This book has been divided into three sections. Each ch apter covers some aspects related to the evolution of the English Language, namely: Old… [602783]

1 Coperta format
simpl u
ENGLAND ,
THE NATION’S
TREASURE

2 PREFACE
This book has been divided into three sections.
Each ch apter covers some aspects related to the evolution
of the English Language, namely: Old English, Middle
English and Modem English.
The plot is attractive as it offers a large field of
exploration as well as possible answers and ways to
understanding English in its complexity.
Those who study English should know something
about t he evolution of the language, its main
characteristics, its relation to other languages, the ways in
which it has enriched its vocabula ry and perfected its
grammar structure, and the great economic, social,
political and cultural factors which have influen ced it.
A study of the history of English Language will
also help us to go deeper into the realm of the evolution of
the language across the ages and also to observe its
passing, from insignificant and scarcely pe rceptible
quantitative changes to obvious, fundamental qualitative
changes.

3 The history of the English Language is not only a
useful and interesting branch itself, or just helping us to
understand contemporary English as a result of a
complicated process of development and reciprocal
influence of different factors and to establish its place
among the other languages. It is also of great help to us
when studying and discovering the history of English
Literature .

4

MOTTO

“I often wonder if I did not know English, what I
should think of the sound of it, well talked. I believe I
should esteem it a soft speech, very pleasant to the ear,
varied but emphatic, singularly free from guttural or
metallic sounds, restful and friend ly.
I believe I should choose it, well spoken, before
any language in the world, as the medium of expression of
which we would tine last.”
John G lasworthy, “On Expression”

5
CONTENTS
Argument
Chapter 1
1.1 The English Language – a mongrel
1.2 English – a Germanic Language
1.3 The Languages that Preceded English
Chapter 2
2.1 The Evolution of the English Language
2.2 Old English
2.2.1 Old English Spelling and Pronunciation
2.2.2 The Old English Vocabulary
2.2.3 Old English Grammar
2.3 Middle English
2.3.1 Middle English Spelling and Pronunciation
2.3.3 The Middle English Vocabulary
2.3.3 Middle English Grammar
2.4 Modern English
2.4.1 Early Modem English
2.4.2 General Characteristi cs of Early Modem
English

6 2.5 The English Language in the Second Half of the 17th
Century and in the 18th Century
2.5.1 English Lexicography in the 18th Century
2.6.The English Language in the 19th Century and the
First Half of the 20lh Century
2.6.1 English Lexicography in the 19th Century
and 20th Century
Chapter 3
3.1 Now the English Language Spread Abroad
3.2 American English
Conclusions
Appendix
Bibliography

7 Chapter 1
1.1 The English Language – a mongrel
The English Language is a mongrel, with such a
history of alteration, innovation and reformation that it
seems improbable that anything they have today has any
true equivalent in the past. Yet the human body can
change dramatically in a lifetime without altering its
identity; from first teeth to false teeth, John Smith is John
Smith. Why that should be plunges us into philosophy, but
suffice to say that the simple co nclusion is that John Smith
is not the name of a physical body only. Does the same
apply to language?
The question is, if they speak a different language,
are they of the same nation? Is it possible that, say, Alfred
the Great, Chaucer and Shakespeare had each equal cause
and claim to consider himself English? Were they able to
meet beyond the constrain ts of space – time, what would
these speakers of three tongues find in common?
Chaucer would probably comprehend most of the
words of Alfred, but confounded by the linguistic
inventiveness of Shakespeare, might consider him a
clever young upstart who makes free with the rules.

8 Shakespeare in turn would be irritated by Chaucer‟s
Frenc h terms, but would understand him well enough,
whereas he might consider Alfred to be as foreign as the
Prince of Denmark. Poor Alfred would be listening to two
foreigners who had invented queer polyglot languages
based on his own dear tongue.
Over the ag es, while the grammar has simplified
beyond Alfred‟s recognition, the vocabulary has increased
by a multitude of words either created from the native
stock or drawn from other languages. Certain things,
however, have remained the same. First, the core lang uage
itself – without it we could not speak English. Although
they may be spelt or pronounced differently thousands of
native nouns and verbs are still in use and as they will see,
anyone who wishes to speak effectively will resort to
them. One of them is p articularly worthy of attention .

9
1.2. English -a Germanic Language

Although the earliest inhabitants of Britain were
not of Germanic origin, English belongs to the Germanic
languages, which in their turn belong to the large
Indo-European family of languages. The latter comes
from a common ancestor – the hypothetical language now
referred to as Indo -European – which must have been
spoken by a people living in a relatively limited
geographical area. For a long time, this area w as believed
to have been in Asia, but in our century, linguistic,
archaeological and anthropological research work has
infirmed this idea, tending to prove that the
Indo-European home was in Europe, probably in its
central or south eastern part.
The Indo -European family is composed of the
following main branches of languages: Indian, Slavic,
Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Hellenic. They have two
main common characteristics: an in -flexional structure, a
grammatical system based on changes in the forms of
words by means of endings, for indicating case, number,

10 mood, tense and a common word – stock. This common
word – stock includes the names of parts of the body,
natural phenomena, plants, animals, the numerals from
one to ten.
The Germanic languages fall i nto three
groups: East Germanic, North Germanic and West
Germanic.
The chief representative of the East Germanic
languages is Gothic. At the beginning of our era Goths
occupied the region of the Lower Vistula. It is three
centuries older than any Old Engli sh document and four
centuries older than any Old High German document, thus
forming the nearest approach one can have to Common
Germanic.
The oldest North Germanic documents are in
Old Norse, which split up into West Norse (now Icelandic
and Norwegian) an d East Norse (now Danish and
Swedish). The Scandinavian languages are important to
those who study English because of the parallels between
Old Icelandic and Old English literature and because of
the linguistic consequences of the Scandinavian invasions
in England.

11 The West Germanic languages were divided into
two branches , High and Low German. High Germ an is
now represented solely by what is known as German – the
literary language of Germany, also spoken in Austria and
a large part of Switzerland. The Low German tongues
were Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian, Old Frisian and
Old English.
Old English th erefore belonged to the Low
German tongues, which were part of the group of West
Germanic languages. It was the result of a mixture of
several Germanic dialects, brought over by the Angles,
the Saxons and Jutes.

