A history of english language

A History of the English Language Fifth Edition Baugh and Cable’s A History of the English Language has long been considered the standard work in the field A History of the English Language is a comprehensive exploration of the linguistic and cultural development of English, from the Middle Ages to the present day The book provides students with a balanced and up-to-date overview of the history of the language The fifth edition has been revised and updated to keep students up to date with recent developments in the field Revisions include: • a revised first chapter, ‘English present and future’ • a new section on gender issues and linguistic change • updated material on African-American Vernacular English A student supplement for this book is available, entitled Companion to A History of the English Language Albert C.Baugh was Schelling Memorial Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Thomas Cable is Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND A History of the English Language Fifth Edition Albert C.Baugh and Thomas Cable First published 1951 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Second edition 1959 Third edition 1978 Fourth edition published 1993 by Routledge Authorized British edition from the English language edition, entitled A History of the English Language, Fifth Edition by Albert C.Baugh and Thomas Cable, published by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, Inc Copyright © 2002 Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005 “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.” All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from Routledge British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-203-99463-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-28098-2 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-28099-0 (pbk) Contents Preface English Present and Future viii The Indo-European Family of Languages 16 Old English 38 Foreign Influences on Old English 67 The Norman Conquest and the Subjection of English, 1066–1200 98 The Reestablishment of English, 1200–1500 116 Middle English 146 The Renaissance, 1500–1650 187 The Appeal to Authority, 1650–1800 238 10 The Nineteenth Century and After 279 11 The English Language in America 331 Appendix A Specimens of the Middle English Dialects 387 Appendix B English Spelling 399 Index 406 MAPS The Counties of England ii The Home of the English 42 The Dialects of Old English 48 The Dialects of Middle English 178 The Dialects of American English 356 ILLUSTRATIONS William Bullokar’s Booke At Large (1580) 196 The Editors of the New (Oxford) English Dictionary 321 Extract from the Oxford English Dictionary 323 The American Spelling Book of Noah Webster 353 Preface Before the present author ever became associated with Albert C.Baugh’s A History of the English Language, several generations of teachers and students had appreciated its enduring qualities Not least of these, and often remarked upon, was the full attention paid to the historical and cultural setting of the development of the language This original emphasis has made it possible for subsequent editions to include discussions of current issues and varieties of English in ways that could not have been specifically foreseen in 1935 The fifth edition continues this updating by expanding the sections on African American Varnacular English and Hispanic American English, adding a section on Gender Issues and Linguistic Change, and incorporating small changes throughout Once again global