История языка и введение в спецфилологию

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ  
РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ 
ФГБОУ ВО «РОСТОВСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ  
ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ (РИНХ)» 
 
ФАКУЛЬТЕТ ЛИНГВИСТИКИ И ЖУРНАЛИСТИКИ 
КАФЕДРА ЛИНГВИСТИКИ И МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Е.С. Николаева 
 
 
ИСТОРИЯ ЯЗЫКА  
И ВВЕДЕНИЕ В СПЕЦФИЛОЛОГИЮ 
для бакалавров направления 
45.03.02 «Лингвистика» 
 
 
ТЕКСТ ЛЕКЦИЙ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ростов-на-Дону 
2017 
 

УДК 811(07) 
ББК 81 
Н 63 
 
 
 Николаева, Е.С.  
Н 63   История языка и введение в спецфилологию для бакалавров направления 45.03.02 «Лингвистика» : текст лекций / Е.С. Николаева. – Ростов н/Д : Издательско-полиграфический комплекс РГЭУ (РИНХ), 2017 – 92 с. 
ISBN 978-5-7972-2382-5 
 
 
 
Текст лекций по дисциплине «История языка и введение в спецфилологию» для студентов-бакалавров составлено в соответствии с требованиями общеобразовательного стандарта высшей школы и охватывает 
всю программу курса истории английского языка. Каждый раздел 
снабжен вопросами и упражнениями, контролирующими понимание и 
стимулирующими самостоятельный анализ фактов языка.  
Предназначен для бакалавров направления 45.03.02 «Лингвистика». 
УДК 811(07) 
ББК 81 
 
 
 
Рецензенты: 
к.ф.н., доц. И.Г. Барабанова, 
к.п.н., доц. А.И. Бондаревская 
 
 
 
 
Утвержден в качестве текста лекций 
Редакционно-издательским советом РГЭУ (РИНХ). 
 
 
 
 
ISBN 978-5-7972-2382-5                                            © РГЭУ (РИНХ), 2017 
                       © Николаева Е.С., 2017 

CONTENTS 
 
PREFACE…………………………………………………………………… 4 
LIST OF ABBREVIATION………………………………………………… 5 
THE SUBJECT OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE…… 6 
GERMANIC LANGUAGES……………………………………………….. 9 
LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES………………. 15 
ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE  
AND ITS CHRONOLOLGICAL DEVISION. PRE-ENGLISH BRITAIN… 23 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONETIC SYSTEM  
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE………………………………………….. 44 
MORPHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT……………………………………. 53 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYNTACTIC SYSTEM……………………….. 58 
VOCABULARY……………………………………………………………... 62 
VARIANTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE……………………………. 81 
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN THE LANGUAGE  
HISTORY STUDY………………………………………………………….. 88 
 
 
 
 
 

PREFACE 
 
This book on the history of the English language is intended for 
students of English at universities and colleges. It contains a discussion 
of some theoretical aspects of language evolution, description of 
Germanic languages, brief survey of the history of English and a 
detailed description of the language in the Old English, Middle English 
and New English periods. It also contains a number assignments 
bringing into focus the most important peculiarities of the language. 
There are specimens of English for students to get acquainted with the 
English language of different periods. The booklet is supplied with a 
glossary of terms in the language history study. 
 
 
 
 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 
 
Acc. – Accusative 
adj. – adjective 
adv. – adverb 
AE – American English 
BE – British English 
Celt. – Celtic 
Com. – Common 
comp. – comparative 
Dat. – Dative 
E – English 
F – Feminine 
Fr – French 
Germ. – German 
Gen. – Genitive 
Gr. – Greek 
Gt – Gothic 
I-E – Indo-European 
Inf – Infinitive 
L – Latin 
ME – Middle English 
Mod. E – Modern English 
n, N – noun, Neuter 
NE – New English 
Nom – Nominative 
Obj. – Objective  
OE – Old English 
OG – Old Germanic 
OHG – Old High Germanic 
OI – Old Icelandic 
O Ind – Old Indian 
O Sw – Old Swedish 
p. – person 
Part – participle 
Pass – Pasive 
Perf. – Perfect 
PG – Proto-Germanic 
PIE – Proto-Indo-European 
pl. – plural 
Pres. – Present 
R – Russian 
Sanscr – Sanscrit 
sing. – singular 
Subj. – Subjunctive 
superl. – superlative 
Sw. – Swedish 
V. – Verb 
WS – West-Saxon 
 
