Исстория английского языка

The English spoken in Australia, with its marked diphthongization of vowels, also makes use of special words, retained from English regional dialect usages, or taken over from indigenous Australian terms [7, p. 89].

Conclusions

 

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be,strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world.

This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

 

 

 

CHAPTER ІІ. DIALECTS AND ACCENTS OF ENGLISH

 

2.1. Australian and New Zealand English

 

Unlike Canada, Australia has few speakers of European languages other than English within its borders. There are still many Aboriginal languages, though they are spoken by only a few hundred speakers each and their continued existence is threatened. More than 80 percent of the population is British. By the mid-20th century, with rapid decline of its Aboriginal tongues, English was without rivals in Australia.

During colonial times the new settlers had to find names for a fauna and flora (e.g., banksia, iron bark, whee whee) different from anything previously known to them: trees that shed bark instead of leaves and cherries with external stones. The words brush, bush, creek, paddock, and scrub acquired wider senses, whereas the terms brook, dale, field, forest, and meadow were seldom used. A creek leading out of a river and entering it again downstream was called an anastomizing branch (a term from anatomy), or an anabranch, whereas a creek coming to a dead end was called by its native name, a billabong. The giant kingfisher with its raucous bray was long referred to as a laughing jackass, later as a bushman's clock, but now it is a kookaburra. Cattle so intractable that only roping could control them were said to be ropable, a term now used as a synonym for „angry” or “extremely annoyed.” A deadbeat was a penniless “sundowner” at the very end of his tether, and a no-hoper was an incompetent fellow, hopeless and helpless. An offsider (strictly, the offside driver of a bullock team) was any assistant or partner. A rouseabout was first an odd-job man on a sheep station and then any kind of handyman. He was, in fact, the “down-under” counterpart of the wharf labourer, or roustabout, on the Mississippi River. Both words originated in Cornwall, and many other terms, now exclusively Australian, came ultimately from British dialects [19, p. 162].

“Dinkum,” for instance, meaning “true, authentic, genuine,” echoed the “fair dinkum,” or fair deal, of Lincolnshire dialect. “Fossicking” about for surface gold, and then rummaging about in general, perpetuated the term fossick (“to elicit information, ferret out the facts”) from the Cornish dialect of English. To “barrack,” or jeer noisily, recalled Irish “barrack” (“to brag, boast”), whereas “skerrick” in the phrase “not a skerrick left” was obviously identical with the “skerrick” meaning “small fragment, particle,”still heard in English dialects from Westmorland to Hampshire. Some Australian English terms came from Aboriginal speech: the words boomerang, corroboree (warlike dance and then any large and noisy gathering), dingo (reddish-brown wild dog), galah (cockatoo), gunyah (bush hut), kangaroo, karri (dark-red eucalyptus tree), nonda (rosaceous tree yielding edible fruit), wallaby (small marsupial), and wallaroo (large rock kangaroo). Australian English has slower rhythms and flatter intonations than RP. Although there is remarkably little regional variation throughout the entire continent, there is significant social variation. The neutral vowel /ə/ (as the a in “sofa”) is frequently used, as in London Cockney: “arches” and “archers” are both pronounced [a:t∫əz], and the pronunciations of RP “day” and “go” are, respectively, [dəi] and [gəu]. Although New Zealand lies over 1,000 miles away, much of the English spoken there is similar to that of Australia. The blanket term Austral English is sometimes used to cover the language of the whole of Australasia, or Southern Asia, but this term is far from popular with New Zealanders because it makes no reference to New Zealand and gives all the prominence, so they feel, to Australia. Between North and South Islands there are observable differences [5, c. 47].

For one thing, Maori, which is still a living language (related to Tahitian, Hawaiian, and the other Austronesian [Malayo-Polynesian] languages), has a greater number of speakers and more influence in North Island.

 

 

 

2.2. American and Canadian English

 

American English, variety of the English language spoken in the United States. Although all Americans do not speak the same way, their speech has enough in common that American English can be recognized as a variety of English distinct from British English, Australian English, and other national varieties. American English has grown up with the country. It began to diverge from British English during its colonial beginnings and acquired regional differences and ethnic flavor during the settlement of the continent. Today it influences other languages and other varieties of English because it is the medium by which the attractions of American culture—its literature, motion pictures, and television programs—are transmitted to the world.

All speakers of English share a common linguistic system and a basic set of words. But American English differs from British English, Australian English, and other national varieties in many of its pronunciations, words, spellings, and grammatical constructions.

Words or phrases of American origin, and those used in America but not so much elsewhere, are called Americanisms [25, p. 54].

