Ie 2 Ae P2 YS T.A. Pacropryeza MCTOPUA AHTJIMMCKOTO ASbIKA VYueGunk Bmopoe usdanue, cmepeomunnoe 4 BOUOF Bi6miaroxa MUTY Mockra Acrpem « ACT 2003VIK 811.111(075.8) BBE 81.2 Aura-923 pad Peneusearst: ‘kaderpa auraniickore aabiKa BamKupcxore rocysapersextore yRuBepeHTeTA (aap. Kaenpod KaHZ. OUION, HayK, Jou, JLC, Kyaneyoea m ap ORIOL, HAYK, npo. Bi. Hxzomxan) Komnbmrepxeiit ansaitn obomnn A.C. emnna Tloannenxo » mevare ¢ roronerx aManosaTinas 25.07.2003. opmar 60x901/16, Bynara runorpaberas. Mevar obeerses. Yeu, yeu. 4. 22,0. Tapas 3000 axa. Saxaa 2448. Oéusepoceniicnmit xraccu>ucatop nponyx uu OK-005-93, rom 2; 953005 — aureparypa yaebuan Caurapro-angennonormecnoe sakmournne De 77.99.02.953,1],008286,12.02 or 09.12.2002 r, * Pacropryera T.A. P24 Veropua anrauitcxoro sovixa: Yae6unn/T.A. Pac- topryesa. — 2-e nug., crep. — M.: 000 «Hagareascerso Acrpemb»: OOO «MagatensctBo ACT», 2003. — 348, {4]c. — Ha aura. as. ISBN 5-17-003839-9 (GOO «HMagareapcrso ACT») ISBN 5-271-00787-1 (OOO «HagaTeabcTRo AcTpenb») ‘Vuodmint oxeanapae? acio nporpamny Hypea HeTOpaH AHPIHiCKOrO sone. Kexgend pasnen cuabsxen BompocaMdn H YMPAXMOHHANS, KOH -SPOAUPYIONTOME TOMAMARHe H eTHMYIMPYIOUNMH CaMoCTOsTEREEBIIt amanuia baxcron ssenta. [ipaonena xpecToMarua TeKeTOR pasHBIX o110x ¢ O6pasaMH aA EADS, CROBEPRMH H ZePeBOROM. Tipeaneadaven ns cryqentor MACTHTYTOB H tbakymeTeTOR HBOCT PABHEIX ABBIKOB, YAR 811.111(075.8) BBE 81.2 Aurz-923 ISBN 5-17-003839-9 (000 «| ACT» oe eran > © Pactopryes [1.JI. — nacnennnit 714 | Pactopryesoa T.A., 2000 (000 «Hazatemscrao Actpex-s) © 000 «Hanarensctso Actpeane, 2000CONTENTS Preface se +20 ee beeen eee Lee tion 2 bee ne Be ee lotregeeect and ims of the history of English (§ 1-7). Sources of language history (§ 8-79). Part One Chapter 1. Some Theoretical Aspects of Language History... 2... . Preliminary remerks (§ 17), Evolution of language and scope of langu- age history (§ #2). Statics ‘and dynamics in language history (9/3). Cor cept of linguistic change (§ 14.20), Rate of linguistic changes (§ 2). Mechanism of change, Role of synchronic variation (§ 236). Causes of language evolution (§ 27-31). Questions and assignments... 6... aires Chapter Hl. Geemanis Languages. 6. ee Modern Germanic languages (§ 32-3). The earliest period of Germanic history, Proto-Germanic (§ 34-5). East Germanic (§ 36-7). Notth Germa- nic (938-41). West Germanic (§ 42-8). Germanic languages. Table (§ 49) Chapter IIL, Linguistic Features of Germanic Languages... . 2. +. Preliminary remarks (§ 50). Phonefles (6 51-64). "Word stress (& §1-2)., Vowels (8 83-6). Conso- nants, Proto-Germanic Consonant Shift (§ 67-9). Interpretation of the Proto-Germanic Consonant Shift (§ 60-1). Grammar (§ 62-9). Form-bullding means (§ 62). Vowel gradation with special reference to verbs (§ 63-5). Simplification of word structure in Late Proto-Germanic. Role of- stem-suffixes in the formation of declensions (§ 66:7), Strong and weak verbs (§ 62-9). Vocabulary (§ 70-2). Questions and assignments. 6.62. we bee see Chapter IV. Chronological Divisions in the History of English, Short Sur- vey of Periods (§ 73-88). 00... ee ee Deen eee Chapter V. Old English. Historical Background... . . eee Pre-Germanic Britain (§ 89-91). Germanic settlement of Britain. Begin- ning of English (§ 92-5). Events of external history between the 5th and Itth c.¢§ 96-9), Old Engiish dialects. Linguistic situation (§ 100-1). Questions and assignments... +. +s bee Dee Ghapter Vi. Old English Written Records. 2... ee ee eee 3 14 48 48Kenic inseriptions (§ 402-3). Old English menuscripts (§ 104-9). Princi- pal Old English written records. Table (§ 110). Chapter Vil. Old English Alphabet and Pronunciation (§ 124-3)... ... 0° 71 Chapter VIM. Old English Phonetics ©... 2.2.00. cece 74 Preliminary remarks (§ 1/4). Word stress (§ 115). Origin of Old English vowels (§ 116-92). Changes of stressed vowels in Early Old English (§ 116-30), Independent Changes. Development of Monophthongs (§ 1/7). Development of diph- thongs (§ 178-9). Assimilative Vowel Changes: breaking and diphthon- gisation (§ 120-3). Palatal mutation (§ 124-30). Changes of unstressed vowels in Early Old English (§ 31-2). Old English Vowel System (Sth- 10th c.) (133-4). Origin of Oid English consonants (§ 135-47). Consonant changes in pre-writ- ten periods (§ 35). Treatment of fricatives. Hardening. Rhotacism. Voicing and Devoicing (§ 135-9). West Germanic geminalion of con: sonants (§ 140). Velar consonants in Early Old English. Growth of new phonemes (§ /41-2). Loss of consonants in some positions (§ 143-5). Old English consonant system (§ /46-7). : Questions and assignments. . 1... . bee eee ) Chapter IX. Ofd English Grammar... . . « Pe eee 92 Preliminary remarks. Form-building. Parts of speech and grammatical categories (§ 148-50). The Noun (§ {51-72}. Grammatical categories. The use of cases (§ [5!-7}. Morphological classifications of nouns. Declensions (§ 158-72). The Pronoun (§ £73-82). Personal pronouns (§ {74-7). Demonstrative pronouns (§ 178-9). Other classes of pronouns (§ 180-2). The Adjective (§ 185-8). Grammatical categories (§ 183). Weak and strong declension (§ 184-6). Degrees of comparison (§ 187-88). The Verb (§ 89-210). Grammatical categories of the finite verb & 139- 4). Grammatical categories of the verbals (§ 95-8), Morphological clas- sification of verbs (s 199). Strong verbs (§ 200-3): Weak verbs (§ 204- 7). Minor groups of verbs (§ 208-10). Syntax (§ 217-26). The phrase. Noun, adjective and verb patterns (§ 212-5). The simple sentence (§ 216-8). Compound and complex sentenc- es, Connectives (§ 2/9-22). Word order (§ 223-6). Questions and assignments 6 oo ee ee ID Chapter X. Old English Vocabulary 6. 02 eee BL Preliminary remarks (§ 227). Elymotogical survey of the Old English vecabolary (§ 228-47). Na- tive words (§ 229-32). Foreign element in the Old English vocabulary § 233). Borrowings from Celtic (§ 234-5). Latin influence on the Si English vocabulary (§ 236-46). Elymologtcal layers of the Old En- glish vocabulary (Table) (§ 247). Word-formation in Old English (§ 248-78). Word structure (§ 248). Ways of word-formation (§ 249-74). Word-derivation (§ 250) Sound interchanges (§ 251-5). Word siress (§ 256). Prefixation (§ 257-9). Suf- tization {9 760-8). Word-composition 08 269-74). Stylistic stratification of the Old English vecabulary (§ 275-8). Questions and assignments... eee cence eee eee MTPart Two XI. Historical Background from the tlth fo 15th c. Linguistic Chart fualion. Written Recotds 2... ee wees 9 Economic and social conditions in the 11th-12th c. (§ 279-80). Effect of the Scandinavien invasions (§ 28/-2) The Norman conquest (§ 283- 4). Effect of the Norman conquest on the linguistic situation (§ 285-4). farly Middle Engtish dialects, Extension of English territory (289-91). Early Middie English written records (§ 292-5). Late Middle English. Rees- tablishment of English as the language of the state and literature (§ 296- 9). Dialects in Late Middle English. The London dialect (§ 300-1). Written records in Late Middle English. The age of Chaucer (§ 302-7). Principal Middle English written records. Table (§ 308). Chapter X11. Development of the National Literary English Language (16th- fothe) .. ee: rrr tote ee ee) 1G Preliminary remarks (§ $09). Economic and Political Unification, Condi- tions for Linguistic Unity( § 810-2). Progress of culture. Introduction of printing ($ 9/3-5). Foreign contacts in the Early New English period § 316). Expansion of English over the British Isles (§ 37-9). Flourishing of literature in Early New English (Literary Renaissance) (§ 320-2). New sources of information about the language. Private Papers. Didactic compositions (§ 928-7). Establishment of the Written Standard (§ 328- 32). Normalising tendencies. Grammars and dictionaries in the late 17th and 18th ¢ ($ 333-4/). Growth of the Spoken Standard (5 342. 