Module 1 Pre-History of English

Welcome to module 1! Like you, I have also held fascination in

the English language. Now that we are all here, I am thrilled to
explore with you the magic of the English language. We will start
our exploration in knowing the roots of the English language.

This module includes two lessons. The first lesson is an

overview of the linguistic changes that English has gone through.
As you read, to avoid confusion, please look into the following
acronyms and their meaning.

OFr – Old French OE – Old English

ME – Middle Engish ModE – Modern English

EME – Early Middle English

The second lesson, on the other hand, tracks the language

family of English. This gives hindsight of other languages‟ influence
on English.

Okay, let‟s get going. Find a seat with a well-lighted table. You
may also choose to annotate as this module is yours to keep. Sit
back, relax, and enjoy!

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 Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

 identify specific linguistic changes in English

 describe the different subgroups of the Proto-Indo-European
family
 illustrate the roots of English by creating its language family
tree

What’s in your bag?

Before we start digging the roots of English, let us first check

what and how much you know about the English language. Answer the
following questions with a TRUE or a FALSE answer. Ready? Okay, here
we go.

_________1. English has Germanic language influences.

_________2. English has gone through considerable changes in ways

they‟re pronounced, spelled, or used in different contexts.

_________3. British and American Englishes are under one large language
family.

Finished? Okay, for now, put aside your answers here, we will get
back to them later once we‟re done with the module. As you read, you
may also go back to your answers here. But make sure that you don‟t
change your answers. Anyway, it‟s okay if you get them all wrong.
Learning from mistakes is an attitude worth keeping anyway.

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 An Overview of the History of the Linguistic
Changes of English

Get Ready

Do you know that a language goes through linguistic changes over a

period of time? For example, today, if someone tells you you‟re nice, you
will be delighted for sure; but in the 13th century, telling a person
he/she‟s nice might offend him/her as it meant “foolish”! We call this
semantic change. Okay, don‟t squint your eyes too much on the phrase
“semantic change”. What is this? I will surely answer that later in this
lesson. But for now, let us first learn the major branches of linguistics.
Make sure that you understand these basic ideas as you will use them in
reading the rest of the module.

Study the graphic organizer

below for the levels of
language study. This
section is important when
you study any language.

Figure 1: Levels of Language Study (www.courses.lumenlearning.com)

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  Phonology and phonetics – under this, we study the sounds of a language
or any other speech-related concepts. For example, through phonology,
you‟ll be able to study and describe the sounds of the words thin and tin
or pick and peck.
 Morphology – this is where we study how words are formed. It analyzes
the structure of words such as stems, root words, and affixes.
 Syntax – this is where we study the structure of phrases, clauses, and
sentences. This concept enables people to know how to start a question
with a question word or where we put helping verbs and main verbs in the
sentence, and anything of that sort.
 Semantics – this is devoted to the study of word meaning
 Pragmatics – this is where we study how words are used according to
context

Study

Now, take a good hold to what you have just learned about the major
branches of linguistics. Let‟s now go over the changes of English in
majority of the levels of language study.

1. Phonological Changes in English

“The sound system of the English language has undergone

considerable change in the 1,500 years or so” (Hickey, n.d). These
changes were motivated by reanalysis by language speakers, gradual
shifts in pronunciation by adult speakers, contact with other languages
such as French and German, and prescriptivism (refers to the ideology
which strictly imposes explicit rules on the correct use of a language) .
Some scholars who studied English phonological changes are Henry
Sweet, a neogrammarian; Chomsky; and Lass.

Some of the notable phonological changes are the following:

a. Epenthesis – the insertion of sound/s to words

 Phonological change: The addition of /t/ at the end of words ending

in /f/, /th/ and /m/, /n/, /ng/.

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 Example:

Middle English (ME) agains Early Modern English (EME) against

 But some changes make consonant contrasts more distinct:

Example:

Early Modern English (EModE) onst Modern English (ModE) once

EModE twist ModE twice

 Consonant epenthesis - insertion of /m/ or /n/ or /ng/ before /g/

Example:

ME nightigale nightingale

 Vowel epenthesis - insertion of an unstressed shcwa vowel

Example:

alarum alarm

b. Metathesis – transposition of sounds or syllables in a word

Example:

ME bridde bird

ME wreoc weork (present: work)

Old English (OE) waps wasp

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 2. Morphological Changes in English

a. Declension – changing of a word to express its function in the

sentence (i.e. number, grammatical case, or gender)

Example:

 nouns

Originating OE Late OE ME Late ME

Word
namum namen namen name nam
Folcum f )lkem f )lken f )lke folk

 Pronouns

Pronoun Singular Plural Dual

I/we ich we Git
Thou/you ye Wit

b. Conjugation – the change that takes place in a verb to express tense,

mood, person, and so on.