In broad terms, Canadian and American speakers tend to sound like one another. They also tend to sound different from a large group of English speakers who sound more British, such as those in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. For example, most Canadians and Americans pronounce an r sound after the vowel in words like barn, car, and farther, while speakers from the British English group do not. Also, some British English speakers drop h sounds at the beginning of words, so that he and his are pronounced as if they were spelled ee and is. The English spoken in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa sounds more like British English than American English does because these varieties have had less time to diverge from British English. The process of separate development began later in these countries than in North America.

Although Canadians and Americans share many speech habits, Canadian speakers of English sometimes tend more toward British English because of the closer historical association of Britain with Canada. One prominent difference between American English and Canadian English is the vowel sound in words like out and house. Americans often say that the Canadian pronunciation sounds as if the words were spelled oot and hoose.

In some cases there are differences between American English and British English in the rhythm of words. British speakers seem to leave out a syllable in words like secretary, as if it were spelled secretry, while Americans keep all the syllables. The opposite is true of other words, such as specialty, which Americans pronounce with three syllables (spe-cial-ty) while British speakers pronounce it with five syllables (spe-ci-al-i-ty). Vowels and consonants may also have different pronunciations. British speakers pronounce zebra to rhyme with Debra, while American speakers make zebra rhyme with Libra. Canadian and British speakers pronounce the word schedule as if it began with an sh sound, while Americans pronounce it as if it began with an sk sound [3, p. 81].

The most frequently used words are shared by speakers of different varieties of English. These words include the most common nouns, the most common verbs, and most function words (such as pronouns, articles, and prepositions). The different varieties of English do, however, use different words for many words that are slightly less common—for example, British crisps for American potato chips, Australian billabong for American pond, and Canadian chesterfield for American sofa. It is even more common for the same word to exist with different meanings in different varieties of English. Corn is a general term in Britain, for which Americans use grain, while corn in American English is a specific kind of grain. The word pond in British English usually refers to an artificial body of water, whereas ponds also occur naturally in North America. British English chemist is the same as American English drugstore, and in Canada people go to the druggist. Many of the words most easily recognized as American in origin are associated with aspects of American popular culture, such as gangster or cowboy.

American English spelling differs from British English spelling largely because of one man, American lexicographer Noah Webster. In addition to his well-known An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster published The American Spelling Book (1783, with many subsequent editions), which became one of the most widely used schoolbooks in American history. Webster’s books sought to standardize spelling in the United States by promoting the use of an American language that intentionally differed from British English. The development of a specifically American variety of English mirrored the new country’s separate political development. Webster’s most successful changes were spellings with or instead of our (honor, labor for the British honour, labour); with er instead of re (center, theater for the British centre, theatre); with an s instead of a c (defense, license for the British defence, licence); with a final ck instead of que (check, mask for the British cheque, masque); and without a final k (traffic, public, now also used in British English, for the older traffick, publick). Later spelling reform created a few other differences, such as program for British programme. Canadian spelling varies between the British and American forms, more British in eastern Canada and more American in western Canada [7, p. 183].

The grammar of educated speakers of English differs little among national varieties. In the speech of people with less access to education, grammatical variations in regional and social varieties of American English are very common as normal, systematic occurrences (not as errors). One major difference between British and American English is that the two attach different verb forms to nouns that are grammatically singular but plural in sense. In American English, the team is…, or the government is… (because they are viewed as single entities), but in British English, the team are…, or the government are… (because teams and government are understood to consist of more than one person). Sometimes function words are used differently: The British stay in hospital but Americans stay in the hospital.

American English has never had a strict spoken standard that is considered “correct,” as most European languages have. Today the spoken standard in American English is best defined as the relative absence of characteristics—such as word choice or pronunciation—that might identify the speaker as coming from a particular region or social group. National newscasters and other broadcast personalities often adopt this speech type in public, as do many Americans in formal settings such as schools, courts, and boardrooms.

The spoken standard has become associated with education. In general the more someone has gone to school, the better the person’s command of American English without regional and social characteristics. This occurs largely because the written American English taught in schoolbooks does not include many regional or social features. This association does not mean that the spoken standard is more correct than speech with regional or social characteristics. However, standard language is usually more appropriate in formal situations because people have come to expect it on those occasions [18, p. 84].

Outside of schools and other formal situations, regional and social variations thrive in American English. The majority of Americans now live in urban and suburban communities instead of on isolated farms, and this change in residence patterns encourages development of informal speech types, each one of which is called a vernacular. Vernaculars develop especially in neighborhoods where people have a great deal of daily contact, but they also develop more broadly according to regional and social patterns of contact. Old regional words sometimes fade, but new ones take their place in regional vernaculars. The pronunciation of American English is also changing, but often in different ways in different vernaculars. American sociolinguist William Labov has suggested three sets of changes in pronunciation, each set appropriate to a different vernacular.

