The Origins and Development of the English Language

Chapter 4: The Backgrounds of English

John Algeo and Thomas Pyles

Michael Cheng National Chengchi University

Similarities between languages

English:

mom

miaow-miaow

me

pistachio

choose

glide

Welsh mam

Chinese mi-mi

Swahili mimi

Italian pistacchio

French choisir

Swedish glida

One original language?

Some languages share many common featuresLanguage familyCognates – languages within a language familyNot a biological family – languages don’t get born and die at specific times, or separate creatures from their parents

Models of languages

Family tree

Wave model

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/472574816_7a659b8d85.jpghttp://www.answers.com/topic/wave-model

http://www.intersolinc.com/newsletters/images/Language%20Tree.gif

English – fatherGerman – VaterDutch – vaderIcelandic – faðerNorwegian – fader

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/34/2034-004-9211C072.gif

The language spoken in England is related to the language spoken in India

http://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/2900/2965/2965.jpg

The language in the Bible is related to the language in the Rig Veda

William Jones (September 28, 1746 – April 27, 1794)

Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Chinese

Knew 13 languages; familiar with 28

1768 Oxford

1773 law degree

1783 Supreme Court judge in Calcutta

Indian culture was a new subject for European scholarship1786 – Sanskrit bore a resemblance to Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, and possibly PersianSanskrit: pitar Greek: patēr Latin: paterSuggested a common root language that no longer exists

Languages from Iceland to India are related to a common languageBased on the geographic locations of these languages, we now call the language that Jones hypothesized Proto Indo-European

Jones’ philologer passage, 1786

His third annual discourse before the Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (delivered on February 2, 1786 and published in 1788) with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies. This is Jones' most quoted passage, establishing his tremendous find in the history of linguistics:

The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_(philologist)

The Proto Indo-European people

Who were the people who spoke Proto Indo-European and where did they come from?

PIE dispersion hypotheses

Kurgan Migration

Anatolian Farmer

Balkan

Black Sea Flood

Paleolithic Continuity Theory

Kurgan Migration--Gimbutas

Cognates for:– Alder, apple, ash, beech, birch, elm, hazel,

linden, oak, willow, yew– Wolf, bear, lox

No common words for:– Olive, cypress, palm– Ocean

Suggests inland culture in temperate zone

Kurgan Culture

Herded domesticated animals

Mobile – used wagons

Warrior nobility

Worshipped sky god associated with thunder

Sun, horse, boar, snake

Elaborate burials in mounds (kurgans)

Zeus pater

Jupitar

5000 BCE

Kurgans 4000 BCE

3000 BCE Anatolian

Expansion 2000 BCE

Evolution 500 BCE

500 CE Huns invade from East

Medieval 1500 CE Turks invade

Indo-European languages today

World Language families

Official Indo-European languages today

Armenian homeland

Features of Proto Indo-European

Types of languages: Isolating, Agglutinative, InflectiveIsolating– Every morpheme forms a different word– Chinese

Agglutinative (Incorporative)– Combine grammatical morphemes with a lexical stem– Grammatical morphemes are discrete & don’t change– Strung onto the lexical stem– Swahili, Turkish

Agglutinative example

SwahiliI will like you: nitakupenda– ni – ta – ku – penda– (I) (future) (2nd person object) (verb stem: like)

I liked you: nilakupenda– ni – la – ku – penda– (I) (past) (2nd person object) (verb stem: like)

I like him: nitampenda– ni – ta – m – penda– (I) (future) (him as object) (verb stem: like)

Inflective languages

Inflective– Inseparable inflections are fused to the lexical

stem– Greek, Latin– I love: Amo– Am – o– (love) (first person, singular, present tense,

indicative)

What kind of language is English?

says– inflective

unfriendliness– agglutinative

the, for, to, by, no– isolating

PIE Morphology

Parts of speech– Nouns/Adjectives– Pronouns– Verbs– Prepositions

Nouns/Adjectives and Pronouns were inflected for Case, Number, and Gender

Noun/Adj Infections: 8 cases

Nominative: They saw me. (subject)

Vocative: Officer, I need help. (person addressed)

Accusative: They saw me. (direct object)

Genitive: Shakespeare’s play. (possessor or source)

Dative: Give her a hand. (indirect object, recipient)

Ablative: He abstained from it. (what is separated)

Locative: We stayed home. (place, where)

Instrumental: She ate with chopsticks. (means, instrument)

Germanic cases

Nominative: They saw me. (subject)

– Vocative: Officer, I need help. (person addressed)

Accusative: They saw me. (direct object)

Genitive: Shakespeare’s play. (possessor or source)

Dative: Give her a hand. (indirect object, recipient)• Ablative: He abstained from it. (what is separated)

• Locative: We stayed home. (place, where)

– Instrumental: She ate with chopsticks. (means, instrument)

Noun/Adj Number and Gender

Number: singular, plural, dual

Gender: male, female, neuter

Proto Indo-European Nouns

Singular

Nom.

