Development of Middle English diphthongs in N.E. Evolution of unstressed vowels in Middle and New English periods. The Old English grammatical structure. General characteristics

• Номер работы:
  138985
• Раздел:
  Все работы   →   Рефераты и реферативные задания   →   Английский язык
• Год подготовки:
  21.12.2009
• Объем работы:
  27 стр.
• Содержание:
  Introduction 3
  1. The history of Old English and its development 5
  2. The Old English Phonetics 8
  3. Unstressed vowels in English 14
  4. The Old English grammatical structure 21
  Conclusion 26
  Bibliography 27
  
  
• Выдержка из работы:
  Around this time, the English began slurring the ends of words. This was the start of the process that created modern English grammar.
  After a few centuries of peace the vikings invaded. They spoke Old Norse, a language related to English. After much fighting, they settled down in North East England, and introduced many Norse words into English, including the pronouns them, they, and their.
  Just as the Viking invasions stopped, the French-speaking Normans invaded. Commoners continued speaking English, but for the next two centuries the noblemen spoke French.
  A few French words trickled into English during the period, but the number stayed pretty low until the nobles stopped speaking French, in the mid thirteenth century. This precipitated a large influx of words of French origin into the English language as an entire class migrated from French to English. Many of the French words were anglicized, but some of the spelling of the words remained roughly intact. It should be noted that the Normans spoke an older version of French known as Old French that may sometimes actually seem to be closer to English than current French, because English took some words from Old French wholesale, such as mansion. Around the same time the universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded.
  During the Renaissance, the scholars of England added many more Greek and Latin words to the English language. As a result, much of the technical vocabulary in English consists of Greek or Latin words.