ISTORIA LIMBII ENGLEZA 1. SCANDINAVIAN INVASION ITS INFLUENCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

The first attacks of the Scandinavians on the British Isles took place during the close of the VIII and beginning of the IX centuries. That was a great military and political event. In the late 9 century the Scandinavians had occupied that whole of English territory, north of Thames. The territory by the Scandinavians was to remain in their power and its was called Danelaz. The Scandinavians in their turn recognized the normal supremacy of the king of England. About this very time the Scandinavians invaded Ireland and occupied some of its coastal regions. In 1016 the Danish king Knut became ruler of England Scandinavian power in England lasted until 1042, when it was over thrown and the power of the old English nobility was restored under King Eduard the confessor (the last Saxon King). Scandinavian dialects spoken by the invaders belonged to the north Germanic languages and their phonetic and grammatical structure was similar to that of old English. They had the same morphological categories: strong and weak declension of adjectives; seven classes of week verbs. Close relationship between English and Scandinavian dialects made mutual understanding without translation is are great possibility. A considerable part of the vocabulary was common to English and Scandinavian dialects. In many words the root was the same while endings were different (e.g. sanu sun,-sunr); fot-foot-fotr. Even the 3 person plural, person pronoun was taken over from Scandinavian into English and supersiding the Old English pronoun hie became they. Pronoun pierra superseded the native him and became their. Sometimes it is impossible to decide what actually happened whether the English word was superseded by the Scandinavian or whether the phonetic structure of the English word changed under Scandinavian.

The Norman Conquest

Began in 1066 its proved to be burning point in English history and had a considerable influence of the English language. The Normans were being origin a Scandinavian tribe. In the 9 century they began inroads on the northern coast of France and occupied the territory on both shores of the seen estuary. During the century and half between the Normans settlement in France and their invasion of French culture. Mixing with the local population they adopted the French language and it the mid-century in spite French feudal culture. In 1066 king Edward the confessor died William Duke of Normandy, who had long claimed the English throne, assembled an army with the help of Norman barons landed in England and routed the English troops under king. Putting down the revolts in various parts of the country, the Normans became masters of England. This is as a result of the conquest; England came to be ruled by foreign ruling class. Frenchmen arrived in England in great numbers among them were merchants, soldiers, teachers seeking for a new field of activity. During the reign of William the conqueror (1066-1087) about 200.000 Frenchmen settled in England. During several centuries the ruling language in England was French. The Norman Conquest put the end to the dominating position of the West Saxon literary language. In the 12 and 13 centuries all English dialects were an equal footing and independent of each other. Under such circumstances, with two languages spoken in the country, they were bound to struggle.

2. OLD ENGLISH DIALECTS AND WRITEN RECORDS

Old English dialects. The following four dialects are usually distinguished: 1. Kentish Spoken in Kent. It had developed from the speech of the Jutes and was preserved in records from the 7th century. It is represented by translation of Psalms and Characters. 2. West Saxon or the Wessex dialect, the principal dialect of the Saxon group. Its earliest records date in the 9th century, represented by the work of king Alfred, both original composition and translation of Latin texts, also by the Anglo-Saxon. Chronicle. 3. Mercian, Spoken in kingdom of Mercia, this dialect had developed from the tongue of the Angels, represented by the translation of the Psalter. 4. Northumbrian, another Anglican dialect, spoken to the North of the Humber-river. The distinction between Mercian and Northumbrian proves that Old English dialects did not coincide with the original tribal dialects. The position of the dialects wasnt equal. First Northumberland and then West Saxon became the written language of the time. Old English written records. The earliest records of English are dated in the 7th century. They are the inscriptions on hard material in a special alphabet known as the runic alphabet. The word rune originally meant secret and was used to denote inscriptions believed to the magic. The runes were employed by Germanic tribes on the Continent. They were used as letters in an alphabet each to denote a separate sound and a word beginning with this sound. The runic alphabet is a specifically Germanic alphabet, the letters are angular, straight lines are preferred. This is due to the fact that runes were cut on some hard material. The number of runes was 28. They were not used for everyday writing, but for short inscriptions. The total number of runic inscription in England is about 40. The latest refers to the end of the old English period. The runes were driven by the Latin Script. Latin was the lng of the church and also the lng of learning at monastic schools. The monks began to use Latin letters to write English words. The script they used differed from Latin in a way. The shapes of some Latin letters were changed. Only 19 Latin letters were employed. Letters I and y were not differentiated, nor were v and u. letters k, q, x were not used and letter a was combined with e into a special letter..more over, some runes were added to the script. At the beginning, the English alphabet was based on the phonetic principle. Old English writing. The first English words written down with the help of Latin letters were place-names inserted in Latin texts. Then came glosses of the Gospel for the benefit of those who had poor knowledge of Latin. Gradually, old English documents began to replace Latin ones. The various agreements, grants, wills, records are now commonly known as Anglo-Saxon charters. The monks were the first to put down old English ballads and poem. The greatest poem was Beowulf which dates back to the 7th century. It is an epic poem valued both as a source of linguist tic material and as work of art. It is based on old legends of the Ancient Germans. Most valuable are survivals of old English prose. The most Famous is Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, brief account of the year happenings. Latin books on Geography, history, philosophy were translated by King Alphred and his scholars. They are Pastoral Care. Bedes History and others. All these data afford of the highest value for the study of the Old English language. Most of the old English materials are kept in the British Museum. Some are scattered all other the world. Bedes History is kept in St Petersburg Public Library.

