History of the English Language Course Presentation PDF

History of the English Language Course presentation Class meets Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:30 to 13h Room 108 2 Key dates October 16th, 2024: Assignment 1 (10%) With partner of your own choosing October 23rd, 2024: Test 1 (35%) H...

History of the English Language Course presentation Class meets Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:30 to 13h Room 108 2 Key dates October 16th, 2024: Assignment 1 (10%) With partner of your own choosing October 23rd, 2024: Test 1 (35%) Historical linguistics, origins of English, OE Translation from OE to PDE November 20th, 2024: Assignment 2 (10%) With partner of your own choosing January 8th, 2025: Test 2 (35%) History and culture Units 1-5 (focus strongly on Middle and Modern English) No translation from OE 3 A bit about me... Adriana Soto-Corominas [email protected] Office B11/128 Office hours: Mondays: 10.30-11.30h & 13-14h Wednesdays: 14.30-18.30h (Email me ahead of time, to make sure you are not waiting) My door and email is open. In case of doubt, please reach out! 4 What you can expect from this course It’s intense… and fun You will have to draw on your knowledge from English phonetics and phonology, English grammar I (morphology), and English grammar II and English syntax (syntax) You will have homework most weeks Homework will be announced in class, not in CV! We will flip some units 5 What you can expect from this course To memorize some stuff (but not that much) To participate in class a lot, because: No one like lectures Participation is the only way you and I know if you are getting the material Don’t worry about wrong responses (like really) 10% of the final grade is for “in-class participation and exercises” Cold-calling Planned activities 6 What I expect from you That you come to class regularly and participate That you do the homework and prepare for class That you ask for clarifications 7 Assessment conditions CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT: All exams and assignments are obligatory. Students can only obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade if they have not submitted/taken assessment items worth 35% or more of the course mark. The level of English will be taken into account in the correction of written work and in the final evaluation. In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject. In case of absence on a date of assessment (for example due to illness), students must provide a justification to gain the right to re-assessment. 8 Assessment conditions SINGLE ASSESSMENT: This subject allows Single Assessment upon request (from September 25th to October 16th 2024 strictly following the Faculty’s instructions) Single assessment comprises the 3 following items to be taken on the same date (Friday, 8/1/25, 11:30-13:00h): 1. Exam: 70% 2. Text analysis: 15% 3. Practical exercise: 15% The same reassessment method as for continuous assessment applies 9 Reassessment conditions Reassessment will consist of an exam Reassessment will only be possible for those students who have obtained an average mark between 3.5 and 4.9 and have completed all assessment items The maximum grade obtainable on the re-assessment exam is 5 10 Course objectives Recognize and analyze linguistic features which differ from present- day English Analyze and describe the phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic characteristics of earlier stages of the English language Understand the relationship between external history and the most relevant linguistic characteristics of English in every stage of the English language Understand and describe how linguistic features are maintained or change over time and apply this knowledge to text analysis using etymological dictionaries and glossaries 11  each date marks a historica event, rounded up to the nearest century. these events triggered changes, the changes did not happen overnight. - 449 --> Germanic invasion at the behesst of Vortirgen (Angles and Saxons arrived in Britain) --> branching of english off other germanic languages - 1066 --> Norman Conquest (Duke William of Normandy ended up defeating King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings) --> loss of most inflections Units - 1440 --> Renaissance and invention of the printing press --> standardisation of language - 1776 --> Declaration of Independence (the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain) --> increases of lexicon (colonialism, industrial revolution, technology) UNIT 1. Introduction to historical linguistics UNIT 2. The origins of the English language UNIT 3. Old English [~500-1100] (spelling, phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon) and the influence of external history in its evolution UNIT 4. Middle English [1100-1500] (spelling, phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon) and the influence of external history in its evolution UNIT 5. Early Modern English [1500-1800] (spelling, phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon) and the influence of external history in its evolution 12 History of the English Language Unit 1. Introduction to historical linguistics 1.1. Intro to Historical Linguistics “The Sanscrit 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 verbs and 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 some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family.” - William Jones Session outcomes After this session, you will be able to: Describe what historical linguistics studies Explain what Proto-Indo-European is 2 Historical Linguistics Historical linguistics = diachronic linguistics Diachrony (through time) vs. synchrony (at + time) a given time, not necessarily in the present Historical linguistics studies _______________________________ how and why languages change …and attempts to reconstruct the (pre-)history of languages to determine their relatedness, grouping them into language families - historical linguistics doesn't study the history of linguistics, concern itself with the origin of human language, determine the "correct" form of language or try to prevent change, equal etymology - it DOES concern itself with linguistic classification and grouping. currently there are 150-200 language famlies all over the world 3 Historical Linguistics: Genetic Linguistics Language families = languages that share a common ancestor _________________________ or ancestral language Ancestral language = _________________________ protolanguage (proto = first), not spoken anymore given their shared ancestry, languages in the same family share charactersitics, some more than others (phonology, morphology, lexicon, grammar) 4 root splits (Anthony, 2007) the starting point for this course if proto-indo-european --> hypothetical reconstrcuted ancestor language of the indo-european family 5 Historical Linguistics: Comparative Linguistics But how are these genetic relations established? And how do we reconstruct languages? ___________________________ the comparative method: similarities, differences, reason for the differences (systematic change?) 