Lecture II

Theme II: Germanic languages

Plans:
1. The classification of Germanic languages.
2. Linguistic features of Germanic languages.
3. Chronological divisions in the History of English.
Literature:
1. Алексеева И.В. Древнеанглийский язык -M.: Просвещение, 1971. - 270 с.
2. Аракин В.Д. Очерки по истории английского языка. -M.: Просвещение, 1975. -298
с.
3. Бруннер К. История английского языка. / Пер. с нем. яз.-M.: Иностранная
литература, 1986. -348 с.
4. Иванова И.Р., Беляева Т.М. Хрестоматия по истории английского языка. -Л.:
Просвещение, 1973. - 276 с.
5. Иванова И.Р., Чахоян Л.Р. История английского языка.-M.: МГУ, 1976. -180 с.
6. Ильиш Б.А. История английского языка. -Л.: Просвещение, 1973. -332 с.
7. Резник Р.В., Сорокина Т.А., Резник И.В. История английского языка (на
английском языке). - 2-е изд. - М.: Флинта: Наука, 2003. - 496 с.
8. Смирницкий А.И. Древнеанглийский язык. -M.: Просвещение, 1985. -168 с.
9. Смирницкий А.И. Хрестоматия по истории английского языка.- M.,1983.
10. Baugh, A., Cable, Th. A History of the English Language. New York, 1978. -446 pp.
11. Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English. -M.: Vyssaja skola, 1983. -347 pp.
12. Strang, B. A History of English. London, 1974.-523 pp.
1. Languages can be classified according to different principles. The historical or
genealogical classification, groups‘ languages in accordance with their origin is from a common
linguistic ancestor.
Genetically, English belongs to the Germanic or Teutonic group of languages, which is one
of the twelve groups of the IE linguistic family. Most of the area of Europe and large parts of
other continents are occupied today by the IE languages, Germanic being one of their major
groups.
The Germanic languages in the modern world are as follows:
English — in Great Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the South
African Republic, and many other former British colonies and dominions;
German — in Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, part of Switzerland;
Netherlandish — in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium) (known also as Dutch and
Flemish respectively);
Afrikaans — in the South African Republic;
Danish — in Denmark;
Swedish — in Sweden and Finland;
Norwegian — in Norway;
Icelandic — in Iceland;
Frisian — in some regions of the Netherlands and Germany;
Faroese — in the Froe Islands;
Yiddish — in Israel.
Lists of Germanic languages given in manuals am reference-books differ in some points, for
the distinction between separate languages and also between languages and dialects varies. Until
recently Dutch and Flemish were named as separate languages; Frisian ant Faroese are often
referred to as dialects, since they are spoken over small, politically dependent areas; the
linguistic independence of Norwegian is questioned, for it has intermixed with Danish; Br E and
Am E are sometime regarded as two independent languages.
It is difficult to estimate the number of people speaking Germanic languages, especially on
account of English which in many countries is one of two languages in ; bilingual community,
e.g. in Canada. The estimates for English range from 250 to 300 million people who have it as
their mother tongue. The total number of people speaking Germanic languages approaches 440
million. To this rough estimate we could add an indefinite number of bilingual people in the
countries where English is used an official language (over 50 countries).
All the Germanic languages are related through their common origin and joint development
at the early stages of history. The survey of their external history will show where and when the
Germanic languages arose and acquired their common features and also now the' have developed
into modern independent tongues.
The history of the Germanic group begins with the appearance or what is known as the
Proto-Germanic (PG) language (also termed Common or Primitive Germanic, Primitive Teutonic
and simply Germanic). PG is the linguistic ancestor or the parent-language of the Germanic
group. It is supposed to have split from related IE tongues sometime between the 15th and 10th
c. B.C. They would-be Germanic tribes belonged to the western division of the IE speech
community.
As the Indo-Europeans extended over a larger territory, the ancient Germans or Teutons
moved further north than other tribes and settled on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in the
region of the Elbe. This place is regarded as the most probable original home of the Teutons. It is
here that they developed their first specifically Germanic linguistic features which made them a.
