1. subject and aims of history of English.

It covers the main events in the historical development of the English language: the history of its phonetic structure and spelling, the evolution of its grammatical system, the growth of its vocabulary, and also the changing historical conditions of English speaking communities. Through learning the history of English, students achieve a variety of aims, both practical and theoretical. One of the aims is to provide students with a knowledge of linguistic history sufficient to account for the principal features of present day English. 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 etc. one more aim of this course is to provide a student with a wider philological outlook. The history of English shows the place of English in the linguistic world, it reveals the ties and contacts with other related and unrelated tongues. Study of the history of language is based on applying general principles of linguistics to the language in question. 2. Periods in the history of English and their characteristics. Traditional periodisation divided English history into 3 periods: Old English, Middle English, and New English. Early OE begins with the Germanic settlement of Britain (5th c.). Prewritten or pre-historical period. The tribal dialects were used for oral communication; no written form of English. Lasts till the beginning of writing (the end of the 7th c.). OE extends from the 8th c. till the end of 11th (The Norman Conquest, 1066). Also called written OE. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local and regional dialects. OE was typically Old Germanic language with a purely Germanic vocabulary and new foreign borrowings. As far as grammar is concerned, OE was an inflected language with a welldeveloped system of morphological categories, esp. in the noun and adjective. Early Middle English starts after 1066 and covers the 12th, 13th and half of the 14th c. it was a time of great changes at all levels of the language. esp. lexis and grammar. Late (classical) ME from the later 14th c. till the end of the 15th c. the time of restoration of English to the position of the state and literary language. The main dialects used in

writing and literature was the mixed dialect of London. Early NE lasted from the introductory of printing (1475) to the age of Shakespeare (1660, 17th c.). Formation of the national English language: new words appeared; phonetic changes were transforming the vowel system, which resulted in the growing gap between the written and the spoken forms of the word; the loss of most in inflection endings. Neo-classical age from the middle of 17th c. to the close of the 18th c. this period discouraged variety and free choice in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The establishment of norms. Late NE the English language of 19th and 20th c. relative stability. Dialects- Standard English. 3. Historical background to the OE period. The earliest inhabitants were the Celts. In 55 BC the Romans conquered Britain for economic and strategic reasons. The country was Romanized. In the 5 th c. the Romans left Britain. But then the Germanic tribes invaded Britain. They destroyed villages, towns, killed people. The 1st wave of invaders- the Jutes. Saxons largely made the 2nd. Last came the Angles. The migration of Germanic tribes to British Isles cut off Germanic dialects from OG languages and developed a separate languageEnglish. Some historical events influenced the development of the language:1)the economic and social structure of society. The formation of new geographical boundaries between the speech of different localities. The growth of feudalism was accompanied by the rise of regional dialectal division replacing the tribal division of the Germanic settlers. 2)The relations between the kingdoms. In the 8th c. the Danes invaded England. The peace treaty of 878 divided England into 2 halves: Danelaw and Wessex. But in the 10th c.- new invasion. England became part of Scandinavia. In 1035 England regained independence when the king of Scandinavia died. 3)The introduction of Christianity. It gave a strong influence on the growth of culture and learning. Monasteries were founded all over the country with monastic schools attached. 4. Historical background to the Middle English period. In early ME the differences between the regional dialects grew. The main dialectal division in England goes back to the feudal stage of Britains history. Dialectal differences in early ME were marked by some historical events (Scandinavian invasions, Norman conquest).

Though Scandinavian invasions are dated to the OE period, their effect on the language is apparent in ME. More than half of England was recognized as Danish territory. The new settlers and the English intermarried, mixed, because there was no linguistic barrier. (~ 75% of place-names are Danish or Norwegian). Probably in many districts people became bilingual either with Old Norse or English. We find many Scandinavian words in early ME records. In 1066 the Norman Conquest took place. Hundreds of people from France crossed the channel to make their homes in Britain. The Norman Conquest was the greatest event in the history of English language. For almost 300 years French was the official language of administration, kings court, church and castle, also the everyday language of many nobles, clergy and townspeople in the South. French, alongside Latin, was the language of writing. At first the two languages existed side by side without mingling. Then slowly they began to do it. The English won, because it was the living language of entire people, while French was restricted to certain social layers and spheres and writing. The French influence added new features to the regional and social differences. A lot of vocabulary was put in written records: the earliest samples of ME prose are new entries made in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. Religious works The Poeme Morale represents the Kentish dialect of the 12th c. Literary works spread too. French romances of chivalry (about knights). The domination of French language came to an end in the course of 14th c. English became the language of literature and administration. All social classes used English. French like Latin was learned as a foreign language. Still the impact of French was huge, esp. in vocabulary. The prevalence of French in written language led to numerous changes in spelling. (In the 11th c. feudalism was already well established. People were bound to their lord and land. These historical conditions produced a certain influence on the development of the language.) (1066- Norman Conquest. Beginning of ME; 13-14th c. the development of ME; 13401450G. Chauser; 16th Shakespeare.) 5. Early Modern English (15001800). The next wave of innovation in English came with Renaissance.

The revival of classical brought many classical Latin and Greek words into the language. Many borrowings survived to this day. Many familiar words and phrases were coined or first recorded by Shakespeare. Two other major factors influenced the language and ser4ved to separate Middle and Modern English. The first was the GVS (Great Vowel Shift). This was a change in pronunciation that began around 1400. Vowel sounds began to be made further to the front of the mouth and the letter e at the end of words became silent. In linguistic terms, the shift was rather sudden, the major changes occurring within a century. The shift is still not over; however, vowel sounds are still shortening although the change has become considerably more gradual. The last major factor in the development of Modern English was the advent of the printing press. William Caxton brought the printing press to England in 1476. Books became cheaper and as a result, literacy became more common. Publishing for the masses became a profitable enterprise, and works in English, as opposed to Latin, became more common. Finally, the printing press brought standardization to English. The dialect of London, where most publishing houses were located, became the standard. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the first English dictionary was published in 1604. c)1 Late Modern English (1800Present). The principal distinction between early and late-modern English is vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has many more words. These words are the result of two historical factors. The first is the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the technological society. This necessitated new words for things and ideas that had not previously existed. The second was the British Empire. At its height, Britain ruled one quarter of the earths surface and English adopted many foreign words and made them its own. The industrial and scientific revolution created a need for neologisms to describe the new creations and discoveries. For this, English relied heavily on Latin and Greek. English roots were used for such terms as horsepower, airplane, and typewriter. This burst of neologisms continues today, perhaps most visible in the field of electronics and computers. Also, the rise of the British Empire and the growth of global trade served not only to

