History of the English language

Year III/2014-2015

Seminar №1 (1 hour):

Theme: Characteristic feature of Germanic languages

SUBTHEME 1 (Grimm’s Law, Verner’s Law)

QUESTIONS:

1. The Germanic languages in the Indo-European family of languages.
2. Ancient Germanic languages.
3. East Germanic languages.
4. The evolution of North Germanic languages.
5. The evolution of West Germanic languages.
6. The alphabets of the Germanic people.

WRITTEN TASK:

1. Make a scheme of the Germanic languages.

2. Prepare a linguistic map of the territorial extent of the Germanic languages (dividing them into East, North and West subgroups and singling out English)

3. Make a list of linguistic terms on the theme (giving English definition, transcription and Russian/Kazakh equivalents)

CASE STUDY 1

At first glance, there may seem little reason to think of English and German as variant forms of a single language. There are enormous differences between the two in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, and a monolingual speaker of one cannot understand the other at all. Yet modern English and German have many points in common, and if we go back to the earliest texts available in the two languages, the similarities are even more notable.

*Name the closest linguistic relations of English.

*Speak on the classification of old and modern Germanic languages.

List of literature:

1. Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English, M.,1973
2. Brigit Viney. The History of the English Language. Oxford University Press., 2008
3. Ilyish S. History of the English language, L.,1973
4. Реформатский А.А. Введение в языкознание, М.,1976
5. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П. История английского языка М., 1976
6. Залесская Л.Д., Матвеева Д.А. Пособие по истории английского языка М.,1984
7. Аракин В.Д. Очерки по истории английского языка М.,1955

SUBTHEME 2: The formation of the English language

QUESTIONS:

1. The Anglo-Saxon conquest and its historical and linguistic importance.

2. The Old English dialects and formation of the English language.

3. The periods in the history of English.

4. The alphabets of the Germanic people.

5. Old English written monuments.

WRITTEN TASK:

1. Make a map of the territorial extent of Old English dialects.
2. Make a scheme of the formation of the English language.
3. Make a table of the division of the history of English into periods.

CASE STUDY 2

Old English should not be regarded as a single monolithic entity just as Modern English is also not monolithic. It emerged over time out of the many dialects and languages of the colonising tribes, and it was not until the later Anglo-Saxon period that they fused together into Old English. Even then, it continued to exhibit local language variation, remnants of which remain in Modern English dialects.

Thus it is misleading, for example, to consider Old English as having a single sound system. Rather, there were multiple Old English sound systems. Old English has variation along regional lines as well as variation across different times.

*After what processes do we observe there a marked decline in the importance of regional dialects?

*Did those dialects stop existing after the process of unification of the diverse Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in 878 by Alfred the Great?

LITERATURE:

1. Zaitseva S.D. Early Britain M.,1975 p. 4-81
2. Brigit Viney. The History of the English Language. Oxford University Press., 2008
3. Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English M., 1973 p. 49-71
4. Мортон А. История Англии М.,1950 стр. 35-47
5. Кертман Л.В. География, история и культура Англии М.,1979 стр. 7-14
6. Бруннер К. История английского языка М.,1955 часть 1.,стр. 11
7. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П. История английского языка М., 1976

стр.5-13

1. Аракин В.Д. Очерки по истории английского языка М.,1955 стр. 14-25
2. Ильиш Б. История английского языка Л.,1968 стр. 21-25, 45-57
3. Залесская Л.Д., Матвеева Д.А. Пособие по истории английского языка М.,1984 стр.8, 15-20

Module 1