3. OLD ENGLISH VERBAL SYSTEM

a) b) c) d) e) f) The grammatical categories of the verb Non-finite forms of the verb Strong verbs Weak verbs Preterite present verbs Suppletive verbs

a) The grammatical categories of the verb.

The verb in the Old English possessed the following grammatical categories: person, number, tense, mood, aspect. Voice as a verbal characteristic was not connected with all the system and was only expressed in Participle II. Participle I the active voice and Participle II the passive voice. The OE verbal system included finite forms of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons singular and plural and the non-finite forms: Participles I and II as well as the Infinitive. There was no gerund in OE. The verbs were subdivided into strong and weak ones according to the form of the Past tense. A small group of preterit present verbs was classed as possessing features typical of both strong and weak verbs. Finally, there was a small group of irregular verbs which had suplitive forms. There were two tenses in OE the Present and the Past, (or preterit). e.g. ic helpe I help: ic write I write. Present Ic healp I helped: ic wrat I wrote. Past Present forms were used to express the future with the help of lexical means such as adverbs of time. The verbs sculan and willan in OE were verbs with full meaning and were not used for forming future tenses, they formed modal predicates. I sceal written = I must write I wille written = I want to write At the close of the OE period and the beginning of the ME period these verbs lost their lexical meaning and becomes auxiliaries used for expressing futurity. In some cases these verbs have kept their original meaning even in the Moder Englidh language: e.g. I am willing. There were no perfect or continuous forms in OE. But the combinations they originated from later existed and were widely used. The sue of the verb to be with P.I formed a compound predicate, the form of P.I depending on the subject (it agreed with the subject in number, gender, case). Even in OE this combination was often close to the Modern E continuous form. E.g. hie waeron blissiende = they were celebrating. Person and Number The verb had two numbers singular and plural. E.g. ic write we writap (we write) and 3 persons 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Sing. E.g. ic write, bu writest, he writat Pl. There was no difference between the persons we, ge, heo writat There was no dual number in the OE verb and if the pronoun was in the dual number the verb was in the plural

 Aspect There were two aspects in the OE verbs the perfective and the imperfective. OE don do, gedon to have done. Aspect was a lexico-grammatical category since it was expressed by prefixes, the latter being often use for changing the lexical meaning of the verb at the same time. e.g. slan to beat afslean to kill The prefix in these cases was a word building element. Aspect in OE was unstable as a grammatical category. Not all the verbs possessed it. Voice There was no special system of the passive voice in OE. There were combinations of the verbs beon/wesan, weorpan with PII which were often used. They were nominal predicates. e.g. Se bera waes ofslaegen. That bear was a killed one. In the plural: ba beran waere ofslaegenne OE forms: slean slh - slaegen Mood There were 3 moods in OE: the indicative, the imperative, the subjunctive. The last one (subjunctive) was oftener used than in MnE, because it was used in the indirect speech (like in German). Only the simple forms of the subjunctive were in existence although should and would+infinitives existed. Yet they still their lexical meanings and only in ME they began to lose their meanings and turned into auxiliaries. Indicative Mood Sing. 1 2 3 Subj.Mood Singular 1, 2, 3 Plural Imper.Mood Singular 2p. Plural 2p. Part I Part II present cpe cpst cpp c p cpap c p cpap cpende gecped preterite cpte cptest cpte cpte cpen cpte cpen

b) Non finite forms

The Infinitive The Infinitive is a descendant of the noun formed from a verbal stem. In its semantics (meaning) the infinitive was meant to name an action in ancient time used to have declension. Two forms of the Infinitive existed in OE The Nominative case (drincan) and the Dative case (to drincenne). The Dative form was always used with the preposition to, expressing purpose or direction of the action. He geode to drincenne he went to drink. Later in ME these two forms coincided. The preposition to changed into a particle belonging to the infinitive. After the preterite the use of to be never admitted (ic cann singan). Participle I It was always connected with active meaning in OE. E.g. drincende one who is drinking. In OE it was closer to the adjective than in MnE, it depended in form on the noun it qualified. It began to develop the ability to take an object or to be defined by an adverb at the end of the OE period. In the course of its development it acquired new verbal properties and lost those of adjectives. Participle II Participle II of intransitive verbs usually had an active meaning, whereas that of transitive a passive one. He is come, (active meaning) intransitive verb, it was drunk (passive meaning 0 transitive verb. Participle I and II like an adjective has the categories of gender, number, case, they were declined like adjectives.