6 Homework Read Campbell (2013, pp. 107-110) on the comparative method Optional reading: Campbell (2013, chapter 5) 7 History of the English Language Unit 1. Introduction to historical linguistics 1.1. Intro to Historical Linguistics (the comparative method) Session outcomes After this session, you will be able to: Describe what the comparative method does and how it does it Discuss why languages may change over time 2 Historical Linguistics: Reconstruction The comparative method is not only used to compare across languages, but to ___________________ reconstruct languages for which no written records exist (such as Proto-Indo-European, or Proto-Germanic) Reconstructed forms (hypothetical, derived from the evidences extracted from the comparative method) = marked with an __________ asterisk Example: Latin fero - English bear - Indo-European *bher 3 Historical Linguistics: Reconstruction 1. Compile a cognate set… of which words? - words that exist in the langauges we're studying - words that come from the same proto-language - disregard borrowings - disregard modern words as they will not have stemmed from a proto-language - we aim for the core vocabulary, so basic that all languages have and that they must have been part of the language from the very beginning --> water, mother, external body parts, basic food 4 An aside: cognates vs. chance overlap Apart from borrowings, languages may be similar by ___________________ chance --> chance overlap Consider, for instance, the case of Algonquian (North American native language) and Scots Gaelic: bhanem - ban ‘woman’ odana - dun ‘town’ kladen - claden ‘frost’ monaden - monadh ‘mountain’ cuiche - cuithe ‘gorge’ 5 An aside: cognates vs. chance overlap How would you tell apart cognates vs. chance overlap? ___________________ the number of shared words is small (ban-bhanem have to be women in all the derived words, if it only happens with a few, it's chance overlap) ___________________ there are no systematic sound correspondences between the words The observed similarities, therefore, are attributed to accidental (i.e., ‘chance’) overlap in sound and meaning 6 Historical Linguistics: Reconstruction 1. Compile a cognate set of core words and eliminate borrowings 2. Create sound correspondences: 7  Historical Linguistics: Reconstruction 1. Compile a cognate set of core words and eliminate borrowings 2. Create sound correspondences 3. Reconstruct the sound in the proto-language (in this case, Proto- Romance) this is the core of the method [A lot goes into this step, and Campbell (2013) goes into detail, if you are curious] if all languages have the same sound in the same position, reconstruct that sound --> catalan f, spanish f, italian f, portuguese f --> protoromance f --> they are the reflex of the proto language's f if there isn't a total correspondencde, reconstruct the sound which would have undergone the most natural sound change --> it's very rare for nothing to become something in a lot of languages, it's more natural that something became nothing in one of the languages due to its evolution --> catalan f, spanish NOTHING, italian f, portuguese f --> protoromance f reflected in most languages, but disappeared in a minority f became nothing in spanish when preceding vowels, but elsewhere proto f was reflected. in catalan, italian and portuguese proto f is always reflected 8 Historical Linguistics: Reconstruction 1. Compile a cognate set of core words and eliminate borrowings 2. Create sound correspondences 3. Reconstruct the sound in the proto-language (in this case, Proto- Romance) 4. Check for regularity of proposed changes look for other examples to support your change --> ferro, fum, flor latin in this case would support it very well because it's very well-recorded we would then repear the process to get all the phonological correspondences in the words. first you reconstruct proto sounds, then lexial items, then grammatical morphemes 9 Historical Linguistics: Reconstruction Imagine doing the same for Proto-Indo-European We will never know for sure if our reconstruction is 100% correct reconstruction is a set of interconnected hypotheses which can be revisited languages are gone but they leave evidence behind, some more than others thanks to comparative method we have a proto indo european phonology and grammar 10 From Proto-Indo-European to ModEnglish Proto-Indo-European is where our course begins …and in December, we will be at Modern English Languages change their phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, and semantic systems 11 Language change But why do languages change? there's general ideas but there are no specific answers. there's internal forces (language economy, physical and psychological) and external forces (a culture comes in contact with another culture because it's invaded = language contact, prestige, language planning) 12  Language change: Language contact Substratum theory: - a community X may adopt a language of community Y (willingly or by imposition) - when this happens, the speakers of language X are biund to change certain features of language Y during the period of bilingualism - language x (the substratum) affects language Y even if language Y is substituting language x - the branching off of germanic from the other IE are ofthen blamed on the substratum that was in europe at the time 13 History of the English Language Unit 2. The origins of the English language 2.1. From PIE to PG: Intro to PG Lexical, morphological, and phonological changes Session outcomes After this session, you will be able to: Describe what Proto-Germanic (PG) was Describe how PG differed from PIE in lexical, morphological, and phonological terms 2 Indo-European Probably spoken ~6,000 years ago No known homeland but potentially started Southern Europe (for sure not in Africa, Australia or America) Its speakers were nomadic As time progressed, the number of speakers increased and the language spread over a larger area through Eurasia the bigger it became, the more dialects 3  language from which many languages descend From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic was spoken ~2,500 years ago Last common ancestor of the attested Germanic languages Also reconstructed via the comparative method that's why it's called "proto" Probably spoken in the western end of the Baltic Sea Split into three branches: East Germanic West Germanic english North Germanic 4 From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic Let’s look at how PIE changed into PG Focus on: Lexicon Morphology Phonology [Not a comprehensive list of changes!!] 5 Lexicon PG The core vocabulary of CG contains a number of lexical items that have no cognates in other IE branches: e.g.: broad, drink, drive, rain, wife, meat, hold, fowl POTENTIAL EXPLANATION: speakers from other languages became in contact with germanic speakers. and the germanic speakers borrowed from othre languages the items in the list --> substratum theory 6 Morphological changes: Verbs PIE had several distinctions of tense and aspect in verbal inflections (think Latin…) is it continuous or complete? In PG, distinctions of tense and aspect are lost except for the contrast in present vs. preterite tense …this is the only contrast in verbal inflection in present-day English: Say vs. said 7 Morphological changes: Verbs PG developed a type of preterite tense inflection with a dental suffix (-d or –t): so a lot of things were lost going into PG, but PG also developed new things talk - talked PG had (and Germanic languages have) two types of verbs: Weak (aka. regular): preterite indicated with dental suffix walk – walked fish – fished ABLAUT: a systematic vowel change that indicates the change of meaning (the result is a change of tense). it is original of PIE Strong: preterite indicated by a vowel change in the stem swim – swam sing – sang get - got 8 Morphological changes: Adjectives PG innovates an adjective declension inexistent in PIE: Weak (definite): when A is accompanied by determiner The young fellow loves this. the weak ones would not have to encode as much info in the abjective as the determiner that precdedes them Strong (indefinite): any other context would hold information. but the innovation does not have a preceding determiner Young fellows love this. Determiner would have indicated case, number, and gender 9 Morphological changes: Nouns General tendency towards increasing syncretism (coincidence of form and function) syncretism --> one form is not going to carry out different functions Reduction of inflections PIE 8 cases → PG 6 cases dative, ablative, and locative → dative typically indicates indirect object typically indicates source we lost all this differenciation 10 Morphological changes: Nouns General tendency towards increasing syncretism (coincidence of form and function) Reduction of inflections PIE: Singular - Dual – Plural number → PG: Singular - Plural [Dual survived in 1 st and 2nd person pronouns] 11 Phonological changes Laryngeals Nasals, liquids, semivowels