1.3. The Languages That Preceded English
We know nothing at all about the languages that
were spoken in Britain during the Stone Age.
The earliest inhabitants of Britain about whose
language we have reliable information are the Celts. Their
remarkable literature was to exert a very lasting and
important influence on English literature.
There were two main branches of Celts; the
Cymric or Britannic Celts, who lived in Britain and the

12 Goidelic or Gaelic Celts, w ho lived at first in Ireland and
then spread to the East and South -East. The language of
the Britannic Celts is now represented in Britain by
Welsh, still spoken by about on e million people; in 1931
only three per cent of the population (3%) in Wales did
not know English. Cornish, which had the same origin as
Welsh, died out as a spoken language towards the close of
the 18Ih century. The language of the Gaelic Celts is now
represented by Irish, Scotch Gaelic1 and Manx2 Irish is
spoken by less than half a mi llion people, of whom only
20,000 do not know English. Scotch Gaelic is spoken by
about 150,000 people, of whom less than 10,000 do not
know English. Manx is almost extinct; in 1931 it was
known only to 537 persons, who knew English as well, the
total po pulation of the island being 49, 4091. A third
branch of Celts, the Belgae, came from Northern Gaul
about the year 100 before our era. Th ey settled in the
South, practic ed extensive agriculture and built a number
of towns.

1 Not to be mixed up with Gallic, which was spoken in Gaul
2 In the Isles of Main
3 See Carl BRUNNER , Die englische sprache – ihre geschichtliche,
Entwicklung , Halle, 1950, vol I , pag 50

13 The first Indo -European tongue to be spoken in
Britain was, therefore, Celtic. The second one was Latin,
which was int roduced after the Roman Conquest of 43 of
our era and was spoken for about four centuries. It was
known to the upper classes which were completely
Romanized; it was the langu age of civil administration,
the army, trade, the Christian religion and, to a large
extent the inhabitants of the cities and towns.
The spiritual life of Britain does not seem to have
been a very much developed one. There were no Roman
writers born there. Very few traces of Roman culture
subsisted, except in a number of towns which, according
to their names, had certainly existed before the Ge rmanic
occupation. As early as 350, the unconquered Piets and
Scots began a series of attacks which swept Br itain right
up to the walls of London, burning and pillaging many
villas and towns. The first Saxon raids took place at about
the same time and, after the departure of the Roman troops
in 407, the situation of the Britons grew even worse for,
“when a new e nemy, the Anglion and Saxons tribes from
the German coast who had already made themselves
feared as daring raiders, appeared about 450 as intending

14 conquers and settlers they found much of the work of the
Romans undone already. The richest and most civiliz ed
part of the island, in which their landing were made, had
been laid waste before their arrival. Centralized
government had disappeared and in its place was a welter
of petty principalities under the control of local land lords
or magnates at the heard o f armed bands that were almost
as ruinous to the people as the enemies from whom they
claimed to provide protection. It was largely for this
reason that the traces of Roman rule in Britain are so few
and the English conquest so complete2.

2 A. L. MORTON, A People's History of England, London, 1948,
p.32

15
Chapter 2
2.1 Th e Evolution of the English Language
Language is made up of many elements, of which
the primary ones are grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation
and spelling, and English has changed in each of these
areas.
An examination of English vocabulary can, like a
cross -section of a tree reveal the history of the nation. At
the core is Anglo -Saxon with its Germanic and
Indo-European roots. Then we have a faint ring of
ecclesiastical Latin from the seventh century, followed by
a grainy ring of words accumulated from the D anes, a
substantial ring of French and then a secondary and much
fuller ring of Latin, shot through with Greek. At the outer
edges of recent times, we have modem English, a product
of all that has gone before along with much accumulated
since from all the nations of the world indeed, the spelling

16 and the pronunciation of English greatly differ from what
they were; the vocabulary has changed – many words
disappearing, others entering the language, others
changing their meaning; there are numerous
modificatio ns among grammatical forms and inflexions.
Within the steady development of English, three
main periods are to be distinguished, each of them having
certain broad characteristics. They are the following:
1. Old English – from about 450 (the first Germanic
invasions) to about 1100. It may be subdivided into Early
Old English and Late Old English. Old English, being a
grandchild of the first language of the Indo -European, was
an infected language.
2. Middle English – from about 1100 to about 1500. It
may be subd ivide into Early Middle English and Late
Middle English.
3. Modern English – from about 1500 to the present
time. It may be subdivided into Early Modem English
and Late Modem English.
Certain specialists refer to Old English and
Middle English as Early Englis h and they call Modem
English New English. Old English is generally referred to
as the period of full endings or full inflexions, Middle

17 English as the period of leveled/ equal endings or
leveled/ equal inflexions, and Modern English as the
period of lost endings or lost inflexions.
As a matter of fact, these designations ar e not
quite accurate. It is true that the noun, the adjective, the
pronoun, the verb were highly inflected throughout the
greatest part of the Old English period, but they were less
so than they had been in Gothic. In Late Old English, a
new process of leveling or e qualization began and it
increased very rapidly during the Middle English period.
The loss of endings and inflexions began in Late Middle
English and continued in Early Modem English.
It would be more adequate to call Old English
the period of numerous endings and inflexions, Middle
English the period of leveling, equal endings and
inflexions and Modern English the period of few
endings and inflexions.
The evolution of inflexional system in English
entitles us to say that Old English was a synthetic
language, whereas Modem Engli sh is an analytic
language. It must be pointed out that, in the course of its
development, English has simplified its in -flexional
system to a large r extent than all the other Germ anic

18 languages. The decay of inflexions does not imply a
corresponding decay of the language as a whole. It is
possible to express even the most abstract and subtle
thoughts in English, both by lexical and by grammatical
means. On the other hand, this does not mean that an
analytical language is superior to a synthetical one.
2.2 Old English
Old English manuscripts are more numerous than
any other Germanic manuscripts of the same period that
have come down to us. The oldest are several glosses a nd
glossaries belonging to the 8th and 9th centuries.
Although it is only a small part of what was
actually produced, the extant Old English literature is
comparatively rich. When the Anglo -Saxons came to
Britain , they brought with them no writ ten literature, but
only war -songs and sagas, which were transmitted orally.
Old English poetry also c omprised verse
paraphrases of the scriptures (such as Genesis and Exodus
by Caedmon), sacred poems, legends from the lives of the
saints, didactic poems, elegies, charms and riddles. All in

