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History of English > Evidence and Prehistory > Flashcards

Evidence and Prehistory Flashcards

(58 cards)

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1
Q

What were/are the languages on the British Isles?

A
  1. Celtic
  2. Latin
  3. English
  4. Scandinavian
  5. French
  6. Latin (Greek, French, Italian)
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2
Q

When was the Roman Conquest in Britain?

A

43 AD

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3
Q

What happened in the 5th century?

A

Anglo-Saxon Invasions -> brought English

Beginning of Old English until 1100

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4
Q

What happened in 793?

A

Vikings Attack on Lindisfarne -> brought Scandinavian

Old English is still ongoing, though weak

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5
Q

What happened in 1066?

A

Battle of Hastings by the Normans -> brought French

Beginning of Middle English (until ca. 1500)

Duke of Normandy said he is King of England

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6
Q

What happened in 1476?

A

Caxton’s invention of the printing press -> brought Early Modern English

End of Middle English

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7
Q

What language did Shakespeare speak/write ?

A

Early Modern English

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8
Q

When did the Celtic language become “irrelevant”?

A

By 43 (Roman Conquest) but it was relevant before 1000 BC

We don’t know which language was spoken during the Stonehenge times

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9
Q

What is the periodisation of Old English (OE)?

A

c. 450 - 1100

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10
Q

What is the periodisation of Middle English (ME)?

A

General: c. 1100-1500
- Early Middle English: c. 1100-1300
- Late Middle English: c. 1300-1500

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11
Q

What is the periodisation of Modern English (ModE)?

A

General: c. 1500 -
- Early Modern English: c. 1500-1800
- Late Modern English: c. 1800 -
- Present Day English

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12
Q

What is “inflection”?

A

grammatical information expressed through bound morphemes = affixes

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13
Q

What is “declension”?

A

number, case (nouns, adjectives, pronouns)

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14
Q

What is “conjugation”?

A

person, number, tense (verbs)

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15
Q

How do you pronounce “æ”?

A

ash

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16
Q

How do you pronounce “þ”?

A

thorn

doesn’t exist in English anymore

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17
Q

How do you pronounce “ð”?

A

eth

doesn’t exist in English anymore

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18
Q

Fæder- ūr-e þū þe ear-t on heofon-um
Sī þīn nam-a ge-hālg-od
tō be-cum-e þīn rīc-e
ge-wurþ-e ðīn willa
on eorð-an swā swā on heofon-um.

Translate the first sentence of the Lord’s Prayer (OE)

A

Father our you that are in heavens
be your name hallowed
to-here come your realm
may happen your will on earth so as in heaven

Lord’s Prayer AD c. 990 (Wessex Gospels)

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19
Q

Ur-ne ge-dæg-hwam-līc-an hlaf syl-e ūs tō-dæg
and for-gyf ūs ūr-e gylt-as swā swā wē forgyf-að ūr-um gylt-end-um
and ne ge-lǣd þū ūs on costnung-e
ac a-lȳs ūs of yfel-e
sōþ-lic-e

Translate the second sentence of the Lord’s Prayer (OE)

A

Our daily bread give us today
and forgive us our guilts so as we forgive our ‘guiltings’*
and not lead you us into temptation
but deliver us of evil
Truly

*those who are guilty against us

Lord’s Prayer AD c. 990 (Wessex Gospels)

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20
Q

What is “&” in English?

A

ampersand because it used to be ‘and per se’

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21
Q

What is one of the most important things in the History of English?

A

The loss of the endings from OE e.g. ure in OE ure

nama indicated the subject case

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22
Q

What does urne in OE signify?

A

accusative ending

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23
Q

What “phenomena” can we see in the Lord’s Prayer (AD 1389 Wycliffe Bible) in ME?

A
  • French loans
  • Inflections phonologically reduced
  • characters æ, þ, ð substituted
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24
Q

