History of English
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After the
English as we know it today came to be exported to other parts of the world through
Global variation among different
Proto-English
English has its roots in the languages of the
The languages spoken by the Germanic peoples who initially settled in Britain were part of the
These dialects had most of the typical West Germanic features, including a significant amount of grammatical inflection. Vocabulary came largely from the core Germanic stock, although due to the Germanic peoples' extensive contacts with the Roman world, the settlers' languages already included a number of loanwords from Latin.[7] For instance, the predecessor of Modern English wine had been borrowed into early Germanic from the Latin vinum.
Old English
The Germanic settlers in the British Isles initially spoke a number of different dialects, which would develop into a language that came to be called Anglo-Saxon. It displaced the indigenous
Old English was first written using a
The introduction of Christianity from around the year 600 encouraged the addition of over 400 Latin loan words into Old English, such as the predecessors of the modern priest, paper, and school, and a smaller number of Greek loan words.[10] The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was also subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule and settlement beginning in the 9th century (see below).
Most native English speakers today find Old English unintelligible, even though about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots.
The Scandinavians, or
Only about 100 or 150 Norse words, mainly connected with government and administration, are found in Old English writing. The borrowing of words of this type was stimulated by Scandinavian rule in the Danelaw and during the later reign of Cnut. However, most surviving Old English texts are based on the West Saxon standard that developed outside the Danelaw; it is not clear to what extent Norse influenced the forms of the language spoken in eastern and northern England at that time. Later texts from the Middle English era, now based on an eastern Midland rather than a Wessex standard, reflect the significant impact that Norse had on the language. In all, English borrowed about 2000 words from Old Norse, several hundred surviving in Modern English.[15]
Norse borrowings include many very common words, such as anger, bag, both, hit, law, leg, same, skill, sky, take, window, and even the pronoun
Some scholars have claimed that Old English died out entirely and was replaced by Norse towards the end of the Old English period and as part of the transition to Middle English, by virtue of the Middle English syntax being much more akin to Norse than Old English.[17] Other scholars reject this claim.[18]
Middle English
Middle English is the form of English spoken roughly from the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 until the end of the 15th century.
For centuries after the Conquest, the Norman kings and high-ranking nobles in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles spoke Anglo-Norman, a variety of Old Norman, originating from a northern langue d'oïl dialect. Merchants and lower-ranked nobles were often bilingual in Anglo-Norman and English, whilst English continued to be the language of the common people. Middle English was influenced by both Anglo-Norman, and later Anglo-French (see characteristics of the Anglo-Norman language).
Until the 14th century, Anglo-Norman and then French were the language of the courts and government. Even after the decline of Norman, standard French retained the status of a formal or prestige language, and about 10,000 French (and Norman) loan words entered Middle English, particularly terms associated with government, church, law, the military, fashion, and food[19] (see English language word origins and List of English words of French origin). Although English is a Germanic language, it has a deep connection to Romance languages. The roots of this connection trace back to the Conquest of England by the Normans in 1066. The Normans spoke a dialect of Old French, and the comingling of Norman French and Old English resulted in Middle English, a language that reflects aspects of both Germanic and Romance languages and evolved into the English we speak today (where nearly 60% of the words are loanworded from Latin & romance languages like French).
The strong influence of
English literature began to reappear after 1200, when a changing political climate and the decline in Anglo-Norman made it more respectable. The Provisions of Oxford, released in 1258, was the first English government document to be published in the English language after the Norman Conquest. In 1362, Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in English. The Pleading in English Act 1362 made English the only language in which court proceedings could be held, though the official record remained in Latin.[25] By the end of the century, even the royal court had switched to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it had ceased to be a living language. Official documents began to be produced regularly in English during the 15th century. Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived in the late 14th century, is the most famous writer from the Middle English period, and The Canterbury Tales is his best-known work.
The English language changed enormously during the Middle English period, in vocabulary, in pronunciation, and in grammar. While Old English is a heavily
Early Modern English
English underwent extensive sound changes during the 15th century, while its spelling conventions remained largely constant. Modern English is often dated from the Great Vowel Shift, which took place mainly during the 15th century. The language was further transformed by the spread of a standardized London-based dialect in government and administration and by the standardizing effect of printing, which also tended to regularize capitalization. As a result, the language acquired self-conscious terms such as "accent" and "dialect".[27] As most early presses came from continental Europe, a few native English letters such as þ and ð died out; for some time þe (modern "the") was written as ye. By the time of William Shakespeare (mid 16th - early 17th century),[28] the language had become clearly recognizable as Modern English. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published, A Table Alphabeticall.