Vocalic changes Stress The first Germanic Consonant Shift (a.k.a Grimm’s Law) Generalised shift of PIE plosives Verner’s Law Systematic account for a high number of cases that had been considered exceptions to Grimm’s Law 12 Phonological changes: Laryngeals PIE laryngeal consonants were lost in Germanic (and eventually, in all other daughters of the family) laryngeal encompasses uvular, glottal and pharyngeal sounds. made in the back of the vocal tract linguists agree that PIE must have had at least 3 different laryngeal sounds but we don't know certainly what those sounds were. 13 Phonological changes: Nasals, liquids, semivowels NASALS AND LIQUIDS Loss of syllabic function in PG: PIE was very rich in syllabic consonants Vowel insertion (most often [ʊ]), so syllabic [ļ ŗ ņ m̦] become [ʊl, ʊr, ʊn, ʊm] PIE *wļkwos > PG *wulfaz ‘wolf’ /l/ is no longer syllabic. this happened systematically from PIE to PG SEMIVOWELS (PIE [j] and [w] gradually become fricatives [ɣ, β] in PG) 14 Phonological changes: Vocalic changes PIE [ɑ:] → PG [ɔ:] PIE *ma:t > PG *mo:ð (PIE [o] → PG [a]) 15 Phonological changes: Vocalic changes PIE [ɑ:] → PG [ɔ:] PIE [o] → PG [a] When the balance of a phonological system is broken by the shift of a phoneme, another phoneme will start shifting, thus restoring the lost balance In a later period of PG, a new short /o/ and a new long /a:/ will be formed 16 Phonological changes: Stress PIE stress is marked by pitch and loudness → PG stress is marked only by loudness PIE stress is free (unpredictable) → PG has initial stress Stress is attracted to the root syllable, which is most often the initial syllable (unless it is a prefix) Latin: ’viri, vi’rorum OE: ‘faeder, ‘faederes, ‘faedearas 17 Phonological changes: Stress PIE stress is marked by pitch and loudness → PG stress is marked only by loudness PIE stress is free (unpredictable) → PG has initial stress Stress is attracted to the root syllable, which is most often the initial syllable (unless it is a prefix) Consequences of stress retraction in PG: Weakening of vowels in unstressed syllables Gradual loss of inflections 18 History of the English Language Unit 2. The origins of the English language 2.2. From PIE to PG: Grimm’s law Verner’s law Prof. Adriana Soto-Corominas Fall 2024-25 Session outcomes After this session, you will be able to: Describe how PG differed from PIE in phonological terms Explain and apply Grimm’s law and Verner’s law 2 Phonological changes: Grimm’s law Grimm’s law = First Germanic Sound Shift only concerned with consonant changes ~1000 BC Systematized by Jacob Grimm grimm brother Starting point: there seem to be consistent correspondences between Germanic /f/ and /p/ in other Indo-European languages… many cognates seemed to have this correspondance 3 main steps 3 Phonological changes: Grimm’s law changes articulation Step 1 no difference in terms of aspiration after the shift, we are changing both aspirated + and unaspirated voiceless stops Merging of PIE voiceless stops [p, t, k, kw] and PIE voiceless aspirated stops [ph, th, kh, khw] and change into fricatives in PG [f, θ, x, xw] = movement, sound shift --> it left the old sounds empty because they have been replaced, so step 2 will cover this gap PIE PG OE old english Latin *pətēr *faðḗr fæder pater *treyes *θrīz Þrie [θ] tres *kwon *hundaz [x] hund [x] canis 4 Phonological changes: Grimm’s law Step 2 changes voicing = PIE voiced stops [b, d, g, gw] changed into voiceless stops in PG [p, t, k, kw] This shift took place AFTER step 1 as its output would have otherwise been affected by the change of voiceless stops to fricatives described earlier filling the gaps left by the shifts in step 1 regarding voiceless stops PIE PG OE Latin [x] *dékm̥t *tehun ten decem *gel *kaldaz cold gelu 5 Phonological changes: Grimm’s law changes aspiration Step 3 protogermanic lost them for a while PIE aspirated voiced stops [bh, dh, gh, gwh] become voiced fricatives [β, δ, ɣ, ɣw] and then voiced stops [b, d, g, gw] in PG voiced stops were lost in step 2, so now we need to fill the gap PIE PG OE Latin *bʰréhtēr *brōθēr broþor frater *steigh *stīganą stigan - the t isn't changing 6 Phonological changes: Grimm’s law p t k b d g bh dh gh f θ x 7 Phonological changes: Grimm’s law Exception 1 f, s, v, z A preceding fricative (especially [s]) blocks Grimm’s law from applying) fricative + p, t, k will prevent p, t, k from undergoing step 1 In a sequence of two stops, only the first is affective by the shift p, t, k (voiceless), b, d, g (voiced) PIE PG OE Latin *spīwan *(s)pēiw spiwan spuo *péysks *fiska fisk pisk- the p changes into f but sk remains step 1 applies with k into h and pt into *khaptós *haftaz hæft capt- ft, but the t will not undergo step 1 because it's being blocked by f 8 Phonological changes: Grimm’s law Exception 2: Verner’s law places where in theory grimm's law should apply, even accounting for the exceptions in the previous slide Many exceptions were unaccounted for before Karl Verner’s work Regular [t] to [θ] in most words PIE Skt. Greek PG OE Latin *bhráter bhrātar φράτηρ *brōθēr brōþor frater But in some, the (unexpected) change from [t] to [ð] occurred: PIE Skt. Greek PG OE Latin *pətēr pitar πατήρ *faðēr fæder pater *māter martas ματηρ *mōðor mōdor māter 9  Phonological changes: Verner’s law Irregularities in Grimm’s Law were accounted for by Karl Verner in 1875, in terms of a voicing process: [f, θ, x, xw, s] further changed into [β, δ, ɣ, ɣw, z] EXCEPT IF: output of step 3 + s - The sound was in initial or final position (then, no change) - The sound was in contact with a voiceless consonant (then, no change) - PIE stress was on the immediately preceding vowel (then, no change) so it changes WHEN f, 0, x, x , s appear in a voiced context (i.e. not initially or finally, oy next to voicelles consonants) AND when they are not immediately proceded by the IE stress. 10 Phonological changes: Verner’s law [f, θ, x, xw, s] further changed into [β, δ, ɣ, ɣw, z] EXCEPT IF: - The sound was in initial or final position (then, no change) - The sound was in contact with a voiceless consonant (then, no change) - PIE stress was on the immediately preceding vowel (then, no change) PIE had unpredictable stress, but PG moved stress towards the beginning f PIE [t] of *b ráter becomes [θ] in Germanic broþor (as predicted). The h IE stress is on the syllable *bhrá- (the syllable that immediately precedes the syllable where the relevant sound occurs), so no further change applies at the time of the First Consonant Shift no exceptions in this word 11 Phonological changes: Verner’s law [f, θ, x, xw, s] further changed into [β, δ, ɣ, ɣw, z] EXCEPT IF: - The sound was in initial or final position (then, no change) - The sound was in contact with a voiceless consonant (then, no change) - PIE stress was on the immediately preceding syllable (then, no change) PIE [t] of *pətēr became [θ], as predicted by Grimm’s Law (Step 1), but then, because the PIE stress was NOT on the immediately preceding syllable BUT ON the syllable where the relevant sound occurs, [θ] further changes into [δ] (Verner’s Law) the t was in the same syllable as the e, which was the stressed vowel --> verner's law applies (third point) 12 β, δ, ɣ, ɣw Eventually, [β, δ, ɣ, ɣw] became [b, d, g, gw] in PG and [b, d, g] in OE PRACTICE: - *pur --> fur --> no further change in f because it's in initial position - *tone --> 0one --> no further change in 0 because it's in initial position - *duk'eh --> tux'eh --> tu 'eh --> tug' eh --> further change because of stress - * b ago --> bako --> no further change in b because it's in initial position - *drw --> trw --> no further change in t because it's in initial position 13  History of the English Language Unit 3. Old English Prof. Adriana Soto-Corominas Fall 2024-25 First things first: Logistics Assignment 1 (October 16th) will be a translation from OE into PDE You will do it with a partner of your own choosing …or one can be assigned to you! You will need two supporting documents: Glossary Inflections cheat sheet Print a copy of each document