. 1. The formation of the National English Language.

The evolution of English in the 15 hundred years of its existence has been an unbroken one, but within it its possible to single out 3 main periods: 1.Old English (OE) 2.Middle English (ME) 3.New English (NE) Old English The historical background. It began in the 5th century, when the German tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians) settled in the British Isles. Originally the social and economical system was tribal and slave owning, which gradually developed into a feudal one. Accordingly tribal dialects developed into local ones. Geographically it covers the territory of the so-called English Proper. The main historical events are: -the introduction of Christianity; -the Scandinavian invasion. Word-stock (WS) Originally OE was a purely G language. So the WS comprised 3 layers of native words: 1st IE words (mother, father) 2nd CG words (to rise, to sink) 3d - OE proper (hlaford - lord) There were some borrowings from the Celtic language, denoting mostly place-names (London, York) and names of rivers (the Thames). After their settlement in Britain the G. tribes came into contact with the Celtic tribes who lived there, but the Celtic borrowings are very few (Loch Ness). Latin borrowings are: 1.Latin words borrowed by Ancient G. tribes when they lived on the continent of Europe. 2.Latin words borrowed by the Anglo-Saxon tribes from Romanized Celts on the British Isles. 3.Latin words which penetrated into OE after the introduction of Christianity. Phonetic features PF are close to those of PG. OE inherited the marks of the consonant shift and the G word-stock. The most significant innovations are found in the system of vowels, which was enriched by specific OE sounds. [, y] Spelling The main principle of spelling was phonetic. The Latin alphabet was employed with the addition of some runes. [ on] thorn [wyn] Some Latin letters were modified. [g] [g] between back vowels[j]- before or after front vowels (good) bry, (bridge) dra an, Grammar Grammatically OE was a purely G language, practically without innovations. It was highly inflected. The typical features:1.A rich morphological system in nouns, pronouns, adjectives.2.A two types declension of adjectives: strong and week3.Numerous declensions of nouns 4.A pure verb system which comprised only 2 tenses. (Present and Past) Strong verbs were divided into the usual 7 classes and weak verbs built up their past tense and Participle II with the help of the dental suffix. Have hfde dental suffix The OE period is called a period of half endings because all the PG inflexions were preserved. OE period lasted up to 1066 (Norman invasion) Middle English ME began in 1066 and continued up to 1475 (the introduction of printing) Historical background. ME corresponds to the well developed feudal system. Local dialects were distinguished. There were no common national language. The period after the Norman conquest is the period of French as it was the official language of the country (300 years). English existed only in oral form. Word-stock. As a result of the Scandinavian Invasion and the Norman conquest the WS lost its purely G. character. There took place numerous borrowings and replacements. Scandinavian OE Taken niman Callen clypian W-formation was slightly affected by the foreign influence. Phonetics. The G. system of w-stress was partly lost due to the addition French borrowings with a different system of w-accentuation and due to the stress shift in the course of the assimilation vowels underwent positional changes in quantity, which undermined the original contrast between long and short vowels. Some OE consonants and consonant clusters gave rise to new kinds of consonants in ME which had not existed before. E.g. sibilants and affricates.[ , d , t , ] Some OE diphthongs (ea, ea, eo, eo) were monophthongized and new diphthongs appeared. Spelling. It was affected by French spelling. This influence is mainly seen in the introduction of diagraphs ().

-th (French) -oo (French) Grammar G. was considerably simplified. This period is called a period of leveled endings, as the inflexions were greatly reduced especially in the nominal system (nouns, adjectives & pronouns) Now declensions were practically lost; adjectives retained some traces of declension. Great changes took place in the system of verbs, as there began to develop analytical forms. English existed only in oral form. Thats why there developed a gap in the written history of the English language. Later on there appeared some records in local dialects and in the 14th century (at the time of Choser) the London dialect developed as literary language. On the basis of this dialect there developed the national English language. Geographically English spreads to cover the entire territory of England. By the end of the 14th - the English language had taken the place of French as the language of literature and administration. The formation of the English National language is closely connected with the rise of the London dialect. The London dialect belonged to the South - Western dialect group, it was fundamentally east Saxon. Due to its political (it was one of the biggest cities in England, and a few years before the Norman conquest it became the capital of England) position geographical position (it was near the largest river the Thames and it was a large port in the center of the country) and also due to its economic position (where people of the South trading with each other) and finally due to linguistic position (mingling with people enabled Londoners to acquire