Infinitive ris-e (rise) lok-e (look)

Present ris-eth lok-eth
Past ros Lok-e-de
Past Participle y-ris-en y-lok-ed

c. Blending – combination of pieces from different words to create a new

one

Examples:

Breakfast + lunch brunch

Chuckle + short chortle

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 d. Back formation – creation of a new base from which an apparently
derived form can be produced

Examples:

editor edit

pease pea

burglar burgle

Bell Rings!

Wow! That’s quite a grind of words! Now, it’s time to take a break.
Just a piece of advice though: instead of checking your phone, try
taking a walk or napping. From my personal experience, browsing
through the web makes me more tired. Remember that your break’s
goal is to feel rested before you go back to reading and studying. 

3. Semantic Change

Hi there, again! How did your break time go? I hope you haven‟t slept off
what you read earlier too. Now, let‟s get back to studying. As we have
been reading, English has gone through considerable changes. We started
with sounds, and then went on to the changes in word structure. The
meaning of English words has also been evolving through time. Here are
some of these changes:

a. Semantic Narrowing (Specialization) - the meaning of a word becomes

less general or inclusive than its earlier meaning. In other words, the
meaning‟s change is from general to narrow.

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 Examples:

Mete (meat) Meat

Old English definition: food Today‟s definition: only one
in general kind of food which is “meat”

steorfan (starve) starve

OE definition: generally ModE definition: to die
to die of hunger

b. Generalization – this is the opposite of semantic narrowing. Narrow

definitions change to general ones.

Examples:

aroma aroma
(14th Century) definition: smell (From 1841 up to present)
of spices definition: good smells in
general

excappāre (escape) escape

(Before) definition: to (Today) definition: to break
uncloak free from detention

c. Amelioration – this is when a word‟s meaning improves or become

more positive over time.

Examples:

nice nice
(12th Century) definition: silly, (1830 up to present)definition:
stupid, foolish kind, thoughtful

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 geck (geek) geek
(1510s) definition: fool, dupe (20th Century up to
simpleton present)definition: someone
with special knowledge, not
limited to computers

d. Pejoration – this happens when a word‟s meaning becomes more

negative

Examples:

notorious notorious
(1548) definition: well-known, (17th Cent. up to present)
commonly known definition: well-known for bad deed

agheful (awful) awful

(14th Century) definition: worthy (1809 up to present)definition:
of awe, respect, or fear very bad

Do this

Whohoo! I know, I know, we just went through a lot of words, but,

that‟s okay. Head down for another short break and get back here after.

Okay, now that you feel rested, let‟s get back into business. We will
now see how much you‟ve understood. If you think you‟re not ready for
this, take your time to re-read and re-study the lesson. But if you‟re now
ready to get into the challenge, let‟s then start.

I. Try to look at the changes in the following pairs and write on the blanks
the phonological change.

Phonological
Change
1. Old French paysan Middle English (ME) peasant

2. ME amyddes Early ME amidst

3. ME messager messenger

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 4. OE ascian acsian (ask)

5. OE waps wasp

II. Here is a list of words. Identify the semantic change manifested in the
definitions given for each word.

Word Definitions Semantic

Change
notorious Used to be 'commonly known'; now, known for
a bad action or quality
beam Used to be a tree; now, just a piece of wood
made from a tree
Wench In the thirteenth century “wenche” meant “girl
or young woman.” By the mid-fourteenth
century is was being used in the sense of a
“woman of loose morals, mistress.”
Sand OE sand had meant either 'sand' or 'shore.'
Now, this mean only the granular particles of
disintegrated rock that covered this land
Niceness In a similar fashion, the noun “niceness”
meant “folly, foolish behavior” in the 1520s
and by the 1670s it had come to mean
“exactness” and finally, by 1809,
“pleasantness.”

