Adventures in English. Marie T. Huhtala SSU/OLLI

Transcription

1 Adventures in English Marie T. Huhtala SSU/OLLI

2 Syllabus Week One: The Origins of English Celts, Romans, Vikings Old English Beowulf

3 Syllabus Week Two: Rise and Fall of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms Norman Invasion Anglo-French Language Middle English The Canterbury Tales

4 Syllabus Week Three: Early Modern English The Great Vowel Shift Elizabethan Age King James Bible World Conquest Cosmopolitanism

5 Syllabus Week Four: The Vocabulary of English Loan Words from Around the Globe American English African American English, Gullah Epoynms and Word Formation

6 Syllabus Week Five: The Unique Grammar of English Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Chomsky s Universal Grammar Zombie Grammar Rules Dialects of American English

7 Syllabus Week Six: The Future of English Northern Cities Vowel Shift Spelling Reform Texting, Emoticons & Emojis World Englishes & Panglish A.I. and Machine Language

8

9 Language Change is Inevitable It s a universal fact of history. The very structure of language makes transformation inevitable. English has been the most successful transformer of them all!

10 Why Languages Evolve Contact with Speakers of Other Languages Isolation Simplification Over Time Generational Change All these mechanisms have applied to English, only more rapidly and more dramatically.

11 Indo-European Languages

12 Indo-European Migrations

13 Indo-European Language Groups

14 Indo-European Words English Greek Latin Sanscrit father pater pater pita brother phrator frater bhratar foot poda pedem pada three tris tres tri

15 Principal Language Families Indo-European Sino-Tibetan North Caucasian Afro-Asiatic Turkish Austronesian Altaic Niger-Congo Dravidian-Tamil Uralic Amerindian

16 The Celts

17 The Celts Among earliest known inhabitants of Britain (5 th 4th c. BC) From the Greek Keltoi, or barbarians Lived all over Europe Known as Gauls by Romans In Britain: Britons, Picts, Irish, Welsh

18 The Celts in Europe

19 Julius Caesar vs. the Gauls

20 Celts in Battle

21 The Celts The Roman historian Diodorus notes: Their aspect is terrifying...their hair is blond, but not naturally so: they bleach it, to this day, artificially, washing it in lime and combing it back from their foreheads. They look like wooddemons, their hair thick and shaggy like a horse's mane. Some of them are clean shaven, but others... shave their cheeks but leave a moustache that covers the whole mouth and, when they eat and drink, acts like a sieve, trapping particles of food...

22 The Celts The way they dress is astonishing: they wear brightly colored and embroidered shirts, with trousers called bracae and cloaks fastened at the shoulder with a brooch.... These cloaks are striped or checkered in design, with the separate checks close together and in various colors. [The Celts] wear bronze helmets with figures picked out on them, even horns...while others cover themselves with breast-armor made out of chains. But most content themselves with the weapons nature gave them: they go naked into battle...[where] weird, discordant horns were sounded, deep and harsh voices, they beat their swords rhythmically against their shields.

23 The Dying Gaul

24 The Celtic British Isles

25 Celtic Beliefs Beltane May Day Samhain (Sow-en) Halloween Polytheistic Druids Magic: fairies, elves, pixies Oak and Mistletoe

26 Celtic Words in English crag, basket, bog, clock, flannel, lawn, leprechaun, paw, whiskey Place Names: Thames ( the Dark One ) Dover ( territory of the Dumnonii ) Avon ( the river )

27 Julius Caesar

28 The Roman Empire

29

30 First Christian Missionaries St. Alban, 304 St. Patrick, 432

31 Queen Boudicca, 60 AD

32 Boudicca Statue in London

33

34 Hadrian s Wall

35 Roman Settlements in Britain Roman Name Londinium Durovemum Cantiacorum Mamucium Dubris Lindum Colonia Caesarea Modern Name London Canterbury Manchester Dover Lincoln Jersey

36 Early Latin Loan Words butter camp cheese chest anchor copper devil dish candle fork inch cook kitchen plant rose wall mile mill mint noon pillow pound sack street And, of course, wine

37 Colonia Brittania Strict military rule under armed garrisons. Celts and Romans had little cultural interaction. Britain sent iron, tin, wool, livestock, gold, silver and grain to the Empire. Romans maintained stability and put down uprisings from Picts and Caledonians. This lasted until 410 AD.