introduce English to the world, but to introduce words into English. Hindi and the other languages of the Indian subcontinent provided many words. Virtually every language on Earth has contributed to the development of English, from Finnish (sauna) and Japanese (tycoon) to the vast contribution of French and Latin. The British Empire was a maritime empire, and the influence of nautical terms on the English language has been great. Finally, the 20th c. saw two world wars, and the military influence on the language during the latter half of this century has been great. Before the Great War, military service for Englishspeaking persons was rare: both Britain and the US maintained militaries. Military slang existed, but with the exception of nautical terms, rarely influenced Standard English. During the mid-20th c., however, virtually all British and American men served in the military. Military slang entered the language like never before. Blockbuster, nose dive, radar, roadblock, spearhead, and landing strip are all military terms that made their way into Standard English. 6. English Dialects and the Formation of the Standard English language OE dialects. The Germanic tribes who settled in Britain in the 5 th and 6th century spoke closely related tribal dialects belonging to the West Germanic subgroup. Their common origin and their separation from the other realtd tongues as well as their joint evolution in Britain transformed them eventually into a single tongue English. But first tribal dialects were transformed into local or regional dialects. Four principle dialects: Kentish a dialect spoken in the areas known as Kent and Surrey. It had developed from the tongue of the jutes and Frisians.West Saxon, spoken in the rest of England south of the Thames and the Bristol Channel. Mercian a dialect derived from the speech of southern Angles and spoken chiefly in the central region, from the Thames to the Humber. Northumbian spoken from the Humber north to the river Forth. The dialects passed into one another imperceptibly and dialectal forms were freely borrowed from one dialect into another. Towards the 11th century the written form of the west saxon dialect developed into a bookish type of language, which probably served as a language of writing for all ebglish speaking people. At the time of written OE the dialects had changed from tribal to regional, they possessed both an oral and a written form and were no longer equal, in the domain of

writing the west saxon dialect prevailed over its neighbours. Early ME dialects.the regional ME dialects had developed from respective OE dialects. The Southern group included the Kentish &the South-Western dialects. Kentish was a direct descendant of the OE dialect known by same name. the South-Western group was a continuation of the OE Saxon dialects. The group of Midland dialects is divided into West Midland &East Midland as 2 main areas, with further subdivisions within:SouthEast Midland&North-East Midland,South-West Midland&North-West Midland. The Northen dialects had developed from OE Northumbrian. In Early ME the northen dialects included several provincial dialects,e.g.the Yorkshire&the Lancashire dialects&also what later became known as Scottish. In the course of early ME the are of the English language in the British Isles grew. The English language was used there alongside celtic languages irish and welsh- and was influenced by Celtic. In Early ME, while the state lang &the main lang of literature was French, the local dialects were relatively equal. In Late ME,when English had been reestablished as the main lang of adminintration&writing,1of the regional dialects, the London dialect,prevailed over the others. Late ME dialects. In the 14th and 15th c we find the same division of local dialects: the southern group, including Kentish and the south western dialects, the midland group with its minute subdivisions and northern group. The extension of trade beyond the confines of local boundaries, the growth of towns with a mixed population favoured the intermixture of the regional dialects. More intensive interinfluence of the dialects, among other facts is attested by the penetration of Scandinavian loanwords into the west midland and southern dialects from the north and by the spread of French borrowings in the reverse direction. The most important event in the changing linguistic situation was the rise of the London dialect. The history of the London dialect reveals the sources of the literary language in the late ME and also the main source and basis of the literary standard, both in written and spoken forms. The early records made in London show that the dialect of London was fundamentally east saxon, later the speech mixed with east midland. The most likely explanation for the change of the dialect lies in the history of London population. In the 12th and 13th c the

inhabitants of London came from the south western districts, lots of people died in epidemics. Most of the arrivals came from east midlands. As a result the speech of London was brought much closer to the east midland dialect. The London dialect became more Anglian than Saxon in character. This mixed dialect of London, which had extended to the two universities (in oxford and cambridge) outsed French from official spheres and from the sphere of writing. Written Standard. Towards the end of early NE, one of the forms of the national literary language its written standard was established.its growth and recognition as the correct form of the language of writing had been brought about by the factors described in terms of economic and political unification of the country, the progress of culture and education, the flourishing of literature. The written standard can be traced to definite geographical and social sources. In the 15th c and 16th c the speech of London became even more mixed owing to increase intermixture of the population: the capital attracted newcomers from different regions of the country. The social source of the WS is a more problematic issue. H. C. Wyld, a prominent English linguist maintains that in the course of the 15th c and 16th c the basis of the written form of English shifted from regional dialect to largely social one. He believes that the lang of literature and writing in the 16th c was identical to what could be termed colloquial court english learnt either by the personal experience or from books., it was a class dialect restricted to a very narrow social group- the highest nobility at the kings court. The written standard of the 17th c was however far less stabilized that the literary standard of later ages. the writings of the renaissance display a wide range of variation at all linguistic levels: in spelling, in the grammar, word building etc. the existence of a prestige form of english in the early NE which may be regarded as a sort of Standard, is confirmed by some of contemporary scholars. 7.Etymological survey of middle English and modern English vocabulary. Etymological survey of the OE voc. The OE voc was purely Germanic. The 3 main layers in the native OE words are distinguished. The etymological layers of native words are: common IE words, common Germanic words & specific OE words. 1) common IE words: they constitute the oldest part of OE voc, names of natural phenomena; plants; animals, personal & demonstrative pronouns,

