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English > Language Change > Flashcards

Language Change Flashcards

1
Q

Who inhabited England in 0 AD?

A

The Celtic people

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2
Q

When did the Germanic tribes arive in England?

A

449 AD

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3
Q

What happened to the Celtic tribes due to the arrival of the Germanic tribes?

A

The celts were pushed to Wales , Scotland , Cornwall and Ireland forming welsh, galic and cornish

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4
Q

Roughly what year did the vikings invade the North East of England?

A

800’s AD

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5
Q

What year did William the Conqueror invade England (and subsequently the French language)

A

1066 AD

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6
Q

What year was English made the offical language again for documents in England?

A

1430 AD

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7
Q

Who brought the printing press to the UK?

A

William Caxton

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8
Q

What year was the printing press brought to the UK?

A

1476 AD

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9
Q

Why is the invention of the printing press so significant in the use of Standard English?

A

Caxton chose to print the documents in the English spoken by the Cambridge , Oxford and London triage. Which influenced the creation of ‘standard’ English

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10
Q

Whats the example of an unusual sentence structure in Old English from Genisis?

A

‘They knew then, that they naked were’

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11
Q

Why was 1066 AD signficant for the development of English?

A

Because french was brought into the uk by the Normans , meaning it became the dominant langauge

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12
Q

What are some features of Old English?

A

Existence of different inflexions (e.g for ‘saw’

Irregular sentence structure in comparison to Standard English (e.g putting the verb last)

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13
Q

What are two words that were integrated into English from the Vikings?

A

Give and recieve

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14
Q

Explain the existence of different inflexions of the word ‘saw’ in old English?

A

In old English, there was 3 different types of ‘saw’ (for example I = seah , you = sawe) which depended on the use of a 1st, 2nd or third person singular or plural pronoun)

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15
Q

What is Signficant about closed-word classes in relation to old English?

A

All our closed-word classes (e.g pronouns , determiners, prepositions and conjunctions) have been left mostly untouched since Old English

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16
Q

What is significant about the top 10 most used words survey from the Oxford Dictionary in 2006?

A

That every word in the top ten (apart from ‘Person’) is Anglo-Saxton

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17
Q

What event caused Old English begin to shift Middle English?

A

The Norman invasion of 1066 where French became the prestige language of England and the English language had covert prestige

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18
Q

Why did the spelling change from Old English to Middle English?

A

Because Norman scribes wanted to switch to typical French spelling conventions

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19
Q

What happened to inflections during the Middle English period?

A

They were mostly levelled out and nearly all plural nouns were given the suffix ‘s’ to mark pluralism

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20
Q

What Old English inflections still remain?

A

‘En’ and ‘an (e.g Oxen)

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21
Q

What is meant by ‘the great vowel shift’?

A

Beginning in the early 13th century in the North of England , it highlights when short high vowels (e.g ‘U’ and ‘I’) were lengthened and lowered , by the early 16th centuary , all long vowels sounded very similar to their modern pronunciation

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22
Q

What are Three examples of the great vowel shifts effects on language?

A

Weef–> wife
Moos –> mouse
Teem –> time

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23
Q

What were the two main reasons standardisation of English began?

A

Caxtons printing press
The rise of Grammatarians (prescriptivists) calling for standarised English

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24
Q

What was John Hart’s (one of the original grammarians) novel called?

A

‘The unreasonable writing of our Inglish Toung’

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25
Q

What happened to Old English after the Norman invasion?

A

It began to expand with French and Latinate words

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26
Q

What was the time periods of development of English?

A

500 AD - Old English
1000 - 1500 AD - Middle English
1500 - 1800 AD - Early Modern
1800 - Present

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27
Q

When did Caxton introduce Gutenberg’s printing press to the UK?

A

1476

28
Q

In what novel and it what year did Caxton refer to ‘Old English’

A

The Preface To Eneydos (1490)

29
Q

What dialect did Caxton pick for his printing press?

A

Southeast Midlands and London dialect

30
Q

What are 3 reasons that the printing press began to ‘fix’ a standard form of English?

A

It enabled the East Midlands dialect to be spread wider than ever as texts were made on mass

It promoted literacy (e.g reading and writing) as books were widely available

It encouraged the rise of Grammarians (prescriptivists)

31
Q

What were the 4 ‘rules’ of Standard English that Robert Lowth highlted in his book ‘A Short Inroduction To Grammar’ (1762)

A

The pronoun ‘thou’ should not be used anymore

Infinitive verbs shouldn’t be split

Multiple negotation is illogical

Prepositions shouldn’t end sentences

32
Q

Who are three prescriptivists we highlight specficically?

