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The origins and development of the English language / John Algeo, Thomas Pyles.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Algeo, John.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- English language--History.
- English language.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xii, 370 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
- Edition:
- Fifth edition.
- Place of Publication:
- Boston, Mass. : Thomson Wadsworth, [2005]
- Summary:
- Updated to reflect current research and rewritten to further enhance the clarity of presentation, the fifth edition of this best-seller continues to take a linguistic-analysis approach as well and focus on the facts of language rather than theoretical approaches.
- Contents:
- 1 Language and the English Language: an Introduction 1
- Language as System 2
- Language Signs 5
- Language as Speech 6
- Language as Convention 9
- Language as Human 14
- Language as Communication 16
- Other Characteristics of Language 17
- Why Study the History of English? 18
- 2 The Sounds of Current English 22
- The Organs of Speech 22
- Consonants of Current English 23
- Vowels of Current English 26
- Stress 31
- Kinds of Sound Change 31
- Causes of Sound Change 34
- The Phoneme 35
- Differing Transcriptions 37
- 3 Letters and Sounds: a Brief History of Writing 39
- Ideographic and Syllabic Writing 39
- From Semitic Writing to the Greek Alphabet 40
- The Romans Adopt the Greek Alphabet 41
- The History of English Writing 44
- The Spelling of English Consonant Sounds 46
- The Spelling of English Vowel Sounds 49
- Spelling Pronunciations and Pronunciation Spellings 51
- Writing and History 53
- 4 The Backgrounds of English 55
- Indo-European Origins 55
- Language Typology and Language Families 57
- Non-Indo-European Languages 59
- Main Divisions of the Indo-European Group 61
- Cognate Words in the Indo-European Languages 70
- Inflection in the Indo-European Languages 71
- Word Order in the Indo-European Languages 75
- Major Changes from Indo-European to Germanic 76
- First Sound Shift 78
- West Germanic Languages 82
- 5 The old English Period (449-1100) 86
- Some Key Events in the Old English Period 86
- History of the Anglo-Saxons 87
- Pronunciation and Spelling 95
- Vocabulary 99
- Grammar, Concord, and Inflection 101
- Nouns 102
- Modifiers 106
- Pronouns 108
- Verbs 110
- Syntax 116
- Old English Illustrated 118
- 6 The Middle English Period (1100-1500) 123
- Some Key Events in the Middle English Period 123
- The Background of the Norman Conquest 124
- The Reascendancy of English 125
- Foreign Influences on Vocabulary 126
- Middle English Spelling 127
- The Rise of a London Standard 131
- Changes in Pronunciation 134
- Changes in Grammar 141
- Nouns, Pronouns, and Adjectives 142
- Verbs 147
- Word Order 149
- Middle English Illustrated 150
- 7 The Early Modern English Period (1500-1800): Society, Spellings, and Sounds 153
- Some Key Events in the Early Modern Period 153
- The Transition from Middle to Modern English 155
- The Orthography of Early Modern English 156
- The Great Vowel Shift 160
- Other Vowels 163
- Early Modern English Consonants 166
- Evidence for Early Modern Pronunciation 168
- Early Modern English Illustrated 169
- 8 The Early Modern English Period (1500-1800): Forms, Syntax, and Usage 173
- The Study of Language 174
- Nouns 178
- Adjectives and Adverbs 181
- Pronouns 182
- Verbs 189
- Prepositions 199
- Early Modern English Further Illustrated 199
- 9 Late Modern English (1800-21st Century) 201
- Some Key Events in the Late Modern Period 201
- The National Varieties of English 202
- National Differences in Word Choice 205
- Syntactical and Morphological Differences 209
- British and American Purism 209
- National Differences in Pronunciation 212
- British and American Spelling 215
- Variation within National Varieties 216
- World English 222
- The Essential Oneness of All English 224
- 10 Words and Meanings 227
- Semantics and Change of Meaning 228
- Generalization and Specialization 230
- Transfer of Meaning 231
- Pejoration and Amelioration 234
- Taboo and Euphemism 235
- The Fate of Intensifying Words 238
- Some Circumstances of Semantic Change 239
- Semantic Change Is Inevitable 243
- 11 New Words From Old 245
- Creating Words 245
- Combining Words: Compounding 248
- Combining Word Parts: Affixing 252
- Shortening Words 257
- Blending Words 262
- Shifting Words to New Uses 265
- Sources of New Words 268
- 12 Foreign Elements in the English Word Stock 271
- Latin and Greek Loanwords 272
- Celtic Loanwords 276
- Scandinavian Loanwords 277
- French Loanwords 279
- Spanish and Portuguese Loanwords 283
- Italian Loanwords 284
- Germanic Loanwords 285
- Loanwords from the East 288
- The Sources of Recent Loanwords 292
- English Remains English 293.
- Notes:
- Authors names in reverse order in previous eds.
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [295]-310) and indexes.
- ISBN:
- 015507055X
- OCLC:
- 56416319
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