events have affected global English and necessitated revisions, especially in the first and last chapters Baugh’s original text was supported by footnotes and bibliographies that not only acknowledged the sources of his narrative but also pointed directions for further study and research In each successive edition new references have been added To avoid documentary growth, sprawl, and incoherence by simple accretion, the present edition eliminates a number of references that have clearly been susperseded At the same time it keeps many that might not usually be consulted by students in order to give a sense of the foundations and progress of the study of the subject In the first edition Baugh stated his aim as follows: The present book, intended primarily for college students, aims to present the historical development of English in such a way as to preserve a proper balance between what may be called internal history—sounds and inflections—and external history—the political, social, and intellectual forces that have determined the course of that development at different periods The writer is convinced that the soundest basis for an undersanding of present-day English and for an enlightened attitude towards questions affecting the language today is a knowledge of the path which it has pursued in becoming what it is For this reason equal attention has been paid to its earlier and its later stages As in previous editions, the original plan and purpose have not been altered The various developments of linguistic inquiry and theory during the half century after the History’s original publication have made parts of its exposition seem to some readers overly traditional However, a history presented through the lens of a single theory is narrow when the theory is current, and dated when the theory is superseded Numerous other histories of English have made intelligent use of a particular theory of phonemics, or of a specific version of syntactic deep and surface structure, or of variable rules, or of other ideas that have come and gone There is nothing hostile to an overall linguistic theory or to new discoveries in Baugh’s original work, but its format allows the easy adjustment of separable parts It is a pity that a new preface by convention loses the expression of thanks to colleagues whose suggestions made the previous edition a better book The fifth edition has especially benefited from astute comments by Traugott Lawler and William Kretzschmar The author as ever is sustained by the cartoonist perspective of Carole Cable, who he trusts will find nothing in the present effort to serve as grist for her gentle satiric mill T.C A History of the English Language Index 433 Nunnally, Thomas, 407 Nynorsk, 33 Nyrop, K., 135 Oberdörffer, W., 198 O’Casey, Sean, 318 Odyssey, 26 Oettinger, Norbert, 42 Offe, J., 198 Ogle, Octavus, 137 Oily Robert d’, 119 Old Bulgarian, 31 Old Church Slavonic, 31 Old English, 20, 33, 43ff.; characteristics of, 53; foreign influences on, 74ff.; grammar, 56–61; literature, 69; study of, 286; syntax, 67; vocabulary, 53ff., 64–67 Old Frisian, 33 Old High German, 34, 78 Old Icelandic, 33 Old Low Franconian, 33 Oldmixon, John, 268 Old Norse, 33 Old Persian, 24–25 Old Saxon, 33 Onions, Charles T., 343 Orderic Vitalis, 113, 117, 120, 123 Oregon, 355 Oriel College, Oxford, 139 Ormulum, 155, 422 Ornstein-Galicia, Jacob L., 385 Orosius, 72 Orsman, Harry W., 349 Orthography, problem of, 208 Orton, Harold, 317, 348 Oscan, 28 Ostrogoths, 32 Oswald, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York, 