features of both southern and northern dialects) made the London dialect the foundation of the English National language. The importance of the London dialect grew also of the fact that many of the best writers (Geoffrey Chaucer one of the most popular writers of the 14th - 15th - c.c.) used the London dialect in their writings. The formation of the English national language. It began with late Middle English - Early New English (1475 1660; 16th 19th c.). The following external (outer) factors which favoured the rise of the national language and the literary standards are: 1. the unification of the country and 2. the progress of culture The unification of the country was favoured by the result of the war between the white and the Red Rose (1455 - 1485) which led to the decay of feudalism, the rise of an absolute monarchy and a political centralization, and consequently a linguistic centralization which led to a predominance of the national language over local dialects. The decay of feudalism led to a new social order - capitalism. The capitalism order caused changes in economic and social conditions: they led to the intermixture of people d to the developing of trade beyond the local boundaries. All over the world the victory of capitalism over feudalism led to the consolidation of people into nations, to the formation of national languages and as a result of it to a national standard. 2. Progress of culture As T.A. Rastorgueva wrote the 15 and 16th . in Western Europe are marked by a renewed interest in classical art and literature and by a general efflorescence [, eflo:' resns] of culture. The rise of a new vigorous social class the bourgeosie - proved an enormous stimulus to the progress of learning, science, literature and art. One f the greatest events of this age was the invention of printing, which had the immediate effect on the development of the language. Printing was invented in Germany by Johann Gutenberg in 1438. It quickly spread to other countries and England was among them. The first English printer was William Caxton, who printed the first book in 1477 intitled "The Dictes and Sayings of the philosophers" Printing led to the normalization of spelling and grammar forms making the choice of a single variant over others. First Caxton printed translations made by him. But the earliest publications of English authors were the poems of Geoffrey Chaucer, the poems of John Gower, the compositions of John Zydgate and others. Caxton's spelling given by him, for the written forms of many words was accepted as standard. It reproduced the spelling of the preceding century and was conservative even in his day. Thus, the English national language was formed on the basis of the London dialect which was uppermost among Middle English dialects due to the political, geographical, economic and "linguistic" position of London which became the capital of England already in the 11th century before the Norman conquest and which was in the 15th century a thriving economic-centre and port of England due to its geographical position near the estuary of the largest river in England. The geographical position of London as a large port and city in the centre of the country where people of the North mingled with people of the South, on the one hand, enabled the Londoners to acquire features of both southern and northern dialects, and on the other hand, the people coming to London helped to spread the London dialect all over the country. But one should still remember that the year 1475 - the date of the publication of the first English book - is regarded as the start of a new period - NE. In Early NE we may speak about the establishment of the literary form of the English language contributed by such famous authors as Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and certainly William Shakespeare. ( )

2. The development of analytical verb-forms in English. The Development of Analytical Verb Forms in English. - - - -. , - . 6: 1) ; 2) / ; 3) - , . . ( -); 4) ; - ; 5) (Inf ) , ; 6) - . - . . -, -, . - , , . - - . , - sculan willan , - - (cunnan, durran, mtan, maan) - . - - -, . . - sculan () willan (, ), - - , . . - -. sculan willan, -, . - - , - - . - - , , - - - . - - - , -. - - - -. - - - : () . - - - , - : - + - - . - - - . - - - , , , , - - shall + will + . (-) - - shall , - - will. - shall + . - , . ., - - shall, - - - . - will - , - , . -, will -. - - wurthen , - . - wurthen. will . will - -. . ., - 2 , - . 3 . 17 - will shall 2 3 .

 , , will I`ll do; he`ll do . . 17 . The OE verbs had 2 tenses: the Present and the Past. The present form was used to denote both tenses present and future (..to denote Pr and Future actions as in other Germanic langeages). There were no analytical forms, only inflexion. Futurity was shown lexically with the help of adverbial modifiers and the context. It is true that in OE there were combinations with the verbs: sculan (shall), willan (will), but they had there own lexical meaning. They were not auxiliary verbs. From these constructions the future forms (the future tense was) were formed later. . - -. - -, - bn (wesan) weoran 2 -. , weoran . weoran + 2 - -. wesan (bn) 2 2 : - - . - - : - bn (wesan) - -, - weoran - -. - - - . - - -- -. wesen (ben), wurthen (- weoran). , - -. - . - , , - (. . -) - - - - . . Perfect, . , - - 2 : wesen (ben) + Part 2 & wurthen + Part 2. , . . wurthen - . - 2 -, - - -. -, ; : / -. - 1300 . , -, - ( ) . - - - , - -, -. , The doctor was sent for. - : - . . . - - = ( -, -, - ). - - , - - . Perfect, - - - , . - Present & Past Perfect - . - bn (- -) habban (- -) 2. 2 - -, , .

