Linguistic situation in old english and middle english period. Old literature in the period of anglo-saxon ethnic extension. Changing conditions in the period of standardisation of the english language. The rise and origins of standard english.
Аннотация к работе
From those murky and undistinguished beginnings, English has become the most widespread language in the world, used by more peoples for more purposes than any language on Earth. Standard languages are often the byproducts of bureaucracy, developed to meet a specific administrative need, rather than spontaneous developments of the populace or the artifice of writers and scholars .A standard language is spread widely over a the large region, is respected, because people recognize its usefulness and is codified in the sense of having been described so that people know what it is [27; 54]. A standard language has to be described before it is fully standard. The topicality of the paper given can be explained by the following fact: in the course of its history the English language has changed a lot, in other words it has been globalized. And although most people nowadays speak a variety of regional English or an admixture of standard and regional Englishes, and reverse such labels as BBC English or “the Queen’s English” for what they perceive to be a pure Standard English it is still vitally important to know what the Standard English language represents as such and what is more important to use it to be able to communicate with English speakers of various ethnic backgrounds.The earliest form of German writing is commonly believed to be connected to the early Germanic runes. It is proposed that this sequence was the result of some mnemonic device which is no longer retrievable, but which may have left some slight echo in the runic poems preserved in the medieval manuscripts [38]. The Old Germanic runic alphabet consisted of twenty-four letters. In England at least thirty runes were used to reflect the old English phonological changes. Thus if we read only initial letters in the words for which the runes stand in the above mentioned six stanzas, we get Futhark [41].According to David Crystal what rune (OE run) means is debatable. There is a long standing tradition which attributes to it such senses as ‘whisper’, ‘mystery’, ‘secret’, suggesting that the symbols were originally used to magical or mystery rituals. Such associations were certainly present in the way the pagan Vikings (and possibly continental Germans) used to corresponding word, but there is no evidence that they were present in Old English. Current research suggests that the word run had been thoroughly assimilated in to Anglos-Saxon Christianity, and meant simply ‘sharing of knowledge and thoughts’. There are less than thirty clear inscriptions in Old English, some containing only a single name .The two most famous examples both date from the 8th century, and present the Northumbrian dialect [20; 28; 38].A few scattered inscriptions in the language date from the 5th and 6th centuries, written in the runic alphabet which the invaders brought with them, but these give very little information about what the language was like. The Anglo-Saxon ethno-social system began forming as a result of British invasion at the end of the 6th century. The key-words are given below in order of precedence: cyning ‘chief’, later the founder the royal dynasty ealdorman ‘sub-king’, a kind of hereditary aristocracy; later replaced by the term eorl ?egn ‘warrior’ ceorl ‘a free man’, ‘farmer’ юeow ‘a slave’, ‘servant’ The given structure provided an effective functioning of considerably tough ethno-social system needed for the Anglo-Saxons during the period of their ethnic extension when the former tribal organization of the society did not meet the stereotypes evoked by military orientation of the ethnic dominant at that time. Perhaps he was the old Germanic god Beowa, and his exploits originally allegories, like some of those in the Greek mythology, of his services to man; he may, for instance, first have been the sun, driving away the mists and cold of winter and of the swamps, hostile forces personified in Grendel and his mother.It is commonly accepted that the Middle English period has a much richer documentation than is found in Old English. Material in English appears as a trickle in the 13th century, but within 150 years it has become a flood. During the 14th century, there is a marked increase in the number of translated writings from French and Latin, and of the texts for teaching these languages. A lengthy poetic history of Britain is known as Lagamon’s Brut as we have mentioned above, one of the earliest to survive from Middle English, and in the 14th century come the important texts of Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Printing which was introduced into England by William Caxton in 1476, helped to increase the spread of knowledge and literacy level among the British public as more and more people had better access to reading materials.The variety which we now call Standard English is a result of combination of influences, the most important of which do not emerge until the Middle English period. The political heart of the country moved from Winc
План
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN OLD ENGLISH AND MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