separate group in the IE family.
PG is an entirely pre-historical language: it was never recorded in written form. In the 19th c.
it was reconstructed by methods of comparative linguistics from written evidence in descendant
languages.
It is believed that at the earliest stages of history PG was fundamentally one language,
though dialectally colored. In its later stages dialectal differences grew, so that towards the
beginning of our era Germanic appears divided into dialectal groups and tribal dialects. Dialectal
differentiation increased with the migrations and geographical expansion of the Teutons caused
by overpopulation, poor agricultural technique and scanty natural resources in the areas of their
original settlement.
The external history of the ancient Teutons around the beginning of our era is known from
classical writings. The first mention of Germanic tribes was made by Pitheas, a Greek historian
and geographer of the 4th c. B.C., in an account of a sea voyage to the Baltic Sea. In the 1st c.
B.C. in COMMENTARIES ON THE GALLIC WAR (COMMENTARII DE BELLO
GALLICO) Julius Caesar described some militant Germanic tribes — the Suevians — who
bordered on the Celts of Gaul in the North-East. The tribal names Germans and Teutons, at first
applied to separate tribes, were later extended to the entire group. In the 1st c. A. D. Pliny the
Elder, a prominent Roman scientist and writer, in NATURAL HISTORY (NATURALIS
HISTORIA) made a classified list of Germanic tribes grouping them under six headings. A. few
decades later the Roman historian Tacitus compiled a detailed description of the life and customs
of the ancient Teutons.
Towards the beginning of our era the common period of Germanic history came to an end.
The Teutons had extended over a larger territory and the PG language broke into parts. The tri-
partite division of the Germanic languages proposed by 19th c. philologists corresponds, with a
few adjustments, to Pliny's grouping of the Old Teutonic tribes. According to this division PG
split, into three branches: East Germanic (Vindili in Pliny's classification), North Germanic
(Hilleviones) and West Germanic (which embraces. Ingveones, Istsevones and Hermino-nes in
Pliny's list). In due course these branches split into separate Germanic languages.
Germanic languages can be described under three headings: East Germanic, North Germanic
and West Germanic.
East Germanic
The East Germanic subgroup was formed by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia at
the beginning of our era. The most numerous and powerful of them were the Goths. They were
among the first Teutons to leave the coast of the Baltic Sea and start on their great migrations.
Around 200 A. D. they moved south-east and some time later reached the lower basin of the
Danube, where they made attacks on the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium. Their western
branch, the Vlsigote, invaded Roman territory, participated in the assaults on Rome under Alaric
and moved on to southern Gaul,, to found one of the first barbarian kingdoms of Medieval
Europe, the Toulouse kingdom. The kingdom lasted until the 8th c. though linguistically the
western Goths were soon absorbed by the native population, the Romanised Celts. The eastern
Goths, Ostrogote consolidated into a powerful tribal alliance in the lower basin of the Dniester,
were subjugated by the Huns under Atilla, traversed the Balkans and set up a kingdom in
Northern Italy, with Ravenna as its capital. The short-lived flourishing of Ostrogothic culture in
the 5th—6th c. under Theodoric came to an end with the fall of the kingdom.
The Gothic language, now dead has been preserved in written records of the 4th—6th c.
The Goths were the first of the Teutons to become Christian. In the 4th c. Ulfilas, a West Gothic
bishop, made a translation of the Gospels from Greek into Gothic using a modified form of the
Greek alphabet. Parts of Ulfilas' Gospels — a manuscript of about two hundred pages, probably
made in the 5th or 6th c. — have been, preserved and are kept now, in Uppsala, Sweden. It is
written on red parchment with silver and golden letters and is known as the SILVER CODEX
(CODEX ARGENTEUS). Ulfilas Gospels were first published in the 17th c. and have been
thoroughly studied by 19th and 20th c. philologists. The SILVER CODEX is one of the earliest
texts in the languages of the Germanic group; it represents a form of language very dose to PG
and therefore throws light on the pre-written stages of history of all the languages of the
Germanic group, including English.
North Germanic
