HISTORICAL BACKGROUND PeriodInhabitants Prehistory BC The Iberians ORIGIN: South Europe SETTLEMENT: e.g. Stonehenge FEATURES: not very tall and dark haired ACTIVITIES: hunting, waving…then farmers and shepherds 700 BC 300BC Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish The Celts: 1st wave of Celtic tribes The Gaels The Celts: 2nd wave of Celtic tribes The Brythons ORIGIN: North and East Europe SETTLEMENT: The Gaels settled in the North The Brythons in the South-west FEATURES: tall and fair haired ACTIVITIES: hunting, waving…production and use of metal and weapons. RELIGION: DRUIDS -> Runes… WORSHIP OF NATURE/ belief in magic

PeriodInhabitants 55BC (I-V AD) Latin The Romans (Julius Caesar 55BC; Emperor Claudius 43 A.D.) 121 AD Hadrians wall ORIGIN: Italy SETTLEMENT: South and central England FEATURES: not very tall and dark haired ACTIVITIES:organization of streets towns, trade Latin language and culture 449 AD OLD English a Germanic language (Bede, 700) ORIGIN SETTLEMENT ACTIVITIES The AnglesThe SaxonsThe Jutes Denmark Mercia, East Anglia, Nothumbria Farmers North West Germany Essex, Sussex, Farmers Jutland Kent, Wessex Farmers

V- VI cent. A.D. Penetration of various uncoordinated bands of adventurers in different parts of the country Britain => A/Engla Land 7 kingdoms ( Heptarchy) and dialect differentiation (Germanic origin languages) TRIBE/CLAN system (Thane): fishing, hunting, agriculture, art -beauty gambling, fighting, drinking (mead) + courage, loyalty, generosity Old English dialects The Seven Kingdoms

Political union comes slowly Shift southwards of the centres of power and civilization: 7th 8th 9th CENTURY Northumbria Mercia Wessex. King Alfred saved the southwest of England from the invasion of the DANES 10th Unification of England under the west saxon kings till 1066 The unification of England under the west saxon kings leads to the recognition of the WEST SAXON dialect as a literary standard language Viking Raids ( )

Viking raids: Invasion and settlement 9th century Old Norse Vikings were: Swedes, Norwegian s and Danes

Danish Invasion: The second wave after 980 AD

The Normans 1066 : Battle of Hastings William the Conqueror from Northern France => Norman French

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE OLD ENGLISH MIDDLE ENGLISH MODERN ENGLISH

Language Old English surviving texts are in 4 dialects: West Saxon, Kentish, Mercian, Northumbrian Writing began after conversion ( AD) and Clerics used a Celtic version of the Latin alphabet called the FUTHORC. E.g. they used the letter þ for the phoneme /δ/ Earlier manuscripts were destroyed during the Viking conquest (9th, 10th) Most records are in West Saxon, which was the literary standard language Old English dialects

Ex. Of OE PRONUNCIATION and PHONOLOGY 7 vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y, æ (ash) Consonants:no letter only ; sound /f/ before voiced sounds ex: wulf/ wulfas, hlaf/hlafas no letter only ; sound /f/ before voiced sounds ex: nosu/hus, for sounds /θ, δ/; sound /δ/before voiced sounds ex: baÞian/ Þes …. Palatization of velar consonants /k, g/ near /i, æ/ vowels and /J/ half-vowel: E.g. germ./k/ ags./ts/ ex. Kirike kirche germ./g/ ags./dξ/ ex. Bryggja brycg

Ex. Of OE MORPHOLOGY 4 cases declension: Nominative, genitive, accusative, dative Ex. –um for dat. Plu -e for dat. Sing. verbal system with present and past: Imperative Indicative Subjunctive Present perfect: verb HABBAN for transitive verbs verb BEON/WESAN for intransitive verbs

Ex. Of OE SYNTAX Freedom of sentence order but often used:SOV in subordinate clauses; VSO in questions Negation: particle NE before the verb No auxiliary Do/Does

Scandinavian influences on OE Scandinavian influx left its mark on place names ending in: -by; -thorp No palatization: Ex. Old Norse formOld English form Lancaster /k/ egges /g/ Winchester /ts/ æyren /ej / (See: Chaucher) N.B. Most Scandinavian influences in lexis (loans), morphology, syntax first appeared in writing in the ME period because there was no literary tradition in the Danelaw area