ENGL 4663: History of the English Language

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Study Questions: Chapters 1-2

 

Parenthetical numbers after questions refer to sections, not pages.

 

Chapter 1

 

  1. What distinguishes a living language from a dead language?  (3) 
    1. What are some examples of living languages?  (3)
    2. What are some examples of dead languages?  (3)
  2. Define: extrinsic and intrinsic.   (4) 
    1. Are the advantages of English over other languages intrinsic or extrinsic?  Why?  (4-5)
    2. What are some of the extrinsic conditions that have made English an international language?  (4-5)
    3. What is “econo-technical superiority”?   Is this an extrinsic or intrinsic advantage of English?  (5) 
  3. Define: native language (5), first language (6), indigenous language (6), vernacular language (6), primary language (7), mother tongue (7).
    1. What do the definitions of all of these terms have in common?
    2. What differentiates each of these terms?
    3. What are some of the most important countries in which English is the native language?  Are these industrialized (developed) or developing nations?  (6)
    4. In the future, is the proportion of the world’s people who use English as a native language likely to increase or decrease?  Why?  (6)
  4. Define: lingua franca (5), neutral language (6), second language (7), international language (7)
    1. What do all of these terms have in common?
    2. What differentiates each of these terms?
    3. What are some of the countries and parts of the world in which English is used as a lingua franca?
    4. Are these industrialized or developing countries?
    5. Why is English used as a lingua franca in these countries?
    6. In the future, is the proportion of the world’s people who use English as a second language likely to increase or decrease?  Why?  (6)
  5. Define: natural language and artificial language.  (7)
    1. What are some examples of natural languages? 
    2. What are some examples artificial languages with which you are familiar?
    3. What is Esperanto?  (7)
  6. International languages
    1. Is there one officially recognized international language of communication?  (7)
    2. What are the six official languages of the United Nations?  (7)  Why were these six languages chosen? (not in text)
    3. What are the official languages of the Olympic Games? (not in text)
    4. What is meant by the “hegemony of English” (7)?
  7. What are some of the problems created by the dominance of English?  (7)
    1. Define: endangered language.  (7)
    2. What are some examples of endangered languages?  In general, why are these languages endangered? 
  8. Why is it not possible to say whether it is simple (easy) or complex (difficult) to learn English as a foreign language?  (8)
  9. What is the first main asset of English as an international language?  (9)
    1. Define: cosmopolitan vocabulary (9)
    2. Define: Germanic language  and Romance language (9)

                                                              i.      Is English a Germanic or Romance language? (9)

                                                            ii.      Why does English share extensive vocabulary with both Germanic and Romance languages? 

  1. What is the second main asset of English as an international language?  (10)
    1. Define: inflections (10)
    2. What is meant by inflectional simplicity? (10)
    3. Does modern English have its original Germanic inflections?  (10)
  2. What is the third main asset of English as an international language?  (11)
    1. Define: natural gender, grammatical gender (11)
    2. Which of these two kinds of gender does modern English possess?  (11)
    3. Why is this kind of gender an advantage of English as an international language?  (11)
  3. What is the first liability of English as an international language?  (12)
    1. Define: idioms, idiomatic expressions.
    2. What are some examples of English idioms or idiomatic expressions?
  4. What is the second liability of English as an international language?  (12)
    1. Define: orthography.
    2. Is English spelling simple or complex?  Is it consistent or inconsistent?  Are the rules of English spelling strict or loose?

 

Chapter 2

 

  1. The discovery of Indo-European
    1. What is Sanskrit?  (15)
    2. Who was Sir William Jones?  What did he observe?  (15)
  2. Germanic sound shifts
    1. What is Grimm’s Law?  (16)
    2. What is the relationship between p, t, and k in other Indo-European languages and f, th, and h in Germanic languages?  (16)
    3. What is Verner’s Law?  (16)
  3. Indo-European
    1. In what sense is Indo-European (or Proto Indo-European) a parent speech or parent tongue of other languages?  (17)
    2. In what sense is Indo-European a family of languages?
  4. Branches of Indo-European
    1. What are the 11 branches or groups of the Indo-European family of languages?  (It is not necessary to memorize these, but you should be able to recognize them and differentiate them from non-Indo-European languages.)
    2. In the context of the Indo-European family of languages, what are Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Hellenic, Albanian, Italic, Balto-Slavic, Germanic, and Celtic?  (18-26)
    3. What are Hittite and Tocharian?  (27)
    4. To what branch of the Indo-European family of languages does Sanskrit belong?  (18)
    5. In what countries or regions (all prominent in international news today) are Farsi, Pashto, and Kurdish spoken?  To what branch of the Indo-European family of languages do these languages belong?  (19)
    6. To what branch of the Indo-European family of languages does Greek belong?  What are the oldest extant literary works written in Classical Greek?
    7. To what branch of the Indo-European family of languages do Latin and the Romance languages belong?  (23)

                                                              i.      From what language are all the Romance languages derived?

                                                            ii.      Why are they called “Romance” languages?

                                                          iii.      What are the names of the Romance languages?

    1. What languages belong to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European family of languages?  (24)

                                                              i.      In what sense is Lithuanian a highly conservative language?

    1. To what branch of the Indo-European family of languages do Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, English, Dutch, and Flemish belong?  (25)

                                                              i.      Which of these languages are classified as North Germanic?  Why? 

                                                            ii.      Which of these languages are classified as West Germanic?  Why?  (25)

                                                          iii.      Within West Germanic, how did Low German and High German get their names?  (not in text)

    1. To what branch of the Indo-European family of languages do Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton belong?  (26)

                                                              i.      Where is each of the above languages spoken?

                                                            ii.      What are Manx and Cornish?  Where were they spoken?

                                                          iii.      Compared with their use in earlier centuries, how widely used are Celtic languages today?  Why?

  1. What two regions have been suggested as the home of the original speakers of Indo-European?  In which of these regions do most scholars now believe they lived?  (28)
  2. What differentiates the centum group of Indo-European languages from the satem group of Indo-European languages?  (28)
    1. Into which of these two groups does English belong?  Why?  (28)