to bring with you on October 16 th If you don’t have it, you will have to complete the assignment unassisted …and it will be no fun 2  History of the English Language Unit 3. Old English 3.1 Historical background Prof. Adriana Soto-Corominas Fall 2024-25 Session outcomes Explain what happened in the island before, while, and after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons Describe, in broad strokes, what the Old English lexicon looked like, and its sources of borrowings 4 Summary of Baugh & Cable (ch. 3) Each group convenes Each student describes the MAIN POINTS of their section(s) Person 1: section 29 (The Languages in England before English) Person 2: section 30 (The Romans in Britain), 31 (The Roman Conquest), and 32 (Romanization of the Island), and 33 (The Latin Language in Britain) Person 3: section 34 (The Germanic Conquest) Person 4: section 35 (Anglo-Saxon Civilization), 36 (The Names “England” and “English”) 10 minutes total Take notes, as everything can be in the exam 5 Summary of Baugh & Cable (ch. 3) The first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge are the Celts, who spoke Celtic (also IE) Celts arrived from Europe to Britian by 2000 BC (bronze age) 6 Summary of Baugh & Cable (ch. 3) The first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge are the Celts, who spoke Celtic (also IE) In A.D. 43 the Roman Conquest (and the Romanization) of the island begins Latin became the language of the military and official class Celtic remained the native language The Celts relied on the Romans to keep the Picts and Scots from the north under control In A.D. 410, the last Roman legions withdraw from the island 7 Summary of Baugh & Cable (ch. 3) In A.D. 449, Germanic tribes from Denmark and the Low Countries (the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons) start invading Britain Probably spoke different but close dialects of the same language They could understand each other 8 Summary of Baugh & Cable (ch. 3) In A.D. 449, Germanic tribes from Denmark and the Low Countries (the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons) start invading Britain The Britons (Romanized Celts) asked the Romans for help against the Picts and Scots, but the Roman emperor refused Vortigern, a Celtic king, asked the Germanic tribes to help the Celts fight the Picts and Scots in exchange for land The Anglo-Saxon tribes settled and started spreading, driving the Celts out Much of the Celtic and Roman civilizations was destroyed 9 Summary of Baugh & Cable (ch. 3) By the late 6th century, Anglo-Saxons dominated most of present-day England (except for Wales and Cornwall, where Celtic remained dominant) 7th century: consolidation of AS authority in the Heptarchy (7 kingdoms): Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Kent, East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria 10 The Christianization of Britain In AD 597 under the influence of Rome, from paganism to Christianity Two main linguistic consequences: 1. Anglo-Saxon acquired the Roman alphabet 2. Many Latin words entered the English language Most related to religion 11  From denmark, so they were also germanic Viking invasions Started in AD 793 and increased until 870 They took over a very sizeable anglo-saxon territory King of Wessex Truce with the Danes by Alfred the Great (AD 886)→ Danelaw He inspired it but didn’t conclude it because the Danes messed it up 10th century: unification of After 2 generations, the England under one ruler vikings were beaten (but (consolidation of Alfred’s Alfred’s not necessarily kicked out) achievements by Æthelstan) grandson He coordinated the other kings surrounding him in an effort to stop the vikings. The truce was you’re going to keep the area that you have and you’re going to rule it your way (tha land was the Danelaw) but you’re going to stop trying to conquer the rest of the territory 12 …and then 1042: Edward the Confessor (English) becomes king after having been brought up in France → close relationship with Normandy 1066: Edward dies without a successor to the throne → Norman Conquest → Big changes for English… … but more on this in Unit 3 13 History of the English Language Unit 3. Old English 3.2 Language: A bird’s-eye view  OE characteristics: Overview Roots don’t get many affixations, Roots get a lot of affixations they are separate woords Old English was synthetic (i.e., fusional), not analytical In the Modern english is spectrum more analytical than synthetic Ns, Vs, As, Ds, and Prons were highly inflected Ns and As had strong and weak declensions Vs had strong and weak conjugations The vocabulary was extremely Germanic Not anymore in modern english Word formation processes included compounding and derivation, with little borrowing It really reminds us of german, which is also synthetic There was grammatical gender For nouns, and it was binary 15 History of the English Language Unit 3. Old English 3.3 Lexicon Prof. Adriana Soto-Corominas Fall 2024-25 The Anglo-Saxon period There was a lack of integration between the Anglo-Saxons and Celts Celtic-speaking inhabitants were pushed into Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland If the A-S were there, the celts weren’t The Anglo-Saxons referred to them as Wealas (Welsh) “foreigner”, “stranger” or “slave” The dominant languages would have been the west Germanic dialects, spoken by the Germanic tribes Which would go on to become OE …which is why Celtic was a very minor source of loanwords 17 The Anglo-Saxon period With the Anglo-Saxon (and Germanic) spread, the Celtic languages in England were largely eliminated in their settlements Some place and river names remained: Thames, Yare, Avon, Exe, Kent, York, Lincoln Canti ‘rim, border’ > Kent Torr ‘high rock, peak’ > Torbay, Torcross Barr ‘top, summit’ > Barr Cumb: ‘deep valley’ > Cumberland Dun ‘fortress’ > Duncombe 18 Latin Three separate periods of borrowing from Latin can be distinguished over the OE period Before the A-S arrived Continent period: Germanic tribes came into contact with Roman merchants on the continent Only a few Latin through Celtic transmission: Latin words borrowed by British Celts were then borrowed by Anglo-Saxons Christian period: following the Christianization by Roman missionaries in 597 Huge borrowing 19 1. Latin: Contintent Period The first Latin words were introduced through an early contact between the Romans and the Germanic tribes on the continent (before English speakers migrated to the British isles) The vocabulary borrowed reflects the nature of dealings between the two groups (these groups are common from several to all Germanic languages: words connected with war and trade and agriculture 1. Latin: Contintent Period vinum > win ‘wine’ campus > camp ‘battle’ pondo > pund ‘pound’ moneta > mynet ‘mint’ caseus > cēse ‘cheese’ 2. Latin: Celtic transmission Words were likely borrowed from Latin by the Celts and then borrowed by the Anglo-Saxons So indirect borrowing Almost nothing remains outside a few elements found in place names The A-S weren’t really in contact with the Celts so the Celts didn’t give many loanwords to English castra ‘camp’ > ceaster ‘city’ (Lancaster, Winchester, Manchester) vallum > weall ‘wall’ portus > port ‘port’ strata > stræt ‘street’ 3. Latin: Christianization Words connected with religion, education, and learning altar > altar ‘altar’ angelus > engel ‘angel’ missa > mæsse ‘mass’ templum > tempel ‘temple’ schola > scol ‘school’ magister > master grammatica > grammatic ‘grammar’ Scandinavian influence Initially, words were borrowed related to sea and war dreng ‘young warrior’ orrest ‘combat’ Later on, concepts related to everyday life egg, kid, skin, skirt, same Function words: they, fro, are, both The borrowing of function words indicates that there was a tight relationship  The A-S were not really in contact with the celts, so celtic didn’t give many loanwords to English The OE lexicon in perspective OE lexicon was almost entirely Germanic (~3% of borrowings, compared to 70% in PDE) Present day english Instead, derivation and compounding