such forms are used in all tenses !is laughing, will be laughing+. The e#tension of such forms to the assive *the house is being built+ was an even later develo ment. It belongs to the very end of the ,/ th century. %t first, the hrase Fthe house is being builtA for Fthe house is buildingA was condemned, being considered *an awkward neologism+ !cf. %. Baugh a T. &able, ,-./0 C-8", v. % very im ortant tendency in (ate 1odern English is the e#tension of ;er. - ad3er. co%.ination!& %n im ortant characteristic of the modern vocabulary is the large number of e# ressions like set out, put off, bring in, made u of a common verb, often of one syllable combined with an adverb. Vnlike the 1iddle English Oerb 2 adverb combinations, whose meaning clearly reflected both that of the verb and that of the adverb !e.g. climb up, fall down", many 1odern English combinations have a meaning which cannot be derived from that of their com onent arts. 3ne of the most interesting features of such combinations in modern times is the large number of figurative and idiomatic senses in which they have come to be used. 6or e#am le, bring about !cause or accom lish", come round !recover normal state", catch on !com rehend", give out !become e#hausted", keep on !continue", hold up !rob", lay off !cease to em loy", turn over !surrender", si6e up !estimate", let up !cease", put up with !tolerate", etc. It will be noticed that many Oerb 2 adverb combinations are substitutes for single verbs such as comprehend, continue, surrender, etc., of more learned or formal character. They often convey a shade of meaning that cannot be e# ressed in any other manner and they have greatly increased the fle#ibility of the English language. The interesting observation has been made that the vocabulary has thus been ursuing a develo ment similar to that which took lace in English grammar at an earlier eriod and which changed the language from a synthetic to an analytic one !Baugh a &able, ,-./0 88/". c" &ertain trends in the use of prepo!ition! have become a arent in the last century and a half. The most im ortant trend refers to the osition of the re osition in the sentence. In s ite of the rotest of many ,-th century grammarians, re ositions are more and more fre;uently laced at the end of sentences in collo;uial s eech in interrogative sentences and in attributive clauses0 e.g. What are you speaking aboutS <he man - spoke to ' about is a lawyer. d" In the s here of !ynta: there are two im ortant characteristics of (ate 1odern English0 i. % rather striking henomenon is the fact that, in the ress and, to a certain e#tent, in collo;uial s eech, the rules concerning the !e0uence o' ten!e! are not always observed. There are certain situations in which, to the s eakerAs mind, the main clause does not e# ress the min idea, which Q in fact Q is to be found in the subordinate clause. Thus, in He made it plain yesterday that he accepts the agreement. what is essential is the acce tance of the agreement, and not the fact that it was made lain. %lso, in0 -t was not disclosed when the test will be conducted.

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the carrying out of the test is far more im ortant than the disclosure of the time at which it will take lace. Therefore, the s eaker or the writer bears in mind, first and foremost, the main idea, not the tense of the redicate in the main clause. Bhat is essential and significant is not the fact of re orting somebodyAs words, but the contents of the latter !E. Iarovici, ,-.80 C==". ii. %nother striking characteristic of the eriod we are dealing with is the growing im ortance of (ord order. It does away with the difficulties caused by the reduction of infle#ions, by the ra id develo ment of conversion, and by the concentrated, often elli tical way of e# ressing ideas both in everyday s eech and in the ress !es ecially in headlines". In conclusion, resent2day grammatical trends seem to oint to certain new !ynthetic features such as the fre;uent formation of com ounds, but es ecially to an accentuation of the ana#ytica# character of the English language, and this tendency is e# ressed first of all by the ever growing im ortance of word order. There are certain factors which entitle us to s eak about the rogress achieved by the English language. This is reflected in the formation 2 by internal means Q of many new words, including numerous general and abstract terms which enable the s eakers to e# ress even the most com le# ideas7 the strengthening of the systematic character of the English language7 its tendency towards sim lification and economy of effort. 4&*&*& The enrich%ent o' the 3oca.u#ary The events of the ,-th and C>h centuries !the two world wars, the growth in im ortance of some of EnglandAs larger colonies, their eventual inde endence, the ra id develo ment of the Vnited States" have e#erted a certain influence u on the develo ment of the English language, es ecially on its vocabulary. The vocabulary has been considerably enriched owing to the modifications of the economic, social, olitical, cultural life. In the ast century and a half, numberless new terms have a eared in every field of science and technology. 1ost of the terms are known only to s ecialists, but a com aratively large number have assed into general use and have gained a more general currency, like gene, oxygen, molecule, metabolism, etc. 1ost of the new words coming into English since ,/>> have been derived from the same sources or created by the same methods as those that have long been familiar. It should be remembered that the rinci les are not new, that what has been going on in the last century and a half could be aralleled from almost any eriod of the language. Thus, the word stock has been e# anded by means of the inner resources of the language and by means of .orro(in ! from other the languages. 4&*&*&1& Inner re!ource! o' the #an ua e $ew words have been mainly formed by means of affi#ation, conversion, com osition and changes of meaning !of e#isting words". i& A''i:ation Bord building by means of affi#ation !the making of words by the use of refi#es and suffi#es" has been im ortant throughout the history of English. It is still redominant in coining new words in (ater 1odern English. Some of the most active refi#es are anti,, de,, dis,, mis,, out,, over2 pre,, pro,, un,, :ecent additions to the list include post,. super,, trans,. 6or e#am le, anti,hero, counter,attack, decode, misprint, output, overact, preview, postgraduate, superstructure, transcontinental. Some active suffi#es are0 2i6e, ,tion, ,er, ,eer, ,ee, ,ist, ,ism, 6or e#am le, industriali6e, mechani6ation, cutter, profiteer, nominee, capitalism, etc. ii& Con3er!ion &onversion, the rocess of transferring a word from one grammatical category to another, now seems to be the most fre;uently used method of forming new words. The most fre;uent ty es of conversion are0

