2. Old English
MAIN CHARACTERS OF OLD ENGLISH PERIOD
IMPORTANT BOOOKS IN OLD ENGLISH
Beowulf
is an Old English epic poem consisting of
3182 alliterative lines. It may be the oldest
surviving long poem in Old English and is
commonly cited as one of the most impor-
tant works of Old English literature.
Alfred the Great
(849 – 26 October 899)
He was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.
Alfred successfully defended his kingdom
against the Viking attempt at conquest, and
by the time of his death had become the
dominant ruler in England. He is one of only
two English monarchs to be given the
epithet "the Great", the other being the
Scandinavian Cnut the Great. He was also
the first King of the West Saxons to style
himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons".
William the Conqueror
(1028 – 9 September 1087)
Usually known as William the Conqueror
and sometimes William the Bastard,was the
first Norman King of England, reigning from
1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant
of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy (as
Duke William II) from 1035 onward. After a
long struggle to establish his power, by
1060 his hold on Normandy was secure,
and he launched the Norman conquest of
England six years later.
450 - 1066
3. Old English
1.- WORD ORDER
VSO = V (verb) + S (subject) + O (object)
2.- NOUNS
- Nouns could be of 3 genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. There were assigned
arbitrarily.
- Numbers could be either singular or plural
- There were 4 fases: Nominative, accusative,dative, and genitive.
- There were 7 groups of declesions for nouns.
3.- VERBS
- The Infinitive of verbs ended in –an.
- In the present tense, all verbs had markers for number and person.
- The weak past tense added –de.
- The strong past tenseusually involved a vowel change.
- Old English also had many more strong verbs tan modern English.
4.- ADJETIVES
- adjetives could be weak or strong.
- If preceded by determiner, the weak ending was added to the adjetive.
- if no determiner preceded the adjetive, then the strong endings were used.
- Adjetives agreed in gender, case and number with the nouns they described.
5.- ADVERBS
- Adverbs were formed by adding –e to the adjetive, or –lic.
6.- SYNTAX
- The syntax of old English was much more flexible tan Modern English
because of the declensions of the nouns.
7.- PRONUNCIATION
- Pronunciation was characterized by a predictable stress pattern on the first syllable.
- The length of the vowels was phonemic as there were 7 long and 7 short vowels.
8.- WRITING SYSTEM
- Characters used in old English writing:
- æ (a ligature of “a” and “e”)
- (now writen “th”)
- β (for the “ss” or “sz” sound)
9.- PRONOUNS
- Old English had distinctive forms for all genders, persons and cases.
- Old English had a set of forms for two people or two things- the dual number
ic (I), wit (we two) wē (we plural)
450 - 1066
4. MiddleEnglish
MAIN CHARACTERS OF MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
Geoffrey Chaucer
(1343 – 25 October 1400)
Known as the Father of English literature, is
widely considered the greatest English poet
of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to
be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster
Abbey.
IMPORTANT BOOOKS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
The Canterbury Tales
It is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines
written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1389
Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canter-
bury Tales. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some
are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest
by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey
from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas
Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
1066 - 1500
Wycliffe's Bible translation
Is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into
Middle English that were made under the direction of John
Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately
1382 to 1395. John Wycliffe is credited with the first transla-
tion of the Bible into English, there were, in fact, many trans-
lations of large parts of the Bible centuries before Wycliffe's
work.
5. MiddleEnglish
1066 - 1500
1.- WORD ORDER
SVO = S (subject) + V (verb) + O (object)
2.- NOUNS
- Middle English lost the case suffixes at the ends of nouns.
- The generalized plural market became –s, but it still comperes with –n.
3.- VERBS
- The third person singular and plural was marked with – ( e ) th; but the singular also
competes with – ( e )s.
4.- ADJETIVES
- Adjetives lost agreement with the noun, but the weak ending –e still remained.
5.- ADVERBS
- The adverb ending –lic became –ly;
6.- SYNTAX
- syntax was stricter and more prepositions were used.
- New compound tenses were used.
- The use of the verbs will and shall for the future tense were first used too.
7.- PRONUNCIATION
- Lost of initial h in the cluster ( hleapan – to leap; hnutu-hut).
- [w] lost between consonant and back vowel (w is silent in two, sword,answer).
- [v] lost in middle of words (heofod-head; hæfde – had)
8.- WRITING SYSTEM
- p and ð were replaced by “th”
- c before i or e became “ch”
- “sc” became “sh”
- an internal “h” was added after “g”
- “hw” became “wh”.
- “cw” became “qu”
9.- PRONOUNS
- The dual number disappeared in the pronouns.
- The dative and accusative became the object forms of the pronouns.
- “She” started being used for the feminine singular subject pronoun.
- “You” (plural form was used in the singular as a status marker f
or the formal.
6. 1.- WORD ORDER
SVO = S (subject) + V (verb) + O (object)
2.- NOUNS
- Middle English lost the case suffixes at the ends of nouns.
- The generalized plural market became –s, but it still comperes with –n.
3.- VERBS
- The third person singular and plural was marked with – ( e ) th; but the singular also competes
with – ( e )s.
4.- ADJETIVES
- Adjetives lost agreement with the noun, but the weak ending –e still remained.
5.- ADVERBS
- The adverb ending –lic became –ly;
6.- SYNTAX
- syntax was stricter and more prepositions were used.
- New compound tenses were used.
- The use of the verbs will and shall for the future tense were first used too.