A

John Hart - 1507

Bullokar - 1586

Robert Lowth - 1762

33
Q

Where prescriptivists successful at ‘fixing’ a standard English completely?

A

Not completely as prescriptivist rules are still ignored by some dialects (e.g Cockney’s use of double negatives)

34
Q

When did the Renaissance begin in England?

A

Roughly the 1500’s

35
Q

How many words were estimated to be added to English during the Renaissance?

A

Over 30,000 words

36
Q

What two idoms that came from the KJV Bible (1611) ?

A

Salt of the earth

Walking the straight and narrow

37
Q

What are two idoms that came from Shakespeare during the Renaissance?

A

In a pickle

Vanished into thin air

38
Q

Which two things had the largest effect on Language during the Renaissance?

A

Shakespeare and the KJV Bible

39
Q

How was English mostly spread in the Renaissance?

A

Auraly (via spoken mode)

40
Q

What were the 4 ways that words came into use

A

Affixation (prefixation + suffixation)
Conversion
Coining
Compounding

41
Q

What were ‘new words’ know as by prescriptivist?

A

Inkhorn Words

42
Q

What did the Ink Horn controversy suggest?

A

It meant that ‘linguistic purists’ were unhappy with new words

43
Q

What are 5 languages that we ‘borrowed’ from during the renaissance period?

A

Latin
Spanish
French
German
Dutch

44
Q

Who made the first English Dictionary in 1604?

A

Robert Cawdrey’s ‘A Table Alphabetical’

45
Q

How many words did Cawdreys ‘A Table Alphabetical’ (Dictonary) have?

A

2500 words

46
Q

Who did Cawdrey call out with his dictonary?

A

Preachers as they converge with the dialects of ‘ignorant people’ (everyday people) and using ‘Ink Horne Tearmes’ when preaching instead of using ‘Standard English’

47
Q

What were sentences like in Early Modern English?

A

They very long, usually compound sentences with multiple clauses. They are also known as suspended sentences as the main clause was usually very far into the sentence

48
Q

How was Standard English begining to be viewed by the 18th century?

A

As a value marker but not a ‘standard’ (e.g the ‘best’ English)

49
Q

Why was there such a push for standardisation in the early 1700’s?

A

Because the rulers wanted stability after the English Civil War. They wanted to achieve this partially by ‘fixing’ a standard for English and create linguistic order.

50
Q

Who was Johnathan Swift?

A

A famous writer who accused the English language of barbarism and called for a formal institution to be set up to set the ‘rules’ of English

51
Q

What French Idea did Johnathan Swift build his idea off of?

A

The Academie Francaise (A formal French Inastiutition set up to ‘protect’ the language)

52
Q

What is a dictionary writer formally know as?

A

A Lexicographer

53
Q

What dictonary came after Nathan Baileys ‘Dictionary’ ? (1730)

A

Dr Samuel Johnson’s Dictonary (1755)

54
Q

How many words does Dr Samuel Johnsons ‘Dictionary’ (1755) have?

A

Around 40,000

55
Q

What did Dr Samuel Johnson seek to do with his ‘Dictionary’ ? (1755)

A

He wanted to standardise meaning, orthography and the grammar of words

56
Q

What did the publication of Johnson’s ‘Dictonary’ (1755) mark a shift to?

A

Post-standardisation of English

57
Q

What happened after Johnson’s (1755) ‘Dictionary’ was published?

A

Prescriptivism became the ‘norm’ meaning most writers became very focused on ‘correctness’

58
Q

What are the 4 steps of standardisation?

A

Selection - Caxton selected the dialect , South-East Midlands and London

Eleboration - English massively expaned during the renaissance (over 30,000 new words)

Codification - the rules are ‘fixed’ by Grammar texts books and Dictionaries

Acceptance/implementation - everyone accepts that standard English will be used and ‘rejects’ non-standard

59
Q

What event happened that lead to the growth of the middle class?

A

The industustral revolution

60
Q

Why did the newly minted ‘middle class’ upwardly converge to Standard English?

A

Because they wanted symbols of their nee status

61
Q

What was the 1870’s education act?

A

When education was made complusory for all children up to the age of 12

62
Q

Why did The Education Act (1870) help spread Standard English?

A

Children were taught to read and write in Standard English as education was compulsory

63
Q

How did fee paying ‘public schools’ lead to the spread of RP?

A

Wealthly middle class and upper class son’s were taught RP as the correct pronunciation

64
Q

What does the OED?

A

Oxford English Dictionary

65
Q

What did Irish migration lead to the creation of?

A

Scouse (the Liverpudlian accent)

English (15 decks)

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