most numerals agricultural terms; parts of human body. 2)common Germanic voc include words that are shared by most Germanic lang. Words connected with nature, sea & everyday life. This layer is certainly smaller than the IE group. The words originated in PG when the Teutonic tribes lived close together. 3)spec OE words they do not occur in other lang. These words are few (OE brid-bird). Borrowed word constituted only a small part of OE voc (600w). OE borrowings came from 2 sources: Celtic & Latin. There are very few Celtic borrowings. Only place-names: Kent, York, London. Rivers: Thames, avon, dover. In later ages some of the Celtic borrowings died out & remained only in dialects. The role of Latin lang was determined by such historical events: Roman occupation of Britain, the influence of roman culture, the introduction of Christianity. Latin had influenced OE alphabet, the growth of writing & literature. Latin words entered Engl at diff stages of OE history. Early OE borrowings indicated the new things & concepts that the Teutons had learned from Romans (pund-pound, winum-win, piporpepper). Words related with war, agriculture trade, building, home life. Place-names: Chester, Norwich, Greenport. Another Latin influence period began with the introduction of Christianity (late 6th) & lasted until the end of Oe. The words fall into 2 groups: 1) pertaining to religion(bishop; candel-candle) 2) connected with learning: OE scol Ne school. The Latin impact on OE was not only borrowing of words. The so-called translation loans appeared(words or phrases created on the pattern of Latin words as their translations). E.g. the names of the days of the week. From the 12th to the 19th cent. Among the changes in vocabulary there are: losses of words or their meanings, replacements, additions. Losses were connected with the historical events: changing conditions, decline of some concepts or customs. It has been calculated that from 80 85 % of the OE words went out of use in these periods. Most of the words were not simply lost but they were replaced by other words. The replacement came as a result rivalry of synonyms selections of one of them. Language of that period absorbed foreign words and even made use of foreign word components in word formation. The Scandinavian invasion had farreaching linguistic consequences which became apparent mainly in ME. A large number of place nouns

( Iverness, Grimsgy ). Most Scandinavian borrowings penetrated to everyday life, military matters (enif knife); also: bag, egg, gates, happy. The French language was brought to England by Normans. At first it was restricted to some varieties. There were many innovations (boil, allow, occupy), replacements of native words and adoptions synonymous with a native one. The Latin language continued to be used in England all through the OE and ME periods in religious rituals and legal documents. The new wave of borrowings from Latin and Greek, because of the interest in the classics in the age of Renaissance. In New English in addition to the 3 main sources: Greek, Latin and French, English speakers of the NE period borrowed freely from many other languages Italian (million, balcony), Spanish (barricade, cargo). German translation loans are typical here (standpoint, masterpiece). French borrowings mainly penetrated to diplomatic relations, social life, art and fashion (attach, caf, hotel, and menu). These later French borrowings differ widely from the loan words adopted in ME. Most of them have not been completely assimilated and have retained foreign appearance to the present day. 8. History of English orthography.There are 2 kinds of letters used in OE: runes and the letters of the Latin alphabet. Runic inscriptions were used on weapons, amulets, rings, but not for everyday writing or for poetry & prose works. Like any alphabetic writing OE writing was based on a phonetic principle: every letter indicated a separate sound. However this principle was not always observed, because some letters indicated more sounds. The letters could indicate short and long sounds. A line above the letters shows the length of vowels: double letters indicated long consonants. In reading OE texts one should observe the rules for letters indicating more than one sounds f, s, p, - stand for voiced fricatives between vowels and between a vowel and a voiced consonant. The letter stands for g initially before back vowels and consonants; j before front vowels; h in intervocal position. ME orthography: the most conspicuous feature of late ME texts in comparison with OE texts is the difference in spelling. The written forms of words in late ME texts resemble their modern forms, though the pronunciation of the words was different. In the course of ME many innovations were introduced into the system of spelling; some of them reflected the sound changes, others were graphic replacements of OE

letters, which passed out of use (pvz runic letters). Many innovations in ME spelling reveal an influence of the French scribal traditions. The diagraphs ou, ie, ch were adopted as new ways of indicating the sounds [u:, e:, t]. The letters [j, k, v, g] were probably first used in imitation of French manuscript. [Sh] to introduce the new sound [i] (ship). Dg d- edge, wh replaced hw; Long sounds were shown by double letters, e.g. book, sonne [sunne]. Some replacements were made to avoid confusion of resembling letters: o indicated (o) and (u) ; y, w were put at the end of a word for purely ornamental reason wwas interchangeable with u in diagraphs ou, au. For letters indicating 2 sounds the rules for reading are: 1) (s), (d) before front vowels; 2) (k), (g) before back vowel;y- (j) initially, s, th- voiced sounds between vowels, otherwise voiceless, o indicated (u) next to letters whose shape resembled the cope of u though sometimes even in the same environment o indicated (o). the diagraphs ou and ow were interchangeable (u:) or the length can be interfered from the nature of a syllable open-long; closed- short or long. The runic alphabet is a specifically Germanic alphabet, not to be found in languages of other groups. The letters are angular because they were cut in hard material: stone, bone, or wood. The number of runes was big in England (28-33). Their main function was to make short inscriptions on objects, often to show some special power or magic. 9. OE sound changes.Vowels

in unstressed position were either produced or dropped. In stressed positions vowels underwent few modifications: splitting:(a) and (a:) split into several sounds; fronting: a into oe , a: into oe: (dagas-daas) . narrowing: a-o before nasal consonants (manamona). Breaking: front vowels [e], [oe] were diphthongised when they stood before [l], [ll], [h]. breaking produced a new set of vowel in OE the short

diphthongs [ea], [eo] (hardusheard). Diphthongisation could be caused by preceding consonants. After [k], [sk], [j] short and long vowels were diphthongised (skild-scield MO). Mutation is the change of one vowel to another through the influence of a vowel in the succeeding syllable. Palatal mutation is the fronting and raising of vowels upon the influence of [l], [j] in the immediately following syllable. Sounds [l] and [j] were common in suffixes end endings, so palatal mutation was of very frequent occurrence. (o-e, u-y: dohtor-dehter, fulljan-fyllan MO). Back mutation was caused by the influence of back vowels in the succeeding syllable, which transformed the stressed root vowels into diphthongs. (swestorsweostor). Lengthening of vowels is observed in certain syllable before certain consonants clusters: mb, ld, nd. If there are 3 consonants the vowel remains short (cild-child). Vowel gradation writan-wratwriton-writen. Consonants: har-

dening v,h, were hardened to correspond plosives d, b, g. Rhotarism [z] underwent phonetical modification through the stage of [3] into [r] and became a sonorant which merged with [r]: maiza-maramore. Voicing & devoicing: voiceless fricatives th, f, x, s and voiced fricatives v,y, became or remained voiced intervocally & btw vowels, sonorants. They were voiceless in other cases. Doubling: most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [j] long consonants are indicated by double letters: taljantellan-tell. Palatalization: the velar consonants k, g, x, y was palatalised before a front vowel & sometimes after a front vowel, unless followed by a back vowel. Loss of consonants: nasal consonants were regularly lost befre fricative consonants. Fricative consonants could be dropped btw vowels & before some plosive consonants. [j] was regularly dropped in suffixes after producing various changes in the root.
10. Vowel changes in Middle English. Unstressed vowels were reduced and lost. There were only two vowels [shwa] and [i] in unstressed final syllables. In late it contained to be spelled as e. e survived only in spelling, as to

