History of the English language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate.

The English language underwent extensive change in the Middle Ages. Written Old English of AD 1000 is similar in vocabulary andgrammar to other old Germanic languages such as Old High German and Old Norse, and completely unintelligible to modern speakers, while the modern language is already largely recognisable in written Middle English of AD 1400. The transformation was caused by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. A large proportion of the modern English vocabulary comes directly from Anglo-Norman.

Close contact with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Frisiancore of English. However, these changes had not reached South West England by the 9th century AD, where Old English was developed into a full-fledged literary language. The Norman invasion occurred in 1066, and when literary English rose anew in the 13th century, it was based on the speech of London, much closer to the centre of Scandinavian settlement. Technical and cultural vocabulary was largely derived from Old Norman, with particularly heavy influence in the church, the courts, and government. With the coming of the Renaissance, as with most other developing European languages such as German and Dutch, Latin and Ancient Greeksupplanted Norman and French as the main source of new words. Thus, English developed into very much a "borrowing" language with an enormously disparate vocabulary.

[edit]Proto-English

The languages of Germanic peoples gave rise to the English language (the Angles, Saxons, Frisii, Jutes and possibly the Franks, who traded and fought with the Latin-speaking Roman Empire in the centuries-long process of the Germanic peoples' expansion intoWestern Europe during the Migration Period). Latin loan words such as wine, cup, and bishop entered the vocabulary of these Germanic peoples before their arrival in Britain and the subsequent formation of England.^[1]

Tacitus' Germania, written around 100 AD., is a primary source of information for the culture of the Germanic peoples (the ancestors of the English) in ancient times. Germanics were in contact with Roman civilisation and its economy, including serving in the Roman military, but retained political independence. Germanic troops served in Britannia under Roman command. Except for the Frisians, Germanic settlement in Britain occurred largely after the arrival of mercenaries in the 5th century as described by Gildas. Most Angles,Saxons and Jutes arrived in Britain as Germanic pagans, independent of Roman control.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates that around the year 449 Vortigern, King of the Britons, invited the "Angle kin" (Angles allegedly led by the Germanic brothers Hengist and Horsa) to help repel invading Picts. In return, the Anglo-Saxons received lands in the southeast of Britain. In response "came men of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles and Jutes). The Chronicle refers to waves of settlers who eventually established seven kingdoms, known as the heptarchy. Modern scholars view Hengist and Horsa asEuhemerised deities from Anglo-Saxon paganism, who ultimately stem from the religion of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.^[2]

[edit]Old English – from the mid-5th century to the mid-11th century

The first page of the Beowulf manuscript

Main article: Old English language

After the Anglo-Saxon invasion, the Germanic language displaced the indigenous Brythonic languages and Latin in most of the areas of Great Britain that later became England. The original Celtic languages remained in parts of Scotland, Wales and Cornwall (where Cornishwas spoken into the 19th century), although large numbers of compound Celtic-Germanic placenames survive, hinting at early language mixing.^[3] Latin also remained in these areas as the language of the Celtic Church and of higher education for the nobility. Latin was later to be reintroduced to England by missionaries from both the Celtic and Roman churches, and it would, in time, have a major impact on English. What is now called Old Englishemerged over time out of the many dialects and languages of the colonising tribes.^[4] Even then, Old English continued to exhibit local variation, the remnants of which continue to be found in dialects of Modern English.^[4] The most famous surviving work from the Old English period is the epic poem Beowulf composed by an unknown poet.

Old English varied widely from modern Standard English. Native English speakers today would find Old English unintelligible without studying it as a separate language. Nevertheless, English remains a Germanic language, and approximately half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong andwater, for example, derive from Old English. Many non-standard dialects such as Scots andNorthumbrian English have retained features of Old English in vocabulary and pronunciation.^[5] Old English was spoken until some time in the 12th or 13th century.^[6]^[7]

In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Old English was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Norsemen who invaded and settled mainly in the North East of England (see Jórvík andDanelaw). The Anglo-Saxons and the Scandinavians spoke related languages from different branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more divergent.

