The Origins and Development of the English Language

Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 8
PREFACE......Page 6
CHAPTER 1 Language and the English Language: An Introduction......Page 18
Language as System......Page 19
Grammatical Signals......Page 20
Language as Signs......Page 22
Writing and Speech......Page 23
Language as Conventional......Page 25
The Notion of Linguistic Corruption......Page 27
Language Variation......Page 28
Correctness and Acceptability......Page 29
Theories of the Origin of Language......Page 30
Do Birds and Beasts Really Talk?......Page 31
Language as Communication......Page 32
Other Characteristics of Language......Page 33
Why Study the History of English?......Page 34
For Further Reading......Page 35
The Organs of Speech......Page 37
Consonants of Current English......Page 38
Vowels of Current English......Page 42
Stress......Page 45
Assimilation: Sounds Become More Alike......Page 46
Elision: Sounds Are Omitted......Page 47
Causes of Sound Change......Page 48
The Phoneme......Page 49
Differing Transcriptions......Page 50
For Further Reading......Page 51
Ideographic and Syllabic Writing......Page 52
The Greek Vowel and Consonant Symbols......Page 53
The Romans Adopt the Greek Alphabet......Page 54
Later Developments of the Roman and Greek Alphabets......Page 55
Additional Symbols......Page 56
The Anglo-Saxon Roman Alphabet......Page 57
The Spelling of English Consonant Sounds......Page 58
Fricatives......Page 59
Front Vowels......Page 60
Back Vowels......Page 61
Unstressed Vowels......Page 62
Spelling Pronunciations and Pronunciation Spellings......Page 63
Writing and History......Page 64
For Further Reading......Page 65
CHAPTER 4 The Backgrounds of English......Page 66
The Indo-European Homeland......Page 67
How Indo-European Was Discovered......Page 68
Language Typology and Language Families......Page 69
Non-Indo-European Languages......Page 70
Indo-Iranian......Page 72
Tocharian......Page 75
Balto-Slavic......Page 76
Italic......Page 77
Celtic......Page 78
Germanic......Page 79
Cognate Words in the Indo-European Languages......Page 80
Inflection in the Indo-European Languages......Page 81
Some Verb Inflections......Page 82
Some Noun Inflections......Page 83
Word Order in the Indo-European Languages......Page 84
Major Changes from Indo-European to Germanic......Page 86
Grimm’s Law......Page 88
Verner’s Law......Page 90
West Germanic Languages......Page 91
For Further Reading......Page 93
Some Key Events in the Old English Period......Page 95
The Coming of the English......Page 96
The English in Britain......Page 98
The First Viking Conquest......Page 99
The Second Viking Conquest......Page 100
The Golden Age of Old English......Page 101
Dialects of Old English......Page 102
Vowels......Page 103
Consonants......Page 104
Handwriting......Page 106
The Germanic Word Stock......Page 107
Gender in Old English......Page 108
Inflection......Page 109
Nouns......Page 110
i-Umlaut......Page 112
Demonstratives......Page 113
Adjectives......Page 114
Adverbs......Page 115
Personal Pronouns......Page 116
Interrogative and Relative Pronouns......Page 117
Verbs......Page 118
Nonfinite Forms......Page 119
Strong Verbs......Page 120
Preterit-Present Verbs......Page 121
Syntax......Page 122
Old English Illustrated......Page 125
For Further Reading......Page 128
Some Key Events in the Middle English Period......Page 129
The Background of the Norman Conquest......Page 130
The Reascendancy of English......Page 131
Foreign Influences on Vocabulary......Page 132
Consonants......Page 133
Vowels......Page 135
The Rise of a London Standard......Page 136
Principal Consonant Changes......Page 139
Middle English Vowels......Page 140
Changes in Diphthongs......Page 141
Lengthening and Shortening of Vowels......Page 143
Loss of Schwa in Final Syllables......Page 144
Reduction of Inflections......Page 145
The Inflection of Nouns......Page 146
Personal Pronouns......Page 147
Demonstrative Pronouns......Page 149
Verbs......Page 150
Personal Endings......Page 151
Word Order......Page 152
Middle English Illustrated......Page 153