4). The modern period. Varieties of English in Britain in the |9th and 20th c. (§ 345-8). Geographical expansion of the English language from the 17th to [9ih c. English outside Great Britain (§ 349-54). Questions and assignments 6... . + 183 RL Sealing tne Me hfe ot Reng 955 Questions and assignments... . . Se eee 188 Chapter XIV, Evotution of the Sound System from the 11th to 18th, . . . 188 Preliminary remarks (§ 362). Word stress in Middle English and Early New English (§ 363-4). Vowel Changes in Middle English and Barly New English (§ 355-01). Unstressed vowels (§ 365-7). Main irends in the changes of stressed vowels (§ 368-9). Quantitative vowel changes in Early Middle English (§ 370-4). Qualitative vowel changes in Early Middle English (§ 375-84). Deve- lopment of monophthongs ‘6 376-7), Development of diphthongs (§ 878- 81). System of vowels in Late Middle English (§ 882}. The Great Vo- wel Shift (§ 383-6). Some interpretations of the Great Vowel Shift (§ 387-90). Changes of short vowels in Early New English (§ 39/-3). Growth of tong monophttongs and diphthongs in Early New English due to vocalisation of consonants (§ 394-8). Quantitative vowel changes in Ear! ly New English (§ 399-400). pasal changes of vowels in Middle English and Early New English. ables (§ 401). Evolution of )asonants in Middle Englich and Early New English (§ 402- 40). Growth of sibilants and affricates (§ 403-4). Treatment of frie fative consonants in Middle English and Early New English (§ 405- + Loss of consonants (§ 404-70). Historical foundations of Modern Nglish spelling (§ 41/-6). Main historical sources of modern spellings. Table (§ 417). Questions and assignments. - 2. 0 oe ee ee eee 218Appendix. ...... Old English Texts. 6. i ee ee ee eee Text 1. From King Alfred’s translation of the WORLD HISTORY by Orosius Chapter XV. Evolution of the Granmuatical System from the ttth to [8th c., . Preliminary. rematks: parts of speech, means of form-building. main trends of development & 418-23). The noun (§ 424-37). Decay of noun declensions in Early Middle English (§ 424-9). Grammatical categories of the noun (§ 430-7). The pronoun (§ 438-55). Personal and possessive pronouns (§ 438-47). Demonstrative pronatitts. Development of articles (§ 448-52). Other classes of pronouns (interrogative, indefinite, relative) ($ 453-5). The adjective (§ 456-62). Decay of declensions and grammatical catego- ries (§ 456-8), Degrees of comparison (§ 459-61). Development of nominal grammatical categories. Table (§ 462). The verb (§ 463-527). Simplifying changes in the verb conjugation (§454- 73). Finite forms. Number, Person, Mood and Tense (§ 462-8). Verbals. The Infinitive and the Participle. (§ 469-72) Development of the Gerund (§ 474), Changes in the morphological classes of verbs (§ #75- 94). Strong verbs (§ 476-80). Weak verbs (§ 48f-3). Origin of some groupe of modern non-standard verbs (§ 484-6). Minor groups of verbs B60 lopment of new grammatical forms and cate gories of the verb (§ 49-527) Preliminary remarks (§ 495-6). Growth of new forms within the existing grammatical categories ¢§ 497- 509). The Future Tense (§ 497-507). New forms of the Subjunctive Mood (§ 502-7). Interrogative and negative forms with ‘do’ (§ 508-9). Deve- Topment’ of new grammatical categories (§ 510-22). Passive forms. Category of Voice (§ 510-2). Perfect forms. Category of Time-correla- tion (§ 53-7). Continuous forms. Category of Aspect (§ 578-22). Growth of analytical forms and new grammatical categories of the verbals (§ 528-6). Development of verbal grammatical categories (§ 527). Development of the syntactic system in Middle English and Early New English (§ 526-46). The Phrase. Noun, adjective and verb patterns (§ 529-34). The simple sentence (§ 535- 8). Word order (§ 539-40). Predicative constructions (§ 54-2). Com- pound and complex sentences (§ 543-6). Causes of grammatical changes '§ 547-55). juestions and assignments. 6 feces Chapter XVI. Development of the English Vocabulary fram the 12th to Wihe 2... eee eee bee eee Preliminary remarks. Types and sources of changes (§ 556-60). Seandi- navian influence on the vocabular § 561-6). French influence on the vorabulary in Middle English (§ 567-74). Borrowings from classical lan- guages, with special reference to the age of the Renaissance (§ 575-83), Borrowings from contemporary languages in New English (§ 584-91). History of wordformation with special reference to the TBth-f7thc. (§ 592-625). Word derivation (§ 593). Sound interchanges (§ 594.) Word stress (§ 595). Prefixation (§ 596-600). Native prefixes (§ 597). Borrowed prefixes (§ 698-600). Suflixation (§ 601-15). lative suffixes (§ 602-8). Borrowed suffixes (§ 609-15). Conversion (§ 616-9). Word composition in Middte English and Early New English (§ 620-3). Simplification. Back formation (§ 624-5), Semantic changes in ihe vocabulary (§ 626). Questions and assignments. - 6 ee ee es bee eee 6 220 294 328 330 at 3atmodel of Grammatical Analysis and Translation Model of Phonetic Analysis oa ig bei) Motrom the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLES (A.D. 911) - Dit Text 3. com the eee ae ies EOCLES (A.D. 994)... : 4. From the tcanslation of Bede's ECCLESL F THE Tem GiisH PEOPLE. IASTICAL HISTORY OF THE gust §. Fram Old English Poetry a Ter aiy to Old English Texts. 20 middie English and New English Texts «oo. eae ew eae Mit 1. From the Prologue to the CANTERBURY TALES by G. Chaucer | ‘Model of Grammatical and Etymological Analysis. . : Model of Phonetic Analysis. se ee Pipi iit Text’? From the Prologue to the CANTERBURY TALES oy G. Chaucer * | Text 3, From the Preface to the ENEYDOS by sae ae! & Chaucer Glossary to Texts 2and3........0----~ : fit Texi 4. Shakespeare. Sonnet a Text 6. From INCOGNITA: LOVE AND DUTY Suggestions for Further Reading... 6...List of Abbreviations Ace, = Accusative Anno Domini (‘of cur era’) jective adverb American English anomalous art. =erticle Bre Eam British English c. = century; circa; case Celt = Celtic -onfer Common. comparative demonstrative lialectal E= English e. g. == exempli gratia = for instance rE Fem, = Feminine following (paragraphs) Fr = French G = German Gen. = Genitive Gt = Gothic {es id est — that is, YE = Indo-Europe: Ind. (Mood) = Indicative (Mood) indef. = indefinite int. = infinitive losie. = Instrumental Tr = Irish Halian M, Mesc. = Masculine ME = Middle English mod, = modern Mod E = Modern English n= noun N, Neut. = Neuter NE = New English neg. = negative Ne North Germanic Nominative numeral = Object Ob} = Objective ‘obs. = obsolete oes Old English Old_ French ode Old Germanic OHG = Old High German © Icel = Old Icelandic © Ind = Old Indian orig. mean. =: original meaning OS = Old Saxon O Scand = Old Scandinavian O Sw = Old Swedish personal Prcto-Germanic Proto-Indo-Europeant lural R= Russian rel. (to) = related (to) S = Subject Sanskr = Sanskrit 5g = singular str, == strong Subj. (Mood) = Subjunctive (Mood) 1 =: superlative Swedish ven verb Ww =x weak WG = West Germanic WS = West SaxonPREFACE This book on the history of the English language is intended for students of English at universities, pedagogical institutes and institutes of foreign languages. The book consists of two parts. Part I contains a discussion of some theoreti- cal aspects of language evolution, a short description of the Germanic languzges, a preliminary brief survey of the history of English, and a detailed description of the lan- guage in the Old English period. Only a sound knowledge of Old English can ensure gn understanding of the Subsequent development of the lang e. Part [1 outlines the development of the English language from the 12th to the 19th c. The description is not based on periods; every part of the language — the sounds, spelling, graqurar, Yocabulary, as well as the relevant historical conditions — is described separately, through aI! the periods. so, as