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From the History of the English Language
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Part 2.
1. Read and translate the text B:
From the History of the English Language
English belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It may surprise you to know that until a few centuries ago there were many natives of what we call the British Isles, who did not speak English. English has not always been the language of the people of those islands. When the Romans colonized England in the first century of our era, the country was inhabited by Celtic tribes, and until the fifth century only Celtic language was spoken by the people of Britain.
After the departure of the Romans Britain was attacked by the Germanic tribes of the Jutes, the Saxons and the Angels. The conquerors are generally referred to as the Anglo – Saxons. The Anglo – Saxons who spoke dialects of the language which was the ancestor of present-day English made up the majority of the population in Britain. So the Anglo – Saxon language or English became the principle language of the country. We call that language Old English.
Old English can be characterized as a language of full inflections, which resembled modern German in the way in which the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and articles are conjugated. Also English was influenced by the language of the Danish (Viking) invaders in the 8th—10th centuries. Then between the 12th and 14th centuries it was very strongly influenced, both in its grammar and vocabulary, and in its pronunciation by Norman – French, the language of the people who conquered England in the year 1066.
Middle English is already the language of the leveled inflections. It is during the Middle English period that the inflectional endings were reduced to a single, unstressed vowel pronounced nearly like the final sound of Cuba. Among the changes that took place in the language during the 15th century was the loss in pronunciation of the final unstressed «е». The structure of the language remained as it is today.
Lastly, during the Renaissance, in the 14th—16th centuries, came the peaceful «invasion» of a number of Greek words which were introduced into English. The Revival of Learning, during the Renaissance, gave a new impetus to borrowing from Latin. In fact, this invasion has never come to an end, as new words continue to be made up from Latin and Greek roots for new inventions and scientific discoveries.
So, three periods in the history of English are generally recognized: Old English, extending from the time of the invasion of Britain by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, until theNorman Conquest in 1066; Middle English, from about 1150 until about 1450; and Modern English, from 1450 to the present. The Modern English period is often subdivided into Early Modern English (1450—1700) and Late Modern English.
Finally, England's growing position as a world power resulted in the introduction into English of words from languages in every part of the globe. The result is a total vocabulary that is both heterogeneous and extremely large. From the British Isles English spread all over the world.
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2. Answer the following questions.
1. What branch and what family of languages does English belong to?
2. What language was spoken on the British Isles when Romans colonized them?
3. How did the Anglo-Saxon invasion influence the native language of the country?
4. What main periods are recognized in the history of the English language?
5. What changes took place in English during the Middle English period?
6. Why is English vocabulary constantly enlarging?
7. Is there any connection between the growing of England position and enlarging of English vocabulary?
3. Characterize the English language during different periods of its history. Fill in the table.
| Old English language | |
| Middle English language | |
| Modern English language |
4. Translate the following groups of words.
to conquer – conqueror – conquest
to invent – inventor – invention
to invade – invader – invasion
to speak – speaker – speech
to inhabit – inhabitant – inhabitation
5. Make up phrases.
| leveled | majority |
| scientific | inflections |
| speech | pronunciation |
| native | discoveries |
| principle | sounds |
| inflectional | language |
| unstressed | impetus |
| to give | endings |
| to improve | vowel |
| to make up |
6. Choosethe proper definitions of the following parts of speech.
(a noun, an adjective, a verb, a pronoun, an article)
… is a subclass of the determiner.
… is a word used for substituting a noun.
… is a word used for saying something about some person or thing.
… is a word used for naming some person or thing.
… is a word used to qualify a noun.
7. Make up the sentences. Pay attention to the use of the predicates in the passive voice.
| British isles | to be attacked by | French language. |
| Britain | to be made up from | Latin and Greek roots. |
| Old English | to be introduced into | English during the Renaissance. |
| Also English | to be inhabited by | Celtic tribes. |
| Greek words | to be characterized as | a language of full inflections. |
| New English words | to be influenced by | the Germanic tribes. |
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