What “phenomena” can we see in the Lord’s Prayer (AD 1611 King James Bible) in EME?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • hardly any inflections left
  • sounds archaic, but is already considered Modern English
25
What are the four basic types of evidence?
- Linguistic (textual) evidence - Metalinguistic evidence - Comparative reconstruction - Internal reconstruction
26
What are some examples for linguistic (textual) evidence?
- Lindisfarne Gospels + gloss (8th century) - Lord's Prayer - Ælfric’s Lat. – OE Glossary (10th ct.) | Linguistic evidence = texts in a particular language
27
What are some examples for metalinguistic evidence?
- Dr. Johnson's English Dictionary (1755) - Bishop Lowth's Grammar (1762) - Latin descriptions of Celts, Germanic people & their languages | metalinguistic evidence = texts about a particular language
28
What is the difference between linguistic and metalinguistic evidence?
Linguistic evidence: Texts in a particular language Metalinguistic evidence: Texts about a particular language
29
What are the Lindisfarne Gospels (8th ct.)?
- illuminated manuscript - Latin with English gloss (from the 10th ct.) - older surviving translation of the Gospels to English
30
What are the methods to reconstruct earlies language stages?
- Comparative reconstruction - Internal reconstruction
31
How does "comparative reconstruction" work?
reconstructing a common ancestor language using data from more than one language
32
How does "internal reconstruction" work?
reconstructing an earlier language stage using data from within one language
33
What are "cognates"?
words from different languages displaying similarities in terms of form and meaning due to common ancestry | used for comparative reconstruction ## Footnote e.g. ENG heart – GER Herz – DU hart → Proto-Germanic *hertan-
34
What are "loan words/borrowing" ?
a word taken from one language to be used in another | can't be used for comparative reconstruction ## Footnote e.g. IT pizza – ENG pizza ENG computer – GER computer
35
What is the aim of comparative reconstruction?
to detect regular correspondence between speech sounds to be reliable
36
What are the principles for comparative reconstruction?
- Majority principle - Naturalness principle
37
What is the "majority principle" ?
change is (supposed to be) rarer than non-change -> parallel changes in related languages are unlikely
38
What is the "naturalness principle" ?
some sound changes are more natural than others | e.g. vowel nasalization plus nasal deletion ## Footnote e.g. Romance languages: mine, mano, mano, me
39
How does internal reconstruction work on the example of "keep-kept"?
So /e:/ became /e/ before two consonants or before two syllables, so it was keeeepe and now it’s keep. | Called Great Vowel Shift ## Footnote spelling gives us evidence of earlier form
40
What are the Proto Indo-European language families?
1. Balto-Slavic 2. Germanic 3. Italic 4. Celtic 5. Hellenic 6. Indo-Iranian
41
What are the sub-categories of the Germanic language family?
- North Germanic - West Germanic - East Germanic
42
What languages are in the North Germanic branch?
- Old Norse -> Old Icelandic -> Icelandic; Old Norwegian -> Norwegian - Old Swedish -> Swedish - Old Danish -> Danish
43
What languages are in the West Germanic branch?
- Old English -> Middle English -> Modern English - Old Frisian -> Frision - Old Dutch -> Dutch, Flemish, Africaans - Old Low German -> Middle Low German -> Low German - Old High German -> Middle High German -> (High) German
44
What language is in the East Germanic branch?
Gothic
45
Where was the Proto-Indo-European homeland?
Somewhere in Russian steps, so between Black and Kaspian Sea -> Expansion c. 4000 - 1000 BC
46
What languages are under the Wester-Rhine Germanic branch?
Dutch & Flemish
47
What languages are under the Elbe Germanic branch?
- High German - Allemanic - Bavarian - Yiddish
48
What languages are under the North-Sea Germanic branch?
- English (OE, ME) - Frisian - Low German
49
What models are there of linguistic differentiation?
- Family Tree Model - Wave Model | I like person who speaks just like me > another that no speak same lang.
50
What are the four Germanic innovations?
- Grimm's Law (First Germanic Consonant Shift) - Fixed Root-Initial Stress - Weak past tense - Weak adjectival inflection
51
What did Grimm's Law (First Germanic Consonant Shift) affect?
PIE plosive consonant inventory -> regular sound change | L pisces – E fish
52
Explain the fixed root-intial stress
Development of a strong stress on first syllable of the root, leading to phonological reduction in other syllables | e.g. E fáther vs. Greek patér
53
Explain the weak past tense
past tense indicated by dental suffix (instead of vowel alternation) | E love - loved (
53
Explain the weak adjectival inflection
Distinction in definiteness of noun phrases marked by adj. infl. | e.g. G ein großer Baum vs. der große Baum – den großen Baum ## Footnote OE sum micel treow – se micla treow – bone miclan treow
54
What is the strong past tense?
words like sing - sang but weak & strong is NOT regular & irregular e.g. keep - kept, buy - bought
55
What special about the Wulfila Bible?
- 4th century - one of longest surviving Early Germanic texts - Gothic
56
What is special about the Gallehus Horns?
- 5th century - Runic inscriptions in Proto-Norse - Engravement: "ek hlewagastiz holtijaz horna tawido" (I Hlewagstiz Holtijaz horn made)
57
What does "tawido" in "ek hlewagastiz holtijaz horna tawido" signify?
1. Root 2. Stem formative 3. Tense 4. Person/number

History of English (8 decks)

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