understand the length of the vowel in the proceeding syllable. [r] was vocalized and became [shwa]. Stressed vowels changed both in quality and quantity. Quantitative vowel change: 1. lengthening before ld, nd, mb, and in open syllables. 2. shortening before other consonants sequences. Qualitative vowel change: reason growing dialectal divergences: 1) narrowinglong monophtongs became closer [a:] > [o: ], [e:] > [i:], [y] >[i], [u ] > [e]. 2. backening e.g. earm >arm. One of the most important changes of the early ME period was the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs. All OE diphthongs were monophtongized. New diphthongs developed from vowels due to the vocalization of [j] and [y]. the sounds [j, y] between vowels changed into [I, u] and formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowels. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs: with i- glides and u- glides. 11. Consonant changes in ME & Modern English.1. The new set of consonants, affricates developed from [k, g, sk] to [tsh, dzh, sh].2. Fricatives [f], [v] became independent phonemes. Fricatives were pronounced as voiced if they were preceded by an unstressed vowel and followed by a stressed one. The consonants in unstressed words were voices initially. 3. The loss of consonants. They were vocalized and gave the rise to diphthongization [y], [x], [j], [r] were vocalized finally and before consonants. Some consonants were long in consonant clusters, which became simpler, easier to pronounce (the initial [x] survived as [h], when followed by a vowel but was lost when followed by a consonant; [t] was dropped between [s] and [r]). [h] was lost initially before vowels but not in all cases. The initial consonant sequences [kn], [gn] were simplified to [n].4. Long consonants disappeared (loss of quantitative distinctions) 12. Modern English vowel changes. Final [e] was dropped in unstressed syllables (though spelled as e). Great Vowel Shift (GVSh) (nearly NE) changes of long vowels. They became closer, narrower or were diphthongized. Affected regularly every stressed long vowel in any position. [i:]>[ai], [e]>[i:], [a:]>[ei], [o:]>[ou],[u:]>[au], au]>[o:] Short vowels: a) [a] > [] b) when [a] was preceded by the semi vowel w it changed into [o] c)[u]>[ ] Growth of long monothongs and diphthongs in early NE due to vocalization of consonant [r] changed into [shwa] which was added to the preceding vowel as a

glide thus forming a diphthong. Sometimes the loss of [r] was compensated by lengthening of the preceding vowel. If [r] stood in the final unstressed syllable after [e], the vocalization resulted in survival of the ending. If [r] was preceded by a diphthong, together it formed a triphtong. [r] was not vocalized when doubled, after consonants and initially. Short v + r =lengthening Long v + r =diphthong Diphthong + r = triphtong O + r = o:, a + r = a:, I + r = 3: E + r = 3:, u + r = 3:, e + r = shwa, i: + r = a/i /shwa, e: + r = shwa. a: + r = e/shwa. GVSh involved the change of all ME long monophtongs and some of the diphthongs. Quantitative vowel changes: Short vowels lengthened before clusters ss, ft, nt. Long vowels were shortened before d, t, h. 13. Development of the grammatical categories of noun. The categories were characterized by inflexions. In OE the Noun had 2 categories: Nom; Gen; Dat; Acc. Also Nouns distinguished 3 genders (male, female, neutral), but this distinction was not a grammatical category; its lexio-grammatical category. Also there was a category of declension. There were strong (vowel steam:-o, -u) and weak (consonant stem: -n). Also a root steam declension: it had no inflexion to indicate. The OE system of declension was based on a number of characterizations: the steam suffix; the gender of Ns; the phonetic structure of the word; phonetic changes in the final syllable. Simplification of noun morphology in ME affected the grammatical categories of noun in different ways. In OE gender disappeared together with other distinctive features of the noun declensions (in OE Ns were grouped into classes of declension according to gender). In ME gender was distinguished according to the endings of adjectives and gender became a lexical category. Number was the most stable of all the nominal categories. The N preserved the formal distinctions of 2 numbers through all historical periods. In ME the ending es was the prevalent marker of Ns in the plural. In NE it extended to more Ns to the new words and too many words which built their plural in a different way in ME. The ME plural ending en used as a variant marker with the same Ns lost its former productivity and in NE it is found only in some words: children; axen. Case was preserved but underwent changes in ME. The number of cases was reduced from 4 to 2 in

ME. Nom., Dat. and Acc. fell together and were called the Common case. They had all the functions of the former cases and one could understand which case was meant. Some forms were alike in all the declensions. Many forms acquired new variants due to the influence of phonetically weakened endings, which eliminated the differences between the declensions and the forms. Towards the end of OE, the system tended to the rearranged according to gender on the basis of the most influential types: a, n, o stems. In ME morphological division into types of declension practically disappeared. So simplification and rearrangement of declension was due to the increased variation of the noun forms. The number of variants of grammatical forms was twice as high as in OE: some of the forms went out of use, some forms fell together, some endings were added by analogy to other kinds of nouns. 14. Development of the grammatical categories of adjectives. In OE the adj had 5 grammatical categories: number (sng & pl); gender (masc, fem, neutral); case, 3 degrees of comparison, category of definiteness/indefiniteness. Number, gender and case were dependent gr categories. On agreement of the adj with the noun it modified. Most adj in OE could be declined in 2 ways: according to weak & strong declension. Unlike a N, the Adj did not belong to a certain type of declension. Most Adj could be declined in both ways. The choice of declension was determined by a number of factors: the syntactical fn of Adj, the degree of comparison, the presence of N determiners. The Adj had a weak declension when it was preceded by determiners (pronouns). Some adj didnt adjust to these rules. Definiteness/ indef was with what they were determined. The strong forms were associated with the meaning of indef, the weak forms with definiteness. OE adj had 3 degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, superlative. The regular means used to form the comparative and superlative degree were suffixes ra/-est/-ost. Sometimes the affixation was accompanied by the interchange of a root vowel. Some adj had sets of forms: with or without a vowel interchange. In ME adj underwent the process of simplification greater than any other part of speech. It lost all its grammatical categories with the exception of the degrees of comparison. The 1st category to disappear was gender. The number of cases was reduced, then lost: 1st instr, then dat. The difference between strong/weak forms was so-

