A History of English Language

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A history of the english language 48 THE DIALECTS OF OLD ENGLISH Note. Only the major dialect areas are indicated. That the Saxon settlements north of the Thames (see § 34) had their own dialect features is apparent in Middle English. loaf, bāt—boat. Other vowels have likewise undergone changes in fōt (foot), cēne (keen), metan (mete), (fire), riht (right), hū (how), and hlūd (loud), but the identity of these words with their modern descendants is still readily apparent. Words like hēafod (head),
Old english 49 fæger (fair), or sāwol (soul) show forms that have been contracted in later English. All of these cases represent genuine differences of pronunciation. However, some of the first look of strangeness that Old English has to the modern reader is due simply to differences of spelling. Old English made use of two characters to represent the sound of th: þ and ð, thorn and eth, respectively, as in the word wiþ (with) or ðā (then), which we no longer employ. It also expressed the sound of a in hat by a digraph œ (ash), and since the sound is of very frequent occurrence, the character contributes not a little to the unfamiliar appearance of the page. Likewise Old English represented the sound of sh by sc, as in scēap (sheep) or scēotan (shoot), and the sound of k by c, as in cynn (kin) or nacod (naked); c was also used for the affricate now spelled ch, as in (speech). Consequently a number of words that were in all probability pronounced by King Alfred almost as they are by us present a strange appearance in the written or printed text. Such words as ecg (edge), scip (ship), bæc (back), benc (bench), þorn (thorn), pæt (that) are examples. It should be noted that the differences of spelling and pronunciation that figure so prominently in one’s first impression of Old English are really not very fundamental. Those of spelling are often apparent rather than real, as they represent no difference in the spoken language, and those of pronunciation obey certain laws as a result of which we soon learn to recognize the Old and Modern English equivalents. A second feature of Old English that would quickly become apparent to a modern reader is the rarity of those words derived from Latin and the absence of those from French which form so large a part of our present vocabulary. Such words make up more than half of the words now in common use. They are so essential to the expression of our ideas, seem so familiar and natural to us, that we miss them in the earlier stage of the language. The vocabulary of Old English is almost purely Germanic. A large part of this vocabulary, moreover, has disappeared from the language. When the Norman Conquest brought French into England as the language of the higher classes, much of the Old English vocabulary appropriate to literature and learning died out and was replaced later by words borrowed from French and Latin. An examination of the words in an Old English dictionary shows that about 85 percent of them are no longer in use. Those that survive, to be sure, are basic elements of our vocabulary and by the frequency with which they recur make up a large part of any English sentence. Apart from pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, and the like, they express fundamental concepts like mann (man), wīf (wife, woman), cild (child), hūs (house), weall (wall), mete (meat, food), gœrs (grass), lēaf (leaf), fugol (fowl, bird), gōd (good), hēah (high), strang (strong), etan (eat), drincan (drink), (sleep), libban (live), feohtan (fight). But the fact remains that a considerable part of the vocabulary of Old English is unfamiliar to the modern reader. The third and most fundamental feature that distinguishes Old English from the language of today is its grammar. 11 Inflectional languages fall into two classes: synthetic 11 The principal Old English grammars, in the order of their publication, are F.A.March, A Comparative Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Language (New York, 1870), now only of historical interest; P.J.Cosijn, Altwestsächsische Grammatik (Haag, 1883–1886); E.Sievers, An Old English Grammar, trans. A.S.Cook (3rd ed., Boston, 1903); K.D.Bülbring, Altenglisches Elementarbuch (Heidelberg, 1902); Joseph and Elizabeth M.Wright, Old English Grammar (2nd ed., Oxford, 1914), and the same authors’ An Elementary Old English Grammar (Oxford, 1923); Karl Brunner,
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A History of the English Language F
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A History of the English Language F
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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 and 30: 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: Old english 47 39. The Dialects of
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
Page 81 and 82: 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,
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Index 447 Woodbine, George E., 157
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A History of English Language

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