, - - 2 , - - - , . . -, . , , - , - - . -, . . , -. , - habban 2 , / 2. - - habban: - 2 -, 2 -. - habban+ 2. - - habban -. habban 2 ( 2 -). - - - , Present Perfect, Past Perfect, Future Perfect ( -, = -, - to have 2 -; - - - to be). Pr Perf & Past Indefinite - (Pr Perf - - - - , - - - ). - to be - - - . to be , to have -. - . 18 . Past Perfect . - 2- - Past Perfect - -, - . . - - - - , -, - bn (wesan) 1. - ben (wesen)+ 1 (, ). - (-, ) , - , - - / . , - , - - - -. - : ( - - ). - - . - . 14 - , to be + 1. - , bn (wesan) -, G in on. 15 a-, - . 2 , - -: is speaking; is a-coming. - - - 17 , - 18 Continuous - . Continuous - . to be -. 3. The main morphological changes in the system of verb 1. Olds English verb. Weak verbs. I The main differences between weak and strong verbs are the following: 1) Strong verbs formed their past tense by means of changing the root vowel without adding any suffix. Weak verbs formed their past tense by means of a special dental suffix, as a rule there was no vowel interchange. 2) Strong verbs formed their Part II by adding the suffix en ?(n)? and vowel interchange.

3)Weak verbs fell into 3 classes strong verbs fell into 7 classes according to the vowel interchange in the root. In addition to weak and strong verbs there was a group of other verbs: Preterite Present verbs; the Suppletive verbs; the Irregular or Anomalous verbs. : 1) ( ); 2) (1, 2 3); 3) (, , ); 4) ( ); 5) ( ); 6) ( ). In OE there were about 300 strong verbs. All the verbal forms were built from 4 principle forms of the verb in OE. They were Present, Past sg, Past pl, Participle II. Following the way they built their forms OE verbs fell into 3 subdivisions: strong, weak, minor.(strong, weak verbs Grim). OE strong verbs were divided into 7 classes. Each class had a peculiar vowel gradation, which went back to the Indo-European ablaut (). Vowel interchange was later modified in Proto Germanic. (OE PG ). qualitative ablaut or zero ablaut (, ). - a front vowel, - a back v, - a zero v. Ex. u 1-bindan 2-bnd 3 bundum-bundan The original IE vowel gradation series split into several serious because the gradation vowel was inserted in the root and was combined there (?in the sound of the root?). The gradation series used in classes 1-5 go back to the IE qualitative ablaut . Class I In this class the gradation vowel was combined with short i in the root, as a result we find long vowels in the first two forms and short i in the zero grade. Class II In this class the gradation vowel was combined with u-vowel of the root. Long diphthongs in the first two forms and u in the zero grade. u remained before- n (nasal) -i/j, o - in other cases. Class III To this class belong all strong verbs in which the root was followed by a sonant + one more consonant. e-o- Class IV In this class the root was followed by a consonant. Class V To this class belong the strong verbs in which the root was followed by a noise consonant. Class VI In this class the original IE gradation was quantitative (short, long). In PG it was transformed into a qualitativequantitative series. Class VII The strong verbs of this gram class built their forms by reduplication (doubling) of the root syllable. Both the consonant and vowel were doubled. Gth haitan haihait haihaitum haitans (call) OE htan hitans heht In OE the direct traces of reduplications were very rare, only a few verbs of the class remained ?and then lost?. Strong verbs and their devolution. The system of the strong verbs had undergone alternations in connection with the general tendency, which led to the falling of inflections. Within one and the same class different forms were generalized and it led to the disintegration of classes. Due to the reduction of unstressed vowels the forms of the PII and Past tense pl. became identical. They had the same ending as in Infinitive- an, on, en (reduced to)>ME en. OE writan-wrat-writton (past pl.)-written (PII). In Classes 6-7, where the infinitive and the Participle had the same gradation vowel, these forms fell together. In ME and ENE the root-vowels in the principal forms of all classes of strong verbs underwent the regular changes of stressed vowel. Lengthening of vowels before some consonant sequences split the verbs of class 3 into 2 subgroups: verbs like findan had now long root-vowel in all the forms. In the verbs like drinken the root-vowel remained short. Thus ME writen and finden (Class 1 and 3)had the same vowel in the infinitive but different vowels in the Past and PII. Classes began to intermixture. In concerned mostly Classes 1-3, 4-5. Classes 1-3.in Class 3 the verb acquired the same long vowel as had always existed in Class 1. The 3d and 4th principal forms coincided. The final n was lost in the

infinitive and the Past tense pl, but was sometimes preserved in PII. Classes 4-5. The difference between the classes was already very slight in OE. (class 4 OE beran-br-bron-boren. Class 5 OE sprecan-sprcan-sprcon- sprcen). Class 4 :>a> >o:. Class 5 :>a> :>o:. PII acquired long root vowel o: due to the lengthening of syllables. O: appeared by analogy with the class 4. PII of Classes 2 and 4, 6 acquired long-root-vowels [o:] and [a:] due to the lenghtening in open syllables, while in the Participle in Class 1-the vowel remained short. The strong verbs were influenced by analogy. They lost practically all consonant interchanges in ME and ENE. Class 5 began to built the PII like verbs od Class 4. The most important change in the system of strong verbs was the reduction in the number of stems from 4 to 3, by removing the distinctions between the 2 past tense stems. In OE these stems had the same gradation vowels only in Classes 6, 7. In OE there exist 2 forms of the Past tense- sg, pl. in ME the 4 principal forms were reduced o 3. In