are extremely productive: Mōd ‘heart, mind’ Mōdig ‘bold’ Mōdgethanc ‘intelligence’ Mōdcraeftig ‘intelligent’ Micelmōd ‘magnanimous’ Much of the Germanic vocabulary of OE has not survived The more frequently used the word, the more likely it is to have survived Of the 100 most commonly used words in OE, 76 are still used 25 History of the English Language Unit 3. Old English 3.4 Language: Spelling and phonology Prof. Adriana Soto-Corominas Fall 2024-25 Section outcomes Understand how OE was pronounced Make connections between spelling and pronunciation between OE- PDE THE MOST IMPORTANT - that thorn and eth are used interchangeably for two sounds —> where to find them in the glossary - i mutation application to find it in the glossary 2 Pronunciation No one knows exactly how OE sounded, as there are no informants left Reconstructed pronunciation from various kinds of evidence: What is known about Latin pronunciation (as Anglo-Saxons adapted the Latin alphabet to write their own language) Comparisons with other Germanic languages and with later stages of English Accentuation and quantity of syllables in OE poetry 3 OE vowel inventory 14 full vowel sounds + [ə] Contrast in V length Subject to dialectal variation (and disagreement) 4  OE vowel inventory Old English Vowel IPA Symbol Old English Example y y cynn ‘kin, family’ FRONT i ɪ scip ‘ship’ e ɛ tellan ‘count’ æ æ cræft ‘skill or trade’ a ɑ pað ‘path’ BACK o ɔ god ‘God’ u ʊ sunu ‘son’ Adapted from: https://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/tutorials/the-pronunciation-of-old-english 5  OE vowel inventory Old English Vowel IPA Symbol Old English Example ȳ yː cȳþþ ‘kith, friends’ ī iː wīte ‘punishment’ ē eː ēþel ‘homeland’ ǣ æː bǣde ‘bade, i.e. asked’ ā ɑː stān ‘stone’ ō oː gōd ‘good’ ū uː brūcan ‘to enjoy’ Adapted from: https://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/tutorials/the-pronunciation-of-old-english 6 Vowels Long vowels are marked with macrons or colon (e.g. ō vs. o or o: vs. o) in modern editions of texts for scholar purposes, but they were never marked in OE manuscripts 7 Pronunciation: Vowels and Diphthongs Vowel length in OE = duration vs. vowel length in PDE = quality Vowel length in OE is significant as it makes a difference in the meanings of words 8 Pronunciation: Simple vowels Examples of contrastive vowel length: is īs ac āc ġe ġē Can you match the words above with the meanings below? ‘but’, ‘is’, ‘oak’, ‘you (plural)’, ‘ice’, ‘and’ 9 Pronunciation: Simple vowels Examples of contrastive vowel length: is ‘is’ īs ‘ice’ ac ‘but’ āc ‘oak’ ġe ‘and’ ġē ‘you’ (plural) 10 Pronunciation: Simple vowels In unaccented syllables, vowels were probably pronounced less distinctly than in accented syllables Very frequent phenomenon across language so it’s assumed that it happened here too In late OE (ca. 1000) frequent spelling confusion shows that by then the language was beginning to approach the Middle English situation in which all vowels in unaccented syllables were pronounced [ə] But unaccented vowels were distinguished in OE, and it is often the only thing that distinguishes one inflectional ending from another (e.g. dative singular cyninge vs. genitive plural cyninga; genitive singular cyninges vs. nominative plural cyningas) 11 Pronunciation: Diphthongs OE has two digraphs that are commonly interpreted as diphthongs: and Not present in present day english and can represent short or long sounds (so, 4 diphthongs) represents [eo] or [e:o] (e.g. ceorl ‘free man’, dēop ‘deep’) represents [æɑ] or [æ:ɑ] (e.g. feallan ‘fall’, rēad ‘red’) 12 Pronunciation: More about vowels Short , , and all derive from the same vowel A lot of insconsistency in the transcripts A split occurred before the period of written records and was conditioned by the context By the Middle English period, , , and had coalesced into a single vowel (spelled ) However, it is important to know about the relation of , , and because these sounds vary within paradigms It’s important to know that these vowels are related and may change withing versions of the word because only one version of the word may appear in the glossary/disctionary e.g. dæġ but if a back vowel follows, and become , so dagas 13 Pronunciation: More about vowels I-mutation I-mutation happened in pre-written OE Shift in the quality of a vowel that makes it higher and more forward than usual If a stressed syllable was followed by an unstressed syllable containing [i] or [j], the vowel of the stressed syllable was fronted or raised *bankiz > benc ‘bench’ *mūsiz > myc ‘mice’ It is a subtype of a sound change called vowel harmony 14 Pronunciation: More about vowels The vowels ǣ, ē and i/ī are not subject to i-mutation 15 Pronunciation: Stress All OE words are accented on the first syllable, except for: Words beginning with the prefix ġe-, which are accented on the second syllable Verbs beginning with prefixes are accented on the next syllable after the prefix (but not prefixed nouns and adjectives, which are accented on the prefix -except ġe-) 16 Pronunciation: Consonants a Hām ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )h Adapted from: https://oldenglish.info/advpronunciationguide.html 17 Pronunciation: Consonants a Hām ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )h These two were used indistinctively [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [g] [ɣ] / [+voice] _____ [+voice] The circled sound Adapted from: https://oldenglish.info/advpronunciationguide.html 18 Pronunciation: Consonants What were the highlighted sounds? heofon ‘heaven’ V sæt ‘sat’ S lang ‘long’ g hæfde ‘had’ V feðer ‘feather’ dragan ‘to drag’ cyssan ’to kiss’ S ēast ‘east’ S ċeosan ‘choose’ Z wulfas ‘wolves’ V 19 Pronunciation: Consonants Most Old English consonants are pronounced as in PDE, and most of the differences from PDE are straightforward: Scribes wrote the letters þ (‘thorn’) and ð (‘eth’) interchangeably to represent [θ] and [ð] From Beowulf: syððan (line 6), syðþan (line 132), syþðan (line 283), and syþþan (line 604) There are no silent consonants (e.g. cniht, [k]; hlāf, [h]; gnæt, [g]; wrīðan, [w]) Every consonant is pronounced 20 Pronunciation: Consonants When written double, consonants must be pronounced double, or held longer (e.g. wile ‘he will’ vs. wille ‘I will’; freme ‘do -imperative’ vs. fremme ‘I do’) Gemmination 21  Pronunciation: Consonants a Hām ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )h → [k] /___ V[+back] → [tʃ] /___ V[+front] / ___ C (sometimes marked as ċ) [k] [tʃ] In modern transcriptions Adapted from: https://oldenglish.info/advpronunciationguide.html 22 Pronunciation: Consonants What were the highlighted sounds? cyssan ‘to kiss’ ċeosan ‘choose’ clæne ‘to clean’  Pronunciation: Consonants a Hām ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )h → [ŋ] /___ C[+velar] [n] / ___ elsewhere singan [ŋ] [n] [ŋ] Adapted from: https://oldenglish.info/advpronunciationguide.html 24  Pronunciation: Consonants a Hām ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )h → [x] /V[+back] ____ [h] [x] [ç] [ç] /V[+front] ____ [h] / ___ elsewhere Adapted from: https://oldenglish.info/advpronunciationguide.html 25 Pronunciation: Consonants What were the highlighted sounds? hring ‘ring’ leoht ‘light’ hlāf ‘loaf’ miht ‘might'  Pronunciation: Consonants a Hām ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )h → [j] /(V[+front]) ____V[+front] /V[+front] ____ ## [ɣ] / [+voice] _____ [+voice] [g] /elsewhere [g] [ɣ] [j] Adapted from: https://oldenglish.info/advpronunciationguide.html 27 Pronunciation: Consonants What were the highlighted sounds? gēar ‘year’ gōd ‘good’ sagu ‘saw’ Pronunciation: Consonants is pronounced [dʒ] (e.g. hrycg ‘ridge’, brycg ‘bridge’, ecg ‘edge’) So mainly pronounced like we would today is usually pronounced [ʃ] (e.g. scip ‘ship’, æsc ‘ash (wood)’) Except for: [sk] if occurs /____V[+back] or /V[+back] /____ ##, (e.g. fiscas ‘fishes’, tūsc ‘tusk’) Sometimes is pronounced [ʃ] in one form of a word and [sk] in another (e.g. fisc [ʃ] ‘fish’ vs. fiscas [sk]) 29 BEWARE! To look up words in the