Germanic tribes settled in England
(Roman Empire) in the 5th century ->
Great Migration (Völkerwanderung)
in some areas occupied by these tribes ->
Germanic languages
(Germany, England)
Vulgar Latin (France)
these three tribes were: Angles,
Saxons, Jutes (coming from today northeastern
Germany & Denmark) their language: Saxon
(=English) = Anglo-Saxons!
culture was largely oral but
had form of writing: runes
carved into wood, bone,
stone
Anglo-Saxons were christianised in the 7th
century by missionaries from Rome and
Ireland. Brought also along: Roman alphabet,
reading, writing (mostly Latin), bookmaking
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms attacked by Vikings from
Norway and Denmark in 8th century, settled in
northern and eastern England -> area was called
Danelaw
English-speaking Anglo-Saxons
mixed with Old Norse from the
Vikings, still Old-English
Scandinavian
loanwords: contact
happend on a
everyday level ->
knife, bark, egg, root,
sky
some
replaced
English
words: root
for wyrt
scandinavian
and english
word
survived side
by side:
heaven/sky,
sick/ill
Latin loanwords:
cheese - caseus,
street - strata,
wine - vinum
after Vikings came
monasteries: altar,
angel, candle
Latin = language of learning
2. Middle English
Battle of Hastings: The Normans
(Vikings who were settled in
France) conquered all of England
they French language and culture: upper
class only spoke French then, all the
others English -> although French official
language
over 10'000 French-loanwords out of
church/religion, meals, art, learning,
medicine etc.: table, dinner, art, etc.
english stem + french affix = understandable
words etablished very quick
in English -> French endings
were added to words
(gentleman, gently)
different from Old English because its mixed
vocabulary, internal changes -> loss of inflections
loss of different endings, now: -s
Great Vowel Shift! (1400-1600), From
Middle-, to Modern-English
All long vowels of MidE:
diphthongized or raised
beginning of Standard English!
3. Early Modern English
no dramatic event like Norman Conquest but
inventing of the printing press and the
reformation -> language of renaissance!
interest in classical antiquity -> borrowings
from Greek and Latin (paradox, monopoly,
explain) = inkhorn words (Tintenfasswörter) /
hard words
hard words: Germanic-Romance vocabulary, words learnt
at school trough reading, meaning often not obvious. Native
speakers today have to look up words!
English voci very mixed: 1. wealth
of synonyms (animal - beast,
great - large)
2. Dissocation: mouth - oral -> only related in
meaning, but not in form = dissociated
hard words in English opaque, cannot be
guessed from their components
(Nas-horn in German transparent)