western dialects the form of the Past tense sg joined the past tense pl. In the Northern dialect the form of the Past tense pl. changed by analogy with the Past tense sg (Class 1 OE ridan>ME riden-rod-riden-riden). Past pl became the same as the Past sg. (NE ride-rod-riden). The tendency to reduce the number of stems continued in ENE. At this stage it affected the distinction between the new Past tense stem and PII. Another important event in the history of strong verbs was their transition into weak. In ME and ENE many strong verbs began to form their Past and PII with the help of the dental suffix. After the Norman conquest more than 100 native verbs came out of use, they were replaced by loan words. In OE less than 100 native verbs. The disappearance of strong verbs continued in ME. A few 30 verbs became obsolete in ME. A few strong verbs became weak- burn, climb, flee, blow, help, step, walk. 128 verbs acquired weak meaning. Only 68 strong verbs are in use in Modern E. To this number must be added 13 verbs, conjugated in both ways. Very few weak verbs joined strong- wear, dig, slick (; ) and 3 borrowings: take, thrive (, ), strive (). Weak verbs WVs are peculiar to Germanic languages only. They are more numerous. They were built from nouns, adj-s, other strong verbs with the help of the stem-forming suffix (sfs): they built their past tense forms and Part II with the help of the dental suffix (ds). The structure was: root+sfs+ds. There were 3 classes of weak verbs. They were differentiated by the stem-forming suffix. Class I i; class II oi; class III a/ai. Class I employed the sound i/j as their stem-forming suffix. Ex. dmian (dm - root, dmi - stem, i- stem-forming suffix, an - the ending of the Inf). The Past Tense was domida (d- the stem-forming suffix - the dental suffix, a - the ending). In OE i changed into e (i >e) and then disappeared. The exception was when it was after r (Ex. werian werede wered). After all other consonants it caused palatal mutation. ?dmian domjan dman dmde kopjan cpan (cepte)? In class I of weak verbs there were 3 groups of verbs. The 1st group included two variants of weak verbs according to the length of the root syllable: a) with a short root syllable (a short vowel +1 consonant); b) with a long root syllable (a short vowel +2 consonant). After long root syllables short vowels disappeared whereas after short root syllables they remained. a) a short root syllable OE temman temede temed (originated from <temjan) (<tamida) (<tamid) In the root of the verb ended in a dental consonant (-t,-d), then inspite of the shortness of the syllable the unstressed e disappeared and the dental suffix was assimilated by the dental consonant of the root. Past Tense OE settan sette (PG <satjan) (setede) assimilation (satida) Later in ME the ending of the Inf and the ending of the Past Tense and Part II were levelled and gradually lost. Thus these forms of the Inf, the Past Tense and Part II became similar. We have a few such verbs in ME today (set, cut, put). b) a long root syllable Weak verbs with a long root syllable in them the stem-forming suffix e disappeared, the ending of the Past Tense became de instead of ede. (dman dmde (PT) dmed (PII).

Evolution of weak verbs in ME and ENE. Weak verbs were historically younger but turned out to be far more productive as they had a simple and regular way of building forms, which was easily applied in ME to former strong verbs new formations, and to a great number of borrowed words. Especially productive was class 2. In ME there existed only 2 classes of weak verbs with slight differences between them. In ME the 3d class consisted only of few verbs (have, OE habban, libban, secgan). The 3d class ceased to exist altogether. The OE verbs of class 3 either joined the other classes other classes of weak verbs (libban)or became irregular (secgan, habban). ME verbs of Class 1 took the ending de in the Past without an intermediate vowel before the dental suffix and the ending- ed in the PII.they had descended from OE verbs of class 1 with a long-root syllable. The verbs of Class 2 (-ode, od) had weakened their endings to -ede, -ed in ME. Since a few verbs of OE Class 1 had -ede, -ed, they are included in Class 2. Late ME weak verbs are the immediate source of modern regular verbs. When the neutral vowel was reduced and lost, the differences between the 2 classes were lost too. The differences between 2d and 3d principal forms were eliminated. The vowel in the suffix is preserved today only after t, d (wanted). Ode- the most productive ending. ode>ed>t/d/id. Class 1. OE deman (Past tense- demde; PII-demed) >ME deemen (Past tense- deemde; PII-deemed). Class 2. OElocian(Past tense- locode; PII-locod)> ME loken (Past tense- loked(e); PII-loked). The development of the inflection (e)de in ENE shows the origins of the modern variants of the forms of the Past tense and PII in regular verbs. Many former strong verbs began to build weak forms alongside strong ones. Minor Groups of verbs in OE They are Suppletive, Anomalous and Preterit-present. Suppletive verbs. They had different roots in the conjugation. In present day English there are 2 verbs of this kind-to be, to go. 1)The OE verb gn had the following forms: gan- eode- ge-gan. In ME the form eode disappered and instead of it the OE verb wendan wente came into use. 2)The OE beon is an ancient IE suppletive verb. The verbs wesan, beon, es had no Past Participle in OE. In ME these forms underwent many changes. Synonymous parallel forms were lost. Infinitive wesan disappeared. The form beon survived in ME. OE beon>ME ben>NE be. Out of numerous forms of the present tense plural the form earon/aron survived. OE aron>ME aren>NE are. The form of the Present Participle beonde but not wesende survived. When the suff -ende was replaced by -inde/-ing the Participle became being. The missing forms were formed in ME ( The Imper. Mood- be, Past Participle- being). As a result of these processes in ME we find 5 roots in the conjugation of the verbs: am, is, are, be, was. Anomalous verbs. They combined the features of weak and strong verbs. OE don dyde ge-don (NE do) formed a weak Past tense with a vowel interchange in the root and its Participle ended in n- gedon. Preterit-present verbs (12). (now modal). They go back to the time when the IE ablaut was used to express different aspect forms. These verbs are called so because their present tense originated in pre-historic times from the Past tense of strong verbs. These verbs never denoted actions, only attitude to the action.