etymological dictionary or glossary, recall that vowel length is significant, and so is the doubling of consonants: e.g. biddan ‘ask, pray’ and bīdan ‘await, experience’ are different words! In your glossary, locate where æ and þ/ð are But actually very consistent The spelling of OE is somewhat variable and inconsistent: with pronunciation Scribes apply different rules to render the sounds of their language in writing, and they often did so in different ways Scribes sometimes mixed up the dialects of OE (e.g. Mercian þēostru ‘darkness’ / West Saxon þīestru) 30 For homework! Look at the Personal Pronouns section of the cheat sheet and make sense of it Do the same with the Demonstrative Pronouns section We will come in hot! For next Wednesday: watch V videos (wait until Monday) 31 History of the English Language Unit 3. Old English 3.5 Morphology Prof. Adriana Soto-Corominas Fall 2024-25 Section outcomes Understand how pronouns and nouns worked in OE Translate some small bits of OE 2 PRONOUNS and POSSESSIVE Ds 3 Personal pronouns Check out the Personal Pronouns section Is everything clear? Explain the table to the person next to you 4 Personal pronouns Case N. = Nominative (subject) A. = Accusative (object; complement of certain prepositions) G. = Genitive (possession) D. = Dative (indirect object; complement of certain prepositions) 5 Personal pronouns Number Sg. = singular Dual = exactly two people Its use is optional. There are no dual verb forms, so dual pronouns agree with plural verbs) Sing pron - sing verb; dual/plural pron - plural verb Pl. = plural 6 Personal pronouns Gender Masc. = Masculine Neut. = Neuter Fem. = Feminine 7 Personal pronouns Person Only 3rd person has gender Though it is neutralized in the pl Syncretism in 3rd person pronouns The forms overlap (circled in green and orange) The ones that have more than one option in every cell, can be used interchangeably since there was no standardised spelling 8 Personal pronouns: Practice ________ sealde þām þeġne hring. I gave that servant ring ‘I gave a ring to the servant.’ se þeġn ________ sealde hring. The servant me gave ring ‘The servant gave me a ring.’ se þeġn ________ lange hwīle ġebād. [The verb ‘bīdan’ takes a genitive object] The servant me long while wait ‘The servant waited for me for a long time.’ 9 Trickier practice – Don’t freak out!!!! Translate into PDE. You only need to figure out the last word! þu hine mē sealdest. 10 More practice Way more practice here: https://workouts.oldenglishaerobics.net/05- pron-pers-e01.php 11 Possessive adjectives (Ds) They are genitive personal pronouns + suffix Possessive adjectives are closely related to genitive personal pronouns In 3rd person, the genitive pronouns are also the Ds (e.g. his hring ‘his ring’, hira fatu ‘their cups’) 3rd person possessive Ds agree in gender and number (e.g., his, her, their) with the possessor (like in PDE) His boat —> his is the gender of the possessor, not the possessed 1st and 2nd person possessive Ds agree with the nouns they modify Adjective endings even if they They are the genitive pronouns + strong adjective endings are pronouns e.g. mīn scip ‘my ship (nominative)’ + ship is singlural and masculine in OE, so the pronoun has to be singular, masculine and the mīnum scipe ‘to my ship (dative)’ case is N in the first one and D in the second 12 Possessive adjectives (Ds) https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3-euw1-ap-pe-ws4-cws-documents.ri-prod/9781138501096/learning- resources/Introduction-to-Old-English.pdf 13 Demonstrative pronouns Check out the Demonstrative Pronouns section Is everything clear? 14 Demonstrative pronouns I. = Instrumental case I instrumental case is distinguished only in the masculine and neuter singular, while dative is used elsewhere Gender is only distinguished in the singular 15 Demonstrative pronouns se / þæt / sēo also did the job of PDE definite article the and demonstratives that þes / þis/ þēos did the same job as PDE this Sēo is mīn dohtor 16 Interrogrative pronouns hwā and hwæt are the ancestors of PDE who/what They only have a singular form and no distinction between masculine and feminine The instrumental form is the ancestor of PDE why (and is used to mean ‘why’) Masc. / Fem. Neut. N hwā hwæt hwelċ/hwilċ/hwylċ is the ancestor of A hwone, hwæne hwæt PDE which G hwæs D hwām, hwǣm hwæþer ‘which of two’ I hwȳ, hwon 17 Relative pronouns There are several ways of making a relative pronoun: 1. Indeclinable particle þe þā bēoð ēadiġe þe ġehȳrað Godes word ‘They are blessed who obey God’s word’ 2. Use a demonstrative pronoun with þe Hē lifode mid þām Gode þām þe hē ǣr þēowode ‘He lived with that God whom he earlier had served’ 3. Use a form of the demonstrative pronoun alone (without þe) Danai ēa, sēo is irnende of norþdæle ‘The river Don, which flows from the north’ 19 Relative pronouns When a demonstrative is used, its case and number will: Usually be appropriate to the following relative clause Sometimes, though, the demonstrative will agree with the word that the relative clause modifies 20 Reflexive pronouns Personal pronouns can be used by themselves as a reflexive …self/sylf can be added for emphasis Beware! OE sometimes uses a reflexive pronoun where it makes no sense to use one in PDE Iċ ondrēd mē ‘I was afraid’ Iċ ðā sōna eft mē selfum andwyrde ‘I then immediately afterwards answered myself’ 21 NOUNS 22 Nouns Unlike PDE, OE was highly inflected (think Latin!) Grammatical gender is an attribute of every OE noun The grammatical gender of a noun does not necessarily correspond to the natural gender of the thing it refers to wif ‘wife’ (neuter N) mann ‘man’ (masc. N) wifmann ‘woman’ (masc. N) 23 Nouns In OE there were several major declensions and several more minor ones Major: Strong declensions Weak declensions 24 Strong nouns In OE there were several major declensions and several more minor ones Major: Masc. Neut. Fem. Strong declensions Sg N - - -u / - Tips: A - - -e Neuter and masculine genitive forms are the same within each G -es -es -e major declension in the singular D -e -e -e All dative singular forms are the same Pl N/A -as -u / - -a All genitive plural forms end in G -a -a -a -a D -um -um -um All dative plural forms end in - um 25 Strong nouns There is a lot of duplication in the strong nouns declension Often one cannot tell the gender of a noun from its ending Strong masculines and neuters differ only in the nominative/accusative plural, and gender is never distinguished in the dative singular or in the genitive and dative plural One cannot always tell the case 26 Strong nouns Feminine nouns look less familiar than masculines or neuters The feminines do not have the masculine/neuter genitive –es or the masculine plural -as, which yielded the dominant PDE noun endings 27 Weak nouns In OE there were several major declensions and several more minor ones Major: Masc. Neut. Fem. Weak declensions Sg N -a -e -e A -an -e -an G -an -an -an D -an -an -an Pl N/A -an -an -an G -ena -ena -ena D -um -um -um 28 Weak nouns The weak noun declension is the ancestor of PDE nouns with irregular -en plurals Weak nouns make even fewer distinctions of gender and case than the strong nouns 29 Athematic nouns Athematic nouns sometimes have i-mutation of the root vowel instead of an ending They are the ancestors of PDE nouns such as man/men and tooth/teeth Masc. Neut. Fem. Sg N/A mann ‘man’ hnutu ‘nut’ bōc ‘book’ G mannes hnyte bēc D menn hnyte bēc Pl N/A menn hnyte bēc G manna hnuta bōca D mannum hnutum bōcum 30 Other declensions The minor declensions contain relatively fewer nouns As a declension is disappearing from a language, the nouns it contains move into the major declensions Masc. / Fem Sg N/A - U-stem nouns is a minor declension containing G -a only masculines and feminines, and they are D -a declined alike Pl N/A -a G -a D -um 31  *Practice finding the words in italics in the glossary!! Practice *Key will be uploaded soon! Examine the italicized Old English nouns for case and number 1. 2. 32 Practice Examine the italicized Old English nouns for case and number 3. 