History of the English Language Terms

Syllable Timed/Stress timed Languages

A way of classifying languages based on rhythm. English is stress timed. Indian languages tend to be syllable timed.

Singlish

A whole new system. Tense not marked much. Borrows heavily from the languages of the country, including Tamil, Malay, and Mandarin

Why is spelling weird?

Because sounds are constantly moving around. Spelling holds onto what words used to sound like. For eg: made. m-aa-d-e --> m-a-d-e --> made faid --> f-ai-d --> feed

Ebonics

Black English: Another term for black English--I think it implies that black english is a language rather than a dialect of standard english

Where does Black English trace to?

Black English: Great Britain. Enslaved Africans likely worked alongside British indentured servants and learned English from them. The similarities are visible: Black English: It's somebody at the door. Cornwall English: "'Tes some wan t' the door." Black English: "Even when I be round there with friends, I be scared." Hiberno-English: "Even when I be round there with friends, I be scared." Black English: "I done seen it." Old Scottish: "As I afore have done discus."

Minstrel English

Black English: Minstrel Shows were a popular form of entertainment into the 1950s. Overuse of "am."

Simplified English in Black English--what? why?

Black English: Remember that all languages are more complicated than they need to be. English has just developed unnecessarily complicated forms that Black English eliminates because they are too difficult to learn for adults who need to learn the language quickly. eg. Subject-verb inversions in question form ("Why you didn't call me?" vs. "Why didn't you call me?") not necessary—a Germanic tick. Black English eliminates this.

Wallace Quarterman

Black English: Slave born in the 1840s whose voice and stories are recorded. Very distinctive accent/dialect with no modern equivalent--almost Irish or West Indian. "they throw away they hoe-dem (plural form)" Proof that black English as we know it only took form after WWI.

"I done seen it." What does "done" indicate?

Black English: The counterexpectational, says Elisabeth Bates, linguist

Black English: she be scared of him. What does the "be" suggest?

Black English: something habitual

Examples of questions one should ask when writing a dictionary:

Prescriptivism: a) are "a" and "an" defined separately? b) should archaic words (McWhorter's example: "a long haired musician") be defined? How far back in time should a dictionary go? c) Should dictionaries define slang/colloquialisms? (e.g. "dis" in place of "disrespect")

descriptive vs. prescriptive documentation of English

Prescriptivism: a) descriptive—the way people actually speak b) prescriptive — the "right" way, sometimes against the trends of common usage. Becomes the documentation method of choice in the 1700s.

Latin case system

Prescriptivism: a) nominative--marks the subject (e.g. "Mary" in "Mary is going shopping.") b) genitive--possessive (e.g. "dog" in "the dog's bone" or "the bone of the dog.") c) dative--the recipient of the action, or the indirect object (e.g. "Mary" in "She threw Mary the ball.") d) accusative--the direct object (e.g. "ball" in "She threw the ball.") e) ablative--the means by which the action is performed (e.g. "foot" in "She traveled there on foot."

Grammatical aspects of Lowth's English that are fading away

Prescriptivism: a) the subjective--"If I were" b) past participles--"I have spitten" "I have holden"--we don't use these c) some plurals--"chick" used to be the singular of "chicken" In general, past tense forms are linguistically unstable

Anne Fisher

Prescriptivism: 18th century grammarian who decides "they" is plural.

William Cobbett's A Grammar of the English Language, 1818

Prescriptivism: Documents the "correct" past tense. Very limited ideas about what constitutes good language (awoke, blew, built, burst, clung, dealt, dug, drew, froze are all "bad" words--irregular).

The role of math in linguistics

Prescriptivism: Idea that mathematical principals of logic translate to linguistics becomes popular in the 1700s and influences grammatical innovations. For example, we do not double-negate because as in math, the negation is distributed through the sentence's parts.

Google Ngram Viewer

Prescriptivism: Really fun tool that has documented English vocabulary from the English corpus. Traces the frequency of a word's usage throughout history of English.