19 all, there have come down to us about 30,000 lines in Old
English. Chaucer alone, in the 14th century, was to leave
more than that.
“Go littele book
And for ther is so gret diversite
In Englissh and in writing of our tonge,
So prey I God that no myswrite the,
Ne the mysmetre for defaut of tonge.”
(Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde )
Old English prose was mainly represented by
King Old English prose was mainly represented by King
Alfred, who translated historical works like Orosius‟
Universal History or History of the World and moral
treatises like Boethius‟ Consolation of Philosophy in
order to popularize them.
In Orosius‟ first chapter we find some travel –
descriptions written in King Alfred‟s own words.
Commenting on them, Simeon Potter says: “Such passage
demonstrate clearly that ov er a thousand years ago writers
of Engli sh have developed a useful, all purpose prose
medium. Indeed English was the earliest and most

20 advanced vernacular in Europe.3

2.2.1 Old English Spelling and Pronunciation

Like all the Germanic tribes of Germany and
Scandinavia, at a very early stage, the English used certain
angular letters called runes for writing charms and
inscriptions upon monuments. After the introduction of
Christianity, they adopted a form of Latin a lphabet which
had come through an Irish source.
In Anglo -Saxon England, Germanic runes were
still used in inscriptions and Latin letters in manuscripts.
Where we write “sh” nowadays for the sound [/], we find
“sc” in Old English texts as in “sceap” (“sheep ”) or
“sceotan” (“to shoot”) and where we write “k” we find
“c”, as in “cymn” (“kin”) or “nacod” (“naked”). As far as
punctuation is concerned, John Williams Clark describes
it as being “rare, sporadic and above all inconsistent and
unsystematic. Some manu scripts have almost no
punctuation; those that have, we might often wish

3 Simeon POTTER, Our Language, London, 1963, p.20 .

21 followed the same practice.”4
Old English manuscripts are seldom written in a
cursive hand. The letters are usually separate and upright.
Certain words, which were probably pronounced in Old
English almost as they are at present, seem quite
unfamiliar to us at first sight , because of their spelling:
“folc” (folk), “scip” (ship), “bæ c” (back), “cin“ (chin).
When an Old English text is read, sentences should have
approximately their norm al modern rhythm and
intonation, because in Germanic words stress has not
shifted much during the past ten centuries.
In Old English the spelling was practically
phonetic, whereas nowadays it is etymological.
The main characteristics of the phonetic system
of Old English were therefore the following:
1. The vowel sounds were long and short
monophthongs and long and short diphthongs.
2. In unstressed syllables there were no long vowels
and no diphthongs and the short vowels had a
tendency to grow weaker.

4 John WILLIAMS CLARK, Early English, London, 1957, pp.81 -82

22 3. The consonants were much the same as in
Modem English; but there were two which have
disappeared in the meantime: [Y] and [X]; two
have changed very much; [r] and [j]; five were
not yet independent phonemes. The others have
generally remained unchanged as rega rds both
their status and their quality.

2.2.2 The Old English Vocabulary

The Old English vocabulary is almost purely
Germanic, but about 85 per cent (85%) of it has gone out
of use.
Therefore, many of the Old English words that
have disappeared belong t o the highly poetic vocabulary.
Nowadays, although more than half of the words to be
found in an English dictionary are of Romanic origin, the
basic word stock of the language has remained mostly
Germanic. Indeed, it is quite obvious that the names of the
nearest family relationships, of most parts of the body, of
many common plants, animals, tools, weapons, colours,
shapes, of the simplest moral qualities are of Germanic
origin.

23 The principal means of enriching the vocabulary
in Old English were word build ing and borrowing, the
former being resorted to much more often than the latter.
The Scandinavian invasions constituted an
important military and political event, which exerted a
powerful influence on the Old English language. The
Scandinavian influence af fected the vocabulary –
especially the basic word stock – in a very well -marked
manner. A few inflexions of the Northumbrian dialect
have been attributed to Scandinavian influence, for
instance the -s of the 3 rd person singular present
indicative and the p articipial ending “-and”,
corresponding to “-end” and “-ind” in the Midlands and
South (now replaced by “-ing”). The vocabulary of Old
English poetry attained an extraordinary variety and
flexibility through the great wealth of synonyms,
especially in the domains which formed the main subjects
of poetry; thus there were numberless synonyms for
words like war, shield, sword, battle, sea, ship.
Old English poetry is marked by the half -line
break and has the sound of the rise and fall of a wave, or of
the oar pulling. Poetry with a strong, repetitive rhythm
and an end – rhyme encourages hurry, but the measure of

24 Old English poetry is steady and con templative. Common
phrases like “as bold as brass”, “as cool as a cucumber”,
“from top to toe” have been formed on principles
followed by the Anglo -Saxon bards .

2.2.3 Old English Grammar

Old English grammar had a well – developed
system of parts of spee ch comprising two groups:
 Independent parts of speech: the noun, the
pronoun, the adjective, the numeral, the verb, the
adverb.
 Form – words: the preposition, the conjunction.
Old English had a very rich inflexional system :
the noun, the pronoun, the adjec tive and the first three
numerals were defined. Old English nouns also had
gender, but that has completely disappeared, saving us all
the trouble that speakers of other languages still have in
remembering whether an inanimate object is a he or a she.
In Ol d English, as in Modem English, the noun had two
numbers: singular and plural. It had four cases:
nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. The main

25 declensions were the vowel or strong declension and the
consonant or weak declension, each of these type s having
certain subdivisions. The criterion was whether the stem
of the noun had ended in a vowel or a consonant in
Common Germanic.
The Adjective was fully declined in Old English,
having three genders, two numbers and four cases. There
were two declensi ons of adjectives: the strong one and the
weak one. Adjectives were freely substantivized in Old
English. If preceded by the definite article, they were
generally inflected according to the weak declension, e.g.
“the little he ploughed, he ploughed with ho rses”.
As in all Germanic languages, there were two
great classes of verbs: the weak and the strong verbs. The
four main forms give the stems used for building up all the
forms of Old English strong verbs: the stem of the
infinitive for the present indicat ive and subjunctive, the
imperative and the indefinite participle; the second fonn
for the 1st and 3rd person singular of the past indicative;
the third form for the 2nd person singular and 1st, 2nd and
3rd person plural of the past indicative, as well as for the
whole past subjunctive.

26 In Old English there existed three finite moods –
the indicative, the imperative and the subjunctive – and
three non -finite forms: the infinitive, the indefinite
participle and the past participle. The conjugation of the
verb in Old English had twice as many forms as there are
in Modem English, owing to the well – developed
subjunctives and, especially, to the fact the forms of the
plural differed from those of the singular.

