Linguistics (Conquest and Power) - Origins of English

Week 2 - Lecture 2, (Proto)Indo-European Languages and Branches, Angles Saxons and Jutes, Runic Alphabet

Proto - Indo - European (PIE)

An ancient language from which several language families emerged from, that covered much of Europe, European settlements, southwest and south Asia

How do linguists decipher what languages were derived from PIE?

1. recognize patterns across the characteristics of languages

2. utilize archaeological evidence

When did language families emerge from PIE?

From approximately 1000-3000 BC

The Pontic-Caspian steppe

The area which PIE was likely formed in the eastern ukraine and southern russian area

Note: It is hard to decipher where exactly PIE originated from, as there were no written uses of the language

Indo-European

The family of descendant languages that grew out of PIE

Existing Indo-European Languages that did NOT influence English (5)

1. Albanian

2. Armenian

3. Balto-Slavic

4. Greek

5. Indo-Iranian

Extinct Indo-European Languages (2)

1. Anatolian - spoken in present day Syria and Turkey

2. Tocharian - spoken in northern part of chinese turkestan

Indo-European Language Branches that DID influence English (3)

1. Celtic

2. Germanic (the direct family of English)

3. Italic

 Brittonic

A Celtic Language branch consisting of Breton, Cornish, and Welsh

 Goidelic

A Celtic Language branch consisting of Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx

East Germanic

A Germanic Language branch that is now extinct

Was last spoken in the late of the 16th century in present-day Ukraine

North Germanic

A Germanic Language branch that consists of Icelandic, Norwegian, Faroese, Danish, Swedish

West Germanic

A Germanic Language branch that consists of English, Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, German, Luxembourgisch, Afrikaans, Yiddish

Italic

A Indo-European Language Branch that is derived from Latin which consists of Spanish, Portugese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Occitan, Sardinian, Asturian, Rhaeto-Romanic)

Non-Members of Indo-European Branch (2)

Though in proximity to all other Indo-European languages these are NOT members

1. Finno-Ugric (Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian); part of the Uralic family

2. Basque (not related to any other surviving languages)

English is a descendant of Latin - True or False?

False - English is a Germanic language, if it were a descendant of Latin it would be considered an Italic Language alongside Portugese or French for example

Sanskrit is the mother of all languages - True or False?

False - Sanskrit is the oldest written language of Indo-European languages but it is NOT the mother of all languages

Sir William Jones

 (1746-94) he was the first to notice there was a lost ancestor connecting multiple languages (later was discovered as PIE)

Bede

An ancient monk who wrote about the history of English and gave modern day historians a simplified guide of where the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes settled

Angles, Saxons, and Jutes

related Germanic tribes who migrated to and conquered Great Britain following the decline of Roman rule in the 5th century

Where did the Angles settle?

 Eastern and Northern England

Where did the Saxons settle?

Eastern and Southern England

Where did the Jutes settle?

 Kent, Isles of Wright, and Southern Hampshire

Why do historians think there is Celtic influence in English?

The natives of England exchanged culture with the angles, saxons, and jutes when they arrived

The Roman alphabet predated the Runic alphabet - True or False?

False - The Roman alphabet came after the Runic alphabet and was associated with the conversion to christianity in 597

What did the name rune mean in Old English?

mystery or secrecy

What was the Runic alphabet designed for?

Cutting onto wood, bone, or stone (hard materials)

Was typically used and intended for very practical purposes

The futhorc

an expanded runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons from the 5th to the 11th century

name is derived from the first six letters

ᚠ

Roman Equivalent Letter - F

Name - feoh

Meaning / Shorthand - Cattle, Property

ᚢ

Roman Equivalent Letter - U

Name - ur

Meaning / Shorthand - Bison

ᚦ

Roman Equivalent Letter - Th

Name - thorn

Meaning / Shorthand - Thorn

ᚩ

Roman Equivalent Letter - O

Name - os

Meaning / Shorthand - A God

ᚱ

Roman Equivalent Letter - R

Name - rad

Meaning / Shorthand - A Ride

ᚳ

Roman Equivalent Letter - C

Name - cen

Meaning / Shorthand - Torch

How many letters in the runic alphabet?

There are around 32 with some variants

The Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem

A poem which used riddles to provide translations of the runic letters

Cynewolf

Was a poet from the Old English period that utilized runes as shorthand to sign his name in each poem

What was (perhaps) the earliest runic inscription in England?

It was written on a piece of ankle bone and translated as female deer, it actually used Scandinavian runes and was dated in the 5th century