Otázka: The history of the English language
Jazyk: Angličtina
Přidal(a): KíťaCZ
OLD ENGLISH
- Celts:
- 2666 years ago Celtic languages
- parts of Wales, Scotland
- influence local names ( = a part of proper name)
- Latin:
- Romans came 43 BC (před Kristem) to 410 AD (rok 410)
- only words that have something to do with food, drink, animals, plants,…
DARK AGE:
- Manuscripts wasn´t be written, so we have a very poor idea about English
LITERACY AGE
- start: 597
- first Roman missionaries led by St. Augustine
- large number of Latin manuscripts: written in monastic centres
- in manuscripts many glossaries of English
- Beowulf= heroic poem
- a single copy survived from 1000
- other copy were destroyed during Viking invasion
- Anglo-Saxons
- came between fourth and seventh centuries
- from northern Germany, Holland, Denmark
- occupied England, southern Scotland, part of Wales
- language Germanic = old English
FEATURES:
- highly inflected language: the endings (koncovky) determine the function of the word in a sentence
- word order was flexible or at least more varied
- clause: it´s a simple sentence with one verb
- a very different position of the verb: stood before the noun or at the end of the clause
- sound system: especially vowels
- both double and triple negatives
- two negatives increased the emphasis (zvyšují důraz negativní věty)
- instead using „of“ -> genitive ending´s
- for example: house´s back = the back of the house
MIDDLE ENGLISH:
- Viking: in north and easts of the country
- from Norway, Denmark
- came between eighth and eleven centuries
- language: Old Norse
- 2 languages co-existed in England:
- Old English
- mingle ( an easier form from fighter langue is used for communication
- means of communication between two communities = PIDGIN)
- Old Norse
- CREOLE: pidgin (a language) is taught as a mother tongue
- Old English
3 language:
- French:
- in 1066 came Normans
- French became the language of government, aristocracy
- Latin:
- in church
- English:
- ordinary people
- 12 century:
- English to the upper class: some children of nobility spoke English as mother tongue
- during the hundred years war status of French dimished
- 1362 English was used for the first time at meaning of the Parliament
FEATURES:
- the decay of inflection
- a) several endings are phonetically similar (-en, -on, -an)
- b) genetic theory: the loss of inflection as a result of the influence of Scandinavian language
- loss of word endings
- subject-verb order
MODERN ENGLISH
- the forerunner (předchůdce): Geoffrey Chaucer
- the most influential text of this time: KING JAMES BIBLE
- published in 1611
- appointed (určen) to be read in churches -> that way -> huge influence (vliv) on the English population
- in 1606 reformers from the Church of England requested (žádat) a new translation of the Bible -> the king proposed (navrhl) a panel of university scholars („žáci, učenci“) who would carry out (vykonat) a preliminary (předběžný) translation
- 54 translators were divided into 6 companies -> each working on a separate section of the Bible (každá z nich pracovala na odděleném úseku bible)
- translation of individual translators must have been approved (schválený) by the others members
- the final agreement (dohoda, souhlas) of the whole company was required (požadovaný) to accept the text
- but translators were very conservative -> they opted (volili) for older forms, although there existed modern alternatives -> in that way they preserved (zachovali) many old forms and construction
- a) many irregular (nepravidelných) verbs
- b) „do“ was not used with negatives and in questions
- c) they preserved (zachovali) 3rd person of singular ( – eth)
- d) English orthographic rules were connected with the Bible