2.3 Middle English

The Norman Conquest, which took place in
1066, had a greater effect on the English language than
any other event in the course of its history. The sound
changes that occurred all long the Middle English period
had begun long before and would certainly have taken
place even if the No rmans had not conquered Britain. The
character of the conquest is reflected in a number of place
– names. They gave French names to their estates. Class
interests made the remnants of the English ruling class
learn French, and for two hundred years after t he
conquest, French remained the language of the Court

27 and feudal aristocracy in England.
French was used in the law courts because
practically all judges were Normans and did not know
English. French shared with Latin the fields of science,
education and literature. But more than ninety per
cent (90%) of the population – for example the
peasants – continued to speak English and a small part of it
– especially the tradesmen and some of the craftsmen –
were bilingual.
The co -existence of the two languages in the
country gave rise to their struggle, which lasted during the
12th, 13th, and 14th, centuries. Naturally, the struggle of the
two languages did not result in a mixed language, but in
the victory of English, which at the same time enriched its
vocabular y by adopting many French words.
Middle English literature fully reflects the
linguistic situation shown above. The “polite” literature of
the first period was written in French while chroniclers
and scholars continued to use Latin. The only works
written in English between 1150 and 1250 were almost
exclusively religious, the most important among them
being the Omnulwn, the Ancren Riwle, Genesis and
Exodus.

28 In the 13th, century, romances began to be
translated and adapted from the French e.g. Sin Tristrem,
King Horn, King Alisaunder. The second part of the 14th,
century is an outstanding period in Middle English
literature owing to Chaucer, Langland, Wyclif f and the
popular ballads. Besides their literary value, these works
prove the secure position the Engl ish language had
attained in the 14th, century.

2.3.1 Middle English Spelling and
Pronunciation

Before discussing spelling and pronunciation
during the Middle English period, it is necessary to say a
few words about the manuscripts of the time. This refers
particularly to the 14th and 15th centuries, when paper
began to be used instead of parchment which was very
expensive. On the other hand, the growing number of
schools impli ed an ever increasing necessity of
manuscripts. But most texts of this kind were written in
Latin or French. Whenever an English text was copied, its
spelling was influenced by these two languages.
The alphabet as used by the Middle English

29 scribes has what is called the “continental values”. The
main characteristics of the Phone tic System of Middle
English were the following:
 the disappearance of the Old English diphthongs of the
“ea” type;
 the development of new diphthongs of the “ei” type;
 the new principle according to which the quantity of
the vowel depends on the phonetic conditions of the word,
on the position of the vowel in the whole word;
 the weakening or even the loss of unstressed vowel
sounds.
The after – effects of the Norman Conquest on the
phonetic structure of the English language have not yet
been thoroughly stu died. In the sphere of vowel sounds,
the only influence of French loanwords is probably to be
found in the diphthong “oi”, which had not existed in Old
English. As has already been stated, it entered the
language during the Middle English period in such wo rds
as: noise, point, poise. In contemporary English it can also
be found in some words which do not come from French,
but these are isolated cases e.g. boy, toy, joy, buoy.
Therefore the main source of the diphthong “oi” must be
French.

30 2.3.2 The Middle English Vocabulary
The development of the vocabulary in Middle
English is due to the inner resources of the language as
well as to the borrowing of words and morphemes from
other languages. Owing to the fact that the number of loan
– words is very great, scientists have so f ar mostly
concentrated on this means of enriching the vocabulary
neglecting the other ones, namely the inner resource of the
language, such as affixation (e.g. in overslee p, foolish,
beeall, mislay), composition (e.g. sweet – smelling, father
-in – law, house – hold), change of meaning.
Very few French words had been borrowed before
the Norman Conquest. The importance of the French
influence is not to be judged by the numbe r of words
borrowed, but also by their frequency of use and by their
degree of assimilation. The French loan – words may be
divided into the following groups, according to the main
spheres of activity they belonged to:
 feudal administration: government, es tate (state),
realme, page, noble, court, castel, baron, prince, duk,
maine. Town is English; city and village are French.
 law. As French was the language of the law courts for a

31 very long time, most legal terms are French origin: justice,
court, sentence, crime, fraude, blame, defence.
 army and military life. There are many French
military terms such as: army, armes, combat, lance, mail,
peace, victorie.
 trades. The new mobility brought many luxury trades
from France and this fact accounts for such French words
as mercer, tailor, jeweller.
 art, literature, s cience. The cultural and scientific
preoccupation of the time are reflected in words connected
with arts, literature and science, e.g. art, sculpture, beute
(“beauty”), colour, image, mansion, column, porche,
chamber, celer (“cellar”); poete, prolog, preface, volum,
papies, logique, noun, gendre, medecine, remedie. bame
(“balm”), poison.
 fashion, meals, l eisure. The mobility naturally
introduced a large number of words connected with
fashion, meals as robe, cape, cloke (“cloak”), cote
(“coat”), bote (“boot”), satin, perle. diamant, rubin,
dinner, soper, beef, veel, pork, sardine, fruit, cheri, taste,
fric, ioye (“joy”), pleir (“pleasure”), revel, desport (“sport,
rninth”).

32 Many of the French words that were borrowed
had a meaning which was already expressed by an English
word. When this happened either one of the two words
died out, or they were differentiated in meaning.
2.3.3 Middle English Grammar
Middle English grammar was ch aracterised by a
general level ling and reduction of inflexions – a process
which was due to causes inherent in th e language and not
to the Norman Conquest as has been thought by many. The
Norman Conquest exerted a less direct influence because
the contact of the Normans with the English was limited,
the two languages were spoken by different classes and,
moreover, they were quite dissimilar, English being a
Germanic tongue and French a Romanic one.
The noun . The process developed more and more
rapidly in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, especially in the
North, where it was supported by the mixing of English
and Scandinavian dialects. Gender was expressed only by
the personal pronoun in the 3rd person singular and this
was no longer done according to grammatical gender, but