 
 
 

THE SUBJECT OF THE HISTORY  
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 
 
The subject of the History of the English language is a 
systematic description of the language development, of the changes of 
its phonetic structure, spelling, word stock, grammatical system and 
the historical conditions causing these changes. This course will help 
you to understand the peculiarities of the English language and its ties 
with other Germanic languages and languages of other groups of the 
Indo-European family. 
There are two approaches to the language analysis. When we 
compare the use of the same word or grammar form in different 
periods of time or try to understand how the expression of the same 
meaning changed in the course of time, we use the diachronic 
method. Diachronic study is the study of the historic development of 
separate linguistic phenomena and of the whole system of a language. 
But when we analyse language phenomena at some definite time, we 
use the synchronic method. Synchronic study is the study of a 
language at a definite stage of its development as a system of lexical, 
grammatical and phonetic elements. In the study of a language these 
methods are combined. Traditionally the English language is divided 
into three cross-sections or it is regarded through three stops: Old 
English (OE), Middle English (ME), and New English (NE). This 
division is not as strict as it seems because every change takes time. 
Language development means changes of the language. These 
changes occur under the influence of different factors. They are 
divided into two groups – internal and external. 
Internal or structural factors exist within the language itself. 
They are the necessity to improve the language technique, for example – 
to express different meanings by distinct means and identical meanings 
by identical means. Thus the plural forms of the borrowed nouns 
acquire the forms typical of native nouns. 
The language evolution is also influenced by the external or 
extra-linguistic factors – those which exist beyond the language. 
Among these factors we can mention geographical and social spread 
of the language, its contacts with other languages, changes in the life 

of the language speakers. So the language development is closely 
connected with the history of a speech community. That‟s why we 
have to know the people‟s history, geographical expansion of the 
community, contacts with other peoples and nations, development of 
literature, science and culture. 
A language is a system of different elements. A system is an 
organization of elements which are connected and form a unity. The 
characteristics of a system are not those of the elements; it means that 
an element of a system possesses qualities which it doesn‟t possess 
out of this system. As an example we can take borrowed words (café, 
formulas) – they acquire qualities typical of the English language. A 
system develops according to its laws and it imposes these laws on its 
elements. 
Changes, from the point of view of their result, can be 
characterized as merging and splitting which means loss or appearing 
of opposition. The opposition is a general correlation of two or more 
units of the same class by means of which a certain meaning is 
expressed. The members of the opposition possess common and 
differential features (nouns – singular and plural). 
The changes are not always evident because the oral language 
existed before the written records appeared. Sometimes it is necessary 
to compare how other relative languages developed in order to have 
an idea about the OE situation, to restore the OE phenomena. That‟s 
why it is important to know what the Old Germanic languages were 
like. 
The development of a language has both static and dynamic 
character. Historically the process of the language development can be 
regarded as permanent. But there are some constant features which do 
not or almost do not alter (the most commonly used part of the 
vocabulary, ways of word-formation, grammatical categories). 
Linguistic changes are temporal transformations of the same units, 
which can be registered as distinct steps. A new feature becomes a 
linguistic change when it is accepted in the most varieties of the 
language or in the literary standard. 
Through learning the history of the English language the student 
achieves a variety of aims, both theoretical and practical. So, one of 
the aims is to provide the student with a knowledge of linguistic 

history sufficient to account for the principal features of present-day 
English. For example, through centuries writing and spelling was 
changing in English. At the time when Latin letters were first used in 
Britain (7th c.) writing was phonetic: the letters stood for the same 
sound. After the introduction of printing (15th c.) the written form of 
the word became fixed, while the sounds continued to change (knight 
was [knix‟t]). Another important aim of this course is of a more 
theoretical nature. While tracing the evolution of the English language 
through time, the student will be confronted with a number of 
theoretical questions such as the relationship between statics and 
dynamics in language, the role of linguistic and extralinguistic factors 
and so on. These problems may be considered on a theoretical plane 
within the scope of general linguistics. In describing the evolution of 
English, they will be discussed in respect of concrete linguistic facts, 
which will ensure a better understanding of these facts and will 
demonstrate the application of general principles to language material. 
One more aim of this course is to provide the student of English with a 
wider philological outlook. The history of the English language shows 
the place of English in the linguistic world. 
 
