Lecture 1 Introduction

Dates	Events	Population
Languages
Old English Period
7^th c. B.C.	Celtic Invasion	Celts	Celtic Dialects
7^th c. B.C. – 410 A.D.	Roman Invasion	Celts, Romans	Celtic Dialects, Latin
mid.5^th c. – late 6^th c.	Anglo-Saxon Invasion	Celts, Anglo-Saxons	Celtic Dialects, Old English Dialects!
597	Introduction of Christianity	Celts, Anglo-Saxons	Celtic Dialects, Old English Dialects, Latin
after 8^th c.	Scandinavian Invasion	Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians (Danes)	Celtic Dialects, Old English Dialects, Latin, Scandinavian Dialects
Middle English Period
1066	Norman Conquest	Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, Normans	Celtic Dialects, Middle English Dialects, Latin, French
late 14^th c.	English – official language of the country	the English	Middle English Dialects, London Dialect (standard)
New English Period
1475	Introduction of Printing (William Caxton)	The English	English (New English)
16^th – 17^th c.	Expansion of the British Empire	The English	English – national language spreading overseas
Modern English Period
20^th c.	English – a global language

Thus, the main periods in the language evolution are (rough dates are given):

1. 
   Old English Period – prewritten (450-700)
   

– written (700-1100)
During this period 1 million people spoke Old English Dialects (see short survey of this period in § 74-77, p. 50-51 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies)).

2. 
   Middle English Period – 1100-1500
   

During this period 4 million people spoke Middle English Dialects (see short survey of this period in § 78-81, p. 51-52 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies)).

3. 
   New English Period – 1500-1800
   

(see short survey of this period in § 82-85, p. 52-53 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies)).

4. 
   Modern English Period - ? (1945)-present time
   

Nowadays 300 million people speak English as a mother tongue (see short survey of this period in § 86-87, p. 53-54 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies)).


Classification of the Germanic Languages
There are different classifications of the languages but as far as we deal with the history of the language we will consider genealogical classification. It is based on the conception that all the languages
can be classified according to their origin.
There are different points of view on the problem of language origin. Some scholars try to prove that there existed one universal language from which all the other languages stem.


The theory of William Allman (1990):

Proto-Germanic Language ( one of the 12 groups of languages belonging to Indo-European family that stemmed from the common Indo-European Language)
I ndo-European Language	8 000 years ago	Turkey
N ostratic Language	14 000 years ago	The Near East
Proto-World Language	200 000 years ago	Africa

Modern classification of the Germanic Languages:

North Germanic Languages	West Germanic Languages	East Germanic Languages
1. Swedish (spoken in Sweden and Finland by 9 mill. people)	1. English (spoken by 300 mill. people as a mother tongue + millions speak it as a second language	1. Gothic (dead)
2. Norwegian (spoken in Norway by 5 mill. people)	2. German (spoken by 100 mill. people in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein)
3. Danish (spoken in Denmark by 5 mill. people)	3. Dutch/Netherlandish (spoken by 20 mill. people in the Netherlands and some parts of Belgium)
4. Icelandic (spoken in Iceland by 250 thou. people)	4. Frisian (spoken by 400 thou. people in some parts of the Netherlands and Germany and some islands in the North Sea)
5. Faroese (spoken in the Faroe Islands (north-east Atlantic) by 40 thou. people)	5. Luxemburgish (spoken by 350 thou. people in Luxemburg and some parts of Germany and France)
	6. Yiddish (spoken by Jews in different countries in Europe and America, is actually a mixture of the Southern Germanic Dialects, Hebrew and Slavonic elements)
	7. Afrikaans (spoken by 3 mill. people in the South African Republic, combines English, Dutch and African elements)

The Place of the English Language in the Modern World
(see the text “English as a World Language” in “Horizons” by Е.П. Михалева)


H/w:
1. § 3-5, p. 10-12 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева.
2. § 74-87, p. 50-54 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева.
3. “English as a World Language” in “Horizons” by Е.П. Михалева.
4. Ex. 1, p. 48 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева.
Lecture 2


First Mention of the Germanic Tribes
As far as the English Language belongs to the Germanic group of languages, this group makes a part of the History of the English Language and we are going to consider the whole group before starting to speak about English itself.
The first scholars to mention the Germanic tribes in their works were:

1. 
   Pitheas (4^th c. B.C.) – a Greek historian and geographer, the work “An Account of a Sea Voyage to the Baltic Sea”.
   
2. 
   Julius Caesar (1^st c. B.C.) – a roman Emperor, the work “Commentaries on the Gallic War”.
   
3. 
   Pliny the Elder (1^st c. A.D.) – a Roman scientist and writer, the work “Natural History” (contained the classification of the Germanic tribes).
   
4. 
   Tacitus (1^st c. A.D.) – a Roman historian, the work “Life and Customs of the Ancient Germans”.