История языка
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The history of English language.

The subject of the history of the English language. It’s aims and objective, the subject matter.

Any language as well as any social and natural phenomena is never static. It’s phonetical and graphical structures are constantly subjected to gradual changes, which are caused by external or internal factors.

In the 1st case the language is influenced by factors that lie outside the lang. (extra – linguistic factors) such as social changes, wars, cultural contents, economic tides and so on. For example, during Norman invasion in 1066 the E.L. (English language) adopted a considerable number of French words. Thus the vocabulary of the E.L. was replenished and this change was caused by an external factor^ the invasion of the Frenchmen on to the territory of British Isles.

In the 2nd case L. is influenced by purely linguistic factors, that is say the driving force lays within the L. itself. (F.Ex.: findan (O.E.) – finden – find) In O.E. the 17th century the vowels found before – nd lengthened. Just the word “findan” with short [i] in its root came to be pronounced as [fi:nden] with the long root vowel. And the later in the new (modern) English period the long vowel [i:] changed into [ai] – find. These changes were hot connected with either the events in the history of the nation, they were caused by inner linguistic factors.

Thus defining the subject of the history of E.L. we’re to say that it’s constituted by the development. When speaking about changes in phonetic or grammatical forms in E. or the changes in the word stock, we are to bear in mind that very few of them are independent. The majority of such changes are interdependent and a change in one of the spheres of the L. Drives as a rule at the change in another sphere. F.Ex. William the Conqueror invaded Britain. The French L. (the native L. of W the C.) spread all over England, and the E.L. in its turn adopted a considerate number of French words. Among these words there were such which contained the sounds [tj] [j] in their phonetic structure. The E.L. which hadn’t had these sound its phonetic form had to acquire them or adopt them and make them the elements of its sound structure.

The aim and the objectives

Another question which arises while studying the history of E.L. is the question of its aims & objectives. There’re quite a number of them & the most important may be defined as follows:

A systematic study of E.L. development enables the student to acquire a more profound understanding of the L. today. A teacher – philologist should be able to explain many peculiarities of the L. which seem to be uncomphensive from the point of view of the modern language.

F.Ex: why do the nouns like “man” “woman” in the plural don’t have ending – es? Why does the spelling of the words like the “daughter” “know” contain mute consonants? Why does the spelling “ea” indicate different sounds in such words as “speak, great, bear, heart, heard”?

An answer to these and many other question may be found only when looking back into history of the language. The next aim of the subject consists in discovering rules of the evolution of the L. as a system. That is as into connection of phonetical, grammatical & lexical development and not as disconnected chain of changes which results in a new quality of the L.

The history of the E.L. is also aimed at culturing students to establish ties between the history of the English people and the development of their L.

The periods in the history of the E.L.

The history of E.L. covers roughly 12 centuries. This is, of course, a very long period of time. For the sake of convenience linguistics distinguish 3 main stages (periods) in the E.L. namely OE, ME, MnE. The E. scholar Henry Sweet (1854-1912) characterized those stages in his “New English Grammar”. He proposed the following division of the history of English according to the state of unstressed endings.

VIII                                        X-IX                                      XIV-XV                                        XXI

|___________OE__________|_________ME_______________|___________MnE_____________|  

1st period, old English – the period of full endings. Any vowel can be found in an unstressed ending.

2nd period, middle E. – the period leveled endings. Unstressed vowels are reduced to the neutral [э] in writing this vowel is represented by the letter [e]

3rd period, New English, Modern English – the period of lost endings. The ending is lost as the result of evolution.

According to Pr.Ilyish  the dates of these periods are OE 700 – 1100, ME 1100 -1500, MnE -1500 up to now. Henry Sweet distinguished early MnE 1500-1660 and hate modern E. beginning with 1660. Each period of the E.L. has its own characteristics.

The writing and written documents of OE.

The 1st prewritten or pre-historical period –Early OE from 5th to the close of the 7th century.

Borrowings from classical Languages (Age of the Renaissance)

Latin & Greek

Adoption of classical words is accounted by O. Jespersen by the revival of learning in the age of the Renaissance. Through Italy & France the Renaissance came to be left in England as early as the 14th century, although the influence of the classical languages was mostly felt in the 16th & 19th centuries.

Borrowings from classical lang-ges was mostly new notions which couldn’t be directly translated into the E.L.