Voc.

Acc.

Gen.

Dat.

Abl.

Loc.

Ins.

*ekwos

*ekwe

*ekwom

*ekwoso

*ekwōy

*ekwōd

*ekwoy

*ekwō

Plural

Nom/Voc

Acc.

Gen.

Dat./Abl.

Loc.

Ins.

*ekwōs

*ekwons

*ekwōm

*ekwobhyos

*ekwoysu

*ekwōys

Pronouns

Cases (3)

Number (3)

Gender (3)

Person: first, second, third

Verb Inflections

Person

Number

Aspect (kind of like tense): Completion, duration, repetition of action

Voice

Mood

IE Verb Aspect

Present: continuing action in progressImperfect: continuing action in the pastAorist: momentary action in pastPerfect: completed actionPluperfect: completed action in the pastFuture: actions to come(Evolved into only present and past tense in Germanic languages)

IE Voice

Active

Passive

Middle (reflexive)

Germanic lost the passive and middle voices and expressed these notions by phrases rather than inflections

IE Mood

Indicative: statements or questions of fact

Imperative: expressing commands

Optative: expressive wishes

Subjunctive: expressing will

Injunctive: expressing unreality

IE Mood evolution into Germanic

Indicative: statements or questions of fact– Imperative: expressing commands

Optative(Subjunctive): expressive wishes• Subjunctive: expressing will

• Injunctive: expressing unreality

Proto Indo-European was an inflective language: Verb inflectionsEnglish Sanskrit Greek Latin I-EI bear

you bear

he bears

we bear

you bear

they bear

bharā-mi

bhara-si

bhara-ti

bharā-mas

bhara-tha

bhara-nti

pherōpherei-s

pherei

phero-mes

phere-te

phero-nti

ferōfer-s

fer-t

feri-mus

fer-tis

feru-nt

*bherō*bheresi

*bhereti

*bheromes

*bherete

*bheronti

Word Order

Greenburg (Some Universals of Grammar)SVO languages:– verb + object: The workman made a horn.– noun + modifier: the size of the building– conjunction + noun: the Senate and the House– preposition + object: Harold fought with him.

SOV languages usually reverse these features

Word Order

Most Indo-European languages are SVOProto Indo-European was SOVProto-Germanic had more SOV characteristics than modern GermanEnglish is evolving to being more SVO in characteristics– 10th century 84.4% of possessives before nouns– 14th century 15.6% of possessives before nouns– the building’s size vs. the size of the building

PIE Phonology

Prosody: – Accent (stress) based on pitch differences– Free accent: could occur on different syllables

depending on the form of the word Germanic Prosody– Word stress based on loudness not pitch– Primary stress on root syllable– Weak stress on other syllables– Intermediate stress on secondary root or prefix

Later Germanic word stress became fixed on first syllable

PIE Consonants

Stops, Fricative, Resonants, Laryngeal

Fricative [s]

Resonants [m, n, l, r, j, w]

Stops:

Bilabial Dental Velar Labiovelar

Voiceless p t k kw

Voiced b d g gw

Voiced Aspirated

bh dh gh ghw

First Sound Shift – Grimm’s Law

In the first millennium BCE IE stops transformed into different stops in Germanic languages

Probably took several centuries to complete the change

Voiced aspirated stops

Indo-Euro bh

bhrāter

dh

dhug(h)tēr

gh

ghosti

Latin f-/-b-

frāter

f-/-b- h-/-d-/-g-

hostis

Greek ph th

thugatēr

kh

Germanic b

brother

d

daughter

g

guest

Voiceless stops

Indo-Euro p

pətēr

t

treyes

k

krn-

Latin p

pater

t

tres

k

cornu-

Greek p t k

Germanic f

father

θthree

h

horn

Voiced stops

Indo-Euro b

treb/abel-

d

dwō/drew

g

genu-/gwen-

Latin b

trabs

d

duo

g

genu

b (Russian)

jabloko

d (Greek)

drūs (oak)

g (Greek)

gunē

Germanic p

thorp/apple

t

two/tree

k

knee/queen

Exceptions

After s– spuo – spit– stella – star

After voiceless stop– octo – eahta– capto - hafta

More Exceptions

PIE – pətēr

Latin – pater

Greek – patēr

English – father

Gothic – fadar [faðar]

Icelandic faðir

Old English – fæder [fæðer]

Verner’s Law: Surrounded by voiced sounds after unstressed syllable

IE voiceless stops

Germanic Verner’s Law

Exception

p f β b

t θ ð d

k x/h γ g

s z r

Examples of Verner’s Law

was – were

exert, exist vs. exercise, exigent

OE: leosan “to lose” vs. -loren “lost” (lovelorn)

http://www.danshort.com/ie/iecentum.htm

http://www.danshort.com/ie/iesatem.htm

Colin Renfrew’s tree

Major Changes from PIE to Germanic

West Germanic Languages