metimes shown in the sing with the help of ending e. Plural forms were sometimes contrasted to the sing forms with the help of e. later there appeared a new pl ending s. Some adj, whose endings were in vowels took no endings and could not show the difference between sing and pl or strong and weak forms. The ending e was very unavoidable and in NE was lost. This made adj uninflected part of speech. The degrees of comparison is the only category that the adj preserved, but the means to build up the the forms have changed in ME the degree of compareson can be built by: * suffixes: -er, -est; * the interchanges in root vowel survived in the adj (old-eldereldest); * the most important innovation in ME period was the growth of analytical forms of the degree of comparison (more, most); *in NE double comparatives and superlatives were observed. Later they were banned as illogical and incorrect (worser, most unkindest). 15. Development of the gram categories of the pronoun: personal pron. In OE the personal pronouns had 3 persons, 3numbers (sng.,pl.,dual/ 1st, 2nd (2numbers in the third), 3genders (only masc., fe, neutrum) in 3nd person sing. In OE some personal pronouns started to lose some of their case distinctions. Some of them were declined like adj to show agreement with the nouns they modified, while others behaved like nouns. They remained uninflected and did not agree with the noun they modified. 1) In ME the OE feminine pronoun of the 3rd person heo was replaced by a group of variants. The new feminine pronoun she prevailed over the others. In ME the OE pronoun of the 3person plural hie was replaced by Scandinavian they, so in OE they all were derivatives of the pronominal root with the initial [h]. In ME they lost their generic ties (heo, she, it they). 2). The Pl forms of the 2nd per ye,you, yours were applied more and more generally to individuals. They were widely used as equivalents of thou, thoe, thiese 3). The category of nr underwent changes: the forms of dual number went into disuse. 4) the category of case underwent changes: in ME Dative and Acc fell together and were called objective case. Nominative case was preserved. 5. In OE Gen case split from the other forms and turned into new class of pronouns possessive. Some possessive pronouns had 2 variant forms in ME (myne, my). The variant in were preferred before nouns which began with a vowel. In NE the 2 variants split into 2 distinct sets of forms differing in syntactic functions. In ME 3person, 2numbers, 3genders in the 3 rd

person sing., 2 cases remain. In NE 3persons, 3genders, 2numbers, 2 cases. 16. Development of the gram. cat. of the pronoun: demonstrative. There were 2 demonstrative pronouns in OE- the prototypes of NE that & this but they had a lot of homonymous forms. They were declined like adj according to 5-case system. Demonst pronouns are of special importance for they were frequently used as noun determiners and through agreement with noun indicated its number, gender & case. In early ME the OE dem pronouns se, seotheir inflected forms. The ME descendants of these pronouns are that, this, these, those. The direction of the development of the demonstrative pronouns led to the formation of the definite article. OE: 2numbers, 3 genders, 5 cases. ME: 2 nr, no genders, 3-4 cases gradually disappearing. NE: 2 nr, no genders, no cases. 17. Development of articles. The direction of the development of the demonstrative pronouns, se, seo, aet led to the formation of the definite article. This development is associated with a change in form and meaning. In OE the pronouns se, seo, aet were used as noun determiners only with a weakened meaning, approaching that of a modern definite article. In ME the difference between the demonstrative pronoun and the definite article appeared: demonstrative pronoun that preserved number distinctions while the definite article the was uninflected. The meaning and functions of definite article became more specific when it came to be opposed to the indefinite article which had developed from OE numeral and indefinite pronoun an. In OE there existed 2 words: numeral an and indefinite pronoun sum, which functions approached those of modern indefinite article. An colloquial word, sum assumed literary character, esp.at the end of the period and soon fell into disuse in this function. In early ME the indefinite pronoun an lost its inflection. Later the uninflected oon/one and their reduced forms an/a were firmly established in all regions. However, in ME there were cases where the use of articles and noun determiners did not correspond to modern articles. It is believed that the growth of articles in early ME was caused by several internal linguistic factors:development of definite article is connected with the changes in the declension of adj, namely with the loss of distinctions between strong and weak forms. The weak adj forms had certain demonstrative meaning resembling that of the modern definite article. the strong

form of adj conveyed the meaning of indeterminateness, which was later transferred to an, a numeral and indefinite pronoun. if nouns were used without adj, or weak or strong forms coincided, an and aet were the only means of expressing these meaning. the function of the word order changed. After the loss of inflections, the word order assumed a gram function it showed the gram relation between words in the sence. Now the parts of the sentences had fixed places. Accordingly, the communicative func passed to the articles and their use became more regular. The growth of the articles is connected both with the changes in syntax and in morphology. 18. Development of the morphological features of strong verbs. The major 2 groups were strong and weak verbs. There were over 300 strong verbs & it was a definite group. They were frequent in use and derivation. There were more weak verbs and their nr was growing. Strong verbs: 1) formed principal forms by vowel gradation and consonant interchange (writan, wrat, writon, writen). 2) there were 4 principal forms (plural was formed by adding-on) 3) there were 7 subclasses of strong verbs. The same endings irrespective to the class. Morphological changes: 1) In ME the final syllables of the stems were weakened, in NE most of them were lost. The OE endings: -an,-on, -en were reduced to ME en 2) past singular began to penetrate into past plural: OE: drincan. Drank, dronkea. 3) alteration of consonants (palatalisation before front vowel). 4) forms were reduced to 3(past eg.:past pl=past: OE bindan, Bond, bounden, bounden; ME binden, bend, bounden; NE bind, bound, bound. In ME & early NE many strong verbs began to form their past & part II with the help of dental suffix. Therefore the nr of strong verbs decreased. The main difference btw strong & weak verbs lay in the means of forming the principal forms. Inf -an; past sg-no ending; past pl-on; part II-en. In ME there were 195 strong verbs, later-67. 19. Development of the morphological features of weak and preterite-present verbs. The number of weak verbs in OE by far exceeded of strong verbs. Weak verbs formed their past & part II by means of dental suffix d- or t-. they were subdivided into 3 classes differing in the ending of the Inf, the sonority of the suffix & the sounds preceding the suffix. There were 3 principal forms: Inf, Past & Part II. (I-an-ian; -de/ede/to; ed/d/t; II ian; ode; od; III an; de; d) the evaluation of week verbs in ME and NE reveals a strong tendency towards greater regularity & order. Changes:

