Periodization of the English language.

The historical development of a language is a continuously uninterrupted process without sudden brakes or rapid transformations. The commonly accepted traditional periodization divides English history into 3 periods:

Old English – 5^th-11^th century

Middle English – 11^th – 15^th century

New / modern English – 15^th century – till now.

The 1^st pre-written period, which is called Early Old English lasts from the Germanic invasion on Britain till the beginning of writing form (5^th-7^th century). It is a stage of tribal dialects.

The 2^nd period (Anglo-Saxon period) extends from the 8^th till 8^th century and it is called Old English. It is written Old English. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects.

The 3^rd period is known as Early-Middle English starts in the 11^th century till 14^th century. It was the stage of grates dialectal divergence caused by feudal system and by foreign influences – Scandinavian and French. Under Roman rule the official language in England was French or anglo-french. English absorbed two layers of lexical borrowings: Scandinavian and French. Scandinavian borrowings were intensive: fewer nouns were used. But French one was extensive, more numeral. French language was spoken at royal court, in school, and was used by nobility.

In the middle period grammatical changes were so grate y the end of the period. They had transformed English from synthtetical into analytical one.

The 4^th period from 14^th till 15^th century is called Classical Middle English. It was the age of restoration of English to the position of state and literary language. And also it was time of literary flourishing when the Jeffery Chaucer created the first English book “Canterbury tales”.

The 5^th period. Early New/Modern English. 1476-1660. In this period the first printed book appeared. It was published by William Caxton. It was period of transition of the age of Chaucer to the age of Shakespeare. It was also a time of grate political and economical events. The progress of culture, education and literature favored linguistic unity. English became a language of a stable linguistic standard. This period was also a time of vocabulary growth.

The 6^th period. Middle 17^th century till 18^th. Neoclassical English. It is period of normalization and correctness. The norms were fixed as rules in the numerous dictionaries and grammar books. Extension to north America. Fixing of pronunciation. The improvement of the grammar was perfected.

The 7^th period. Late 18^th century. Period of expansion of the language. It became the official language of Canada and New Zeland. The vocabulary was highly and reach because of the progress in technology and culture. 1800-1945 – Late New English. From 1945 – Present Day English.

Литература:

1. Резник Сорокина - История английского языка.

2. Расторгуева - История английского языка.

3. Иванова, Беляева, Чахоян – Практикум по истории английского языка.

Семинар:

1) Закон Грима.

2) Закон Вернера.

3) EG,NG,WG tribes.