1.1 The development of Futhark
1.1.1 The runic alphabet as an Old Germanic writing tradition
1.1.2 Old English literature in the period of Anglo-Saxon ethnic extension
1.2 Linguistic situation in the Middle English
1.2.1 Linguistic situation in Medieval England after the Norman Conquest
1.2.2 Dialectal Diversity in the Middle English Period
1.3 The Middle English corpus
1.3.1 Geoffrey Chaucer and his lending support of the London Standard’s diffusion
1.3.2 The role of the printing in the formation of the English language
1.3.3 Principal Middle English written records as a reflection of ongoing changes in Standardization
CHAPTER 2. CHANGING CONDITIONS IN THE PERIOD OF STANDARDISATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
2.1 Origins of Standard English
2.1.1 The Rise of Standard English
2.1.2 The importance of London English
2.1.3 The importance of Chancery Line
2.2 Middle English Spelling and Sounds
2.2.1 Changes in Spelling due to the introduction of French scribal tradition
2.2.2 Middle English Pronunciation
2.3 Changes in Grammar in Middle and Early New English
2.3.1 Middle English Noun
2.3.2 Middle English and Early New English Adjective and Pronoun
2.3.3 Middle English and Early New English Verb
2.4 The complexity of Middle English Vocabulary
2.4.1 French factor in the development of Middle English Vocabulary
2.4.1.1 French influence on the English Vocabulary
2.4.1.2 Core semantic spheres of loanwords from French
2.4.2 Latin borrowings in the Middle and Early New English
2.4.3 Other sources of borrowings in the Middle English CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
APPENDIX 1
Вывод
In this research we endeavored to consider a long period of the English language history from its early stages to the period of standardization inclusive. Having analyzed this complex epoch we have come to the following conclusions.
The records of the Old English writing embraced a variety of matter, they were dated in different centuries, represent various local dialects, belong to diverse genres and were written in different scripts .The earliest form of writing in Old English period was known as runes and was presented as a special semantic code reflecting the beliefs, social hierarchy and the general world view of the people at that particular time. The literature of the Old English period is generally grouped in two main divisions, heroic and Christian. To the former are assigned those poems of which the subjects are drawn from English tradition and history or from the customs and conditions of English life; to the latter those which deal with Biblical matter, ecclesiastical traditions and religious subjects of definitely Christian origin.
The linguistic situation in the Middle English was complex. The Norman Conquest had a greater effect on the English language and on its vocabulary in particular than any other in the course of its history. Middle English dialects were partly matter of pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary and grammar. The regional Middle English dialects developed from respective Old English dialects and were preserved in the succeeding centuries, though in the Late Middle English the linguistic situation had changed.
A later and much larger group of diverse manuscripts include the work of Chaucer and Langland. These texts in their different ways represent London English of around 1400, but the amount of variation of their displays suggests that they cannot be called standard, in any strict sense. Not even Chaucer’s writing traditionally thought to be a precursor of modern Standard English, exercised a specific influence on the form this standard took - nor it is likely that poetic usage would ever influence general usage in any real way. It can be hardly doubted though that Chaucer’s literary standing had greatly added to the prestige associated with written language in the London dialect.
The influence of the first printers in spreading the written form of English was significant. The language they used was the London literary English established since the Age of Chaucer and slightly developed in accordance with the linguistic change that had taken place during the intervening hundred years.
With cheap printed books becoming available to a greater number of people the London form of speech was carried to other regions and was imitated in the written works produced all over England.
The changes of the Middle English period affected the language on its different levels including vocabulary, grammar, phonetic and spelling. As a result at the beginning of the period English is a language that must be learned as a foreign tongue, at the end it is Modern English.
The origins of the Standard English are an amalgamation of different historical, political, social, economical and geographical factors that took place within the span of nearly five centuries from Old English to the end of the Middle English period.
Thus, the English language changed from being a speech of a few tribes to becoming the major language on Earth and in that process it changed radically.
There is never to be total uniformity on the issue in question but the forerunner of Standard English undoubtedly existed by the end of the 15th century.
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