Introduction to Linguistics, Session 2, Thursday, 2006-10-26

Introduction to Linguistics, Session 2, Thursday, 2006-10-26


The Development of the English language

-At about 1000 BC England was settled by Celtic tribes. Today there are still ascendants from Celtic tribes in Scotland (Gaelic). Famous Celtic languages are Welsh, Gaelic and Briton. Welsh is still spoken in Wales. Whereas Gaelic can be considered as an extinct language, Briton is still spoken in the north-west of France, in Bretagne.

-In the 1st century, the east cost of England was invaded by Germanic tribes such as the Angles, Saxons, Jules, Danes and Friesians. They introduced their Germanic languages and cultures.

-From the 5th to the 11th the Vikings migrated to England and established trading posts. They introduced massive language changes. Traditional town names like Eddying borrow go back to the linguistic influence oft these tribes. Thus the name Eddying borrow goes back to an old Germanic term used by the Vikings:
Eddying borrow
.............↓
....Odin .......Burg
....(God) ......(fortress)

-The Norman’s (French tribe) invaded England in the 11th century. The Norman’s (or "north man") spoke French which quickly became the language of prestige. It soon became the official language of Britain.

-Most of all, during the Renaissance English has been influenced by Latin, Greek, French and Italian which were considered as languages of high prestige. Thus English vocabulary has been influenced, derived and taken from all kinds of sources (during that period of time most of all from ancient languages and new Roman languages).

-From the 17th century on, the English language became more and more important. Colonialization and emigration encouraged the spread of English all over the world.
The autonomous development of the English language in different countries led to different accents (phonetics) and a difference in vocabulary (semantics). Today we distinguish between British English, Irish English, Scottish English, American English, Canadian English and Indian English.



Grimm’s law

Deaspiration: ....bh → b
...........................dh → d
...........................gh → g
Devoicing: ..........b → p
............................d → t
............................g → k
Fricativisation:. p → pf
............................t → θ
...........................h → h




High German Soundshift

The High German soundshift led to different pronunciations in German and English.
Especially final phonemes such as fricatives and plosives are realised differently in German and English. Whereas most final phonemes are voiced in English, German consonants are devoiced:

...............................↓..................................... ↓
f.ex. Engl.: dogs /dC gz/ versus Germ.: Glas /gla:s/

Obstruent consonants:
After the High German soundshift the following consonants tended to be pronounced differently at the beginning and at the and of a word/ syllable. The common German syllable-structure is
Consonant- Vowel- Consonant (pay attention on German final devoicing!):
.........C-... V-... C
p: .....pf ...........f
t: .....ts ............s
k: ....k (kx) ......x/ç


Examples of High German Soundshift:
English words containing /p/ and German words containing /pf/ at the beginning of a word/ syllable:

English .............German
Pound /p/ ..........Pfund /pf/
Pipe /p/, /p/ .......Pfeife /pf/, /f/
Path /p/ .............Pfad /pf/
Pan /p/.............. Pfanne /pf/
Pancake /p/ .......Pfannkuchen /pf/
Pepper /p/, /p/ ...Pfeffer /pf/, /f/
Peach /p/ ...........Pfirsich /pf/



Great Vowel Shift
English ..........German
make /k/ .......machen /x/
break /eI/...... brechen /ç/
feet /i/ ...........Füße /y/
mice /əI/ ......Mäuse /C y/
mouse /aª / ....Maus /au/
boat /əª / ......Boot /o/



Steps of Great Vowel Shift:

1) /i/ and /u/ drop and become /əI/ and /əu/
2) /e/ and /o/ move up, becoming /i/ and /u/
3) /a/ moves forward to /æ/
4) /ε/ becomes /e/ and /C / becomes /o/
5) /æ/ moves up to /ε/
6) /e/ moves up to /i/
7) /ε/ moves up to /e/
8) /əI/ and /əu/ drop to /aI/ and /au/




Separation of English and German from one common root:

.........................................................GERMANIC
...... ..........................................................↓
.......................................... ........WEST GERMANIC

...................... ↓ ..................................... ↓ ....
? ↓
..........Anglo- Frisian.......................... Old Dutch......................... Old High German
..........↓ .............↓ ....................................↓ .............................................↓
Old English Old Frisian.................... Middle Dutch...................... Middle High German
..........↓ .............↓........................ ↓ ......↓ .....↓ .................................↓ ..............↓
Middle English ..Frisian .......Flemish Dutch Afrikaans ................German .....Yiddish
.........↓
Modern English






Etymology: The Study of the History of Words

Languages change constantly.
Each single speaker is involved in processes of language change (without even knowing it)!

About 2000 years ago, Modern English and German did not exist yet. They only split up later form one source language: Proto-Germanic (Urgermanisch).
But about 1000 years ago, High German soundshift occurred. German pronunciation began to differ from English pronunciation now (Verner’s law). Basically in the South of Germany and in Austria and Switzerland, changes in language occurred without any influence from outside. This process led to changes in sound (phonetics) and meaning (semantics).