The Teutons who stayed in Scandinavia after the departure of the Goths gave rise to the
North Germanic subgroup of languages. The North Germanic tribes lived on me southern coast
of the Scandinavian Peninsula and in Northern Denmark (since the 4th c). They did not
participate in the migrations and were, relatively isolated, though they may have come into
closer contacts with the western tribes after the Goths left the coast of the Baltic Sea. The speech
of the North Germanic tribes showed little dialectal variation until the 9th c. and is regarded as a
sort of common North Germanic parent-language called Old Norse or Old Scandinavian. It has
come down to us in runic inscriptions dated from the 3rd to the 9th c. Runic inscriptions were
carved on objects made of hard material in an original Germanic alphabet known as the runic
alphabet or the runes. The runes were used by North and West Germanic tribes.
The disintegration of Old Norse into separate dialects and languages began after the 9th c,
when the Scandinavians started out on their sea voyages. The famous Viking Age, from about
800 to 1050 A.D. is the legendary age of Scandinavian raids and expansion overseas. At the
same period, due to overpopulation in the areas, they, spread over inner Scandinavia.
The principal linguistic differentiation in Scandinavia corresponded to me political division
into Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The three kingdoms constantly fought for dominance and
the relative position of the three languages altered, as one or another of the powers prevailed
over its neighbours. For several hundred years Denmark was the most powerful of the
Scandinavian kingdoms: it embraced Southern Sweden, the greater part of the British Isles, the
southern coast of the Baltic Sea up to the Gulf of Riga; by the 14th c. Norway fell under Danish
rule too. Sweden regained its independence in the 16th c. while Norway remained a backward
Danish colony up to the early 19th c. Consequently both Swedish and Norwegian were
influenced by Danish.
The earliest written records in Old Danish, Old Norwegian and Old Swedish date from
the 13th c. In the later Middle Ages, with the growth of capitalist relations and the unification of
the countries. Danish, and then Swedish developed into national literary languages. Nowadays
Swedish is spoken not only by me population of Sweden, the language has extended over
Finnish territory and is the second state language in Finland.
Norwegian was the last to develop into an independent national language.. During the period
of Danish dominance Norwegian intermixed with Danish..
 In addition to the three languages on the mainland, the North Germanic subgroup includes
two more languages: Icelandic and Faroese, whose origin goes back to the Viking Age.
Beginning with the 8th c. the Scandinavian sea-rovers and merchants undertook distant sea
voyages and set up their colonies in many territories. The Scandinavian invaders, known as
Northmen, overran Northern France and settled in Normandy (named after them). Crossing the
Baltic Sea they came to Russia the "varyagi" of the Russian chronicles. Crossing the North Sea
they made disastrous attacks on English coastal towns and eventually occupied a large part of
England — the Danes of the English chronicles. They founded numerous settlements in the
islands around the North Sea: the Shetlands, the Orkneys, Ireland and the Faroe Islands; going
still farther west they reached Iceland, Greenland and North America.
Linguistically, in most areas of their expansion, the Scandinavian settlers were
assimilated by the native population: in France they adopted the French language; m Northern
England, in Ireland and other islands around the British Isles sooner or later the Scandinavian
dialects were displaced by English. In the Faroe Islands the West Norwegian dialects brought by
the Scandinavians developed into a separate language called Faroese. Faroese is spoken
nowadays, by about 30,000 people. For many centuries all writing was done in Danish; it was
not until the 18th c. that the first Faroese records were made.
Iceland was practically uninhabited at the time of the first Scandinavian settlements (9th
c). Their West Scandinavian dialects, at first identical with those of Norway, eventually grew
into an independent language, Icelandic. It developed as a separate language in spite of the
political dependence of Iceland upon Denmark and the dominance of Danish in official spheres.
As compared with other North Germanic languages Icelandic has retained a more archaic
vocabulary and grammatical system. Modern Icelandic is very much like Old Icelandic and Old
