Rhotacism

Besides the voiceless fricative consonants resulting from the consonant shift, one more voiceless fricative consonant is affected by Verner’s law, namely, the consonant s. If the preceding vowel is unstressed, s in Germanic languages becomes voiced, i.e. changes into z. Eventually this z becomes r in Western Germanic and Nothern Germanic languages (but not in Gothic). This latter change z > r is termed rhotacism
(the term is derived from the name of the Greek letter p (rho).

The connection between the Germanic sounds and the position of the Indo-European accent, discovered by K.Verner, was of great importance for the study of the Germanic languages as it explained many seeming irregularities in their grammatical forms and drew the attention of linguists to word-stress.

Periodisation of the History of English.

I. OLD ENGLISH......................................................................c.450 - 1066
1. Early OE (or Pre-written OE) c.450 - c.700
2. OE (or Written OE) c.700 - 1066

II. MIDDLE ENGLISH.............................................................1066 - 1475
1. Early ME 1066 - c.1350
2. Late ME (or Classical ME) c.1350 - 1475

III. MODERN ENGLISH........................................................ 1476 -....
1. Early MnE 1476 - c.1660
2. Neo-Classical period c.1660 - c.1800
3. Late MnE c.1800 -...

I. OLD ENGLISH
1. The first - pre-written or pre-historical - subperiod, which may be termed Early Old English, lasts from the West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning of writing, that is from the 5th to the close of the 7th century. It is the stage of tribal dialects of the West Germanic invaders (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians), which were gradually losing contacts with the related continental tongues. The tribal dialects were used for oral communication, there being no written form of English.

2. The second historical subperiod extends from the 8th c. till the end of the 11th. The English language of that time is referred to as Old English or Anglo-Saxon (we shall discuss these two names later on); it can also be called Written OE as compared with the pre-written Early OE period. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects. Towards the end of the period the differences between the dialects grew and their relative position altered. They were probably equal as medium of oral communication, while in the sphere of writing one of the dialects, West Saxon, had gained supremacy over the other dialects (Kentish, Mercian and Northumbrian). The prevalence of West Saxon in writing is tied up with the rise of the kingdom of Wessex to political and cultural prominence.

OE was a typical OG language, with a purely Germanic vocabulury, and few foreign borrowings; it displayed specific phonetic peculiarities, owing to intensive changes which took place in Early English. As for grammar, OE was an inflected or “synthetic” language with a well-developed system of morphological categories, especially in the noun and adjective. Linguists call OE the “period of full endings” in comparison with later periods. This means (B.Ilyish p.36) that any vowel may be found in an unstressed ending. For example, the word sin an ‘sing’ has the vowel a in its unstressed ending, while the word sunu ‘son’ has the vowel u in a similar position.

II. MIDDLE ENGLISH

1. The first subperiod, known as Early Middle English, starts after 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest, and covers the 12th, 13th and half of the 14th c. It was the stage of the greatest dialectal divergence caused by the feudal system and by foreign influences - Scandinavian and French. The dialectal division of present-day English owes its origin to this period of history.

Under Norman rule the official language in England was French, or rather its variety called Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman; it was also the dominant language of literature. The local dialects were mainly used for oral communication and were but little employed in writing.

Early ME was a time of great changes at all the levels of the language, especially in lexis and grammar. English absorbed two layers of lexical borrowings: the Scandinavian element in the North-Eastern area (due to the Scandinavian invasions since the 8th c.) and the French element in the speech of townspeople in the South-East, especially in the higher social strata (due to the Norman Conquest). Phonetic and grammatical changes proceeded at a high rate, unrestricted by written tradition. Grammatical alterations were so drastic that by the end of the period they had transformed English from a highly inflected language into a mainly analytical one. Accordingly, the role of syntactical means of word connection grew.

2. The second subperiod - from the later 14th c. till the the end of the 15th - embraces the age of Chaucer, the greatest English medieval writer and forerunner of the English Renaissance. We may call it Late or Classical Middle English. It was the time of restoration of English to the position of the state and literary language and the time of literary flourishing. The main dialect used in writing and literature was the mixed dialect of London. (The London dialect was originally derived from the Southern dialectal group, but during the 14th c. the southern traits were largely replaced by East Midland traits.)

