Exercise chapter

1- Use www.ethnologue.com to find out what languages are spoken in France, the United
States, Canada, or a country of your own choice.

Answer : Canada is a country in the Americas that is home to 38,666,000 people. It is also
home to 81 living indigenous languages. It was also home to 4 indigenous languages that
are now extinct. In addition, 18 living non-indigenous languages are established within the
country. Two of these, English and French, are the official languages of the country. In
formal education, 2 indigenous languages are used as languages of instruction.

2- What are some instances of recent changes in English? Discuss whether they are internal or
external changes.

Answer: Internal changes, as we know internal changes occur when, for instance, speakers
stop using endings (or inflections) and start to rely on words such as of, for, the, and when
prepositions start being used to introduce sentences. Like is a preposition in She swims like a
fish. External changes are brought about by language contact (between speakers of different
languages), or innovations by speakers, or issues of political or social identity. The biggest part
of this change was the loss of inflection and gender, but other forms of simplification and
unification were taking place. For example, Old English had six noun endings to denote a plural,
but only two survived into Middle and Modern English (“-s” as in hands and “-en” as in oxen,
with the latter being extremely rare and used only for a handful of words).

4. Is there a word in the text of Figure 1.2 whose status (as loan or not) you find surprising? If
so, which one(s)? Look up this/these word/s in the OED.

Answer: yes, the word enemy old English it was Fēond.

3. How can we stop or encourage language change? Think of na actual example.

Answer: we can stop or encourage language change by using prescriptive rules in our society
and country and these rules typically have to be explicitly taught in school because will help to
avoid langua changes.

7. Describe very briefly how English differs from another language you speak or know
something about.

Answer: English is very different to my mother tongue Language, for instance, the structure,
sytantx, lexis and prounce is very different with chuabo.

Chapter 4

1- Answer:

OE------------------ ModE

Heafod ---------- head

Sawolhus- --------- body

Segl - --------------- sail

Seoce ------------- sick

Halgode ------------ hallowed ‘ blessed ‘

Gecuron----------- chosen

Ti3ul----------------- tile

3. Answer: Garlic is from Old English Garleac what is a compound of spear and leek. Marshal
comes from Mare and scald what mean – servant and Mildred comes from Old English which
mean, mild power.

2 a. What type of phonological change happens when: OE forst becomes ModE frost? OE
handwyrst becomes ModE wrist?

Answer: Menthantasis and semantics narrowing of wrist.

b. How might make/match, bake/batch, wake/watch, and speak/speech be related through

sound change?

Answer: Palatalization of the final consonant .

4 Consider Tables 4.10 to 4.12:

a. If fisc and hund ‘dog’ are in the same class as stan, i.e. get the same endings, how Would
you say ‘of the (one) fish’, ‘to the (one) fish’, ‘the dogs’ (subject), and ‘for the Dogs’ in Old
English?

Answer: Pisces, fisce, hund, hundum.

b. How would you say ‘the sheep’ (plural subject)?

Answer: ( pa) sceap.
c. Are there any weak nouns in the passage from Beowulf in (27)?

Yes. For example: guman, eafera.

6. Keeping Section 6 in mind, how would you explain that in Modern Swedish and Norwegian,
the word for food is mat?

Answer: it happened because the preposition on frequently and also to appear.

12. Garlic, marshal, nostril and Mildred are originally compounds. Try to find the original
meanings, preferably in the OED. Hints: garlic is related to leek, marshall to mare, nostril to
nose, and Mildred to mild.

9. Try to get a sense of the story in Appendix C by skimming it. Underline some of the words
You do not know and look up some in na Old English dictionary (e.g.on
www.ling.upenn.Edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oe_bright_glossary.html).

Answer: These are loud(/y) meany ( ing. From Old English to Modern English.
Chapter 5.

1. Provide some instances of Celtic influence on English. Review Section 1 of this chapter.

Answer: The Celtic influence English trough The first phase involves loans Into Germanic (and
other languages) on the continent. The second one covers adoptions Into Old English (both
before and after the introduction of Christianity). The third phase involves the influence of the
Celtic languages after the Old English period.

3.If the words arc and palm existed in Old English, can you conclude anything about when
These words come into English?

Answer: These words existed old English, they come into English after the sound change.

2.Discuss some effects of Scandinavian loanwords on English. Again, this can be a review.

Can you guess from these words what kind of contact the speakers of the two languages
Might have had?

Answer: The Scandinavian words introduced were used daily, for instance: take, anger, skill and
want.

6. Download a Middle English text from http://etext.virginia.edu/mideng.browse.html and

Identify 10 words you think may be loans. Look them up in the OED. What does the origin Of
these loans tell you about the text?

Answer: The world’s largest searchable database of Middle English lexicon and usage for the
period 1100-1500. Na invaluable resource for lexicographers, language scholars, and all
scholars in medieval studies.

Loans: largest, scholars, usage, database ,of, invaluable, studies, period, Middle, all.

Their are borrowed.

4. Find some (derivational) affixes and check their origin in the OED. Can you think of any
Hybrids involving these affixes?

Answer: The prefixes re derives from Latin and it first introduced in 16th century. Hybrids are:
redo, retake and reboot. The suffixes -ly is not a loan and can form hybrids such as accurately.