How did you fare with the activities? There is an available Answer

Key at appendix A of this material. But, no peeking please. This activity

will let you know how much you‟ve understood and how much you still

need to re-read. Let us see how many points you got. If you scored a

perfect 8-10 points, congratulations, you may now proceed to the next

topic. If you scored, 7-5 points, you did a fair job, but you need to

review the lapses you committed. If you scored 0-4 points, that‟s okay,

we learn from mistakes anyway. But, it is best for you to re-read the

topic.

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 English as an Indo-European Language

Read

Just like any other language, English belongs to a language

family which is “a group of languages that are related to each other
genetically and share a common ancestry” (Baldi in Momma & Matto,
2008). This means that there are a number of languages that share the
same or similar traits under a language family. The “genes” that they
share are the linguistic features which have been transmitted over time.
For you to understand it more, try recalling your ancestry and fill out
the family tree below:

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 How did you do with completing your family tree? Honestly, if I
have to do that, I‟ll ask help from my aunts and uncles! But, take a
look again and reflect on your family, who do you look like the most?
Your mama? papa? Lola? Or lolo? Because of genes, we share similar
or the same features as our family. You may have your mom‟s eyes or
your dad‟s nose or your aunt‟s wit, and just like you, English
language also has a language family where they share “genes” or
linguistic features with. The language family where English belongs is
known as Indo-European (IE) language family. IE languages have a
common ancestor called Proto-Indo-European (PIE). The sub-group
within which IE to which English belongs is Germanic, specifically
West Germanic. Here‟s a simple family tree which includes the direct
language ancestors of English:

Proto-Indo-European (PIE)

Indo-European (IE)

Germanic (West Germanic)

English

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 Study

Let us now go over each of the 11 subgroups of the IE family. The

following descriptions are taken from Haruko & Matto (2008)

Anatolian

The Anatolian languages were discovered on archeological

excavations in Bogazkoy, Turkey in the early 20th century. Some of
the most notable linguistic features of Anatolian languages are: 1)
the existence of several sounds that had been lost in other sub-
groups; 2) the absence of the “classical three-way gender system
(masculine-feminine-neuter) in favor of a two-way animate-
inanimate system.

Indo-Iranian

This contains two related subdivisions which are Indic (Indo-

Aryan) and Iranian.

Indic (Indo-Aryan). The languages of the Indic group are

classified into three historical periods namely, Old Indic (1500-600
BCE), Middle Indic (600 BCE – 1000 BCE), and Modern Indic
(since 1000 CE). The most ancient language is Vedic which is
closely related to the Classical Sanskrit. Middle Indic texts include
Pali and Asoka inscriptions and Jainist religious writings. Modern
Indic, on the other hand, is one of the largest and most
heterogeneous of the IE subgroups.

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 Iranian. This has two representatives namely, Old Avestan and
Old Persian. Modern descendants of Iranian are Modern Persian
(Farsi), Pashto, and Kurdish.

Indo-Iranian

This share certain distinctive characteristics from the many

closely related languages of ancient Italy. There are two main Italic
subdivisions namely Latin-Faliscan and Osco-Umbrian. Latin-
Faliscan is chiefly represented by Latin. Latin is deemed to be the
most important in the IE languages and in Western Civilization
development. Faliscan, on the other hand, is known only from
inscriptions.

The Osco-Umbrian, the second Italic subdivision, has no

modern descendants.

Germanic

English belongs to this subgroup. The Germanic languages are

grouped into three geographic subdivisions. The first, East
Germanic, contains only one language, Gothic. The second is North
Germanic whose principal representative is Old Icelandic (Old
Norse). The third group, West Germanic, is the most expansive and
internally diverse. This group is where German, Yiddish, Dutch,
Flemish, Afrikaans, and English belong.

Celtic

The Celtic group is divided into two main sections. The first,
Continental group, is extinct. The second is the Insular Celtic in
which languages show up materially somewhat later. This group is
further divided into two: the Goidelic and Brittanic. The Goidelic
group is made up of Irish, Scots Gaelic, and the extinct Manx.
Brittanic, on the other hand, comprises of Welsh, Breton, and
Cornish

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 Tocharian

This was discovered in archeological excavations in the 20th

century in Chinese Turkestan. The documents of the Tocharian
languages, mostly religious and some commercial are relatively
late.

Baltic

This is in two modern languages namely, Lithunian and Latvian.

Many other Baltic languages have become extinct.

