Social and historical conditions of the development of English in the Old English period

 

1. Chronological division of the History of the English language.

2. The Old English period: phonetic system, grammatical structure, wordstock.

3. The Middle English period: phonetic system, grammatical structure, wordstock.

4. The New English period: phonetic system, grammatical structure, wordstock.

5. Social and historical conditions of the development of English in the Old English period.

6. Settlement of Britain by the Germanic tribes. The peculiarities of the settlement. The Old English dialects.

7. Formation of the Germanic states in Britain.

8. Introduction of Christianity and its impact on the development of English.

9. Factors that contributed to linguistic differentiation of languages and formation of the English language.

 

 

Reading material

 

1. Rastorguyeva T. A. History of the English Language Moscom 2001. p.p. 31- 33, 49 – 55

2. Ilyish B.A.. History of the English Language. Leningrad 1973 p.p.40 – 43.

3. Reznik R.V., Sorokina T.S. A History of the English Language Moscow 2001.

4. Lectures. Lecture 1 and Lecture 2.

 

Programme on the History of the English Language

Subject and aims of the history of English. Sources of language history. Origin of English. Modern Germanic languages.(East Germanic, West Germanic, North Germanic). Proto- Germanic. Short characteristics of Proto- Germanic. Chronological division of the History of the English Language. short survey of the periods.

 

Old English period. Social and historical conditions of the development of English in the Old English period. Pre-Germanic Britain. Germanic settlement of Britain. Old English dialects. Formation of Old English states. Runic inscriptions.

Principal Old English written records.

 

Development of phonetic system. Old English phonetics. Changes of stressed vowels in Early Old English period:

a) splitting of the Germanic a;

b) development of Old English diphthongs;

c) breaking;

d) mutation. Morphological value of Old English mutation.

 

Evolution of the sound system from the 11th to the 15th century.Changes of stressed vowels in the Middle English period. Qualitative changes:

a) contraction of diphthongs;

b) b) development of Old English monophthongs.

Quantitative changes.:

a) lengthening of short vowels;

b) b) contraction of vowels.

 

Evolution of stressed vowels in the New English period. Qualitative changes. The Great Vowel Shift. Its influence on English spelling and alphabet. Development of Middle English diphthongs. Quantitative changes in Early New English period. Principal changes of vowels in the New English period. Evolution of consonants in Middle and Early New English period. Evolution of unstressed vowels in Middle and New English periods.