HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
OF ENGLISH
Kristína Macejová
POSITION OF ENGLISH in t h f
WORLD
• 3rd most common native
language
• Global lingua franca
• Official language of 60 states,
EU, world organizations
• Most popular second language
Periodization of the English Language
BC Before Christ (= BCE Before the Common Era)
AD Anno Domini (= CE the Common Era)
Periods of development Beginning
Proto-Indo-European 5500 BC???
diverging cca 4 000 BC
Proto-Germanic _>
Pre-Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic
3500 BC
3500 BC
500 BC
Old English 450 AD
Middle English 1100/1150 AD
Modern English
Early Modern English
Modern English
1500 AD
1500
1700/1800 ->
^ PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN
around 5500 BC, speakers living in the PonticCaspian
steppe of Eastern Europe - (Kurgan
hypothesis)
Langauge split and evolved after their expansion
Now - 400 languages and dialects
(over 3 billion native speakers)
- Genetically related
No written records - based on
lingvistic reconstruction methods
Comparative linguists - August
Shleicher, Karl Verner, Jacob Grimm,
and others
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C W i r P f l H r H J l V B DVTBJliJHiK
• F T H I N o H C E C U K C V A U I IK r h l t l H
[ '• J ••i11• OLD
W O R L D
LANGUAGE FAMILIES
bcfau yttr U.
BRANCHES OF PIE
Indo-European
Branches
Anatolian
Tocharian
Germanic
Italic
{< Latin)
Celtic
East
North
West
East
Central
West
Continental
Insular
Armenian
Indo-European Languages
Hittite, Luwian, Lvdian
Tocharian
Baltic Latvian, Lithuanian
Eastern Group: Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian
7.
Balto- Southern Group: Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian,
7.
Slavic Slavic Croatian, Slovene
Western Group: Polish, Slovak, Czech,
Upper & Lower Sorbian
8. Hellenic Greek
9.
Indo- Indo-Arian Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Panjabi
9.
Iranian Iranian Avestan, Pashto, Persian, Kurdish
10. Albanian Albanian
Gothic
Eastern Group: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian Bokmal
Western Group: Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk
Anglo-Frisian Group: English, Frisian
Low Germanic Group: Flemish, Dutch, Afrikaans
High Germanic Group: German, Yiddish
Romanian
Italian, Sardinian
French, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese
Gaulish, Lcpontic, Ccltiberian
Goidclic Group: Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, Manx
Brythonic Group: Cumbrian, Welsh, Cornish, Breton
Armenian
The division into the:
- branches - based on
genetic relationship - a
common ancestor
- subdivision - shared
innovations
PROTO-GERMANIC (500 BC)
• Common ancestor to all Germanic
languages
• Runic Vimose inscriptions from
200 AD (Denmark) - only written records
available
• Grammar:
- 6 cases: (N, G,D,A, Vocative, and I)
- 3 numbers - sg, pi, dual,
- 3 genders - feminine, masculine,
neuter
- Two voices
- Three moods
SOUND CHANGES FROM PIE TO PG
AND OLD ENGLISH
Grimm's Law
Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic
1 2 3 1 2 3
p b bh
f[f] P b[v]
t d dh
b[9] t d[5]
k g g h
x M k 3 M
k g
x M k 3 M
k w gwh x V ] k w T W f w W ]
(1) PIE voiceless stops
transformed into voiceless
fricatives (spirants)
p > f: lat. piscis > OE fisc ("fish")
(2) PIE unaspirated voiced stops
transformed into unaspirated
voiceless stops
d > t: lat. duo > OE twa ("two")
(3) PIE aspirated voiced stops
transformed into unaspirated
voiced fricatives (spirants)
bh
> • : sans.bhratar > OE
brot>or ("brother")
• arrival the Germanic tribes in 449 AD from the north-west part of Europe
- Angles, Saxons, Jutes
• Anglo-Saxons - most influential in the further development of the counry and language
- terms of kinship (brodor, modor, sunu)
- names of natural phenomena (sunne, mona, mere 'sea')
- scTrgerefa (scTr 'shire, county' + gerefa 'chief', ultimately shortened to sheriff)
OTHER INFLUENCES
Romans (43 AD - 409 AD)
- towns, e.g. OE ceaster 'Roman fortified town' from L
castra,
• survives in place-names: Chester, Winchester, Leicester
Christianization in 7th-8th cent
- Religion and the Church: abbot apostle, balsam, creed,
disciple, font, martyr, mass
- Household and clothing: candle, cap, silk, sponge
Viking invasion
- introduction of non-palatalized pronunciations in words
like skirt, kettle, give, or egg
W W
LORD'S PRAYER
IN OLDA M n
w»nm •=C
NGLISH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lol78Eh3UD8
MIDDLE ENGLISH (1100/1150 AD)
• Norman Conquest of 1066 - strong influence on languge and culture
• Normans seized political, economic, military, and religious power
• Population continued to speak Eng, as the Norman Lords spoke French
• After loss of Normandy - forced to adapt to English
CHANCERY STANDARD
• After 1400, London has become the new political and cultural centre,
replacing Winchester -> Chancery Standard
• Reduction of unstressed syllables
- Inflectional system simplified
- Word order -> less flexible
The Canterbury Tales (Prologue)
irr n
EARLY MODERN ENGLISH
(1500 AD)
16t h
- 17t h
- centuries of
reformation but also of learning
and discovery
- New science, expansion of
the colonial empire, m _
colonization of North America
-> American English
Rapid expansion of printing
THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT
ai *- i: u: -* uu
\ s
e: o: —» —* au
\ S
ei *- *- <~ £:
Stages of the Great Vowel Shift
[i:] > [ii] > [ei] > [ail > [ai] (ca. 1400 - 1750) (time, sky)
[u:] > [uu] > [eu] > [au] > [au] (ca. 1400 - 1750) (house, now)
W > fi:l (ca. 1400 - 1500) (see, degree)
[o:l > [u:[ (ca. 1400 - 1500) (do, goose)
[*] > re:] > [i:l (ca. 1500- 1700) (sea, lead)
[>:] > [o:] > [ou] > [su] (ca. 1650 - 1950) (stone, home)
[a:] > [ae:] > {£:] > [e:] > [ei] (ca. 1400 - 1800) (name, make)
SHAKESPEAREAN PLAYS AND
SONNETS
• https://www.youtub6 '_- Twelfth Night at The Globe
SOURCES
Chamonikolasová, J. (2014). A Concise History of English. Masaryk University.
Pictures from the book:
• Periodization of English language: study materials from the course: Historical
Development of English by Jana Chamonikolasová, 'Origin, development and
global spread of English' presentation, 2023
• Grimm's Law table - study materials from the course: Historical Development of
English by Jana Chamonikolasová, 'Sound changes from Proto-Indo-European
To Proto-Germanic and Old English' - Jiří Lukl, Jana Chamonikolasová, 2023
Thank you for your attention !
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