Classics 30

September 30,
2013

Unit 1: Frames 1-49

The Development of English
The Greek Alphabet

First page of Beowulf,

a famous Anglo-Saxon Poem

Question on Text
Have you been
able to buy this
book at the
bookstore?
Are there any left?
Have you been
able to buy it
online? If so,
where?

Todays Goals
To talk about the aims of the course.
To cover the beginning of Unit 1 in
your text.
To look at the origin and
development of English
To learn about the Greek alphabet.

Aims of the Course

To build a large working vocabulary by
learning Greek and Latin roots.
To increase speaking and reading skills
To savor the language by exploring
some of its nooks and crannies.
[We have been adding scientific vocabulary
to aid students in the biological sciences
taking care to focus on words that
humanists should also know.]

Unit 1
Frames 1-49 Review
Choose an example of a
content word:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

within
dog
by
against
the

Most function words in English

come from:
a) Latin
b) Greek
c) Greek and Latin
d) Anglo-Saxon (or Old English)
e) Celtic

The Development of English

The Greek World

The Roman World

Around the year 1 C.E.
Rome controls the area of the Mediterranean Sea.
Greek is the dominant language in the eastern
Mediterranean.
Latin is increasingly the dominant language in the western
Mediterranean.

The Roman Empire in 37 C.E.

Map of Roman Empire

Britain
In Roman times,
Britain was inhabited
largely by Celtic
speakers.
The Romans
conquered much of
Great Britain in the
middle part of the
first century C.E.
It appeared possible
that Great Britain,
like France and
Spain, would become
Latin speaking,
but . . .

Roman
Britain

Hadrians
Wall

German Incursions
into the Roman Empire
In the fourth century,
large numbers of
Germans entered the
Roman Empireoften
peacefully.
Many were fleeing the
Huns, an aggressive
non-Germanic people.
Often, however,
things got ugly
between Romans and
Germans.

The Roman Withdrawal from

Britain
The Germanic
Visigoths posed a
particular problem in
the late fourth century
C.E. and the fifth
century C.E.
They even sacked
Rome under their king,
Alaric, in 410 C.E.
It is in this period that
the the Romans
abandoned Britain.

Alaric, King of the Visigoths,

Sacker of Rome

After the Romans leave, Germanic

peoples invade Britain (5th century
C.E.)

The Beginnings of English

The Germanic language these
people spoke we now call AngloSaxon or Old English, spoken
approximately from around 400
(or 450) to 1100 C.E.
Anglo-Saxon gradually replaced
Celtic languages in much of
Great Britain (bringing with it
only a very few embedded
Latinate words, e.g. the future
street and wine).
Vikings, speakers of another
Germanic language, arrived in a
second wave of Germanic
invasion starting around 800 C.E.
and lasting some 200 years.

Vikings
invade Britain

Christianity brought Latin and

Greek words into Anglo-Saxon
:
Christianity had existed in
Britain from Roman times and
survived among Britains Celtic
inhabitants.
The Anglo-Saxons, who were not
Christians originally, were
converted around 600 C.E.
The language of Christianity in
Western Europe was Latin (with
many Greek loanwords), so
Latin and Greek words begin to
enter English.
Examples: abbot, altar, apostle,
candle, clerk, mass, minister,
monk, nun, pope, priest, school.

Ethelbert of Kent,
first Anglo-Saxon King
to become a Christian

1066: The Normans brought

the French language
The Normans were originally Viking
invaders (Northmen) who settled in
northwestern France.
In France they became French speakers.
In 1066 (Battle of Hastings), William the
Conqueror, a Norman, conquered
England.
For the following two centuries, England
was ruled by French-speakers.
The result was a flood of French words
into English.
French, of course, is language derived
from Latin, so this is the second great
wave of Latin influence on English.

William the Conqueror

The richness of English

ask (<Anglo-Saxon / Old English)
question (<French <Latin)
interrogate (<Latin)
rise (<Anglo-Saxon / Old English)
mount (<French <Latin)
ascend (<Latin)

Middle and Modern English

The period of Old English or
Anglo-Saxon comes to an end
with the Norman Conquest;
conventionally, we say that the
period of Middle-English begins
in 1100 C.E.
We conventionally date the end
of Middle English and the
beginning of Modern English to
1500 C.E.
This corresponds to the
introduction of the printing press
to England by William Caxton in
1476.

William Caxton

An Old English Our Father

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wl-OZ3breE

Old English
Anglo-Saxon / Old English
Example: < Lords Prayer
[1] Fder ure u e eart on heofonum,
Father ours, thou that art in heaven,
[2] Si in nama gehalgod.
Be thy name hallowed

Chaucer (+1400) and Middle

English (1150-1500 C.E.)
Canterbury Tales:
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to
the roote,
And bathed every veyne in switch
licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour. .
.

Middle English
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
(Summoners Tale)

Hold up thy tayl, thou sathanas!--quod he;

Hold up your tail, Satan!" he ordered.
--shewe forth thyn ers, and lat the frere se
"Show your arse, and let the friar see
Where is the nest of freres in this place!
--Where the nest of friars is in this place!"

Modern English
(c. 1500-present)
Influence of the Renaissance and the printing
press
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a
date. . .
Sonnet 18

The Greek Alphabet

The Greek Alphabet

The alphabet we use in English comes from the
Romans, who used it to write Latin.
The Romans got their alphabet from the Greeks;
in fact, our alphabet really could be called an
eccentric Greek alphabet.
Because so many technical terms come from
Greek, a knowledge of the Greek alphabet is
very helpful if you want to understand technical
English words.

Why Learn the Greek Alphabet?

Knowing the Greek alphabet will help you
understand how Greek words come into
English.

A, B, C, D, E,

Three Goofy Letters

(at least they rhyme!)

I, (J,), K, L, M, N,
(back to normalcy)

Until a few centuries ago, i and j were the same letter, so Greek
naturally has only one letter for i and j: iota.

T, U, all heck breaks out

the end (puff, puff).

The Whole Greek Alphabet

For Fun

Can you read this? Its a Greek name, scratched into a piece of
pottery from the early fifth century B.C.E.

Marsyas: Wikicommons