Increased literacy and travel facilitated the adoption of many foreign words, especially borrowings from
Modern English
The first authoritative and full-featured English dictionary, the
Early Modern English and Late Modern English, also called Present-Day English (PDE), differ essentially in vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from the Industrial Revolution and technologies that created a need for new words, as well as international development of the language. The British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's land surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. British English and North American English, the two major varieties of the language, are together spoken by 400 million people. The total number of English speakers worldwide may exceed one billion.[31] The English language will almost certainly continue to evolve over time.
Phonological changes
Introduction
Over the last 1,200 years or so, English has undergone extensive changes in its vowel system, but many fewer changes to its consonants.
In the Old English period, a number of umlaut processes affected vowels in complex ways, and unstressed vowels were gradually eroded, eventually leading to a loss of grammatical case and grammatical gender in the Early Middle English period. The most important umlaut process was *i-mutation (c. 500 CE), which led to pervasive alternations of all sorts, many of which survive in the modern language: e.g. in noun paradigms (foot vs. feet, mouse vs. mice, brother vs. brethren); in verb paradigms (sold vs. sell); nominal derivatives from adjectives ("strong" vs. "strength", broad vs. breadth, foul vs. filth) and from other nouns (fox vs. "vixen"); verbal derivatives ("food" vs. "to feed"); and comparative adjectives ("old" vs. "elder"). Consonants were more stable, although velar consonants were significantly modified by palatalization, which produced alternations such as speak vs. speech, drink vs. drench, wake vs. watch, bake vs. batch.
The Middle English period saw further vowel changes. Most significant was the Great Vowel Shift (c. 1500 CE), which transformed the pronunciation of all long vowels. This occurred after the spelling system was fixed, and accounts for the drastic differences in pronunciation between "short" mat, met, bit, cot vs. "long" mate, mete/meet, bite, coat. Other changes that left echoes in the modern language were homorganic lengthening before ld, mb, nd, which accounts for the long vowels in child, mind, climb, etc.; pre-cluster shortening, which resulted in the vowel alternations in child vs. children, keep vs. kept, meet vs. met; and trisyllabic laxing, which is responsible for alternations such as grateful vs. gratitude, divine vs. divinity, sole vs. solitary.
Among the more significant recent changes to the language have been the development of
Vowel changes
The following table shows the principal developments in the stressed vowels, from Old English through Modern English (C indicates any consonant):
Old English (c. 900 AD) |
Middle English (c. 1400 AD) |
Early Modern English (c. 1600 AD) |
Modern English | Modern spelling | Examples |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ɑː | ɔː | oː | oʊ əʊ (UK) |
oa, oCe | oak, boat, whole, stone |
æː, æːɑ | ɛː | eː | iː | ea | heal, beat, cheap |
eː, eːo | eː | iː | ee, -e | feed, deep, me, be | |
iː, yː | iː | əi or ɛi | aɪ | iCe | ride, time, mice |
oː | oː | uː | uː | oo, -o | moon, food, do |
uː | uː | əu or ɔu | aʊ | ou | mouse, out, loud |
ɑ, æ, æɑ | a | æ | æ | a | man, sat, wax |
aː | ɛː | eɪ | aCe | name, bake, raven | |
e, eo | e | ɛ | ɛ | e | help, tell, seven |
ɛː | eː | iː | ea, eCe | speak, meat, mete | |
i, y | ɪ | ɪ | ɪ | i | written, sit, kiss |
o | o | ɔ | ɒ ɑ (US) |
o | god, top, beyond |
ɔː | oː | oʊ əʊ (UK) |
oa, oCe | foal, nose, over | |
u | ʊ | ɤ | ʌ | u, o | buck, up, love, wonder |
ʊ | ʊ | full, bull |
The following chart shows the primary developments of English vowels in the last 600 years, in more detail, since
Neither of the above tables covers the history of Middle English diphthongs, the changes before /r/, or various special cases and exceptions. For details, see phonological history of English as well as the articles on Old English phonology and Middle English phonology.