The Germanic language of the Old English-speaking inhabitants was influenced by extensive contact with Norse colonizers, resulting perhaps in cases of morphological simplification of Old English, including the loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked case(with the notable exception of the pronouns). English borrowed approximately two thousand lexical items from Old Norse, includinganger, bag, both, hit, law, leg, same, skill, sky, take, and many others, possibly even including the pronoun they.^[8]

The introduction of Christianity late in the sixth century encouraged the addition of over 400 Latin loan words, such as priest, paper, andschool, and fewer Greek loan words.^[9] The Old English period formally ended some time after the Norman conquest (starting in 1066 AD), when the language was influenced to an even greater extent by the Normans, who spoke a French dialect called Old Norman. The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development.

[edit]Middle English – from the late 11th to the late 15th century

Main article: Middle English

Further information: Middle English creole hypothesis

For centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and high-ranking nobles spoke one of the French langues d'oïl, that we call Anglo-Norman, a variety of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period and originating from a northern langue d'oïl dialect. Merchants and lower-ranked nobles were often bilingual in Anglo-Norman and English, whilst English continued to be the language of the common people. Middle English was influenced by both Anglo-Norman and, later, Anglo-French (see characteristics of the Anglo-Norman language).

Even after the decline of Norman-French, standard French retained the status of a formal or prestige language—as with most of Europe during the period—and had a significant influence on the language, which is visible in Modern English today (see English language word origins and List of English words of French origin). A tendency for French-derived words to have more formal connotations has continued to the present day. For example, most modern English speakers consider a "cordial reception" (from French) to be more formal than a "hearty welcome" (from Germanic). Another example is the rare construction of the words for animals being separate from the words for their meat, e.g., beef and pork (from the French bœuf and porc) being the products of "cows" and "pigs"—animals with Germanic names.

English was also influenced by the Celtic languages it was displacing, especially the Brittonic substrate, most notably with the introduction of the continuous aspect—a feature found in many modern languages but developed earlier and more thoroughly in English.^[10]

While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continued until 1154, most other literature from this period was in Old Norman or Latin. A large number of Norman words were taken into Old English, with many doubling for Old English words. The Norman influence is the hallmark of the linguistic shifts in English over the period of time following the invasion, producing what is now referred to as Middle English.

English literature reappeared after 1200, when a changing political climate and the decline in Anglo-Norman made it more respectable. The Provisions of Oxford, released in 1258, was the first English government document to be published in the English language after the Norman Conquest. In 1362, Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in English. By the end of the century, even the royal court had switched to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it had ceased to be a living language.

Geoffrey Chaucer is the most famous writer from the Middle English period, and The Canterbury Tales is his best-known work. Although the spelling of Chaucer's English varies from that of Modern English, his works can be read with minimal assistance.

The English language changed enormously during the Middle English period, both in grammar and in vocabulary. While Old English is a heavily inflected language, an overall diminishing of grammatical endings occurred in Middle English. Grammar distinctions were lost as many noun and adjective endings were leveled to -e. The older plural noun marker -en largely gave way to -s, and grammatical gender was discarded. Approximately 10,000 French (and Norman) loan words entered Middle English, particularly terms associated with government, church, law, the military, fashion, and food.^[11]

English spelling was also influenced by Norman in this period, with the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds being spelled th rather than with the Old English letters þ (thorn) and ð (eth), which did not exist in Norman. These letters remain in the modern Icelandic alphabet, having been borrowed from Old English via Western Norwegian.

[edit]Early Modern English – from the late 15th to the late 17th century

Main article: Early Modern English

The English language underwent extensive sound changes during 1400s, while its spelling conventions remained rather constant.Modern English is often dated from the Great Vowel Shift, which took place mainly during the 15th century. English was further transformed by the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration and by the standardising effect of printing. Consequent to the push toward standardization, the language acquired self-conscious terms such as "accent" and "dialect".^[12]By the time of William Shakespeare (mid 16th - early 17th century),^[13] the language had become clearly recognisable as Modern English. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published, the Table Alphabeticall.

Increased literacy and travel have facilitated the adoption of many foreign words, especially borrowings from Latin and Greek since theRenaissance. (In the 17th century, Latin words were often used with the original inflections, but these eventually disappeared). As there are many words from different languages and English spelling is variable, the risk of mispronunciation is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, most notably in the West Country. During the period, loan words were borrowed from Italian, German, and Yiddish. British acceptance of and resistance to Americanisms began during this period.^[14]

[edit]Modern English – from the late 17th century to the present

Main article: Modern English

The Dictionary of the English Language was the full featured English dictionary. Samuel Johnson published the authoritative work in 1755. To a high degree, the dictionary standardized both English spelling and word usage. Meanwhile, grammar texts by Lowth, Murray, Priestly, and others attempted to prescribe standard usage even further.