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2 6rom $oun to Oerb. ^uite a large number of nouns are converted into verbs0 to feature, to audition, to park, to process, to service. (ittle by little, most arts of the body have come to be used as verbs0 to head !a grou of eo le, a list", to eye !a erson with dislike or sus icion", to elbow !oneAs way through a crowd", to finger !a knick2knack", to face !a danger", etc. 2 6rom Oerb to $oun. % com aratively large number of verbs have been converted into nouns. 9eo le who are energetic and ac;uisitive are said to be Fon the goA and Fon the makeA. Those who are well2informed are Fin the knowA. Oerbs of motion such as Eump, leap, run, stroll, walk can be used as nouns. Some nouns converted from verbs have a rather collo;uial colouring, e.g. catch, find, hit, kick, buy, must, etc. Thus, a bargain is a good buy2 articles of food are eats2 technical skill is the know,how2 8 good dictionary is a must for a student. There are more and more numerous the cases of conversion from verb U adverbial article. These combinations are fre;uently used as nouns, es ecially in collo;uial s eech. Thus, a lace of concealment is a hide,out2 an economic recession is a slow,down2 any arrangement or establishment is a set,up2 a re2shuffle of staff is a shake,up2 a meeting of any kind is a get,together2 a ;uick esca e is a get,away. Such cases of conversion are very numerous, robably because the nouns thus obtained are concise and e# ressive. iii& Co%po!ition The ractice of making self2e# laining com ounds is one of the oldest methods of word2 formation in the language. &om osition is, therefore, another widely used means of forming new words in English, although the ro ortion of com ounds to the mass of the vocabulary is far smaller than it was in 3ld English. $evertheless, there are certain ty es of com ounds that are still very roductive0 The ty e $oun U $ounD spaceman, season , ticket, identity , card, fingerprint, Eet lag, life,style, fire,extinguisher, steam,roller, etc. The ty e of %d)ective formed of a $oun U %d)ective0 colour blind, snow white, pitch black, life , long The ty e of %d)ective formed of a $oun E %d)ective U O2 ing0 peace,loving, breath,taking, skydiving, good2 looking, etc. 1any of these betray their newness by being written with a hy hen or as se arate words. They give unmistakable testimony to the fact that the ower to combine e#isting words into new ones e# ressing a single conce t, a ower that was so rominent a feature of 3ld English, still remains in the language. (ong, com ound ad)ectives are e#tremely numerous now !&om osition U &onversion", e.g. all,the,year,round programme, ban,the,bomb march. i3& Chan e! o' %eanin !see &hanges of 1eaning in 1iddle English" %s a rule, the changes of meaning are due to the ever2growing need of denominations for new ob)ects, henomena, abstract notions. Bhen words develo new meanings they sometimes lose their old meaning. 6or instance, when the word wan came to mean F aleA it did not retain its earlier meaning of FdarkA and the reason for this is obvious, since the co2 e#istence in one word of such contradictory meanings could lead to misunderstandings. In other cases, however, the old meaning continues to co2e#ist with the new one and we get the henomenon of multi le meaning or olysemy. It has been observed that in their sense develo ment, words often ursue certain well2 marked tendencies. The chief trends of semantic change are e#tension of meaning, narrowing of meaning, elevation E regeneration of meaning, degradation E degeneration of meaning. a= E:ten!ion o' %eanin !or Genera#i@ation" refers to the henomenon when the meaning is widened, generali<ed from some narrow field to a wider one0 e.g. season first meant Fsowing timeA7 now it is used with the meaning of a eriod of the
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yearA. Eourney0 The original meaning of )ourney was Fa dayAs walk or rideA, but now we can s eak without incongruity of Fa weekAs )ourneyA. It im lies a widening of the sco e of reference. .= Narro(in o' %eanin !or Specia#i@ation" refers to the case when the word ac;uires a more restricted, s eciali<ed sense. It im lies a narrowing of the sco e of reference. cf. meat in 1iddle English. %lso0 to starve, like German sterben sim ly meant Fto dieA but in 1odern English !E.1.E. Q ,?th century" it became s eciali<ed in the sense of Fto die of hungerA. In 1odern @orkshire dialect one can hear Fto starve of coldA. 5oom once meant Fs aceA. This old meaning is reserved in hrases like0 to make room, plenty of room, no room for, etc. Since the ,?th century this word has come to have the modern narrow meaning Fsection of s ace in a buildingA. 1eer used to mean Fanimal, wild beastA as its German cognate <ier still does. This meaning is found in Shakes eareAs *mice and rats and such small deer+. (atin animal and 6rench beast have taken its lace as the general words and the meaning of deer has been narrowed to denote a articular kind of animal Fwild ruminant of a articular !antlered" s ecies F. Similarly, the word hound used to be the general term for FdogA, like the German Hund. Today hound means a s ecial kind of dog, one used for hunting. 1isease0 earlier FdiscomfortA, Fabsence of ease !dis2ease"A, later FmaladyA, Fmorbid hysical conditionA. owl, like German $ogel, denoted Fbird in generalA, as in biblical Ffowls of the airA. $ow fowl normally means Fbarnyard fowlA. Ghost0 earlier Fsoul, s iritA, later Fsoul of a dead man as manifested to the livingA. c= E#e3ation o' %eanin <a%e#ioration= im lies the rocess by which the new meaning of a word ac;uires a higher status in com arison with the initial one. It im lies a raising of value )udgements involved in the reference. See knight in 1iddle English. %lso0 minister once meant Fa servantA, Fan attendantA7 now it means F erson at the head of a de artment of StateA, Fgovernment officialA. d= 7e radation o' %eanin <de eneration= refers to the rocess when a neutral word becomes de recating, less favourable in meaning. It im lies a lowering of value )udgements involved in the reference. cf. knave !3E cnafe+ in 1iddle English. 3ther words which have undergone this ty e of change0 $illain initially meant Fa farm labourerA7 later on it became a term of contem t in the s eech of the noblemen Fone who did not belong to the gentryA, and in later use Fa scoundrelA. 3hurl initially meant Fa easantA, Fa serfA7 today it means one who is rude in mannersA. #oor !` G. #auer" originally meant Fa farmerA, and gradually came to mean Fan ill2 mannered, ill2 bred ersonA. -mpertinent0 earlier Fnot ertinent, unrelatedA, later F resum tuous, insolentA. 3rafty0 earlier Fskilful, cleverA, later Fcunning, wilyA. 4mirk0 earlier FsmileA, later Fsim erA, Fsmile in a way that looks silly and is not sincereA. "otoriousD earlier Fwidely knownA, later Fwidely and unfavourably knownA. 3& S#an %ll the ty es of semantic change discussed in the receding aragra hs could be illustrated from that art of the vocabulary which at any given time is considered slang. Slang is an im ortant source of the enrichment of the vocabulary. David &rystal defines slang as follows0 *Informal, non2standard vocabulary, usually intelligible only to eo le from

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a articular region or social grou 7 also, the )argon of a s ecial grou , such as doctors, cricketers, or sailors. Its chief function is to mark social identity Q to show that one belongs Q but it may also be used )ust to be different, to make an effect, or to be informal. Such Fin2 grou A language is sub)ect to ra id change.+ !,--P0 8==2?" Bhile at an earlier eriod slang was very coarse and sometimes limited, being generally confined to nicknames and to terms connected with stealing, the s here of the influence of slang has been growing at an ever2increasing rate since the ,/th century. $aturally, most slang words do not ass into the literary language. They are ado ted by the latter Q being taken over from collo;uial s eech 2 only when they fill a real ga and when they are more e# ressive than their synonym e#isting in it. Thus, many slang words have lost their vulgar and disre utable character, gradually becoming art of the literary language0 kid !child", fun !amusement", shabby !much worn, oorly dressed", etc. %lso, words such as dwindle, freshman, glib and mob are former slang words that in time overcame their FunsavouryA origin. 3n the other hand, some slang words seem to hang on and on in the language, never changing their status from slang to Fres ectableA. Shakes eare used the e# ression beat it to mean scram !or more olitely, FleaveA", and beat it would still be considered by most English s eakers to be a slang e# ression. Similarly, to use of the word pig for F olicemanA goes back as far as the ,/th century !O. 6romkin, :. :odman, ,--/0 PC.". There are two large grou s of slangy words0 a" general slang, i.e. universally understood words and hrases, e.g. nuts !Fcra<yA, FinsaneA", dough !FmoneyA", etc. b" s ecial slang is re resented by0 2 words and hrases belonging to a certain rofessional vocabulary, e.g. the slang of sailors, soldiers, students, etc. 2 words belonging to certain social grou s, e.g. cockney !the s eech characteristic of a native of the East End of (ondon". :eferring to this ty e of slang, Simeon 9otter oints out that *it is sometimes confined to a articular geogra hical community and thus ac;uires features which are local and regional. That is why boundaries between slang and dialect are often uncertain and vague. Slang and dialect meet and mingle in (ondon &ockney, that racy, s ontaneous, ictures;ue, witty, and friendly English s oken not only by (ondoners Fborn within the sound of Bow BellsA 4....5 but also by millions of (ondoners living within a forty2mile radius of Fthe mother of citiesA. !,-->0 ,8P"+ Slang words are fre;uently based on meta hor. Be shall illustrate the numerous meta horical slang creations by means of several e#am les, most of them taken from S. :obertson !,-=/0 C?,". Some of these e#am les belong to %merican slang which is even more rolific than British slang. 6or the word head there are several slang creations0 block, upper storey, nut, as in0 -0ll knock your block off2 to be wrong in the upper storey !Fbe mentally disturbedA"7 to be off one0s nut !Fbe insaneA" 6or money0 dough, bean*s", bread !old fashioned" e.g. not to have a bean !Fwithout any moneyA". 6or nonsense0 bilge, tripe, stuff, bullshit !vulg.". 6or drunkD three sheets in the wind, stewed, tanked up, loaded !mainly %.E", pie,eyed, tight, pickled. Slang often consists of ascribing totally new meanings to old words. Grass and pot widened their meaning to Fmari)uanaA7 pig is used as an insulting word for a F olice officerA. 3ther slang words 2 rap, cool, dig, stoned, bread, split Q have all e#tended their semantic domain.

