Origins of the English Language

Question 1

Periodisation of Old English

Answer 1

c.450 - c.1100

Question 2

Periodisation of Middle English

Answer 2

c 1100 - c.1500

Question 3

Period of Modern English

Answer 3

c.1500 - c.1900

Question 4

Period of Present Day English

Answer 4

c.1900 - present day

Question 5

Internal aspects of the English Language

Answer 5

Lexicon 
Phenology 
Morphology 
Syntax 
Spelling

Question 6

External aspects of the English Language

Answer 6

Variation of time
Social variation
Regional variation
Ideolectual variation

Question 7

What languages were spoken in Britain before the migration of West Germanic tribes?

Answer 7

Celtic

Latin (from Roman rule)

Question 8

5th and 6th Century: Where were the Jutes?

Answer 8

Kent

Isle of Wight

Question 9

5th and 6th Century: Where were the Saxons?

Answer 9

Essex, Wessex and Sussex

Question 10

5th and 6th Century: Where were the Angles?

Answer 10

East and Middle Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria

Question 11

Which dialect is used as the standard of Old English?

Answer 11

West Saxon (had a literary standard)

Question 12

What makes up the Old English Heptarchy

Answer 12

Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Wessex, Sussex, Kent

Question 13

What are the four Old English dialects?

Answer 13

Kentish, Northumbrian, Mercian and West Saxon

Question 14

What is a daughter language?

Answer 14

A descendant of an earlier form of a language

Question 15

What is diachronic linguistics?

Answer 15

the study of how languages change over time

Question 16

What is historical linguistics?

Answer 16

The branch of linguistics that studies how languages changes over time, what kind of changes occur and why

Question 17

What is the definition of Proto-Germanic?

Answer 17

A reconstructed language of Indo-European, consisting of three branches

Question 18

What is synchronic linguistics?

Answer 18

The study of a language at a given point in time

Question 19

What is the definition of a cognate?

Answer 19

Words of different languages which are to some degree related in meaning and pronunciation because they have a common ancestor

Question 20

What is the definition of dual?

Answer 20

A pronominal category referring to two people

Question 21

What is a grapheme?

Answer 21

An orthographic symbol

Question 22

What is lexical borrowing?

Answer 22

The incorporation of a word in one’s language from another language

Question 23

What is the definition of a strong adjective?

Answer 23

An adjective that was declined strong in Old English, which was the case when it was not preceded by a demonstrative or possessive

Question 24

What is the definition of a strong verb?

Answer 24

A verb that demonstrates a change of tense by a modification of its root vowel

Question 25

What are weak adjectives?

Answer 25

Adjectives that were declined weak in Old English, which was the case when the adjectives followed a demonstrative or a possessive adjective

Question 26

What are weak verbs?

Answer 26

Verbs that indicate change of tense by the addition of a dental suffix