Example of etymological dictionary research:

Research on Etymology: What is the linguistic origin of the following terms?

husband
OE. husbonda "male head of a household," probably from O.N. husbondi "master of the house," from hus "house" + bondi "householder, dweller, freeholder, peasant," from buandi, prp. of bua "to dwell" The sense of "peasant farmer" (c.1220) is preserved in husbandry (first attested c.1380 in this sense). Beginning c.1290, replaced O.E. wer as "married man," companion of wif, a sad loss for Eng. poetry. The verb "manage thriftily" is 1440, from the noun in the obsolete sense of "steward" (c.1450). Slang shortening hubby first attested 1688.
(from: http://www.etymonline.com/)


geil
Mhd., ahd. geil "kraftvoll; üppig; lustig; fröhlich", niederl. geil "wollüstig", aengl. gal "stolz; übermütig; lustig; lüstern", aisl. (weitergebildet) geiligr "stattlich, schön" sind im germ. Sprachbereich z.B. verwandt mit niederl gijlen "gären" und norw. gil "gärendes Bier". Das altgerm. Adjektiv bedeutet also urspr. "in Gärung befindlich, aufschäumend", dann "erregt, heftig". Außergerm. ist damit verwandt die baltoslaw. Sippe von lit. gailùs "jähzornig; scharf, herb, beißend". - Im heutigen Sprachgebrauch wird 'geil' fast ausschließlich im Sinne von "geschlechtlich erregt, brünstig" verwendet, während es als "üppig, wuchernd" (von Pflanzen) als veraltet gilt. Veraltet ist auch das abgeleitete Verb g e i l e n "ausgelassen sein; üppig wachsen" (mhd. geilen; vgl. got. gailjan "erfreuen"), beachte aber a u f g e i l e n, [sich] "[sich] geschlechtlich erregen". Das Substantiv G e i l e w veralt. für "Geilheit" (mhd. geil[e], ahd. geili) wird heute nur noch weidmänn. für "Hoden des Wildes" gebraucht.
(from: http://www.comtact.net/nsw/gggindex.php)



Similarities between languages:
Many neighbouring languages show similarities because they endure some hundreds years of contact or make prove of historical relationships (English and German were once related, they belong both to the Germanic language family). Language contact led to constant lexical borrowing and copying of words. Furthermore, languages normally show typological similarities, they all consist of words such as nouns and verbs, because human language is always based on similar human capacities and similar systematic rules.



Examples of lexical borrowing and copying in English and German

English .........................................Borrowed/ copied from
Bakery ...........................................French: boulangerie (copying of the suffix)
Time ..............................................Latin: tempus/ French: temps
Computer .......................................Latin: computare
Table .............................................Latin: tabula, ae
Mirror ...........................................French: miroir
Image ............................................French: image
Veil............................................... French: voile (m)
Star ...............................................Latin: aster
School ............................................Latin: schola, ae
Face ...............................................French: face



German...................................... Borrowed/ copied from
Handy.......................................... English: handy (semantic change)
Tabelle ..........................................Latin: tabella
Summe......................................... Latin: summa, French: somme, English: sum
Lampe ..........................................French: lampe
Foto ..............................................English: photo
Cool ..............................................English: cool (semantic reduction)
Beamer .........................................English: to beam (semantic change; German suffix)






An Example of Old English


The Lord's Prayer

This text of The Lord’s Prayer is presented in the standardised West Saxon literary dialect:

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum,
Si þin nama gehalgod.
To becume þin rice,
gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg,
and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum.
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. soþlice.

(from:www.wikipedia.de)





An Example of Old High German

The Lord’s Prayer Lord’s Prayer in three OHG dialects. Because these are translations of a liturgical text, they are best not regarded as examples of idiomatic language, but they do show dialect variation very clearly.




Alemannic, 8th Century
The St Gall Paternoster

Fater unser, thu bist in himileuuihi namu dinanqhueme rihhi diinuuerde uuillo diin,so in himile, sosa in erduprooth unseer emezzihic kip uns hiutuoblaz uns sculdi unseroso uuir oblazem uns skuldikementi ni unsih firleit in khorunkauzzer losi unsih fona ubile.



South Rhine Franconian, 9th Century
Weissenburg Catechism

Fater unser, thu in himilom bist,giuuihit si namo thinquaeme richi thinuuerdhe uuillo thinsamam so in himile end in erthuBrooth unseraz emezzigaz gib uns hiutuend farlaz uns sculdhi unserosame so uuir farlazzem scolom unseremendi ni geleidi unsih in costungaauh arlosi unsih forn ubile.




East Franconian, c. 830
OHG Tatian

Fater unser, thu thar bist in himilesi geheilagot thin namoqueme thin rihhisi thin uuiloso her in himile ist, so si her in erduunsar brot tagalihhaz gib uns hiutuinti furlaz uns unsara sculdiso uuir furlazemes unsaren sculdigoninti ni gileitest unsih in costungauzouh arlosi unsih fon ubile.

(Source: Braune/Ebbinghaus, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, 15th edn (Niemeyer,1969))