Семінар 2 (СО)

                 SEMINAR 2
                                     OE  PERIOD.  OE PHONOLOGY.                    
                                  PointsForDiscussion
1. Chronological division in the History of English.*
2. Main historical events of the OE period. *
3. OE Dialects. *
4. OE alphabets and written records.
5. Rules of reading.
6. Word stress.
7. OE Vocalic System. General characteristics. IE, PG and OE vowel systems compared.
    7.1 Qualitative changes:
a) A-splitting;
b) I-umlaut (Palatal mutation);
c) Formation of OE diphthongs: OE Breaking, Palatal diphthongization,
              Velar mutation (Back mutation), Contraction. Germanic reflexes.
     7.2 Quantitative changes:
a) lengthening due to rejection of consonants;
b) lengthening before consonant clusters.
     7.3 Development of vowels in unstressed positions.                       
8. OE consonant system. General characteristics.
a) Palatalization;
b) Assibilation;
c) Assimailation;
d) Metathesis;
e) Change of consonant groups;
f) Loss of consonants;
g) Shortening of long consonants in the final position;
h) West Germanic gemination of consonants.
The points marked by asterisks “*” are designed for individual work and may be included in a Quiz as the rest
items of the seminar.
PracticalAssignment:
1. Иванова И.П. и др. Практикум по истории английского языка. –  М.: Просвещение, 1985. Vowels.
Read Texts 1 and 2, pp. 8, 19. Do Assignments 1-3, p.7; 11 p.13; 14-15 p. 15; 3, p. 15;  5, p.16, 1-4, p.19;
1,5,6, 8-10 pp.24-25. Consonants. Do Assignments 4, p. 7; 4, 5, p. 15; 13 p. 23; 7, p. 24.  Be ready to read
and analyze texts from Exercises  6, p. 16; 11, p. 25.
2. Write out and learn the paradigms of the following nouns and pronouns from the  texts mentioned above: 
n., m.,-a-   cyninʒ, dæʒ, hærfest;  n., m., cons.  man(n);  personalpron. hē,  m., wē (ic).
RecommendedLiterature
Иванова  И.П. и др. Практикум по истории английского языка. –  М.: Просвещение, 1985. Vowels.С. 4-21.
Consonants. С.21-25.

Ильиш Б.А.  История английского языка (На  англ.яз). – Л.: Просвещеие, 1973.  Vowels.С. 40-51. Consonants.
С. 51-56.

Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка (На англ. яз). – М.: Высш. шк., 1983. Vowels.С. 63-85.
Consonants. С. 85-92.

Студенець Г.I. Iсторiяанглiйськоїмови в таблицях. – К.: КДЛУ, 1998. – С. 34-41. Consonants. Vowels.С.42-43.
 The Formation of the English National Language. Periods in the History of the
English Language

One of the most characteristic features of a nation is the national language, which
rises above all the territorial and social dialects and unites the whole nation. Usually a
national language develops on the basis of some territorial dialects, which under certain
historical, economic, political, and cultural conditions become generally recognized as a
means of communication.
The English national language has developed on the basis of the dialects of London,
which can be easily explained by the fact that after the Norman Conquest London became
the political, cultural center of England and its economic center as well.

1. Territorial dialects of the period of the Anglo-Saxon invasion

The Germanic tribes who settled in Britain in the 5th and 6th century spoke closely
related tribal dialects belonging to West Germanic subgroup. Their common origin and
their separation from other related languages as well as their joint evolution in Britain
transformed them eventually into a single language, English. Yet, at the early stages of
their development in Britain the dialects remained disunited. Thus, Old English was not
entirely uniform language. Not only are there differences between the language of the
earliest written records and that of the later literary texts, but the language differed
somewhat from one locality to another. We can distinguish four dialects in Old English
times: Kentish, an offshoot of the Jutes who settled in Kent; West Saxon, spoken south of
the Thames; Mercian, spoken from the Thames to the Humber (except in Wales, of course,
where (Brythonic) Celtic was still spoken); and Northumbrian, spoken north of the Humber
(hence the name), excluding Scotland, where, again, (Gaelic) Celtic was spoken. Since
Mercian and Northumbrian share common features not found in West Saxon and Kentish,
they are sometimes spoken of together under the name Anglian, because most of the
Germanic tribes north of the Thames were the Angles. Unfortunately we know less about
them than we should like since they are preserved mainly in charters, runic inscriptions, a
few brief fragments of verse, and some interlinear translations of portions of the Bible.
Kentish is known from still scantier remains and is the dialect of the
 Jutes in the southeast. The only dialect in which there is an extensive collection
of texts is West Saxon, which was the dialect of the West Saxon kingdom in the
southwest. Nearly all of Old English literature is preserved in manuscripts transcribed in
this region. The dialects probably reflect differences already present in the continental
homes of the invaders. There is evidence, however, that some features developed in
England after the settlement. With the ascendancy of the West Saxon kingdom, the West
Saxon dialect attained something of the position of a literary standard, and both for this
reason and because of the abundance of the materials it is made the basis for the study of
Old English. Such a start as it had made toward becoming the standard speech of England
was cut short by the Norman Conquest, which reduced all dialects to a common level of
unimportance. And when in the late Middle English period a standard English once more
began to arise, it was on the basis of a different dialect, that of the East Midlands.