For Further Reading......Page 155
Some Key Events in the Early Modern Period......Page 156
Expansion of the English Vocabulary......Page 157
The Orthography of Early Modern English......Page 158
The Great Vowel Shift......Page 161
Stressed Short Vowels......Page 164
Diphthongs......Page 165
Early Modern English Consonants......Page 166
Scholarly Studies......Page 168
Spelling......Page 169
Pronunciation......Page 170
For Further Reading......Page 172
CHAPTER 8 The Early Modern English Period (1500–1800): Forms, Syntax, and Usage......Page 173
Early Dictionaries......Page 174
Eighteenth-Century Attitudes toward Grammar and Usage......Page 175
Nouns......Page 177
His-Genitive......Page 178
Group Genitive......Page 179
Adjectives and Adverbs......Page 180
Personal Pronouns......Page 181
Relative and Interrogative Pronouns......Page 185
Case Forms of the Pronouns......Page 186
Classes of Strong Verbs......Page 187
Endings for Person and Number......Page 193
Contracted Forms......Page 194
Expanded Verb Forms......Page 195
Early Modern English Further Illustrated......Page 196
Some Key Events in the Late Modern Period......Page 198
The National Varieties of English......Page 199
Conservatism and Innovation in American English......Page 200
National Differences in Word Choice......Page 202
American Infiltration of the British Word Stock......Page 203
Syntactical and Morphological Differences......Page 204
British and American Purism......Page 205
Dictionaries and the Facts......Page 206
National Differences in Pronunciation......Page 207
British and American Spelling......Page 210
Kinds of Variation......Page 211
Regional Dialects......Page 212
Ethnic and Social Dialects......Page 213
Variation within British English......Page 215
Irish English......Page 216
Indian English......Page 218
For Further Reading......Page 219
CHAPTER 10 Words and Meanings......Page 223
Semantics and Change of Meaning......Page 224
Etymology and Meaning......Page 225
How Meaning Changes......Page 226
Generalization and Specialization......Page 227
Transfer of Meaning......Page 228
Transfer from Other Languages......Page 229
Pejoration and Amelioration......Page 230
Taboo and Euphemism......Page 231
The Fate of Intensifying Words......Page 234
Some Circumstances of Semantic Change......Page 235
Vogue for Words of Learned Origin......Page 236
Language and Semantic Marking......Page 237
Semantic Change Is Inevitable......Page 239
For Further Reading......Page 240
Root Creations......Page 241
Ejaculations......Page 242
Spelling and Pronunciation of Compounds......Page 244
Amalgamated Compounds......Page 246
Affixes from Old English......Page 247
Affixes from Other Languages......Page 249
Voguish Affixes......Page 250
Clipped Forms......Page 252
Initialisms: Alphabetisms and Acronyms......Page 253
Apheretic and Aphetic Forms......Page 254
Back-Formations......Page 255
New Morphemes from Blending......Page 256
Folk Etymology......Page 258
One Part of Speech to Another......Page 259
Common Words from Proper Names......Page 260
Distribution of New Words......Page 262
For Further Reading......Page 263
CHAPTER 12 Foreign Elements in the English Word Stock......Page 264
Latin Influence in the Germanic Period......Page 265
Latin Words in Old English......Page 266
Latin Words Borrowed in Middle English Times......Page 267
Greek Loanwords......Page 268
Celtic Loanwords......Page 269
Old and Middle English Borrowings......Page 270
Middle English Borrowings......Page 271
Later French Loanwords......Page 273
Spanish and Portuguese Loanwords......Page 275
Italian Loanwords......Page 276
Loanwords from Low German......Page 277
Loanwords from High German......Page 278
Near East......Page 279
Iran and India......Page 280
Far East and Australasia......Page 281
Loanwords from African Languages......Page 282
The Sources of Recent Loanwords......Page 283
English Remains English......Page 284
For Further Reading......Page 285
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 286
GLOSSARY......Page 298
INDEX OF MODERN ENGLISH WORDS AND AFFIXES......Page 318
INDEX OF PERSONS, PLACES, AND TOPICS......Page 346