Robert Lowth

Prescriptivism: The king of prescriptivism. A prestigious religious official and a language specialist, though his knowledge is eurocentric (Greek, Latin, Hebrew). Spelling and definitions are a thing--Lowth wants to codify grammar using Latin (mostly) and Greek as model languages. That's why we supposedly don't end sentences with preposition and use "whom"--a relic of Latin case ending.

Samuel Johnson 1755

Prescriptivism: Writes the first dictionary right before Robert Lowth makes all his little decisions. 43,000 words--fairly representative. Very political with definitions of Tories and Whigs (he was a Tory). John son sees language as perpetually changing, and that was okay with him.

The Great Vowel Shift: When?

1400 and beyond.

Yes Yigh No Nay

Dialects in England:

How do we know what words used to sound like?

-People describing sounds in older texts. -Reconstructing from rhymes. -Going forward from reconstructed proto-languages.

Rural vs. Urban Dialects in linguistics

Dialects in England: For a long time, rural dialects are the only dialects linguists are interested in. Linguists find old guys who spoke rural dialects in rural areas in search of the "original/pure English." Urban dialects are thought of as artificial or low. Urban dialectology is not a big deal until the 60s, and it flowers in the 70s.

The Sound of Canadian English

A little like American English, with subtle differences.

Characteristics of the Lancashire Dialect seen in poem from there:

Dialects in England: "enoof" — northern trait where "uh" didn't happen -"bonny" — French origin, pretty -"meit" — became meat during great vowel shift

Dialects and how they differ

Dialects in England: Definition: system of speech (words, sounds, and the way the words are put together ie. grammar). Differences between dialects: a) words b) sounds/phenology (sometimes, dialect just refers to accent) c) grammar--constantly changing (eg. contractions: "amn't" (Scotland/Northern England), "ain't" (Black English, Southern English, English English), "ammet" (West England), "baint" (South Western England), bisn't, yunt

What happens to conflicting constructions in two different dialects when a kid grows up hearing both of them?

Dialects in England: Both are eliminated. For example, the vikings go to England with three gendered endings. They're kids learn Norse and Old English, which also has genders, but they don't match up with the Norse ones. Instead of forming some hybrid or reconciling genders, the gendered endings just fade out.

Queen Elizabeth—young vs. old video example significance

Dialects in England: Demonstrates a decrease in value of formality. She learns to relax her jaw.

Estuary English

Dialects in England: Google: a type of accent identified as spreading outward from London and containing features of both received pronunciation and London speech. Kate Middleton's and Prince William's accent--not super fancy. Actually kind of cockney.

What does the Queen Victoria's speech from 1863 tell us about the Dorset Dialect?

Dialects in England: She says "treaden bargain" — the en is an ending that they put on adjectives—real English dialects have an adjectival ending. There are remnants of the adjectival endings: "the olden days," "an oaken chest."

covert prestige

Dialects in England: The valuing of a non-standard dialect (demonstrated by Prince William's slangy Estatuary English)

Thease/thik tree —> This/that water

Dialects in England: This/that used to have different gender neutral endings

Black Country (West Midlands) Verb negation significance

Dialects in England: hardly recognizable as English to us - I give—I gizz, I gave—I gid - I do—ah doe, I don't—ah day - I have—I ann, I haven't—I ay - you can—yow con, you can't—yow caw - you will—yow will, you won't—yow whoa - you shall—yow shall, you shall not—yow sheh The point is: Black County's very negations are unrecognizable to us, but nothing happened there that didn't happen anywhere else English is spoken. It is one possible outcome of dialectical shifts.

Australian Accent

Emerged from a series of predictable vowel shifts. beet—>bait Mate—> mat knife—> knofe

Creole English in Australia

Emerged from differences in how English was spoken after separation + GVS. NOT from the languages spoken their originally, as might be intuitively imagined.

"Americanisms"

English in America: "Fall" (as opposed to Autumn) "I guess"

List of Dialects in the USA

English in America: Southern South Midland North Midland Inland Northern Eastern New England

Anne Bradstreet, The Four Monarchies, 1678

English in America: "slaughter" and "laughter" are supposed to rhyme, but we don't know which pronunciation conformed to which

The Aschmann Map

English in America: A linguist's map of US dialects. New England is divided into a West and an East region, north and north central. Labels pen=pin regions.