38 The German Tribes Arrive

39 The arrival of the Anglo Saxons, starting in 449, marks the true beginning of the English language.

40 Frisian Islands

41 Old English Dialects

42 Main Anglo Saxon Kingdoms

43 The Anglo Saxons Territory called Anglaland or Englaland, land of the Angles Spoke Englisc (Old English or Anglo Saxon) Developed from a dialect of Old German into a separate language by about 600 AD.

44 Futhorc: Anglo Saxon Runes

45 The Undley Bracteate

46 The Undley Bracteate Gaegogoae maegae medu This she-wolf is a reward to my kinsman.

47 The Legendary King Arthur

48 St. Augustine of Canterbury, 597

49 Old English Latin Alphabet

50 Caedmon,

51 Caedmon s Hymn Now we shall praise the Warden of Heaven- Kingdom, the might of the Measurer and his purpose. Work of the Wulder-Father, as he of wonders, eternal Lord, the beginning created. He earliest shaped for Earth s bairns the roof of Heaven, holy Shaper, then Middle Earth, mankind s Warden, eternal Lord, after created for men the world, the Lord almighty.

52 Video: Caedmon s Hymn

53 Latin Loan Words in Old English altar culpa (guilt) scola (school) apostle Mass verse hymn martyr priest abbess

54 Venerable Bede,

55 Bede s Death Song Before that needful journey which none may avoid, no man becomes more wise in thought than him who, in need, considers before his going away, about how his soul, its good and evil, will be judged after the death day.

56 Video: Bede s Death Song Bede s Death Song

57 German and English Words Buch Bruder mein Vater Land Volk book brother mine Father land folk

58

59 Grammatical Gender in OE Masculine Nouns: moon, dog, wolf, ox, foot, tooth, king, man Feminine Nouns: sun, love, wound, bell, chin door, hand, woman and earth. Neuter Nouns: gate, egg, deer, eye, ear, child, word, wife, maiden

60 Article Agreement by Gender I saw the foolish king/woman/child foolish king = dolne cyning (masculine) foolish woman = dole idese (feminine) foolish child = dol bearn (neuter)

61 Strong and Weak Verbs Strong Verbs: ride/rode/ridden tear/tore/torn fall/fell/fallen sing/sang/sung freeze/frozen give/gave/given know/knew/known choose/chose/chosen

62 Strong and Weak Verbs Weak Verbs: look/looked sell/sold tell/told think/thought love/loved seek/sought buy/bought like/liked

63 The Complex Grammar of OE 5 noun cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, instrumental 3 genders: masculine, feminine, neuter 3 numbers: singular, dual and plural 9 main verb conjugations, both strong and weak Free word order

64 Excerpt from Bede Was he the man in secular life settled until the time that he was of advanced age; and he never any poem learned, and he therefore often at banquet, when there was of joy occasion decided, that they all should by arrangement with harp to sing, when he saw the harp him approach, then arose he for shame from the feast.

65 Video: Conversational Words

66 The Vikings

67 Viking Expansion

68 Lindisfarne Gospel

69 Danish Vikings in England

70 Alfred the Great, King of Wessex

71 England and the Danelaw, 886

72 King Alfred s Works Translated Gregory the Great and St. Augustine into English Translated Bede s Eccelesiastical History of the English People Began the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in English

73 Viking Names in England Places: Whitby, Grimsby, Rugby, Ormskirk, Scunthorpe, Althorp, Huthwaite, Micklethwaite, Lowestoft, Sandtoft, Langdale, Wasdale Family Names: Johnson, Harrison, Gibson, Stevenson, Robson, Pattison, Dickinson

74 New Vocabulary from Scandinavia They, them, their, are, window (wind s eye) Anger, bag, birth, big, both, cake, clumsy, crash, die, dirt, doze, egg, fellow, flag, flat, freckle, husband, knife, leg, lurk, mistake, nasty, raise, rotten, sale, same, sister, smile, stumble, take, tight, trash, trust, ugly, until, weak, wrong