( ) Their meaning was realized as the Preset tense forms. Originally they were past tense forms, but later they became used as the Present tense forms. Later they built up new past tense forms, following the pattern of weak verbs. These verbs gradually formed a special group of modern modal verbs. Since historically they were past tense forms now they do not use the ending -s in the 3d person sg. And they had no infinitives. The preterit-present verbs had a number of characteristic features: 1) the vowel-interchange occurred not in the Past tense (cunnan), but in the Present (can); 2) these verbs usually had the dental suffix in the past-t (ahte=ought). -. 4. Quantitative and qualitative changes of vowels in ME. 2. Old English vowels. A large number of vowels were distinguished in OE spelling. Monophthongs short I e ae, a a0, o, u, y long I,e,ae,a,o,u,y Diphtongs ea,eo,io,ie long ea,eo, io, ie ME the period of great change. OE had both short & long v phonemes & each of these could occur in any phonetic env-ment, they were absly independent phonetic units. In ME quantity of v-s becomes dependent on their env-ment to be exact, on what follows.

In MnE the [] of unstr.endings was lost: likes, tables The Greate vowel shift the changed in the sys-m of long v. In the Middle English period a great change affected the entire () system of Vowel phonemes. As a result of important changes coming into the vowel system in the 10-12 c., the ME V system was basically different. While in OE quantity (length/ shortness) was a distinctive phonetic feature, in ME (by the 13-th c.) this is no longer so. Quantity of Vs becomes dependant on their environment to be exact, on what follows. With several exceptions the situation in ME is as follows: in some phonetic environments only short vowels can appear, while in other phonetic environments only long vowels can appear. The quantity of the V is predetermined by the environment. Thus, quantity ceases, (), being a phonemically relevant feature and becomes a merely phonetic peculiarity of a V sound. 1. Shortening A long V before 2 Cs is shortened: # cepan (Inf) cepte (Past tense) The Vs are shortened before 2 Cs but remain long in other environments. # long V+ ld, nd, mb= long V (wenan (Inf. think) wende (Past tense) 2. Lengthening Affected the short Vs a,o,u # caru (OE) care (ME) care # talu (OE) tale (ME) tale) 3. Levelling of unstressed Vs All unstressed Vs weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel, something like [], which was denoted by a letter e. Thus; the infinitive suffix an was reduced to en (bindan binden, tellan tellen) Tendencies of vowel development. I-E had the fol. V-s: long: e,o,a,I,u. short: e,o,a, neut, I,u. E,o,a basic v-s as they mainly occur in stressed syllables. I,u have originated from reduced diphtongs & ocuured in unsteressed syl-s. The change in the system of v-s were determined by the fol.reasons: 1. Breaking a > ea before combinations of "r, l, h +cons.", and also before h final: arm > earm, e > eo: herte > heorte 2. Palatalization This is the process which went under the influence of g, c, sc before vowels in the beginning of the word: e > ie (gefan > giefan); o > eo (scort > sceort) 3. mutation or umlaut This interesting feature changed many of Old English words on a very early stage of the language's history. It is caused by vowel in the next syllable, it affects all vowels, except i and e. Vowels move from their back position to the new front one. 4.Contraction of vowels due to a dropped h: v +h, vv+h= long v. ME the period of great change. OE had both short & long v phonemes & each of these could occur in any phonetic env-ment, they were absly independent phonetic units. In ME quantity of v-s becomes dependent on their env-ment to be exact, on what follows. In MnE the [] of unstr.endings was lost: likes, tables The Greate vowel shift the changed in the sys-m of long v. 5. The Unification of the ways of building the plural forms of nouns in the history of English In the coarse of time the category of number proved to be the most stable of all the nominal categories. The Noun preserved the formal distinction of two numbers through all the historical periods. Increased variation in Early Middle English did not obliterate (c) number distinctions. On the contrary, it showed that more uniform markers of the plural spread by analogy to different morphological classes of nouns and thus strengthened the formal differentiation of number. In late Middle English the ending es was the prevalent marker of nouns in the plural/ In Early New English it extended to more nouns to the new words of the growing English vocabulary and to many words which built their plural in a different way in Middle English or employed es as one of the various endings. The plural es underwent several phonetic changes: the voicing of fricatives and loss of unstressed vowels in final syllables. It has different pronunciation variants under certain phonetic conditions.

