I Greek (ancient Greek) Modern Greek
II Armenian -Armenian
III Albanian -Albanian
IV Baltic
A. Lithuanian
B. Letish
C. (Old Prussian)
V Indo Iranian
A. Indic
1. Hindi
2. Urdu
3. various
4. (Sanskrit)
B. Iranian
1. (Old Persian)
2. Persian
3. Kurdish
VI Celtic
A. Gaulish
B. (Goidelic)
1. (Old Irish)
2. (Middle Irish)
3. Irish
4. Scots Gaelic
C. (Brythonic)
1. (Cornish)
2. Welsh
3. Breton
VII Slavonic
A. West Slavic
1. Polish
2. Czech
3. Slovac
B. South Slavic
1. Slovene
2. Serbo-Croatian
3. Bulgarian
C. East Slavic
1. Russian
2. Ukrainian
VIII ITALIC
A. (Oscan)
B. (Umbrian)
C. Old Latin
1. (Latin)
2. French
3. Italian
4. Spanish
5. Portuguese
6. Rumanian
7. various
IX GERMANIC
A. East Germanic -(Gothic)
B. North Germanic
1. Old West Norse
a. Icelandic
b. Faroese
*c. Norwegian
2. Old East Norse
a. Sweedish
b. Danish
*c. Norwegian
C. WEST GERMANIC
1. Anglo - Frisian
a. (Old English)
i. (Old English)
ii. English
b. (Old Frisian)
i. Frisian
2. German
a. High German
i. (Old & Middle High German)
ii. Bavarian
iii. German
iv. Yiddish
v. Pennsylvanian German
b. Low German
i. (old Low Franconian)
ii. Dutch
iii. Flemish
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
the droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth the tendre croppes,
and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
When in April the sweet showers fall
and pierce the drought of March to the root,
and all the veins are bathed in liquor
of such power as brings about the engendering of the flower.
When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath
exhales an air in every grove and heath
Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun
his half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,
And the small fowl are making melody
that sleep away the night with open eye
(So nature pricks them and their heart engages),
then people long to go on pilgrimages …
Geoffrey Chaucer
Supremely gifted as a poet, Geoffrey Chaucer (? - 1400) chose to write in the
language of native speakers of English, rather than in French, the language of
the 11th century Norman conquerors and in his time, still the language of the
court and of courtly literature.
The common tongue was by then very different from Old English, or Anglo-Saxon.
Middle English, as it’s known, had absorbed much of the French vocabulary -
and its pronunciation. So the final ‘e’ characteristic of so many words of
French origin, was pronounced, though not for much longer. But for a poet
concerned with scansion, as Chaucer was, that weak ending the final –e offered
was a blessing.
Who was the man behind this benign expansive voice? We don’t know much at all
about him other than that he was a sophisticated cosmopolitan of the merchant
class whose father was a vintner. An accomplished scholar and translator, he
spoke French and Italian, was familiar with Ovid, Virgil, Boethius, Boccaccio,
Dante and the French romances. A Renaissance Man well before the Renaissance got
under way, he was also a diplomat, businessman, politician and a Justice of the
Peace
Quiz re. History of the English Language KEY
1. Who wrote Canterbury Tails? Geoffrey Chaucer
2. What God gives us "Wednesday"? WODEN (Anglo Saxon) or ODEN (Scandinavian)
3. What God gives us "Thursday"? THOR
Name two languages -spoken in America- that have West Germanic origins:
5. English
6. Pennsylvanian Dutch
7. What do the Icelandic and Dutch languages have in common? (Their common origin.)
Both languages derived / evolved from NORTH GERMANIC
8. What do the Polish and Russian languages have in common? (Their common origin.)
Both languages derived / evolved from SLAVONIC
9. What do the Frisian and Persian languages have in common? (Their common origin.)
Absolutely nothing but the broad category "INDO-EUROPEAN"
10. Draw a quick Venn diagram for the topic, "Clothing".
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