The History of English

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Wardja Press, Dec 3, 2007 - Education - 232 pages
The History of English: A Linguistic Introduction is for anyone interested in the history of the English language. While leading the reader through the pre-history of English, through Germanic times, Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English, the book also introduces the reader to concepts in theoretical and historical linguistics. It includes authentic texts from each period of the language, from Beowulf to the King James Bible. This book is a great introduction to the field of linguistics for anyone interested in language!

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Contents

Reconstructing IndoEuropean
7
IndoEuropean Phonetics and Phonology
13
The IndoEuropean Daughter Families
28
Characteristics of the Germanic Languages
34
The Subdivisions of Germanic
47
The Germanic Daughter Languages
48
Old Norse
56
Old Saxon
68
Sample Texts
108
Literature
114
Sample Texts
133
EARLY MODERN ENGLISH
139
Sample Texts
158
THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH
177
Sample Texts
195
INDEX
213

Old Frisian
78
Literature
88

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Page 5 - The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists...
Page 3 - Therefore is the name of it called Babel ; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

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