The Northern City Shift (NCS)

English in America: Cities around the great lakes are pronouncing vowels differently. "bot" sounds like "bat" ("everybody on the block" sounds more like "everybody on the black" —closer to bat) "bet" sounds like "but" ("fresh bread" sounds more like "frush brud") "busses" sounds like "bosses"

The lingua franca in colonial Americas

English in America: It's English, but German is giving it a run for its money.

How widespread is English (globally) when it gets to the American colonies?

English in America: It's not at all. In 1776, there are only 2 million people in the Americas--definitely not a linguistic influencer.

Are there clear relationships between dialects in England and dialects in the Americas?

English in America: It's not really like that; there's some relationship between southern English speech and the white southern accent. In general, though, American English presents a new world of dialects.

What do speakers in early USA sound like?

English in America: Not Clive Owen, probably. English has not even been standardized in the UK at this point, so there's no "normal" accent or dialect. R-lessness might have been a thing in Plymouth due to influence from London, while Chesapeake/Jamestown were likely r-less due to influence from SW and West England.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible, 1953

English in America: Play about the Massachusetts Bay Colonies uses "dafter" in place of "daughter." Is there some truth to this? Yes! See Anne Bradstreet poem card.

Scottish English: why is it so different?

English in America: The first wave of Germanic influence (before 400AD) impacts different regions very differently, and at this time Scottish is it's own kingdom, separate from England. It only joins UK in 1707 and is influenced by England's English. Examples of Scottish English: - eyes—> een - shoes—> shewen (pronunciation) - hourses—> horse

"dragonfly" and "anymore" (in place of "nowadays") are examples of:

English in America: The many different ways Americans say words...

William Labov

English in America: The old, esteemed linguist studying the Northern City Shift

r-lessness--where is it? Is it or is it not classy?

English in America: r is delicate. There is a vowel like quality to r in general. When an r is at the end of a word, it tends to phase out. So this happens in tons of accents: English, Jersey, white southern, etc. In USA, we sometimes think of r-lessness as classy (Haavaad); that is arbitrary. Class associates are not linked to the pronunciation, but to who's pronouncing. Bette Davis pronounced "Norton" like "Noton." She's classy. But Tony Soprano says "Noton," too. That's considered slangy and quaint.

Uptalk

First recorded in Australia, on radio shows in the 1950s. Used to ensure that the other person understands what you're saying.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (we didn't really talk about this)

Idea that grammar channels your way of thinking and changes your understanding of reality. Prof. thinks this might lead to problematic and inaccurate conclusions (eg. because mandarin is simple, so are the people who speak it).

Introduction of English in India

It is not a creole English. It was introduced via education and colonialism. English was influenced by the many local languages of the country. Therefore, an indigenous English.

hiberno english

Non-Standard Englishes: irish english influences black english

Charting the linguistic Journey across the atlantic:

Non-Standard Englishes: - Sranan - Guyanese - Gullah - Jamaican - Sierra leone Krio - Nigerian Pidgin the last three of these use "unu"—no one really knows what this traces back to

Gullah

Non-Standard Englishes: A distinct variation of black English in South Carolina with a unique grammar

pidgin

Non-Standard Englishes: A makeshift variety of a language that is not itself a language. Used by slaves in the Americas to communicate on a very basic level. Sometimes it is said that adults spoke the pigeon and then children developed it into a language. But children weren't born much in the early days of colonial slavery. Rather, more adults were brought in.

Guyanese Creole

Non-Standard Englishes: A series that ranges from really different from standard-English speakers to really similar.

sranan

Non-Standard Englishes: An English-influenced dialect in Suriname that started in 1651 when the British settled Suriname and enslaved people. Also has Dutch influence.

Nova Scotia--why is it relevant?