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Slang results from an instinctive desire for freshness and novelty of e# ression. <o critici6e seems to the man in the street tame and colourless, if not stilted, so he substitutes to bad,mouth. Since novelty is a ;uality which soon wears off, slang has to be constantly renewed. $amoose, skedaddle, beat it, scram, bu66 off have all had their eriods of o ularity as e# ressions of roughly the same idea, usually in im erative form !6romkin a :odman, ,--/0 PC.". 1any slang words have been introduced by )ournalists, writers who want their style to be interesting, racy, striking, vivid. 4&*&*&"& /orro(in ! Borrowing of words from other languages is still an im ortant method of enriching the vocabulary. %s is to be e# ected in the light of the English dis osition to borrow words from other languages in the ast, many of the new words have been taken over ready2made from the eo le from whom the idea or the thing designated has been obtained. Thus, a large number of words have been borrowed without changing their sound and s elling. There are many loan words of 6rench, Italian, :ussian, German origin. French has remained the most o ular source for borrowings, es ecially for words connected with the following fields0 the arts ! critiOue, connoisseur, montage", clothes and fashion !rouge, blouse, chiffon, suede, haute couture", cooking !souffl!, consomm!, aperitif+, social life !etiOuette, parvenu, elite", and more recently, motoring and aviation !garage, hangar, chauffeur, fuselage". 6rom Ita#ian come words connected with the arts0 studio, replica, scenario, fiasco, etc. Ru!!ian loan words are0 borsch, vodka, samovar, troika, steppe, tundra, sputnik, intelligentsia, etc. Ger%an has given the words rucksack, 6eppelin, 6ither, blit6, pret6el, etc. In the resent2day technical and scientific language Latin and Gree) are the source of numberless new coinages. %s Simeon 9otter rightly oints out, *The language of science and technology is now being constantly e#tended and enriched by the creation of numerous com ounds and derivatives that soon become art of the so2called international scientific vocabulary. 4c5 If you e#amine these words you will find that they are nearly all made u of Greek and (atin com onents. 6ar from being dead or dying, the languages of Demosthenes and &icero are thus romised immortality in this future world vocabulary of science.+ !0 ,.." Thus, the loan words that English has borrowed from (atin can be conveniently divided into four eriods0 ,. Bords borrowed during the :oman con;uest7 C. Bords borrowed during the 3ld English eriod7 8. Bords borrowed in 1iddle English times7 P. Bords borrowed in 1odern English. The cosmo olitan character of the English vocabulary, already ointed out, is thus being maintained, and we shall see in the ne#t cha ter !&ha ter ?" that %merica has added many other foreign words, articularly from S anish and the languages of the %merican Indian. In conclusion, the basic word2stock has remained Germanic, but the mass of the vocabulary now contains only about 8= er cent Germanic elements, the :omance element amounting to a ro#imately == er cent and the rest of ,> er cent coming from various other languages. 3f these, the 3ld English element is the most im ortant !an Englishman can e# ress most of what he wants to say by means of the 3ld English vocabulary". @et, the vocabulary borrowed from the other languages has contributed to what might be termed Fs eciali<ationA, i.e. shades of meaning, synonymy, technical terms. 4&1& 7ia#ect! 4&1&1& Genera# characteri!tic! %ll s eakers of English can retty much understand each other7 yet no two s eak e#actly alike. Some differences are due to education, age, se#, ersonality and ersonal idiosyncrasies. The uni;ue characteristics of the language of an individual s eaker are

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referred to as the s eakerAs idiolect. Beyond these individual differences, the language of one grou of eo le may show regular variations from that used by other grou s of s eakers of that language. Bhen the language s oken in different geogra hical regions and social grou s shows systematic differences, the grou s are said to s eak different dialects of the same language. The dialects of a single language may thus be defined as mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways from each other !6romkin a :odman, ,--/0 P>>". :egional dialects develo and are reinforced because languages change, and the changes that occur in one grou or area may differ from those that occur in another. 4&1&"& En #i!h 7ia#ect! In addition to the educated standard in each ma)or division of the English2s eaking world there are local forms of the language known as regional dialects. In the newer countries where English has s read in modern times these are not so numerous or so ronounced in their individuality as they are in the British Isles. The English introduced into the colonies was a mi#ture of dialects in which the eculiarities of each were fused in a common s eech. E#ce t erha s in the Vnited States, there has scarcely been time for new regional differences to grow u , and although one region is sometimes se arated from another, the im rovements in trans ortation and communication have tended to kee down differences which might otherwise have arisen. But in Great Britain such differences are very great. They go back to the earliest eriod of the language and reflect conditions which revailed at a time when travel was difficult and communication was limited between districts. There were four dialects in O#d En #i!h0 "orthumbrian, /ercian, :entish, West 4axon. The same number of dialects was reserved in 6idd#e En #i!h0 "orthern !from the 3E $orthumbrian dialect", East /idland, West /idland !both coming from the 3E 1ercian dialect" and 4outhern !from the 3E Best Sa#on". In the course of the 6odern En #i!h eriod local dialects have been gradually su erseded by the literary language0 dialects are said to undergo ra id changes under the ressure of standard English taught at school and the s eech habits cultivated by radio, television, cinema. 'owever, dialects have not disa eared altogether and they still are a means of communicating in the res ective territories. Dialect differences include honological or ronunciation differences !often called accents" and vocabulary distinctions. The grammar differences between dialects are not as great as the similarities that are shared, thus ermitting s eakers of different dialects to communicate with each other. There are si# grou s of dialects in 1odern English0 4cottish, "orthern, Western, 3entral, Eastern and 4outhern. The 4cottish and the "orthern dialect corres ond to the 1iddle English $orthern dialects7 the Western, the 3entral and the Eastern dialects corres ond to the 1iddle English 1idland dialects7 the 4outhern dialect corres onds to the 1iddle English Southern dialect. Each grou has its eculiarities, mainly in the honetic and le#ical s heres. A& The ,honetic characteri!tic! of English dialects0 i i. The Scottish dialect0 a" 1iddle English 4u05 has not been sub)ected to the Great Oowel Shift, i.e. it has remained unchanged0 house 4hu0s5, now 4nu05. b" (ong 405 develo ed only before m and f !calm, half", but in all other cases 4Z5 is ronounced0 chance, dance, glance. c" The ostvocalic 4r5 is ronounced0 pour, sort, bird. d" The guttural s irant 45 is reserved in the Scottish dialect0 sought, brought, loch. ii. The Northern dialect0

