Hi everyone,
This is my history of English timeline. I wanted to make a timeline that everyone would understand, not just those who have studied the English language before. Also, I tried to give a few articles that explained the general linguistic principles of the time period, as well as a few that gave specific information. I hope you all enjoy!
Also, I'm sorry if my sources ended up in different fonts. I don't know how to fix it.
General
Dunkin, Philip. “History of English: Five Events that Shaped the History of English.” World of Words. AskOxford.com http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/history/?view=uk
This article was a fairly easy and interesting read, but it still adequately highlighted five of the most important events in the history of the English language. It detailed the settlement of the Anglo-Saxons, the settlement of the Scandinavians, the Norse invasion of 1066, the standardization of English, and the globalization of English.
I wanted an article that gave an overview of the history of English. I chose this one, partly because it focuses on the most important events. I figured that history is more useful when it highlights the most influential events, rather than giving a simple timeline. I also liked that this article gave significant emphasis to the globalization of the English language and recognized that English has become a lingua franca.
Indo-European
Gąsiorowski, Pitor. "An Overview of the Prot-Indo-Eurpean Verb System." 2001. 14 Jun. 2008 <http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm>.
As it says in the title, this article gives a basic overview of Proto-Indo-European verbs. It begins by discussing the three types of Indo-European verbs: durative (imperfect and progressive tenses), aorist (perfects and non-progressives), and perfect (present states). After exploring these basic types, the article discusses tense, number, moods, voices, and participles for Proto-Indo-European verbs.
I really liked this article because it gave a very easy-to-follow explanation of the Proto-Indo-European verb system. It gave clear examples of each type of verb and the way it was used. It's easy to see how we use some of the same linguistic systems in English today. For example, the Indo-Europeans had a set suffix (-je) to make a verb from a noun, just like we do in English (-ize, as in synthesize from synthesis). Because I have also studied some Spanish, I could also see the Proto-Indo-European roots in the Spanish verb system, which was interesting to me.
Blažek, Václav. "On the Internal Classification of Indo-European Languages: Survey." Linguistica Online. 2005. 14 Jun. 2008. <http://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/art/blazek/bla-003.pdf>.
The thing that this article illustrates most clearly is the fact that linguists do not agree about the classification of Indo-European languages. Václav, the author, simply gives different language trees and explanations for each of them, telling which linguists support which trees. He gives language trees giving the big picture of how language families split off from Indo-European, and then he gives individual language trees for each family, showing how each individual language split off from the language family.
I think this article is very helpful in understanding the development of present day languages from Indo-European. First of all, it shows that there is no general consensus about the evolution of Indo-European into present day languages. Second, it shows that although not everyone agrees on the details, the big picture is fairly clear. Third, the article shows that Indo-European did not just split off into individual languages right away; rather, it split into language families with today's daughter languages evolving later. I also like that this article gives so many different opinions on the different possibilities for the evolution of Indo-European, rather than proclaiming only one theory to be the correct theory.
Old English
http://lonestar.texas.net/~jebbo/learn-as/origins.htm
Tony Jebson 13th June 1997
I thought this article was very useful for understanding the Old English influences and loanwords. The article starts out with a chart showing the evolution of Proto-Germanic into present day languages with Old English in the middle. I think this chart helps us understand that Old English is just a step in the evolution of Present Day English. The article continues by giving examples of borrowed words in Old English. It briefly describes Latin, Scandinavian, and Celtic influences.
I liked this article a lot because I like big-picture articles that give good overviews of the language. The article lays everything out with a chart, and I think that is very helpful.
http://members.tripod.com/babaev/archive/grammar41.html
Cyril Babaev
“The Historical Grammar of the Old English Language”
This article laid out Old English very much like a textbook. It was very thorough, and explained the information in a way that was easy to understand. The article begins with a history of Old English. In this section, it discusses the German invasions and the Celtic influences, along with other language contact. After that, the article discusses Old English phonetics and grammar (substantive), in much the same way as our Milward text. The majority of the article is spent on Old English parts of speech: the adjective, the pronoun, the numeral, the adverb, the verb, and the auxiliary words. The last section, “Old English dialects,” talks a little bit about the differences among the dialects of the different kingdoms. The author focuses mainly on Northumbrian in this section, saying that it is the most interesting dialect.
I think this article is a great way to learn the basics of Old English. I liked it because it followed a similar format to our textbook, but it filled in a lot of holes. For example, I wish our textbook would have given a little more attention to the dialectical differences. I also appreciated that this article had an appendix of sample Old English texts. I think that if anyone looking at this article got confused, he or she could make sense out of everything by looking at the appendix.
Middle English
Boren, James. University of Oregon. web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/ME_Pronunciation.pdf
This is a great article for anyone wanting to learn how to pronounce Middle English words. The article starts with charts detailing the Middle English pronunciation of consonants, long vowels, and short vowels. Then the article gives specific examples of differences between Middle English and Present Day English pronunciation. It also accounts for the addition of some French words.
I think I learned a lot from reading this article. Pronunciation was something I always had a hard time with in class, and now I think it is a little clearer to me. I particularly appreciated the explanation of the exceptions to the pronunciation rules.
Gardner, John. “Pronunciation of Chaucer’s Middle English.” From The Life and Times of Geoffrey Chaucer. http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/oconnell/pronunciation.htm
This was another article on the pronunciation of Middle English. Although it gives no vowel and consonant charts like the previous article, it does give nine easy steps to pronouncing Middle English. Although the focus is on some of Chaucer’s words, I think it is an appropriate focus because Chaucer’s writing is one of our best examples of Middle English. I also thing this article was fairly comprehensive and answered most of my pronunciation questions.