In Middle English plural ending en used as a variant marker with some nouns lost its former productivity. So that in Standard Modern English it is found only in oxen, brethren () and children. (the two latter words originally did not belong to the weak declension and were formed by means of a root-vowel interchange), OE cild, an s-stem, took the ending ru: cild-cildru, -en was added to the old forms of the plural in Middle English, both words have two markers of the plural. The small group of Middle English nouns with homonymous forms of number (middle English deer, hors, thing) has been further reduced to 3 exceptions in Modern English: deer, sheep, swine. The group of former root-stems has survived only as exceptions: man, tooth and the like. (It must be noted that not all irregular forms in Modern English are traces of OE declensions, forms like data, nuclei, antennae have come from other languages together with the borrowed words.) The process of eliminating () survival plural forms went on in the 15th and 16th centures. Forms like eyen, fon were now superseded by the regular forms eyes, foes (). In several substantives with final [f] or [Q] alternation of the voiceless fricative with its voiced counterpart was eliminated. This is the case with roof (pl roofs) and other words in 0oof, also with belief (beliefs), death (deaths), hearth (hearths). However, with other substantives the alternation has been preserved, as in wife (wives), life (lives), half (halves), calf (calves), wolf (wolves), bath (baths), path (paths), youth (youths). With a few words 2 variants are possible: scarf (scarves, scarf), truth (truths [s], [z]). The substantive staff split into 2 separate words: staff, pl staffs; and stave, pl staves. The alternation [f-v] begins to extend to the word handkerchief, whose second part is of French origin, alongside the plural form handkerchiefs a new form handkerchiefs is occasionally used. A few substantives have preserved their plural forms due to the weak declension or to mutation: ox (oxen), child (children), man (men), woman (women), foot (feet), goose (geese), tooth (teeth), mouse (mice), louse (lice), dormouse (dormice). Here also belong the forms brethren (alongside brothers). Another type of plural has been preserved in the forms of the words sheep (sheep), deer (deer), swine (swine), cf.: fruit (fruit), fish (fish), and names of several kinds of fish: trout, salmon, cod, etc., which usually take no s in the plural. This peculiarity appears to be due to the meaning of these words. Most of them are names of animals (ox, goose, mouse, louse, dormouse, sheep, deer, trout, salmon). The plural of these nouns is used to denote a mass (a flock of sheep, a herd of swing, a shoal of fish, etc.), rather than a multitude of individuals. This semantic peculiarity appears to have influenced the plural forms of these words. Isolated pl. forms have also been preserved in a few phrases which coalesced into compound words: twelvemonth, fortnight. New English General Characteristics The language in New English is growing very rapidly, the amount of actually existing words being impossible to estimate. Though some of the words existing in Old English and Middle English are no longer used in New English, the amount of new words exceeds the number of obsolete ones manifold. Both internal means and external means are used for the purpose of enriching the vocabulary, and the importance of either of them is hard to evaluate. Internal means of enriching vocabulary The principal inner means in New English is the appearance of new words formed by means of conversion. Usually new words are formed by acquiring a new paradigm and function within a sentence. Thus, book (a noun) has the paradigm book books. Book (a verb) has the paradigm book books booked booking, etc. (The book is on the table - He booked a room.) Similarly: man (n) man (v), stone (n) stone (v) stone (adj), (as in "a stone bench"), etc. External means of enriching vocabulary Very many new words appear in New English due to borrowing. It is necessary to say here that the process of borrowing, the sources of loan words, the nature of the new words is different from Middle English and their appearance in the language cannot be understood unless sociolinguistic factors are taken into consideration. Chronologically speaking, New English borrowings may be subdivided into borrowings of the Early New English period XVXV11 centuries, the period preceeding the establishment of the literary norm, and loan words which entered the language after the establishment of the literary norm in the XVIIIXX centuries, the period which is generally alluded to as late New English. Early New English borrowings (XVXVII centuries)

