HEL 5       

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Germanic and the Development of Old English

 

 

*Proto-Germanic

          A reconstructed language

                   Common Germanic/Germanic

          Homeland: southern Scandinavia?

                   Germanic dispersal

                             Later migrations 2 3

 

West Germanic languages

     Dutch (Low Franconian, West Germanic)

 

     Low German (West Germanic)

     Central German (High German, West Germanic)

     Upper German (High German, West Germanic)

 

     English (Anglo-Frisian, West Germanic)

     Frisian (Anglo-Frisian, West Germanic)

 

North Germanic languages

     East Scandinavian (Swedish, Danish)

     West Scandinavian (Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese)

 

     Line dividing the North and West Germanic languages

 
 
Germanic Languages (source):

 

 

EAST Germanic language:

Gothic (long-dead)

 

 

Oldest records of Germanic:

Gothic

          Translation of the Gospels in 4th century by Ulfilas (Wulfila)

                   From Greek; adapted Greek alphabet (not Latin)

 

                             Has NO modern descendents

                                     

 

WEST and NORTH Germanic:

          Before Xianity: use of RUNES for inscriptional writing

                   3rd to 8th centuries CE / AD

                             Runes !

 

 

          Adaptation of Latin alphabet for writing Germanic languages:

 

                   OHG: oldest, but scattered (750 AD)

                   North: Icelandic/ON 1000 CE / AD

                   WEST: Old English/Old Saxon 8th cent +

                             Probably mutually intelligible

 

 

 

 

 

Grammatical and Lexical Changes

From Proto-Indo-European (PIE) to Proto Germanic

 

 

 

Verb system:

          Focus on ASPECT becomes one focused on TENSE

                   Aspect:       ongoing: is running (vs. he runs)

                                      completed:   ran (vs. was running)

                                      resultant: has run

                   MODERN ENGLISH uses Periphrastic forms

 

Tense reduced to PAST or non-PAST

morphologically, this is still the case in modern English

 

 

 

 

          PIE: “Strong” Verbs:

(Strong and Weak: Jacob Grimm’s terminology

Strong = goes all the way back to PIE

Weak = an innovation)

 

Strong verbs show Vowel ablaut (aka “vowel gradation”)

                   Exx. from Latin

                             ago, egi, actus

                             faceo, feci, factus

 

Also commonly found in all Germanic languages

The source of about 1/4 Modern English “irregular verbs”

 

          run, ran, run

          swim, swam, swum

          drink, drank, drunk

 

 

 

          Germanic innovation:

WEAK verbs:

show past tense by means of a dental suffix (-d / -t)

 

                   Productive/analogical method

                             walk, walked, walked

                             spend, spent, spent

                             buy, bought, bought

zip, zipped, zipped

sofa, sofaed, sofaed

clorp, clorped, clorped

 

 

 

          MOOD simplification:

 

                   5 in PIE

                             Indicative, Imperative, optative, injunctive (unreality), subjunctive

 

                   Germ.:

Ind., Imp., Subj.

 

 

 

          VOICE:

                             PIE:

Active, passive, middle

Gmc:

Only active

(passive formed with auxiliary verbs)

 

 

 

          NOUNS:

                   Case syncretism:

reduced to 5

 

Nominative (vocative)

Accusative

Dative (Abl., loc., dat.)

Instrumental

 

 

 

          ADJECTIVES:

                   Strong and weak forms

 

 

 

 

Phonological Changes:

          The First Sound Shift:

2 parts:

Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law

                  

 

 

Grimm’s Law

First noted by Rasmus Rask in 1818

                             Grimm 1828

 

 

We compare the changes that occur between PIE words and Germanic

(by comparing a wide variety of cognates)

 

A Massive, Unconditioned sound change, c. 1000 and 400 BCE

          “violent progress and craving for freedom” (Jacob)

 

 

Easiest to observe at the beginnings of words

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Voiceless stops become corresponding voiceless fricatives in Gmc.

          ! Unless PIE stop follows ‘s’ !

