Capitolo 3 - schemi - English – One Tongue, Many Voices PDF

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1066 and all that William the Conqueror defeated the English king Harold in 1066.  change of whole history. A lot of Old Norse word were written: egg, get, sky, sister, window. French words were introduced also: bacon (bacon), castle (castel), prison (prisun). French became the dominant language of England, but never became a French-speaking country. Why English survived? 3 reasons:  Spoken language of the common people. French didn’t affect the peasants.  Number of French native speakers was limited (no more than 5%)  Bonds between Normans in England and Normandy in France gradually weakened for political reasons. Henry V promoted the spread of English. The Anglo-Norman lost its social status by the end of the XIII century. French words in English represent two dialects, loanwords before XIII century from Anglo-Norman rather than Central French (ei, ey rather than oi, oy) (prey, proie/ veil, voile/ leisure, loisir). Two words from two dialects same meaning gaol and jail, gaol from latin gaviola, gaiole in Anglo-Norman; jail from jaiole in Central French. MIDDLE ENGLISH: from the beginning of XII century until the middle of XV century. English underwent changes and after Old English the language reverted to a medley of dialects. Lost its official functions, which were taken over by French. French loanwords: language, especially, strange, country. (900 French words, at the end of the period were 10000 words by French, in different fields: administration, religion, military, artscourt, crown, duke, baptism, cardinal, arms, battle, captain, chess, dance, literature). Many cookinɡ terms likeː creamˌ fruitˌ fryˌ boilˌ lemonˌ roastˌ saladˌ soup. Also animal terms but when are cooked:  Calf (vitello) (alive)-veal(cooked)-veau  Deer (alive)-venison (cooked)-venaison  Ox-beef-bœuf  Sheep-mutton-mouton  Piɡ (swine)-pork-porc French was for upper classes, and that concerned the decline of French and restricted to technical use. XV century no longer current spoken as a language in England, only English remained. Many English words has doublets, one word is Romance the other Germanic:  Germanic: homely and direct effect. Help/hide/wish/cordial/child/freedom/wedding  Romance: more formal or abstract. Aid/conceal/desire/hearty/infant/liberty/marriage Two-words verbs are corresponding to Germanic stratum: go in, find out, give in. Old English has complicated case endings, later reduced, why in English happened and not in German? No simple explanation. That began quite advanced, even before the end of Old English. Difficult to separate different endings, since English put the stress on the first syllable (president English, präsident German, président French). (harass and harassment are pronounced with final stress in America, and first stress in Britain). After Norman Conquest the language went through radical changes. Changes were remarkable, in grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and spelling. Not until the XV century English became the language employed in speech and writing by English folk. No standard way of writing the language, so everyone wrote in their dialect. When French lost its hegemony English began to emerge. Geoffrey Chaucer, poet and William Caxton, translator, are associated with Middle English period. In 1362 Edward III ordered that English should used in parliament, Chaucer (father of English literature) was bilingual and wrote in English, wrote “the Canterbury tales”. 30 pilgrims told 4 tales, the work Is unfinished but that inspired many authors in the future.

In his time English was emerging as a more standard language, Chancery English. City of Westminster became the home of bureaucracy. London dialect, was largely based on the East Midland dialect, on which standard English is based. 1476 Caxton set up his press in Westminster. Produced “the dictes and sayenges of the phylosophers” and also “Canterbury tales”. Many different spelling recorded in Middle English, was a mixture of French and Old English it’s the reason why is so inconsistent, numerous dialects. Caxton said to us a story about the choice of plural egg (egges or eyren. Merchant asked for eggys, the wife didn’t speak French so he said egges. She didn’t understand him. Another said that he would have eyren, so the good wife understood this time.) To sum up: Three linguistic invasions:  V century, Germanic. Beginning of the English language  VIII century, Vikings from Scandinavian peninsula to the isles. For 300 years leaving permanent traces.  1066, Normans invade England. Romance flavour to the language. Latin language, apart from these, was always present. Cheese, copper, street, wine. This is increased during Middle English due to the Church....