88 Oswald, King, 84 Oversea language, 227 Ovid, 206 Owl and the Nightingale, The, 155, 415 Oxford, earl of, 267; statute of, 139; University of, 193 Oxford English Dictionary, 339, 342; second edition, 343–44 Index Pacific creoles, 332 Pacific Northwest, 355, 356 PADS, 398 Page, R.I, 96 Pahlavi, 25 Pakistan, 5, 24; English language in, 325 Palander-Collin, M., 17 Palatal diphthongization, 79 Palatinate, 353 Paleolithic Age, 44 Pali, 24 Palmer, Elizabeth, 41 Panini, 23 Parataxis, 68, 244 Paris, Matthew, 130–33, 137, et passim Paris, University of, 135 Parker, Archbishop, 264 Parliament, records of, 154; of 1295, 134; of 1337, 148; of 1362, 148, 149 Parry, David, 348 Participle, present, 190 Partridge, Eric, 347, 348 Pashto, 25 Pastoral Care, 71 Paul, Hermann, 16, 41 Paullin, Charles O., 387 Pauwels, Luc, 198 Payne, Joseph, 197, 334 Peasants’ Revolt, 143, 188 Peckham, Archbishop, 140 Pedersen, H., 16, 42 Pederson, Lee A., 400 Peitz, Agnes, 199 Pellisson, 264 Pencriche, Richard, 151 Penfield, Joyce, 385 Penn, William, 242, 353 Pennsylvania, 353, 354, 358, 388 Pennsylvania Dutch, 104, 354, 389 Pennsylvania Journal, 364 Periods of English language, 52 Pershore, 120 Persian, 25; words from, 12, 303 Peru, words from, 291 Peter Martyr, 206 Peterborough, 113, 122 434 Index Peterborough Chronicle, 166 Peterhouse College, Cambridge, 140 Peters, Robert A., 232 Pettie, George, 207, 221 Pettman, Charles, 322, 349 Philadelphia, 353, 389 Philip, king of France, 128 Philip de Mercros, 121 Philippe de Thaun, 118 Philippines, Phillips, Edward, 214, 217, 232, 310, 427 Philological Society, 334, 341ff Phoenicians, 26 Phoenix, 71 Phoneme, definition of, 401 Phonetic symbols, xvi Phonology, 235−40 Phrygian, 26 Phrygians, 26, 36 Physics, words relating to, 298 Picard dialect, 28, 140 Pickering, John, 391, 394 Picts and Scots, 48 Pidgin English, 331ff., 383 Pidgin languages, 125, 331, 383 Piers Plowman, 146, 156 Piggott, Stuart, 72 Pike, K.L., 402 Pindar, Peter, 310 Pisan, Christine de, 135 Pitman, Isaac, 334 Place-names, 75, 98 Plato, 205 Platt, John, 17, 328, 349 Plattdeutsche, 33 Pléiade, The, 204 Plummer, C., 106 Plural, methods of indicating, 159–60; in -en, 160; in -s, 159–60 Plutarch, 205 Plymouth, 364 Pogatscher, Alois, 106 Poitevins in England, 130, 132 Poitiers, battle of, 141 Pokorny, J., 41, 106 Polish, 31 Pollard, Carl, 403 Polomé, Edgar C., 42 Poole, Austin L., 126 Pop, Sever, 399 Pope, Alexander, 19, 262, 273, 360 435 Index Pope, M.K., 198 Portmanteau words, 306 Portuguese, 4, 7, 29; words from, 291; influence, 228 Porzig, Walter, 42 Postage, cheap, 296 Potter, Simeon, 17 Pound, Louise, 306 Powell, F.York, 114 Powicke, F.M., 129, 156 Prakrit, 24 Prator, C.H., 323 Praz, Mario, 252 Prefixes, 66, 181, 304 Prein, Wilhelm, 252 Prescriptive grammar, beginnings of, 278ff Preston, Dennis R., 407 Price, H.T., 167, 252 Pride, John B., 17, 349 Priestley, Joseph, 258, 270, 274, 278–80, 283–85 Prins, A.A., 167 Printing, influence of, 200 Prioress, Chaucer’s, 141, 156 Progressive passive, 291 Progressive verb forms, 245, 291 Prokosch, E., 41 Pronoun, 59, 161, 242; agreement in gender, 339; relative, 244−45 Pronunciation, American, 371, 373; Shakespeare’s, 234; of Old English, 53 Proper names, words from, 306 Proto-Germanic, 32 Provençal, 29 Provençals in England, 131–32 Provence, Eleanor of, 131 Provisions of Oxford, 133, 137, 139 Prussian, 30 Puerto Rico, emigrants from, 352; Spanish influence in, 329 Punjabi, 24 Purists, attitude of, 393; efforts of, 336 Puttenham, George, 195, 204, 222, 250 Pyles, Thomas, 