7.- PRONUNCIATION
- Lost of initial h in the cluster ( hleapan – to leap; hnutu-hut).
- [w] lost between consonant and back vowel (w is silent in two, sword,answer).
- [v] lost in middle of words (heofod-head; hæfde – had)
8.- WRITING SYSTEM
- p and ð were replaced by “th”
- c before i or e became “ch”
- “sc” became “sh”
- an internal “h” was added after “g”
- “hw” became “wh”.
- “cw” became “qu”
9.- PRONOUNS
- The dual number disappeared in the pronouns.
- The dative and accusative became the object forms of the pronouns.
- “She” started being used for the feminine singular subject pronoun.
- “You” (plural form was used in the singular as a status marker f
or the formal.
Early Modern English
1066 - Present
MAIN CHARACTERS OF EARLY MODERN PERIOD
William Caxton
(c. 1422 – c. 1491)
English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. He is thou-
ght to be the first Englishman to introduce a printing press
into England, in 1476, and was the first English retailer of
printed books.
William Shakespeare
(1564 – 1616)
He was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as
the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-emi-
nent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the
"Bard of Avon".His extant works, including collaborations, consist of
approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and
a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship
Samuel Johnson
(1709 -1784)
Often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English writer who made
lasting contributions to English literature. Johnson's A Dictionary of
the English Language was published in 1755. It had a far-reaching
effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the
greatest single achievements of scholarship"
Thomas Jefferson
(743 – 1826)
He was an American Founding Father who wrote the Declaration of
Independence and later served as the third President of the United
States from 1801 to 1809.
7. Early Modern English
1066 - Present
Table Alphabeticall
Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall, published in 1604, was
the first single-language English dictionary ever published.
With 130 pages, it presents a selection of 2,543 words and
their first-ever definitions.
Shakespeare´s First Folio
Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies
is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's
plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio.
The Oxford English Dictionary
Is a descriptive dictionary of the English language, published
IN 1928 by the Oxford University Press.
Webster American English Dictionary
Webster's 1828 Dictionary contains the foundation of America's
heritage and principal beliefs. It is contemporary with the American
Constitution.
The Daily Courant
The Daily Courant,initially published on 11 March 1702, was
the first British daily newspaper in english-language.
8. Early Modern English
1.- WORD ORDER
SVO = S (subject) + V (verb) + O (object)
2.- NOUNS
- Possessives based on a contraction of the possessive pronoun -s (his).
- The –es of plurals and Genitive Singular was established.
- Plurals in –en and zero plurals are reduces to their modern extent by the end of the
17th
- The –es Genitive was interpreted as his and this led to forms like for Christ his sake.
3.- VERBS
- More strong verbs became weak and the third person singular form became –(e)s
intead of –(e)th.
- An increase in the use of progressive form.
- Differences in inflection are more noticeable.
a).- “to be” forms alondside the forms used in current modern english example: I
be/Thou beest/we, you,they be.
The perfect of transitive verbs of motion, continued to be frequently formed with to be
rather than with to have
b).- “to do” In the negative and affirmative direct questions: do/did you(not) love?
Negative declaratives or imperatives: did not love/do not love
The periphrastic construction in affirative declarative sentences disappeard in the late
16th century: i do/did love
4.- ADVERBS
- Without the ending -ly were much commoner in this period.
- The compound adverbs of the form here, there, and where + preposition were in
widespread use as equivalents of preposition + this, that (or it), and what,
e.g. ‘To make there through a nauigable passage’ (Thomas Blundeville, 1594)
5.- ADJETIVES
- Lost all endings except for in the comparative and superlative forms.
- Comparative and Superlatives degrees.
- Double Superlative and doublé comparative (Shakespeare´s times)
- Monosyllables take er and est.
- The adjetives with two syllables take more and most.
- Plurals in –en and zero plurals are reduces to their modern extent by the end of the
- The –es Genitive was interpreted as his and this led to forms like for Christ his sake.
- More strong verbs became weak and the third person singular form became –(e)s
1066 - Present
9. Early Modern English
6.- SYNTAX
- Inversion of verb and subject; after an adverbial element, a conjuction or an object.
- The multiple negative; in OE and ME, it was unexceptional to negate more tan one
element of a sentence.
7.- PRONUNCIATION
- Great Vowel Shift: Basically, the long vowels shifted upwards; that is, a vowel that
used to be pronounced in one place in the mouth would be pronounced in a different
place, higher up in the mouth.
- Consonants:
-Voiceless palatal fricative disappeared—Bright,Sight,Weight
-Voiceless velar fricative disappeared or changed---[F]
-The sequence –mb/ -b disappeared---Limb
-The [l] of the sequence –ol disappeared---holmes, yolk, folk
-Reduction of final –nd ---- laund (ME)> Lawn (EModE)
- Stress:
Many words were stressed otherwise tan they are in current speech. Example:
Character, ilustrate,concéntrate > all streessed on their second syllable.
Polysyllabic words ending in able/ible had initial stress.
8.- PRONOUN
- The disuse of : Thou,Thy and Thee OE and ME
Thou, Thy, Thee…. Singular forms
Ye, you, your ………Plural forms (Early modern english replaced the singular ones)
- The introduction of “you” for “ye” as a nominative case: Nomv…. Ye / Objetive…You
(both pronunced alike ( j )
- The introduction of “its” as the possessive of it: he, she, it … nominative and objeti-
ve case. There was a need for distinctive form in the possessive case.
1066 - Present
