historical change of language Flashcards
How did Angles, Saxons and Jutes bring lexical change
when they invaded, they brought large amounts of their language and so imported lots of it into old English
give examples of words brought in by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes
- prepositions
- verbs like ‘drink’ and ‘eat’
How did the Vikings bring lexical change
brought new words and a simplified grammatical system
give examples of words brought in by the Vikings
- sky
- skull
How did the Normans bring lexical change
invasion of the Normans and subsequent domination led to huge amounts of Norman French terms being implemented into the language, increasing the middle English lexicon
give examples of words brought in by the Normans
- ginger
- pastry
- sauce
How did Wycliffe bring lexical change
translated the bible from latin to English
How did the Chancery bring lexical and orthographical change
decided to make English changes to standardise the use of English
give examples of a change brought in by the Chancery
replacing ‘hath’ with ‘I’
How did traditionalist campaigners bring orthographical change
wanted spelling to reflect the history of the language, this includes changing orthography to Latinate spellings
give examples of a change brought in by traditionalist campaigners
adding ‘h’ in ‘rhyme’ to match ‘rhythm’
How did the great vowel shift bring phonological change
long vowel sounds moved from the front of the mouth to further back, some sound also became diphthongs
give examples of a change brought in by the great vowel shift
‘mouse’ was originally pronounced ‘moose’
How did Tyndall bring lexical change
translated the Bible, but with slightly more success than Wycliffe
How did King James I bring lexical and grammatical change
he ordered a Bible in English, which was heavily rhetorical. The Bible included archaic lexis and grammatical structures to make it sound older and wiser.
How did Gutenberg bring orthographical change
invented the printing press
How did Caxton bring orthographical change
brought the printing press to England
- made decisions on which spellings to use
- orthography became more fixed
- standardisation
How did the Renaissance thinkers bring lexical change
rebirth of Greek and Latin ideas led to importation of many Greek and Latinate lexis into English
How did the Inchorn controversy bring lexical change
concern was raised over the high numbers of lexis (inkhorn terms) which were being imported from Latin and Greek
How did the Cawarey bring lexical and orthographical change
- wrote the first dictionary to provide terms and definitions
- aimed to fix orthography
How did Shakespeare bring lexical change
he introduced more than 400 new words into English
give examples of words brought in by Shakespeare
- bandit
- dauntless
- lonely
How did Johnson bring lexical and orthographical change
- published a dictionary in 1755 containing 40,000 words and provides spellings
- but there is a controversy over the terms he chose not to include and his definitions are biased
How did Swift bring lexical change
- he thought that English needed to be collected, improved and ascertained, he felt like the language was being destroyed
