The mid-central lax vowel, as in the word 'sun' or 'soda'. Also considered a reduced vowel.
What is Schwa?
100
An 18th century concern for the state of the English language, which resulted in the view that language ought to be logical, orderly, and symmetrical, and, subsequently, the publication of over 200 grammars.
What is Prescriptivism?
100
An external cause of language change due to colonialism, military invasion, or commercial interaction.
What is contact-induced language change?
100
A compound word which employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun.
What is a Kenning?
200
731 CE
What is the year of the publication of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People?
200
This sound change is described by Grimm's Law and Verner's Law and marks the evolution from PIE to Germanic.
What is The First Sound Shift?
200
The process whereby a pidgin language develops over time to become a fully functioning native language.
What is creolization?
200
Occurs when the speaker exerts the least effort in articulating sounds, leading to the assimilation of neighbouring sounds, to omissions, and to clipped forms.
What is ease of articulation?
200
Long Line, Stressed Syllables, Caesura, Alliteration, and Kennings.
What are the main components of OE verse?
300
55 BCE
What is the year of Julius Caesar's attempt to conquer Britannia?
300
The First Sound Shift affected these types of articulated speech sounds.
What are consonants?
300
The creation of new words by modifying existing words through various processes such as clippings, blends, acronyms, etc.
What are Neologisms?
300
Canadian English is distinguished by this cause of language change in which speakers say words as they are written, rather than as they are conventionally pronounced.
What is spelling pronunciation?
300
Some Old English poetry, such as Widsith and the Wife's Lament are classified as part of this family of wisdom literature, which expresses general truths about the world, or a universalization of experience.
What is Gnomic Verse?
400
1500 CE
What is the beginning of the Modern English Period?
400
This sound change resulted in the development of a system of fixed 'stress' accent' from an earlier system of free accent and occurred during the development from PIE to Germanic.
What is Accent Shift?
400
Also known as i-mutation.
What is Umlaut?
400
In this type of language change speakers correct mistakes, which are, in fact, not mistakes.
What is hypercorrection?
400
A long poem, typically one derived from the ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation.
What is the Epic?
500
1400 - 1600 CE
What is the period of the Great Vowel Shift?
500
In this sound change all long or lengthened vowels were raised in articulation, or, if already high vowels, were diphthongized.
What is the Great Vowel Shift?
500
Denotes British dialects in which [r] is deleted pre-consonantally and word-finally, as in ca(r) and ca(r)t.
What is a non-rhotic dialect?
500
In this internal and unconscious cause of language change, hearers require that sounds be maximally distinct.
(i.e. purpur --> purple)
What is perceptual clarity?
500
The formal OE term for women who were married to a member of an enemy tribe for the purpose of establishing peace between feuding groups.