FORMATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

the end of the Middle English period and the beginning of New English is marked by the following events in the life of the English people:

1. The end of the war between the White and the Red Rose

The War of the Roses (1455-1485) was the most important event of the 15^th century which marked the decay of feudalism and the birth of a new social order, predominance of the national language over local dialects.

2. The introduction of printing - 1477 by William Caxton (1422 - 1490).

Printing was invented in Germany by Johann Gutenberg in 1438. It quickly spread to other countries and England was among them. The first English printing office was founded in 1476 by William Caxton, and in 1477 there appeared the first book to be printed in England called The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers. The appearance of a considerable number of printed books contributed to the normalisation of spelling and grammar forms.

Since that time - the end of the 15^th century the English language began its development as the language of the English nation, whereas up to that time, beginning with the Germanic conquest of Britain in the 5^th century and up to the 15^th century, what we call the English language was no more than a conglomerate of dialects, first tribal and then local.

Thus, the English national language was formed on the basis of the London dialect which was uppermost among Middle English dialects due to the political, geographical, economic and "linguistic" position of London which became the capital of England already in the 11^th century

The importance of the London dialect as the foundation of the English national language grew also because of the fact that many of the best writers of the 14^th -15^th centuries, and Geoffrey Chaucer among them, whose poetry achieved tremendous contemporary prestige and popularity, were Londoners used the London dialect in their writings. As we have said, the 15^th century is generally referred to as the time of the beginning of the English national language. But the literary norm of the language was established later, already in Early New English, many English authors of the forthcoming centuries contributing to it, among them such as Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and, finally, William Shakespeare.

19. MIDDLE ENGLISH PHONETICS

The stress is dynamic and fixed in the native words. But in the borrowed French words the stress was on the last syllable: licour [li'ku:r], nature [na'tur], etc. New consonant sounds developed in native words:

ship child bridge

OE scip cild brусz

The resonance of the consonant does not depend so much on the position of the consonant, and voiced consonants can appear not only in intervocal, but also in initial and other positions.

Vowels in unstressed position were reduced:

Old English Middle English

a

o e[ ]

e

u

These sounds were in the end of the word, and it neutralized the difference between the suffixes - the main grammar means.

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 1278