History of English Language Study Notes
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Questions and Answers

What's the periodisation of English?

  • Primitive English, Middle English, Contemporary English
  • Old English, Middle English, Modern English, Present Day English
  • Primitive English, Old English, Middle English, Today's English
  • Primitive Old English, Early Old English, Late Old English, Middle English, Modern English. (correct)

    • Why should we study the history of English?

  • To be able to create new words.
  • To improve your grammar and spelling skills.
  • To understand present-day English and other languages better through etymology (origins and evolution) of the language. (correct)
  • To pass this module.

    • Why do we have different words for animals when it is on a plate or when it is alive?

  • Due to religious beliefs.
  • Due to language contact and the hierarchical relationship of those.
  • To differentiate between living and dead states.
  • To maintain language diversity. (correct)

    • Which of these words has experienced a 'semantic change'?

    <p>villain</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In what order did these people live in England?

    <p>The Romans, Vikings, Normans</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What marked for centuries the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain?

    <p>Hadrian's Wall</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of these words didn't make its way into English directly from Latin?

    <p>street</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Grimm's Law is an example of internal forces in linguistic change.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of these place-names has a Celtic origin?

    <p>Nottingham</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which group of words is not of Old-Norse origin?

    <p>Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The loss of case markings due to contact between the English and the invaders is an example of external forces in linguistic change.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The word 'tsunami' is an example of innovations by speakers representing an external force in linguistic change.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Words going out of fashion are an example of external forces in linguistic change.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What's the story of letter C?

    <p>The Greeks borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians, although their third letter was 'gamma' /g/. The Romans later adopted the alphabet indirectly from the Etruscans, where the sound /g/ had shifted to a /k/ sound. Apparently, the Etruscans didn't distinguish these sounds. The Greeks often wrote with chisels, whereas the Romans could write with ink, where 'gamma' adopted a curvy shape (C). The Anglo-Saxons adopted the Roman alphabet into OE, but C was still /k/. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the process of 'assibilation' was introduced in languages in Western Europe.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many sound changes did Jacob Grim recorded?

    <p>5</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the sound change of 'assibilation'?

    <p>The process by which a sound shifts into a hissing or hushing sound /s, z, ∫, ts, 3, d3/.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    When was the 'ch' spelling introduced in English?

    <p>During Old English.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who said: "The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of the verbs an in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from the same common source, which perhaps, no longer exists."

    <p>William Jones</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of these statements is NOT true about Jones.

    <p>He was one of the leading Orientalists in Britain.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    When did the Battle of Hastings happen?

    <p>1066 CE</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which group of languages is NOT of IE origin?

    <p>Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Maltese</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many branches does the IE family tree can have?

    <p>20, 21, 22</p> Signup and view all the answers

    IE languages have reached as far as Xinjiang region in northwestern China.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who conquered England after The Battle of Hastings?

    <p>William I, Duke of Normandy (aka William the Conqueror)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was the initial name given to Proto-IE?

    <p>Proto-European</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What's the best definition for the term 'comparative linguistics'?

    <p>It is the study of the relationships or correspondences between two or more languages and the techniques used to discover whether the languages have a common ancestor.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    German folk-tales were initially compiled as a result of French invasion of Germanic territories as part of a resistance movement which sought to unify the historic German peoples.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    German folk-tales were initially compiled to write down the common Germanic language in order to analyse it better.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many patterns/rules did Jacob Grimm document in what we know today as "Grimm's Law"?

    <p>7</p> Signup and view all the answers

    "Assibilation' in English occurred with back vowels (a, o, u).

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What linguists completed Grimm's Law?

    <p>Frank Bopp and Wilhelm Grimm</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Choose the correct statement.

    <p>Karl Verner realised that Grimm's Law was not always applicable. Some voiceless consonants /p, t, k/ became voiced /ẞ or v, ð, γ/.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    'Hundred' (En.) is cognate with 'cien' (Sp.)

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which are polysynthetic languages?

    <p>Arctic language families (Inuit, Yupik, Aleut), aboriginal Australian languages (Gunbarlang)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which statement is FALSE?