In periods of literary efflorescence, like the age of Chaucer, the pattern set by great authors becomes a more or less fixed form of language. Chaucer’s language was a recognised literary form, imitated throughout the 15th c.

The written records of the late 14th and 15th c. testify to the growth of the English vocabulary and to the increasing proportion of French loan-words in English. The phonetic and grammatical structure had incorporated and perpetuated the fundamental changes of the preceding period. Most of the inflections in the nominal system - in nouns, adjectives, pronouns - had fallen together. Linguists call Middle English the period of “levelled endings”. This means (B.Ilyish p.36) that vowels of unstressed endings have been levelled under a neutral vowel (something like [ ]) represented by the letter e. Thus, Old English sin an yields Middle English singen, Old English sunu yields Middle English sune (also spelt sone). The verbal system was expanding, as numerous new analitical forms and verbal phrases on the way to becoming analytical forms were used alongside old simple forms.

III. MODERN ENGLISH

1. The first subperiod - Early Modern English - lasted from the introduction of printing to the age of Shakespeare, that is from 1475 to c. 1660. The first printed book in English was published by William Caxton in 1475. This period is a sort of transition between two outstanding epochs of literary efflorescence: the age of Chaucer and the age of Shakespeare (also known as the Literary Renaissance).

It was a time of great historical consequence: under the growing capital system the country became economically and politically unified; the changes in the political and social structure, the progress of culture, education, and literature favoured linguistic unity. The growth of the English nation was accompanied by the formation of the national English language.

Caxton’s English of the printed books was a sort of bridge between the London literary English of the ME period and the language of the Literary Renaissance. The London dialect had risen to prominence as a compromise between the various types of speech prevailing in the country and formed the basis of the growing national literary language.

The Early MnE period was a time of sweeping changes at all levels, in the first place lexical and phonetic. The growth of the vocabulary was a natural reflection of the progress of culture in the new, bourgeois society. New words from internal and external sources enriched the vocabulary. Extensive phonetic changes were transforming the vowel system, which resulted, among other things, in the growing gap between the written and the spoken forms of the word (that is, between pronunciation and spelling). The loss of most inflectional endings in the 15th c. justifies the definition “period of lost endings” given to the MnE period. This means (B.Ilyish p.36) that the ending is lost altogether. Thus Middle English singen became Modern English sing. Middle English sone became Modern English son. The grammatical forms and syntactical constructions were almost the same as in MnE but their use was different.

2. The second subperiod extends from the mid-17th c. to the close of the 18th c. In the history of the language it is often called “the age of normalisation and correctness”, in the history of literature - the “neo-classical” age. This age witnessed the establishments of “norms”, which can be defined as received standards recognised as correct usage in the numerous dictionaries and grammar-books published at the time and were spread through education and writing.

It is essential that during the 18th c. literary English differentiated into distinct styles, which is the property of a mature literary language. It is also important to note that during this period the English language extended its area far beyond the borders of the British Isles, first of all to North America.

Unlike the age of Shakespeare, the neo-classical period discouraged variety and free choice in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The 18th c. has been called the period of “fixing the pronunciation”. The great sound shifts were over and pronunciation was being stabilised. Word usage and grammatical construction were subjected to restriction and normalisation. The morphological system, particularly the verb system, acquired a more strict symmetrical pattern. The formation of new verbal grammatical categories was completed. Syntactical structures were perfected and standardised.

3. The English language of the 19th and 20th c. represents the last subperiod in the history of English - Late Modern English. By the 19th c. English had achieved the relative stability and recognised standards. The classical language of literature was strictly distinguished from the local dialects and dialects of lower social ranks. The 20th c. witnessed considerable intermixture of dialects. The “best” form of English, the Received Standard, and also regional modified standards are being spread through new channels: the press, radio, cinema and television.

The short survey of the history of English presented as three periods with several subperiods may serve as an introduction to the detailed description of the historical development of English we are going to have now.