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a" and b" The first two ronunciation characteristics of the Scottish dialect are also found in the $orthern dialect c" The consonant 4h5 is dro ed at the beginning of a word, e. g. He helps her 4i lel s r5 d" In $orthhumberland, (ancashire, @orkshire, short u has not become 45 but it has been maintained in words such as cut, must, much. iii. The Western, iv. 3entral, v. Eastern dialects a" The consonant 4h5 is dro ed in initial osition b" 1iddle English short a has not become 4Z5. Bords like hat, cat, hand are ronounced0 4ht5, 4kt5, 4hnd5. c" Short u has not become 45 but it has been maintained in words such as cut, must, much. !See d+ in the $orthern dialect" vi. The Southern dialect0 The consonant 4h5 is dro ed in initial osition /& The ;oca.u#ary o' En #i!h 7ia#ect! The vocabulary of English dialects is e#tremely rich. The best roof of this is the fact that Sose h BrightAs *English Dialects Dictionary+ !? volumes" contains ,>>,>>> entries. The dialect vocabulary is remarkable for its conservatism0 many words that have become obsolete in Standard English are still ke t in dialects. ^uite a number of dialectal words and hrases reflect the life and the activities of the res ective laces0 thus, there are many names for different kinds of animals, lants, clothing !spud, kilt, tartan, etc". There is sometimes a difficulty in distinguishing dialectal words from collo;uial words. Some dialectal words have become so familiar in collo;uial English that they are universally acce ted as recogni<ed words of standard collo;uial English. 6or e#am le, lass FgirlA or Fbeloved girlA, lad Fa young manA, daft FsillyA, aye FyesA, nay FnoA, bonny FattractiveA, wee Fvery smallA, bairn FchildA !dialectal words in the Scottish dialect". Still, dialectal words have not lost their dialectal associations and are used in literary English with the stylistic function of characteri<ation0 e.g. dialectal words are meant to characteri<e a s eaker as a erson of a certain locality, breeding, education. Dialectal elements are to be found in certain well2known literary works. Thus, the characteristics of the Scottish dialect are known to most eo le through the novels written by B. Scott and the oetry of :obert Burns. The $orthern dialect is found in Emily BrontnAs Wuthering Heights !@orkshire" as well as in Eli<abeth GaskellAs /ary #arton. The oet %lfred Tennyson wrote several oems in the $orthern dialect, such as <he "orthern 3obbler. Elements of the Southern dialect !that of Dorset" are to be found in the novels written by Th. 'ardy. 3ne of the best known Southern dialects is &ockney, the regional dialect of (ondon. G. B. ShawAs 7ygmalion renders some features of this dialect in oint of ronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. 4&1&*& 6u#ti#in ua# /ritain $ +a#e!8 Scot#and and Ire#and Britain !or The British Isles" is a multilingual society within which several indigenous languages are in use today, and which, as we have seen have e#isted for many hundreds of years. The living languages of The British Isles 2 Gaelic, Irish and Belsh 2 o erate as markers of ethnic identity, surviving in the face of com etition from English. They are referred to as Folder mother tonguesA because they re2date English. !$. Townson, ,--=0 =8" In Ireland, the Iri!hQs eaking communities are known as the Gaeltacht. The area covered by the Gaeltacht is scattered over the Best coast of Ireland. (anguage com rehension is more wides read because of school language rogrammes and the status of Irish as the first official language of the country.

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Gae#ic is used to refer to the &eltic language s oken in Scotland, more recisely in the 'ighlands and Bestern Isles !for instance, the Isle of 1an". 6igures show that Gaelic is s oken by only />,>>> out of a o ulation of )ust over = million. In Bales, figures are considerably higher0 in ,-/, there were still half a million s eakers of +e#!h8 re resenting almost C>W of the o ulation. The highest concentration of Belsh s eakers is in the north of the country, although there are s eakers of the language s read throughout most of the regions. %fter having once declined, the s eaking of Belsh is now re2gaining ground !$. Townson, ,--=0 ==". AUESTIONS FOR 7ISCUSSION: ,. 3ld English s elling was a reasonably good re resentation of the sounds of the language while 1odern English s elling is notoriously bad in this res ect. Bhat causes for the widened ga between English sound and s elling can you suggestm C. Bhat is the basis for determining the FgenderA of a noun in 1odern English, and how many genders are therem 'ow would you e# lain the gender relationshi between noun and ronoun in these sentencesm F<hat0s a lovely baby. What0s its namem F4omebody telephoned you.0 RWhat did they wantmA F- saw his new boat. 4he0s a beauty.A 8. Bhich of the rocesses of word making described in this cha ter seem to have been the most roductive in Englishm P. Bhat language has had an influence on the English vocabulary over the longest eriod of timem Bhy has that language, more than any other, had such an influencem Chapter 5: A6ERICAN ENGLISH The English language was brought to %merica by masses of Englishmen !colonists from England" who settled along the %tlantic coast in the ,. th century. Even earlier than that, the %merican continent had begun to be invaded by S anish, 9ortuguese, 6rench and other immigrants, who were trying to esca e from feudal e# loitation and religious ersecutions, as well as by adventurers in search of riches !E. Iarovici, ,-.80 C.>" The territory which now forms the V.S.%. witnessed three great eriods of immigration0 a" The first eriod began in ,?>. with the settlement of Samestown in Oirginia and ended in ,./. when the ,8 colonies ratified the 6ederal &onstitution after the war of Inde endence !also known as the %merican :evolution". The ,8 colonies com rised four million English2 s eaking eo le, most of whom lived east of the % alachian 1ountains. During this eriod -> er cent of the o ulation came from Britain. b" The second eriod, which closed with the &ivil Bar, in ,/?=, covered the e# ansion of the ,8 colonies west of the % alachian 1ountains as far as the 9acific &oast. During this eriod a great number of immigrants came from Ireland owing to the British o ressive olicy and to the otato famine of ,/P=. %bout the same number came from Germany, after the Euro ean :evolution of ,/P/ was crushed. c" The third eriod, from the end of the &ivil Bar to the resent day, was marked ethnogra hically by the arrival of Scandinavians, Slavs, and Italians. They were soon followed by immigrants from Eastern Euro e. %lso, &hinese and Sa anese settled on the 9acific &oast, so that the cosmo olitan character of the Vnited States became more and more accentuated. 6urther, $egroes from %frica have come to number over twelve million. %t resent, the V.S.%. is a federal state consisting of => states.

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6rom the linguistic oint of view, the first eriod of immigration is the most im ortant because it brought to $orth %merica the language that is s oken by the ma)ority of its o ulation. The colonists who came later from other countries were soon largely assimilated and their language e#erted a rather unim ortant influence. In s elling, in ronunciation, in vocabulary or le#is, and in the synta# of collo;uial s eech, divergences ersist between %merican English and British English, but they are unessential. The 9reface to BebsterAs "ew World 1ictionary of the 8merican %anguage rightly oints out that *cformal %merican English and formal British English, although they are se arated by 8,>>> %tlantic miles vary far less than the local dialects of @orkshire+ !cited from Iarovici, ,-.80 C-?". The literary language of %merica, indeed, is not very different from that of England. &ertain divergences remain only in s elling, ronunciation, vocabulary, and in the synta# of the lower levels of s eech. 5&1& Spe##in %merican s elling often differs in small ways from that customary in EnglandD. a" The s elling or has been introduced for the British our !without u" at the end of 6rench and (atin words, e.g. honor, labor, color, favor, humor, odor, etc. b" The s elling er stands for the British re, e.g. center, theater, fiber, caliber, etc. c" The s elling se stands for the British ce, e.g. offense, defense, pretense, etc. d" Sim le l, is used instead of double ,ll, before Qing, ,ed or before ad)ectival suffi#es, e.g. traveling, traveled, Eewelry, woolen, marvelous, etc. e" 3ther %merican sim lifications of s ellings are ax !for British axe", plow ! lough", tire !tyre", story !storey", program ! rogramme", catalog !catalogue", etc. 5&"& ,ronunciation 6rom the time when the early colonists came, divergence in ronunciation !distinguishing it from the language of British English" began gradually to develo . The ronunciation of %merican English as com ared with that of British English is somewhat old2fashioned. It has ;ualities that were characteristic of English s eech in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The ronunciation of %merican English differs from that of British English in oint of intonation and rhythm. The main characteristics of %merican intonation are the following0 a" Both sentence stress and word stress is weaker, less forceful in %merican than in British English and intonation is more level. &onse;uently, %merican s eech is more monotonous, but at the same time it is generally more distinct in its division of syllables. Vnstressed syllables are ronounced with more measured detachment and therefore with greater clarity. b" %mericans s eak more slowly than Englishmen and with less variety of tone. *The Southern drawl+ lengthens all stressed syllables, often turning vowels into di hthongs. 3n account of this rolongation of the stressed vowels, final consonant grou s are weakened losing the last consonant. c" %nother characteristic is the *nasal twang+ which is to be heard es ecially in the 1iddle Best. d" %s far as word stress is concerned, the tendency to stress the first syllable is more marked in %merican English than in British English0 address, research, locate, dictate, resource, corollary, romance. %mong the more outstanding features of %merican ronunciation a few may be noted. a" 4Z5 in words such as fast, path, dance, grass, can0t, half corres onds in British English to the broad 405 which develo ed in the second half of the ,/ th century and even later. It therefore re resents the reservation of an older feature of the language. b" In %merican English a sort of 45 is to be heard in words like hot, not, crop, frog.