Non-Standard Englishes: Because slaves in America who fought for the British were taken to Nova Scotia after the Revolutionary War as a "reward." Many remained there; others were brought to Sierra Leone. They spoke Jamaican Patois and Gullah. Now, there is "Krio" there as a result.

indigenous English

Non-Standard Englishes: English that is imposed through education

History of slavery in Hawaii and how it led to Hawaiian Creole English

Non-Standard Englishes: Hawaii became a state to be used for plantations. By the 1880s, slavery had been outlawed by the gov't still exploited people from Portugal, China, Korea, Japan...These people needed to learn English quickly for logistical purposes, so they developed a pidgin. Hawaiian school kids learn English during the McKinley administration, and the result is a distinct Hawaiian Creole English.

Jamaican patois

Non-Standard Englishes: Jamaican English dialect. Most Jamaicans think of patois as a kind of English

The beginning of Slavery:

Non-Standard Englishes: Once there is the technology to grow things on a large scale, to grow things for a society, or enough transportation technology to move far away, people can be transported against their will. The Colonial Plantation, for example, starts existing in the 1400s up until slavery "ends" in the 1800s. The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark were all hugely involved in the slave trade.

Tokpisin

Non-Standard Englishes: The lingua franca in Papua New Guinea derived from Aboriginal Kriol. Created so people could speak to European colonists for business purposes. A quirk: you have to indicate time of day.

What happened (linguistically) when British colonists arrived in Australia?

Non-Standard Englishes: They encountered Aboriginal people. They two groups didn't like each other; The British saw the Aboriginals as lesser. The aboriginals thought the English smelled like butter (appreciated this detail, but don't know if it's true). Aboriginal Kriol formed so the groups could communicate.

tamil

Non-Standard Englishes: region in India where many people speak English

Habitual "be" in Hiberno-English

Part of the history of the Habitual "be" that we can see in Black English. - Tá sé anseo—be he here - he's here (now) - bionn sé anseo—be he here

Pro and con of English spelling

Spelling Reform: Pro: the spelling of English words reveals their epistemological roots. Con: it's ridiculously complicated and difficult to learn. There are more exceptions than rules.

The "New Spelling" of 1910

Spelling Reform: The Chicago Tribune's attempt to reform spelling with the goal of making it easier to learn.

John Dryden, 1700s

Standardization: "Corrects" Shakespeare's bad grammar--an indication of the new, rigid mood around grammar.

John Cheke, 1557

Standardization: Advocate of good old Germanic English--anti French and Latin influence. "I am of the opinion that our tung should be written clean and pure, vnmixt, vnmangeled with borrowing of other tunges." (the underlined words come from French and Latin--lol) Wonders why English can't have Germanic roots, which are consistent through short and long words, normal speech and fancy speech.

Richard Carew's The excellence of the English Tongue, 1614

Standardization: Argument in favor of linguistic diversity within English. Praised the "diuersitye of our Dialects, for wee haue Court and wee haue Countrye English..."

The play, Mankind, 1475

Standardization: Characters mock the snooty Latin Influence in English

Lawrence Nowell

Standardization: Discovers Old English in northern Britain during the early modern period. Creates a glossary of Lancashire equivalents of common words. For example, he notes that "to dree" in Lancashire is to suffer; "to wite" is to blame, et. cetera.

William Barns

Standardization: English writer who wants to "purify" English. Tries to replace Greek and Latin roots with Germanic ones by devising a vocabulary with these Germanic-rooted replacement words (fragile-->breaksome, grammar-->speechcraft) that goes absolutely nowhere. Embodies call for "proper English."

The Inkhorn Controversy

Standardization: Extended fifteenth and sixteenth century dispute over whether or not to incorporate words with French and Latin roots into the English language. "Inkhorn" implies that these words entered English through written documents rather than colloquial speech, which led many to believe that they were pretentious--not real, everyday English.

Literacy from 1600 to 1700

Standardization: In 1600, about half the population knows how to write. The understanding of English shifting from aural to visual--sounds to letters. By early 1700s, the average person can lead a very print-focused life.

Why is London the new hub of English in the early modern period?

Standardization: London is the center of commerce at the time, and the greatest linguistic influence usually comes from "the people with the most juice." East Midlanders are the majority in London, and become the elite. They have the most linguistic sway.

Why do 1750s standards persist?

Standardization: Robert Loath writes everything down. It's not that great or anything--just well-documented.

