7. The Way from Tunge to Language: Language Change and Language History
7.4. Approaches to language change
7.5.4. Modern English
7.5.4.1. The Great Vowel Shift
English entered its next period called MODERNENGLISHin about 1500. At the beginning of this period (known as Early Modern English) a series of important changes happened in the
7.5.4.1. The Great Vowel Shift
vowel system of English. These changes together are called the Great Vowel Shift. It included the raising of long vowels, which means that they started to be pronounced with a tongue position one step higher than before. This explains why English spelling differs so strikingly from other European spelling systems in the representation of vowels: why, for example, the vowel of feed(/i:/) is spelt with the letter e in English. The reason is that it goes back to the one step lower /e:/ sound and the spelling still preserves the pre-Vowel Shift situation. A similar change explains the spelling of present-day /u:/ in bootas well. The originally “high-est” long vowels, original /i:/ and /u:/, instead of being raised, became diphthongs (see Ch.
2 Phonetics & Phonology). So, the /aI/ in divinegoes back to long /i:/, as the spelling still shows. Similarly, the vowel in houseor townoriginates in /u:/; although this time the origin is not indicated in spelling.
7.5.4.2. Other changes
The centuries of the Modern English period have seen the grammar of the language develop into the grammar we know today. To mention just a few examples: the class of modal auxil-iaries has emerged with grammatical properties significantly different from those of their ear-lier forms; the verb-subject order (i.e., inversion) has become restricted to some very specific sentence types; dohas come to be used as the obligatory auxiliary in questions and negation when no other auxiliary is present. Together with these and other grammatical changes, the sociolinguistic situation of English has also changed. Before, English had been simply the lan-guage of Britain but in the Early Modern English period the British Empire started to emerge, which meant the spreading of the English language over continents. In time, new local varieties developed (American English, Australian English, etc. with their own regional and social dialects, of course) besides the British varieties. As a result, English has become a
“world language” or a lingua franca used all over the world.
Points to Ponder
1. Try to match the following Modern English words with their earlier meanings. (You may use an etymological dictionary.) What is the relationship between the old meaning and the new one?
Modern English words Earlier meanings
1. bead a) ‘autumn’
2. knight b) ‘dragon’
3. fowl c) ‘boy’
4. worm d) ‘chance’
5. starve e) ‘happy, blessed’
6. harvest f) ‘prayer’
7. silly g) ‘die’
8. fortune h) ‘bird’
(Solution: 1f, 2c, 3h, 4b, 5g, 6a, 7e, 8d.)
2. Among the loanwords borrowed by one language from other languages, we find a signif-icant number of place names. For example, the name Londonand Avon(the name of a river in England) are of Celtic origin. In Hungarian, the word Balatonoriginates in Slavic. What do you think is similar in the history of these place names?
3. Language historians who study languages spoken centuries ago may read old manuscripts, which supply information about the words, morphemes or the syntax, but they do not have any sounding material to provide phonological information. At the same time, spelling con-ventions may vary considerably from time to time and from place to place. In that case, how can linguists find out information about the probable pronunciation of written documents?
To what extent is spelling a reliable source of phonological information and what other re-sources may language historians use?
Suggested Reading
Burrow, J.A. - Turville-Petre, T. (19962): A Book of Middle English. Blackwell: Oxford If you are interested in the Middle English period, you will find this book a useful stu-dent guide. Sample texts are included.
McCrum, R. - Cran, W. - MacNeil, R. (20023) (3rdedition): The Story of English. Penguin:
London, New York
Not a university textbook but a real bestseller on the history of the English language;
ideal for those who want to read something entertaining in this field. Accompanied by a BBC documentary series available on VHS and DVD.
McMahon, A.M.S. (1994): Understanding Language Change. CUP: Cambridge
An excellent textbook on the various aspects of language change with clear explana-tions and detailed, easy-to-remember examples. It also introduces many of the impor-tant theories on language change, from a critical point of view. Readers are not expected to have much prior knowledge of historical linguistics, though a certain de-gree of familiarity with the basic concepts of linguistics is recommended.