 

GERMANIC LANGUAGES 
 
The history of the Germanic languages begins with the 
appearance of what is known as the Proto-Germanic language (also 
termed Common or Primitive Germanic, Primitive Teutonic and 
simply Germanic). Proto-Germanic is a linguistic ancestor or the 
parent language of the Germanic group. It is supposed to have split 
from the related Indo-European tongues sometime between the 15th 
and 10th centuries BC. It belonged to the Western division of the IndoEuropean speech community. Germanic tribes mixed with other 
European tribes who spoke other unknown languages and so some 
Germanic roots are not Indo-European. 
The first mention of the Germanic tribes is found in the works of 
Pitheas, a Greek historian and geographer, referring to the 4th century 
BC. In the 1st century BC Julius Caesar described them as a separate 
ethnic group different from the Celts. Later in the 1st century AD the 
Roman scholar Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia gave the 
following classification: 
1. Vindili (Modern East Germany). 
2. Ingveones (Modern West Germany, North Sea, Holland). 
3. Istævones (Modern West Germany, the Rhine). 
4. Herminones (Modern South Germany). 
5. Pevkins and Bastarns (Modern Rumania). 
6. Hilleviones (Modern North Germany, Scandinavia). 
Later, in the 19th century the famous scholar Jacob Grimm 
classified them into three groups: East Germanic, West Germanic and 
North Germanic. 
According to archeological evidence the first Germanic tribes 
were relatively uniform and in the 8th century B.C. they occupied 
territories in the southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and 
along the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas from what is now The 
Netherlands to the Vistula River. In the 3rd century B.C. they spread 
south and beginning with the 1st century BC separate dialects began to 
appear.  
First the Proto-Germanic language divided into Northern 
(Scandinavian) and Southern (continental), which later split into the 
West and East Germanic dialects. These three groups of Germanic 
tribes have different history as they continued to spread over the 

territory of Europe and in the 4th century A.D. the great Germanic 
tribal migrations began. 
East Germanic tribes included Vandals, Burgundians and 
Goths. 
Vandals were a Germanic tribe of Jutland (now in Denmark), 
who migrated to the valley of the Odra (Oder) River about the 5th 
century BC. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD they settled along 
the Danube River. This is approximately when they began their 
conquests over Rome. Today's usage of the word “vandal” reflects the 
dread and hostility the tribe precipitated in other people, especially the 
Romans, by their looting and pillaging of the many villages they 
conquered. In the 420s, much of Spain was the home of the Vandal 
tribes, who had arrived there in 409 after crossing the Rhine. 
Burgundians were an East Germanic people who spoke a 
language similar to Gothic and like the Goths, they traced their origins 
back to Scandinavia, originating on the island of Bornholm, a Danish 
island. By the First Century AD they had settled on the Vistula in 
Poland and later migrated south and east. They settled for a while in 
the area of modern Berlin, before being pushed westwards to the 
Rhineland. 
Goths, ancient Teutonic people, who in the 3rd to the 6th 
century AD were an important power in the Roman world. The Goths 
were the first Germanic peoples to become Christians. According to 
the 6th-century Gothic historian Jordanes, the Goths came from 
Sweden across the Baltic Sea to the basin of the Vistula River. By the 
3rd century AD they had migrated as far south as the lower Danube, 
around the Black Sea. About 370 the Goths divided into two separate 
groups. The Ostrogoths (Low Latin Ostrogothae, “the eastern Goths”) 
inhabited a large kingdom east of the Dniester River on the shores of 
the Black Sea (part of modern Ukraine and Belarus). The Visigoths 
(Low Latin Visigothi, “the good Goths” or “the noble Goths”) were 
the western Goths, with a domain extending from the Dniester to the 
Danube rivers. 
The Western group – Visigoth (visigotae) – were the first 
Germanic people to penetrate the frontiers of the empire and drove the