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First settlers of the British Isles (The Iberians, Beaker Folk, The Celts)

The purpose of studying the history of English.

The major purpose of this course is to trace the development of the English language from its earliest forms to the present. To do so, we need a working notion of what language is and how it changes—we need to know the subject of our study.
It may help us answer questions we have about language and society today. Questions about the standardization of English, about English as an official language, and about the relationships among spelling, pronunciation, grammar, and style are all ones we have asked probably since grade school. For example, Why are there six letters in the word ‘knight’ while only three sounds are pronounced: [n] - [ai] - [t]? or Why does the same combination of letters designate different sounds as in the words ‘trouble’, ‘south’, ‘bouquet’?
Studying the history of the English language will help you master deeply such special linguistic disciplines as phonetics, lexicology and grammar of modern English. Knowledge in the history of the English language will be helpful to you when we begin to learn another foreign language - German or French.
Generally, it helps us to comprehend MnE as a result of complicated process of language development and interaction of different facts.

Synchronic & diachronic approaches

In opposition to the totally historical view of language of the previous hundred years, Ferdinand de Saussure emphasized the importance of seeing from two distinct and largely exclusive points of view, which he called "synchronic" and "diachronic". The word "chronic" has been derived from Greek word "chronos" which means time. Synchronic linguistics sees language as a living whole, existing as a state at a particular point in time (an ital de langue, as Saussure put it, Greek "syn"-with, chronos - time). Diachronic linguistics concerns language in its historical development (Greek dia - through, chronos - time).
Thus descriptive linguistics is known as "synchronic linguistics" and studies a language at one particular period of time. Historical linguistics is known as diachronic or temporal linguistics and deals with the development of language through time.
A study of the change from Old to Middle English is a diachronic study.

Old English Middle English

chint knight

stan ston

a o
The way in which Shakespeare's style changes from youth to maturity is also an instance of diachronic study.

First settlers of the British Isles (The Iberians, Beaker Folk, The Celts)

The Iberians are known to be the earliest inhabitants of the British Islands. The history dates XI c. BC. Very little is known about these earliest people. Their history is written, but the word of history just the remains of their dwellings, clothes, weapons & skeletons let us know smth about them. It is known that they used stone weapons and the art of grinding and polishing were known to the Iberians.
Bell Beaker folk. They were so named because of their distinctive bell-shaped pottery drinking vessels. They probably came up through the south-west coast of Britain, which at the time had rich deposits of copper and tin.
The Bell Beaker folk readily mixed with any new culture they encountered, including the Neolithic farmers they found in Britain, and Bell beakers have been found in megalithic tombs, with the henge temples of the Neolithics.
They improved the existing temple at Stonehenge, which is proof that they got on well with the original inhabitants, and at Avebury they made another great henge monument. This is a large circular ditch and bank, and within it was a ring of standing stones - although these have now gone. Nearby, at Silbury Hill, stands the largest man-made mound in prehistoric Britain, again thought to have been made by the Beaker people. No burial has been found inside it.
The Celts were people who spread over Europe from the 6 to the 3 century B.C. The Britons spoke the Celtic language. They were pagans. It’s known that the Britons were gavand by the Druids. The Druids left over the Mistletoe is considered to be.
Some customs are still kept in Britain nowadays. On a NY’s Days Mistletoe are hung up in the houses.
The traces of the Celtic language are also found in geographical names. F.E DUN, DUM = OPEN. Dunscore, Dundin, Dumbarton, etc.
The Celts had no towns, they lived in villages. They knew cupper, iron and they kept large herds of cattle and ship. They also cultivated crops. We may also said that they didn’t write their story. The Greeks were the first to mention to British Islands and the great history of Herodotus Lewoted. He wrote that in the 5th century B.C the Phoenicians used to come to the British Islands for tin to make the bronze.



 

3. The Roman conquest & it’s influence on the language and culture of Britain.

In 1st century B.C. in GB there are appeared a number of cities where handcrafts and trade were at a very high level of development. In 54 B.C. Caesar the Emperor of Rome Empire landed in Britain, but they couldn’t stay there long. 1 year later he repeated his invasion and this time they reached the river Themes. But still the Entire invasion of B.I by Romans became under the Empire of Claudius. In 43 B.C. succeeded in occupation of the BI and these Roman occupation lasted 4 centuries the Roman conquered almost the whole territory. They built up a net of military roads and fords. A Roman army was a highly drilled long service force. It was held together under strict discipline all year round and they spend their duties it building roads, bridges and fords. The coalitions was very important for Romans because GB being an agricultural country became a significant provider of grain to them. By the end Roman domination in B appear a great number of big and rich cities.
However, in 408 A.D the Roman legions were recalled back to Rome in order to defend their Empire from the Germanic tribes. The Germanic tribes in 410 A.D conquer the Romans.
The Roman occupations intervened between the coming of the Celts and the coming of the Saxons and delete the later perhaps for 200 years. The Romans let behind them in Britain for 3 things of value: Welsh Christianity, the Roman roads and new cities (especially London).

 


Date: 2016-03-03; view: 5950


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