The History of EnglishThe History of English: A Linguistic Introduction is for anyone interested in the history of the English language. While leading the reader through the pre-history of English, through Germanic times, Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English, the book also introduces the reader to concepts in theoretical and historical linguistics. It includes authentic texts from each period of the language, from Beowulf to the King James Bible. This book is a great introduction to the field of linguistics for anyone interested in language! |
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A great introduction to the history of the language for people who don't know much (if anything) about linguistics and grammar. The book takes you through the history of the language from prehistory to the present (and even speculates on the future). I highly recommend this book--it's amazing what we never learned in school!
Contents
Sample Texts | 108 |
Middle English | 113 |
Literature | 114 |
Language | 116 |
Middle English Orthography | 120 |
Middle English Grammar | 123 |
Sample Texts | 133 |
Early Modern English | 139 |
| 22 | |
| 24 | |
The IndoEuropean Daughter Families | 28 |
Germanic | 31 |
Examples of the changes from IndoEuropean to Germanic | 33 |
Characteristics of the Germanic Languages | 34 |
Germanic Phonetics and Phonology | 38 |
Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives | 40 |
Verbs | 43 |
The Subdivisions of Germanic | 47 |
The Germanic Daughter Languages | 48 |
Gothic | 49 |
Old Norse | 56 |
West Germanic | 60 |
Old High German | 61 |
Old Saxon | 68 |
Old Low Franconian | 73 |
Old Frisian | 78 |
Old English | 83 |
Literature | 88 |
Language | 90 |
Old English Grammar | 95 |
Literature | 141 |
Language | 143 |
Early Modern English Orthography | 144 |
Early Modern English Phonetics and Phonology | 145 |
Early Modern English Grammar | 150 |
Sample Texts | 158 |
Modern English | 165 |
Literature | 166 |
Language | 168 |
Modern English Phonetics and Phonology | 169 |
Modern English Grammar | 171 |
The Future of English | 177 |
Literature | 179 |
Language | 180 |
Spelling Reform | 181 |
Future English Phonetics and Phonology | 187 |
Future English Grammar | 189 |
Sample Texts | 195 |
| 197 | |
Glossary | 201 |
| 213 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adjective alphabet became called century Chaucer declension definite article dialects diphthongs Dutch Early Modern English England eventually example forms French Future English gender Germanic daughter languages Germanic languages gōdan Gothic grammatical grammatical gender Greek Grimm’s Law guage hæv hīe Indo-European infinitive inflectional endings king Latin letter linguist lish long vowels masculine meaning Middle English Middle English period Modern German modern-day noun Old English Old Frisian Old High German Old Low Franconian Old Norse Old Saxon original Past Participle past tense periphrastic person plural person singular personal pronouns Phonetics Present Participle Present Preterite pronounced reconstructed rhotacism Sample Texts schwa sentence Shakespeare shows simply sing sound change Spanish speakers of English spoken subjunctive syllable thematic third person thou tion versus voiced voiceless Vowel Shift vowel sounds weak verbs West Germanic West Germanic language word written þū
Popular passages
Page 5 - The Sanskrit 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 in 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...
Page 3 - Therefore is the name of it called Babel ; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The History of English |
| Author | Scott Shay |
| Publisher | Wardja Press, 2007 |
| ISBN | 0615168175, 9780615168173 |
| Length | 232 pages |
| Subjects | › › Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |