History of English 28 August 2012 Elly van Gelderen

Today Organization –Qs regarding outline? Chapter 1 –What is English –External History Mixed vocabulary, typical for external change –Internal History Loss of endings; increase in function words

External History 8000 BCE Hunter–gatherers move across Europe also into what is now the British Isles 6500 BCE Formation of English Channel 6000 BCE Shift to farming 3000 BCE Stonehenge culture 2500 BCE Bronze Age in Britain 1000 BCE Migrations of Celtic people to Britain begins 600 BCE Iron Age

Roman times 55–54 BCE Expeditions by Caesar 43 Invasion by Claudius 43–47 South and East England brought under Roman control 50 London founded 70–84 Wales, Northern England, and Scotland under Roman control 100–200 Uprisings in Scotland 122 Hadrian Wall begun 150 Small groups of settlers from the continent 410 Romans withdraw

Germanic 450 (449) Hengest and Horsa come to Kent (‘invited’ to hold back the Picts) 455 Hengest rebels against Vortigern 477 Saxons in Sussex; 495 Saxons in Wessex 527 Saxon kingdoms in Essex and Middlesex 550 Anglian kingdoms in Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia 560 Æthelberht becomes King of Kent 597 Augustine missionaries land in Kent and conversion to Christianity starts

793 Scandinavian attacks on Lindisfarne, Jarrow, Iona and subsequent conquest of Northumbria 865 Scandinavian conquest of East Anglia 871–899 Rule of King Alfred and establishment of the Danelaw

Result on the language Latin and Celtic candle, circle, cat, mile, radish and loch, druid, car, lance Scandinavian… egg, odd, give, anger, get, skip, skirt French+Latin… judge, felon, bail, estate, dinner, supper Latin+Greek … emancipate, pharmaceutic.. `Colonial’ languages pajamas, khaki,

Mixed vocabulary Underline Latin and French in Handout

Internal History of sounds Grimm’s Law (before English) –Latin pater > father Palatalization (during OE) –skip > ship –skirt > shirt Great Vowel Shift ( ) Northern Cities Shift (since the 1950s)

What is recognizable? What is internal/external? Ærest me wæs fultumiend 7 lareow se arwurða abbad Albinus, se wæs wide gefaren 7 gelæred, 7 wæs betst gelæred on Angelcynne.

Old English Ærest me wæs fultumiend 7 lareow se arwurða abbad Albinus, se wæs wide gefaren 7gelæred, 7 wæs betst gelæred on Angelcynne. Word-by-word gloss Earliest me was assistant and teacher the honorable abbot Albinus who was widely traveled and learned, and was best scholar in England. Modern English ‘My first assistant and teacher was the venerable abbot Albinus, a man who had traveled much and studied, and was the best scholar in England’.