ENGL 395: History of the English Language - STUDY GUIDE FOR  FINAL EXAM
USE THIS TOGETHER WITH THE COURSE OBJECTIVES. ALL OF THE MATERIAL HERE OVERLAPS WITH THE OBJECTIVES, BUT ORGANIZES IT THEMATICALLY AND RELATES TOPICS TO EACH OTHER ACROSS THE PERIODS OF ENGLISH. ESSAY QUESTIONS WILL BE FORMULATED LIKE THE ITEMS SEEN BELOW.

Research any information you need that is not present in class notes or in the textbooks by using encyclopedias and other reference books available in the library. These include three encyclopedias of linguistics in the Reference section of Kennedy library, as well as traditional encyclopedias, which will have entries on things like the Roman Empire, etc. The world-wide Web and CD ROM encyclopedias also are wealthy sources of information.

CALL NUMBERS FOR ENCYCLOPEDIAS OF LINGUISTICS IN OUR LIBRARY (1ST FLOOR REF.  SECTION): P29 .E48 1994 (Ref) vols. 1-10   -    P29 .I58 1992 (Ref)  vols. 1-2   -   P29 .C64 1987 (Ref)

Foundational knowledge for the course

• Language contact: The various kinds of contact between people that result in language contact; various possible outcomes of language contact, depending on the nature of the relationships between peoples in contact. Review notions: superstratum - substratum - adstratum languages; diglossia & triglossia; language shift and language death; keep track of examples of these from the course material (Latin & Celtic in Britain; English and Celtic in Britain; English and other languages in the British and American spheres of influence, etc.)
  
• English and other IE languages
• Earliest (7000 BCE) and latest (4000 BCE) possible dates for the breakup of the original Proto-Indo-European language; the candidate locations of the original PIE speakers' homeland.
• Be able to reproduce the 'family tree' leading from Proto-Indo-European to these subfamilies and important contemporary languages:
• Today's major Germanic languages: West Germanic (English, German, Dutch), and North Germanic  (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish);
• Today's major Romance languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese
• Today's major Slavic languages: Russian, Polish
• Today's major Indo-Iranian languages: Farsi (= Persian), Hindi/Urdu
• Important classical languages: Classical Latin, Classical Greek, Sanskrit -- when, roughly, were these languages alive and in use?
  
• The relationship to Latin is especially important, since there is a popular but incorrect myth that English comes from Latin. Though English and Latin have a common ancestor (Proto-Indo-European), it has been thousands of years since the subfamily that led to Latin (= Italic) and the one that led to English (= Germanic) split off from Proto-Indo-European. You should be aware of the periods during which contact with Latin took place, and the main meaning-domains in which words were borrowed from Latin (with examples). You should also be aware that Latin supplied us with many prefixes and suffixes, and with many words for specialized domains such as medicine and technology (again, periods and examples).

• Be prepared to give the dates and labels of the major divisions in the historical periods of  English: approximately, for Old English: 450-1100 A.D., Middle English: 1100-1500 A.D. , Early Modern English: 1500-1800 A.D. , Modern English: 1800-present.
• Sources of lexicon: Where has English, over its entire history,  gotten its words? What are native words? What are some internal means of creating new words (that is, means of creating words from exisiting lexical items)? What are the major lending languages in each period of English? Take into consideration all of the periods of English, including its pre-English history: Proto-Indo-European, Common Germanic, and Old, Middle, Early Modern and Modern English. How has the nature of contact between English and non-English-speaking peoples influenced the semantic fields within which words were borrowed? For each lending situation, give several examples of loan words and discuss how they indicate the nature of the contact between English speakers and those of the other languages. For Norse, French, and Latin, be able to give at least ten loanwords; these ten should illustrate several different meaning domains (e.g., religion and science for Latin; military terms and terms for luxury items from French, etc.). Be able to give at least ten loanwords that came in to English from a variety of languages (e.g., a few from Native American languages, a few from Caribbean languages, a few from languages of India, etc.), once more from different meaning domains (e.g., names for animals or terrain features; plants or food items; cultural artifacts such as moccasins or karaoke).
  

• Pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain:
• The linguistic/ethnic and social situation of the Britain in the few centuries preceding the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons (the speakers of Old English) and at the time of the Anglo-Saxons' arrival (spanning about 200 CE to 450 CE).
  
• The dates/nature of the Roman colonization of Britain and its probable linguistic consequences; date of withdrawal of Roman troops and administrators from Britain; consequences of the Roman withdrawal for inhabitants of present-day England.
  
• Germanic before its arrival in Britain:  Location of Common Germanic in northern Europe; its status as a tightknit dialect group; appearance during this period of words not shared with other IE languages; nature and linguistic effects of contact with Latin during this period.
  

• 449-600 A.D. The nature of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain: how it happened; how long it took for Anglo-Saxons to accomplish their takeover of England.
•  597-700 A.D. The first Golden Age: Anglo-Saxon Britain is converted to Christianity. The role of religion (and the monastery system) in the development of literacy and literature in Old English. Think of it this way: If it hadn't been for the conversion of England to Christianity, how much would we know about Old English?
• 787-886 A.D. The wars with the Danes: Anglo-Saxon Britain suffers invasions by Vikings (Scandinavians/Danes);  Alfred defeats the Danes and establishes the Danelaw by treaty; the linguistic consequences of the Danelaw, especially considering that the area from which Standard British English later sprang was within the Danelaw.
• 871-1016 CE. The second Golden Age: Alfred's fortification of English frontiers; his sponsorship of the restoration of the monasteries and of scholarship; types of documents produced during this period.
• The explanation for these odd pairings in Modern English: foot/feet, mouse/mice, long/length, old/elder, food/feed, etc.
  
• Why Old English looks and sounds so strange to the speaker of Modern English: sound, spelling, grammar

• The causes of the Norman Conquest: Why was the throne of England 'up for grabs'? Who were the contenders? Which of them won? Where was the winner from?
• The results of the Norman Conquest (include dates!): England becomes a 'triglossic' society. What does 'diglossia' or 'triglossia' refer to? How does it differ from 'bilingualism' or 'mutlilingualism'? What was the nature of triglossia in England? How did it change over this period; what was the situation by the late medieval period (the 1400s)? Why did this change occur?
• What are the enduring linguistic legacies of the Norman Conquest - the  French influences on English that are still detectable today? Consider loanwords, spelling, and literary themes.
  

• The Great Vowel Shift: What is it; how does it help explain the strangeness of today's spelling?
• Standardization:
• Selection: Socioeconomic group and region that produced the dialect that became Standard English
• Acceptance & Codification: Authorities in which agencies/domains accomplished the codification and enforced the acceptance of a particular dialect as standard? What major published works / document types helped codify this dialect as standard? (include titles, dates, and authors wherever these are available in your textbooks)
• Elaboration: In what ways did the codifiers strive to 'improve' English, and why did they think it needed 'improving'? What are the lasting legacies of this 'improvement' project for present-day education?
• The role of printing in the standardization process.
• The English Renaissance; the English Reformation: What do these terms refer to, and what were their effects on the language (some of these effects overlap with aspects of the standardization process)?
• The beginnings of Empire, and with it the internationalization of English: England establishes colonies in India, America, Australia, new Zealand, South Africa - English begins its journey to new homelands. There, new native varieties of English and scores of new dialects are slowly established as English speakers expand the territories they occupy.
• The difference between exploitation colonies and settlement colonies: Explain this; give several examples of locations of each type of colony. What are the typical linguistic outcomes of each (consider pidgins, creoles, and new dialects of English)?
  

• The waning of the British empire; the rise of  American political, economic, and cultural influence worldwide sustains the momentum of English as a world language; the impact on  English of contact with many world languages.
• The foundations for dialect diversity within the United States over its history; major dialect areas in the USA.
• Comparative histories of imperial/international languages: Which languages have achieved international status since the time of Classical Greece? How long did each endure in comparison to English's reign as the major international language?
  
• Contemporary language policy: What is language policy? How the language policies of Australia and South Africa compare to proposals for federal policy in the USA, and to legislation already existing in various states of the USA? For information about USA language policies, see this website: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/langpol.htm.