History of the English language. Subtheme 1: the evolution of the English phonetic system

Year III/2014-2015

Seminar №3 (1 hour):

SUBTHEME 1: The Evolution of the English phonetic system

QUESTIONS:

1. Characteristics of the OE phonetics and spelling system.
2. Principles OE phonetic change Breaking, i-umlaut (mutation) lengthening of vowels.
3. ME spelling change and principal sound changes (qualitative vowel changes, palatalisation of consonants).

WRITTEN TASK:

1. Make a 2-slide presentation on "Weakening of Unaccented Vowels and its results."

2. Write a newspaper article of scientists' point of view concerning ModE consonant changes (vocalization of ‘r’, appearance of sibilants in new positions, loss of consonants.)

CASE STUDY 1

Every spoken language has a class of vowels and a class of consonants.

the system of vowels in the Proto-Germanic language:

a. Short monophtongs: i, e, a, o, u

b. Long monophtongs: i:, e:, a:, o:, u:

c. Diphthongs: ei, ai, eu, au, iu.

Vowels tend to merge when they are unstressed. In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (sometimes spelled shwa) refers to the mid-central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart. An example in English is the vowel sound in the second syllable of the word sofa. Schwa in English is mainly found in unstressed positions, but in some other languages it occurs more frequently as a stressed vowel.

Task: By which symbol is "schwa" denoted and may be used for some ther unstressed and toneless neutral vowel, not necessarily mid-central. How would you explain the loss or existence of schwa in Modern Germanic languages to your schoolchildren?

LITERATURE:

1. Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English M., 2003
2. Michael D.C. Drout. A History of the English Language. Wheaton College. 2006
3. Бруниер К. История английского языка М.,1955 часть 1
4. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П. История английского языка М., 1976
5. Аракин В.Д. Очерки по истории английского языка М.,1955
6. Залесская Л.Д., Матвеева Д.А. Пособие по истории английского языка М.,1984

SUBTHEME 2: The Evolution of the Noun

QUESTIONS:

1. The evolution of the grammatical categories of the English noun.
2. The development of the a-stem declension and its traces in ModE.
3. The development of the n-stem declension and its importance in ModE.
4. The development of the root-stem declension.
5. The evolution of the noun in ME and ModE.

WRITTEN TASK:

1. Prepare tables of the grammatical categories of the English noun from a diachronic point of view.
2. Prepare schemes of OE declensions and their traces in ModE.

CASE STUDY 2

Like many old IELs the old GLs had a well-developed system of grammatical affixes. Thus, the old GLs had a number of noun declensions, verb conjugations and so on. However, there are some grammatical features which are typical only for old GLs: the weak declension of the adjectives which has always been marked by the suffix -n-; the weak declension marked the definitiveness of the nouns; the weak conjugation of the verbs.

In GLs adjective declension is represented by

1. strong declension which is a combination of substantival and pronominal endings;

2. weak declension which reflected the declension of n-stem substantives.

Adjective declension in all GLs has no parallel with other IE languages.