Introduction

Question 1

What language family English belongs to?

Answer 1

Indo-European family, Germanic branch (West-Germanic).

Question 2

What is Grimm’s law?

Answer 2

It deals with how consonants changed from Proto Indo-European to Proto Germanic languages.
(b, d, g - p, t, k)
(p, t, k - f, th, h)

Question 3

What is Verner’s law?

Answer 3

It deals only with sound changes within Germanic languages.

Book - Buch, Good - Gut

Question 4

Who were the first people who inhabited the British Isles in the 5th century?

Answer 4

Anglo-Saxons.

Question 5

Where does the name England come from?

Answer 5

From the Old English name ‘Englaland’ which means ‘Land of Angles’.

Question 6

General features of Old English.

Answer 6

• Less fixed word order
• Grammatical gender
• Use of a larger set of inflections
• Phonological alphabet (you speak as you write)
• Runic signs

Question 7

General features of Middle English.

Answer 7

• More word order
• Less inflectional endings
• No grammatical gender
• Alphabet changed from phonological to ethymological
• Borrowings from Latin and French

Question 8

What is The Great Vowel Shift?

Answer 8

• It was a massive sound change affecting the long vowels of English (15-18th century).
• The long vowels were pronounced higher up in the mouth.
• feet /e:/ /i:/
• fool /o:/ /u:/
• beat /3:/ /e:/ /i:/

Question 9

What are some Old English words of Latin origin that have survived into Modern English?

Answer 9

Butter
Cup
Wine
Fork
School
Sock

Question 10

What is the significance of the Norman Conquest in the context of the development of the English language?

Answer 10

• Norman Conquest had most significant influence on English overall
• Word order became fixed
• Consonant doubling (sitting)
• No grammatical gender
• Inversion to form questions
• Alphabet changed from phonological to etymological

Question 11

Lexical doublets between Anglo-Saxon and Norman French.

Answer 11

Cow - beef
Swine - pork
Sheep - mutton

Question 12

What is i-mutation?

Answer 12

I-mutation is a change of the vowels of words under certain circumstances.

Question 13

Differences between British and American English.

Answer 13

• Pronunciation (fast, brother)
• Spelling (theatre, colour, travelling)
• Lexical differences (flat, autumn, trousers, university, holiday, chips)
• Grammar (present perfect/past simple)