1380984377.3491A History of English Language

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A history of the english language 18 beginning of the nineteenth. 1 The extensive literature of India, reaching back further than that of any of the European languages, preserves features of the common language much older than most of those of Greek or Latin or German. It is easier, for example, to see the resemblance between the English word brother and the Sanskrit bhrātar-than between brother and frāter. But what is even more important, Sanskrit preserves an unusually full system of declensions and conjugations by which it became clear that the inflections of these languages could likewise be traced to a common origin. Compare the following forms of the verb to be: Old English Gothic Latin Greek Sanskrit eom (am) im sum eimi asmi eart (art) is es ei asi is (is) ist est esti asti sindon (are) sijum sumus esmen smas sindon (are) sijuþ estis este stha sindon (are) sind sunt eisi santi The Sanskrit forms particularly permit us to see that at one time this verb had the same endings (mi, si, ti, mas, tha, nti) as were employed in the present tense of other verbs, for example: Sanskrit Greek dádāmi dídōmi (I give) dádāsi dádāti dídōs dídōsi dadmás dídomen (dial. didomes) datthá dídote dáda(n)ti didóāsi (dial. dídonti) The material offered by Sanskrit for comparison with the other languages of the group, both in matters of vocabulary and inflection, was thus of the greatest importance. When we add that Hindu grammarians had already gone far in the analysis of the language, had recognized the roots, classified the formative elements, and worked out the rules according to which certain sound-changes occurred, we shall appreciate the extent to which the discovery of Sanskrit contributed to the recognition and determination of the relation that exists among the languages to which it was allied. 1 In a famous paper of 1786, Sir William Jones, who served as a Supreme Court justice in India, proposed that the affinity of Sanskrit to Greek and Latin could be explained by positing a common, earlier source. See Garland Cannon, The Life and Mind of Oriental Jones: Sir William Jones, the Father of Modern Linguistics (Cambridge, UK, 1990), pp. 241–70.
The Indo-European family of languages 19 16. Grimm’s Law. A further important step was taken when in 1822 a German philologist, Jacob Grimm, following up a suggestion of a Danish contemporary, Rasmus Rask, formulated an explanation that systematically accounted for the correspondences between certain consonants in the Germanic languages and those found for example in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. His explanation, although subsequently modified and in some of the details of its operation still a subject of dispute, is easily illustrated. According to Grimm, a p in Indo-European, preserved as such in Latin and Greek, was changed to an f in the Germanic languages. Thus we should look for the English equivalent of Latin piscis or pēs to begin with an f, and this is what we actually find, in fish and foot respectively. What is true of p is true also of t and k: in other words, the original voiceless stops (p, t, k) were changed to fricatives (f, þ, h). So Latin trēs=English three, Latin centum=English hundred. A similar correspondence can be shown for certain other groups of consonants, 2 and the Consequently Sanskrit bhárāmi (Greek )=English bear, Sanskrit dhā=English do, Latin hostis (from *ghostis)=English guest. And the original voiced stops (b, d, g) changed to voiceless ones in the Germanic languages, so that Latin cannabis=English hemp (showing also the shift of initial k to h), Latin decem=English ten, Latin genu=English knee. In High German some of these consonants underwent a further change, known as the Second or High German Sound-Shift. It accounts for such differences as we see in English open and German offen, English eat and German essen.formulation of these correspondences is known as Grimm’s Law. The cause of the change is not known. It must have taken place sometime after the segregation of the Germanic from neighboring dialects of the parent language. There are words in Finnish borrowed from Germanic that do not show the change and that therefore must have resulted from a contact between Germanic and Finnish before the change occurred. There is also evidence that the shifting was still occurring as late as about the fifth century B.C. It is often assumed that the change was due to contact with a non-Germanic population. The contact could have resulted from the migration of the Germanic tribes or from the penetration of a foreign population into Germanic territory. Whatever its cause, the Germanic sound-shift is the most distinctive feature marking off the Germanic languages from the languages to which they are related. Certain apparent exceptions to Grimm’s Law were subsequently explained by Karl Verner and others. It was noted that between such a pair of words as Latin centum and English hundred the correspondence between the c and h was according to rule, but that between the t and d was not. The d in the English word should have been a voiceless fricative, that is, a þ. In 1875 Verner showed that when the Indo-European accent was not on the vowel immediately preceding, such voiceless fricatives became voiced in Germanic. In West Germanic the resulting ð became a d, and the word hundred is therefore quite regular in its correspondence with centum. The explanation was of importance in accounting for the forms of the preterite tense in many strong verbs. Thus 2 The aspirates (bh, dh, gh) became voiced fricatives (ν, ð, γ) then voiced stops (b, d, g).