The chancery documents 1400s and 1500s

Standardization: Show shifts in colloquial speech and the introduction of gender neutral pronouns (they, them, their) to English. Introduction of "not" as negator. For a while, linguists think these changes originated in the royal documents. Turns out these changes have been present in colloquial English for a long time, and just "end up in the shop window."

Argument against a standard English

Standardization: Some argue that the development of a standard variety is a way of keeping common people down.

Significance of East Midlands in Early Modern English

Standardization: There is no sense anymore that West Saxon is the best. Instead, the English of choice comes from the East Midlands. There are lots of immigrants from here in London, which becomes the hub of commerce and the English language.

Jonathan Swift

Standardization: Writes Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal. Is snooty about consistency in English; "It is better a language should not be wholly perfect, than that it should be perpetually changing." Proposes an English academy in 1712 to Queen Anne, but it never happens because Anne dies :'(

Isaac Newton's writings

Standardization: Writes Principie Mathematica in Latin, but later, writes the Optics in English. Helps legitimize the English language in academia.

Introduction of English in Singapore

Starting in 1816, English became the "language of advancement." First, a pidgin English that since become standardised by education and the media.

"oo"

There is no reason for double o "oo" to be pronounced the way it. Sounds changed but spelling couldn't keep up.

The Irish Accent

Vikings who went to England and ran it for 250 years didn't stop there; they brought cattle from all over Europe including to Ireland disrupting the Celtic languages in Ireland. Even after England took control in the 1800s, Gaelic influence remained.

Why is "i-land" spelled like "island?"

Written English: "Akwa" is the root for water. In many languages, that's obvious. But it became "ieg" in early English. An island is a water land—hence, iegland. The G drops out. Then you have "iland." Someone decides that's crude because it disregards the Latin word "insula." The S is forced back into the word as functionless homage to Latin—the linguistic good days. The same things happens to other words: "Suject" becomes "subject." "Sojure" becomes "soldier."

How did V in come about in the English alphabet?

Written English: F sounds like V when it fell between to vowels (e.g. "lufie"-->"luvie"). Still not considered a legitimate sound in Old English; more like a lazy F. It is eventually legitimizes at the beginnings of words ("very," "voyage") and by the time Shakespeare is popular, it's all over the place.

How did Z in come about in the English alphabet?

Written English: Get ready: Phoenicians have phonetic alphabet; I is called "zienn." The Phoenicians disappear and the Greeks take their alphabet and call I "zada" (zeta). Then Romans take the Greek alphabet and realize they don't need Z, so they put it at the end of their alphabet. When the English take the Roman alphabet, they don't care about Z, either; like V, it's considered an illegitimate sound (something like "rise" is pronounced "reesay"). In the USA, Webster pushes Zs because he thinks their sound will distinguish American speech from English speech. Now, Z should be called "zed" but we have adopted the French pronunciation "zee."

How did W in come about in the English alphabet?

Written English: It starts as, literally, a double U (uu) as a contingency of Latin scribe writing.

Capitalization

Written English: It's not necessary. Starting in the 1700s, nouns are capitalized. That eventually stops.

Love's Labour's Lost pronunciations

Written English: Make fun of the ridiculousness of pronunciation in high English

Some vs. Sum. What's up with that?

Written English: People start writing it with the "o" to avoid "minim confusion." The great vowel shift also has something to do with this (could someone help me out here?)

Half Unical Style

Written English: The sort of medieval-looking English alphabet that is replaced by Carolingian, which is spread throughout Europe by Charlemagne, who is a fan of literacy theoretically. Influenced by the Roman alphabet. All one case (cases are not necessary and don't happen until 8th C).

j, e, and w in old English

Written English: Trick question: There aren't Js Es (can someone confirm this?) or Ws in Old English. A W can be replaced with V and U.

p(thorn) in old English

Written English: Written as a backwards y, pronounced "th." "Ye" is not a word; it's pronounced "the."

"S" in Half Unical Style

Written English: Written like "f." "fon" was pronounced "son." What we now think of as "s" existed only at the ends of words.

Vowel table

beet boot bit book bait but boat bet bought bat bot