to show their uninterrupted evolution and gradual transition from Old English to Modern English, The book differs from previous works on the subject in the arrangement and order of presentation of the material, and in the treatment of some historical pro- cesses. It is based on the results of recent research in theoretical linguistics and in the history of English, The book includes supplementary pedago ical material: sets of questions and assignments on the chapters which will enable the student to test his knowledge as he advances and will ensure a more profound understanding of the subjects dis~ cussed. A knowledge of the pap which the language has followed will enable the student to account for the features of Modern English from a historical point of yew atts being essential both for the student and for the would-be teacher of ish. Freie pended to the book is a graduated reader. It contains specimens of English from Giferent centuries. The Old English texts are supplied with models of analysis, a commentary, partial translation, a glossary and spectat assignments calling alten- tion to the most important peculiarities of the language. The plan followed in arran- ging the material is to carry the student's mind graduafiy forward from easier tasks to more difficult ones. The tess difficult texts ircm later periods are presented according to the same plan and are supplied with the ntinimum of information required for read- ing and analysis. For fuller information, especially on the etymology of words, the student can turn to the CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY or other dictionaries which provide etymological data. The study of the texts in the Appendix will epare the student for more extensive reading of English written records pub- lished in cther readers: such as SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH FROM THE 7TH TO THE 17TH CENTURY compiled by A.1. Smirnitsky, A READER IN EARLY ENGLISH by LP. Ivanova, T.M. Belyaeva and THE OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE compiled by L.S. Alexeieva, The matesial in the book is subdivided into short paragraphs, so that the dis- ctiminating teacher can select items appropriate to the level of particular groups of students. (tn conclusion [ should like to thank Professor V.Y. Plotkin and Assistant professors L.S. Kuznetsova and M.V. Khvesina who reviewed the text of the book and made many valuable suggestions. T. A. RastorguycvaINTRODUCTION Subject and Aims of the History of English § 1. This outline history covers the main events in the historical development of the English language: the history of its phonetic struc- ture and spelling, the evolution of its grammatical system, the growth of its vocabulary, and also the changing historical conditions of English- speaking communities relevant to language history. A language can be considered from different angles. In studying Modern English (Mod E) we regard the language as fixed in time and describe each linguistic level — phonetics, grammar or lexis — syn- chronically, taking no account of the origin of present-day features or their tendencies to change. The synchronic approach can be contrasted to the diachronic. When considered diachronically, every linguistic fact is interpreted as a stage or step in the never-ending evolution of language. In practice, however, the contrast between diachronic and synchronic study is not so marked as in theory: we commonly resort to history to explain current phenomena in Mod E. Likewise in describing the evolution of language we can present it as a series of synchronic cross-sections, e.g. the English language ol the age of Shakespeare (16th- 17th c.) or the age of Chaucer (14th c.). § 2. Through learning the history of the English language the stu- dent achieves a variety of aims, both theoretical and practical. The history of the language is of considerable interest to all students of English, since the English language of today reflects many centuries of development. As F. Engels wrote: “Substance and form of one’s own Janguage, however, become intelligible only when its origin and gradual evolution are traced, and this cannot be done without taking into account, first, its own extinct forms, and secondly, cognate languages, both liv- ing and dead” (Anti-Dihring. M., 1959, p. 441). This is no Jess true of a foreign language. Therefore one of the aims of this course is to provide the student with a knowledge of linguistic history sufficient to account for the principal features of present-day English. A few illustrations given below show how modern linguistic features can be explained by resorting to history. § 3. Any student of English is well aware of the difficulties of read- ing and spelling English. The written form of the English word is con- ventional rather than phonetic. The values of Latin letters as used in English differ greatly trom their respective values in other languages, e.g. French, German or Latin. Ci. bit — [bit] full correspondence between Latin three letters — three sounds letters and English sounds bife — [bart] no correspondence between the four letters — three sounds vowels and their graphic repre- sentation: the final ¢ is not pro- 10nounced, but conventionally serves to show that the preceding letter i has ifs English alphabet- ic value which is [ar], not (1} as in other languages knight — [nart] the letters & and gf do not stand six letters— three sounds for any sounds but gé evidently shows that i stands for {ar} The history of English sounds and spelling accounts for these and similar peculiarities. Without going into details it will suffice to say that at the time when Latin characters were first used in Britain (7th c.) writing was phonetic: the letters stood, roughly, for the same sounds as in Latin, Later, especially after the introduction of printing in the 15th c., the written form of the word became fixed, while the sounds continued tochange. This resutted in a growing discrepancy between letter and sound and in the modern peculiar use of Latin letters in English. Many modern spellings show how the words were pronounced some four or five hundred years ago, e.g. in the 14th c. Anight sounded as [knix't], root as fro:t], fale as [’ta:lo). § 4. Another illustration may be drawn from the vocabulary. Since English belongs fo the Germanic group.of languages, it would be natural to expect that it has many words or roots in common with cognate Ger- manic languages: German, Swedish, Danish and others. Instead, we find many more words in Mod E having exact parallels in the Romance languages: French, Latin, Spanish. Cf.: English Other Germanic tanguages Romance languages give G geben Sw gtva = peace G Frieden Fr paix (OE frid') Sw fred L pace Dutch vrede It pace * Sp paz army G Heer Fr armée (OE here?) Sw har It armata The first word — give — is of native, Germanic origin, which is confirmed by the parallels from other Germanic tongues; the other words — peace and army — are borrowings from Romance languages (note that in OF the respective words were Germanic.) In present- day English the proportion of Romance roots is higher than that of Native rocts. The history of English will say when and how these borrow- ings were made and will thus account for the composition of the modern vocabulary. § 5. As far as grammar is concerned, it can only be noted at this stage that the history of the language will supply explanations both 1 Old English (OE) is the narhe given to the English tanguage between c. 450 and 1100 A.D. iifor the general, regular features of the grammatical structure and for its specific peculiarities and exceptions. It will explain why English has so few inflections; how its “analytical” structure arose — with an abundance of compound forms and a fixed word order; why modal verbs, unlike other verbs, take no ending -s in the 3rd