                   Link to Consonant chart

IPA

 

/p/ > /f/                                            L pater       cf.      father

 

/t/ > /θ/                                            L tres          cf.      OE threo

                   L tu             cf.      thou

 

/k/ > /x/ or /h/ (initially)                L cruor       cf.      OE hreaw

L cornu       cf.      horn

L cordis      cf.      heart

 

/kw/ > /xw/ or /hw/                       L quod        cf.      OE hwæt

 

 

 

NOTES: the Latin (or Greek or Sanskrit words) are not the origin of these words:

they are COGNATES

 

Note now how easy it is to tell a cognate from a loan word

paternal; patronymic; fatherly

 

 

Exception: When PIE stop was preceded by an /s/, it did not change:

 

spew          cf. L spuere

 

stand          cf. L stare

 

short          cf. Lith skurdus

 

scold          cf. Ir scioll

                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Voiced stops become voiceless stops

 

/b/ > /p/                        L cannabis cf.      hemp ( B is very rare in PIE)

Lith dubs    cf.      deep

Lith troba (‘house’)      cf.      thorpe

 

/d/ > /t/                        L decem     cf.       ten

L duo          cf.     two

L domare   cf.      tame

 

/g/ > /k/                        L genu                 cf.       knee         

L ager                  cf.       acre

L genus                cf.       kin

genuflect vs. kneel

 

/gw/ > /kw/                  L vivus        cf.       quick

(L: /w/)

                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Voiced aspirated stops > voiced fricative > voiced stop

 

/bh/ > /β/ > /b/                               L frater                cf.      brother

          (L: /f/)                                               L flo, flare           cf.       blow

                                                          L foris                  cf.       door

 

/dh/ > /ð/ > /d/                               Gr thugater         cf.       daughter

 

/gh/ > /γ/ > /g/                                L homo                cf.       OE guma

(L: /h/)                                    L hostis                cf.       guest

 

 

 

This only affects PIE STOPS

 

(not the fricative, liquids, nasals, glides)

 

 

 

SUMMARY of Grimm’s Law:

Visualization

 

Aspirated voiced stops

Voiced Stops

Voiceless stops

Voiceless fricatives

bh  >

b  >

p  >

f 

dh  >

d  >

t  >

θ 

gh  >

g  >

k  > 

h 

 

PLUS

 

/kw/ > /xw/ or /hw/

/gw/ > /kw/

 

 

The sound changes of Grimm’s Law likely began around 5th c. BCE, and took a few centuries to complete

 

 

 

 

 

 

VERNER’S LAW

Grimms’s Law was NOT operating without exception

Certain INTERVOCALIC consonants did not shift as predicted

                   How to explain the exceptions?

 

IE      expected             What we get

 

/p/ not /f/           but /β/ >/v/        OR     > /b/

         

/t/ not /θ/           but /ð/                 OR (WGerm) /d/ seethe cf. sodden (boil) 

 

/k/ not /x/           but /γ/ > /w/ OR          /g/

 

AND

 

/s/ not /s/           but /z/                 > /r/            was cf. were

OE leoson cf. -loren

 

rhotacism: L genus cf. generis

 

A conditioned change brought about by the place of floating accent in PIE

 

“If a PIE voiceless stop is in a voiced environment [intervocalic], then it will appear in Germanic as a voiced fricative (or stop) when the PIE accent does not fall on the immediately preceding syllable (i.e., vowel)”

 

When PIE stress is on the immediately preceding vowel, it will shift as Grimm predicted.

         

 

 

 

 

Then Accent Shifted

          Accent in Germanic is on First Syllable, almost universally

the accent shift obscured the cause of the exceptions to Grimm’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Verner and Grimm:

Used for dating words

 

                             Has Grimm’s Law affected the word?

if not, it’s probably a loanword

 

          OE panne (< Latin panna), not *fanne

OE piper (< L piper), not *fifer

OE belt (< L balteus), not *felt

 

 

 

Vowels:

          Don’t change much from PIE to Gmc.