Early Modern English and Late Modern English vary essentially in vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from the Industrial Revolution and the technology that created a need for new words as well as international development of the language. TheBritish Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. British English and American English, the two major varieties of the language, are spoken by 400 million persons. Received Pronunciation of British English is the prestige variety, while General American English is more influential. The total number of English speakers worldwide may exceed one billion.^[15]

[edit]Phonological changes

Main article: Phonological history of English

[edit]Grammatical changes

The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to Latin, modern German or Icelandic. Old Englishdistinguished between the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases, and for strongly declined adjectives and some pronouns also a separate instrumental case (which otherwise and later completely coincided with the dative). In addition, the dual was distinguished from the more modern singular and plural.^[16] Declension was greatly simplified during the Middle English period, when theaccusative and dative cases of the pronouns merged into a single oblique case that also replaced the genitive case after prepositions. Nouns in Modern English no longer decline for case, except for the genitive.

[edit]Evolution of English pronouns

"Who" and "whom", "he" and "him", "she" and "her", etc. are a conflation of the old accusative and dative cases, as well as of the genitive case after prepositions. This conflated form is called the oblique case, or the object (objective) case because it is used for objects of verbs (direct, indirect, or oblique) as well as for objects of prepositions. (See object pronoun.) The information formerly conveyed by having distinct case forms is now mostly provided by prepositions and word order. In Old English as well as modernGerman and Icelandic as further examples, these cases had distinct forms.

Although the traditional terms accusative and dative continue to be used by some grammarians, these are roles rather than actual cases in Modern English. That is, the form whom may play accusative or dative roles (or instrumental or prepositional roles), but it is a single morphological form and therefore a single case, contrasting with nominative who and genitive whose. Many grammarians use the more intuitive labels 'subjective', 'objective', and 'possessive' for nominative, oblique, and genitive pronouns.

Modern English nouns distinguish only one case from the nominative, the possessive case, which some linguists argue is not a case at all, but a clitic (see the entry for genitive case for more information).

[edit]Interrogative pronouns

	Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Masculine/Feminine (Person)	Nominative	hwā	who	who
	Accusative	hwone / hwæne	whom	who / whom¹
	Dative	hwām / hwǣm	whom	who / whom¹
	Instrumental
	Genitive	hwæs	whos	whose
Neuter (Thing)	Nominative	hwæt	what	what
	Accusative	hwæt	what / whom
	Dative	hwām / hwǣm	what / whom
	Instrumental	hwȳ / hwon	why	why
	Genitive	hwæs	whos	whose²

¹ - In some dialects who is used where Formal English only allows whom, though variation among dialects must be taken into account.

² - Usually replaced by of what (postpositioned).

[edit]First person personal pronouns

	Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Singular	Nominative	iċ	I / ich / ik	I
	Accusative	mē / meċ	me	me
	Dative	mē	me	me
	Genitive	mīn	min / mi	my, mine
Plural	Nominative	wē	we	we
	Accusative	ūs / ūsiċ	us	us
	Dative	ūs	us	us
	Genitive	ūser / ūre	ure / our	our, ours

(Old English also had a separate dual, wit ("we two") etcetera; however, no later forms derive from it.)

[edit]Second person personal pronouns

Old and Middle English singular to the Modern English archaic informal

	Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Singular	Nominative	þū	þu / thou	thou (you)
	Accusative	þē / þeċ	þé / thee	thee (you)
	Dative	þē	þé / thee	thee (you)
	Genitive	þīn	þi / þīn / þīne / thy /thin / thine	thy, thine (your)
Plural	Nominative	ġē	ye / ȝe / you	you
	Accusative	ēow / ēowiċ	you, ya
	Dative	ēow	you, ya
	Genitive	ēower	your	your, yours

Note that the ye/you distinction still existed, at least optionally, in Early Modern English: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" from the King James Bible.

Here the letter þ (interchangeable with ð in manuscripts) corresponds to th.