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c" 4r5, which has disa eared in the :eceived 9ronunciation R of Britain e#ce t before vowels, is sounded in all ositions in the greatest art of the Vnited States, e.g. car 4k0r5, farm, door, lord. d" In %merican English l is always velar. In British English it is clear before a vowel and velar before a consonant, e.g. large, help. e" %nother s ecifically %merican develo ment is the fre;uent change of t to a kind of d, sometimes called Fthe voiced tC& It is generally to be heard between two vowels, e.g. better, butter, water. f" There are a few words with different ronunciation in %merican English0 ! n+either 4!n"i0\r5, ate 4eit5, clerk 4kl0rk5, tomato 4tlmeitou5, schedule 4lsked)u0l5, laboratory 4llZbrto0ri5, etc. 5&*& ;oca.u#ary The most numerous and striking differences belong to vocabulary. %s the English language was s reading to %merica, it was but natural that local eculiarities should arise. %s soon as the settlers landed in %merica, they found ob)ects, such as lants and animals which were new to them. Even the landsca e was different from the English countryside. The land was inhabited by eo le who s oke a strange language and who lived by customs different from anything the English had ever seen. $ames had to be rovided for all these as ects of their new life. A%ericani!%!, i.e. words characteristic of the VS% can be divided into the following categories0 5&*&1& +ord! .a!ed on chan ed %eanin ! !as com ared to those of the res ective words in British English". Vnder new natural, economic and olitical conditions, it was rather difficult for settlers to rovide names for the numerous formerly unknown ob)ects they came across, so they used old words in order to name the new conce ts. That is why changes of vocabulary occurred in their language from the very beginning0 a" The word corn was transferred to an entirely new cereal0 in British English it means cro s such as FwheatA and FbarleyA. In %merican English it means Fmai<eA. b" 3lerk in British English is an official but in %merican English it has a wider meaning, that of a sho 2 assistant !e#tension of meaning". c" 5ock in British English means a large mass of stone. In %merican English it means Fa small iece of stoneA, e.g. 7rotesters threw rocks at the police. d" <o figure in %merican English means not only Fto calculateA, Fto com uteA, but also Fto thinkA, Fto considerA, e.g. - figured you0d be late !_ I thought". 5&*&"& +ord! .orro(ed 'ro% the Indian! or 'ro% other !ett#er! %nother means of naming the unknown ob)ects such as lants, animals, natural henomena found in %merica, was to borrow their names from the Indians or, sometimes, from other settlers. &ontact with the Indian! brought into English a number of words having articular reference to the Indian way of life. Thus, they borrowed wigwam !_ a hut of the %merican Indians"7 sOuaw !Indian woman, wife", canoe, toboggan, moccasin, tomahawk, hominy !ground mai<e re ared as food by boiling with water, corres onding to the :omanian FmomoligoA", to scalp, etc. 6rom the Indians the %merican settlers also borrowed names for certain animals such as0 moose, raccoon !a flesh2eating animal with a bushyQringed tail", skunk !a black and white stri ed animal, which rotects itself with a foul2smelling s rayp !fig. Fa des icable ersonA"7 opossum !a nocturnal marsu ial animal that lives in trees and that carries its young in a ouch"7, chipmunk, etc.

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&ertain Indian words and hrases were translated into English0 big chief, pale face !white erson", pipe of peace !to smoke the i e of eace", to bury the hatchet !to settle a disagreement, to become reconciled", medicine man. 6rom the very beginning of English coloni<ation in %merica, the settlers borrowed words not only from the Indians, but also from colonists of various nationalities. The English took a large number of words from the French colonists. Thus, they borrowed the words bureau, prairie !an e#tension area of grassland", depot !railway station", cache !a lace where things are hidden", crevasse !a dee crack s lit or ga in the ice or a mountain", levee !a wall of soil built along the side of a river", bayou qmarshy offshoot of river", etc. % number of words were taken from the 7utch settlers0 boss, dope, cookie, coleslaw !cabbage salad", Mankee !a native or inhabitant of the Vnited States", to snoop. % large number of Spani!h words have been ado ted es ecially since the ,-th century0 canyon !valley with high stee cliffs on either side and through which a river usually runs"7 patio !inner courtyard"7 ranch !a very big farm"7 fiesta !a festival, celebration", adobe !unburnt sun2dried brick", mustang !wild horse", etc. % small number of words were taken from the Ger%an immigrants0 pret6el, noodle, hamburger !mincedEground meat that is fried or grilled"7 frankfurter !kind of sausage", sauerkraut !cabbage fermented in brine", delicatessen, etc. %lso, the word dumb in the sense of Fstu idA seems to come both from the German dumm and the Dutch dom. The %merican use of fresh in the sense of Fim udentA is robably to be accounted for by the German frech FcheekyA. The well2known %mericanisms loafer !tram " and bum !loiterer, loafer" seem to be of German origin. 5&*&*& Archaic 'eature! in A%erican En #i!h %nother ;uality often attributed to %merican English is archaism, the reservation of old features of the language which have gone out of use in the standard s eech of England. %n im ortant number of %mericanisms are in fact words which have either become obsolete in England Q e#ce t in certain dialects Q or have lost in England a meaning which is maintained in the Vnited States. 6rom the oint of view of British English, these %mericanisms are therefore archaisms and rovincialisms. Thus, what is called now <he Government in Britain, was known there as <he 8dministration, down to the middle of the ,- th century. The term 8dministration has been reserved in %merica. #aggage in the sense of FluggageA occurred in Britain in the ,. th and ,/th centuries. It is still in current use in the Vnited States, whereas in Britain it refers only to ortable army e;ui ment, or to someoneAs emotional roblems. The verb to guess in the meaning of Fto su oseA, Fto thinkA occurred in Britain in the ,P th and ,=th centuries. G. &haucer, describing the young s;uire writes * &f twenty years of age he was, - gesse+. This sense is e#tremely fre;uent in the Vnited States0 e.g. I guess youAre right. _ I su ose youAre right. <o Ouit is rarely used in England now. In the Vnited States it is in everyday use, in the meaning of Fto give u A, Fto leaveA, Fto sto A0 to Ouit a Eob2 Nuit making that noisee 4ick underwent a change of sense in Britain !it is restricted to nausea" that was not carried over to %merica. Shakes eare uses it in the modern %merican sense in his lay Henry $0 e.g. He is very sick and would to bed+. !The British use ill" The ictures;ue old word fall has been ke t in %merica as the natural word for the season FautumnA !used in England". The fact that numerous %mericanisms are actually words which in Britain have become archaisms in the meantime or are )ust rovincialisms has resulted in the assertion that %merican English is more conservative than British English.