Examples
The vowel changes over time can be seen in the following example words, showing the changes in their form over the last 2,000 years:
one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | mother | heart | hear | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proto-Germanic, c. AD 1 | ainaz | twai | θriːz | feðwoːr | fimf | sehs | seβun | moːðeːr | hertoːː | hauzijanã |
West Germanic, c. AD 400 | ain | θriju | fewwur | moːdar | herta | haurijan | ||||
Late Old English, c. AD 900 | aːn | twaː | θreo | feowor | fiːf | siks | sĕŏvon | moːdor | hĕŏrte | heːran, hyːran |
(Late Old English spelling) | (ān) | (twā) | (þrēo) | (fēowor) | (fīf) | (six) | (seofon) | (mōdor) | (heorte) | (hēran, hȳran) |
Late Middle English, c. 1350 | ɔːn | twoː | θreː | fowər | fiːvə | siks | sevən | moːðər | hertə | hɛːrə(n) |
(Late Middle English spelling) | (oon) | (two) | (three) | (fower) | (five) | (six) | (seven) | (mother) | (herte) | (heere(n)) |
Early Modern English, c. 1600 | oːn >! wʊn | twuː > tuː | θriː | foːr | fəiv | siks | sevən | mʊðər | hert | heːr |
Modern English, c. 2000 | wʌn | tuː | fɔː(r) | faiv | sɪks | mʌðə(r) | hɑrt/hɑːt | hiːr/hiə | ||
one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | mother | heart | hear |
Grammatical changes
The
Evolution of English pronouns
Pronouns such as whom and him (contrasted with who and he), are a conflation of the old accusative and dative cases, as well as of the genitive case after prepositions (while her also includes the genitive case). This conflated form is called the as further examples, these cases had distinct forms.
Although some grammarians continue to use the traditional terms "accusative" and "dative", these are functions rather than morphological cases in Modern English. That is, the form whom may play accusative or dative roles (as well as instrumental or prepositional roles), but it is a single morphological form, contrasting with nominative who and genitive whose. Many grammarians use the labels "subjective", "objective", and "possessive" for nominative, oblique, and genitive pronouns.
Modern English nouns exhibit only one inflection of the reference form: the
Interrogative pronouns
Case | Old English |
Middle English | Modern English | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine, feminine (person) |
Nominative | hwā | who | who |
Accusative | hwone, hwæne | whom | whom, who1 | |
Dative | hwām, hwǣm | |||
Instrumental | ||||
Genitive | hwæs | whos | whose | |
Neuter (thing) |
Nominative | hwæt | what | what |
Accusative | hwæt | what, whom | ||
Dative | hwām, hwǣm | |||
Instrumental | hwȳ, hwon | why | why2 | |
Genitive | hwæs | whos | whose3 |
1 - In some dialects "who" is used where formal English only allows "whom", though variation among dialects must be taken into account.
2 - An explanation may be found in the last paragraph of this section of Instrumental case.
3 - Usually replaced by of what (postpositioned).
First person personal pronouns
Case | Old English |
Middle English | Modern English | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Nominative | iċ | I, ich, ik | I |
Accusative | mē, meċ | me | me | |
Dative | mē | |||
Genitive | mīn | min, mi | my, mine | |
Plural | Nominative | wē | we | we1 |
Accusative | ūs, ūsiċ | us | us | |
Dative | ūs | |||
Genitive | ūser, ūre | ure, our | our, ours |
1 - Old English also had a separate dual, wit ("we two") etcetera; however, no later forms derive from it.
Second person personal pronouns
Case | Old English |
Middle English | Modern English | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Nominative | þū | þu, thou | thou (you) |
Accusative | þē, þeċ | þé, thee | thee (you) | |
Dative | þē | |||
Genitive | þīn | þi, þīn, þīne, thy; thin, thine | thy, thine (your, yours) | |
Plural | Nominative | ġē | ye, ȝe, you | you1 |
Accusative | ēow, ēowiċ | you, ya | ||
Dative | ēow | |||
Genitive | ēower | your | your, yours |
1 - Note that the ye/you distinction still existed, at least optionally, in Early Modern English: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" from the
Here the letter þ (interchangeable with ð in manuscripts) corresponds to th. For ȝ, see Yogh.