Pyles, T. - Algeo, J. 19823(1964): The Origins and Development of the English Language.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: New York
If someone with little linguistic knowledge wants to learn about the history of Eng-lish, this book may be a good choice. It introduces the necessary basic concepts and gives a concise description of the most important changes that happened to English.
Hogg, R. M. (ed.) (1992): The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. I.
(The beginnings to 1066). CUP: Cambridge
Blake, N. (ed.) (1992): The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. II.
(1066-1476). CUP: Cambridge
Lass, R. (ed.) (1999): The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. III.
(1476-1776). CUP: Cambridge
The first three volumes of the series provide information on practically everything you may want to know about the history of English up to the end of the Early Mod-ern Period. The other volumes are worth reading as well.
Suggested Reading
nowing what to say in particular situations, and how to phrase what you say, can make a big difference in life. If, for example, a secretary wanted to leave work early to meet her mother at the airport, the dialogue might go something like this:
PR Manager: Hello, Cathy. You wanted to see me?
Secretary: Hello, Margaret. Uh, yes, well, I have got a request to make actually.
PR Manager: Mmmm?
Secretary: It’s, uh, rather important to me. I wonder if you could possibly let
me leave after lunch. My mother is arriving from the US, and I would like to meet her flight.
In this case, Cathy’s chances are improved by her strategy for making her request: first sig-nalling her intention to make a request (by I have got a request to make), then indicating the high status of her request (by the style of phrases such as I wonder, could possibly). In this way she creates certain expectations in her boss’s mind and also signals her boss’s rel-ative power position. She uses a tentrel-ative and very polite way of formulating her request.
She also adds a piece of personal information. This is a strategy common in many Western cultures. For learners of foreign languages it is important to learn these strategies.
Other cultures may structure such a conversation differently, for example by starting with the request and adding reasons and expressing politeness after that. But what if Cathy formulated her request in this ‘foreign’ way?
Secretary: Hello, Margaret. I would like to leave work after lunch.
My mother is arriving from the US and I want to meet her flight.
Although this is not wrong or even inappropriate, it is less likely to succeed, and may even be seen as a little cheeky or rude.
This example shows that using language successfully is not just a question of vocabulary and grammar. Using language in society means knowing about the norms adopted in that society and the way they surface in actual language use. In this chapter you will find out more
about the relationship between language and society.
K
8.1. Introduction
Think of the last time you heard a stranger talk: perhaps you were listening to the radio or re-ceived a phone call. Would you be able to form an idea of the person? I suspect you would. You can typically tell the sex and rough age of the person, and whether the language is her mother tongue. Perhaps you could even tell her ethnicity and which part of the country s/he is from.
What exactly would you base your opinion on? Accent? Word use? Voice? Anything else?
Ways of talking make a strong impression on all of us. However, the average person is not fully aware of this. He may judge speech as “educated”, “elegant” or just the opposite, but he usually qualifies the person who speaks. The result? In a very short time the speaker is categorized. You might want to know why people are like this. This chapter invites you to look behind the curtain of judgments. Whenever one starts to observe what there is outside in the world, he takes a step toward science. Do not be afraid of it, just let your curiosity lead you instead of your instant opinions. Ornithologists study birds’ behaviour: this means they observe them and do not think of judging them or forcing them to behave differently; soci-ologists study society, anthropsoci-ologists humans, and again do not tell people how they should behave. Similarly, you start “doing sociolinguistics” when you examine how people use lan-guage and try to find the things that motivate them. Sociolinguists usually select some fea-tures of speech and examine them with relation to society, that is, groups of people and their social behaviour.
In this chapter, you will be invited to find out
- what it means to speak a language / a dialect or “with an accent”,
- whether or not the widely held opinion that language is getting more and more corrupt is true,
- what social overtones there are to pronouncing certain sounds such as -r in New York or the -ngin –ingas [η] or [n]; and
- if (and why) women and men, or the old and the young speak differently.
8.2. What is sociolinguistics?
A student wrote on the Internet: “A language becomes alive … when spoken by people. It transmits the hearts and minds of a society...” The writer, Sabine, has lived in many countries and has learned several languages, so she writes from experience. Her words express an opin-ion that many sociolinguists would agree with: language ‘comes alive’ when used by people.
Judit Szitó
Kodolányi János University College Department of English Language and Literature