The Origins and Development of the English Language Chapter 4: The Backgrounds of English

1. The Origins and Development of the English Language Chapter 4: The Backgrounds of English John Algeo and Thomas Pyles Michael Cheng National Chengchi University

2. English: mom miaow-miaow me pistachio choose glide Welsh mam Chinese mi-mi Swahili mimi Italian pistacchio French choisir Swedish glida Similarities between languages

3. One original language? • Some languages share many common features • Language family • Cognates – languages within a language family • Not a biological family – languages don’t get born and die at specific times, or separate creatures from their parents

4. Models of languages • Family tree • Wave model

5. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/472574816_7a659b8d85.jpghttp://www.answers.com/topic/wave-modelhttp://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/472574816_7a659b8d85.jpghttp://www.answers.com/topic/wave-model

6. http://www.intersolinc.com/newsletters/images/Language%20Tree.gifhttp://www.intersolinc.com/newsletters/images/Language%20Tree.gif

7. English – father German – Vater Dutch – vader Icelandic – faðer Norwegian – fader http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/34/2034-004-9211C072.gif

9. The language spoken in England is related to the language spoken in India http://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/2900/2965/2965.jpg

10. The language in the Bible is related to the language in the Rig Veda

12. William Jones(September 28, 1746 – April 27, 1794) • Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Chinese • Knew 13 languages; familiar with 28 • 1768 Oxford • 1773 law degree • 1783 Supreme Court judge in Calcutta

13. Indian culture was a new subject for European scholarship • 1786 – Sanskrit bore a resemblance to Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, and possibly Persian • Sanskrit: pitar Greek: patēr Latin: pater • Suggested a common root language that no longer exists

14. Languages from Iceland to India are related to a common languageBased on the geographic locations of these languages, we now call the language that Jones hypothesized Proto Indo-European

15. Jones’ philologer passage, 1786 • His third annual discourse before the Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (delivered on February 2, 1786 and published in 1788) with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies. This is Jones' most quoted passage, establishing his tremendous find in the history of linguistics: • The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_(philologist)

16. The Proto Indo-European people • Who were the people who spoke Proto Indo-European and where did they come from?

17. PIE dispersion hypotheses • Kurgan Migration • Anatolian Farmer • Balkan • Black Sea Flood • Paleolithic Continuity Theory

18. Kurgan Migration--Gimbutas • Cognates for: • Alder, apple, ash, beech, birch, elm, hazel, linden, oak, willow, yew • Wolf, bear, lox • No common words for: • Olive, cypress, palm • Ocean • Suggests inland culture in temperate zone

19. Kurgan Culture • Herded domesticated animals • Mobile – used wagons • Warrior nobility • Worshipped sky god associated with thunder • Sun, horse, boar, snake • Elaborate burials in mounds (kurgans)

20. Zeus pater • Jupitar

22. 5000 BCE

23. Kurgans 4000 BCE

24. 3000 BCE Anatolian

25. Expansion 2000 BCE

26. Evolution 500 BCE

27. 500 CE Huns invade from East

28. Medieval 1500 CE Turks invade

29. Indo-European languages today

30. World Language families

31. Official Indo-European languages today

32. Armenian homeland

34. Features of Proto Indo-European • Types of languages: Isolating, Agglutinative, Inflective • Isolating • Every morpheme forms a different word • Chinese • Agglutinative (Incorporative) • Combine grammatical morphemes with a lexical stem • Grammatical morphemes are discrete & don’t change • Strung onto the lexical stem • Swahili, Turkish

35. Agglutinative example • Swahili • I will like you: nitakupenda • ni – ta – ku – penda • (I) (future) (2nd person object) (verb stem: like) • I liked you: nilakupenda • ni – la – ku – penda • (I) (past) (2nd person object) (verb stem: like) • I like him: nitampenda • ni – ta – m – penda • (I) (future) (him as object) (verb stem: like)

36. Inflective languages • Inflective • Inseparable inflections are fused to the lexical stem • Greek, Latin • I love: Amo • Am – o • (love) (first person, singular, present tense, indicative)

37. What kind of language is English? • says • inflective • unfriendliness • agglutinative • the, for, to, by, no • isolating

38. PIE Morphology • Parts of speech • Nouns/Adjectives • Pronouns • Verbs • Prepositions • Nouns/Adjectives and Pronouns were inflected for Case, Number, and Gender

39. Noun/Adj Infections: 8 cases • Nominative: They saw me. (subject) • Vocative: Officer, I need help. (person addressed) • Accusative: They saw me. (direct object) • Genitive: Shakespeare’s play. (possessor or source) • Dative: Give her a hand. (indirect object, recipient) • Ablative: He abstained from it. (what is separated) • Locative: We stayed home. (place, where) • Instrumental: She ate with chopsticks. (means, instrument)

40. Germanic cases • Nominative: They saw me. (subject) • Vocative: Officer, I need help. (person addressed) • Accusative: They saw me. (direct object) • Genitive: Shakespeare’s play. (possessor or source) • Dative: Give her a hand. (indirect object, recipient) • Ablative: He abstained from it. (what is separated) • Locative: We stayed home. (place, where) • Instrumental: She ate with chopsticks. (means, instrument)

41. Noun/Adj Number and Gender • Number: singular, plural, dual • Gender: male, female, neuter

42. Proto Indo-European Nouns

43. Pronouns • Cases (3) • Number (3) • Gender (3) • Person: first, second, third

44. Verb Inflections • Person • Number • Aspect (kind of like tense): Completion, duration, repetition of action • Voice • Mood

45. IE Verb Aspect • Present: continuing action in progress • Imperfect: continuing action in the past • Aorist: momentary action in past • Perfect: completed action • Pluperfect: completed action in the past • Future: actions to come • (Evolved into only present and past tense in Germanic languages)

46. IE Voice • Active • Passive • Middle (reflexive) • Germanic lost the passive and middle voices and expressed these notions by phrases rather than inflections

47. IE Mood • Indicative: statements or questions of fact • Imperative: expressing commands • Optative: expressive wishes • Subjunctive: expressing will • Injunctive: expressing unreality

48. IE Mood evolution into Germanic • Indicative: statements or questions of fact • Imperative: expressing commands • Optative(Subjunctive): expressive wishes • Subjunctive: expressing will • Injunctive: expressing unreality

49. Proto Indo-European was an inflective language: Verb inflections

50. Word Order • Greenburg (Some Universals of Grammar) • SVO languages: • verb + object: The workman made a horn. • noun + modifier: the size of the building • conjunction + noun: the Senate and the House • preposition + object: Harold fought with him. • SOV languages usually reverse these features