17, 406 Quakers, 242, 353, 388 Queen’s College, Oxford, 139 Quinton, C.L., 244 436 Index Quirk, Randolph, 56, 316 r in American dialects, 373, 388 Radio, words relating to, 299 Raffles, Sir Stamford, 327 Railroad, words relating to, 396 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 250, 425 Raleigh, Sir Walter (Oxford professor), 337 Rambler, The, 272 Ramos, Rosinda G., 12 Ramson, W.S., 349 Rao, Raja, 325–26 Rask, Rasmus, 21 Rastafari, 330 Rationalism, scientific, 255 Rawlinson, Richard, 286 Read, Allen W., 271, 367, 406 Reaney, P.H., 199 Received Pronunciation (RP), 315, 318, 373 Recognition, struggle for, 203ff Reddick, Allen, 294 Refining the language, 257, 258 Reformation, 206, 286 Reidy, John, 197 Reinecke, John E., 390, 408 Reismuller, Georg, 197 Remus, Hans, 197 Renaissance, 200ff Renfrew, Colin, 23, 40, 42, 106 Restoration, 253, 256, 262 Revival of learning, 203 Revolution, American, 364 Rhaeto-romanic, 29 Rhenish Franconian, 34 Rhetoricians, eighteenth-century, 274 Rhode Island, 353, 356 Rhodes, Cecil, 290 Richard, earl of Cornwall, 130, 132, 137 Richardl, 113, 118 Richardll, 146, 148, 152 Richardson, Henry G., 126 Richardson, Malcolm, 154, 199, 250 Richardson, O.H., 131, 157 Richelieu, Cardinal, 264, 267 Richmond, lan, 72 Rickford, John, 383, 407 riding, 99 Riksmål, 33 Ringler, Richard N., 56 Rissanen, M., 17 Roach, Peter, 407 437 Index Roberts, Gildas, 321 Roberts, Jane, 73 Robertson, D.M., 294 Robertson, Stuart, 382 Robin Hood, 103 Robins, R.H., 16 Robinson, Fred C., 56, 73 Robinson, Jay L., 359 Robinson, J.A., 106, 117 Roches, Peter des, 130, 133 Rodman, Robert, 16 Roesdahl, Else, 106 Rogers, Margaret A., 12 Rogers, Pat, 259 Röhling, M., 198 Rollo, 109 Romaic, 27 Romaine, Suzanne, 16, 332, 349, 350, 383 Roman, Camille, 350 Roman Britain, 46 Roman Conquest of Britain, 46 Romance languages, 28 Romanian, 29 Romanization of Britain, 46 Romans in Britain, 45 Romansch, 29 Romany, 24 Roosevelt, Theodore, 15, 335 Roscommon, earl of, 266 Ross, John R., 403 Rothwell, William, 124, 126, 137, 138, 140, 157 Rotzoll, E., 198 Rouen, 114 Round, J Horace, 117, 119, 126 Royal Society, 253–255 Ruin, The, 70 Ruppert, Richard, 229, 252 Russian, 4, 7, 8, 31; words from, 12 Rydén, Mats, 252 Rynell, Alarik, 101 Rypins, Stanley, 272 Ryssheton, Nicholas de, 152 Sabino, Robin, 407 Sag, Ivan, 403 Sagas, 33 St Albans, 143, 146 St Augustine, 62, 82, 206 St Columba, 76, 82 St Katherine, 414 438 Index St Mary’s Abbey, York, 147 Sallust, 205 Salmon, Vivian, 251 Salter, F M.,215 Salway, Peter, 72 Samson, Abbot, 122, 124 Samuels, M.L., 190, 198, 199 Sanderson, Stewart, 348 Sandved, Arthur O., 198 Sanskrit, 20–21, 23, 37 Sapir, Edward, 15, 401 Satem languages, 36, 39 Saussure, Ferdinand de, 16, 35 Savory, Theodore H., 347 Savoy, Peter of, 131 Sawyer, P.H., 106 Saxons, 47 Sayles, George O., 126 Scandinavian, influence, 92; invasions, 93; place-names, 98 Scandinavians in America, 352, 355, 356 Schaffer, Simon, 254 Scheibner, Oscar, 126 Schilling-Estes, Natalie, 376 Schleswig, 33 Schmied, Josef, 349 Schneider, Edgar W., 17, 349, 400, 407, 408 Schrader, O., 42 Schreuder, H., 347 Schrijnen, J., 41, 399 Science, growth of, 297 Scientific words, 297 Scotland, dialect of, 317–18 Scots language, 317–18 Scots-Irish in America, 353, 388 Scott, Charles T., 16 Scott, Sir Walter, 103, 181 Scottish Chaucerians, 156, 185 Scottish National Dictionary, 317 Scottish settlers in America, 353, 355, 388 Scragg, D.G., 107, 239 Scudder, Horace E., 371, 406 Seafarer, The, 70 Sebeok, Thomas A., 276, 349 Selden, John, 264 Self-explaining