Formal and informal forms of the second person singular and plural

	Old English				Middle English				Modern English
	Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural
Case	Formal	Informal	Formal	Informal	Formal	Informal	Formal	Informal	Formal	Informal	Formal	Informal
Nominative	þū		ġē		you	thou	you	ye	you
Accusative	þē / þeċ		ēow / ēowiċ			thee		you
Dative	þē		ēow
Genitive	þīn		ēower		your, yours	thy, thine	your, yours		your, yours

(Old English also had a separate dual, ȝit ("ye two") etcetera; however, no later forms derive from it.)

[edit]Third person personal pronouns

	Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Masculine Singular	Nominative	hē	he	he
	Accusative	hine	him	him
	Dative	him	him	him
	Genitive	his	his	his
Feminine Singular	Nominative	hēo	heo / sche / ho / he / ȝho	she
	Accusative	hīe	hire / hure / her / heore	her
	Dative	hire	hire / hure / her / heore	her
	Genitive	hire	hir / hire / heore / her / here	her, hers
Neuter Singular	Nominative	hit	hit / it	it
	Accusative	hit	hit / it / him
	Dative	him	hit / it / him
	Genitive	his	his / its	its
Plural	Nominative	hīe	he / hi / ho / hie / þai / þei	they
	Accusative	hīe	hem / ham / heom / þaim / þem / þam	them
	Dative	him	hem / ham / heom / þaim / þem / þam	them
	Genitive	hira	here / heore / hore / þair / þar	their, theirs

(The origin of the modern forms is generally thought to have been a borrowing from Old Norse forms þæir, þæim, þæira.
The two different roots co-existed for some time, although currently the only common remnant is the shortened form 'em.
Cf. also the demonstrative pronouns.)

[edit]Historic English text samples

[edit]Old English

Beowulf lines 1 to 11, approximately AD 900

Hwæt! Wē Gār-Dena in geārdagum,

þēodcyninga þrym gefrūnon,

hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Oft Scyld Scēfing sceaþena þrēatum,

monegum mǣgþum, meodosetla oftēah,

egsode eorlas. Syððan ǣrest wearð

fēasceaft funden, hē þæs frōfre gebād,

wēox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þāh,

oðþæt him ǣghwylc þāra ymbsittendra

ofer hronrāde hȳran scolde,

gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs gōd cyning!

Which, as translated by Francis Gummere, reads:

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!

Here is a sample prose text, the beginning of The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan. The full text can be found at The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, at Wikisource.

Ōhthere sǣde his hlāforde, Ælfrēde cyninge, ðæt hē ealra Norðmonna norþmest būde. Hē cwæð þæt hē būde on þǣm lande norþweardum wiþ þā Westsǣ. Hē sǣde þēah þæt þæt land sīe swīþe lang norþ þonan; ac hit is eal wēste, būton on fēawum stōwum styccemǣlum wīciað Finnas, on huntoðe on wintra, ond on sumera on fiscaþe be þǣre sǣ. Hē sǣde þæt hē æt sumum cirre wolde fandian hū longe þæt land norþryhte lǣge, oþþe hwæðer ǣnig mon be norðan þǣm wēstenne būde. Þā fōr hē norþryhte be þǣm lande: lēt him ealne weg þæt wēste land on ðæt stēorbord, ond þā wīdsǣ on ðæt bæcbord þrīe dagas. Þā wæs hē swā feor norþ swā þā hwælhuntan firrest faraþ. Þā fōr hē þā giet norþryhte swā feor swā hē meahte on þǣm ōþrum þrīm dagum gesiglau. Þā bēag þæt land, þǣr ēastryhte, oþþe sēo sǣ in on ðæt lond, hē nysse hwæðer, būton hē wisse ðæt hē ðǣr bād westanwindes ond hwōn norþan, ond siglde ðā ēast be lande swā swā hē meahte on fēower dagum gesiglan. Þā sceolde hē ðǣr bīdan ryhtnorþanwindes, for ðǣm þæt land bēag þǣr sūþryhte, oþþe sēo sǣ in on ðæt land, hē nysse hwæþer. Þā siglde hē þonan sūðryhte be lande swā swā hē meahte on fīf dagum gesiglan. Ðā læg þǣr ān micel ēa ūp on þæt land. Ðā cirdon hīe ūp in on ðā ēa for þǣm hīe ne dorston forþ bī þǣre ēa siglan for unfriþe; for þǣm ðæt land wæs eall gebūn on ōþre healfe þǣre ēas. Ne mētte hē ǣr nān gebūn land, siþþan hē from his āgnum hām fōr; ac him wæs ealne weg wēste land on þæt stēorbord, būtan fiscerum ond fugelerum ond huntum, ond þæt wǣron eall Finnas; ond him wæs āwīdsǣ on þæt bæcbord. Þā Boermas heafdon sīþe wel gebūd hira land: ac hīe ne dorston þǣr on cuman. Ac þāra Terfinna land wæs eal wēste, būton ðǣr huntan gewīcodon, oþþe fisceras, oþþe fugeleras.