Old English
|
Middle English | Modern English | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||||||||
Case | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | |
Nominative | þū | ġē1 | you | thou | you | ye | you | ||||||
Accusative | þē, þeċ | ēow, ēowiċ | thee | you | |||||||||
Dative | þē | ēow | |||||||||||
Genitive | þīn | ēower | your, yours | thy, thine | your, yours | your, yours |
1 - (Old English also had a separate dual, ġit ("ye two") etcetera; however, no later forms derive from it.)
Third person personal pronouns
Case | Old English |
Middle English | Modern English | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine singular | Nominative | hē | he | he |
Accusative | hine | him | him | |
Dative | him | |||
Genitive | his | his | his | |
Feminine singular | Nominative | hēo | heo, sche, ho, he, ȝho | she |
Accusative | hīe | hire, hure, her, heore | her | |
Dative | hire | |||
Genitive | hir, hire, heore, her, here | her, hers | ||
Neuter singular | Nominative | hit | hit, it | it, they |
Accusative | hit, it, him | it, them | ||
Dative | him | |||
Genitive | his | his | its, their | |
Plural1 | Nominative | hīe | he, hi, ho, hie, þai, þei | they |
Accusative | hem, ham, heom, þaim, þem, þam | them | ||
Dative | him | |||
Genitive | hira | here, heore, hore, þair, þar | their, theirs |
1 - The origin of the modern forms is generally thought to have been a borrowing from Old Norse forms þæir, þæim, þæira. The two different roots co-existed for some time, although currently the only common remnant is the shortened form 'em. Cf. also the demonstrative pronouns.
Examples
Beowulf
Beowulf is an Old English epic poem in alliterative verse. It is dated from the 8th to the early 11th centuries. These are the first 11 lines:
Hwæt! Wē Gār-Dena in geārdagum, þēodcyninga þrym gefrūnon, hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scēfing sceaþena þrēatum, monegum mǣgþum, meodosetla oftēah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ǣrest wearð fēasceaft funden, hē þæs frōfre gebād, wēox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þāh, oðþæt him ǣghwylc þāra ymbsittendra ofer hronrāde hȳran scolde, gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs gōd cyning!
Which, as translated by Francis Barton Gummere, reads:
Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!
Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan
This is the beginning of The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, a prose text in Old English dated to the late 9th century. The full text can be found at Wikisource.
Original: Ōhthere sǣde his hlāforde, Ælfrēde cyninge, ðæt hē ealra Norðmonna norþmest būde. Hē cwæð þæt hē būde on þǣm lande norþweardum wiþ þā Westsǣ. Hē sǣde þēah þæt þæt land sīe swīþe lang norþ þonan; ac hit is eal wēste, būton on fēawum stōwum styccemǣlum wīciað Finnas, on huntoðe on wintra, ond on sumera on fiscaþe be þǣre sǣ. Hē sǣde þæt hē æt sumum cirre wolde fandian hū longe þæt land norþryhte lǣge, oþþe hwæðer ǣnig mon be norðan þǣm wēstenne būde. Þā fōr hē norþryhte be þǣm lande: lēt him ealne weg þæt wēste land on ðæt stēorbord, ond þā wīdsǣ on ðæt bæcbord þrīe dagas. Þā wæs hē swā feor norþ swā þā hwælhuntan firrest faraþ. Þā fōr hē þā giet norþryhte swā feor swā hē meahte on þǣm ōþrum þrīm dagum gesiglau. Þā bēag þæt land, þǣr ēastryhte, oþþe sēo sǣ in on ðæt lond, hē nysse hwæðer, būton hē wisse ðæt hē ðǣr bād westanwindes ond hwōn norþan, ond siglde ðā ēast be lande swā swā hē meahte on fēower dagum gesiglan. Þā sceolde hē ðǣr bīdan ryhtnorþanwindes, for ðǣm þæt land bēag þǣr sūþryhte, oþþe sēo sǣ in on ðæt land, hē nysse hwæþer. Þā siglde hē þonan sūðryhte be lande swā swā hē meahte on fīf dagum gesiglan. Ðā læg þǣr ān micel ēa ūp on þæt land. Ðā cirdon hīe ūp in on ðā ēa for þǣm hīe ne dorston forþ bī þǣre ēa siglan for unfriþe; for þǣm ðæt land wæs eall gebūn on ōþre healfe þǣre ēas. Ne mētte hē ǣr nān gebūn land, siþþan hē from his āgnum hām fōr; ac him wæs ealne weg wēste land on þæt stēorbord, būtan fiscerum ond fugelerum ond huntum, ond þæt wǣron eall Finnas; ond him wæs āwīdsǣ on þæt bæcbord. Þā Boermas heafdon sīþe wel gebūd hira land: ac hīe ne dorston þǣr on cuman. Ac þāra Terfinna land wæs eal wēste, būton ðǣr huntan gewīcodon, oþþe fisceras, oþþe fugeleras. |