This article has been one of my favorites so far because it is slightly humorous. Also, the author approaches the subject more like a narrative and less like a list of instructions. After reading the last article, I particularly appreciated this one because it said many of the same things as the last one. Between the two articles, I feel like I understand Middle English pronunciation much better now.
Benson, L. D. “The Great Vowel Shift.” The Geoffrey Chaucer Page. Harvard College. 27 Jul. 2000. http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/vowels.html
This is a great article explaining a little bit about the Great Vowel Shift. I thought that since I had two articles on Middle English pronunciation differences, I should have an article explaining why the pronunciation is different. I really liked this article because in addition to explaining the Great Vowel Shift using the IPA, it also gives examples using vowel sounds in familiar words. This way, a person does not have to understand the IPA in order to understand the Great Vowel Shift.
I think this article really helped fill in a hole for me. I never quite understood the Great Vowel Shift until now. I also liked that this article provided links to other sites for more information and audio clips of the differences between pronunciations before and after the Great Vowel Shift.
Early Modern English
"Early Modern English (c. 1500-1800)." Indiana University. <http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/phonics/u2/whistory.pdf >
This article gives an overview of several important topics relating to Early Modern English. These topics include Early Modern vocabulary, the standardization of spelling, the Great Vowel Shift, the development of the printing press, and the development of dictionaries. I think this article was particularly useful in showing the standardization that took place during the Early Modern period. Spelling, pronunciation, and orthography all standardized, and dictionaries solidified the definitions of words. This standardization is one of the most important aspects of the Early Modern period.
I liked this article because it was very easy to understand, but it still gave specific details. I also enjoyed the section on dictionaries. This is the only article I have looked at so far that discusses the importance of dictionaries for the Early Modern period.
Hall, Isaac H. "History of the King James Version." Bible Research. <http://www.bible-researcher.com/kjvhist.html>
I wanted an article on the King James Version of the Bible because it was so influential during the Early Modern English period. This article gave the reasons that the KJV project was started, details about the translators, instructions to the translators, and information about how the Bible was completed and then received in congregations. I think that having an article about the KJV not only gives insights into Early Modern English itself, but also into the translation process and the expectations of those commissioning the project.
I liked this article because it gave details that I never knew before. The list of specific instructions to the translators was very interesting because it showed me what exactly the translators were going for. My favorite part was the last section of the article, which is devoted to praise for the King James Bible. Most of the men quoted say that the language of the KJV is the most beautiful in the English language, and that the translators really took advantage of everything English has to offer. I agree.
"Shakespeare's Development of Early Modern English." No Sweat Shakespeare: Modern Shakespeare Resources and Transitions. <http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeare-early-middle-english.htm>
I thought that an article on Shakespeare would be a good choice, since he was one of the most influential authors of the Early Modern English period. This article talks a little about how Shakespeare influenced the development of Early Modern English. It mentions his tendency to invent words or adapt them to fit a new part of speech. He could do this because English had recently lost its inflections and could now be played with much more easily. The article also spends some time discussing the usage of thou and thee. The explanation is fairly simple and easy to understand.
I appreciated this article because it talked about English's unique flexibility. I love that we can turn nouns into verbs and invent new words all the time, just as Shakespeare did. I also appreciate that we do not still have inflections, like we did in Old English.
Present Day English
"New Words: A Sampling of new words and senses from the new 2006 update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate ®Dictionary, Eleventh Edition." Miriam-Webster OnLine. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/new_words.htm>
This article is a dictionary entry for Miriam-Webster OnLine. It gives a short list of some of the new words added to the dictionary for the 2006 edition. I thought this was a very useful article for Present Day English because it shows what kinds of words we are currently creating. The article divides the words into topics, such as "Technology and Computers" and "Pop Culture." Within these categories are words like "spyware" and "soul patch."
This was one of my favorite articles to look at. I didn't know many of the words on the list, and it was so interesting to see what people are coming up with these days. Also, I'm impressed that these words are getting added to the dictionary so quickly, and that people aren't rejecting the words as slang.
World English
"Listening." World-English. http://www.world-english.org/listening.htm
This article is a little different from all the other articles I have found. It doesn't really discuss different English dialects and accents; rather, it just gives links to websites that are broadcasting English radio from all around the world. The website gives links to broadcasts from seventeen different English-speaking countries so that the reader can hear the dialectical differences.
This was another one of my favorite articles. I loved it because it recognized that you can't really understand dialectical differences from just reading about them; you have to hear them.
Kelly, Terri. Global Envision: The Confluence of Global Markets and Poverty Alleviation. "From Lingua Franca to Global English. 29 Jul. 2004. http://www.globalenvision.org/library/33/655/
This article discussed the globalization of the English Language and how English became the lingua franca of the world. It also takes up some of the political issues surrounding the globalization of English and discusses why some speakers of other languages are resisting learning English. It is doubtless that the globalization of English is no longer just a communications issue; it is a political and cultural issue as well.
I appreciated this article because it gave some good facts about how many people in the world speak English, both as a first and second language. It also gave specific reasons as to why English has become a global language―mainly reasons such as technology advances and the use of the internet.
Taylor, Sophie. "China Allows Access to English Wikipedia." Reuters. 2008. 17 Jun. 2008. <http://in.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idINIndia-32865420080405>
This is a news article that says that China has recently allowed internet access to Wikipedia articles in English. I think this is a very significant development for the English language as a global language. In most of the articles I have read, the author has said that English is spoken by millions as both a first and a second language, but then reminded readers that more people in the world still speak Chinese. If China opens its doors to the English language, nothing will stop the number of English-speaking people from continuing to rise, possibly outnumbering Chinese-speakers, eventually.
I liked this article because it also focused on the politics of the Chinese internet-censoring system. I found it very interesting, but very sad to see just how much information the Chinese are not allowed to access, even with the ability to see Wikipedia in English.