33 to na tural gender. Nouns ending in “-f” or “-th”
maintained the interchange of voiced and voiceless
conso nants: e.g. life – lives, path – pathes. The nouns that do
not change their final “-f” into “-v” in the plural are
generally of French origin, or they end i n “-rf, -ff, or
–oof” example scarfs, cliffs, roofs. It is usually said that
nouns which end in “-y” preceded by a consonant form
their plural in “-ies”. As a matter of fact, their singular
ending was not “-y” in Middle English, but ” ie”.
Prepositional phr ases began to be used more and
more often instead of caseforms, namely the „to-“ phrase
instead of the dative and the “of-“ phrase partly instead of
the genitive. In Middle English texts we find no genitive
singular inflexion with nouns ending in “-s”, wit h the
numerous proper nouns in “-us”, “-as”, “-es”, “-is”, with
French nouns in “-ess”, “-es”, “-ise” and with nouns in
“-ness”. This can still be seen nowadays in certain cases
such as: to go on horseback, St. James Park, for
goodness’ sake.
The adjective was influenced by the loss of
grammatical gender and of most case – inflexions of the
noun. Besides, in the weak declension, the typical plural –

34 ending “-en” was dropped.
The verb. All the types of verbs that had existed
in Old English (strong, weak, pr eterit – present and
irregular) subsisted in Middle English but in each of them
there occurred different changes which were either
connected with the phonetic phenomena of the Middle
English period or due to the principal of analogy. Besides,
a large numbe r of strong verbs became weak and a few
weak verbs became strong. When, after the Norman
Conquest, French became the language of the nobility and
the major part of the English speaking population had no
access to education. The pattern of weak verbs was
sometimes wrongly applied to strong verbs. In the 13th
century the tendency was reflected even in literature: verbs
such as bow, brew, climb, help, row, step, walk were
becoming weak. In the 14th century about thirty more
strong verbs developed weak forms. L ater there were few
changes of this sort (about a dozen in the 15th century and a
dozen in Modem English); the tendency was probably
checked by the reestablishment of English and by the
stabilizing effect of printing.
The conjugation of the verb was subjec ted to

35 serious modifications in Middle English. The 1st and 2nd
person singular present indicative ended in “-e” and
:”-est”, as they had with most Old English verbs. The
inflexion of the 3rd person singular was “-eth” in the
South, “-es” and “-eth” in the Midlands and “-es” in the
North. The Old English plural inflexion for the present
indicative “-ap” became “-eth” in the South, ”–en”, “-e”,
“-es” in the Midlands and “-es”, “-is” in the North. The
ending of the indefinite participle was “-inde” in th e
South, ” –ende ” in the Midlands and “-ande ” in the North.
In the 14th century all these variants were
gradually outed by “-ing”, at first in the Midlands, then in
the South and finally in the North. The endings of the past
participle were “-(e)d” or “-t” for weak verbs and “-en”
for strong verbs.
As far as tenses were concerned in Middle
English, it is worth mentioning that the present perfect
and the past perfect were used more and more often in
Middle English, but it is not very clear if they merely
referred to an action or also to its later results. The past
tense still occurred quite frequently in cases in which the
present perfect is now used.

36 Some of the Old English conjunctions went out of
use in Middle English, but, on the other hand, there
appe ared new conjunctions from other parts of speech or
borrowed from other languages. Thus, by the 14th century
the co -ordinate conjunction ac had disappeared, being
replaced by but, from th e Old English preposition butan
(“without”), which, in its turn, came from the adverb butan
(“beyond”).
2.4. Modern English
2.4.1 Early Modern English
(The Renaissance)
The beginning of Modem English is at the same
time the beginning of the Renaissance in England – the
open years of the 16th century. Modem English developed
in close connection with the growth of production along
capitalist lines and with the rise of the bourgeoisie. It was
also greatly influenced by the ever better means of
communication, by the momentous geographical
discove ries resulting from the desire to find new sources of

37 gold, as well as by the great cultural movement of
Renaissance.
Although English had attained, towards the end of
the Middle English period, an established position as the
language of literature, there was still a strong tradition
according to which Latin was used in all fields of
knowledge. The struggle between Latin and English had a
commercial aspect as well. The market for English books
was much larger than the market for Latin books and this
is full y illustrated by the following replay received by
Thomas Drant – the author of a book written in Latin.
While scholars were debating the merits of Latin
and English, the widespread demand to share in the fruits
of the Renaissance was being met by the enormo us
number of translations that were published in the 16lh
century and this certainly contributed to the victory of
English. Towards the end of the century Richard Carew
wrote “The Excellency of the English Tongue”, and Sir
Philip Sidney proudly declared: “ But for the uttering
sweetly and properly the conceite of the minde, which is
the end of speech that hath it equally with any other tongue

38 in the world”5. In the same period William Shakespeare
voiced his profound patriot ic love of the English language.
2.4.2 General Characteristics of Early Modern
English
When examining the written documents of the
period, for example the official documents, literary works
and private letters, one reaches the following general
conclusions concerning the main characterist ics of
Renaissance English:
 Literary English was closely related to colloquial
English as reflected in the private letters of the time. This
is illustrated by the example of Shakespeare: his plays
reflect the colloquial language of his time. The ability of
Shakespeare to make the language sing arose from his
understanding of the secret of its strength: a simple native
grammar and a multiplicity of words. The flexibility of the
language and its readiness to be moulded into a million

5 A. C. BAUGH, A History of the English Language, Lodon, 1967,
p. 250
15

39 different forms, allowed him to portray humanity as it is:
essentially simple but in appearance infinitely variable.
In the 16th century spelling was very much discussed
because it was extremely complicated. It was no longer
phonetic and it was not yet fixed. The Norman scr ibes ha d
introduced a great deal of confusion, which was increased
when certain spellings gradually became conv entional
while the pronunciation went on changing. By 1650
English spelling in its form had been practically
established, except for certain slight chan ges that were to
occur later. In the 17th century it became the custom to use
“i” initially and medially and “y” finally. That accounts
for the spellings beauty and beautiful, dry and dried.
Nevertheless, it must bear in mind the fact that the
modifications introduced into English orthography during
the Renaissance represent a great advance as compared to
the confusions that reigned in the Middle English period.
 The pronunciation continued to change (especially that
of long vowels in stressed syllables), but generally these
modifications were not reflected by change in spelling.
After 1500 the most striking changes undergone by the
sounds of the English language w ere complete alteration