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Indeed, %merican English has reserved certain older features of the language which have disa eared from Standard English in England. But it has also introduced a large number of innovations e;ually im ortant, which we shall discuss in the following section. 5&*&1& +ord! 'or%ed in A%erica are another category of %mericanisms. Besides resorting to borrowing from other languages and changing the meaning of e#isting words, the settlers introduced a large number of innovations, resorting to co%po!ition8 a''i:ation or con3er!ion& a= Co%po!ition The first settlers often made u descri tive com ounds for naming the unknown lants, animals and natural henomena they came across in their new homeland. E.g. blue,grass !grass with bluish2green stems" back,country !district not yet o ulated" (ittle by little, com osition was also resorted to for naming less concrete, abstract notions, ;ualities, etc. 1any of the later com ounds are based on metaphor0 1isk , Eockey !an em loyee of a broadcasting station who conducts a rogramme of recorded music"7 hard , boiled !_ callous, tough, shrewd0 a hard,boiled detective"7 drive in , movie !a cinema where you can see a film without getting out of your car"7 sky,scraper !a very tall building"7 hot,dog !hot sausage in a long bread roll"7 horse,sense !common sense". Bhereas early %merica com ounds were often self2e# lanatory, recent ones are fre;uently rather elli tical. Thus, soap opera is a television or radio series about the imaginary lives of a grou of eo le. 3ther terse meta hors are0 wire pulling, to have an ax to grind, to be on the fence. The %mericans early manifested the gift, which they continue to show, of the imaginative, slightly humorous hrase0 to bark up the wrong tree, to face the music, fly off the handle, go the whole hog, paint the town red, and many more. .= A''i:ation has not been ;uite as roductive as com osition in %merican English. 9refi#es have been resorted to far less often than suffi#es, with a few e#ce tions, such as0 anti,, de,, re,, semi,, up20 anti,federalist, to debunk, to revamp !to arrange things, to im rove", semi,centennial, to update. %s far as suffi#es are concerned, the most fre;uent are ,i6e, ,ate, ,ify, ,acy, ee, ,ery, ,teriaD to computeri6e, candidacy, trainee, cafeteria, etc. c= Con3er!ion is another means of forming new words. It is very fre;uent in British English too, but in England conversion is not carried to such e#tremes as in %merican English. Bhile com osition and affi#ation have given %merican English numberless nouns, conversion has rovided %merican English mostly with verbs derived from nouns. 9ractically s eaking any noun may be converted into a verb0 e.g. to boom !to increase in trade"7 to contact, to style, to engineer !to act as an engineer, to arrange something skilfully, such as to engineer a plot". Even com ounds have often been converted into verbs0 e.g. to weekend, to lobby,display !to influence members for or against a measure". &:r !also s elled okay" is the most grammatically versatile of words, able to serve as an ad)ective, a noun or inter)ection0 e.g. %unch was &:. !ad)ective"7 - need your &: on this. !noun"7 We seemed to manage okay !adverb"7 His doctor wouldn0t &: the trip !verb"7 &:, -0ll help you. !inter)ection". ,hra!eo#o ica# unit!: % large number of hraseological units or idioms have been coined in the Vnited States. Some of them are bold, racy, vivid, full of imagination and 2 often 2 of humour !E. Iarovici, ,-.80 C->". 6or e#am le, to look like a million dollars, to lose one0s shirt !to lose oneAs tem er7 to lose a lot of money that you have invested"7 canned music !gramo hone record", he0s so dumb you can sell him the #rooklin #ridge !heAs a erfect fool"

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There are a number of variations between the everyday vocabulary of Britain and that of %merican English. This is due to certain differences between the economic, social, olitical, cultural conditions in the Vnited States and those e#isting in Britain, as well as to certain %merican linguistic eculiarities !such as the reservation of words now obsolete in Britain, the ac;uiring of new meanings". The main terms that differ are0 a" In the s here of home2life: apartment !flat", elevator !lift", first floor !ground2floor", package ! arcel", faucet !ta ", waste2basket !waste a er basket" b" In the s here of food!stuffs"0 candy !sweets", broil !to grill or barbecue food", molasses !treacle", rare !underdone meat", can !tin", pitcher !)ug" c" In the s here of clothing0 pants !trousers", tuxedo !dinner )acket", vest !undershirt, waistcoat", suspenders !braces", sneakers !trainers", derby hat !bowler hat" d" In the s here of travelling0 baggage !luggage", railroad !railway", truck !lorry", automobile !motor car", freight train !goods train", vacationer !holiday maker", baby carriage ! ram", gasoline ! etrol", hood !of a car" !bonnet", muffler !on a car" !silencer" e" In the s here of education0 faculty !staff", recess !break", grade !form, class", grade school ! rimary school" f" In the s here of business, trades and occu ations0 raise !in pay, salary" !rise", bill !banknote", billfold !wallet", druggist !chemist", silent partner !slee ing artner" g" 3ther variations0 fall !autumn", sidewalk ! avement", vacation !holiday", movie !film", mail ! ost", mailbox !letterbo#, ostbo#", subway !underground" The difference between British and %merican vocabulary today is lessened by the fact that many %merican words have made their way into English use, and their number a ears to be increasing rather than diminishing. 5&1& Gra%%ar %s far as grammar is concerned, the differences between %merican English and British English are neither very im ortant, nor very numerous. Oery often a British form, which fell into disuse long ago or may still be heard in a dialect or in substandard s eech, is fully acce ted as best %merican usage. 6or e#am le, the verb Fhel A occurs without FtoA in informal British English and in a number of dialects, whereas in %merican it is erfect literary standard. &om are the use of the Short In'initi3e instead of the (ong Infinitive after the verb help0 <his syrup will help cure your cold. !%merican" <his syrup will help to cure your cold. !British" The Short Infinitive !the Infinitive without FtoA" is also common %merican usage in sentences such as0 %ook at him run2 %isten to him talk. where British English will more usually have Qing forms or other constructions0 %ook at him running2 %ook how he runs. The inde'inite artic#e recedes half before hour, minute, do6en0 e.g. -0ll expect you back in a half hour. *B. Saroyan" 8 half do6en policemen emerged out of the darkness. !S. Thurber" ,ronoun! with indefinite reference0 %mericans use the im ersonal ronoun one, and then continue with he and his, as in -f one loses his temper, he should apologi6e, &ne should always look after his money where the English would re lace his and he by one0s and one. -f one loses his temper, one should apologi6e. &ne should always look after one0s money. In %merican English the ,a!t Si%p#e is often referred to the 9resent 9erfect in British English with the adverbs Eust, yet, already0 e.g. %ucy Eust called. 1id your friends arrive yetS 1id you already finish those lettersS

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In %merican English the Synthetic Su.>uncti3e has been reserved to a greater e#tent than in British English. %merican sources abound in Sub)unctive forms de ending u on a main clause e# ressing will, wish, suggestion, or order. e.g. -0m only demanding that you do your duty. <he /inister insisted that he leave the country immediately. In British English the forms would be Fcthat you should doA or Fcthat he should leave the countryA. The au#iliaries will and would are generali<ed, being also used in the first erson !singular and lural"0 e.g. - will be back later. Sometimes the ,a!t ,articip#e of a verb is maintained in a form that is obsolete in England, e.g. gotten, proven. e.g. When she had gotten safely into the street, she could scarcely restrain her tears. !Th. Dreiser" The following verbs0 burn, dream, lean, learn, smell, spell, spill , and spoil are all regular in %merican English. In British English, they can be regular, but irregular ast tenses and artici les with t are more common !burnt, dreamt, leant, learnt, smelt, spelt, spilt, spoilt+ %nother area of contrast is the use or non2use of the re osition FtoA before the indirect ob)ect !The :etained Indirect 3b)ect" in assive sentences. The assive without to is standard in %merican English0 8 letter was sent him *in British English0 8 letter was sent to him+. The or, to construction, i.e. the Infinitival construction after nouns, ad)ectives, and verbs which can be followed by the re osition for is used in a larger number of conte#ts in %merican English than in British English. In addition to such constructions which occur both in British and %merican English !4he waited for him to leave2 -t0s bad for her to smoke+, the or, to construction is e#tended in %merican English to verbs and ad)ectives that do not normally take for0 -0d like for you to go. We0d be proud for you to be our guest. % characteristic of %merican English is re resented by the fre;uency of Fly,less ad3er.!A. That is to say, ad)ectives are often used as adverbs in collo;uial %merican English0 e.g. -f you can0t sleep any this pill will help you some. !_ somewhat, to some e#tent" -t0s real good. !_ really"7 1rive slow. -t sure will help. ,repo!ition! are not always used in the same way as in Britain. 2 The re osition on is dro ed before the names of days of the week. e.g. 4ee you *on+ 4unday. 4undays we go into the country. 2 In British English fromTto are used to identify a eriod by its beginning and end0 from 9une to 1ecember7 In %merican English fromTthrough are used to make clear that the whole eriod includes the second eriod named. Thus, from 9une through 1ecember means Fu to and including DecemberA. 2 8bout and around in informal British English often have the vague meaning of Fin the area ofA or Fin various ositions inA0 <here aren0t many shops about ' around here. In %merican English about is rarer and more formal in this sense than around. 3ther re ositions which differ in %merican English are0 -t0s ten after [ o0clock. ! ast"7 out the window !out of"7 on the sky !_ in" 5&4& A%erican En #i!h dia#ect! %merican English itself is not uniform. Dialect differences in %merica include honological or ronunciation differences !often called accents", vocabulary distinctions, and syntactic rule differences. The grammar differences between dialects are not as great as the

