9780155070554

THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE reflects current research and takes a linguistic-analysis approach with a focus on the facts of language rather than theoretical approaches.

Preface	p. v
Language and the English Language: an Introduction	p. 1
A Definition of Language	p. 2
Language as System	p. 2
Language Signs	p. 5
Language as Speech	p. 6
Language as Convention	p. 9
Language as Human	p. 14
Language as Communication	p. 16
Other Characteristics of Language	p. 17
Why Study the History of English?	p. 18
The Sounds of Current English	p. 22
The Organs of Speech	p. 22
Consonants of Current English	p. 23
Vowels of Current English	p. 26
Stress	p. 31
Kinds of Sound Change	p. 31
Causes of Sound Change	p. 34
The Phoneme	p. 35
Differing Transcriptions	p. 37
Letters and Sounds: a Brief History of Writing	p. 39
Ideographic and Syllabic Writing	p. 39
From Semitic Writing to the Greek Alphabet	p. 40
The Romans Adopt the Greek Alphabet	p. 41
The History of English Writing	p. 44
The Spelling of English Consonant Sounds	p. 46
The Spelling of English Vowel Sounds	p. 49
Spelling Pronunciations and Pronunciation Spellings	p. 51
Writing and History	p. 53
The Backgrounds of English	p. 55
Indo-European Origins	p. 55
Language Typology and Language Families	p. 57
Non-Indo-European Languages	p. 59
Main Divisions of the Indo-European Group	p. 61
Cognate Words in the Indo-European Languages	p. 70
Inflection in the Indo-European Languages	p. 71
Word Order in the Indo-European Languages	p. 75
Major Changes from Indo-European to Germanic	p. 76
First Sound Shift	p. 78
West Germanic Languages	p. 82
The old English Period (449-1100)	p. 86
Some Key Events in the Old English Period	p. 86
History of the Anglo-Saxons	p. 87
Pronunciation and Spelling	p. 95
Vocabulary	p. 99
Grammar, Concord, and Inflection	p. 101
Nouns	p. 102
Modifiers	p. 106
Pronouns	p. 108
Verbs	p. 110
Syntax	p. 116
Old English Illustrated	p. 118
The Middle English Period (1100-1500)	p. 123
Some Key Events in the Middle English Period	p. 123
The Background of the Norman Conquest	p. 124
The Reascendancy of English	p. 125
Foreign Influences on Vocabulary	p. 126
Middle English Spelling	p. 127
The Rise of a London Standard	p. 131
Changes in Pronunciation	p. 134
Changes in Grammar	p. 141
Nouns, Pronouns, and Adjectives	p. 142
Verbs	p. 147
Word Order	p. 149
Middle English Illustrated	p. 150
The Early Modern English Period (1500-1800): Society, Spellings, and Sounds	p. 153
Some Key Events in the Early Modern Period	p. 153
The Transition from Middle to Modern English	p. 155
The Orthography of Early Modern English	p. 156
The Great Vowel Shift	p. 160
Other Vowels	p. 163
Early Modern English Consonants	p. 166
Evidence for Early Modern Pronunciation	p. 168
Early Modern English Illustrated	p. 169
The Early Modern English Period (1500-1800): Forms, Syntax, and Usage	p. 173
The Study of Language	p. 174
Nouns	p. 178
Adjectives and Adverbs	p. 181
Pronouns	p. 182
Verbs	p. 189
Prepositions	p. 199
Early Modern English Further Illustrated	p. 199
Late Modern English (1800-21st Century)	p. 201
Some Key Events in the Late Modern Period	p. 201
The National Varieties of English	p. 202
National Differences in Word Choice	p. 205
Syntactical and Morphological Differences	p. 209
British and American Purism	p. 209
National Differences in Pronunciation	p. 212
British and American Spelling	p. 215
Variation within National Varieties	p. 216
World English	p. 222
The Essential Oneness of All English	p. 224
Words and Meanings	p. 227
Semantics and Change of Meaning	p. 228
Generalization and Specialization	p. 230
Transfer of Meaning	p. 231
Pejoration and Amelioration	p. 234
Taboo and Euphemism	p. 235
The Fate of Intensifying Words	p. 238
Some Circumstances of Semantic Change	p. 239
Semantic Change Is Inevitable	p. 243
New Words From Old	p. 245
Creating Words	p. 245
Combining Words: Compounding	p. 248
Combining Word Parts: Affixing	p. 252
Shortening Words	p. 257
Blending Words	p. 262
Shifting Words to New Uses	p. 265
Sources of New Words	p. 268
Foreign Elements in the English Word Stock	p. 271
Latin and Greek Loanwords	p. 272
Celtic Loanwords	p. 276
Scandinavian Loanwords	p. 277
French Loanwords	p. 279
Spanish and Portuguese Loanwords	p. 283
Italian Loanwords	p. 284
Germanic Loanwords	p. 285
Loanwords from the East	p. 288
Other Sources	p. 291
The Sources of Recent Loanwords	p. 292
English Remains English	p. 293
Selected Bibliography	p. 295
Glossary	p. 311
Index of Modern English Words and Affixes	p. 335
Index of Persons, Places, and Topics	p. 357
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

The Origins and Development of the English Language

015507055X

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Rewards Program