4. 33 Practice 5. 6. A Sg 7. 8. D Pl 34 Practice 9. 10. A Sg 11. 12. 35 Practice 13. 14. A fisc, Sg fish, 15. fisces, ægera 36  History of the English Language Unit 3. Old English 3.5 Morphology Prof. Adriana Soto-Corominas Fall 2024-25 Section outcomes Understand how to conjugate Vs in OE Translate bigger bits of OE 2 VERBS 3  Don’t express tense, number or person Verbs TENSE No inflection for future, only present and past PERSON/NUMBER MOOD 4 Verbs TENSE PERSON/NUMBER MOOD 5 Verbs TENSE PERSON/NUMBER MOOD Subjunctive in PDE is pretty much gone In OE it would be used to express wish, possibility, doubt… 6  Germanic innovated this concept Strong and weak verbs Weak verbs make the past tense by adding a dental consonant (-d or -t) as a suffix, same as the past participle 3 main classes Not focus too much Strong verbs make the past tense by changing the vowel of the root syllable Process is called ablaut 7 groups 7  Strong and weak verbs Present Sg. Pl. indicative Consistent 1st -e across strong 2nd -st -aþ and weak 3rd -þ Past indicative Weak Strong 1st -e / - Consistent across strong 2nd -st / -e -on and weak 3rd -e / - Subjunctive All persons -e -en A lot of synchrotism, across person, tense and strong/weak 8 More about Weak Verbs Many weak verbs originated as causative verbs derived from nouns or adjectives, where a suffix with –I or –i had been added, subjecting the root to i-mutation full → fyllan fōd → fēd sæt → set 9 More about Weak Verbs Weak verbs have some fun stuff going on: consonant gemination, i- mutation 10 More about Weak Verbs Don’t worry about each individual class and its conjugation They are highly consistent …just familiarize yourself with the highly regular inflections If you want to practice conjugating OE verbs, check out https://oldenglish.info/wv3.html 11 Strong verbs In the paradigm of strong verbs: The root vowels of strong verbs undergo i-mutation in the present 2nd and 3rd-person singular indicative REPRESENTED IN ic fare → þu færst YELLOW IN THE ic cēose → þu cīest CHEAT SHEET 12 Strong verbs In the paradigm of strong verbs: The root vowels of strong verbs undergo i-mutation in the present 2nd and 3rd-person singular indicative ic fare → þu færst ic cēose → þu cīest This does not happen in weak verbs or strong verbs without i-mutation Verbs that already have i Most OE strong verbs have two past forms with different vowels (one for 1st and 3rd-person singular past indicative, another elsewhere) 13 More about strong verbs and gradation The Germanic languages have seven classes of strong verbs, each characterised by its own gradation pattern (ablaut) 7 classes of strong verbs 7 types of vowel alternation Some classes have slight variations, which is why in the chart the number 2, 3, 4 and 7 have multiple entries —> just look for the vowel of the infinitive verb and match it to this table 14  The two verb sections And third person sg is present 2 and 3 sg work together. The first past form is the past for 1 Understanding gradation + conjugation and 3 person sg, the second past is the pasat for 2 sg and plural forms In terms of what ablaut is going to happen 15 Understanding gradation + conjugation Brucan (II) 16 Understanding gradation + conjugation Brucan (II) PRESENT ic bruce Þu brycst he/hit/heo brycþ we/ge/hie brucaþ 17 Understanding gradation + conjugation Brucan (II) PAST ic breac Þu bruce he/hit/heo breac we/ge/hie brucon 18 Understanding gradation + conjugation Practice here: https://oldenglish.info/sv2.html 19 Preterite-present verbs agan = to possess cunnan = to know dugan = to achieve durran = to dare magan = to be able to motan = to be allowed to munan = to remember nugan = to suffice sculan = must, to be obligated unnan = to grant þurfan = to need witan = to know 20  Preterite-present verbs Most of the OE auxiliaries are ‘be obliged to’ ‘dare’ ‘preterite-present’ verbs Infinitive sculan durran Present indicative Their present tenses look like strong past iċ sceal iċ dearr tenses and their past tenses look like þu scealt þu deart weak pasts hēo sceal hēo dearr Initially they were strong verbs that behaved normally, but at one point, the past of those verbs started being used as the present or with wē sculon wē durron present meaning. Therefore, another past meaning of these verbs was needed. So they applied the weak past to the forms that were already Past indicative strong past forms. iċ sceolde iċ dorste SO—> THE PAST BECAME THE PRESENT —> THE PRESENT HAS PAST VOWEL ABLAUT BUT WITH WEAK PRESENT DENTAL SUFFIX þu sceoldest þu dorstest wē sceoldon wē dorston 21 Verb bēon “to be” The paradigm of the verb ‘to be’ is an amalgam of three different verbs: one that accounts for the present forms, one that accounts for all the b-forms, and one that accounts for all the w- forms They had slightly different meanings, but don’t worry about the meanings. Paradigms derived from these three verbs overlap, so that there are two complete sets of present forms, two sets of imperatives, two infinitives and two present participles The b- forms are often used with reference to future time, but they may also be used as present forms (context disambiguates) 22 Verb bēon “to be” The fact that they were three different verbs is why in PDE the verb to be is so variable —> BE and imperative come from beon, AM-ARE-IS come from SINDON, and the past and present participle come from WESAN 23 Negation Most verbs are negated simply by placing the adverb ne ‘not’ in front of them Se þe mē ne lufað, ne hylt hē mīne sprǣce ‘He who does not love me, does not keep my sayings.’ Ne is contracted with certain verbs (e.g. nis ‘is not’, nāhte ‘did not have’) She’ll be careful not to give us texts with contractions All the verbs so contracted begin with a vowel, h or w. Not all verbs beginning with these sounds are contracted; just the more common ones In OE, it is possible to use negative adverbs alongside ne for emphasis (and the meaning is that of single negation) Double negation is still negation 24 The subjunctive The subjunctive is used for Conditions Subordinate clauses following verbs of desiring and commanding Subordinate clauses involving someone’s opinion Concessive clauses introduced by þēah or þēah þe ‘though’, or before- and until- clauses 25 The subjunctive The subjunctive is used for Conditions Subordinate clauses following verbs of desiring and commanding Subordinate clauses involving someone’s opinion Concessive clauses introduced by þēah or þēah þe ‘though’, or before- and until- clauses 26 Translation practice 1. hie brǣcon feondas swiðe mid fotum 2. wē æton and druncon beforan ðe 3. þæt geonge treow greow 4. hwȳ ne cnæwst þu mine sprǣce? 27 Translation practice 1. hie brǣcon feondas swiðe mid fotum → They strongly broke (their) enemies with (their) feet. 2. wē æton and druncon beforan ðe → We ate and drank before you 3. þæt geonge treow greow → That young tree grew 4. hwȳ ne cnæwst þu mine sprǣce? → Why don’t you know/understand my speech? 