    <p>The OE word 'rice' has not changed over time and it is still 'rice' today, with different pronunciation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    There are no inflections left in English but there used to be.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which is an example of agglutinating language?

    <p>Chinese (Mandarin), Vietnamese</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which is an example of isolating/analytic language?

    <p>Arctic language families (Inuit, Yupik, Aleut), aboriginal Australian languages(Gunbarlang)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The interrogative pronouns 'what' and 'who' are cognates with 'qué' and 'quién' in Spanish.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which are fusional/inflectional languages?

    <p>Catalan, Italian, French, Portuguese, Russian</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many cases did IE have?

    <p>Eight: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, locative, instrumental</p> Signup and view all the answers

    English no longer has cases but it relies on word order, unlike IE in which word order was not so important because cases indicated the function of the word within the sentence.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The modern-day English words pyre and fire are cognates.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The modern-day English words frail and fragile are etymological twins (or doublets).

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which OE dialect was dominant before the Viking invasion?

    <p>Mercian</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which OE dialect became the standard?

    <p>West Saxon</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of these was written by Bede?

    <p>Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English people)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which kingdoms formed the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy?

    <p>Mercia, Kent, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was the Danelaw?

    <p>The region established in England under Viking (Norsemen) rule in England.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The Treaty of Wedmore involved

    <p>Guthrum and Alfred</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The Treaty of Wedmore consisted in

    <p>establishing peace through intermarriage.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    After King Cnut, who was Alfred the Great's descendant to be restored to the throne?

    <p>King Aethelstan</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who was the last Anglo-Saxon king?

    <p>Edward the Confessor</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which option includes the most famous English runic inscription(s)?

    <p>Franks Casket and the Ruthwell Cross</p> Signup and view all the answers

    OE had long and short vowels and consonants.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    OE long consonants were marked with a macron.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Letter W is an OE invention that the Romans adopted within their alphabet.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Some runic symbols were inspired by or borrowed from the Roman alphabet.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The runes contained 12 symbols for vowel sounds.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    When were the runes abandoned as a writing method?

    <p>With the Christianisation of England.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many stages can be identified in the Viking invasion?

    <p>Four: visiting stage, plundering stage, settlement and conquest.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    History of English Language - Study Notes

    • Periodisation of English: Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Modern English
    • Why study English history?: To understand present-day English and other languages better through etymology (origins and evolution) of the language, to improve grammar and spelling skills, to maintain language diversity, due to language contact and the hierarchical relationship of those.
    • Semantic change: A change in the meaning of a word over time. Examples include words like "walk," "tooth," "angry," and "villain."
    • Internal forces in linguistic change: Changes within a language (e.g., Grimm's Law)
    • External forces in linguistic change: Changes due to contact with other languages or cultures(e.g., loss of case marking).
    • Proto-IE: The ancestral language from which Indo-European languages are descended.
    • Battle of Hastings: A significant event that contributed to the evolution of English
    • Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy: The seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Mercia, Kent, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia).
    • Danelaw: The region in England under Viking (Norsemen) rule.
    • Grimm's Law: A set of sound changes that occurred In the Proto-Germanic languages.
    • The Norman Conquest: A pivotal point in the history of English, leading to significant language changes.
    • Runes: An early writing system used in England
    • Case system: A system in which nouns and pronouns change form based on their role in a sentence (e.g. nominative, genitive).
    • The Great Vowel Shift: A significant sound change in English that impacted the pronunciation of long vowels.
    • Borrowing: Taking words from other languages.
    • Compounding: Combining two or more words to create a new word (e.g., 'fireplace').
    • Affixation: Adding prefixes or suffixes to words (e.g., 'unhappy').
    • Conversion: Changing a word from one part of speech to another.

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    Quiz: History of English Language PDF

    Description

    Explore the fascinating development of the English language through different periods such as Old English and Modern English. This quiz delves into the reasons for studying the history of English, semantic changes, and the internal and external forces that have shaped the language. Gain insights into historical events like the Battle of Hastings and the role of Proto-Indo-European in this rich linguistic history.

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