Norse, for it has not participated in the linguistic changes which took place in the other
Scandinavian languages, probably because of its geographical isolation. At present Icelandic is
spoken by over 200 000 people.
West Germanic
Around the beginning of our era the would-be West Germanic tribes dwelt in the lowlands
between the Oder and the Elbe bordering mi the Slavonian tribes in the East and the Celtic tribes
in the South. They must have retreated further west under the pressure of the Goths, who had
come from Scandinavia, but after their departure expanded in the eastern and southern directions.
The dialectal differentiation of West Germanic was probably quite distinct even at the beginning
of our era since Pliny and Tacitus described them under three tribal names. On the eve of their
"great migrations" of the 4th and 5th c. the West Germans included several tribes. The
Franconians (or Franks) occupied the lower basin of the Rhine; from there they spread up the
Rhine and are accordingly subdivided into Low, Middle and High Franconians. The Angles and
the Frisians (known as the Anglo-Frisian group), the Jutes and the Saxons inhabited the coastal
area or the modern Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany and the southern part of
Denmark. A group of tribes "known as High Germans lived in the mountainous southern regions
of the Republic of Germany (hence the name High Germans as contrasted to Low Germans — a
name applied to the West Germanic tribes in the low-lying, northern areas. The High Germans
included a number of tribes whose names are known since the early Middle Ages: the
Alemanians, the Swabians, the Bavarians, and others.
In the Early Middle Ages the Franks consolidated into a. powerful tribal alliance. Towards
the 8th c. their kingdom grew into one of the largest states in Western Europe. Under
Charlemagne (768—814) the Roman Empire of the Franks embraced France and half of Italy,
and stretched northwards up to the North and Baltic Sea. The empire lacked ethnic and economic
unity and in the 9th c. broke up into parts. Its western part eventually became the basis of France.
Though the names France, French are derived from the tribal name of the Franks, the
Franconian dialects were not spoken there. The population, the Romanized Celts of Gaul, spoke
a local variety of Latin, which developed into one of the most extensive Romance languages.
French.
 The eastern part, ' the Last Franconian Empire, comprised several kingdoms: Swabia or
Alemania, Bavaria, East Franconia and Saxony; lo these were soon added two more kingdoms
— Lorraine and Friesland is seen from the names of the kingdoms, the East Franconian state had
a mixed population consisting of several West Germanic tribes.
The Franconian dialects were spoken in the extreme North of the Empire; in the later Middle
Ages they developed into Dutch -me language of the Low Countries (the Netherlands) and
Flemish;
- the language of Flanders. The earliest texts in Low Franconian date from the 10th c; 12th c.
records represent the earliest Old Dutch. The formation of the Dutch language stretches over a
long period; it is linked up with me growth of the Netherlands .into an independent bourgeois
state after its liberation from Spain in the 16th c.
The modern language of the Netherlands, formerly called Dutch, and its variant in Belgium,
known as the Flemish dialect, are now treated as a single language, Netherlandish..
Netherlandish is spoken by almost 20 million people; its northern variety, used in the
Netherlands, has a more standardized literary form.
About three hundred years ago the Dutch language was brought to South Africa by colonists
from Southern Holland. Their dialects in Africa eventually grew into a separate West Germanic
language, Afrikaans. Afrikaans has incorporated elements from the speech of English and
German colonists in Africa and from the tongues of the natives. Writing in Afrikaans began as
late as the end of the 19th c. Today Afrikaans is the mother-tongue of over four million
Afrikaners and coloured people and one of the state languages in the South African Republic
(alongside English).
The High German group of tribes did not go far in their migrations. Together with the
Saxons, the Alemanians, Bavarians, and Thuringians extended east, driving the Slavonic tribes
from places of their early settlement.
The High German dialects consolidated into a common language known as Old High
German (OHG). The first written records in OHG date from the 8th and 9th c. 4 glosses and
texts, translations from Latin and religious poems. Towards the 12th c. High German (known as