compounds, 65, 140, 183, 303 Seneca, 205 Seneschaucie, 136 Senlac, battle of, 111 Serbian, 32 Serbo-Croatian, 31 439 Index 440 Serjeantson, Mary S., 16, 198 Sexist language, 338 Sey, K.A., 323 Seychelles, English language in, 325 Shakespeare, William, 104, 226, 233, 234, 238–39, 240, 242−48, 250, 256, 262, 345, 351, 360; language of, 233ff.; pronunciation of, 234, 239 shall and will, 104, 279 Shapin, Steven, 254 Shapiro, Barbara J., 254, 294 Sharpe, R.R., 149 Shaw, George Bernard, 314 she, 162 Sheard, J.A., 347 Shelley, P.B., 203 Shelly, P.V D., 112, 117, 120 Shenandoah Valley, 354 Sheridan, Thomas, 258, 271, 262, 270, 271, 274–76, 288 Shevoroshkin, V., 23 Short, Ian, 126, 157 Shuy, R.W., 407 Sidney, Sir Philip, 208, 224, 231 Siemerling, O., 198 Sierra Leone, English language in, 322, 330 Sievers, E., 56 Silva, Penny M., 349 Simplified Spelling Board, 335 Simpson, J.A., 343, 347 Singapore, English language in, 327 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 156 Size of English, 4, 6; of European languages, Skal, George von, 406 Skeat, W.W., 137, 177, 197, 198, 239, 334 Skelton, John, 156, 215 Slang, 311 Slavic countries, immigrants from, 352 Slavic languages, 30ff Sledd, James H., 294, 314, 323, 381, 395 Slettengren, Emrik, 197 Slovak, 31 Slovene, 32 Smith, Henry Lee, 402 Smith, Larry E., 17 Smith, John, 363 Smith, L.P., 337 Smith, Thomas, 210 Smyth, A.H., 370, 391 Snellgrove, Harold S., 132 Social consciousness, influence of, 202 Social life, words relating to, 171 Society for Pure English, 337 Index 441 Society of Antiquaries, 264 Sociolinguistics, 401 Somalia, English language in, 325 Sommer, Ferdinand, 42 Somner, William, 286 Sopwell, nuns of, 147 Sorbian, 31 Sound change, 235 South Africa, English language in, 321 South America, words from, 291 South Asia, English language in, 325 South Atlantic settlements, 354 South Carolina, 354, 381, 383 South Dakota, 389 South Midland dialect in American dialectology, 378 South Slavic, 31 Southampton, 114, 124 Southern dialect in England, 189, 415; in America, 359, 376–79, 380–81 Southern Europe, immigrants to America from, 352 Southey, Robert, 293 Space exploration, words relating to, 298 Spalding, prior of, 124 Spanish, 4, 7, 8, 29; words from, 12, 228, 291, 303 Spargo, John W., 16 Spears, A.K., 383 Spectator, The, 268, 288 Speech, 18 Speitel, H.H., 317, 348 Spelling, American, 369; English, 14, 55, 414ff.; reform, 15, 208ff., 334, 369, 265; reform associations, 334 Spelman, Sir Henry, 264 Spender, Dale, 350 Spenser, Edmund, 164, 212, 231, 250 Speroni, 204 Spoken standard, 313, 315 Sprat, Thomas, 253, 255 Sri Lanka, English language in, 325 Stackhouse, Thomas, 257 Standard English, 182, 194, 250, 315 Stanyhurst, Richard, 209, 424 Starnes, D.T., 252 Statute of Pleading, 149 Steel, lan K., 406 Steele, Sir Richard, 261 Stein, Gabriele, 252 Steinki, J., 252 Stenton, Doris, 106 Stenton, F.M., 72, 75, 105, 106, 112 Index Stephen, King, 116, 118 Stevenson, W.H., 157, 151 Stewart, William, 140 Stewart, W.A., 383 Stidston, R.O., 242 Stimming, A., 197 Stockwell, Robert P., 68, 239 Stone Age, 43 Stratford-at-Bow, 141, 177 Strang, Barbara, M.H., 17 Strayer, J.R., 129 Streitberg, W., 41 Strevens, Peter, 323 Strong, H.A., 16 Strong declension, 57, 58 Strong participles, 164 Strong verbs, 60, 164, 247; classes of, 60–61; losses among, 163; new, 164–65; which became weak, 163 Stubbs, William, 120, 129 Studer,P., 114 Sturluson, Snorri, 33 Sturtevant, E.H., 42 Subbiondo, Joseph L., 294 Suffixes, 64–65, 66, 182, 304 Suffolk, 387; whine, 357 Sugg, R.S., Jr., 275 