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similarities that are shared, thus ermitting s eakers of different dialects to communicate with each other. %merican English is divided into three main dialects0 The most widely s oken dialect !viewed as the standard" is known as Standard or Genera# A%erican En #i!h. It includes the 1iddle %tlantic States !$ew Sersey, 9ennsylvania, Delaware" and $ew @ork State, as well as the 1iddle and Bestern States. The General %merican dialect thus com rises two thirds of the whole o ulation and four fifths of the land surface of the Vnited States reaching from the %tlantic 3cean in the east to the 9acific 3cean in the west. The other two dialects, Ne( En #and and Southern8 are im ortant and significant, but they are more limited geogra hically. The Ne( En #and dialect is s oken in 1aine, $ew 'am shire, Oermont, 1assachusetts, :hode Island, &onnecticut. It is more like British English in many res ects. 6or e#am le, the rounded vowel is ke t in dock, the long low back vowel is retained in dance, and the r is com letely lost in dark. %t the same time this dialect is less homogeneous than General %merican !S. 9otter, ,-->0 ,?.". The Southern dialect includes 1aryland, Oirginia, $orth and South &arolina, Georgia, 6lorida, Xentucky, Tennessee, %labama, 1ississi i, %rkansas, (ouisiana, 3klahoma, Te#as. In s ite of countless smaller variations in ronunciation, vocabulary, and idiom, the three %merican dialects do not greatly differ. S. 9otter oints out that *6or three centuries %merican families have been constantly on the move and s eech communities have seldom remained isolated for more than one generation. It would be no e#aggeration to say that greater differences in ronunciation are discernible in the north of England between Trent and Tweed than in the whole of $orth %merica.+ !0 ,?/" ssssss $3TES0 D 6or an informative discussion of English and %merican s ellings see. '.(.1encken, <he 8merican %anguage, ch../. R There are three theories as to its origin0 ,. It comes from someoneAs initials7 C. It is ado ted from some dialect7 8. It is a contraction of the e# ression 8ll correct. 8. :eceived 9ronunciation !:9" Q the name given to the regionally neutral accent in British English. AUESTIONS FOR 7ISCUSSION: ,. In what res ects is %merican English more conservative than British English and in what res ects is it less som C. (ist the im ortant differences between British English and %merican English. Bhich of the differences is most significantm 8. Describe five of the most im ortant general differences between %merican and British ronunciation. Chapter D: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE S,O9EN IN CANA7A8 AUSTRALIA AN7 SOUTH AFRICA In the various arts of the former British Em ire, as in the Vnited States, the English language has develo ed differences which distinguish it from the language of England. In %ustralasia, %frica, South %sia and &anada, eculiarities of ronunciation and vocabulary have grown u which mark off national and areal varieties from the dialect of the mother country and from one another. These eculiarities are artly such as arise in communities se arated by time and s ace, and are artly due to the influence of a new environment. In some countries the most striking changes are the result of im erfect learning and systematic ada tations by s eakers of other languages.

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Differences of nature and material civili<ation, and generally contact with some foreign tongue, are clearly reflected in the vocabulary. D&1. CANA7A is officially a bilingual country, because a ro#imately one2third of the o ulation is of 6rench descent. S eakers of 6rench are most numerous in ^uebec and the English s oken there contains many 6rench borrowings. The first big grou of English2 s eaking settlers came during and after the Bar of Inde endence. During the century that followed there was a constant flow of immigration into &anada, es ecially from Britain, including a high number of Scotsmen and Irishmen !the influence of Scottish English is to be felt in 3ntario". The densely o ulated areas in &anada are very close to the border of the Vnited States and that is why &anadian English resembles %merican English very much. D&"& In the ,/th century English settlers a eared in %ustralia. During the ,- th century the whole of AUSTRALIA and also NE+ EEALAN7 were coloni<ed. In %ustralian English there are a number of words that have been borrowed from the native !aboriginal" languages of %ustralia and $ew tealand !for e#am le, kangaroo, koala, boomerang, etc.". Some of these are old words which have ac;uired new meanings by being a lied to new things. Thus, the word Eackass !shortened from laughing Eackass" means a bird whose cry is like a donkeyAs bray. Bhere an Englishman talks of a farm, and an %merican of a ranch, the %ustralian s eaks of a station !and, he distinguishes between a sheep station and a cattle station". The English s oken in %ustralia differs from that s oken in England not only in vocabulary, but also in ronunciation. %ustralian s eech is remarkably uniform. The accent of the ma)ority of %ustralians has characteristics often associated with &ockney, es ecially in the ;uality of certain vowels and di hthongs !e,g. the di hthong 4ei5 is ronounced 4ai50 say 4sai5". The distinctive characteristics of general %ustralian ronunciation and the uniformity of the dialect throughout the continent are attributed to the circumstance that the early settlers were de orted risoners and adventurers drawn from the lower classes of England. D&*& SOUTH AFRICA The same thing is true in a somewhat different way of %frica, the most multilingual continent on earth. The resent :e ublic of South %frica had been occu ied successively by the Bushmen, 'ottentots, Bantus, 9ortuguese, and Dutch before the English settlers came. 6rom all these sources, but es ecially from Dutch and its South %frican develo ment, 8frikaans, the English language has ac;uired elements. % few words, which occurred earlier in eculiarly South %frican conte#ts, have assed into the general English vocabulary. In addition to apartheid and veldt !or veld", which retain their original associations, British and %merican s eakers use commando, commandeer, and trek in conte#ts that no longer reflect their South %frican history. In other arts of sub2Saharan %frica that were once British colonies and are now inde endent countries, the English language has a com le# relationshi to the many %frican languages. Vnlike South %frica, where English and %frikaans are the Euro ean languages of the ruling minorities, Ghana, $igeria, Sierra (eone, Xenya, Vganda, and other former colonies have a choice of retaining their colonial linguistic inheritance or re)ecting it. In $igeria, three main %frican languages and scores of languages s oken by smaller grou s e#ist alongside English. %lthough only a tiny minority of the o ulation s eaks English, almost always as a second language, it is the official language of the country. Ethnic )ealousies that would arise from the selection of one of the %frican languages, and the advantages of English for communication both internally and internationally, are sufficient to overcome the reluctance towards using a colonial language. D&1& Further a!pect! o' #an ua e in !ociety