Page 2 and 3: A History of the English Language F
Page 4 and 5: A History of the English Language F
Page 6 and 7: Contents Preface viii 1 English Pre
Page 9 and 10: Preface Before the present author e
Page 11 and 12: PHONETIC SYMBOLS [a] in father [a]
Page 13 and 14: 1 English Present and Future 1. The
Page 15 and 16: English present and future 3 4. The
Page 17 and 18: English present and future 5 increa
Page 19 and 20: English present and future 7 French
Page 21 and 22: English present and future 9 learne
Page 23 and 24: English present and future 11 words
Page 25 and 26: English present and future 13 our t
Page 27 and 28: English present and future 15 World
Page 29: The Indo-European family of languag
Page 33 and 34: The Indo-European family of languag
Page 51 and 52: Old english 39 extended beyond a pr
Page 53 and 54: Old english 41 hundred towns, with
Page 55 and 56: Old english 43 whom almost certainl
Page 57 and 58: Old english 45 36. The Names “Eng
Page 59 and 60: Old english 47 39. The Dialects of
Page 61 and 62: Old english 49 fæger (fair), or s
Page 63 and 64: Old english 51 present the inflecti
Page 65 and 66: Old english 53 While the ordinary m
Page 67 and 68: Old english 55 The origin of the de
Page 69 and 70: Old english 57
Page 71 and 72: Old english 59 ‘proudly’, and t
Page 73 and 74: Old english 61 a saddle, the shield
Page 75 and 76: Old english 63 people. The literatu
Page 77 and 78: Old english 65 history of the rest
Page 79 and 80: 4 Foreign Influences on Old English
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Foreign influences on old english 6
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The norman conquest and the subject
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The reestablishment of english, 120
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Middle english 147 and adjective ma
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Middle english 149 is clear that th
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Middle english 151 While an occasio
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Middle english 153 mations has been
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Middle english 155 the reality of M
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Middle english 157 the French words
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Middle english 159 brandish, vanqui
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Middle english 161 all the words in
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Middle english 163 whether found in
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Middle english 165 English vocabula
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Middle english 167 English word occ
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Middle english 169 French: forcover
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Middle english 171 142. Latin Borro
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Middle english 173 far this affecta
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Middle english 175 native populatio
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Middle english 177 the Middle Engli
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Middle english 179 148. The Rise of
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Middle english 181 the precise form
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Middle english 183 leef or tweyne,
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Middle english 185 phonology and mo
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8 The Renaissance, 1500-1650 152. C
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 189 bein
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 191 disc
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 193 well
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 195 That
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 197 cent
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 199 I la
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 201 expr
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 203 they
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 205 your
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 207 160.
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 209 anac
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 211 word
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 213 seve
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 215 of t
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 217 rein
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 219 heap
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 221 occu
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 223 Such
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 227 sugg
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 229 It m
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 231 spea
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 235 good
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 237 Sixt
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The appeal to authority, 1650-1800
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10 The Nineteenth Century and After
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The nineteenth century and after 28
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11 The English Language in America
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The english language in america 333
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APPENDIX A Specimens of the Middle
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Appendix A 389 East Midland The Bes
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Appendix A 391 down to the ground a
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Appendix A 393 Ac ich alle blisse m
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Appendix A 395 Characteristic of th
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Appendix A 397 Of Engelond, to Caun
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APPENDIX B English Spelling The fol
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Appendix B 401 straunge wordes as l
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Appendix B 403 more he tooke God so
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Appendix B 405 words, whose Etymolo
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Index 407 Alabama, 354 Albanian bra
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Index 409 Bacon, Francis, 261 Bacon
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Brakelond, Jocelyn de, 122, 124 Bra
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Index 413 Chamberlain, John, 209, 4
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Index 415 words from, 303 Dalby, D.
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Index 417 East Africa, English lang
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Index 419 Flügel, Ewald, 286 Folio
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Index 421 Goodenough, Ward H., 40 G
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Hill, A.A., 402 Hill, David, 72-73
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Index 425 Jackson, Kenneth, 72 Jaes
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Index 427 Lance, Donald M., 407 Lan
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Index 429 Lycian, 26 Lydgate, John,
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Index 431 Milton, John, 183, 224, 2
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Index 433 Nunnally, Thomas, 407 Nyn
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Peterborough Chronicle, 166 Peterho
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Index 437 Quirk, Randolph, 56, 316
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St. Mary’s Abbey, York, 147 Sallu
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Index 441 Society of Antiquaries, 2
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Index 443 Scandinavian, influence o
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Index 445 Verb-adverb combinations,
Page 459:
Index 447 Woodbine, George E., 157
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1380984377.3491A History of English Language

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