Numerous Latin & Greek words were 1st used by Thomas More (early 16th cen.) who wrote in Latin & in English. Among his innovations were: anticipate, contradictory, exact, exaggerate, explain, fact, monopoly, pretext. Many classical borrowings first appeared in Shakespeare’s works: accommodation, apostrophe, dislocate, reliance, submerge.

The following list includes loan-words of the 16th & early 17th c. which still circulate today:                              f.ex. anonymous (gr) aspiration, criterion(gr), genius, gesture, history, index, include individual, major, minor. Some borrowing have specialized meaning & belong to scientific terminology : acid, analysis, appendix, atom, complex, curriculum, energy, formula, metaphor, rhythm, scene, theatre.

In addition to true borrowings classical l-ges have provided a supply of roots in the creation of new words. Words like democracy, education, encyclopedia, have green component parts.

In addition to words & roots Latin & Greek supplied English with a number of derivational affixes which have become productive in the E.L. of the recent c- s

F.ex. suffixes –ism - humanism

                       -ist - protagonist    

                       - ize, - ise – categorize, characterize

Greek prefixes  - anti – antiwar

                          -di, -neo

Latin prefixes –de,-ex,-re

One of the classical borrowings on the E.L. was the further increase of the number of synonyms. Replacement of native words by classical loan – words is rare, a normal result was the addition of the another synonym to the existing words.

The following examples illustrate 3 sources of synonyms & their semantic & stylistic differences.

Native E.: break, reckon, size, kingly

French: sever, count, calibre, royal

Latin: separate, compute, magnitude, regal  

It’s evident that Latin & French words are more bookish than native, Latin words being sometimes more “elevated” than French words.

Borrowings from Contemporary languages in MnE.

The foreing influence on the English vocabulary in the age of the Renaissance & in the following c-s wasn’t restricted to Latin & Greek.

I The influence of French words continued &reached new peaks in the late 15th & 17th c-s.

French borrowings of the later periods mainly pertain to diplomatic relations, social life, art, fashion, as Paris had a world-wide significance in this areas

1 diplomatic terms, attaché, communiqué

2 social life, ballet, essay, genre

3 military terms, corps, maneuvre, marine, police

4 fashion in dress& food, blouse, corsage, champagne, menu, soap

5 words of miscellaneous character, comrade, detail, entrance, machine, moustache, progress, ticket.

As seen from the lists, later French borrowings differ widely from the loan words, adopted in ME. Most of them haven’t been completely assimilated & have retained some foreign features to the present day, f.ex. spelling & pronunciation of the word “restaurant”.

II English owes the greatest number of foreign words to Italian. A few early loan-words belong to commercial sphere & military spheres, while the grater majority of words are related to art, music & literature, because it’s Italy that was the birth place of the Renaissance movement.

1 14th c. Italian words: million, florin, pistol, alarm

2 music terms: aria, bass, concerto, duet, piano, solo, sonata, violin

3 sculpture: balcony, corridor, fresco, gallery, granite, studio

4 concepts of literature: replica, sonnet

III Borrowings from Spanish came as a result of contacts with Spain in the military, commercial & political fields; (16 -17th c-s). They are: armada, cargo, embargo, banana, canoe, chocolate, cocoa, mosquito, Negro, potato, tobacco, tomato.

IV Borrowings from the Germanic l-ges:

1. Dutch made a rather large contribution to E. particularly in the 15th &16th c., when commercial relations b/n England & Netherlands were at their peak.
2. Dutch loan-words: strip, cruise, deck, dock, freight, skipper, easel, landscape, sketch.
3. Loan-words from German reflect the scientific & cultural achievement of germany at different dates of Mn period. They are f.ex: cobalt, nickel, zino, dynamics,
4. Miscellaneous words: stroll, kindergarten, halt, plunder, poodle, waltz

V The Russian element in the E. vocabulary is of particular interest. The earliest R. loan-words entered E.L. on the 16th c., when the E. trade com. Established the 1st trade relations with Russian.

The loan-words of the period b/w the 16th-19th c. are the following as intelligentsia, muzhik, rouble, samovar, troika, tsar, vodka. The loan – words after 1917 reflect the new social relations& political institutions in the USSR: Bolshevik, komsomol, soviet, collective farm, five-year –plan, wall newspaper, perestroika

Some scientific terms: sputnik, cosmonaut ( astronaut)