THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Lectures 1-2. Introduction 1. 2. 3. The subject-matter of the history of languages The comparative method of research in historical linguistics. Germanic languages 1. A living language can never be absolutely static; it develops together with the speech community. There are synchronic and diachronic approaches to studying the language. Historical linguistics as a science emerged in the 19 th century (accumulation of facts about the earlier stages of languages called for theoretical interpretation). The language history includes the internal or structural development of the language system. The description of internal linguistic history is presented in accordance with the division of language into linguistic levels. The history of the language is subdivided into historical phonetics (phonology), historical morphology, historical syntax and historical lexicology. The external history of language pertains to the functioning of language in the speech community. 2. In historical linguistics, the comparative method is a way of systematically comparing a series of languages in order to prove a historical relationship between them. Task. Consult Языкознание. Большой энциклопедический словарь/под ред. В.Н.Ярцевой at p. 485-486 in the folder Литература and put down the definitions of the comparative method and comparative linguistics (in Russian). 3. Genetically, English belongs to the Germanic group of languages, which is one of the twelve groups of the Indo-European linguistic family. The Germanic languages in the modern world are as follows: English, German, Netherlandish, Afrikaans, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Frisian, Faroese, and Yiddish. The history of the Germanic group begins with the Proto-Germanic language. This language was reconstructed by linguists. In the written period the dialects of Germanic tribes were divided into tree groups: North Germanic, East Germanic and West Germanic. All Germanic languages have linguistic features (in their sound system, grammar, vocabulary) that make it possible to include them into one group. Task. Enlarge your notes by the necessary information from the textbook by T.A.Rastorgueva “The History of the English language” (Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка (2003) §§1-8, 11-21, 22, 29, 30 pp. 10-23 §§32-72 pp.24-48 Note. You will find the textbook by Т.А. Rastorgueva (Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка (2003) in the folder Литература. Основная литература
