In epic poems such as Beowulf (many compounds): warrior =
rinc, mecʒ, se cʒ, freca; compounds: beodo-rinc (battle hero) here-rinc (army hero), etc.
The notion of ‘sword’= battle sword, battle friend.
The notion of harp: joy wood, joy beam, etc.
Discussion questions 1. General characteristics of Old English Vocabulary.
2. Native words in Old English.
3. Words of Common Germanic origin in Old English.
4. Words of Common Indo-European origin in Old English.
5. Semantic groups of Old English Vocabulary.
Reference
Don Ringe. From Proto –Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, Oxford University Press, 2006, 366 p.
Hogg R. Introduction to Old English. Edinburgh University Press, 2002, 174 p.
Kuldashev A.M. An Introduction to Germanic Philology. Tashkent, Шарқ Нашр Матбаа акционерлик жамияти. 2010, 154 p.
Kuldashev A.M. Formation and Development of the Global language. – Tashkent, Turon Iqbol, 2016. 118 p.
The Cambridge History of the English language. Vol. I. Cambridge University Press, 2005, 613 p.
Қўлдашев А.М., Хамзаев С.А. Инглиз тили тарихи. Т. Darssprint нашр, 2015. 192 бет.
Chapter XXIV. The Middle English Period
Key questions 1. Foreign Contacts in the Early New English Period.
2. Expansion of English over the British Isles.
3. Literary Renaissance in Early New English.
4. New Sources of Information about the Early New English.
5. Grammars and Dictionaries in the late XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries.
In the ME period a great change affected the entire system of vowel phonemes. OE had both short and long vowel phonemes, and each of these could occur in any phonetic environment, that is, they were absolutely independent phonemic units. As a result of important changes coming into the vowel system in the 10th-12th centuries, the ME vowel system was basically different. While in OE quantity (length/shortness) was a distinctive phonemic feature, in ME (by the 13th c.) quantity of vowels becomes dependent on their environment, exactly on what follows. In some phonetic environments only short vowels can appear, while in others only long vowels can appear. Thus quantity is no longer a phonemically relevant feature and becomes a merely phonetic peculiarity of a vowel sound. Let’s consider the changes that took place during the ME period.
Word Stress During the MdE period stress acquired greater positional freedom and began to play a more important role in word derivation. It was caused by phonetic assimilation of thousands of loan-words adopted during this period. New accentual patterns are found in numerous MdE loan-words from French. Probably, when they first entered the English language they retained their original stress on the ultimate or penultimate syllable. This kind of stress could not last long. Gradually, as loan-words were assimilated, the word stress was moved closer to the beginning of the word in line with the English (Germanic) system. This shift is accounted for by what is known as the ‘recessive tendency’ In disyllabic words the accent moved to the first syllable in conformity with the pattern of native words. In words of three and more syllables the shift of the stress could be caused by the recessive tendency and also by ‘the rhythmic tendency’, which required a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Under the rhythmic tendency, a secondary stress could arise at a distance of one syllable from the original stress: reco`mmendan – recommend. In many polysyllabic words both tendencies; the recessive and the rhythmic operated together and brought about several changes. For example, in MnE consolation we find the results of the shift from the final to the preceding syllable [lei] due to the recessive tendency and a secondary stress on the first syllable. Sometimes the shifting of the word stress should be attributed to certain morphological factors. Thus prefixes of many verbs were not stressed in accordance with the OE tradition while corresponding nouns received the stress on the first syllable: present –pre-sent. This example shows that the role of word accentuation has grown; word stress performs a phonological function as it distinguishes a verb from a noun. The position of word stress became relatively free and its phonological application has widened: it can be shifted in word derivation, though it is never moved in building grammatical forms.
