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10 views

HoE_notes

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anyakokorina13
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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OE phonetic phenomena (just the main ones):

Phonetic phenomenon Language to compare Sound Changes Examples


Grimm’s Law (1822) Indo-European languages IE p,t,k – G f, {th}, h Latin cardia – heart
(Latin, Russian, IE b,d,g – G p,t,k Russian болото – pool
French…) IE b(h), d(h), g(h) G b,d,g Sanscrit bhrata – brother
Verner’s law Indo-European p,t,k – f, {th}, h – v,ð(d),g Latin caput – OE heafod
(v)
i-mutation Gothic Fronting and narrowing of Gothic OE
vowels under the taljan → tellan
influence of [j] in the saljan sellan
following syllable →
fuljan fyllan (fill)
→
OE breaking Other Germanic [i], [e] and [ae] changed berg beorʒe
languages into diphthongs when alt eald
they stood before [h],[l] alles ealle (все)
[ll] plus another
consonant and [r]+other
consonants [e]. New set das heorte
of diphthongs [ea] [eo]. Herz
Lengthening (loss of Other Germanic Nasal sonorants lost OHG fimf – OE fīf
consonants) languages (OHG, Gothic, before fricatives (the OHG uns – OE ūs
OIcel) preceding vowel was
lengthened) m,n before
f,s,n,h,ϸ, [ j] before d,n,
and intervocal h

The essence of Grimm’s Law (1822) is as follows: it establishes regular correlations between IE plosives and the corresponding
consonants in Gmc. The essence of it: IE stops (смычные) changed into Germanic fricatives (щелевые) or lost their character.
Traditionally the first Germanic consonant shift is presented in the following way:
1) Voiceless stops became voiceless fricatives: p,t,k – f, {th}, h ( пять – five, cardia - heart)
2) Voiced stops became voiceless: b,d,g – p,t,k (десять – ten, болото – pool)
3) Voice aspirated stops became non-aspirated stops: b(h), d(h), g(h) – b,d,g (bhrata – brother)

ME-NE phonetic changes (some of the them):

Phonetic levelling (neutral sound ə) and reduction of the unstressed vowels at the end of words.

GVS (Great Vowel Shift) 14th-18th c:


A peculiar change in LME during which all the 7 vowels then in existence came into motion and underwent either narrowing or
diphthongizing or both.
 i: > ai ti:m > taɪm (time)
 u: > aʊ hu:s > haʊs (house)
 e: > i: se:n > si: (see)
 o: > u: mo:n > mu:n (moon)
 ɛ: > e: > i: sɛ: > si: (sea)
 ɔ: > əʊ hɔ:m > həʊm (home)
 a: > eɪ na:m > neɪm (name)
 The Great Vowel Shift (2)
Note 1: No new vowels resulted from the change. What occurred was the redistribution of the existing phonemes in certain types
of words
Cf: [ti:m > taɪm] [bi: < be:]
[hu:s > haʊs] [mu:n < mo:n]
Note 2: The GVS changed the pronunciation of countless E. words, but it was not followed by any significant and regular changes
in E. spelling, which accounts for its irregularity. Numerous modern E. words are spelt nowadays the way they were pronounced
and written before the GVSh., i.e. in Late ME Eg: time, like, moon, soon, see, me
home, spoken, etc., etc.
OE Morphology
OE was a synthetic language. Modern English is an analytical language. OE was very much like modern Russian or modern
German. It means that categorial forms and relations between words were expressed with the help of inflections (флексии).

Grammatical categories of the Nominal system:

Noun Adj Pron Pron (pers)


(dem)
Gender masc, fem, the same the same + only 3rd person singular
neuter
Number Singular, the same the same the same + dual (двойственное)
Plural
Case N, G, D, the same + the same 4 > than 3
Acc (4) Instrumental (for (5) Acc. Was going out
strong adj)

The OE Noun: declension, gender, number, case


ME changes in the noun system
1) loss of grammatical gender
Gender disappeared in the 11-12th centuries. The division into stems (types of declension) practically disappeared (sometimes it
depends on the dialects). The former 4-case system was simplified to a 2-case system. Gender was the first grammatical category
to be lost.
2) the number of cases was reduced. The four case system was simplified to a two-case system.
N → Common
G → Genitive or Possessive (his beddes heed, изголовье его кровати)
D → Common
Ac → Common
c
The term “common” means that one case was used for the doer of the action (agent) and the object of it.

The OE Adjective: gender, number, case (in agreement with the Noun), degrees of comparison, strong or weak declension.
One of the most important features is a double declension. This is a common feature for all Germanic languages (preserved in
German).
ME: the English adjectives lost most of their inflections earlier than nouns in the first half of the ME period. The agreement with
the noun was lost as well by the end of the 14 th century. The only stable grammatical category was the degrees of comparison,
they were preserved. Besides, analytical formation of degrees of comparison developed. But, on the whole the adjective became
unchangeable part of speech.

Grammatical categories of the OE verb:


1) tense (Past, Present), future was expressed by adverbs and with the help of corresponding subjunctive form.
2) Mood (Indicative, Imperative (distinguished Number), Subjunctive.
3) Person
4) Number.

There were four morphological types of the verb in OE depending on the type of conjugation. Nearly all the verbs in OE were
distributed unequally between two major types: strong and weak verbs (except for some 20 verbs of minor types: anomalous
and preterit-present verbs).

There were no analytical forms. They came in Middle English. All the analytical forms developed on the basis of syntactic
combinations:
1) Future: scullan and willan plus infinitive. The lexical meaning of these verbs was associated with the idea of Future.
2) Passive: beon and weorþan (dies out in the 14th century)
3) Perfect: habban and beon + Participle II. Habban was used for transitive verbs. The new forms of Present Perfect and
Past Perfect were used interchangeably.
The evolution in the verb system shows the tendency towards simplification and greater regularity. Yet at the same time
the rise of the analytical forms demonstrates the opposite process. The system became more complex formally and
functionally because three new grammatical categories came into existence:
Voice, Aspect and Time Correlation. Most of the changes took place in the Middle English period.
OE Syntax

The fact that syntactic relationship between words in the sentence could be shown by means of inflections diminished the role of
word order, which in OE was far less fixed than in NE.
Phrase
Among various types of syntactic connection two types play the leading role: agreement and government.
Agreement – is a system of correspondence between 2 or more words in regard to number, gender, case and person.
The main instances of agreement in OE are the following:
1) correlation between subject and predicate, including predicatives:
ic ealdiʒe (sg. 1st pers.), đu ʒesihst
Flota wæs on ÿðum.
Mine daʒas āʒāne bēođ. (pl., 3rd pers.) (all the three words show the agreement with the noun in pl.)
Possessive and demonstrative pronouns, participles and adjectives agreed with a noun.

NEGATION
In OE the common word for negation was nē, inherited from IE. Usually preceded the verb. hē ne michte he not could
This element often fused with the following frequently used words, if they began with a vowel or with “w”
nis = ne + is
nän = ne + än
næs = ne + was
nät = ne + wät (don’t know)
Multiple negations were perfectly normal in OE. Он никогда никому ничего не говорил об этом.
The number of negations was not limited.

IMPERSONAL SENTENCES (безличные предложения) Мне нравится. Мне жарко. Мне кажется.
Him ϸuhte (ему думалось). Me lyciȝe (мне нравится)

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