Suggett, Helen, 153 Sullivan, Sir Edward, 221 Survey of English Dialects, 316 Sussex, 49, 50 Svein, 94 Swadesh, M., 402 Swahili, 6, 323 Swedes, 92 Swedish, 33 Sweet, Henry, 236, 334 Swift, Jonathan, 258–63, 267–69, 273, 286, 366 Swynford, Katherine de, 152 Swynford, Sir Thomas, 152 Sykes, F.H., 167 Syllable-timed languages, 324 Symonds, J.A., 251 Synge, J.N., 318 Synonyms, 186 Syntax, Middle English, 166; Old English, 67; Proto-Indo-European, 36; Renaissance English, 244–45; 442 Index Scandinavian, influence on English, 103; transformational, 402 Synthetic language, 56 Szemerényi, Oswald, 41 Szwedek, Aleksander, 178 Tacitus, 205 Tagalog, Taglicht, J., 280 Tajima, Matsuji, 73 Tanquerey, F.J., 183 Tanzania, English language in, 6–7, 8, 323, 325 Tarsus, Theodore of, 84 Tatler, The, 260 Taylor, Ann, 68 Teichert, Fr., 198 Television, words relating to, 299 Tennessee, 354–55 Terence, 206 Thackeray, W.M., 311 than, case after, 279 Thanet, 49, 93 Theocritus, 206 they, their, them, 162 Thirteen Colonies, 352 tho, (those), 161 Thomas, C.K., 382, 407 Thomassy, R., 135 Thompson, E.H., 139 thou, 142 Thrace, languages of, 25–26 Thracians, 36 Thucydides, 205 Thurston, 114 Tocharian, 35, 39 Todd, H.J., 312 Todd, Loreto, 324 Tok Pisin, 332–33 Toll, J M., 188 Toller, T.N., 73 Tongue, Ray K., 349 Toolan, Michael, Tostig, 111 Toswell, M.Jane, 199 Tout, T.F., 126 Towneley Plays, 194 Towns, growth of, 143 Trafalgar, battle of, 296 Trager, George L., 402 Traill, H.D., 114 Transformational rules, 402 443 Index Translation, 205, 216 Traugott, Elizabeth C, 16 Trench, Dean, 336, 341 Trevisa, John, 147, 150, 184, 192 Trinidad and Tobago, English language in, 329 Trinidad Creole, 330 Troike, Rudolph C., 382 Trojans, 26 Trudgill, Peter, 348 Tryggvason, Olaf, 94 Tsuzaki, Stanley M., 390 Tucker, Susie L, 294–95 Turner, G.W., 349 Turner, Lorenzo D., 383 Turold, 113 Turquet, Gladys, M., 251 Twaddell, W.F., 402 Twi, influence of, 329 Tyler, Elizabeth M., 199 Uganda, 8, 322, 325 Ukrainian, 31 Ulfilas, 32 Ulster, 353 Umbrian, 28 Umlaut, 78–79 United Nations, official languages of, Universal grammar, 11, 275, 282 Upper North dialect in America, 378, 379 Upper South dialect in America, 378, 380 Upton, Clive, 407 Urdu, 24 Usage, doctrine of, 282; levels of, 313; and idiom, Elizabethan, 248 Valdman, Albert, 332 Van der Gaff, W., 292 Van Dongen, G.A., 348 Van Riper, W.R., 382 Van Windekens, A.J., 42 Vandalic, 32 vast, 310 Vaughn-Cooke, Fay B., 383 Vedas, 23 Venetic, 28 Venezky, R.L., 73 Verb, 60, 162, 245; inflections of, 190, 245−48; progressive forms, 245, 291; see Strong verbs, Weak verbs 444 Index 445 Verb-adverb combinations, 345 Verbs from French, 173 Vernaculars, problems of, 203 Verner, Karl, 22 Verner’s Law, 22, 60 Vickers, Brian, 259, 294 Viereck, Wolfgang, 348, 349 Viëtor, Wilhelm, 252 Vikings, 92 Villey, Pierre, 251 Vincent, Nigel, 68 Vindex Angelicus, 262 Virgil, 206, 209 Virginia, 354–55, 381 Visigoths, 32 Vising, J., 125, 126, 136, 141, 197 Visser, F T., 17, 252 Volapük, Voltmer, Bruno, 197 Vorlat, Emma, 274 Vortigern, 49 Vowel declension, 57 Vulgar Latin, 29, 79 Wace, 119 Wagenknecht, Edward, 406 Wakelin, Martyn F., 348 Wall,A., 106 Waller, Edmund, 262, 265 Wallis, John, 274, 279 Walloon, 29, 115 Walpole, Horace, 266 Wanderer, The, 70 “War of the Theatres,” 223 Ward, William, 280 Warfel, Harry R., 406 Warkentyne, H.J., 331 Watkins, Calvert, 36, 41 Wat Tyler’s rebellion, 148 Weak declension, 57, 58, 160 Weakverbs, 51, 60–61, 162 Weakening of final -m, 159 Wearmouth, 85 Weber,Heidi, 17, 328, 349 Webster, Noah, 258, 272, 275, 