1. vowel -i- disappeared in the inf (macian-maken) 2. unstressed forms were weakened 3. changes of consonants (libban-liven) 4. some weak verbs acquired forms similar to strong verbs (hydan-hyddehyded/hidden-hidde-hid) 5.weak verbs lost endings (cutten-cut). The dental suffix-d/t- proved to be very productive. This simple and regular way of form building attracted hundreds of new verbs in ME&NE. There were only 2classesof weak verbs(Past: I-de II-ede; Part II: I-ed II-ed). When e- was dropped the difference betw 2classes was lost. Preterite-present(or past present) verbs belong to the minor groups of verbs. The present tense forms of these verbs were past tense forms. These forms acquired a present meaning but preserved many formal features of the past tense. Most of these verbs had new past tense forms built with the help of the dental suffix. Some of them also acquired the forms of the verbals: participles & infinitives. The verbs were inflected in the Present like the past tense of strong verbs. In OE there were 12preterite-present verbs. Of them there were survived in NE: owe, ought, can, dare, shall, may, must). Most of the preterite-presents didnt indicate actions, but presented a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb (inf). They were used like modal verbs in ME & NE several preterite-present verbs died out. The surviving verbs lost the forms of the verbals and the distinction btw the forms of nr & mood in the present tense. In NE their paradigms have been reduced to two forms or even one (Whanwat, witon-present wiste past= to know) 20. Development of the verbal grammatical categories of time, mood, person & number. OE had 4 grammatical categories: 1) 2tenses (present, past) 2) 3 moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive) 3) 2numbers 4) 3persons; no voice, no aspect. The verb predicate agreed with the subject of the sentence in 2 gramm categories: nr & person. Development of verbal gramm categ in ME & early NE. For finite verbs: OE -3 moods, ME/NE- 3-6; OE- 2 tenses, ME/NE- 3; OE- no voice. ME/NE 2, OE no time correlation, ME/NE- 2 leaving out consideration of nr & person- as categories of concord with the subjwe can say that OE finite verbs had 2 verbal gram categ proper: mood & tense. According to NE grammars the finite verb has 5 categories: mood, tense, aspect, timecorrelation & voice. All the new forms which have been included in the verb paradigms are analytical forms- all the synthetic forms are direct descendants of OE forms. In OE the verb-predicate agreed with

the subj of the sentence in 2 gram cat: nr & person. Its specifically verbal categories were mood & tense. Finite forms had 2 nr: sg & pl. The category of person was made up of 3 forms: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. the category of mood was constituted by the indicative, imperative & subjunctive. The category of tense consisted of 2 forms: present & past. The forms of the present tense were used to indicate present or future in the past. In addition, there are 2 debatable categories: aspect & voice. The category of aspect was expressed by the regular contrast of verbs with and without the prefix ge-. This prefix also changed the lexical meaning of the verb (sittansit; gesittan-occupy). Verbs without a prefix could also have a perfective meaning. There were also other means of expressing aspective meanings: verb phrases made up of verbs (habban, beon, weorthan) and the past or present participle. The category of voice. There were some mediopossible forms. The possible meaning was frequently indicated with the help of part II of transitive verbs used as predicatives with the verbs: Beon & weorthan. 21. Future tense. Subjunctive mood. There were 2 tenses in OE: Present & Past. And 3 moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive. The forms of the Present were used to indicate present and future actions. With verbs of perfective meaning or with adverbs of future time the Present acquired the meaning of futurity, e.g. ponne pu pa in bringst, he ytt and blersap pe when you bring them, he will eat and bless you. Future happenings could also be expressed verb phrases with modal verbs, e.g. ge sculon wepan you shall weep. Another type of analytical formation arises form the phrases: sceal+Inf,wille+Inf. The original modal meaning of these verbs may be weakened and the phrase may approach the meaning of the future tense. These forms may be considered the beginning of analytical forms to express future actions. A special future form which started in OE becomes in ME a regular part of the future tense system. Shal, wil were deprived of their original modal meanings and came to be used as future tense auxiliaries shal/wil +Inf. In NE future tenses expressed by shall/will+Inf. Subjunctive mood. The use of it was in many respects different from its use in later ages. Subj forms conveyed a very general meaning of unreality & supposition. It was widely used in ME both in main & subordinate clauses (clause of time, clauses presenting reported speech, conditional clause, clauses of concession & temporary clauses having

a meaning of supposition). The subj is used in indirect speech (interchangeable with indicative forms). In OE the forms of subj mood were synthetic. As stated above in OE modal phrases consisting sculan/willan+Inf were commonly used to indicate future actions, but if the modal verb had the form of the subj-present or pastthe meaning of the phrase approached that of the subj mood of the notional verb. In ME sholde, wolde weakened or even lost their lexical meanings ane turned into auxiliaries. By the age Shakespeare the forms should, would had become formal markers of the new analytical forms of the subj mood. In ME in conditional clauses the present subj is used to denote a real action. Unreal action referring to the present expressed try, past subj +Inf. Wolde/sholde+Inf-unreal action in the past.in NE should/would +Inf indicated simultaneous of subsequent action of imaginary character, e.g. if he were living I would try him. Should/would +Perfect Inf indicated a past or preceding improbable event, e.g. he would have spoken to us. 22. Development of analytical verb forms: perfective aspect, difference between prior and nonprior actions. The development of analytical forms & new grammatical categories has transformed not only the finite verb but also the verbal. Compound forms of the infinitive appeared at a very early date: the Part Inf consisting of bros Part II is found in OE texts, through its semantic contrast to the simple forms is not consistent since the OE active inf. Nmb its forms could sometimes have a passive meaning. In ME texts we find different types of compound inf.: the Pass Inf, the Perf Inf in the active and passive forms. In the texts of the 16th and 17th c. we find the same compound forms in the Inf. And also new Continuous and Perf Cont forms. Evidently in the 17th c the Inf. had the same act of forms as it has in present day English. The analytical forms of Part I began developing later than the forms of the Inf it was not until the 15th c that the first compound forms are found in the records. In the 17th c Part I is already used in all the 4 forms which it can build only: Perfect & non-Perfect, Pass & Active. The forms of Part I made a balanced system: Pass vs Active, Perf vs non-Perfect. Part II remained outside this system, correlated to the forms of Part I through formal differences 7 certain semantic affinities & oppositions. Compound forms of the ing forms used in the functions of a noun that

