History of Language

Question 1

What century was Old English?

Answer 1

5th century
400s

Question 2

Old English
- historical events impacting language

Answer 2

• Viking raids
• Anglo-Saxon & old Norse had a significant impact as vocab was drawn from both

Question 3

Old English
- linguistic features, developments or publications

Answer 3

Phonetic language- words spelt as they sounded
Significant dialectal diversity in spelling
Beowulf- characterised by semantics of conflict and war

Question 4

Old English
- levels of standardisations

Answer 4

Different areas of settlement resulted in different dialects
- little consistency in written language

Question 5

What century was Middle English?

Answer 5

11th century
1000s

Question 6

Middle English
- historical events impacting language

Answer 6

1066- Normans invaded
- French & Latin became dominant language
- seen as more prestigious, power (law,gov,church)
- some old English letters abandoned

Question 7

Middle English
- linguistic features, developments or publications

Answer 7

• English came to prominence during the end
• Chaucer ‘father of English’, write in English
• Black death killed church men
• 100 years war French enemy

Question 8

Middle English
- levels of standardisations

Answer 8

No standard spelling system
The great vowel shift
- changed the way words were pronounced by making vowels shorter

Question 9

What century was Early Modern English?

Answer 9

15th century
1400s

Question 10

Early Modern English
- historical events impacting the language

Answer 10

1476- William Caxton printing press
- scientists communicating in English
- Shakespeare- 17,000 new words
- King James English bible
1604- Cawdrey published dictionary

Question 11

Early Modern English
- linguistic features, developments or publications

Answer 11

• Interrogatives didn’t always include and auxiliary verb
• were formed with a verb at the start

Question 12

Early Modern English
- levels of standardisation

Answer 12

Texts mass printed
- move towards standardisation
Single-language English dictionary
- better organised

Question 13

What century was Modern English?

Answer 13

18th century
1700s

Question 14

Modern English
- historical events impacting language

Answer 14

The British Empire
- loan words
- industrial revolution
SWIFT- backlash against contractions
JOHNSON- larger, thorough dictionary
LOWTH- English grammar book rules
U12- schooling compulsory, improve literacy rates

Question 15

Modern English
- linguistic features, developments or publications

Answer 15

Contractions were commonly used in poems and printers
- inconsistencies, don’t often use proclitic contractions
- where contracted parts come at the beginning e.g. twas, twis

Question 16

Modern English
- levels of standardisation

Answer 16

• taught to read and write in SE
• Grammarians proposed correct ways of speaking and writing in rule books and dictionaries

Question 17

What century is Present day English?

Answer 17

20th century 1900s -

Question 18

Present day English
- historical events impacting the language

Answer 18

• media, technology, travel
• American English increasingly influences British English and English worldwide

Question 19

Present day English
- linguistic features, developments or publications

Answer 19

Contractions are common to see in our language but not in formal texts
‘text’- noun n verb
- words have new meanings

Question 20

Present day English
- levels of standardisation

Answer 20

Electronic media, mobile phones, emails and the internet have radically changed the way we communicate