p.sg.; why some nouns add -en or change the root-vowel in the plural instead of adding -s (e.g. oxen, feet) and so on and so forth. §6. Another important aim of this course is of a more theoretical nature. While tracing the evolution of the English language through time, the student will be confronted with a number of theoretical ques- tions such as the relationship between statics and dynamics in language, the role of linguistic and extralinguistic factors, the interdependence of different processes in language history. These problems may be con- sidered on a theoretical plane within the scope of general linguistics. In describing the evolution of English, they will be discussed in respect of concrete linguistic facts, which will ensure a better understanding of these facts and will demonstrate the application of general principles to language material. § 7. One more aim of this course is to provide the student of English with a wider philological outlook. The history of the English language shows the place of English in the linguistic world; it reveals its ties and contacts with other related and unrelated tongues. Sources of Language History § 8, Every living language changes through time. It is natural that no tecords of linguistic changes have ever been kept, as most changes pass unnoticed by contemporaries. The history of the English language has been reconstructed on the basis of written records of different periods. The earliest extant written texts in English are dated in the 7th c.; the earliest records in other Germanic languages go back to the 3rd or 4th ce. A. D. The development ofj English, however, began a long time before it was first recorded. In order to say where the English language came from, to what janguages it is related, when and how it has acquired its specific features, one must get acquainted with some facts of the pre- written history of the Germanic group. Certain information about the early stages of English and Germanic history is to be found in the works of ancient historians and geographers, especially Roman. They contain descriptions of Germanic tribes, per- sonal names and place-names. Some data are also provided by early borrowings from Germanic made by other Janguages, e.g. the Finnish and the Baltic languages. But the bulk of our knowledge comes from scientific study of extant texts. § 9. The pre-written history of English and cognate languages was first stud- ied ‘by methods of comparative linguistics evolved in the 19th c. By applying these methods linguists discovered the kinship of what is now known as the Inido- European te) family of languages and gcouped them into Germanic, Slavonic, Ro- mance, Celtic, and others, It is one of the intentions of this course to show how comparison of existing and reconsiructed forms can demonstrate differences and 12similarities Im fanguages, and how reconstructed forms help to understand later developments, § 10. Modern linguistics has improved on the methods cf comparative linguist- ic teseatch applied in the 19th c. In addition to external reconstruction which ‘was based on comparing different languages, the recently formulated method of internal reconstruction studies history from internal sources alone, This method js based on the assumption that every language is a well organised and well bal- anced structure of elements. Hence, if among the productive systems of the language there occur some smaller, non-productive systems one can surmise that they are relics of preceding stages of development. When traced into the past, these systems often appear more numerous and more productive, e.g, modern plural forms like oven, ieett, isolated now, were. found in larger groups of nouns at an earlier etiod. Jt” follows that’ the past history of a language can also be reconstructed by considering its dialectal varieties, since the dialects often preserve forms, words of pronunciations which have become obsolete in the literary standard.Part One Ga oe) Chapter £ SOME THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE HISTORY Preliminary Remarks t has long been recognised that a living language can never be absolutely static; it develops to- gether with the speech community, that is, with the people who speak it. The great upsurge of interest in historical linguistics and its actual rise from the state ol amateur speculation to a serious science date from the early 19th c. Accumulation of facts about the early stages of living languages calied for theoretical interpretation of linguistic evolution. It was soon realised that the relationship of language to time involved many difficult and contradictory probiems. Here are some of the questions which may naturally arise in connection with language history: What does the evolution of language consist of? Is the concept “evolution” equivalent to that of “linguistic change”? How does a linguistic change operate? What are the conditions or factors that determine and direct the development of language? What are the relationships between the facts of internal linguistic history and the history of the people? In order to answer such questions with regard to English, and to un- derstand not only what events occurred in the course of time but also how and why they occurred we must first consider a few theoretical questions and principles pertaining to language history. Evolution of Language and Scope of Language History § 12. The evolution or historical development of language is made up of diverse facts and processes. In the first place it includes the inter- nal or structural development of the language system, its various sub- “4systems and component parts. The description of internal linguistic history is usually presented in accordance with the division of language into linguistic levels. The main, commonly accepted levels are: the pho- netic and phonological levels, the morphological !evel, the syntactic Jevel, and the jexical level. Accordingly, the history of the language can be subdivided into historical phonetics (phonology), historical morphology, historical syntax and historical texicotogy. The evolution of language includes also mary facts which pertain to the functioning of Janguage in the speech community. These functionat aspects constitute what is known as the “external” history of the lan- uage and embrace a large number of diverse matters: the spread of the faneuage in geographica! and social space, the differentiation of language into functional varieties (geographical variants, dialects, standard and sub-standard forms, etc.), contacts with other languages. In discussing these aspects of history we shall deal with the concept of éanguage space, that is the geographical and social space occupied by the language (known as its horizontal and vertical dimensions), and also with the concept of linguistic situation, which embraces the functional differentiation of Janguage and the relationships between the functional varieties. Most of these features are connected with the history of the speech community, e.g. with the structure of society, the migration of tribes, economic and political events, the growth of culture and literature. Statics and Dynamics in Language History § 13. Although certain changes constantly occur at one or another linguistic level, the historical development of language cannot be re- garded as permanent instability. Many features of the janguage remain static in diachrony: these constant features do not alter through time or may be subject to very slight alteration. In the first place there exist certain permanent, universal properties to be found in all languages at any period of time, such as e.g. the divi- sion of sounds into vowels and consonants, the distinction between the main parts of speech and the parts of the sentence. In addition to these universal properties, English, like other languages, has many stable characteristics which have proved almost immune to the impact of time. For instance, some parts of the English vocabulary have been preserved through ages; to this stable part belong most of the pronouns, many form- words and words indicating the basic concepts of life. Many ways of word-formation have remained historically stable. Some grammatical cate- gories, e.g. number in nouns, degrees of comparison in adjectives, have suffered little alteration while other categories, such as case or gender, have undergone profound changes. The proportion of stable and change- able features varies at different historical periods and at different linguistic fevels but there is no doubt that we can find statics and dy- namics both in synchrony and in diachrony. Dynamics in diachreny, that is linguistic change, requires special consideration. 