40 of most vowel sounds in stressed syllables, the
disappearance of the guttural consonant represented by gh
in Middle English, the modifications suffered by “r” and
the simplification of certain combinations of consonants to
simple co nsonant sounds.
 The vocabulary was greatly enriched: thousands of new
words appeared owing to the development of all fields of
activity during the Renaissance. The closer relations with
such countries as Italy, the contact with Italian arts and
literature, the connection with the New World
 all these factors opened up new horizons, also bringing
along large – scale borrowings from Italian and Spanish
and, later, from the languages of American Indians. At the
same time, the flourishing of classical philosophy , the
extensive international language of science introduced
into English a large number of Latin and Greek
borrowings. New words were particularly needed in a
various technical fields in which English was very poor.
Thus, the author of a Discourse of Warr e justifies the fact
that he introduces a large number of military terms in the
following way: “I knowe no other names than are given by
strangers, because there are fewe or none at all in our

41 language.”6.
 Grammar underwent but slight changes: certain old
forms survived and certain new ones
\
came into use. The only noun inflexions retained were
those marking the plural and the genitive singular. Beside
the wide – spread forms in “-s” Shakespeare sometimes
uses eyen (eyes), shoon (shoes). Certain nouns main tained
their old plurals: ox – oxen; man – men; child – children;
foot- fee, mouse – mice; sheep, deer, cod.
The systems of declensions, which had gradually
narrowed to two inflexions by the 14th century, maintained
itself in Renaissance English and it ha s survived down to
our days. Towards the end of the 17th century, the genitive
singular ending in “ -es” began to be replaced by “‘s” and
about a century later the apostrophe came to be used for
the genitive plural.
The adjective had already lost all its gender,
number, and case -inflexions. But the forms of the
comparative and superlative degrees were not always
those we have nowadays. Thus, comparatives such as

6 A. C. BAUGH, op. cit., p. 259.

42 lenger and strenger prove that form like elder were sti ll
in use. In Lyly‟s Euphues exist: “You are too young and
were you elder …” (in such a context it use older now).
Some important changes occurred in the
conjugation of the verb. Owing to the loss of weak “ -e” in
the 1st person singular present indicati ve, in the forms of
the plural present indicative and in the infinitive, all these
forms discarded their distinctive endings. In Early Modern
English the tenses of the verb were generally the same as
they are today. The only personal inflexion surviving in
Modem English is the “ -s” of the 3rd person singular
present indicative.
2.5 The English Language in the Second
Half of the 17th Century and in the
18th Century
The second half of the 17th century was a period of
remarkably important events in England, namel y the
Bourgeois Revolution of 1648, the Restoration 1660, the
so – called Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Industrial
Revolution. These events did not bring about any
profound, far – reaching linguistic transformation. The

43 language of literature was gre atly influenced by the
Puritan ideology, namely in a very important linguistic
document written in Early Modem English – the
Authorized Version of the Bible, which had appeared in
1611.
The Restoration brought back the feudal
aristocratic culture alongside a new wave of French
influence. Having lived long in France, Charles II and his
court became the propagators of the French influence in
different spheres of life. The influence of French culture is
to be found in terms belonging to the spheres of arts and
literature, e.g. belles, letters, profile, serenade, lampoon,
decor, nuance, brochure, tableau.
Many military terms such as bombard, dragoon,
parade, pontoon, sortie, were borrowed from French in the
second half of the 17th century. The development of
English capitalism introduced the first words of the
modem commercial vocabulary, many of them being of
French origin. Capital, discount, insurance, dividend
belong to the 17th century and so do bank, machine,
manufacture. Banki ng, bonus, finance, capitalist, currency
appear in the 18th century.

44 The vocabulary of literature became richer in the
18th century. The words copyright, editor, novelist, press,
publisher, to review are newly – formed words or old
words that acquired a ne w meaning. In the 18th century
Italian music was introduced into England and it brought
along a number of musical terms such as alto, aria, basso,
concert, solo, duet, tenor, trio, opera, piano, soprano,
tempo, baritone, libretto, intermezzo.
The “ Age of Reason ” is reflected in words like
sense as an equivalent for “common sense”, self-control,
free-thinking. The scientific and technical vocabulary
adopted a number of Latin and Greek terms, e.g.
complex, lens, status, inertia, pendulum, nucleus,
specimen.
Another – though very limited – source of
enrichment of the vocabulary in the 17th and 18th centuries
was the contribution of writers. John Milton was
probably the first to use horrent, irresponsible,
impassive and a few other Latin words and he coined
Pandem onium as the name of the palace built in hell by
the devils, now used as a common noun. Dryden coined
writticism on the model of criticism. Addison was the first

45 to speak about the action of a poem, a drama. He also
introduced egotism and egotist and gave the word
consistency its present current meaning. Edmund Burke
– colonial, colonization, financial, federalism,
municipality. John Evely probably introduced the
borrowings attitude, cascade, contour, outline, pastel.
Robert Boyle seems to have been the fir st to use
corpuscle, intensity, pendulum, pathological.

2.5.1 English Lexicography in the 18th
Century
The dictionaries published in 18th century
corresponded to Mulcaster ‟s suggestions: John Kersey‟s
Dictionarum Anglo – Britannicum or A General
English Dictionary 1708, aimed at setting out the whole
literary language; Nathaniel Bailey‟s Universal
Etymological English Dictionary (1721) was far better and
more comprehensive than Kersey‟s including a larger
number of words and paying due attention to usage,
pronunciation and illustrative quotations.

46 But it was Dr. Samuel Johnson‟s Dictionary of
the English Language, published in 1775, that was the
first great landmark in the development of English
lexicography. Indeed, it registered the English vocabulary
much more full than had ever been done before, although
in a sometimes rather prejudiced way. Johnson tried to do
away with inconsistencies, but he had a pious and
conservative attitude towards traditional spellings. There
are quite a number of inconsistencies in Johnson‟s
dictionary, e.g. distil and instil; sliness and slyly ;
anteriour and posterior; deceipt and receipt.
In the 18th century a number of pronunciation
dictionaries were compiled mostly in order to provide for
the needs of those members of the bourgeoisie who needed
a key to the pronunciations accepted in “polite society”.
The most important were James Buchanan‟s New English
Dictionary (1769), William Kenrich‟s New Dictionary of
the English Language (1773) – the first dictionary to
indicate the pronunciation of the vowel sounds in the
words registered an d John Walker‟s Critical
Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English
Language (1791).

47 The most competent and reliable 17th century
orthoepist was Christopher Cooper, the author of
Grammatica Anglicana (1685). In his Rules for True
Spelling and Writ ing English (1724), William Baker
deals with the discrepancy between spelling and
pronunciation, giving a long list of examples of: “Words
that are commonly pronounced very different from what
they are written”. In spite of the bad grammar of his title,
the list is very instructive.
The major part of writers on pronunciation did not
describe English speech as it was, but as they thought it
ought to be. Wallis, Cooper and Jones were exceptions to
this rule and so was John Walker towards the close of the
18th century: his Rhetorical Grammar , published in
1785, is a very serious and reliable work.