Middle High German) had intermixed with neighbouring tongues, especially Middle and High
Franconian, and eventually developed into the literary German language. The Written Standard
of New High German was established after the reformation, though no Spoken Standard existed
until the 19th c. as Germany remained politically divided into a number of kingdoms and
dukedoms. To this day German is remarkable for great dialectal diversity of speech.
The High German language in a somewhat modified form is the national language of
Austria, the language of Liechtenstein and one of the languages in Luxemburg and Switzerland.
It is also spoken in Alsace and Lorraine in France. The total number of German-speaking people
approaches 100 million.
Another offshoot of High German is Yiddish. It grew from the High German dialects which
were adopted by numerous Jewish communities scattered over Germany in the 11th and 12th c.
These dialects blended, with elements of Hebrew and Slavonic and developed into a separate
West Germanic language with a spoken and literary form. Yiddish was exported from Germany
to many other countries: Russia, Poland, the Baltic States and America.
At the later stage of the great migration period — in the 5th c. — a group of West Germanic
tribes started out on their invasion of the British Isles. The invaders came from the lowlands near
the North Sea: the Angles, part of the Saxons and Frisians, and, probably, the Jutes. Their
dialects in the British Isles developed into the English language.
The Frisians and the Saxons who did not take part in the invasion of Britain stayed on the
continent. The area of Frisians, which at one time extended over the entire coast of the North
Sea. was reduced under the pressure of other Low German tribes and the influence of their
dialects, particularly Low Franconian (later Dutch). Frisian was survived as a local dialect in.
Friesland (in the Netherlands). It has both an oral and written form, the earliest records dating
from the 13th c.
 In the Early Middle Ages the continental Saxons formed a powerful tribe in the lower basin
of the Elbe. They were subjugated by the Franks and after the breakup of the Empire entered its
eastern subdivision. Together with High German tribes they took part in the eastward drive and
the colonization of the former Slavonic territories. Old Saxon known in written form from the
records of the 9th c. has survived as one of the Low German dialects.
The following table shows the classification of old and modern Germanic languages.
2. All the Germanic languages of the past and present have common linguistic features;
some of these features are shared by other groups in the IE family, others are specifically
Germanic.
The Germanic group acquired their specific distinctive features after the separation of the
ancient Germanic tribes from other IE tribes and prior to their further expansion and
disintegration that is during the period of the PG parent-language. These PG features inherited by
the descendant languages represent the common features of the Germanic group. Other common
features developed later, in the course of the individual histories of separate Germanic languages,
as a result of similar tendencies arising from PG causes. On the other hand, many Germanic
features have been disguised, transformed and even lost in later history.
The specific peculiarities of consonants constitute the most remarkable distinctive feature of
the Germanic linguistic group. Comparison with other languages within the IE family reveals
regular correspondences between Germanic and non-Germanic consonants. Thus we regularly
find [f] in Germanic where other IE languages have [p]; e.g., E full, R полный, Fr plein;
wherever Germanic has [p] cognate words in non-Germanic languages have [b] (E pool, R
болото). The consonants in Germanic look 'shifted' as compared with the consonants of non-
Germanic languages. The alterations of the consonants took place in PG, and the resulting
sounds were inherited by the languages of the Germanic group.
The changes of consonants in PG were first formulated in terms of a phonetic law by
Jacob Grimm in the early 19th c. and are often called Grimm's Law. It is also known as the First
or Proto- consonant shift (to be distinguished from the 2nd shift which took place in OHG in the
9th c).
By the terms, of Grimm's Law voiceless plosives developed in PG into voiceless
fricatives; IE voiced plosives were shifted to voiceless plosives and IE voiced aspirated plosives
were reflected either as voiced fricatives or as pure voiced plosives.
Consonant Shift in Proto-Germanic (Grimm's Law)

