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History of English > Quiz 6-12 > Flashcards

Quiz 6-12 Flashcards

1
Q

Latin-Christian influence: What ‘strategies’ do we find for the adaptation of new words and concepts?

A

loan words
loan translations (patriarch vs heahfaeder, baptism vs fulluht) adaptation of existing terms (hel -> hell)

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2
Q

Name the major Old English dialects.

A

Northumbrian
Mercian dialect
Wessex dialect
dialect of Kent

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2
Q

Comment on German/English Hölle/hell vs. Latin/French inferi/enfer.

A

The English hell derives from word for Germanic underworld hel which is the home of the dead in Germanic mythology, Christian missionaries took the Germanic hel and “worsened” it to hell. The latin word for the underworld is inferi which is the same name for a similar concept that they then adapted for their need.

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3
Q

Which Old English dialect became the first English standard? Why so?

A

Wessex became the first English standard because East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia were conquered by the Danes becoming the Danelaw making Wessex the only surviving anglo-saxon kingdom

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4
Q

What happened AD 1066?

A

the Norman conquest -> end of Old English Period, conflict regarding the inheritance of the English throne

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5
Q

What were the political-cultural consequences of the Norman Conquest?

A

almost all of anglo-saxon nobility wiped out at battle of hastings, William becomes king of England and remains duke of Normandy which gives the foundation for the Anglo-French empire, William replaces nobility with his followers resulting in the upper ten-thousand speaking French, also high ranking anglo-saxon church dignitaries with French people
-> control of administration being in the hands of Williams French speaking followers

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6
Q

Why would someone like William of Normandy get the idea that he has a legitimate claim to the throne of England?

A

because Alfred the greats son married a norman woman giving the normans a claim to the throne which William of Normandy then wants

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7
Q

Which parts of the vocabulary show heavy French influence?

A

education, government and law, religion and church, military, culture, music, lit,

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8
Q

guarantee vs. warranty – what are the etymologies of these words and why do we still have both of them in Modern English?

A

both are French loans but guarantee is a Central French loanword and warrantee is a Anglo-Norman loanword, they have a semantic difference which is why both of them survived (semantic diversification)

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9
Q

Why is the (at first temporary) loss of the Normandy important for the history of the English language?

A

made French nobles realize that they had to decide on one side -> decided for England

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10
Q

When did the influx of French loanwords reach its peak? Why then and not before?

A
  • the influx increase after the loss of Normandy in 1200 before that Nobles did not learn english
  • no influx immediately after conquest because upper class -> French and lower class -> english
    language and social hierarchy
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11
Q

Name another example of French influence apart from the vocabulary.

A

V/T (ye vs. thou) system, pronounciation

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12
Q

Describe the V/T (ye vs. thou) system of pronominal address in Middle English times.

A

loan from French vous (polite) vs. tu (informal) was then used in English, ye (polite) vs. thou (informal).

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13
Q

List the dialects of Middle English

A

Northumbrian
Wessex
Kentish
Mercian Dialect East
Mercian Dialect West Midland
(modern English(from London))

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14
Q

Why do we have one dialect more than in Old English times?

A

due to division into Danelaw and rest of England during Danish invasion in Danelaw -> new dialect through Old Norse influence on English
-> led to division of Mercian dialect into East and West Midland dialect

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15
Q

Determine the dialectal origin of vixen (in contrast to fox).

A
  • the dialectal origin of vixen is the southern dialect (Wessex)
  • contrast to the voiceless f in fox in the northern dialect the /f/ in vixen is voiced because its at the beginning of the word in front of a vowel
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16
Q

Where do the pronouns they, them, their come from?

A

Old Norse, no distinction between singular and plural anymore therefore new pronouns

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17
Q

Why were the Old English pronouns of the 3rd person plural (hi, him, hira) replaced?

A

there was systemic pressure on linguistic development because the difference between singular and plural was disappearing.

18
Q

Name the most striking differences between the northern and the southern Middle English dialects.

A
  • the 3rd person plural ending: southern ME dialect retained the old form as -eth northern ME dialect uses the -s
  • 3rd person pronouns in north were taken from old norse bcs of Scandinavian influence
  • Development of the /f/ sound (north -> voiceless at beginning before vowel, south voiced at beginning before vowel (fox, vixen))
  • Development of /y/ sound: OE still has y sound often product of i-mutation (puti-pytte-pit) in the southwest the y remains y and doesn’t get unrounded, in the southeast the y becomes e and in the north and the east midlands the OE y becomes I
19
Q

Which two major events brought about the re-establishment of English as the language of administration and, to some extent, also learning?

A
  • The hundred years war between England and France: because French noblemen didn’t want an English king because he’d be more powerful than previous French kings -> this established French as the language of the enemy and established France and England as two separate countries
  • the black death/the plague: reduced the population of England by 30-50% disrupted the fabric of society & led to social unrest, also led to labour shortage which in turn led to the emancipation of agricultural labourers. Through plague English gained importance because latin- speaking priest etc had died
    ->English once more is language of official importance (-> royal court in English)
20
Q

Provide some examples for changes between Old English and the emerging Middle English.

A
  • loss of inflectional ending (for example through the simplification of plural suffixes)
  • changes and simplification in spelling ( ex.: minim problem -> replacing OE u for /u/ with o because of confusion due to medieval handwriting (minims)
  • Grammar in general simplified (for example through the weakening of certain verbs)
  • OE full vowels reduced to schwa in unstressed positions
21
Q

What are long-term effects of the levelling/weakening of unstressed syllables (here esp. the reduction of unstressed vowels)?