One pattern of change affects Northern cities: the vowel of wrought is often pronounced more like the one in rot; in turn, the vowel in rot is pronounced more like the one in rat; and the vowel in rat is pronounced more like the one in Rhett. Another pattern of change is occurring among South Midland and Southern speakers: the vowel of red is often pronounced more like the one in raid; in turn, the vowel in raid is often pronounced more like the vowel in ride.

Each vowel is actually pronounced as a combination of two vowel sounds, called a diphthong, which many people would say was part of a drawl. The third pattern of change affects New England, the North Midland, and most of the western United States and Canada. Many speakers in these areas no longer pronounce different vowels in words like cot and caught, or tot and taught, so that the words now sound alike. When these large patterns of change combine, unevenly, with regional words and other characteristics, the result is that vernacular speech tends to be somewhat different from city to city, or in places some distance apart.

While regional and social background certainly affects people’s speech, background does not prevent anyone from learning either the spoken standard or aspects of other regional and social varieties. When adults move to a new region, they typically do not pick up all the characteristics of speech in the new area. Young children, however, commonly learn to sound more like natives. The result is a mixture of speakers with different regional and social backgrounds in nearly every community. Spoken standard American English is also used in nearly every community. Some commentators predict the loss of regional and social characteristics because everyone hears spoken standard speech on radio and television.

However, passive exposure to the media will not outweigh the personal contact that occurs within neighborhoods and social groups and through regional travel. This contact strongly shapes regional and social varieties of speech.

The dialect regions of the United States are most clearly marked along the Atlantic littoral, where the earlier settlements were made. Three dialects can be defined: Northern, Midland, and Southern. Each has its sub dialects.

The Northern dialect is spoken in New England. Its six chief sub dialects comprise northeastern New England (Maine, New Hampshire, and eastern Vermont), south-eastern New England (eastern Massachusetts, eastern Connecticut, and Rhode Island), south-western New England (western Massachusetts and western Connecticut), the inland north (western Vermont and upstate New York), the Hudson Valley, and metropolitan New York.

The Midland dialect is spoken in the coastal region from Point Pleasant, in New Jersey, to Dover, in Delaware. Its seven major sub dialects comprise the Delaware Valley, the Susquehanna Valley, the Upper Ohio Valley, northern West Virginia, the Upper Potomac and Shenandoah, southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, western Carolina, and eastern Tennessee [10, p. 45].

The Southern dialect area covers the coastal region from Delaware to South Carolina. Its five chief subdialects comprise the Delmarva Peninsula, the Virginia Piedmont, north-eastern North Carolina (Albemarle Sound and Neuse Valley), Cape Fear and Pee Dee valleys, and the South Carolina Low Country, around Charleston.

These boundaries, based on those of the Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada, are highly tentative. To some extent these regions preserve the traditional speech of south-eastern and southern England, where most of the early colonists were born. The first settlers who came to Virginia (1607) and Massachusetts (1620) soon learned to adapt old words to new uses, but they were content to borrow names from the local Indian languages for unknown trees, such as hickory and persimmon, and for unfamiliar animals, such as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they took words from foreign settlers: “chowder” and “prairie” from the French, “scow” and “sleigh” from the Dutch. They made new compounds, such as “backwoods” and “bullfrog,” and gave new meanings to such words as “lumber” (which in British English denotes disused furniture, or junk) and “corn” (which in British English signifies any grain, especially wheat).

Historical background. Before the Declaration of Independence (1776), two-thirds of the immigrants had come from England, but after that date they arrived in large numbers from Ireland. The potato famine of 1845 drove 1,500,000 Irish to seek homes in the New World, and the European revolutions of 1848 drove as many Germans to settle in Pennsylvania and the Middle West. After the close of the American Civil War, millions of Scandinavians, Slavs, and Italians crossed the ocean and eventually settled mostly in the North Central and Upper Midwest states. In some areas of South Carolina and Georgia the American Negroes who had been imported to work the rice and cotton plantations developed a contact language called Gullah, or Geechee, that made use of many structural and lexical features of their native languages. This remarkable variety of English is comparable to such “contact languages” as Sranan (Taki-Taki) and Melanesian Pidgin. The speech of the Atlantic Seaboard shows far greater differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary than that of any area in the North Central States, the Upper Midwest, the Rocky Mountains, or the Pacific Coast. Today, urbanization, quick transport, and television have tended to level out some dialectal differences in the United States.