This may be translated as:

Ohthere said to his lord, King Alfred, that he of all Norsemen lived north-most. He quoth that he lived in the land northward along the North Sea. He said though that the land was very long from there, but it is all wasteland, except that in a few places here and there Finns [i.e. Sami] encamp, hunting in winter and in summer fishing by the sea. He said that at some time he wanted to find out how long the land lay northward or whether any man lived north of the wasteland. Then he traveled north by the land. All the way he kept the waste land on his starboard and the wide sea on his port three days. Then he was as far north as whale hunters furthest travel. Then he traveled still north as far as he might sail in another three days. Then the land bowed east (or the sea into the land — he did not know which). But he knew that he waited there for west winds (and somewhat north), and sailed east by the land so as he might sail in four days. Then he had to wait for due-north winds, because the land bowed south (or the sea into the land — he did not know which). Then he sailed from there south by the land so as he might sail in five days. Then a large river lay there up into the land. Then they turned up into the river, because they dared not sail forth past the river for hostility, because the land was all settled on the other side of the river. He had not encountered earlier any settled land since he travelled from his own home, but all the way waste land was on his starboard (except fishers, fowlers and hunters, who were all Finns). And the wide sea was always on his port. The Bjarmians have cultivated their land very well, but they did not dare go in there. But the Terfinn’s land was all waste except where hunters encamped, or fishers or fowlers.^[17]

[edit]Middle English

From The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, 14th century:

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open yë
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

[edit]Early Modern English

From Paradise Lost by John Milton, 1667:

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth
Rose out of chaos: or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle Flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, whyle it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

[edit]Modern English

Taken from Oliver Twist, 1838, by Charles Dickens:

The evening arrived: the boys took their places; the master in his cook's uniform stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out, and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared, the boys whispered each other and winked at Oliver, while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger and reckless with misery. He rose from the table, and advancing, basin and spoon in hand, to the master, said, somewhat alarmed at his own temerity—

"Please, sir, I want some more."

The master was a fat, healthy man, but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder, and the boys with fear.

"What!" said the master at length, in a faint voice.

"Please, sir," replied Oliver, "I want some more."

The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle, pinioned him in his arms, and shrieked aloud for the beadle.

[edit]See also

	Book: English language
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Lists:

[edit]Notes

^ Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 79-81.
^ Examples include Simek (2007:59—60) and Mallory (2005:135).
^ Crystal, David. 2004. The Stories of English. London: Penguin. pp. 24-26.
^ ^a ^b Shore, Thomas William (1906), Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race - A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People (1nd ed.), London, p. 3, 393
^ "Geordie dialect". Bl.uk. 2007-03-12. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
^ "4.1 The change from Old English to Middle English". Uni-kassel.de. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
^ The Oxford history of English lexicography, Volume 1 By Anthony Paul Cowie
^ Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 92-105.
^ Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 91-92.
^ Filppula, Markku, Juhani Klemola und Heli Pitkänen (eds.). 2002. The Celtic Roots of English. Joensuu: University of Joensuu, Faculty of Humanities.
^ Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 158-178.
^ Crystal, David. 2004. The Stories of English. London: Penguin. pp. 341-343.
^ See Fausto Cercignani, Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981.
^ Algeo, John. 2010. The Origins and Development of the English Language. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. pp. 140-141.
^ Algeo, John. 2010. The Origins and Development of the English Language. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. pp. 182-187.
^ Peter S. Baker (2003). "Pronouns". The Electronic Introduction to Old English. Oxford: Blackwell.
^ Original translation for this article: In this close translation readers should be able to see the correlation with the original.

[edit]References

Cercignani, Fausto, Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981.
Mallory, J. P (2005). In Search of the Indo-Europeans. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27616-1
Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-513-1

323 Summer English

jueves, 31 de mayo de 2012