15Concept of Linguistic Change § 14. One can distinguish three main types of difference in language: geographical, socia) and temporal. Linguistic changes imply temporal differences, which become apparent if the same elements or parts of the language are compared at successive historical stages; they are trans- formations of the same units in time which can be registered as distinct steps in their evolution. For instance, the OE form of the Past tense pl Ind. Mood of the verb to find — fundon \‘fundon| became founden (fu:nden] in the 12th-13th c. and found in Mod E. The continuity of the item was not broken, though we can register several changes: a) pho- netic and spelling changes as the root vowe! [u] became (ust and then [au] and the letter 2 was replaced by the digraph ou; b) phonetic and morphological changes in the inflection: -on>>-en>>—?, c) morphological changes in the place of the form in the verb paradigm and its grammatical meaning: fundon was the Past tense pl of the Ind. Mood, its descendant founden was also the form of Past p! Subj. and Part. II, as these three forms had fallen together; the modern found has further extended its functions — it stands now both for the singular and plural since these forms are not distinguished in the Past tense. All these changes can be defined as structural or intralinguistic as they belong to the language system. The concept of linguistic change is not limited to internal, structural changes. It also includes temporal differences in the position of the given unit in language space, that is the extent of its spread in the func- tional varieties of the language. A new feature —- a word, a form, a sound — cam be recognised as a linguistic change only after it has been accepted for general use in most varieties of the language or in its main, “prestige” variety — the Literary Standard. For instance, in the 10th- 11th c. many Scandinavian words penetrated into the Northern dialects of the English language {as a result of Scandinavian invasions and mixture of the population), e.g. sty, they, call; later they entered literary English. § 15. Most linguistic changes involve some kind of substitution and can therefore be called repéacements. Replacements are subdivided into different iypes or patterns. A simple one-to-one replacement occurs when a new unit merely takes the place of the old one, e.g. in the words but, feet the vowels {u] and (e:] (pronounced four or five hundred years ago) have been replaced by [a] and [i:] respectively ((uJ]>[] and le: ]> [i:]). OE éa was replaced by the French loan-word river, OE éode [’eode], the Past tense of fo go, was replaced by anew form, went. Replacements can also be found in the plane of content; they are shifts of meaning in words which have survived from the early periods of history, e.g. OE feoh (feox ] had the meaning ‘cattle’, ‘property’, its modern descendant is fee. Those are the simplest one-to-one replacements. Most linguistic changes, however, both in the language system and language space, have a more complicated pattern. Two or more units may fal! together 1 The sign > means ‘became, developed into’. 16nd thus may be replaced by one unit, or, vice versa, two distinct units may take the place of one. The former type of replacement is defined as merging or merger; the latter is known as splitting or split. The modern Common case of nouns is the result of the merging of three OE cases — Nom., Gen. and Acc, Many instances of splitting can be found in the history of English sounds, e.g. the consonant {k] has split into two pho- nemes [k] and [t{} in words like Ain, Aeep and chin, child. § 16. Linguistic changes classified into different types of replace- ment, namely splits and mergers, can also be described in terms of oppositi- ons, Which is a widely recognised method of scientific linguistic analysis. Thus a merger is actually an instance of neutralisation or loss of oppo- sitions between formerly contrasted linguistic units, while the essence of splitting is the growth of new oppositions between identical or non- distinctive forms. To use thesame examples, when three OE cases merged into the Comm. case, the opposition between the cases was neutral- ised or lost. When [k] split into (k] and [t{] there arose a new kind of phonemic opposition — a plosive consonant came to be opposed to an alfricate (cf. Ain and chin). § 17. Although many linguistic changes can be described in terms of replacements and explained as loss and rise of oppositions, the con- cept of replacement is narrower than that of linguistic change. Some changes are pure innovations, which do not replace anything, or pure losses. Thus we should regard as innovations numerous new words which were borrowed er coined to denote entirely new objects or ideas, such as spuinik, Soviet, nylon, high-jacking, baby-sitter. On the other hand, many words have been lost (or have died out) together with the objects or ideas which have become obsolete, e.g. OE witenasemét ‘Assembly of the elders’, numerous OE poetic words denoting warriors, ships and the sea. § 18. In addition to the distinctions described above — and irre- spective of those distinctions, — various classifications of linguistic changes are used to achieve an orderly analysis and presentation. It is obvious from the examples quoted that linguistic changes are con- veniently classified and described in accordance with linguistic levels: we can speak of phonetic and phonological changes (aiso sound changes), spelling changes, grammatical changes, including morphology and syn- tax, lexical and stylistic changes. At these levels further subdivisions are made: phonetic changes include yowel and consonant changes, qual- itative and quantitative changes, positional and independent changes, and so on. Changes at the higher levels fall into formal and semantic, since they can affect the plane of expression and the plane of content; semantic changes, in their turn, may take various forms: narrowing or widening of meaning, metaphoric and metonymic changes, etc. ., § 19. In books on language history one may often come across one more division of linguistic changes: into historical and analogical. This distinction was introduced by the Young Grammarian school in the late 19th c. A change is defined as historical only if it can be shown as a phonetic modification of an earlier form, &g., the modern pl ending of nouns -es has descended direclly from its prototype. OE Inatl. 