The boundary with Canada nowhere corresponds to any boundary between dialects, and the influence of United States English is strong, being felt least in the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland. Nevertheless, in spite of the effect of this proximity to the United States, British influences are still potent in some of the larger cities; Scottish influences are well sustained in Ontario. Canada remains bilingual. One-fourth of its people, living mostly in the province of Quebec, have French as their mother tongue. Those provinces in which French is spoken as a mother tongue by 10 percent or more of the population are described as “federal bilingual districts” in the Official Languages Bill of 1968 [20, p. 84].

 

Conclusions

 

A language is a particular system of words and sentences used as a means of oral and written communication and common to a particular nation living in some geographical area.

A dialect is a variety of a language distinguished from other varieties of the same language by differences in grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation, and by the use of this dialect by a group of people in some locality. A dialect may have regional varieties (regional dialects, subdialects, subvarieties) spoken by large or small communities of people in some localities.

An accent is a particular way of pronunciation and speaking characteristic of a group of people in some locality. Regional accents (local accents) are part of regional dialects (local dialects). An accent usually has the same name as the dialect to which it belongs.

Dialects and accents are usually named and grouped according to the name of the place where they are generally found, for example, British dialects, American dialects, American accents, Australian accents.

Note the use of articles with languages, dialects and accents: the English language; English; American English; the Southern dialect; Southern dialects; a Southern dialect; the Boston accent (as a whole; as a group of accents); Boston accents (several Boston accents); a Boston accent (one of Boston accents). 

The English language has quite a few dialects, including several major dialects, such as British English, American English, Australian English, Canadian English. These dialects have many regional varieties, with dialects and accents of their own.

There are also many other varieties of English around the world, including various types of English spoken by those for whom English is a second language, not their native language, for example, Singapore English, Indian English, Philippine English and many others.

Grammar, spelling and vocabulary are quite similar in most dialects of English, though some differences exist, of course, for example, in spelling. (See British and American Spelling in the section Writing.) But there are a lot of dialectal differences in pronunciation, which explains the existence of a large number of regional accents. 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ІІІ. FOREIGHN INFLUENCES ON ENGLISH

 

3.1. The Celtic, Latin and Scandinavian influences on English

 

Philip Durkin, Principal Etymologist at the Oxford English Dictionary, chooses five events that shaped the English Language.

It's never easy to pinpoint exactly when a specific language began, but in the case of English we can at least say that there is little sense in speaking of the English language as a separate entity before the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain. Little is known of this period with any certainty, but we do know that Germanic invaders came and settled in Britain from the northwestern coastline of continental Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries. The invaders all spoke a language that was Germanic (related to what emerged as Dutch, Frisian, German and the Scandinavian languages, and to Gothic), but we'll probably never know how different their speech was from that of their continental neighbours. However it is fairly certain that many of the settlers would have spoken in exactly the same way as some of their north European neighbours, and that not all of the settlers would have spoken in the same way [13, p. 87].

The reason that we know so little about the linguistic situation in this period is because we do not have much in the way of written records from any of the Germanic languages of northwestern Europe until several centuries later. When Old English writings begin to appear in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries there is a good deal of regional variation, but not substantially more than that found in later periods. This was the language that Alfred the Great referred to as ‘English’ in the ninth century.

The Celts were already resident in Britain when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, but there are few obvious traces of their language in English today. Some scholars have suggested that the Celtic tongue might have had an underlying influence on the grammatical development of English, particularly in some parts of the country, but this is highly speculative. The number of loanwords known for certain to have entered Old English from this source is very small.

Those that survive in modern English include brock (badger), and coomb a type of valley, alongside many place names.

The next invaders were the Norsemen. From the middle of the ninth century large numbers of Norse invaders settled in Britain, particularly in northern and eastern areas, and in the eleventh century the whole of England had a Danish king, Canute. The distinct North Germanic speech of the Norsemen had great influence on English, most obviously seen in the words that English has borrowed from this source. These include some very basic words such as take and even grammatical words such as they. The common Germanic base of the two languages meant that there were still many similarities between Old English and the language of the invaders. Some words, for example give, perhaps show a kind of hybridization with some spellings going back to Old English and others being Norse in origin. However, the resemblances between the two languages are so great that in many cases it is impossible to be sure of the exact ancestry of a particular word or spelling. However, much of the influence of Norse, including the vast majority of the loanwords, does not appear in written English until after the next great historical and cultural upheaval, the Norman Conquest [21, p. 155].