28 ADJECTIVES 29 Adjectives As agreed with the N they modified in gender, case, and number gos bonic (masc sg) gossos bonics (masc pl) casa bonica (fem sg) cases boniques (fem pl) In catalan they agree in gender and number but not in case 30 Strong and weak adjectives Weak declension: for As following a demonstrative pronoun, a possessive D, or a genitive N or NP Strong: elsewhere Germanic innovated the weak declension for adjectives and OE retained it. So adjectives could appear both in the weak and strong forms (so one same adj could be one or the other depending on the context) 31  Strong and weak adjectives The weak adjective inflections are similar to the weak N inflections Most of the strong adjective endings resemble those of either the strong nouns, or the demonstrative pronouns Not much focus on the short/long More strong inflections differences for because the meaning has strong neutral and to be conveyed through feminine adjectives the adjective as there is nothing preceding it that gives information about the noun 32 Strong and weak adjectives If it’s coloured it means they don’t infelct for gender Masc. Neut. Fem. Strong Sg. N - - -u / - A -ne - -e G -es -es -re D -um -um -re Pl. N/A -e -u / - / -e -a / -e G -ra -ra -ra D -um -um -um 33  If it’s coloured it means they don’t inflect for gender Strong and weak adjectives —> so a lot of synchotism Masc. Neut. Fem. Weak Sg. N -a -e -e A -an -e -an G -an -an -an D -an -an -an Pl. N/A -an -an -an G -ra / -ena -ra / -ena -ra / -ena D -um -um -um 34 Comparison The comparative adjective is made by adding -ra The superlative adjective is made by adding -ost Some adjectives have i-mutation in the comparative and superlative forms (because their initial suffix was *–ira) In these cases the superlative element is usually -est A few adjectives have anomalous comparative and superlative forms (e.g. gōd - betera - betst ‘good-better-best’; yfel - wiersa - wierrest, wierst ‘bad-worse-worst’) 35 ADVERBS 36 Adverbs An adverb may be made from an adjective by adding -e e.g. wrāþ ‘angry’ - wrāþe ‘angrily’ Since many adjectives are made by adding -līċ to nouns or other adjectives, many adverbs end in -līċe Adverbs may also be made by adding case endings to nouns Less common e.g. genitive dæġes ‘by day’; dative nēode ‘necessarily’ Adverbs can be made comparative and superlative by adding the ending -or and –ost (wrāþor ‘more angrily’, wrāþost ‘most angrily’) 37 CONJUNCTIONS 38 Conjunctions The most common subordinating conjunctions are: æfter þām ‘after’, ǣr ‘before’, ǣr þām (þe) ‘before’, būtan ‘unless’, for þām (þe) ‘because’, ġif ‘if’, hwæðer ‘whether’, nemþe ‘unless’, nū ‘now that’, oð þæt ‘until’, siððan ‘after’, swā ‘as’, swelċe ‘as if’, þā ‘when’, þā hwīle þe ‘while’, þanon ‘whence’, þǣr ‘where’, þæs þe ‘after’, þæt ‘that’, ‘so that’, þēah (þe) ‘though’, þenden ‘while’, þider (þe) ‘whither’, þonne ‘when’, wið þām þe ‘provided that’ Correlative conjunctions: ǣġðer…ġe ‘both…and’, hwæðer…oððe ‘whether…or’, nā þæt ān…ac ēac swilċe ‘not only…but also’, nāðor…ne ‘neither…nor’, ne…ne ‘neither…nor’, þȳ … þȳ ‘the…the’ 39 PREPOSITIONS 40 Prepositions Different prepositions determine the case of the noun they occur with Here you have a reference list: æfter ‘after, according to’ (usu. dative, smt. accusative), ǣr ‘before (in time) (usu. dative, smt. accusative), æt ‘at, from’ (dative) & ‘until, up to’ (accusative), be ‘by, near, along, about, in relation to (dative), beforan ‘before, in front of, in the presence of, ahead of (dative or accusative), betweox ‘between, among’ (dative or accusative), binnan ‘within’ (dative) & ‘to within’ (accusative), bufan ‘above’ (dative) & ‘upwards’ (accusative), būtan ‘outside, except, without’ (dative or accusative), ēac ‘besides, in addition to’ (dative)… 41  Location Added sense of motion Prepositions for ‘before, in front of, because of, in place of, for the sakeWhen of’both (usu. dative, are possible: smt. accusative), fram ‘from’ (dative), ġeond ‘throughout, through’ (usu. accusative, set. dative), in ‘in’ (dative) & ‘into’ (accusative), innan ‘in, within, from, within’ (dative), ‘into’ (accusative), mid ‘with, and, by means of’ (usu. dative, set. accusative), of ‘from, of’ (dative), ofer ‘over, upon, throughout (dative) & ‘over, across, throughout, more than’ (accusative), on ‘in, on’ (dative), ‘into, onto’ (accusative), onġēan ‘opposite, towards, in opposition to’ (dative or accusative), oð ‘up to, as far as, until’ (usu. accusative, smt. dative), tō ‘to, towards, at, for’ (dative) & ‘at’ (genitive), tōġēanes ‘towards, in preparation for, in opposition to’ (dative), þurh ‘through, by means of’ (usu. accusative, smt. dative or genitive), under ‘under’ (dative or accusative), wið ‘towards, opposite, against, in exchange for’ (accusative, dative or genitive), ymb(e) ‘near, by, about, after’ (usu. accusative, smt. dative) 42 Finishing things up… 1 Interrogative pronouns Don’t need to remember, it’s in the glossary hwā and hwæt are the ancestors of PDE who/what They only have a singular form and no distinction between masculine and feminine The instrumental form is the ancestor of PDE why (and is used to mean ‘why’) Masc. / Fem. Neut. N hwā hwæt hwelċ/hwilċ/hwylċ is the ancestor of A hwone, hwæne hwæt PDE which G hwæs D hwām, hwǣm hwæþer ‘which of two’ I hwȳ, hwon 2 Relative pronouns There are several ways of making a relative pronoun: 1. Indeclinable particle þe Doesn’t agree with anything þā bēoð ēadiġe þe ġehȳrað Godes word ‘They are blessed who obey God’s word’ It can stand for other pronouns 2. Use a demonstrative pronoun with þe The demonstrative agrees Hē lifode mid þām Gode þām þe hē ǣr þēowode ‘He lived with that God whom he earlier had served’ 3. Use a form of the demonstrative pronoun alone (without þe) Danai ēa, sēo is irnende of norþdæle Will discern it from demonstrative because there ‘The river Don, which flows from the north’ are two verbs with relatives 3 Reflexive pronouns No reflexives in the assessment Personal pronouns can be used by themselves as a reflexive …self/sylf can be added for emphasis Today it’s obligatory but with OE it wasn’t Beware! OE sometimes uses a reflexive pronoun where it makes no sense to use one in PDE Iċ ondrēd mē ‘I was afraid’ Iċ ðā sōna eft mē selfum andwyrde ‘I then immediately afterwards answered myself’ 4 NOUNS 5 Nouns Unlike PDE, OE was highly inflected (think Latin!) Grammatical gender is an attribute of every OE noun The grammatical gender of a noun does not necessarily correspond to the natural gender of the thing it refers to wif ‘wife’ (neuter N) mann ‘man’ (masc. N) wifmann ‘woman’ (masc. N) 6 Nouns In OE there were several major declensions and several more minor ones Major: Strong declensions Not like adjectives, where one adjective can be both depending on the situation. Weak declensions Nouns are either strong or weak but not both, like verbs. 7 Strong nouns In OE there were several major declensions and several more minor ones Major: Masc. Neut. Fem. Strong declensions Sg N - - -u / - A - - -e G -es -es -e D -e -e -e Pl N/A -as -u / - -a G -a -a -a D -um -um -um 8 Strong nouns In OE there were several major declensions and several more minor ones A lot of synchrotism in singular between Masculine and Neutral, and between all genders for plural except in N/A Major: Masc. Neut. Fem. Strong declensions Sg N - - -u / - Tips: A - - -e Neuter and masculine genitive forms are the same within each G -es -es -e major declension in the singular D -e -e -e All dative singular forms are the same Pl N/A -as -u / - -a All genitive plural forms end in G -a -a -a -a D -um -um -um All dative plural forms end in - um 9 Strong nouns There is a lot of duplication in the strong nouns declension Often one cannot tell the gender of a noun from its ending Strong masculines and neuters differ only in the nominative/accusative plural, and gender is never distinguished in the dative singular or in the genitive and dative plural One cannot always tell the case 10 Strong nouns Feminine nouns look less familiar than masculines or neuters The feminines do not have the masculine/neuter genitive –es or the masculine plural -as, which yielded the dominant PDE noun endings 11  Weak nouns In OE there were several major declensions and several more minor ones Major: Masc. Neut. Fem. Weak declensions Sg N -a -e -e A -an -e -an A lot of synchrotism as well, so there would be G -an -an -an no way to tell which gender it was in most cases D -an -an -an Pl N/A -an -an -an G -ena -ena -ena D -um -um -um 12 Weak nouns The weak noun declension is the ancestor of PDE nouns with irregular -en plurals Weak nouns make even fewer distinctions of gender and case than the strong nouns 13  In yellow, i-mutation because compulsory in _ verbs Athematic nouns We see the result but not what triggered it because it’s already disappeared Athematic nouns sometimes have i-mutation of the root vowel instead of an ending Instead of a suffix, there is a vowel change They are the ancestors of PDE nouns such as man/men and tooth/teeth Masc. Neut. Fem. Sg N/A mann ‘man’ hnutu ‘nut’ bōc ‘book’ G mannes hnyte bēc D menn hnyte bēc Pl N/A menn hnyte bēc G manna hnuta bōca D mannum hnutum bōcum