Illustration Non-Germanic OG NG

fot foot
PIE-p PG=/ L pes
t into o L tre s treo three

k into x L cor heort heart

b into p R болото pol pool

dinto t L decem tien ten

c into k L cneow cneo knee

bh into b O Ind bharata bropor brother

dh into d O Ind rudhira read read

gh into g L giest guest

 Another important series of consonant changes in PG was discovered in the late 19th c.
by a Danish scholar, Carl Verner. They are known as Verner's Law. Verner's Law explains some
correspondences of consonants which seemed to contradict Grimm's Law and were for a long
time regarded as exceptions. According to Verner's Law all the early PG voiceless fricatives [f,
9, x] which arose under Grimm's Law, and also it inherited from IE, became voiced between
vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed; in the absence of these conditions they remained
voiceless. The voicing occurred in early PG at the time when the stress was not yet fixed on the
root-morpheme. The process of voicing can be shown as a step in a succession of consonant
changes in pre-historical reconstructed forms; consider, e.g. the changes of the second consonant
in the word father.
Voicing of Fricatives in Proto-Germanic (Verner's Law)

Non-Germanic
IE PG OE NE
L caput
p p into v heafod[v] head
0 Ind salam
t t into d hund hundred

k k into g, y L cunctari hangian hang

5 5 into z L auris eares ears

3. The historical development of a language is a continuous uninterrupted process

without sudden Breaks or rapid transformations. Therefore any periodisation imposed on
language history by linguists, with precise dates, might appear artificial, if not arbitrary, yet in all
language histories. Divisions into periods and cross-sections of a certain length, are used for
teaching and research purposes. The commonly accepted, traditional periodisation divides
English history into three periods: Old English (OE), Middle English (ME) and New English
(NE), with boundaries attached to definite dates and historical events affecting the language. OE
begins with the Germanic settlement of Britain (5th c.) or with the beginning of writing (7th c.)
and ends with the Norman Conquest (1066); ME begins with the Norman Conquest and ends on
the introduction of printing (1475), which is the start of the Modern or New English period (Mod
E or NE); the New period lasts to the present day.
The amendments proposed to the traditional periodisation shift the boundary lines or
envisage other subdivisions within the main periods: it has been suggested that ME really began
at a later date, c. 1150(A. Baugh), for the effect of the Norman Conquest on the language could
not have been immediate; another suggestion was that we should single out periods .of
transition .and subdivide the tnree main periods into early, classical, and late (H. Sweet). Some
authors prefer a division of history by centuries (M. Schlauch) or a division into periods of two
hundred years (B. Strang).
It has been noticed that although language history is a slow uninterrupted chain of events,
the changes are not evenly distributed in time: periods of intensive and vast changes at one or
many levels may be followed by periods of relative stability. It seems quite probable that the
differences in the rate of changes are largely conditioned by the linguistic situation, which also
accounts for many other features of language evolution.
The first —pre-written or pre-historical — period, which may be termed Early Old
English, lasts from the West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning of writing, that is
from the 5th to the close of the 7th c. ft is the stage of tribal dialects of the West Germanic
invaders (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians), which were gradually losing contacts with the
related continental, tongues. The tribal dialects were used for oral communication there being no
written form of English.
The second historical period extends from the 8th c. till the end of the 11th. The English
language of that time is referred to as Old-English or Anglo-Saxon; it can also be called Written
OE as compared with the pre-written Early OE period. The tribal dialects gradually changed into
local or regional dialects. Towards the end of the period the differences between the dialects
grew and their relative position altered. They were probably equal as a medium of oral
communication, while in the sphere of writing one of the dialects, West Saxon % had gained
supremacy over the other dialects (Kentish, Mercian and Northumbrian). The prevalence of West
Saxon in writing is tied up with the rise of the kingdom of Wessex to political and cultural
prominence.
The third period, known as Early Middle English starts after 1066, the year of the
Norman Conquest, and covers the 12th, 13th and half of the 14th c. It was the stage of the
greatest dialectal divergence caused by the feudal system and by foreign influences —
Scandinavian and French. The dialectal division of present-day English owes its origin to this
period of history.
Under Norman rule the official language in England was French, or rather its variety
called Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman; it was also the dominant language of literature. There is
an obvious gap in the English literary tradition in the 12th c. The local dialects were mainly used
for oral communication and were but little employed in writing. Towards the end of the period
their literary prestige grew, as English began to displace French in the sphere of writing, as well
as in many other spheres. Dialectal divergence and lack of official English made a favourable
environment for intensive linguistic change.
Early ME was a time of great changes at all the levels of the language, especially in lexis
and grammar. English absorbed two layers of lexical borrowings: the Scandinavian element in
the North-Eastern area (due to the Scandinavian invasions since the 8th c.) and the French
lenient in the speech of townspeople in the South-East, especially in the lighter social strata (due
