TEMARIO FINAL PARA EXAMEN DE DESARROLLO DE LA LENGUA

INGLESA.
LISTA DE FECHAS IMPORTANTES
• 55B.C. failed first attempt of the romans to conquer to Britain
• 43A.C. the romans conquered and stablished themselves in Britain.
• 410 The roman army withdrew from Britain.
• 449 arrival of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in Britain.
• 450 the old English period of English started.
• 669 beginning of the extension of religious learning throughout Britain
• 700 “Bewoulf” was written
• 787-850 first stage of the Viking invasion in Britain took place (early raids, and
plundering in the coasts of the country.)
• 850-878 second stage of the Viking invasion in Britain took place (widespread
plundering in all parts of the country and extensive settlements)
• 878 Signature of the treaty of Wedmore by king Alfred and king Guthrum
(establishment of the Danelaw and the Christianization of the Vikings)
• 878-1042 third stage of the Viking invasion took place (political adjustments and
assimilation)
• ABOUT 950 benedict reform: revival of the monasticism in Britain
• 1066 the Norman conquest, battle of Hastings took place and the crowning of
William 1st as the king of England
• 1150 the old enlish period finished and the middle English period of English
started.
• 1337 the beginning of The Hundred Years’ War took place
• 1362 English was used for the first time in the parliament
• 1390’S “the canterbury tales” was written by Geoffrey Chaucer
• ABOUT 1400 the great vowel shift took place
• 1453 the end of The Hundred Years’ War (conflict between England and
France)
• 1476 the printing press was brought to England by William Caxton
• 1500 the middle English period finished and the modern English period of
English started.

1. there were four old English dialects: northumbrian, Mercia, West-saxons

and Kentish
2. there were five middle English dialects northern, southern, est midland
west midland and Kentish.
 3. The dialect that became the basis for standart english was east midland,
this was because the following reasons: (here are 6 reasons)
• It was located on the most populated area, London
• Geographically it was between the north and south people so it was a
bridge between them
• It was located in the capital city, London
• There were located two important universities, Cambridge and Oxford.
• The printing press was started in that area
• It was the wealthiest region because of agriculture and trade.

DIFFERENCES BEWTEEN OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH

Old English
Known as the full inflection period of
English
It was synthetic
There were four cases that were
identifiable: nominative, accusative,
dative, genitive
Nouns could be either feminine,
masculine and neuter, (and there was
an agreement with the article and
adjective)
Plural of nouns were irregular (man.
Men)
- Old English used the /þ/ and /ð/ to
represent the “th” sound, called thorn
and eth respectively.
The “kw” sound was written “cw” as in
cween
Middle English
Known as the leveled inflection period
of English
It started to become analytic
There were four cases, but only the
genitive case was identifiable:
The gender of nouns was not relevant
when agreeing with the article and
adjectives.
Plural of nouns began to be formed by
adding -s or -es, kiss-kisses
The letters “th” were used to represent
the “th” sound
The “kw” sound was written “qu” as in
queen.
5 DIFFERENT PROCESS OF THE INCREASING OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY.
(2 examples)
• Affixation: the process of adding affixes (small groups of meaningful letters,
suffixes and prefixes and can change the grammar category) happy,
unhappy, happiness, friend- friendly and befriend
• Borrowing: the process of taking words from other languages to represent
ideas that did not have a proper word in English. Chocolate, from Nahuatl
and llama from Quechua.
• Compounding the process of forming new words by combining two or more
words together. Rainbow, sunflower, Microwave, grandmother, well-known,
greenhouse
• Conversion the process of taking noun and change its grammar category
from noun to verb, plant- to plant , water – to water.
• Creation of new words. The process of creating new words because of the
appearance of specific, technological or social issues, sexting, internet,
bromance, emoticon.