Slavic

This has three subdivisions. The first is South Slavic which

comprises of Bulgarian, Macedonia, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian,
and the extinct Old Church Slavic. The second subdivision is the
West Slavic which comprises of Czech, Slovak, Polish, Kashubian,
and others. And the third is East Slavic where Russian, Ukranian,
and Belarussian belong.

Armenian

This was influenced by neighboring languages like Greek, Arabic,

Syriac, and Persian.

Albanian

This was heavily influenced by neighboring languages such as

Greek, Slavic, Turkish, and Latin. The first document in Albanian
is a baptismal formula from the 15th Century. The two principal
dialects are Gheg and Tosk.

burglar burgle

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 Bell Rings!

Okay, take your much-needed breaktime! Go back to studying when

you’re ready. 

Do this

Hi there, again! How was your break time? Well, I hope you
did not over-rest . Now, let‟s get back to studying and see how
much you have understood the topic. We will do two activities
here. Let‟s get the ball rolling.

A. Here are my friends from the PIE family. I introduced you to

them a while back. They wish to play with you. I hope you‟re game
for it. Yes? Yes! Well, what we will do here is first, read the
descriptions (language, linguistic feature, etc.) written in the
bubble thought. Then, on their nametags, write the name of the
PIE subgroup my friend belongs to. Ready? Here we go!

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 English belongs to
my subgroup.

Brittanic, Welsh,
Breton, and the
now-extinct Cornish
belong to my
subgroup

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 I was discovered
in archeological
excavations in
Chinese
Turkestan.

One of my most
notable features is
the absence of the
gender system
and the use of
animate-

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 I was heavily
influenced by
neighboring
languages such
as, Greek and
Turkish.

How did you fare with the game? Did you write the same names on
the nametags as the answers stated in appendix B? If you scored a
perfect 4-5 points, congratulations, you‟ve mastered the linguistic
features and the members of the language subgroups! You may
now proceed to the next topic. If you scored, 3-4 points, you did a
fair job, but you need to review the lapses you committed. If you
scored 0-2, that‟s okay, we learn from mistakes anyway. But, it is
best for you to re-read the topic.

B. Based on what you have learned about the Proto-Indo-European

language family, draw PIE‟s family tree. Then, with a highlighter,
marker, or pen, encircle the “immediate family” of English. You
may use the space below or a separate sheet of paper for your
output.

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 Here is a more comprehensive language family tree of PIE.
But, hey, no more modification in your output! Compare your
created family tree to this one. It is okay if you did not create a
family tree as comprehensive as this. What is important is that you
get to include the immediate family of English. The PIE family tree
below is for you to expansively see the roots of the English
language. Please study this family tree.

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 Wrap-up

In this module, we‟re able to understand why some English

words are rooted from other languages such as German and
French. These languages are some of the many who have greatly
influenced English. This is also seen in the PIE family tree, where
we understand that its language family members share linguistic
features or “genes”.

This module has also given us hindsight of the many

changes English has gone through. These changes are
encapsulated in all levels of language study namely, phonology,
morphology, semantics, and syntax.

Now let‟s go back to the “What‟s in Your Bag” section of this

module in page __. If you answered TRUE in all of the three
statements, then you‟re right. You seem to have the basic
knowledge about the English language. If you answered FALSE in
any of those, then I hope you‟ve already found out the right
answer.

Suggested Readings

 Hickey, R. (2012). „Early English and the Celtic hypothesis‟, in:

Terttu Nevalainen and Elizabeth Closs Traugott (eds) The
Oxford Handbook of the History of English. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp. 497-507.
 Lass, Roger 2006. „Phonology and morphology‟, in: Richard
Hogg and David Denison (eds) A History of the English
Language. Cambridge: University Press, pp. 43-108.
 Lass, Roger (ed.) 1969. Approaches to English historical
linguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
 Minkova, Donka and Robert P. Stockwell 2008. „The history of
English phonology‟, in: Haruko Momma (ed.) The Blackwell

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 Companion to the English Language, Malden, MA: Blackwell,
pp. 29-43.
 Anderwald, Liselotte. 2013. Natural language change or
prescriptive influence? English World-Wide 34: 146–176.
 Campbell, Lyle. 2004. Historical lingusitics: an introduction.
2nd Edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
 Marchand, Hans. 1969. The categories and types of present-
day English word formation. 2nd Edition. München: Beck.

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