A

the reduction of unstressed vowels occurred typically at the end of words and meant the eventual loss of inflectional endings which caused English to develop into an analytic language (ModEng).

22
Q

What is the ‘minim problem’?

A

hard to distinguish the writing of OE scribes because <u> and <n/m/w> were all made up out of one stroke being repeated,
-> <o> replaces the OE <u> for /u/ in words like sum, wulf, sunu to avoid confusion but pronunciation remained the same (cume -> come)</u></o></u>

23
Q

Why did the Middle English scribes not use ‘u u’ to indicate vowel length for /u:/ but used
‘ou’ instead?

A
  • could be confused with w
  • ou is an adoption of a French orthographic practice
  • uu would be hard to decipher after writing in calligraphy (minimin problem)
24
Q

What is the minim problem?

A
  • minim is the basic stroke for the letters i, m, n, and u
  • replacing ⟨u⟩ before ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, or ⟨v⟩ with ⟨o⟩ in order to break up the sequence of minims
    -> only written differently but pronunciation stays the same (u)
25
Q

Who was Geoffrey Chaucer and why is he important for the development of English
(literature)?

A

called the father of English literature, wrote the Canterbury Tales in which he disregards social hierarchy, uses specialized vocab in the context of knightly characteristics (e.g chivalrie, trouthe, honour, freedom, curteisie), recognizes dialectal differences in Britain (north vs south)

26
Q

Why is the Chancery important for the development of English?

A

->new standard rising with Chaucer and new dynasty (Henry IV), English is more and more used
-> in Westminster the Chancery (charge of administration) English was used in documents (1430)
-> English used in Chancery spread all over Britain by means of trained scribes
-> Chancery English scribes also used abbreviations, fast writing (Cursiva Anglicana)

27
Q

Which events/dates are considered to mark the end of the Middle English period?

A

1475: Caxton & the printing press,
1485: Henry VII Tudor, end of War of Roses,
1400-1700: Great Vowel Shift.
1534: England became a protestant country. Also, Columbus caused lots of words from Spanish

28
Q

What is the Middle English pronunciation of ‘sheep’?

A

scep

29
Q

Why does Modern English pronunciation deviate from the spelling of the word (still
with ‘sheep’)?

A

great vowel shift
- systematic shift in the pronunciation of long vowels
-> Raising and Diphthongization of Long Vowels

30
Q

How would you call someone who looks after sheep in Middle English (hint: someone who looks after cows is called ‘cow-herde’ (pronounced /ku:-herde/))?

A

scep-herde

31
Q

What pronunciation would you expect for the ‘he who looks after sheep’ word in Modern English?

A

sheepherd

32
Q

What is the actual Modern English pronunciation for this word?

A

sheperd

33
Q

So, how must the ‘sheep’ element in the Middle English word have been pronounced if we have the Modern English pronunciation as it is?

A

scep

34
Q

Who is Caxton and why is he important for the development of English

A

printing press introduced to Britain by William Caxton (1470s)
- set up own printing press in Bruges in 1473
- could produce hundreds of books of the same (good) quality
- letters had to be set mirror wise→mistakes (esp. in long words) could happen
- printed a lot of different texts
➢ historical, philosophical, educational, political…
- preserved some medieval texts that would otherwise have been lost→Malory’s Morte Darthur

35
Q

Why is th used to replace the Anglo-Saxon letters thorn and eth?

A

the Latin alphabet, used by the Normans, did not include thorn or eth, so they substituted these characters with the digraph “th,” which represented the same sounds.

36
Q

Which ‘dialect’ is the main source for the new (Early Modern English) standard?

A

type IV London English, a variety of the east midland type due to large-scale immigration

37
Q

What are the characteristics of this new standard?

A
  • northern features in midland dialects imported into london dialect
  • 3rd person sing. -s verbal ending (he telles vs southern he telleth)
  • Loss of -n in the infinitive (singe vs singen)
  • Th- pronouns in 3 pers pl. (they, them vs southern hi, hem)
  • Establishment of SVO word order
38
Q

How is Caxtons new standard spread?

A

Caxton uses mainly this type of language for his publications, spelling no longer reflects any dialect oral language
so its an ‘independent’ standard, standardization mostly affects vocabulary not spelling

39
Q

Describe the different approaches for ‘improving’ Early Modern English, especially in
matters of the vocabulary.

A

a) loan words from (French and) latin ( borrowin from latin: devulgae, education, maturity ; French: chamois, gauze, vase, combat ; also from Scandinavian, low german, Spanish, Italian and Arabic), ;
b) Reviving archaic words : mickle, doom blameful ;
c) New word formations: mooned, foresayer, gainrising

40
Q

Why is Shakespeare important for the development of the English language?

A

uses english expressions from non-formal usage “from the street” and spreads those, is credited for introducing abt 1,700 words to the English language (e. g. courtship, dawn, laughable, worthless) uses a lot of words (some 20,000 words), also coined a lot of phrases such as A dish fit for the gods.

41
Q

Why is Shakespeare’s English sometimes hard to understand (especially if performed in the original pronunciation of c. 1600)?

A

Bcs of the great vowel shift (1400-1700) from long middle English vowels to diphthong

42
Q

Why is a periodization into ‘Old’, ‘Middle’, and
‘Modern’ problematic?

A
  • language change is gradual
  • regional variation (due to north and south dialect distinction)
  • overlaps in features
43
Q

Which Germanic languages are extremely
archaic, which ones are very ‘modern’?

A

extremely archaic: Gothic, Old English, Icelandic
middle: modern high german
early modern: dutch, swedish
modern: Afrikaans, English

History of English (3 decks)

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