48 2.6 The English Language in the 19th
Century and the First Half of the 20th
Century
This period is characterized by the full
development of capitalism, the growth and organization of
the working – class movement, World War I, the Great
October Socialist Revolution, World War II, the creation
of the People‟s Democracies, the emergence and
consolidation of the world socialist system, the struggle
for peace and an ever better life. All these important events
have exerted a certain influence upon the development of
the English language, namely on its vocabulary. In the past
century and a half production has been developing at a
remarkably quick rate and numberless new te rms have
appeared in every field of science and technology.
The ever – increasing growth of the forces of
production has made us familiar with words and phrases
like: to air -condition, current, arc -light, automatic,
station, diesel, engine, electron, jeep, computer, chain,
radar, television, belt, space rocket, lunik. The progress
achieved in the field of medicine makes us speak
familiarly of: anaemia, hepatitis, penicillin, homeopathy,

49 allergy. The political situation is reflected by terms like:
speech, tw o-party system, cold war, colour bar, shadow
cabinet, witch hunt.
The evolution of the economic situation in Britain
and the U.S.A. in the 19,h and 20th centuries is reflected by
a large number of words like: boom, inflation, depression,
free enterprise, c artel, tycoon, syndicate, slump,
recession. Owing to the two world wars it find air raid,
black – out, evacuee, lank, camouflage, blitz. Very soon
after the end of the war there appeared a large number of
new words connected with the struggle for peace, e. g. anti
– war movement, anti -H- bomb, march, high -level – talks,
to fight for peace, peace march, peaceful competition.
All the above examples amply prove that the
enrichment of the English vocabulary since the beginning
of the 19th century mirrors all th e important economic,
political, social, cultural events and developments of the
whole period.

50 2.6.1 English Lexicography in the 19th
and 20 th Century

If the main contributions of the 18th century to the
development of English lexicography had been the
thorough registering of the whole literary vocabulary, the
accurate rendering of the pronunciation of words, those of
the 19th century were the recording of word history
through dated quotati ons and the development of
encyclop edic dictionaries.
The triumph of historical linguistics in the first
quarter of the 19th century confirmed Dr. Johnson‟s idea
that the sense of a word “may easily be collected entire
from the examples”, and the result wa s – Charles
Richardson‟s New Dictionary of the English Language
(1836). Richardson‟s dictionary led the way to the most
remarkable achievement of English lexicography, The
New English Dictionary (now generally called The
Oxford English Dictionary ), the res ult of seventy years
of work (1858 -1928). It fills twelve big volumes
comprising almost 20,000 pages. It contains over 414,800
words, whose use is illustrated by almost 2,000,000

51 quotations. It gives the history and semantic development
of every word known to have been used since the middle
of the 12th century, its forms, its various spellings and all
its uses and meanings past and present, illustrating them
by means of quotations arranged chronologically – mostly
sent in by volunteer contributors. For ordi nary reference
purpose, the N.E.D. has been abridged and adapted in The
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2 volumes), The
Oxford Concise English Dictionary (1 volum e), The
Pocket Oxford Dictionary and The Little Oxford
Dictionary.
The most reliable guide in matters of
pronunciation is An English Pronouncing Dictionary,
by Daniel Jones, first published in 1917. Another type of
dictionary is the one represented by Henry Watson
Fowler‟s Dictionary of Modem English Usage. The
Encyclopedia Britanica (first publ ished in 1768) is a huge
dictionary of arts, sciences and literature. The Century
Dictionary, edited by W.D. Witney and published in
1889 -1891 in 6 volumes containing 7046 pages is a
comb ination of lexicon and encyclop edia. The first
important dictionarie s published in America were Noah

52 Webster‟s Compendious English Dictionary (1806) and
his American Dictionary of the English Language
(1828). The 19Ih and 20lh centuries have witnessed an
important development in the field of lexicography, i.e.
dictionaries of synonyms such as W. Taylor‟s English
Synonyms Discriminated (1813), J. Crabb‟s English
Synonyms Explained (1816), G. M. Roget‟s Thesaurus of
English Words and Phrases (1S52). Dictionaries of slang
have also been published during the period under study,
e.g. by John Camden Hotten (1859), Farmer and Henley (4
volumes, 1890 -1896), Eric Partridge (New York, 1937, it
is probably the best of all).
Naturally, modern dictionaries are far superior to
those compiled previously. Nevertheless, they do not all
fully deserve the enormous respect in which they are
generally held. It is quite impossible for them to keep
abreast with the rapid changes which the language
continually undergoes. Many dictionary compilers tend to
be rather conservative and prejudiced. They s hould all be
intent on reflecting actual usage and on studying and
applying the great achievements in the field of modern
linguistics.

53 Chapter 3

3.1 How the English Language Spread
Abroad?

As English blossomed at home, it began to spread
abroad. The ag e of discovery had two – way traffic.
Europeans sailed the oceans in a fever of acquisition, but
while other nations heaved home gold from the New
World, the English brought home potatoes, tobacco and
new words. In return they introduced settlers to the
Ame ricans with a language more catching than any
Spanish disease. The Plymouth settlers were astonished to
find that some of their native neighbors already spoke
English. American English established itself in the fashion
of its parent. Even before the settl ers had settled they were
adding words such as raccoon , squash, wigwam to the
lexicon and were as happy to call a patch of land
Massachusetts as Virginia.
During the period of British Empire, more words
piled into the hoard. From all over the world they gat hered
what was useful: bananas, tigers, pyjamas, kangaroos and

54 budgerigars. Reflecting the mood of his age, Milton‟s
nephew published The New World of English Words in
1658. The invention of printing followed by the
publication of dictionaries served to st andardize spelling.
All the early dictionaries were of new or difficult words
but Nathan Bailey‟s An Universal Etymological English
Dictionary, which appeared in 1721 with a list of about
forty thousand words, was more inclusive.

3.2 American English

The English language was brought to America by
masses of Englishmen who settled along the Atlantic coast
in the 17th century. Even earlier than that, the American
continent had begun to be invaded by Spanish, Portuguese,
French and other immigrants, who were trying to escape
from feudal exploitation and religious persecutions, as
well as by adventurers in search of riches.
When colonists settle in a country where they find
themselves under new natural, economic and political
conditions, it is rather difficult for them to express the
numerous formerly unknown notions they come across.

