The purpose of the subject of the History of the English language is a systematical explanation of the development of the language from its early stages to our days

The History of the English language-Subject and the aims of the History of the English language.

Studying the Modern English language one can find that there are some problems that can’t be explained from the point of view of Modern English. Thus, in the sphere of the vocabulary there is considerable likeness between English and other languages. Thus, for example the German for the following words are:

winter Winter

summer Sommer

foot Fuß

long lang

Those who know French find many words alike:

autumn autumne

river rivière

modest modeste

change changer

condemn condemner

But we cannot account for them if we remain within the limits of contemporary English; we can only suppose that they are not a matter of chance and there must be some causes behind them. These causes can only be discovered by going into the history of the English language.

If we take phonetics, the relation between the written image of the words and the way they are pronounced, we find many phenomena which can’t be explained from the point of view of Modern English, e.g. in such words as: sign, light, daughter, know, gnaw, gnat we find letters which are not pronounced at all. The letters ea denote different sounds in such words as: speak, great, create, heard, heart, bear.

In Grammar the phenomena which can’t be explained are not rare (if you do not know the history), e.g. the plural forms of such nouns as: an ox, a man, a woman, a deer, a foot, a goose are formed by change of the root vowel:

a man – men, a woman – women, a deer, a foot – feet, a goose – geese etc.

All these phenomena are traced back to a distant past and they cannot be accounted for without a study of history.

Thus knowledge of the history of English should be an integral part in a training of a teacher of the language.

The study of the history of the language is based on applying general principles of linguistics to the concrete material of the language studied. The study of the history of the language helps us to understand Modern English better as a result of complicated process of language development.

The English language is one of the languages of a large system which is called the Indo-European system of languages. This system consists of several groups inside each of which the relations between the languages are stronger, the linguistic laws can be easily traced. The relations between the groups entering the Indo – European system can be also traced but it is not so easy as it is within one group.

English is one of the languages of the Indo – European system which enters the Germanic group of languages. The Modern Germanic group of languages consists of such languages as German, English, Dutch, the languages of Scandinavia, Yugoslavia, Chechia and Slovakia. The Germanic languages are very ancient. They were spoken in Europe (in the North). Ancient scholars and travellers sometimes tried to describe the Germanic tribes and their languages. The Greek traveller and astronomer Pytheas from Massilla (now Marseilles) (the 4^th century B.C.) sailed from his native town through the straits of Gibraltar along the coasts of Gaul (France), along the English Channel and he reached the Baltic. He landed in Germany and studied the way of life of the Germanic tribes. The Roman general, statesman, and writer Yulius Ceasar in his “Commentarii de bello gallico” (Commentaries on the War in Gaul) in some chapters described the Germans, their way of life, their languages.

About a century later, Pliny the Elder wrote about Teutons in his great work Natural history (Naturalis Historia). Pliny gave a classification of German tribes, which has been accepted by modern historians. Friedrich Engels described this classification as a model one. According to Pliny, Germanic tribes in the first century A.D. consisted of the following groups:

1. East – Germanic tribes: the Vindili (among them were the Goths and the Burgundians). They inhabited the eastern part of Germanic territory.

2. The Ingvaeones (or the Ingaevones). They inhabited the north-western part of Germanic territory – the shores of the Northern sea, including what is now the Netherlands.

3. The Iscaevones (or Istaevones). They inhabited the western part of Germanic territory, on the Rhine. Among them were the Franks, who eventually conquered Gaul.

4. The Hermiones (or Herminones). They inhabited the southern part of Germanic territory, i.e. what is now southern Germany.

5. The Peucini and Bastarnae. These lived close to the Dacians, close to what is now Rumania.

6. The Hilleviones, who inhabited Scandinavia.

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