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In areas where many languages are s oken, one language may become a #in ua 'ranca to ease communication among the eo le. English has been called Fthe lingua franca of the whole worldA. 6rench, at one time was Fthe lingua franca of di lomacyA, and (atin and Greek were the lingua francas of &hristianity in the Best and East, res ectively, for a millennium. In other cases, where traders or missionaries or travellers need to communicate with eo le who s eak a language unknown to them, a pid in based on one language may develo , which is sim lified le#ically, honologically, and syntactically. There are a number of English2based idgins. 3ne such idgin, called <ok 7isin, is widely used in 9a ua $ew Guinea. Bhen a idgin comes to be ado ted by a community as its native tongue, and children learn it as a first language, that language is called a creo#e. The idgin has become creo#i@ed. &reoles often arose on slave lantations in certain areas where %fricans of many different tribes could communicate only via the lantation idgin. 'aitian &reole, based on 6rench, develo ed in this way, as did the FEnglishA s oken in arts of Samaica. Gullah is an English2 based creole s oken by the descendants of %frican slaves on islands off the coast of Georgia and South &arolina. (ouisiana &reole, related to 'aitian &reole, is s oken by large numbers of blacks and whites in (ouisiana. &reoles become fully develo ed languages, having more le#ical items and a broader array of grammatical distinctions than idgins. Chapter B& ENGLISH AS A TOOL OF INTERNATIONAL CO66UNICATION %lthough the statement FEnglish is the worldAs most im ortant languageA may be taken as a truism, it answers some ob)ective criteria of Fim ortanceA. :. ^uirk !,-.C0 C" suggests four such criteria. 3ne criterion is the number of native s eakers that a language ha ens to have. 6rom this oint of view, English comes second after &hinese, which has double the number of s eakers. % second criterion is the e#tent to which a language is geogra hically dis ersed0 in how many continents and countries is it usedm This criterion makes English a front runner. % third is its Fvehicular loadA0 to what e#tent is it a medium for science or literature or other highly regarded cultural manifestation Q including Fway of lifeAm English scores as being the rimary medium for twentieth century science and technology. % fourth is the economic and olitical influence of those who s eak it as Ftheir ownA language. English is the language of the Vnited States which has a larger FGross $ational 9roductA !both in total and in relation to the o ulation" than any other country in the world. Bhat emerges strikingly about English is that by any of the criteria it is rominent, by some it is re2eminent, and by a combination of the four it is su erlatively outstanding.. %s ^uirk !0 8" oints out, no claim has been made of the im ortance of English on the grounds of its F;ualityA, such as the si<e of its vocabulary, the alleged fle#ibility of its synta#. It has been rightly said that the choice of an international language, or lingua franca, is never based on linguistic or aesthetic criteria but always on olitical, economic and demogra hic ones. English is the worldAs most widely used language. There are three rimary categories of use0 It is used as a native language, as a second language, and as a foreign language. English is s oken as a native language, or mother tongue, by nearly three hundred million eo le in countries such as Britain, the Vnited States, &anada, %ustralia, $ew tealand, the &aribbean and South %frica, without mentioning smaller countries or smaller ockets of native English s eakers !for e#am le in :hodesia and Xenya". %s a second language, English is used chiefly for certain official, social, commercial or educational activities within several countries0 within the 6rench2s eaking ^uebec rovince of &anada, within the %frikaans2s eaking South %frica. This second language function is

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more noteworthy, however, in a long list of countries where only a small ro ortion of the eo le have English as their native language0 India, Ghana, 9akistan, $igeria, Xenya and many other &ommonwealth countries and former British territories. Thus, several decades after inde endence, India maintains English as a medium of instruction for a ro#imately half of its total higher education. English is one of the two FworkingA languages of the Vnited $ations. %s a foreign language, English is used for international communication, i.e. the medium of communication with s eakers from other countries. But many more use it as an international means of communication, because English has become a truly international language meeting more than )ust national needs. science, trade, s ort, and international relations of various kinds have given the English language the status of one of the worldAs most im ortant languages. 1any scientific and technical )ournals are written in English although they are not necessarily ublished in England or other English2 s eaking countries. %t numerous international meetings and conferences English is the main language. The 3lym ic Games and other multinational s orts events are resented in English. The role English lays today is the result of historical rocesses which affected large arts of the world and are, to some e#tent, reflected in the language itself. Thus, the English language, in the course of its historical develo ment, has met with so many influences from abroad that its very structure, both le#ical and grammatical has come to reflect in many ways its international use. Bhat we call English words are very largely, by more than two2thirds, 6rench, (atin, Greek and other words in origin. In effect, the ower of the English language to take u elements from other languages has become almost limitless. This ca acity of assimilation is one of the key features of English as an international language. The inflectional system of modern English, using analytical rather than synthetic means, is e#tremely sim le. There are no more than a handful of grammatical endings. The F2sA denoting the lural and ossessive of nouns and the third erson singular 9resent Tense of main verbs7 the F2erE 2estA used for the degrees of com arison of ad)ectives, the F2edA forming the 9ast Tense and Qed artici le of regular verbs, the F2 ingA making u the 2ing artici le and the gerund, and finally the F2lyA of adverbs are the only endings left of the highly inflected language s oken a thousand years ago. %long with this sim lification of the grammatical form has come a much greater ease in using the same word in more than one word2class. FanswerA, for e#am le, can occur as a verb and a noun. FroundA may even be used in no fewer than five different word2classes. It can be an ad)ective in F% round table will seat more eo le than a s;uare oneA7 a re osition in FBe travelled round the countryA7 an adverb in F'e turned round and ran back to the houseA7 a noun in FThe ne#t round of eace talks will be held in :omeA7 a verb in FThe van had )ust rounded the corner when it was hit by a lorryA. Thus, a very large number of English words are used in at least two word2classes, usually as nouns and verbs or nouns and ad)ectives. Thus, English words are very fle#ible and may be ut to a great variety of uses within the sentence. The structure of English sentences, in contrast to the relative uniformity of the word forms, is very com le#, not to say com licated, as is evident from its difficult hraseology, and its com licated syntactic structure. English synta# seems to be making u for what the language has lost in mor hological richness. Thus, English, by virtue of its vast stock of words and its highly roductive grammatical structure, is indeed able to co e with the most diverse tasks of international communication !D. Giering, ,-.-0 ,,". /I/LIOGRA,HY ,. %lgeo, Sohn Q ,-.C Q 7roblems in the &rigins and 1evelopment of the English %anguage,

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second edn., 'arcourt Brace $ew @ork C. /au h8 A#.ert8 &able, Thomas Q ,-./ 2 8 History of the English %anguage, 8rd edition revised, :edwood 9ress (imited, $ew @ork 8. Bolton, 6.B., &rystal, David Q ,--8 2 <he English %anguage. Oolume ,> of the 9enguin 'istory of (iterature, 9enguin Books, England P. Burnley, David Q ,--C Q <he History of the English %anguage, (ongman Grou V.X. (imited =. &rystal, David Q ,-/= 2 8 1ictionary of %inguistics and 7honetics, Cnd edition, Basil Blackwell, 3#ford ?. &rystal, David Q ,--8 Q <he English %anguage, 9enguin Books, England .. &rystal, David Q ,--P Q 8n Encyclopedic 1ictionary of %anguage and %anguages. Blackwell, 3#ford /. 6romkin, O., and :odman, :., Q ,--/ 2 8n -ntroduction to %anguage, si#th edition, Thomson and 'einle -. Giering, D., et al., 2 ,-.- Q 8 ;niversity Handbook, OEB Oerlag En<yklo udie (ei <ig ,>. Greenbaum, S., and ^uirk, :., Q ,--> Q 8 4tudent0s Grammar of the English %anguage, (ongman ,,. 'oward, 9hili Q,-/P Q <he 4tate of the %anguage 9elican Books, (ondon ,C. Iaro3ici8 Edith Q ,-.8 2 8 History of the English %anguage, E. D. 9, Bucharest ,8. Iaro3ici8 Edith Q C>>C Q Engle6a americana, Ed.Teora, Bucuresti ,P. Ge!per!en8 Otto Q ,-== 2 Growth and 4tructure of the English %anguage, Doubleday a &om any, $ew @ork ,=. (eech, G., Svartvik, San Q ,-.= Q 8 3ommunicative Grammar of English, (ongman Grou V.X. (imited ,?. 1acmillan Q C>>C Q English 1ictionary for 8dvanced 4tudents, International Student Edition, 3#ford, (ondon ,.. 1encken, '.(. Q ,-== 2 <he 8merican %anguage, $ew @ork ,/. 9otter, Simeon Q ,--> Q &ur %anguage, 9elican Books, (ondon ,-. 9yles, Th., Q ,-., 2 The &rigins and 1evelopment of the English %anguage, Ynd. ed., 'arcourt Brace $ew @ork C>. ^uirk, :andol h, et al.,2 ,-.C 2 8 Grammar of English, (ongman Grou V.X. (imited C,. ^uirk, :andol h and Stein, Gabrielle Q ,--P Q English in ;se, (ongman Grou V.X. (imited, England CC. :obertson, Stuart Q ,-=/ 2 <he 1evelopment of /odern English, $ew Sersey C8. Swan, 1ichael Q ,-/> 2 7ractical English ;sage, 3#ford, 3#ford Vniversity 9ress CP. Townson, %. $igel Q ,--= Q %anguage and %anguages in 3ontemporary #ritain, &lusium, &lu)2$a oca.

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