4. Point out the peculiarities in grammatical forms in the fol- lowing passages from Shakespeare's SONNETS and describe the changes Which must have occurred after the 17th c.: a) As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st In one of thine, from that which thou departest ... b) It is thy spirit that thou send'st from thee ...It is my love that keeps mine eyes awake; Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat — c} Bring me within the level of your frown. But shoot not at me in your wakened hate! 5. Comment on the following quotations from the works of promi- nent modern linguists and speak on the problems of linguistic change: a) One may say with R. Jakobson, a little paradoxically, that a linguistic change is a synchronic fact. (A. Sommerfelt) b) Visible change is the tip of an iceberg. Every alteration that eventually establishes itself, had to exist formerly as a choice. This means that the seedbed for variation in time is simply the whole fand- scape of variation in space. (D. Bolinger} ¢) The structure of language is nothing but the unstable balance between the needs of communication, which require more numerous and more specific units and man’s inertia, which favours less numerous, less specific and more frequently occurring units. (A. Martinet) d) That two forms, the new and the old, can occasionally exist in wholly free variation is a possibilily that has not yet been disproved but, as Bloomfield rightly remarked “when a speaker knows two rival forms, they differ in connotation, since he has heard them frem differ- ent persons under different circumstances”. (M. Samuels) Chapter 11 GERMANIC LANGUAGES Modern Germanic Languages § 82. Languages can be classified according to different principles. The historical, or genealogical classification, groups languages in ac- cordance with their origin irom a common linguistic ancestor. Genelically, English belongs to the Germanic or Teutonic group of languages, which is one of the twelve groups of the IE linguistic family. Most of the area of Europe and large parts of other continents are occu- pied today by the IE languages, Germanic being one of their major groups. § 33. The Germanic languages in the modern world are as follows: English — in Great Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the South African Republic, and many other former British colonies and dominions; German — in the German Democratic Republic, the Federal. Re- pubic of Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, part of Switzer- and; Netherlandish — in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium) (known also as Dutch and Flemish respectively); Afrikaans — in the South African Republic;Danish — in Denmark; Swedisht ~— in Sweden and Finland; Norwegian — in Norway, Icelandic — in Iceland; Frisian — in some regions of the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany; Faroese — in the Faroe Islands; Yiddish — in different countries. . Lists of Germanic languages given in manuals and reference-books differ in some points, for the distinction between separate languages, and also between languages and dialects varies. Until recently Dutch and Flemish were named as separate languages, Frisian and Faroese are often referred to as dialects, since they are spoken over small, poli- tically dependent areas; ihe linguistic independence of Norwegian is questioned, for it has intermixed with Danish; Br E and Am E are some- times regarded as iwe independent languages. It is difficult to estimate the number of people speaking Germanic languages, especially on account of English, which in many countries is one of two languages in a bilingual community, e.g. in Canada. The estimates for English range from 250, to 300 million people who have it as their mother tongue. The total number of people speaking Germanic languages approaches 440 million. To this rough estimate we could add an indefinite number of bilingual people in the countries where English is used as an official language (over 50 countries). All the Germanic languages are related through their common ori- gin and joint development at the early stages oi history. The survey of their external history will show where and when the Germanic tan- guages arose and acquired their common features and also how they have developed into madern independent tongues, The Earliest Period of Germanic History. Prote-Germanic § 34. The history of the Germanic group begins with the appearance of what is known as the Proto-Germanic (PG) language (also termed Common or Primitive Germanic, Primitive Teutonic and simply Ger- manic). PG is the linguistic ancestor or the parent-language of the Germanic group. it is supposed to have split Irom related IE tongues sometime between the loth and 10th c. B.C. The would-be Germanic tribes belonged to the western division of the IE speech community. As the Indo-Europeans extended over a larger territory, the ancient Germans or Teutons ! meved further north than other tribes and settled on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in the region of the Elbe. This Place is regarded as the most probable original home of the Teutons. It is here that they developed their first specifically Germanic linguistic features which made them a separate group in the [E family. 1 Both names correspond to R ‘repsatitn’, ‘apesane re; YG tins guished irom Germans ‘weus). penne repmanain’ (10 be distin biPG is an entirely pre-historical language: it was never recorded in written form. In the 19th c. it was reconstructed by methods of compa- rative linguistics from written evidence in descendant languages. Hypo- thetical reconstructed PG forms will sometimes be quoted below, to explain the origin of English forms. It is believed that at the earliest stages of history PG was funda- mentally one language, though dialectally coloured. In its later stages dialectal differences grew, so that towards the beginning of our era Ger- manic appears divided into dialectal groups and tribal dialects. Dialec- tal differentiation increased with the migrations and geographical ex- pansion of the Teutons caused by overpopulation, poor agricultural technique and scanty natural resources in the areas of their original settlement. The external history of the ancient Teutons around the beginning of our era is known from classical writings. The first mention of Ger- manic tribes was made by Pitheas, a Greek historian and geographer of the 4th c. B.C., in an account of a sea voyage to the Baltic Sea. in the Ist c. B.C, in COMMENTARIES ON THE GALLIC WAR (COM- MENTARIT DE BELLO GALLICO) Julius Caesar described some mi- litant Germanic tribes — the Suevians — who bordered on the Celts of Gaul in the North-East. The tribal names Germans and Teutfons, at first applied to separate tribes, were later extended to the entire group. In the Ist c. A. D. Pliny the Elder, a prominent Roman scientist and writer, in NATURAL HISTORY (NATURALIS HISTORIA) made a classified list of Germanic tribes grouping them under six headings. A few decades later the Roman historian Tacitus compiled a detailed description of the life and customs of the ancient Teutons DE SITU, MORIBUS ET POPULIS GERMANIAE; in this work he reproduced Pliny’s classification of the Germanic tribes, F. Engels made extensive use of these sources in the papers ON THE HISTORY OF THE AN- CIENT GERMANS and THE ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY, PRIVATE PROPERTY AND THE STATE. Having made a linguistic analysis of several Germanic dialects of later ages F. Engels came to the conclu- sion that Pliny’s classification of the Teutonic tribes accurately reflected the contemporary dialectal division. In his book on the ancient Teutons F. Engels described the evolution of the econamic and social structur of the Teutons from Caesar's to Tacitus’s time. . § 35. Towards the beginning of our era the common period of Ger- manic history came to an end. The Teutons had extended over a larger territory and the PG language broke into parts. The tri-partite division of the Germanic languages proposed by 19th c. philologists corresponds, with a few adjustments, to Pliny’s grouping of the Old Teutonic tribes. According to this division PG split into three branches: East Germanic (Vindili in Pliny’s classification), North Germanic (Hilleviones) and West Germanic (which embraces Ingueones, [siaevones and Hermino- nes in Pliny’s list). In due course these branches