is the Gerund, were the last to appear. The earliest instances of analytical forms of the Gerund are found in the age of the literary Renaissance when the Inf & Part I possessed already a complete set of compound forms. The formal pattern set by the Part was repeated in the new forms of the gerund. The formal distinctions that had developed in the system of the verbals towards the 17th & 18th c are practically the same as in ME. The forms of the Inf & the ing form (Part I & Gerund) make up grammatical categories similar to those of the finite verb: Voice, Time-correlation & Aspect. It may be assumed that the relations between the members of those grammatical categories in the verbals roughly correspond to these of the finite forms, both semantically & formally. It should be noted that sometimes the semantic opposition were less strict or perhaps they were more often neutralized. Like other analytical forms of the verb, the prefect forms have developed from OE verb phrases. The main source of the perfect form was the OE construction consisting of the verb habban a direct object and Part II of a transitive verb, which served as an attribute to the object (a person possesses a thing which was characterized by a certain state resulting from previous action). Another OE phrase consisted of the link-verb beon and Part II of intransitive verbs. Towards ME the two phrases turned into analytical forms. The Participles had lost their forms of agreement with nouns, the participle usually stood close to the verb have & was followed by the object. In the Perfect form the auxiliary have had lost the meaning of possession. In the beginning the main function of the perfect forms was to indicate of one action to another. Towards the age of Shakespeare the contrast between the perfect & non-perfect forms became more obvious. 23. Development of analytical verb forms: Continuous aspect & passive voice. Continuous asp. In ME appeared 1st instances of continuous asp consisting of verb be(n)+Part I. con.asp was very rare. Only 6 examples in Chaucers works have been found in ME. The origin of formation (2 possible sources). 1) OE phrases consisting of beon +Part I (V-ended). 2) OE phrases consisting of beon + on+ V-ing. e.g he is on huntinge a) he is in hanting he is hunting; b) he is a hunting- he is huntinge. Cont. asp.was formed by matching these 2 variants. We may also suppose that ME cont forms resulted from merging OE- ende

phrases & OE-ing phrases. Perfect Cont forms are quite rare in ME. In NE cont asp was gradually formed expressed by pattern: be+Part I. in the 19th c cont forms are used more widely than in the early 19th c. they were considered a feature of colloquial style, not used in the literary lang. now cont forms penetrated into all styles of lang. in the 19th c passive cont forms appeared but they are limited to the present &past (are being done, were being done). Passive voice. There was the grammatical expression of voice in OE. Phrase: subject+beon+Part II meant that the subject had or required a feature as a result of an action performed on it. E.g. he wearp ofslegen he was killed. The passive voice was very widely developed in ME: ben+Part II could express both a state and action. Only context showed which was meant. In the NE passive voice is expressed: be+Part II. 24. Germanic languages. The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The largest Germanic languages are English and German, with ca. 340 and 120 million native speakers, respectively. Other significant languages includes a number of Low German languages including Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages (principally Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). Their common ancestor is Common Germanic, probably spoken in the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age Northern Europe. Common Germanic, and all its descendants, is characterised by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as Grimm's law. Early Germanic dialects enter history with the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire from the 2nd century.Some unique features of Germanic languages are: 1. The leveling of the IE tense system into past and present (or common) 2. The use of a dental suffix (/d/ or /t/) instead of vowel alternation (Indo-European ablaut) to indicate past tense. 3. The presence of two distinct types of verb conjugation: weak (using dental suffix) and strong (using ablaut). English has 161 strong verbs; all are of native English origin. 4. The use of strong and weak adjectives. Modern English adjectives don't change except for comparative and superlative; this was not the case with Old English, where adjectives were inflected differently depending on whether they were preceded by an article or demonstrative, or not.

5. The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law. 6. A number of words with etymologies that are difficult to link to other Indo-European families, but variants of which appear in almost all Germanic languages. 7. The shifting of stress onto the root of the stem. Though English has an irregular stress, native words always have a fixed stress regardless of what's added to them. This is arguably the most important change. From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic dialects are divided into three groups, West, East and North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration period, so that some individual dialects are difficult to classify. The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas. During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand, and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low German, with graded intermediate Central German dialects. Classification. West Germanic language High Germanic languages German Central German East Central German Luxembourgish West Central German Pennsylvania German (spoken in southeastern Pennsylvania) Upper German Alemannic German Swabian German, including Stuttgart * Low Alemannic German, including the area of Lake Constance or Basel German * Alsatian * High Alemannic German, including Zrich German or Bernese German * Highest Alemannic German, including the Bernese Oberland dialects or Walliser German Austro-Bavarian German North Bavarian (including Nuremberg) * Middle Bavarian (including Munich and Vienna) * South Bavarian (including Innsbruck, Klagenfurt and Bozen-Bolzano, Italy * Hutterite German Yiddish (with a significant influx of vocabulary from Hebrew and other languages, and traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet) * Wymysojer (with a significant influence from Plattdtsch, Dutch, Polish and Scots) Low Germanic languages *Low Franconian Dutch * Afrikaans (with a significant influx of vocabulary from other languages) * Limburgish * Plattdtsch West Low German Northern Low Saxon language East Low German Plautdietsch (Mennonite "Low

