History of English

Question 1

Indo-European refers to:

Answer 1

A family of languages

Question 2

Which of the following is an Indo-European language:

Answer 2

Tocharian

Question 3

An inflected language is one in which the relationship between nouns is indicated by:

Answer 3

Morphology

Question 4

The name given to a set of sound changes that distinguishes the Germanic branch of Languages is:

Answer 4

Grimm’s Law

Question 5

English belongs to that Germanic branch called:

Answer 5

West Germanic

Question 6

The language most closely related to English is:

Answer 6

Frisian

Question 7

Strong verbs are characteristic of Germanic languages, including Old English. True or false?

Answer 7

True

Question 8

The beginning of the Old English period is usually assigned to which date?

Answer 8

449 CE

Question 9

The word ‘English’ derives from the:

Answer 9

Angles

Question 10

In the year 597 which of the following occurred?

Answer 10

The arrival of Roman missionaries in Canterbury

Question 11

Which of the following are we able to use as evidence for OE pronunciation?

Answer 11

1. Orthography.
2. Transliteration of futhorc into the Latin alphabet.
3. Poetic metrics.

Question 12

Which of the following are directly connected with King Alfred’s reign?

Answer 12

1. The establishment of Old English as a language of government and education.
2. The translation of key Latin texts into Old English.
3. The defeat of the Danes and the establishment of the Danelaw.

Question 13

The form of language preserved by King Alfred was:

Answer 13

West Saxon

Question 14

Modern Standard English is descended from:

Answer 14

Mercian

Question 15

The beginning of the Middle English period is usually assigned the date of 1066 because of:

Answer 15

The Norman Conquest

Question 16

The Anglo-Saxon encounters with the native British had a significant influence on the English Language. True or false?

Answer 16

False

Question 17

The initial sounds in the words sky, skirt, get are characteristic of Old English. True or false?

Answer 17

False, they are characteristic of Old Norse. Core Norse loanwords include “get”, “sky” and “skirt”, typically displacing a native Anglo-Saxon equivalent.

Question 18

Which of the following are original Old English words?

Answer 18

Shirt and rear.

Question 19

Which of the following are borrowed from Old Norse?

Answer 19

1. They/them/their
2. Are
3. 3rd person singular present tense ending -s

Question 20

How did the Latin loanword ‘candle’ enter Old English?

Answer 20

An ecclesiastical borrowing from the time of the Augustine mission.