A translation: Sami] encamp, hunting in winter and in summer fishing by the sea. He said that at some time he wanted to find out how long the land lay northward or whether any man lived north of the wasteland. Then he traveled north by the land. All the way he kept the waste land on his starboard and the wide sea on his port three days. Then he was as far north as whale hunters furthest travel. Then he traveled still north as far as he might sail in another three days. Then the land bowed east (or the sea into the land — he did not know which). But he knew that he waited there for west winds (and somewhat north), and sailed east by the land so as he might sail in four days. Then he had to wait for due-north winds, because the land bowed south (or the sea into the land — he did not know which). Then he sailed from there south by the land so as he might sail in five days. Then a large river lay there up into the land. Then they turned up into the river, because they dared not sail forth past the river for hostility, because the land was all settled on the other side of the river. He had not encountered earlier any settled land since he travelled from his own home, but all the way waste land was on his starboard (except fishers, fowlers and hunters, who were all Finns). And the wide sea was always on his port. The Bjarmians have cultivated their land very well, but they did not dare go in there. But the Terfinn's land was all waste except where hunters encamped, or fishers or fowlers.[33]
|
Ayenbite of Inwyt
From Ayenbite of Inwyt ("the prick of conscience"), a translation of a French confessional prose work into the Kentish dialect of Middle English, completed in 1340:[34]
Nou ich wille þet ye ywite hou hit is ywent
þet þis boc is ywrite mid Engliss of Kent.
Þis boc is ymad vor lewede men
Vor vader and vor moder and vor oþer ken
ham vor to berȝe vram alle manyere zen
þet ine hare inwytte ne bleve no voul wen.
'Huo ase god' in his name yzed,
Þet þis boc made god him yeve þet bread,
Of angles of hevene, and þerto his red,
And ondervonge his zaule huanne þet he is dyad. Amen.
The Canterbury Tales
The beginning of The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in poetry and prose written in the London dialect of Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century:[35]
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open yë
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Paradise Lost
The beginning of Paradise Lost, an epic poem in unrhymed iambic pentameter written in Early Modern English by John Milton and first published in 1667:
Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
Oliver Twist
A selection from the novel Oliver Twist, written by Charles Dickens in Modern English and published in 1838:
The evening arrived: the boys took their places; the master in his cook's uniform stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out, and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared, the boys whispered each other and winked at Oliver, while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger and reckless with misery. He rose from the table, and advancing, basin and spoon in hand, to the master, said, somewhat alarmed at his own temerity—
"Please, sir, I want some more."
The master was a fat, healthy man, but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder, and the boys with fear.
"What!" said the master at length, in a faint voice.
"Please, sir," replied Oliver, "I want some more."
The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle, pinioned him in his arms, and shrieked aloud for the beadle.
See also
- Influence of French on English
- Phonological history of the English language
- Comparison of American and British English
- English phonology
- English studies
- Inkhorn debate
- Languages in the United Kingdom
- Middle English declension
- History of the Scots language
- Changes to Old English vocabulary
Lists:
- List of dialects of the English language
- List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents
- Lists of English words of international origin
Notes
- ISBN 9780836191585.
- ISBN 9781562123437.
- ^ Dark, Ken, 2000. Britain and the End of the Roman Empire. Brimscombe, Gloucestershire, Tempus, pp. 43-47.
- ^ Oppenheimer, Stephen, 2006. The Origins of the British London, Robinson, pp. 364-374.