c) Strong verbs
Strong verbs (verbs with vowel gradation) are divided into seven classes according to vowel gradation (mutation). Infinitive Class I I Wrtan (write) Class II o cosan (choose) past sing. a wrt a cas Past. PI. i wrtan cron Participle II i wrten

o coren

class III a) Before nasal + consonant i a/o drincan (drink) dranc

u druncon

u drunken

b) (before) I + cons. i ea helpan (help) healp c) Before r + cons., h + cons. eo ea weoran (become) wear class IV before I, r e beran (bear)

u hulpon

o holpen

u wurdon

o worden

b r

bron

o boren

class V before a consonant other than nasal e cwean (say) cwp class VI a faran (go) class VII htan (call) ht fr hton

cwdon fron hten

e cweden a faren

d) Weak Verbs
The main feature of weak in OE was they the formed the Past Tense by adding a dental suffix. Weak verbs were grouped in 3 classes. Verbs with long root vowel i Infinitive Heran past hierde part.II hiered

Class II a) verbs with short root vowel followed by r Nerian (save) nerede nered b) short rood vowel followed by other consonants than r cnyssan (push) cnysede cnysed c) O stem Lufian (love) lufode lufod

Class III Corresponds to Gothic class III verbs with the suffix ai a) Ai stem In OE this suffix is no longer found. The suffix of the Past Tense and Part. II is joined to the root. Habban hftde hafd

e) Preterit present forms

There was a group of verbs in Germanic languages in which the present tense forms had developed the Preterit of Strong verbs. During the process of development a certain change in meaning took place. There were 12 preterit present verbs in OE. They denoted states, and processes as well modal meanings such as: necessity, possibility, duty. They fell into 6 classes: Classes Infinitive gan sculan magan present sing. g, h sceal mag Present pl. gon sculon magon past hte sceolde meathe part. II gen Meaning to possess to have to have to have the possibility to do smith to have the possibility

motan

mot

moton

moste

f) Suppletive Verbes
There were two supplitive verbs in OE beon, gan. Supletive verbs are those including different roots in their system of conjugation. There were two infinitive both meaning to be OE beon and wesan, each of them had their Present forms forms and common Past forms. Present tense sing. Wesan to be Sing. 1 eom, am 2 eart 3 is Pl. 1. Sint sindom 2. sien, sin, syn beon beo bist bi beo beop Preterite sing. w s wre waes waeron

Conjugation of the verb to do Present Sg. I. II. III. Do Dst de Pl. d Past Sg. dyde dydest dyde Pl. dydon

Irregular verbs: Beon/wesan = be Zn = go They differ from all other verbs in thet their forms are derived from different roots, that is, their system is based on suppletivity. Forms of the verb to be are derived from 3 roots: wes, es, be, though there are options that the verb beon has no past tense. Similar henomena are found in other Indo European languages: German sein-wae; Ich-bin. Russian , .

4. OLD ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY.

5. THE FORMATION ENGLISH.

OG

THE

NATIONAL

LITERARY

The formation of a national language was greatly fostered by two events of the late 15th century. The events contributing to the formation of the national language. The most significant event of the period was the Wars of the Roses (1455 1485) which marked the decay of feudalism and the birth of a new social order. They came to an end in the battle of Bosworth, when Richard III eas defeated by Henry Tudor, who became king of England as Henry VII. The political result of this prolonged structure was the rise of an absolute monarchy. This meant a high degree of political centralization and thus contributed to centralization in language as well, that is, to a predominance of the national language over local dialects. Another great event was the introduction of printing Printing was invented in Mayence (Germany) by Johann Gutenberg in 1438 From Mayence printing spread to Stransburg, then to Italy and to the Netherlands In the town of Bruges, in Flanders, the Englishman William Caxton (1422 1491) became acquainted with his art. He published the first English printed book history of Troy in Bruges. Returning to England, he founded the first English printing office in London in 1476, and In 1477 appeared the first book to be printed in England, namely, The Ditches and Sayings of the Philosophers. As a result Vowel letters in English acquired meaning different from those they have in French, German, Italian and other IE languages. Each vowel letter acquired different sound values depending on its environment. E.g. letter a denotes different vowel sounds in the words Make, cat, water, watch, any. Existence of a language norm becomes evident in the 16th century On the entire territory of Southern and Midland dialects, in all written documents including private letters only literary English is used, All other dialects, except the Scottish were reduced to the state of mere oral languages. When the English national language was forming, a similar process was developing in another centre of the British Isles, in Scotland. The basis of the Scottish language was the northern dialect which differs very little from Scots. The English language began to spread at the expense of Celtic. Malcolm III, king of Scotland (1057 1093) who reigned at the time of the Norman conquest of England, was

educated in English traditions and fostered the spread of English in this country, though this policy caused widespread oppositions. Social changes of the 16th century created the conditions for a great cultural progress and growth of a national literature. The 16th century was a time of great literary achievement. The 80s and 90s witness the rise of a great number of dramatists. The greatest of these was: William Shakespeare (1564 1616) His contemporaries were: Christopher Marlowe (1564 1593) Benjamin Jonson (1573 1637) John Fletcher (1579 1625) This epoch, called by historians usually Elizabethan after Queen Elizabeth I who reigned 1558 1603, belongs to the period of Early Modern English.