Borrowings into the English language in the XVXVlI centuries are primarily due to political events and also to the cultural and. trade relations between the English people and peoples in other countries. Thus , in the XV century the epoch of Renaissance, there appeared in the English language many words borrowed from the Italian tongue: cameo, archipelago, dilettante, fresco, violin, balcony, gondola, grotto, volcano; in the XVI century Spanish and Portuguese words, such as: armada, negro, tornado, mosquito, renegade, matador and also Latin (the language of culture of the time), for instance: verbs, with the characteristic endings -ate, -ute: aggravate, abbreviate, exaggerate, frustrate, separate, irritate, contribute, constitute, persecute, prosecute, execute, etc., adjectives ending in -ant, -ent, -ior, -al: arrogant, reluctant, evident, obedient, superior, inferior, senior, junior, dental, cordial, filial. As a result of numerous Latin borrowings at the time there appeared many ethymological doublets. Latin Strictum - (direct) strict+ strait (through French) In the XVII century due to relations with the peoples of America such words were borrowed as: canoe, maize, potato, tomato, tobacco, mahogany, cannibal, hammock, squaw, moccasin, wigwam, etc. French borrowings after the Restoration: ball, ballet, billet, caprice, coquette, intrigue, fatigue, naive. Late New English borrowings (XYII1XX centuries) German: kindergarten, waltz, wagon, boy, girl French: magazine, machine, garage, police, engine, nacelle, aileron - Indian: bungalow, jungle, indigo Chinese: coolie, tea Arabic: caravan, divan, alcohol, algebra, coffee, bazaar, orange, cotton, candy, chess. Australian: kangaroo, boomerang, lubra Russian: Before the October Revolution the borrowings from the Russian language were mainly words reflecting Russian realia of the time; borzoi, samovar, tsar, verst, taiga, etc. After the Revolution there entered the English language such words that testified to the political role of this country in the world, as: Soviet, bolshevik, kolkhoz. Cultural and technical achievements are reflected in such borrowings as: sputnik, lunnik, lunokhod, synchrophasotron and recently such political terms as: glasnost, perestroika. In New English there also appeared words formed on the basis of Greek and Latin vocabulary. They are mainly scientific or technical terms, such as: telephone, telegraph, teletype, telefax, microphone, sociology, politology, electricity, etc. 10. Tendencies in the adjective development. In OE adj could change case, gender & number. The adj agreed with the N, it modified in all these categories. Unlike N almost any adj could be declined in 2 ways: acc to the weak (-n- steam) & strong declension. It depended on whether the adj was preceded by the definite article or pronoun which modified the same N or not, on the syntactical function of the adj, the degree of comparison. In degrees adj were declined as weak. The comparative suf -ost- & the superlative st-. In ME the disappearance of gr-cal gender in N-s & the reduction of case-endinigs led to a considerable change in adj declension too. The characteristic weak - declension ending en waws dropped. So the only case ending in adj-s came to be e. The degrees of com-n are form by er, est, e.g. words more, most. Which in MnE for dissylabic adj-s. The vocabulary of Old English was rather extensive. It j s said to have contained about 50 000 words. These words were mainly native words. They could be divided into a number of strata. The oldest stratum was composed of words coming from the Common Indo-European parent tongue. Many of these words were inherited by English together with some other Indo-European languages from the same common source, and we shall find related words in various Indo-European languages. Compare: Old English New English Latin Russian modor mother mater Another layer, relatively more recent, was words inherited by English and other Germanic languages from the same common Germanic source. You will find them in many languages, but only those belonging to the Germanic group. Compare: Old English New English German eorde earth Erde The third stratum, and that not very extensive, was made up of words that existed only in English, for instance, the word clypian (u> call), the root preserved in the now somewhat obsolete word yclept (named). The vocabulary was changing all the time, old words becoming extinct and new words entering the language, enriching it.

