1. John Algeo and Thomas Pyles Michael Cheng National Chengchi University
The Origins and Development of the English Language Chapter 4: The Backgrounds of English
John Algeo and Thomas Pyles
Michael Cheng
National Chengchi University

2. Similarities between languages
English:
mom
miaow-miaow me
pistachio
choose
glide
Welsh mam
Chinese mi-mi
Swahili mimi
Italian pistacchio
French choisir
Swedish glida
Welsh mam – maybe a universal, this combination is just easy to say for a baby
Chinese mi-mi – echoic word
Swahili mimi – just coincidence, words not related, other pronouns not similar to English ones
Italian pistacchio – word is borrowed from Italian
French choisir – French borrowed the word from Gothic, an east Germanic language
Swedish glida – both words descended from common ancestor

3. One original language? Some languages share many common features
Language family
Cognates – languages within a language family
Not a biological family – languages don’t get born and die at specific times, or separate creatures from their parents

4. Models of languages
Family tree
Wave model

5. http://farm1. static. flickr. com/226/472574816_7a659b8d85

7. English – father German – Vater Dutch – vader Icelandic – faðer
Norwegian – fader
All these languages clearly seem to be related, but this is also easy to believe because the countries where they are spoken are in the same geographic location.

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

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

12. 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

13. Indian culture was a new subject for European scholarship
1786 – Sanskrit bore a resemblance to Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, and possibly Persian
Sanskrit: pitar Greek: patēr Latin: pater
Suggested a common root language that no longer exists

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

15. 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.

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

17. PIE dispersion hypotheses
Kurgan Migration
Anatolian Farmer
Balkan
Black Sea Flood
Paleolithic Continuity Theory

18. 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

19. 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)

20. Zeus pater
Jupitar

22. 5000 BCE

23. Kurgans 4000 BCE

24. 3000 BCE Anatolian

25. Expansion 2000 BCE

26. Evolution 500 BCE

27. 500 CE Huns invade from East

28. Medieval 1500 CE Turks invade

29. Indo-European languages today

30. World Language families

31. Official Indo-European languages today

32. Armenian homeland

34. Features of Proto Indo-European
Types of languages: Isolating, Agglutinative, Inflective
Isolating
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

35. Agglutinative example
Swahili
I 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)

36. 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)

37. What kind of language is English?
says
inflective
unfriendliness
agglutinative
the, for, to, by, no
isolating

38. PIE Morphology Parts of speech
Nouns/Adjectives
Pronouns
Verbs
Prepositions
Nouns/Adjectives and Pronouns were inflected for Case, Number, and Gender

39. 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)

40. 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)

41. Noun/Adj Number and Gender
Number: singular, plural, dual
Gender: male, female, neuter

42. 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

43. Pronouns
Cases (3)
Number (3)
Gender (3)
Person: first, second, third

44. Verb Inflections Person Number
Aspect (kind of like tense): Completion, duration, repetition of action
Voice
Mood

45. IE Verb Aspect Present: continuing action in progress
Imperfect: continuing action in the past
Aorist: momentary action in past
Perfect: completed action
Pluperfect: completed action in the past
Future: actions to come
(Evolved into only present and past tense in Germanic languages)

46. IE Voice Active Passive Middle (reflexive)
Germanic lost the passive and middle voices and expressed these notions by phrases rather than inflections

47. IE Mood Indicative: statements or questions of fact
Imperative: expressing commands
Optative: expressive wishes
Subjunctive: expressing will
Injunctive: expressing unreality

48. IE Mood evolution into Germanic
Indicative: statements or questions of fact
Imperative: expressing commands
Optative(Subjunctive): expressive wishes
Subjunctive: expressing will
Injunctive: expressing unreality

49. Proto Indo-European was an inflective language: Verb inflections
English
Sanskrit
Greek
Latin
I-E
I bear
you bear
he bears
we bear
they bear
bharā-mi
bhara-si
bhara-ti
bharā-mas
bhara-tha
bhara-nti
pherō
pherei-s
pherei
phero-mes
phere-te
phero-nti
ferō
fer-s
fer-t
feri-mus
fer-tis
feru-nt
*bherō
*bheresi
*bhereti
*bheromes
*bherete
*bheronti

50. 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

51. Word Order Most Indo-European languages are SVO
Proto Indo-European was SOV
Proto-Germanic had more SOV characteristics than modern German
English 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

52. PIE Phonology Prosody: Germanic 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

53. 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

54. 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

55. Voiced aspirated stops
Indo-Euro bh
bhrāter dh
dhug(h)tēr gh
ghosti
Latin
f-/-b-
frāter
h-/-d-/-g-
hostis
Greek ph th
thugatēr kh
Germanic b
brother d
daughter g
guest

56. Voiceless stops Indo-Euro p pətēr t treyes k krn- Latin pater tres
cornu-
Greek
Germanic f
father θ
three h
horn

57. Voiced stops Indo-Euro b treb/abel- d dwō/drew g genu-/gwen- Latin
trabs
duo
genu
b (Russian)
jabloko
d (Greek)
drūs (oak)
g (Greek)
gunē
Germanic p
thorp/apple t
two/tree k
knee/queen

58. Exceptions After s After voiceless stop spuo – spit stella – star
octo – eahta
capto - hafta

59. More Exceptions PIE – pətēr Latin – pater Greek – patēr
English – father
Gothic – fadar [faðar]
Icelandic faðir
Old English – fæder [fæðer]

60. 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

61. Examples of Verner’s Law
was – were
exert, exist vs. exercise, exigent
OE: leosan “to lose” vs. -loren “lost” (lovelorn)

63. Colin Renfrew’s tree

64. Major Changes from PIE to Germanic

65. West Germanic Languages