55 When the first settlers from England saw the big
mountains, rivers and forests of America, they were very
much impressed. They began to call an opening in a range
of mountains a gap, a steep riverbank a bluff, a stream
which runs quickly part of the year and it is dry for the rest
a run. The settlers applied the word turkey to a
distinctively American bird and they transferred the word
corn to an American cereal: they gave the name of Indian
corn to maize. When an American speaks about colonial
architecture, colonial economy, colonial furniture, he is
referring to the architecture, the economy or the furniture
of the period preceding the War of Independence. In
American the English high -boot is a boot and the English
boot is a shoe. It is not at all astonishing to find that a
number of terms which refer only to navigation in the
British isles have extended their meaning to any kind of
transport in the United States, e.g. to board, crew, to ship,
freight.
Another means of naming the unknown plants,
animals and natural phenomena they found in America
was to borrow their names from the Indians or, sometimes,
from settlers. Many loanwords have been completely

56 assimilated – a fact proved by the numerous derivatives
and compounds based on them, e.g. canoeing, canoer,
canoe -flect, canoe -club, canoe -racing, canoe -load,
caucusdom, caucuser, caucusian. The endings of
frankfurter and hamburger have come to be felt as
suffixes, hence the deriva tives krantfurter, cheeseburger,
onionburger. Another proof of the thorough assimilation
of a number of loanwords is their functional shift: to
canoe, to skunk, to boss, to ranch, to bum.
In the sphere of words which were introduced into
America from vario us English dialects and have become
part of the literary language in the United States, some are
frequently used. Like Irishmen, Americans say back of
where Englishmen say at the back of, behind. In the United
States, as in Ireland, the word butt may denot e the stump
of a partly smoked cigar or cigarette. In Britain one
generally grows fan and garden products, breed animals
and rears or bring up children. In the U.S.A., raise refers
to plants, animals and children. In America a cock is
generally called a rooster as it is dialectally in England,
out of a feelings of ridiculous prudery. In America none
may be used with a verb in the sen se of “not at all”,

57 example in “I slept none last night”. The same is to be
found in Scotland.
Owing to certain differences b etween the
economic, social, political, cultural conditions, the
customs and the mentality in the U.S.A. and those existing
in Britain, owing to certain American linguistic
peculiarities, there are a number of variations between the
everyday vocabulary of Britain and that of the United
States.
 In the sphere of home – life, the main terms that differ
are the following:
 U.S.A. – junk, roomer, elevator, bucket, stairway
 Britain – rubbish, lodger, lift, pail, staircase.
 In the sphere of food, we find words s uch as:
 U.S.A. -pie, sweet (butter), cornmeal, broiled
(meat)
 Britain – tart, fresh (butter), Indian meal, grilled
(meat)
 In the sphere of clothing there is another set of words,
the best known are:
 U.S.A. -pants, run, derby (hat), sweater, tiepin,
vest

58  Britain – trousers, ladder, bowler (hat), pullover,
scarf -pin, waistcot
 In the field of sports we find the following terms that
are not the same in the two countries:
 U.S.A. – automobil, gas, wind windshield, sedan,
hood, muffler
 Britain – motor -car, petrol, windscreen,
saloon -car, bonnet, silencer
 There are also certain differences of terminology in the
field of education:
 U.S.A. – bench, facu lty, high school, recess, class
 Britain -form, staff, secondaty school, break, form
 As far as busin ess, trades and occupations are
concerned, there are numerous variations:
 U.S.A. – bill, candy store, brief case, fish dealer,
grocery, billion
 Britain – banknote, sweet shop, portfolio,
fishmonger, grocer’s shop, milliard
As for the pronunciation of Ame ricans as compared to
that of Englishmen, the only important divergences are to
be found in intonation and rhythm, the others being
unessential. The main characteristics of the American

59 intonation are the following:
 it has a narrower range;
 it is less abundant in speech – melodies;
 it is almost devoid of the lively melodic curves of
emphasis.
Except for New York City and the New England states,
Americans speak more slowly than Englishmen.
In conclusion, from the point of view of
pronunciation and gramma r, the differences between
British English and American English are neither
numerous nor fundamental. The most numerous and
striking ones belong to vocabulary; in this field, they may
be classified in the following way:
i
 words which have acquired new mean ings in America;
 words borrowed from the Indians or from various
colonists;
 words which in British English are archaisms or
provincialisms;
 words formed in America by means of composition,
conversio n, affixation, blending, back -formation.
Therefore, the v ocabulary of American English has been

60 enriched by the same linguistic processes as the
vocabulary of British English.
Most of the new words and new meanings in
Britain are due to the evolution which is inherent to the
transplantation of a language to anot her territory, where
the geographic, economic, social, political and cultural
conditions are different from those in the home country.

61 CONCLUSION

When comparing an Old English text to a Modern
English one, we may easily believe – at first sight – that we
are dealing with two different languages. But, after having
studied the evolution of the English language in its various
spheres, we realize that the two texts represent two stages
of one and the same language, of one and the same system,
stages that are very different from each other.
Nevertheless, the important differences existing between
them are the results of a whole series of small – often
insignificant – changes reflecting the la ws of development
of language in general and of the English language in
particular.
The numerous and important phonetic,
grammatical and lexical changes which have been taking
place throughout the evolution of the English language are
due to its internal laws of development although it must be
mentioned that many of those that have occure d in the
sphere of the vocabulary are due to external factors

61 connected with the history of the English people. The
evolution of the language has been gradual and
uninterrupted and certain tendencies existing nowadays
prove that it is continuing and may le ad, sooner or later,
after the accumulation of a number of slight quantitative
changes, to a qualitative leap marking the beginning of a
new period in the history of the English language.

63
BIBLIOGRAPHY

BARFIELD, Owen – Histoiy in English Words, London,
1967
BAUGH, Albert C. — A History of the English Language,
London, 1963
CAMPBELL, A. – Old English Grammar, Oxford, 1979
LAROVICI, Edith – A Histoiy of the English Language,
Bucurejti, 1973
JONES, D. – English Pronouncing Dictionary, London,
1968
MARCKWARDT, A.H. – American English, New York,
1968
PARTRIDGE, E. — A Dictionaiy of Slang and
Unconventional English, London, 1961
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