Diachrony

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What are some external factors for language change?
New objects or concepts, Christianisation, Scandinavian Invasions, Norman Conquest, Renaissance, Imposition of National Language.
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What are some internal factors for language change?
Simple repetition, Idiolect, Interpersonal Exchanges leading to Dialect, Economy.
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What is Proto-Indo-European?
The ancestor of all European Languages. We have no record of it so it is a reconstructed language.
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What is the diversification that gives 2 classifications to Indo-European languages?
Statum (Eastern) and Centum (Western) Languages. Statum languages derive from a stem with alveolar /s/ or palato-alveolar /ʃ/. Centum languages derive from stem with velar consonant /k/.
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What was the consonant change from PIE to Proto-Germanic?
p -> f
t -> þ
k -> h
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What is Grimm's Law?
Systematic changes between IE and Germanic.
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What were the changes?
bh -> b
b -> p
p -> f
dh -> d
d -> t
t -> þ
gh -> g
g -> k
k -> h (x)
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Describe these changes.
- Aspirated voiced plosives became simple voiced plosives.
- Voiced plosives became voiceless.
- Voiceless plosives became fricatives.
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What is the exception to Grimm's Law?
Verner's Law, which says t -> d.
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When did this chain shift happen?
500 BC -ish.
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When was Celtic Britain and what were the 3 languages spoken at the time?
2000BC -> AD43.

Pictish, Gaelic and Brythonic.
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When was Roman Britain?
43 - 409 AD.
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What was the influence of Latin during this time?
- Christianisation and words from the Bible.
- Norman Conquest due to invaders speaking French.
- Renaissance and interest in classic cultures.
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What is Proto Germanic and what are some characteristics?
No written record, reconstructed from Germanic.

Phonology -> Grimm's Law
Morphology -> Rich inflection
Lexicon -> Maritime Vocab
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Where are the first records of Germanic?
2nd AD -> Comb found with Old Norse inscription.
4th AD -> First full text. Translation of the Bible into Gothic.
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When was Anglo-Saxon Britain?
650 - 800 AD.
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Why was Alfred the Great significant?
- Signed a treaty allowing the Vikings to rule.
- Learned, fair and merciful.
- Fostered arts, culture and education.
- Promoted Anglo-Saxon language.
- Education in OE instead of Latin.
- Translated religious texts into OE.
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.
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What were the features of OE Phonology? (1)
þ, ð → /θ/, but /ð/ between voiced phonemes.
f → /f/ , but /v/ between voiced sounds.
s → /s/, but /z/ between 2 voiced sounds.
h → /x/, but /h/ in the initial position.
g → /g/, but /ɣ/ between 2 vowels.
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What were the features of OE Phonology? (2)
ġ → /j/ or /dʒ/
c → /k/
ċ → /tʃ/
x → /ks/
sc → /ʃ/
cg → /dʒ/
Vowels can be long or short.
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What were the features of OE Morphology?
- Cases
- No definite article.
- Gender only applies in singular.
- Strong vs weak nouns.
- Strong vs weak adjectives. Weak if preceded by the demonstrative.
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What is the difference between synthetic and analytic language?
Synthetic language = grammatical properties via inflectional morphemes.

Analytic language = not as many inflectional morphemes.
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What were the OE cases?
Nominative = Subject, Subject Complement or Vocative.
Genitive = Possession.
Accusative = DO, Adverbial noun of time, Object of preposition with movement.
Dative = IO, Object of most prepositions, DO of a few verbs, means/manner without preposition.
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What were features of the OE Lexicon?
- Latin borrowings due to Christianisation, revival of learning, religion, food, plants, education, sciences and learned words.
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How can we tell when a word was borrowed?
If it appears in a text written in 924 AD, then it has been borrowed at least in 924 AD.

/sk/ words are Old Norse (post invasion). 9th C or later.
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What do we know about OE Verbs?
- Inflected for number and singular person.
- Plural is the same for all persons (-að in the present, -on for the past).
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What is the difference between strong and weak verbs?
Weak verbs = regular
Strong verbs = irregular
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What were some OE Sound Changes?
- Breaking, 5th - 8th C. Stressed vowel diphthongises in these contexts: ‘VlC, ‘VrC, ‘Vh

- 'i' mutation, 7th C. Stressed vowel becomes fronter if following syllable contains /e, i, j/, which then often disappears.
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What were the 3 waves of Viking invasions?
1. 787 - 850 -> raids by isolated bands.
2. 850 - 878 -> invasion by big viking army.
3. 991 - 1014 -> more raids, defeat England and King Alfred is forced into exile in Normandy.
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When was Middle English and what were some key features?
1150 - 1500.
- Heavy simplification of inflection.
- Levelling of unstressed vowels.
- Lexical influence from French due to Norman Conquest.
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What happened in 911 and then 1066?
911 - Vikings settle in Normandy.
1066 - King Edward dies childless, Earl Harold is elected King. Normans invade England and William is crowned King.
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What was the importance of the Norman Conquest?
English Aristocrats wither died in Hastings or were replaced by French speaking supporters of William.
11th - 12th C -> Normans bring French to England. French = power. Writing and documents in French.
13th - 14th C -> Decline of French. Loss of Normand
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What were some changes from OE to ME Phonology?
/hl, hn, hr/ -> l, r, n
Unstressed V + n# -> /n/ dropped
Unstressed V + ċ# -> /ċ/ dropped
/b/ dropped in mb#
Unstressed vowels turn to /e/, then to /ə/, then dropped in word final positions.
Final -iġ becomes -y. Reduced to create diphthongs.
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What were some changes from OE to ME Morphology?
Lost distinction of case, just singular, plural and -s for genitive singular.

Many OE verbs were replaced with French.

Germanic 'strong' verbs were regularised to be 'weak'.
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What dialect rose to standard in the 14th C?
East Anglian, due to being most populous, having London and Cambridge Uni.
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When was the EME period and what were socio-cultural factors that influenced it?
1500 - 1800 AD.

Renaissance, invention of printing press and colonialism.
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What were some main changes in language?
Loss of inflection, Great Vowel Shift and Latin and Greek lexical influence.
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What were some phonological changes between ME and EME?
[x] and [ç] are spelled <gh> and then dropped or become /f/.

If the <gh> is dropped, the preceding vowel becomes long.
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What was the Great Vowel Shift?
Dramatic change in vowels. The reason why ME spelling is so different from pronunciation.
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What were the GVS changes?
i: -> ai
e: -> i:
ɛ: -> i:
a: -> eɪ
u: -> aʊ
o: -> u:
ɔ: -> əʊ
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So, what happened?
Long vowels raised or diphthongised.
Either a push (started from below) or pull chain (started from above).
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What were some developments after EME?
- Establishment of 'do' as an auxiliary for questions.
- Establishment of the be+ing form.
- Loss of 2nd person singular pronouns.
- In present day English, we saw the rise of the progressive.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What are some internal factors for language change?

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Simple repetition, Idiolect, Interpersonal Exchanges leading to Dialect, Economy.

Card 3

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What is Proto-Indo-European?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What is the diversification that gives 2 classifications to Indo-European languages?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What was the consonant change from PIE to Proto-Germanic?

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