INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH

(BBI 3101)Test 1 pointers

Material to be tested

A Social History of English: • Chapter 1 (pp. 7-26)• Chapter 2 (pp. 32-57)A History of the English Language: • Chapter 2 (pp. 14-38)• Chapter 3 (pp. 39-69)• Chapter 5 (pp. 104-120)• Chapter 7 (pp. 152-194)

Terms and definitions

• What are the distinctive properties of a developed language as opposed to a vernacular?

• What are the four types of bilingualism?• Differentiate between weak and strong forms.• What is the difference between analytic and

synthetic languages?• What are self-explaining compounds?• What is the difference between hypotactic and

paratactic styles?

Terms and definitions

• diglossia• lingua franca• pidgin • vernacular• patois• language shift• Sociolinguistic profile• I-umlaut (doing: /duwing/; an apple)• analogy• aureate terms• Grimm’s law

Origin of English

• What were the Germanic tribes who invaded England?

• Who were Gauls?• English borrowed simple words, used for bare

essentials, like angry, get, and take from which language?

• Who was the writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle?• What are the three periods of the development of

English?

Origin of English

• How old is the English language?• What was the language that was spoken as a

second language in England for about four centuries before the English came?

• What was the language of the Britons before the Anglo-Saxons? It developed a literature under the influence of which language?

• The Gaelic and Brythonic are the two branches of which language?

Indo-European Family

• Who proposed the affinity of Sanskrit to Greek and Latin?

• What are the two major groups in the Indo-European family of languages? Name four of their subcategories and describe one of each.

• What are the two earliest remains of the Iranian branch?

• Which Indo-European language is used in a small area south of the Caucasus Mountains and the eastern end of the Black Sea?

Indo-European Family

• Where have the inscriptions of Hellenic language been found?

• Name a work which was written in a Hellenic language?• What are the various languages that represent the survival

of Latin are known as?• What were the two varieties of Latin?• What part of the world does the Balto-Slavic branch cover?• What is the principal language of East Germanic called?• English belongs to which Germanic branch of the Indo-

European family?

Old English

• Who was the English king who maintained the tradition of writing in Anglo-Saxon and translating works of Latin into English?

• Who is the father of English prose? • Discuss some important features of Old English in

comparison with those of Middle English.• What were the four dialects spoken in England

during the OE Period?• How was ‘sh’ spelled during the OE Period?

Old English

• Rarity of words derived from Latin or French was the feature of which period?

• How may percent of OE words are no longer in use in Modern English?

• What themes were often used in poems written in Old English?

• Give an example of an Old English poem.• Who was the earliest English poet we know of?

Middle English

• What happened as a result of Norman invasion? • What was an additional source of foreign words in the

vocabulary of English that originated from the languages of low countries?

• What happened to the inflections during the ME Period?• Discuss two changes that happened in pronunciation and

spelling from Old English (OE) to Middle English (ME).• What was the factor that helped in stabilizing the English

language?• What type of vocabulary did English borrow from French?

Middle English• Out of the words borrowed from French during ME, how many

percent are used in English today?• Which one of the following words originates from French and

why? ‘Sheep’ or ‘Mutton’?• What were the two Old English suffixes that began to diminish

in vitality in Middle and Modern English?• Why didn’t Latin or French displace English?• The richness of English in synonyms is due to the mingling of

Saxon, Latin, and French elements which gave it synonyms at which levels?

• Which ME dialect was selected as the standard English? Why?• What distinguished Middle English dialects from one another?

Standardization

• The four stages in the standardization: Selection, Acceptance, Elaboration, and Codification