As is known, there are two principal ways of enriching the vocabulary of a language: internal means those that are inherent in the language itself, and external means, which result from contacts between peoples. External means of enriching vocabulary (Old English borrowings) As wo understand, borrowings into a language are a result of contacts with other nations. The Germanic tribes had but few contacts with other nations at the beginning of A.D., consequently the number of borrowed words in Old English was not great. The main borrowings that we can single out in Old English were Latin and Celtic borrowings. Latin borrowings The first Latin borrowings entered the language before the " Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians invaded the British Isles, i.e. at the time when they still lived on the continent. Due to trade relations with their southern powerful neighbour the Roman empire Germanic tribes learned a number of products that had been unknown to then, and, consequently, their names. So the first stratum of borrowings are mainly words connected with trade. Many of them are preserved in Modern English, such as: pound, inch, pepper, cheese, wine, apple, pear, plum, etc. The second stratum of words was composed of loan Latin words that the Germanic tribes borrowed already on British soil from the romanized Celts, whom they had conquered in the 5* century. Those were words connected with building and architecture, as the preserved nowadays: tile, street, wall, mill, etc. They denoted objects which the Germanic invaders encountered on the British Isles. The third stratum of Latin loan words was composed of* words borrowed after the introduction of the Christian religion. They are generally of a religious nature, such as the present-day words: bishop, devil, apostle, monk. As Latin was the language of learning at the time, there also entered the language some words that were not directly connected with religion, such as: master, school, palm, lion, tiger, plant, astronomy, etc. Another layer, relatively more recent, was words inherited by English and other Germanic languages from the same common Germanic source. You will find them in many languages, but only those belonging to the Germanic group. Compare: Old English New English German eorde earth Erde The third stratum, and that not very extensive, was made up of words that existed only in English, for instance, the word clypian (u> call), the root preserved in the now somewhat obsolete word yclept (named). As is known, there are two principal ways of enriching the vocabulary of a language: internal means those that are inherent in the language itself, and external means, which result from contacts between peoples. External means of enriching vocabulary The principal means of enriching vocabulary in Middle English are not internal, but external borrowings. Two languages in succession enriched the vocabulary of the English language of the time the Scandinavian language and the French language, the nature of the borrowings and their amount reflecting the conditions of the contacts between the English and these languages. Scandinavian borrowings The Scandinavian invasion and the subsequent settlement of the Scandinavians on the territory of England, the constant contacts and intermixture of the English and the Scandinavians brought about many changes in different spheres of the English language: wordstock, grammar and phonetics. The relative ease of the mutual penetration of the languages was conditioned by the circumstances o\' the Anglo-Scandinavian contacts. Due to contacts between the Scandinavians and the English-speaking people many words were borrowed from the Scandinavian language, for example: Nouns: law, fellow, sky, skirt, skill, Adjectives: big, week, wrong, ugly, twin Verbs: call, cast, take, happen, Pronouns: they, them, their The conditions and the consequences of various borrowings were different. 1. Sometimes the English language borrowed a word for which it had no synonym. These words were simply added to the vocabulary. Examples: law, fellow 2.The English synonym was ousted by the borrowing. Scandinavian taken (to take) and callen (to call) ousted the English synonyms nitnan and clypian, respectively. 3. Both the words, the English and the corresponding Scandinavian, are preserved, but they became different in meaning. Compare Modern English native words and Scandinavian borrowings: heaven . sky 4. Sometimes a borrowed word and an English word are etymological doublets, as words originating from the same source in Common Germanic. shirt skirt

5. Sometimes an English word and its Scandinavian doublet were the same in meaning but slightly different phonetically, and the phonetic form of the Scandinavian borrowing is preserved in the English language, having ousted the English counterpart. For example, Modern English to give, to get come from the Scandinavian gefa, geta, which ousted the English 3iefan and 3ietan. respectively. Similar Modern English words: gift, forget, guild, gate, again. 6. There may be a shift of meaning. Thus, the word dream originally meant "joy, pleasure"; under the influence of the related Scandinavian word it developed its modern meaning.

French borrowings It stands to reason that the Norman conquest and the subsequent history of the country left deep traces in the English language, mainly in the form of borrowings in words connected with such spheres of social and political activity where French-speaking Normans had occupied for a long time all places of importance. For example: government and legislature: government, noble, baron, prince, duke, court, justice, judge, etc. military life: army, battle, peace, banner, victory, general, colonel, lieutenant, major, etc. religion: religion, sermon, prey, saint, charity relationship: aunt, uncle, nephew, cousin. The place of the French borrowings within the English language was different: 1.A word may be borrowed from the French language to denote notions unknown to the English up to the time: government, parliament, general, colonel, etc. 2. The English synonym is ousted by the French borrowing: English French ea river 3. Both the words are preserved, but they are stylistically different: English French to begin to commence As we see, the French borrowing is generally more literary or even bookish, .the English word - a common one; but sometimes the English word is more literary. 4.Sometimes the English language borrowed many words with the same word-building affix. The meaning of the affix in this case became clear to the English-speaking people. It entered the system of word-building means of the English language, and they began to add it to English words, thus forming word-hybrids. For instance, the suffix -ment entered the language within such words as "government", "parliament", "agreement", but later there appeared such EnglishFrench hybrids as: fulfilment, amazement. The suffix -ance/-ence, which was an element of such borrowed words as "innocence", "ignorance", "repentance", now also forms word-hybrids, such as hindrance. 7. There are calques on the French phrase: Out of doubt Hors de doute.