split into separate Germanic languages. The traditional tri-partite classification of the Germanic languages was reconsidered and corrected in some recent publications. The deve- 26Jopment of the Germanic group was not confined to successive splits; it involved both linguistic divergence and convergence. It has also been discovered that originally PG split into two main branches and that the tri-partite division marks a later stage of its history. The earliest migration of the Germanic tribes from the tower valley of the Elbe consisted in their movement north, to the Scandinavian pe- ninsula, a few hundred years before our era. This geographical segrega- tion must have Jed to linguistic differentiation and to the division of PG into the northern and southern branches. At the beginning of our era some of the tribes returned to the maintand and settled claser to the Vistula basin, east of the other continental Germanic tribes. It is only from this stage of their history that the Germanic languages can be des- crited under three headings: East Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic, East Germanic § 36. The East Germanic subgroup was formed by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia at the beginning of our era. The most nu- merous and powerful of them were the Goths. They were among the first Teutons to leave the coast of the Baltic Sea and start on their great migrations. Around 200 A. D. they moved south-east and some time later reached the lower basin of the Danube, where they made attacks on the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium. Their western branch, the Visi- gote, invaded Roman territory, participated in the assaults on Rome under Alaric and moved on to southern Gaul, to found one of the first barbarian kingdoms of Medieval Europe, the Toulouse kingdom. The kingdom lasted until the 8th c. though linguistically the western Goths were soon absorbed by the native population, the Romanised Celts.t The eastern Goths, @strogoiz consolidated into a powerful tribal alliance in the lower basin of the Dniester, were subjugated by the Huns under Atilla, traversed the Balkans and set up a kingdom in Northern Italy, with Ravenna as its capital. The short-lived flourishing of Ostrogothic culture in the Sth—Gth c. under Theodoric came to an end with the fall of the kingdom. § 37. The Gothic language, now dead, has been preserved in written records of the 4th—6th c. The Goths were the first of the Teutons to be- come Christian. In the 4th c. Ulfilas, a West Gothic bishop, made a translation of the Gospels from Greek into Gothic using a modified form of the Greek alphabet. Parts of Ulfilas’ Gospels — a manuscript of about two hundred pages, probably made in the 5th or 6th c. — have been Preserved and are kept now in Uppsala, Sweden. If is written on red parchment with silver and golden letters and is known as the SILVER CODEX (CODEX ARGENTEUS). Uliilas’ Gospels were first published in the I7th c. and have been thoroughly studied by [9th and 20th c. philologists. The SILVER CODEX is one of the earliest texts in the +The Celts of Modern France and Spain had been subject influence — “Romanised’’; they spoke Tecal verieties of ttn which eae Rema Modern Romance languages. aMigration of Germanic trives in the 2nd-bth centurieslanguages of the Germanic group, it represents a form of language very close to PG and therefore throws light on the pre-written stages of his- tory of all the languages of the Germanic group, including English. ‘The other East Germanic languages, all of which are now dead, have teft no written traces. Some of their tribal names have survived in place- names, which reveal the directions of their migrations: Borakolm and Burgundy go ack to the East Germanic tribe of Burgundians; Andalusia 4g derived from the tribal name Vandals; Lombardy got its name from the Langobards, who’ made part of the population of the Ostrogothic kingdom in North Italy, North Germanic § 38. The Teutons who stayed in Scandinavia after the departure of the Goths gave rise to the North Germanic subgroup of languages. The North Germanic tribes lived on the southern coast of the Seandina- yian peninsula and in Northern Denmark (since the 4th c.). They did not participate in the migrations and were relatively isolated, though they may have come into closer contacts with the western tribes after the Goths left the coast of the Baltic Sea. The speech of the North Ger- manic tribes showed little dialectal variation until the Sth c. and is regarded as a sort of common North Germanic parent-language called Old Norse or Old Scandinavian. It has come down to us in runic inserip- tions dated from the 3rd to the 9th c. Runic inscriptions were carved on objects made of hard material in an original Germanic alphabet known as the runic alphabet or the runes. The runes were used by North and West Germanic tribes. . The disintegration of Old Norse into separate dialects and languages began after the 9th c., when the Scandinavians started out on their sea voyages. The famous Viking Age, from about 800 to 1050 A.D., is the legendary age of Scandinavian raids and expansion overseas. At the same period, due to overpopulation in the fjord areas, they spread over inner Scandinavia. §39. The principal finguistic differentiation in Scandinavia cor- responded to the political ¢ivision into Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The three kingdoms constantly fought for dominance and the relative position of the three languages altered, as one or another of the powers prevailed over its neighbours. For several hundred years Denmark was the most powerful of the Scandinavian kingdoms: it embraced Southern Sweden, the greater part of the British Isles, the southern coast of the Baltic Sea up to the Gulf of Riga; by the 14th c. Norway fell under Da- Nish rule toc. Sweden regained its independence in the 16th ¢., while Norway remained a backward Danish colony up to the early 19th c. Con- sequently, both Swedish and Norwegian were influenced by Danish. The earliest written records in Old Danish, Old Norwegian and Old Swedish date from the 13th c. In the later Middle Ages, with the growth of capitalist relations and the unification of the countries, Danish, and then Swedish developed into national literary languages. Nowadays Swedish is spoken not only by the population of Sweden; the language vshas extended over Finnish territory and is the second state language in Finland. Norwegian was the last to develop into an independent national Jan- guage. During the period of Danish dominance Norwegian intermixed with Danish. As a result in the 19th c. there emerged two varieties of the Norwegian tongue: the state or bookish tongue riksmadl (later called bokmal) which is a blending of literary Danish with Norwegian town dia- lects and a rural variety, landsmal. Landsmal was sponsored by 19th c. writers and philologists as the real, pure Norwegian language. At the present time the two varieties tend to fuse info a single form of lan- guage nynorsk (“New Norwegian”). § 40. In addition to the three languages on the mainland, the North Germanic subgroup includes two more languages: Icelandic and Faroese, whose origin goes back to the Viking Age. Beginning with the 8th c. the Scandinavian sea-rovers and merchants undertook distant sea voyages and set up their colonies in many terri- tories, The Scandinavian invaders, known as Northmen, overran Nor- thern France and settled in Normandy (named after them). Crossing the Baltic Sea they came to Russia — the “varyagi” of the Russian chronicles. Crossing the North Sea they made disastrous attacks on English coastal towns and eventually occupied a large part of England — the Danes of the English chronicles. They founded numerous settle- ments in the islands around the North Sea: the Shetlands, the Orkneys, Ireland and ihe