History of English language Flashcards
What words did the celts bring?
Domestic words - mug, knob, taper, river name, landscape words and nature words.
What words did the Roman Conquest bring?
Less than 200 ‘loan words’ coined by Roman Merchants wine butter and cheese.
What words did the Anglo-Saxons bring?
4,500 words. Germanic words - mother, father, son, family, what, that, why
What words did the Roman Missionairies bring?
Church words - priest, altar, mass and angel.
What words did the Vikings bring?
Common and fundamental words - slaughter, cake, glitter, ransack.
What are blended words?
Two words clipped and then put back together - Cronut, jeggings, hangry.
What words have we borrowed from French?
Cafe, rendezvous, entrepreneur, genre.
What words have we borrowed from German?
Rucksack, waltz, kindergarten.
What words have we borrowed from Spanish?
Macho, plaza, patio, vanilla.
What words have we borrowed from Japanese?
Haiku, emoji, futon.
What words have we borrowed from Arabic?
Magazine, tariff, caravan.
What words have we borrowed from Dutch?
Spooky, cookie, skate, groove.
What did Chaucer do?
1342-1400. His use of the language showed that a piece of literature can be renowned without the use of a more prestige language. In the Canterbury Tales, words are commonly used by the upper class people, words from Old Norse and Old English were used by more peasant characters. Chaucer chose to write in English even though it didn’t exist as a written language and wasn’t standardised.
What was the Great Vowel shift?
15th - 17th century. Gradually changed the way of pronouncing long vowels as part of the mouth has changed. Pull theory - describes how the higher vowels move up and drag the others along. High and low vowels depend on the placement of the tongue when being pronounced. English words were spelt phonetically.
What were Lowth’s three rules in his book?
Lowry wrote a book I’m 1762, sorting the language out and making rules - prescriptivists. Lower class would buy the book because the Industrial revolution meant they could get better jobs. 1 - no double negative. 2 - preposition shouldn’t be at the end of the sentence. 3 - don’t spilt any infinitive with an adverb.