 

 

 

Second Germanic Sound Shift

(does not affect English: never made it to Northern Germany “low German”

plus the Anglo-Saxons had already left):

 

Very useful in discovering similarities between English and German

 

Proto-Germ.        >        High German

          /p/              >        /pf/   >       /ff/              Apfel; Schiff (cf. apple; ship)

          /t/               >        /z/     >        /ss/             Zwei; wasser (cf. two; water)

          /k/              >        /ch/                               machen (cf. make)

          /d/              >        /t/                                  Tag; mittel; Vater (cf. day; middle; father)

          /θ/              >        /d/                                 der (cf. their)

 

 

A consonantal drag chain

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old English: The Language of the Anglo-Saxons

 

 

HISTORY OF Anglo-Saxon England: “617 Years!”

 

MAP another

 

 

Inhabited by Celts: Britons

 

 

Invaded by Romans, from 55 BC until 410 AD

          Built lots of stuff

 

 

Invaded by continental Germanic peoples:

 

Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (oh my)

          c. 449: story goes that they were invited by a Briton king Vortigern

                             Hengest and Horsa

 

          Very successful invasion:

push the (Christian) Celts/Britons into Wales = foreigners

                   very little interaction with Celts

 

 

          Number of petty kingdoms; by 800 we’re looking at 4:

 

                   Wessex (West Saxons), East Anglia, Merica, and Northumbria

 

 

 

Christianization:

 

Britons don’t care about Anglo-Saxons’ souls 

 

North:

Irish sends missionaries in 600s   

 

                   Aidan and Lindisfarne: 635

 

                             The Venerable Bede:

fl. 700 Pinnacle of learning is his day

                   Historia Ecclesiastica

 

 

 

          South:

St Augustine to Kent (Canterbury) in 597

                   from Pope Gregory

                             Angel story from Bede

 

 

          Anglo-Saxons gain literacy:

in Latin and in Old English

                   Adopt Latin alphabet (see next time)

 

 

 

 

Scandinavian Invasions of ASE

          From Denmark, Norwegians, Swedes

 

(Though most of our records are later and preserved in Icelandic, who were ethnically Norwegian: the literary standard of Norse)

 

 

 

Vikings: Tremendously successful, as always

 

                   Sack Lindisfarne 793

 

          England, Ireland, Normandy, Sicily, Byzantium, Ukraine

                  

English “victory”: King Alfred 878:

                                      You can stay-the Danelaw

                             Massive colonization of England

 

                   Early 11th century: Cnut and Hardacnut kings

 

 

1066 William the Bastard of Normandy successfully conquers England

Normans = Frenchified Vikings (Nor[th]mans)

 

 

 

OE dialects:

 

          Kentish

          West Saxon:

the most important:

two literary periods:

early (king Alfred) and late (Benedictine revival: Ælfric)

          Mercian

          Northumbrian (very important very early, but N. England got creamed by the Viks)

 

 

Old English Records: Extensive, in comparison to other early medieval vernaculars

 

          Amount of text: easy onto a CD

cf. the work of Charles Dickens, by word count

 

          Glossing and glossaries: very important for early stuff

                   Charters, law codes

 

          Alfred’s translations

                   Early West Saxon

(trans. Bede, Boethius, Augustine, Gregory the Great)

 

          Anglo-Saxon Chronicles

                   Part of Alfred’s plan?

 

 

          Late 10th century:

Ælfric, Wulfstan

homilies, law codes

translations of more texts (Benedictine rule, e.g.)

 

 

Biblical translations:

Gospels

First 7 book of Old Testament

Psalter

          unheard of for its time

 

 

Poetry:

          Very little of it can be dated with any certainty

 

 

          4 major manuscripts, all from around 1000

                             all preserved by monks

 

 

                   date of composition??

                             Is this even a valid question, since it’s “oral”?

 

 

                   Ignore their dates:

                             Beowulf is infused (thoroughly) with Christianity

                                      Heroic poetry: Seafarer, Wanderer (still look Xian)

 

 

                   Explicitly Christian:

                             Junius manuscript: biblical paraphrase

                                      “Cædmon”

 

                             Cynewulf: 4 signed poems