Introduction to Old and Middle English: Part I Overview October 28, 2005 Andreas H. Jucker

Bible translations  Old English ( ) – West Saxon (WS), ca 1000  Middle English ( ) – Late Version of Wycliffe Bible (LV), 1390  Early Modern English ( ) – William Tyndale (TY), 1534  Modern English (1700-present) – The Revised English Bible (REB), 1989 Source: Görlach 1997: 2, 160-1

Primary aims of this course  Read and translate OE (ME) texts (with help)  Understand main principles of – OE (ME) syntax, morphology, phonology – language change  Get to know background of history and culture of Medieval Britain

Secondary aims of this course  Use the scholarly resources of historical linguistics – Glossaries – Dictionaries – Grammars – Libraries – Online resources  Make use of an eLearning environment  Write a short paper in historical linguistics

Teaching formats  Self study (book and online)  Group work (in class and online)  Class discussions  Lectures

Resources: Printed

Resources: Online

People  Prof. Dr. Andreas H. Jucker – Teacher  Dr. Guillaume Schiltz – Resource developer  Dr. Andreas Langlotz – Resource developer  Dr. Christian Schorno – eLearning coordinator, Univ. of Zurich  Nicolle Joho – Assistant teacher (Tutorin)

Course overview  Old English – Introduction to pronunciation, morphology and syntax of Old English – Texts (Bible, history, philosophy, literature) – History and culture – Historical linguistics  Middle English – Introduction to pronunciation, morphology and syntax of Middle English – Texts (Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales) – History and culture – Historical linguistics

Periodisation  Old English:  Middle English:  Early Modern English:  Modern English: present

Justification for periods  Internal – Common features at the levels of vocabulary phonology morphology syntax  External – Political and cultural events that had an influence on the development of the language

Old English:  Fully inflected  Relatively free word order  Germanic vocabulary  449: Britain invaded by Germanic tribes  597 Augustine started Christianisation  c. 725: approximate date of oral composition of Beowulf

Middle English:  Reduced inflections  Increasingly fixed word order  French and Latin official languages  French influence on English vocabulary  1066: Norman conquest  1340?-1400: Geoffrey Chaucer

Early Modern English:  Levelled inflections  Fixed word order  Latin and Greek influence on vocabulary  Increasing standardisation  1476: Caxton’s printing press  Reformation  Renaissance  : William Shakespeare

Modern English: present  Codification of Standard English  International Englishes  17th, 18th c.: Grammars and dictionaries  20th c.: telephone, TV, etc.  1990s: Internet

Diachrony — Synchrony  Old English  Middle English  Early Modern English  Modern English diachronic synchronic

Diachronic and synchronic linguistics  Diachronic linguistics – The study of languages from the viewpoint of their development through time; also called historical linguistics.  Synchronic linguistics – The study of languages at a theoretical single point in time  Ferdinand de Saussure ( )

Diachrony and synchrony: Problems  No clear-cut boundaries between different stages  No synchronic stages without variation  No diachronic change without synchronic variation