German") Insular Germanic Frisian Sl'ring English. Huge influx of Latinate vocabulary, mostly via Norman French. Many dialects. English English Northern English * Northumberland (Geordie) * Durham (Pitmatic) * Cumbrian * Yorkshire * Lancashire * Merseyside (Scouse) * Manchester * Midlands English East * Derbyshire * Nottingham * Lincolnshire * Leicestershire West Black Country (Yam Yam) * Birmingham (Brummie) East Anglian Norfolk (Broad Norfolk) Southern English based Received Pronunciation * Estuary English * Cockney (London) * Somerset * Devon * Cornwall Scottish English * Welsh English * Hiberno-English (Irish English) North American English Canadian English *Boston dialect * Southern American English * General American * New York-New Jersey English * California English * Hawaiian English * Black English/AAVE/Ebonics * Liberian English (Others) Australian English * New Zealand English * Caribbean English * Jamaican English * Newfoundland English * Hong Kong English * South African English * Indian English * Singlish (Singaporean English) * Manglish (Malaysian English) Scots Insular Scots * Northern Scots, including Doric * Central Scots * Southern Scots * Ulster Scots * Urban Scots (City dialects) Yola East Germanic (descending from Gothic) Crimean Gothic (extinct in the 1800s) * Vandalic (extinct) * Burgundian (extinct) * Lombardic (extinct) North Germanic (descending from Old Norse): West (Insular) Nordic New Norwegian (Nynorsk) (disputed) * Icelandic * Faroese * Norn (Extinct) East (Continental) Nordic Danish Standard Norwegian (Dano-Norwegian) Swedish Finland-Swedish 25.The indo-European family of languages. The family tree. The Germanic group of language and their characteristics. The indoEuropean lang. acquired certain features: 1) they were inflectional (gender, nr, case, past forms etc. Were introduced through inflections). The relations btw the parts of the sentence were shown by the forms of the words rather than by their position or by auxiliary words (synthetic gram structure). 2) Word structure: root+stem+inflection 3) Habits of pronunciation, musical pitch 4) gram categories: pronouns had 3 nr: sg, pl, dual). There were 3 voices: active, passive, middle). 5) possession of common meanings. Typical Germanic features: PHONOLOGICAL f 1) a fixed accent, a forced stress. In ME the

main accent commonly falls on root morpheme and is never shifted in building gram forms. 2) different kinds of alteration of vowels (they had a tendency to change): *qualitative changes *quantitative changes *dependent ch (are restricted to certain positions or phonetic coordination) *independent ch (effect a certain sound in all positions). Strict differentiation of strong and short vowels is an important characteristics of Germanic lang. 3) A regular shift of consonants (Grimms law). it is made up of 3 acts: *voiceless plosives>voiceless fricatives:[pb]>[p]>[f] *voiced plosives>voiceless plosives:[dh]>[d]>[t] *voiced aspirated plosives>voiced fricatives or pure voiced plosives [bh]>[b]>[p] Verners law: linguistic change begins with synchronic variation. When the stress was different, the quality of vowel /consonant changes eg: pater>faer>faer>faer. GRAM features: 4) 2-fold declension of adjectives. The adj had strong declension when there was no elements in front of it. The adj had a weak declension. When it was preceded by another word. Gram categories: pronouns had 2 nr: sg & pl, no dual. There were 2 voices: active & passive, no middle. MORPHOLOG features: 5) word structure: root+ inflection. 26. . Theoretical aspects of a linguistic change: causes, mechanism, types. Causes: The evolution of lang is causes by the struggle of opposites. The growing & changing needs in speech community & the force that curbs the changes and preserves the lang. in a state fit for communication. Other factors can be divided into external and internal. External linguistic factors include the history of the people relevant to the development of the lang. (str. of society, migration, mixture). Internal factors arise from the lang. system: 1.) general-operate in all lang., 2) specific-in one lang. The most general causes of lang. evolution are to be found in tendencies to improve the lang. techniques or its formal apparatus. Another group preserves the lang as a vehicle fit for communication. These tendencies resist linguistic change & account for the historical stability of many elements & features. Mechanisms: A linguistic change begins with synchronic variation. Alongside the existing lang units, there spring up new units. They may be similar in meaning but slightly diff in form, stylistic connotations etc. in some way new meanings can arise in the existing words or forms alongside their main meaning. Synchronic variation is caused by 2 reasons: 1) functional differentiation of lang., 2) tendencies of historical developm.

New features which appear as instances of synchronic variations represent dynamics in synchrony. Types: Many features of lang. remain static in diachrony. There exist certain universal properties: the division of sounds into vowels & consonants, the distinction btw the main parts of speech & the parts of the sentence. English has many stable characteristics e.g. some parts of English voc. Many word formations have remained stable; some gram categories (number of N, degrees of comparison in adj.). Dynamics in diachrony, that is linguistic change, imply temporal diff in lang., which become apparent if the same elements of the lang. are compared at successive historical changes. Most linguist changes involve some kind of substitution/ replacements: 1) one-to-one replacement occurs when a new unit merely takes the place o the old one, but from [u] to [^]. 2) merging 2 or more units fall together & are replaced by 1 unit; the modern common case of N is the result of merging of 3 OE cases: Nom, Gen, Acc. 3) splitting 2 distinct units take place of 1 [k] into [k] & [tome changes are pure innovations, which do not replace anything (baby-sitter) or pure looses. Linguistic changes are usu slow & gradual, for rapid changes would have disturbbb bbb bbbbbbbbbbbbb bbb bbbb . bbbbbbbbbbb . 27. Linguistic features of Germanic languages. Grimms & Verners laws. Germanic group acquired their spec distinctive features during the period of protoGermanic parent lang. (15-20c BC), before the further expansion & disintegration of tribes. Phonetics: 1. force or expiratory stress became the only type of stress used. 2) Position of stress was stabilized. It was fixed on the 1 st syllable usu. the root. 3) the stress could no longer move either in form or word building. Vowels: 1) qualitative changes affect the quality of the sound [o-a] 2) dependent ch. Are restricted to certain positions or phonetic conditions, a sound may change under the influence of the neighbouring sounds in a certain type syllable. 3) independent ch.affect a certain sound in all positions. 4) positional assimilation ( the pronunciation of a vowel was modified under the following or preceding consonant, sometimes a vowel was approximated more closely to the following vowel; result allophones) 5) mutations before n, l, j in the next syllable the short e, I, & u became close. In other environment more open allomorphs were used. Consonants: Grimms law / the 1st or protoGermanic consonant shift. Voiceless plosives developed in PG into

voiceless fricatives (p-f, k-x); IE voiced plosives were shifted to voiceless plosives (b-p, d-t, g-k); IE voiced aspirated plosives were reflected either as voiced fricatives or as pure voiced plosives. Verners Law. It explains some correspondences of consonants which seemed to contradict Grimms & were regarded as exceptions. All the early voiceless fricatives became voiced

btw vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed. In the absence of these conditions they remained voiceless. As a result of voicing by Vs law there arose as interchange of consonants in the gram forms of the words, termed gram interchange. Grammar. They had a synthetical gram str. Gram forms were built in the synthetic way; by means of inflection, sound interchange &

simpleton. Strong & weak verbs: the strong V built their principle forms with the help of root vowel interchanges + certain gram endings. The weak V built their principle tense & participle II by inserting a special suffix btw the root & the ending.

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