2. The dialects of the period of the Norman Conquest

The Norman Conquest put an end to the supremacy of Wessex and its dialect. With
the Norman Conquest French became the official language of the country, and those
dialects spoken during the Germanic invasion were of local importance.
Traditionally we isolate five major dialects of that time: Northern, Midland, East
Anglian, South-Eastern, South-Western. The Northern dialect area of Middle English
extends from the middle of Yorkshire to Scotland. The Midlands area, which extends from
London to Gloucestershire, is traditionally split into East Midlands and West Midlands.
East Anglian is posited as a separate dilect area, as a number of texts display markedly
different forms from those found in East Midlands dialects. The South-Eastern dialects
cover an area that is closely related to the extent of Kentish in the Old English period,
while the South-Western dialect area correlates with the OE West Saxon region, and
dialectologists occasionally also separate out a Middle South dialect area.

3. The development of the dialect of London into a national language

The history of the London dialect reveals the sources of the literary language in Late
ME and also the main source and basis of the Literary Standard, both in its written and
spoken forms.
 The history of London extends back to the Roman period. Even in OE times London
was by far the biggest town in Britain, although the capital of Wessex – the main OE
kingdom
– was Winchester. The capital was transferred to London a few years before the
Norman conquest. London eventually became the commercial and cultural capital, and it
clearly had a central role to play in the emergence of a standard dialect in Britain.
However, the dialect that developed into standard is not simply the London dialect. It had
both East Midlands elements and southern elements. But gradually East Midlands elements
took the upper hand, so that the London dialect had comparatively few elements from other
dialects.
There were some other factors that contributed to the development of the English
national language. The popularity of Geoffrey Chaucer helped a great deal in the
development of the London dialect into a literary language. Chaucer’s literary language,
based on the mixed (largely East Midland) London dialect, is known as classical ME; in
the 15th and 16th c. it became the basis of the national literary English language.
Of greatest linguistic consequence was the activity of John Wycliff. His most
important contribution to English prose was his translation of the Bible completed in 1384.
It was coped in manuscript and read by many people all over the country. Written in the
London dialect, it played an important role in spreading this form of English.
A major reason for the standardization of the London dialect was the introduction of
printing by William Caxton in 1476. Caxton probably did more to standardize English in
his time than any other individual, since it was expedient for him to edit the works he
printed to resolve the dialect variants in order to gain the broadest readership possible for
his publications. Strong dialectal traits disappeared from written works by the mid-15th c.
and by the end of the 17th c. most orthographical variants had been standardized.

Periods in the History of the English Language

1. Henry Sweet and his division of the history of English

Each of the periods is marked by a set of specific features of phonology, grammar,
and vocabulary, and may be also defined in these terms. Henry Sweet classified them as
the Period of Full Endings, which means that any vowel may be found in an unstressed
ending (e.g. OE sunu), the Period of Levelled Endings, which means that vowels of
unstressed endings were leveled under a neutral vowel [ə] represented in spelling by the
letter e (e.g. OE sunu – ME sune), and the period of Lost Endings (e.g. NE sun).
 2. Historical periodization as offered by B. Khaimovich
According to B. Khaimovich, the history of the English language is divided into
three periods: Old English, Middle English, and New English. As landmarks separating the
three periods, he uses very important events, which had a great influence on the history of
English:
 The Anglo-Saxon invasion of the 5th century is taken as the beginning of the Old
English period.
 The Norman Conquest of the 11th century is regarded as the beginning of the
Middle English period.
 The introduction of printing in the 15th century is the beginning of the New
English period.

3. T. Rastorguyeva’s periodization of the English language

According to T. Rastorguyeva, the history of English is divided into the seven
periods:

I Early OE (also: Pre- c. 450 – c. 700

written OE)
II OE (also: Written OE) c. 700 – 1066
III Early ME 1066 – c. 1350
IV ME (also: Classical c. 1350 – 1475
ME)
V Early NE 1476 – c. 1660
VI Normalization Period c. 1660 – c.
1800
(also: Age of Correctness,
Neo-Classical period)
VII Late NE, or Mod E c. 1800 . . . . . .
(including Present-day since
English) 1945 . . . .

4. The division of the history of English as suggested by V. Arakin

 Arakin’s periodization is a traditional one because it is based on the extra linguistic,
which means that periodization connotes the character of the society speaking the
language. So, he divided the history of English into the following periods:
 the Ancient English Period dated between the first centuries AD and the 7th – 8th
c. This is the period of the languages of the Old English tribes;
the Old English Period dated between the 7th and 11th c. This is the period of the
language of the establishing English nationality. The end of this period is marked
by the Norman Conquest of England;
 the Middle English Period dated from the beginning of the 12th c. to the
15th c. This is the period of the language of the established English
nationality transforming gradually into the nation. The end of this period
is marked by the Wars of Roses (1455-1485);
 the New English Period dated from the end of the 15th c. to present. It is
subdivided into two periods: a) the Early New English Period – the period
of establishing standards of the national language; and b) the Late New
English Period – the period of the established standards of the national
language.

5. The periods of the development of English as offered by A. Markman and

E. Steinberg
The American linguists A. Markman and E. Steinberg also admit that it is
not possible to precisely divide the history of the English language into periods. In
their periodization they use the dates of written documents. As it is impossible to
determine the exact date of the earliest Old English texts, the beginning of the Old
English is recognized as 450 AD, when the Germanic tribes landed on the island.
The year of the last chapter of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1154, is regarded as the
end of the Old English Period. The end of the Middle English Period coincides
with the death of the famous writer Thomas Malory – 1471, which is also the time
of the introduction of printing in England and Caxton’s activities. The Early New
English Period (1500 – 1700) is the period of England’s two prominent poets –
William Shakespeare and John Milton. The year of 1700, which is the year of John
Dryden’s death, is recognized as the end of the Early New English Period.

6. David Burnley’s periodization of the history of English

According to David Burnley, the history of English is divided into:
 Old English (700 – 1100)
 Early Middle English (1100 – 1300)
 Later Middle English (1300 – 1500)
 Early Modern English (1500 – 1800)
 Modern English (1800 – 1920)