75 New Vocabulary from Scandinavia /sk/ sound: skirt, sky, ski, scrape, scare, scream, score, skill, skin, scant, skip, skittish, skull

76 Word Pairings Old English hide craft shirt whole sick ditch shrub Scandinavian skin skill skirt hale ill dike scrub

77 English and Danish: Distant Cousins

78 Verb Endings Modern English I love you love he loves we love Old English ic luf-ie thu luf-ast he luf-ath we luf-iath

79 Verb to deem Old English Old Norse I deme doemi you demest doemir he/she demeth doemir we demath doemum you pl. demath doemith they demath doema

80 Do you have a horse to sell? Old English: Haefst thu hors to sellenne? Old Norse: Hefir thu hross at selja?

81 Our Father Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum, si þin nama gehalgod. to becume þin rice, gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg, and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum. and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele soþlice.

82 Video: The Lord s Prayer The Lord s Prayer

83

84 Beowulf Manuscript

85 Beowulf, Prince of the Geats Hrothgar, King of the Danes Grendel, the monster Grendel s mother, the sea-witch The Dragon

86 Beowulf and Hrothgar

87 Beowulf

88 Grendel

89 Grendel s Mother

90 The Dragon

91 Beowulf: Alliterative Verse Hwæt! Wé Gárdena géardagum þéodcyninga gefrúnon hú ðá æþelingas fremedon. in þrym ellen Listen! We of the Spear- Danes in the days of yore, of those clan-kings -- heard of their glory. how those nobles performed courageous deeds. Oft Scyld Scéfing sceaþena Often Scyld, Scef's son, from enemy hosts

92 Beowulf: Alliterative Verse monegum maégþum a oftéah meodosetl egsode Eorle syððan aérest wearð féasceaft funden hé þæs frófre gebád from many peoples seized mead-benches and terrorized the fearsome Heruli after first he was found helpless and destitute, he then knew recompense for that.

93 Beowulf: Alliterative Verse wéox under wolcnum dum þáh oð þæt him aéghwylc þára ymbsittendra weorðmyn ofer hronráde hýran scolde, gomban gyldan þæt wæs gód cyning. He waxed under the clouds, throve in honors, until to him each of the bordering tribes beyond the whaleroad had to submit, and yield tribute: that was a good king!

94 Beowulf: Alliterative Verse Ðaém eafera wæs æfter cenned To him an heir was born then geong in geardum sende folce tó frófre ongeat þone god fyrenðearfe young in the yards, God sent him to comfort the people; He had seen the dire distress

95 Beowulf: Alliterative Verse þæt híe aér drugon aldorléase lange hwíle him þæs líffréä wuldres wealdend forgeaf: woroldáre Béowulf wæs bréme --blaéd wíde sprang-- that they suffered before, leader-less a long while; them for that the Life-Lord, Ruler of Glory, granted honor on earth: Beowulf (Beaw) was famed, his renown spread wide --

96 Beowulf: Alliterative Verse Scyldes eafera in. Scedelandum Swá sceal geong guma góde gewyrcean fromum feohgiftum on fæder bearme Scyld's heir, in Northern lands. So ought a young man by good deeds deserve, (and) by fine treasuregifts, while in his father's keeping,

97 Beowulf: Alliterative Verse þæt hine on ylde eft gewunigen wilgesíþas þonne wíg cume léode gelaésten: lofdaédu m sceal in maégþa gehwaére geþéön. man that him in old age shall again stand by, willing companions, when war comes, people serve him: by glorious deeds must, amongst his people, everywhere, one prosper.

98 Video:Beowulf Opening Lines of Beowulf in OE

99 Beowulf s Grave? Burial Mound in Scandinavia

100 Riddle 66 I am more than this Middle Earth, Less than a mite, lighter than the Moon, swifter than the Sun. The seas to me are all floods in my embrace. And this Earth s lap, the green plains to the depths I touch.

101 Riddle 66 Hell I sink below, Heavens I soar above, the glory land. Widely I reach over the angel s land. The Earth I fill, all Middle Earth and the ocean streams widely with myself. Say what I am called!

102 Anglo-Saxon Riddle