- ^ Euler, Wolfram 2022. Das Westgermanische - von der Herausbildung im 3. Jahrhundert bis zur Aufgliederung im 7. Jahrhundert - Analyse und Rekonstruktion [West Germanic - from the Formation in the 3rd Century to the Breakup in the 7th Century - Analysis and Reconstruction]. Berlin, Inspiration Unlimited, p. 1 (cover)
- ^ Stiles, Patrick. "Remarks on the 'Anglo-Frisian' Thesis (1995)".
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(help) - ^ Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 79-81.
- ^ Crystal, David. 2004. The Stories of English. London: Penguin. pp. 24-26.
- ^ Shore, Thomas William (1906), Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race - A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People (1st ed.), London, pp. 3, 393
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 91-92.
- ^ "Geordie dialect". Bl.uk. 2007-03-12. Archived from the original on 2019-07-22. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ "4.1 The change from Old English to Middle English". Uni-kassel.de. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ The Oxford history of English lexicography, Volume 1 By Anthony Paul Cowie
- ^ Fennell, B (2001). A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
- ^ a b c Hogg, Richard M. (ed.). (1992). The Cambridge History of the English Language (Vol. 1): the Beginnings to 1066. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 320ff.
- ^ Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 92-105.
- ^ Faarlund, Jan Terje, and Joseph E. Emonds. "English as North Germanic". Language Dynamics and Change 6.1 (2016): 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-00601002
- S2CID 146920677.
- ^ Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 158-178.
- ^ Filppula, Markku, Juhani Klemola and Heli Pitkänen (eds.). 2002. The Celtic Roots of English. Joensuu: University of Joensuu, Faculty of Humanities.
- ^ David L. White On the Areal Pattern of 'Brittonicity' in English and Its Implications in Hildegard L. C. Tristram (ed.). 2006. The Celtic Englishes IV – The Interface Between English and the Celtic Languages. Potsdam: University of Potsdam
- ^ Coates, Richard (2010), Reviewed Work: English and Celtic in Contact
- ^ Robert McColl Millar, "English in the 'transition period': the sources of contact-induced change," in Contact: The Interaction of Closely-Related Linguistic Varieties and the History of English, Edinburgh University Press (2016)
- ^ John Insley, "Britons and Anglo-Saxons," in Kulturelle Integration und Personnenamen in Mittelalter, De Gruyter (2018)
- ^ La langue française et la mondialisation, Yves Montenay, Les Belles lettres, Paris, 2005
- ^ Millward, C. M. (1989). A Biography of the English Language. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 147.
- ^ Crystal, David. 2004. The Stories of English. London: Penguin. pp. 341-343.
- ^ See Fausto Cercignani, Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981.
- ^ Franklin, James (1983). "Mental furniture from the philosophers" (PDF). Et Cetera. 40: 177–191. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
- ^ Algeo, John. 2010. The Origins and Development of the English Language. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. pp. 140-141.
- ^ Algeo, John. 2010. The Origins and Development of the English Language. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. pp. 182-187.
- ^ Peter S. Baker (2003). "Pronouns". The Electronic Introduction to Old English. Oxford: Blackwell. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015.
- ^ Original translation for this article: In this close translation readers should be able to see the correlation with the original.
- ^ Translation:
Now I want that you understand how it has come [i.e., happened]
that this book is written with [the] English of Kent.
This book is made for unlearned men
for father, and for mother, and for other kin
them for to protect [i.e., in order to protect them] from all manner of sin
[so] that in their conscience [there] not remain no foul wen [i.e., blemish].
"Who [is] like God?" [the author's name is "Michael", which in Hebrew means "Who is like God?"] in His name said
that this book made God give him that bread
of angels of heaven and in addition His council
and receive his soul when he has died. Amen. - ^ Spelling based on The Riverside Chaucer, third edition, Larry D. Benson, gen. ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.
References
- Cercignani, Fausto, Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981.
- ISBN 0-500-27616-1
- ISBN 978-0199207848. Oxford.
- ISBN 0-85991-513-1
Further reading
- Bill Bryson (1990). The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way. William Morrow Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0380715435.
- David Crystal (2013). The Story of English in 100 Words. Picador. ISBN 978-1250024206.
- David Crystal (2015). Wordsmiths and Warriors: The English-Language Tourist's Guide to Britain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198729136.
- ISBN 978-1250143785.
- Hejná, Míša & Walkden, George. 2022. A history of English. (Textbooks in Language Sciences 9). Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6560337 . A history of English. Open Access.