to the Norman Conquest). Phonetic and grammatical changes proceeded at a high rate,
unrestricted by written tradition.
The fourth period — from the later 14th c. till the end of me 15th — embraces the age of
Chaucer, the greatest English medieval writer and forerunner of the English Renaissance. We
may call it Late or Classical Middle English. It was the time of the restoration of English to the
position of the state and literary, language and the time of literary flourishing. The main dialect
used in writing and literature was the mixed dialect of London. (The London dialect was
originally derived from the Southern dialectal group, but during me 14th c. the southern traits
were largely replaced by East Midland traits.) The literary authority of other dialects was
gradually overshadowed by the prestige of the London written language.
Chaucer's language was a recognized literary form, imitated throughout the 15th c.
literary flourishing had a stabilizing effect on language that the rate of linguistic changes was
slowed down. AT the same time the written forms of the language developed and improved.
The fifth period — Early New English — lasted from the introduction of printing to the
age of Shakespeare that is from 1475 to C.-1660. The first printed book in English was published
by William Caxton in 1475. This period is a sort of transition between two outstanding epochs of
literary efflorescence: the age of Chaucer and the age of Shakespeare (also known as me
Literary Renaissance).
It was a time of great historical consequence: under the growing capitalist system the
country became economically and politically unified; the changes in the political and social
structure, the progress of culture, education, and literature favoured linguistic unity. The growth
of the English nation was accompanied by the Formation of the national English language.
Caxton's English of the printed books was a sort of bridge between the London literary
English of the ME period and the language of the Literary Renaissance. The London dialect had
risen to prominence and compromise between the various types of speech prevailing in the
country and formed me basis of the growing national literary language.
 The sixth period extends from the mid-17th c. to the close; of the 18th c. In the history of
the language it is often called "the age of normalization and correctness", in the history of
literature — the "neoclassical" age. This age witnessed the establishment of "norms", which can
be defined as received standards recognized as correct at the given period. The norms were fixed
as rules and prescriptions of correct usage in the numerous dictionaries and grammar-books
published at the time and were spread through education and writing.
It is essential that during the 18th c. literary English differentiated into distinct styles,
which is a property of a mature of a literary language. It is also important to note that during this
period the English language extended its area far beyond the borders of the British Isles, first of
all to North America.
Unlike the age of Shakespeare, the neo-classical period discouraged variety and free
choice in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The 18th c. has been called the period of
"fixing the pronunciation". The great sound shifts were over and pronunciation was being
stabilized. Word usage and grammatical construction were subjected to restriction and
normalization. The morphological system, particularly the verb system, acquired a stricter
symmetrical pattern. The formation of new verbal grammatical categories was completed.
Syntactical structures were perfected and standardized.
The English language of the 19th and 20th c. represents the seventh period in the history
of English — Late New English or Modern English. By the 19th c. English had achieved the
relative stability typical of an age of literary florescence and had acquired all the properties of a
national language, with its functional stratification and recognized standards (though, like any
living language, English continued to grow and change). The classical language of literature was
strictly distinguished from the local dialects and the dialects of lower social ranks. The dialects
were used in. oral communication and, as a rule, had no literary tradition: dialect writing was
limited to conversations interpolated in books composed in Standard English or to recording
folklore.
The 20th c. witnessed considerable intermixture, of dialects. The local dialects are now
retreating, being displaced by Standard English. The "best" form of English, the Received
Standard, and also the regional modified standards are being spread through new channels: the
press, radio, cinema and television.
The expansion of English overseas proceeded together with the growth of the British
Empire in the 19th c. and with the increased weight of the United States (after the War of
Independence and the Civil War). English has spread to all the inhabited continents. Some
geographical varieties of English are now recognized as independent variants of the language.
In the 19th and 20th c. the English vocabulary has progress of technology, science and
culture and other multiple changes in all spheres of man's activities. Linguistic changes in
phonetics and grammar have been confined to alterations in the relative frequency and
distribution of linguistic units: some pronunciations and forms have become old-fashioned or
even obsolete, while other forms have gained ground, and have been accepted as common usage.
The following table gives a summary of the periods described above; the right column
shows the correlation between the seven periods distinguished in the present survey and the
traditional periods.
______Periodisation of the History of English
______
Early Old English (also: Pre- c. 450-c. 700
I written (OE)
OLD ENGLISH
II C. 700-1066
OE(also: written OE)
III Early ME 1066-c. 1350
MIDDLE ENGLISH
IV ME(also: Classical ME) c. 1350-1475