279, 286, 311, 366 ff., 391, 394 Webster’s spelling book, 358, 371 Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 395 Wedmore, Treaty of, 93 Weekley, Ernest, 347, 397 Weiner, E.S.C., 343, 347 Wells, J.C, 324, 373, 382 Index Wells, R.S., 402 Welsh, 34; origin of name, 50; settlers in America, 353 Wentworth, Harold, 348, 407 Wessex, 49, 50, 93 West Africa, English language in, 322 West Germanic, 33 West Indies, words from, 291 West Midland dialect, 189, 414 West Saxon, 53 West Slavic, 31 West Virginia, 355, 380 Western Pennsylvania dialect, 380 Whateley, Richard, 276 Whitby, 71 White, Richard Grant, 294, 394 Whitehall, Harold, 190 Whitelock, Dorothy, 72 White Russian, 31 who, 244–45 who and whom, 344 whose, 279, 285 Widdowson, J.D.A., 348 Widsith, 70 Wild, Fr., 236 Wilkins, John, 253, 275, 282 William Rufus, 118, 129 William the Conqueror, 110ff.; his knowledge of English, 117, 121 Williams, R.O., 358 Williamson, James A., 295 Williamson, Keith, 190, 198 Wills in English, 153 Wilson, David M., 73 106 Wilson, R.M., 157 Wilson, Thomas, 204, 218, 222, 233 Wiltshire, 387 Winchecombe, 120 Winchester, 88; bishop of, 130, 131; Customal of, 148 Wincester, Simon, 350 Wind, B.H., 229, 252 Windward Islands, English language in, 329 Winter, Werner, 36 Wisconsin, 355, 356 Wissmann, Wilhelm, 39 Witherspoon, John, 357, 364, 390 Wittke, Carl, 406 Wolfram, Walt, 376, 383, 407, 408 Wolof, influence of, 329 446 Index 447 Woodbine, George E., 157 Worcester, 88, 120, 131, 137 Word formation, 90; in Old English, 4–67 World Wars, words connected with, 300 World English, 7, 403 Wotton, Sir Henry, 264 would rather, 278–79 Wrenn, C.L., 56 Wright, Elizabeth M., 56, 105, 236 Wright, JohnK., 387 Wright, Joseph, 56, 105, 236, 348 Wright, Laura, 194, 199 Wright, Nathalia, 317, 348 Written standard, 313 Wulfstan, archbishop of York and bishop of Worcester, 72 Wulfstan of Worcester, 113, 117 Wyche, Sir Peter, 265 Wycliffe, John, 156, 184, 193, 206 Wyld, H.C., 17, 198, 199, 236, 239, 241, 247, 252 Wylie, J.H., 148, 152 Xenophon, 205 ye, 242 Yeats,W.B., 318 York, 85, 88, 93; school at, 85 Yorkshire, settlers in America from, 353, 387; clipping, 357 you, 242−43 Yonge, Nicholas, 244 Yoruba, influence of, 322–23, 329 Yugoslavia, 32 Yule, Henry, 349 Zachrisson, R.E., 75, 105, 198, 236 Zambia, English language in, 325 Zend, 25 Ziegler, Philip, 157 Zoroaster, 25 Zuyder Zee, 48 [...]... the task easier for those learning English as a foreign language 11 Natural Gender English differs from all other major European languages in having adopted natural (rather than grammatical) gender In studying other European languages the student must learn 8 See Gunilla M.Andeman and Margaret A. Rogers, Words, Words, Words: The Translator and the Language Learner, especially Paul Meara, “The Classical... examination of any good etymological dictionary will show that English has borrowed from Hebrew and Arabic, Hungarian, Hindi-Urdu, Bengali, Malay, Chinese, the languages of Java, Australia, Tahiti, Polynesia, West Africa, and from one of the aboriginal languages of Brazil And it has assimilated these heterogeneous elements so successfully that only the professional student of language is aware of their origin... English as a world language has received perhaps more scholarly and popular attention during the past three decades than any other topic A readable introduction is by David Crystal, English as a Global Language (Cambridge, UK, 1997), who has also written on endangered languages in Language Death (Cambridge, UK, 2000) Implications and points