Periods of English
Who suggested the morphological periodization of English history?
π Henry Sweet
Name the four main Old English dialects.
π West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish
Which invaders gave English words like sky, egg, sister, window?
π The Vikings (Scandinavians)
What was the name of the first Germanic alphabet?
π Runic alphabet (Futhark)
Who discovered Grimmβs Law?
π Jacob Grimm
Which period is called the period of reduced endings?
π Middle English
Which dialect became the literary standard in Old English?
π West Saxon
fter the Norman Conquest, which language dominated the royal court?
π French
Which two famous objects contain Old English runic inscriptions?
π The Franks Casket and the Ruthwell Cross
Who discovered Vernerβs Law?
π Karl Verner
Which historical event began the Middle English period in 1066?
π The Norman Conquest
Which two dialects are grouped as βAnglianβ?
π Mercian and Northumbrian
Which king issued the trilingual proclamation of 1258 (French, English, Latin)?
π Henry III
Which alphabet replaced runes after Christianisation?
π The Latin alphabet
According to Grimmβs Law, what did Indo-European voiceless plosives [p, t, k] change into in Proto-Germanic?
π Into voiceless fricatives [f, ΞΈ, h]
Which event in 1475 is considered the end of Middle English?
π The introduction of printing by William Caxton
Which king promoted education and made West Saxon dominant?
π King Alfred the Great
Which 14th-century poet wrote The Canterbury Tales in Middle English?
π Geoffrey Chaucer
Which three sources influenced the Old English alphabet?
π Runic, Greek, and Latin
Give an Old English β Modern English example of i-umlaut (mutation).
π mΕ«s β mΘ³s (mouse β mice), mann β menn (man β men)
Which major phonetic shift marked the transition to New English?
π The Great Vowel Shift
Which dialect preserved Celtic influence most strongly, e.g. no palatalisation after [g], [k], [sk]?
π Kentish
Who published the first English dictionary in 1604?
π Robert Cawdrey
How were vowel length and consonant length indicated in Old English writing?
π Long vowels with a macron (Β―), long consonants by doubling
What is βbreakingβ in Old English phonology? Give an example.
A front vowel turned into a diphthong before certain consonants (h, r, l, w). Example: Γ¦fter β eaftor (after)