Faroe Islands; going still farther west they reached Iceland, Greenland and North America. Linguistically, in most areas of their expansion, the Scandinavian settlers were assimilated by the native population: in France they adopt- ed the French language; in Northern England, in Ireland and other islands around the British Isles sooner or later the Scandinavian dialects were displaced by English. In ihe Faroe Islands the West Norwegian dialects brought by the Scandinavians developed into a separate lan- guage called Faroese. Faroese is spoken nowadays by about 30,000 péo- ple. For many centuries all writing was done in Danish; it was not until the 18th c. that the first Faroese records were made. § 41. Iceland was practically uninhabited at the time of the first Scandinavian settlements (9th c.). Their West Scandinavian dialects, at first identical with those of Norway, eventually grew into an inde- pendent language, Icelandic. It developed as a separate language in spite of the political dependence of Iceland upon Denmark and the do- minance of Danish in official spheres. As compared wilh other North Germanic languages Icelandic has retained a more archaic vocabulary and grammatical system. Modern Icelandic is very much like Old Ice- landic and Old Norse, for it has not participated in the linguistic changes which took place in the ether Scandinavian languages, probably because of its geographical isolation. At present Icelandic is spoken by over 2C0 000 people. Old Icelandic written records date from the 12th and 13th c., an age of literary flourishing. The most important reccrds are: the FELDER EDDA (also called the POETIC EDDA) — a collection of heroic songs 30of the 12th c., the YOUNGER (PROSE) EDDA (a text-book for pocts compiled by Snorri Sturluson in the early 13th ¢.) and the Old Icelandic. sagas. West Germanic § 42. Around the beginning of our era the would-be West Germanic tribes dwelt in the lowlands between the Oder and the Elbe bordering on the Slavonian tribes in the East and the Celtic tribes in the South. They must have retreated further west under the pressure of the Goths, who had come from Scandinavia, but after their departure expanded in the eastern and southern directions. The dialectal differentiation of West Germanic was probably quite distinct even at the beginning of our era since Pliny and Tacitus described them under three tribal names (see § 35). On the eve of their “great migrations” of the 4th and 5th c. the West Germans included several tribes. The Franconians (or Franks} occupied the lower basin of the Rhine, from there they spread up the Rhine and are accordingly subdivided into Low, Middle and High Fran- conians. The Angles and the Frisians (known as the Anglo-Frisian group), the Jutes and the Saxons inhabited the coastal area of the madern Ne- therlands, the Federal Repubtic of Germany and the southern part of Den- mark. A group of tribes known as High Germans lived in the mountai- nous southern regions of the Federal Republic of Germany (hence the name High Germans as contrasted to Low Germans — a name applied to the West Germanic tribes in the low-lying northern areas. The High Germens included a number of tribes whose names are known since the early Middle Ages: the Alemanians, the Swabians, the Bavarians, the Thiiringians and others. In the Early Middle Ages the Franks consolidated into a powerful tribal alliance. Towards the 8th ¢. their kingdom grew into one of the largest states in Western Europe. Under Charlemagne (768—814) the Holy Roman Empire of the Franks embraced France and haif of Italy, and. stretched northwards up to the North and Baltic Sea. The empire lacked ethnic and economic unity and in the 9th c. broke up, into parts. Its western part eventually became the basis of France. Though the names France, French are derived from the tribal name of the Franks, the Fran- conian dialects were not spoken there. The population, the Romanised Celts of Gaul, spoke a local variety of Latin, which developed into one of the most extensive Romance languages, French. _ The eastern part, the East Franconian Empire, comprised several kingdoms: Swabia or Alemania, Bavaria, East Franconia and Saxony; to these were soon added two more kingdoms — Lorraine and Friesland. As seen from the names of the kingdoms, the East Franconian state had a mixed population consisting of several West Germanic tribes. § 43. The Franconian dialects were spoken in the extreme North of the Empire; in the later Middle Ages they developed into Dutch ~~ the language of the Low Countries (the Netherlands) and Flemish — the language of Flanders. The earliest texts in Low Franconian date from the 10th c.; 12th c. records represent the earliest Old Dutch. The 31formation of the Dutch language stretches aver a long period; itis inked up with the growth of the Netherlands into an independent bourgeois state alter its liberation from Spain in the 16th c. The modern language of the Netherlands, formerly called Dutch, and its variant in Belgium, known as the Flemish dialect, are now treat- ed as a single language, Netherfandish. Netherlandish is spoken by almost 20 million people; its northern variety, used in the Netherlands, has a More standardised literary form. About three hundred years ago the Dutch language was brought to South Africa by colonists from Southern Holland. Their dialects in Africa eventually grew into a separate West Germanic language, Afri- kaans. Afrikaans has incorporated elements from the speech of English and German colonists in Africa and from the tongues of the natives. Writing in Afrikaans began as late as the end of the 19th c. Today Afri- kaans is the mother-tongue of over four million Afrikaners and coloured people and one of the state languages in the South African Republic {alongside English). § 44, The High German group of tribes did not go far in their migra- tions. Together with the Saxons (see below § 46 ff.) the Alemanians, Bava- tians, and Thuringians expanded east, driving the Slavonic tribes from places of- their early settlement. The High German dialects consolidated into a common language known as Old High German (OHG). The first written records in OHG date from the 8th and Sth c. (glosses to Latin texts, translations from Latin and religious poems). Towards the 12th c. High German (known as Middle High German) had intermixed with neighbouring tongues, especially Middle and High Franconian, and eventually developed into the literary German language. The Written Standard of New High Ger- man was established after the Reformation (16th c.), though no Spoken Standard existed until the 19th c. as Germany remained politically di- vided into a number of kingdoms and dukedoms. To this day German is remarkable for great dialectal diversity of speech. The High German language in a somewhat modified form is the national language of Austria, the language of Liechtenstein and one of the languages in Luxemburg and Switzerland. It is also spoken in Alsace and Lorraine in France. The total number of German-speaking people approaches 100 million. § 45. Another offshoot of High German is Yiddish. It grew from the High German dialects which were adopted by numerous Jewish communi- ties scattered over Germany in the 11th and 12th c. These dialects blended with elements of Hebrew and Slavonic and developed into a separate West Germanic language with a spoken and literary form. Yiddish was exported from Germany to many other countries: Russia, Poland, the Baltic states and America. . . § 46. At the later stage of the great migration period — in the 5th c. — a group of West Germanic tribes started out on their invasion of the British Isles. The invaders came from the lowlands near the North Sea: the Angles, part of the Saxons and Frisians, and, probably, the Jutes. Their dialects in the British Isles developed into the English language.