of view are summarized by Tom McArthur, The English Languages... was given a fixed, literary form In this form it is known as Classical Sanskrit Classical Sanskrit is the medium of an extensive Indian literature including the two great national epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, a large body of drama, much lyric and didactic poetry, and numerous works of a scientific and philosophical character It is still cultivated as a learned language and formerly held a. .. ‘decolonization’ as a language, its manifestation in a range of varieties, and above all its suitability as a flexible medium for literary and other types of creativity across languages and cultures.”4 Kachru left open the question of whether the cultures 4 Braj B.Kachru, “The Sacred Cows of English, ” English Today, 16 (1988), 8 A history of the english language 8 and other languages of the world are richer... process of change that characterizes the life of living things When a language ceases to change, we call it a dead language Classical Latin is a dead language because it has not changed for nearly 2,000 years The change that is constantly going on in a living language can be most easily seen in the vocabulary Old words die out, new words are added, and existing words change their meaning Much of the vocabulary... tending to alter a language from age to age as spoken and written, and that have brought about such an extensive alteration in English as to make the English language of 1000 quite unintelligible to English speakers of 2000 English present and future 3 4 The Importance of a Language It is natural for people to view their own first language as having intrinsic advantages over languages that are foreign... propagation The spread of arts and sciences through the medium of a particular language in turn reinforces the prestige of that language Internal deficits such as an inadequate vocabulary for the requirements at hand need not restrict the spread of a language It is normal for a language to acquire through various means, including borrowing from other languages, the words that it needs Thus, any language. .. Japan, a country that has risen to economic and technical dominance since World War II, the Japanese language has yet few of the roles in international affairs that are played by English or French The reasons are rooted in the histories of these languages Natural languages are not like programming languages such as Fortran or LISP, which have gained or lost international currency over a period of a. .. 2–18, and her Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (2nd ed., London, 1996) A history of the english language 10 9 Cosmopolitan Vocabulary One of the most obvious characteristics of Present-day English is the size and mixed character of its vocabulary English is classified as a Germanic language That is to say, it belongs to the group of languages to which German, Dutch, Flemish, Danish, ... Hebrew and Arabic, Hungarian, Hindi-Urdu, Bengali, Malay, Chinese, the languages of Java, Australia, Tahiti, Polynesia, West Africa, and from one of the aboriginal languages of Brazil And it has assimilated... process of change that characterizes the life of living things When a language ceases to change, we call it a dead language Classical Latin is a dead language because it has not changed for nearly... legions in ancient Dacia In addition to these six languages, about a dozen Romance languages are spoken by smaller populations Other languages on the Iberian peninsula are Catalan, a language of the