V Early NE 1476-c. 1660 EARLY

NEW ENGLISH

NEW ENGLISH (also:

Normalisation period c. 1660- MODERN
VI (also: Age of Correctness, Neo- c. 1800 ENGLISH)
Classical period)

Late NE, or c. 1800-

Mod E(including Present- since 1945
VII
day English)

Questions:
1. Name the closest linguistic relations of English.
2. Account for the following place-names: Germany, Saxony, Bavaria, Anglia,
Thuringia, Swabia, Gothenburg, Gothland, Burgundy, Allemagne, Gotha, Jutland,
Feance, France, Frankfurt, Normandy, Anglesea, England.
3. Explain the sound correspondence in the following parallels from Germanic and non-
Germanic languages:
R боль OE balu(mischief)
R соль G Salz(salt)
R нагой NE naked G nackt
L gena OE cin [kin] NE chin
R приятель NE friend
4. Analyse the consonants correspondence in the following groups of words and classify
the words into Germanic and non-Germanic: foot, pedal, pedestrian; twofold, double,
twin, brotherly, fraternal; tooth, dental, dentist; canine, hound, hearty, cordial; three,
trinity; decade, decimals, ten; agriculture, acre; agnostic, know; tame, domestic.
5. Why can examples from the Gothic language often be used to illustrate the PG state
while OE and OHG examples are less suitable for the purpose?
6. Prove that suppletion is an ancient way of form-building which goes back to the
epoch of the PIE parent-language.
7. What is historical the development of a language? Say the old and modern
chronological divisions in the history of English?
Key words:
mutation - аблаут-немисча товуш(унли) алмашиниши демакдир;
IE(Indo-European)-X,uHg-EBpona тиллар оиласи;
PG(Proto-Germanic)-eHr цадимги Герман цабилалари сузлашган умумий Герман
тили;
periodisation-инглиз тили тарихини урганишда уни даврларга булиш.