European Humanities
October 2014
Mr. Spragins

Assignment: The Story of English Internet Hunt

For each of the three major periods in the development of the English language, find the following on the internet and create a brief PowerPoint presentation.

1. A brief description of the culture of that period in English History
2. A map of England at the time
3. A recording of what the language sounded like at that time.
4. Some pictures (artifacts that will give us a sense of the time and place.) 

GROUP ONE:
Prehistory of English and Britain:

1. Common Origin of Western Languages (6000-4500 BC): Indo European nomads 

- The invention of  the wheel and domestication of the horse enable Indo European tribes to migrate east and west from their original territories in the area near the Crimean Sea.- father (English); vater (German); pitar (Sanskrit)
- snow, bee, beech, wolf
- Find a map of the Indo European nomad migrations.

• The History of English
• The Early History of the Indo-European Language
• Stonehenge
• Indo-European Language Family (Towson)
• Indo-European and Germanic Sources
• The Indo-European Language Family Tree
• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
• Chronology of Events in History of English Language
• Background and Prehistory (Powerpoint)
• Grimm's Law (Princeton)
• Ancient Stone Circles in England
• The History of Writing

2. The Celts (1000 BC)

- The language of the Celts still survives in Wales: Cymraeg
- lilt of speech, inverted sentence constructions "Pity it was that he died so early."

• Celtic Britain
• History of the English Language
• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
• Pre-Roman Britain
• Celtic Webpage
• Celtic Music
• Celtic Calendar
• Story of MacDatho’s Pig
• BBC Alba (Gaelic Radio from Scotland)
• The Seven Distinctive Features of Germanic
• The Lord's Prayer in several Germanic languages (Cathy Ball)
• The Germanic Invasion of Western Europe

3. The Romans (55 BC)

- British Isles are conquered by Julius Caesar during the first century BC.
- Place names from Roman: castra (camp): Chester, Manchester, Winchester

• General History of English Language
• History of the English Language
• Chronology of Events in History of English Language
• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
• The Celts and Romans in Britain
• Roman Britain (Wikipedia)
• Roman Britain (UChicago)
  
• The Roman Army in England
• Roman Baths; More Roman Baths  (even more)
• Hadrian's Wall (Great photo)
• Roman Britain (Athena Review)
• Audio clips: Roman Poetry Recited.

GROUP TWO:
Old English and Anglo-Saxon England:

4. Old English: Anglo-Saxon England (5th c. AD)

- Germanic tribes, the Anglii, the Frisii, and the Jutes, cross the sea from Northern Europe.
- The invasion drives the Celts west into Wales and into Ireland.
- Old English contains few Celtic words: crag, tor (a high rock), combe (a deep valley: Wycombe). This paucity of Celtic in modern English is indicative of the hatred between the Celts and the Anglo-Saxon conquerors; despite cultural antipathy, many of the finest writers in English are of Celtic origin.
- Anglo-Saxon words: 
- sheep, shepherd, ox, earth, plough, swine, dog, wood, field, work: reflections of the lives of these farmers. Glee, laughter, mirth.
- The building blocks of English: the, is, you
- Old English dialects
- Anglo-Saxon love of wordplay: analogous to intricate, interlacing, embellishments of art 

• Anglo-Saxon Invasions (Wikipedia)

• Five Events That Shaped the History of English
• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
• Anglo-Saxon Culture: an online guide
• Wharram Percy: A Lost Medieval Village
• Chronology of Events in History of English Language
• History of the English Language
• General History of English Language
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (Wikipedia)
• About Beowulf
• The Electronic Beowulf Project (Home)
  
• Beowulf Graphic Novel
• Bede's World
• Arthurian Britain
• Anglo-Saxon Britain
• Saxons and Vikings in Britain
• Anglo-Saxon History (lecture notes)
• Sutton Hoo: Anglo-Saxon Burial Site
• The Old English alphabet

Recordings: 

• Recording of Genesis in Old English
• Readings of Old English Poetry

Art:

• Lindisfarne gospels with images of illuminated manuscripts:
• Large images of Lindisfarne illuminations

5. The Conversion to Christianity (597 AD)

- The conversion of Britain to Christianity created a new collision of Old English with Latin.
- The mission of St. Augustine to Britain began a gradual conversion to Christianity which was completed by 635 AD.
- This was the time of the construction of churches and monasteries and the great monk teachers.
- Old English gains the capacity for abstract thought:
- Greek and Latin words like angel, discipline, litany, martyr, mass, relic, shrift, shrine and psalm
- Sabbath from Hebrew; Eastern words from the Bible: camel, lion, cedar, myrrh ; also from the Bible came more exotic words from the East: orange, pepper, oyster, mussel, ginger… phoenix
- God, heaven and hell: (OE) Halig Gast- Holy Ghost; feond- fiend, Doomsday- Judgement Day
- The impact of this infusion of new words from Latin gave Old English new flexibility: one of the fundamental characteristics of our language is its flexibility: we have many synonyms for one word. 

• The 5th Century Anglo-Saxon Invasion of England
• Bede: Conversion of the English
• The Venerable Bede (more)
• The Christianisation of England
  
• Chronology of Events in History of English Language
• Five Events That Shaped the History of English
• History of the English Language
• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
• Medieval Latin
• Lindisfarne Gospel (8^th C.)
• Timeline of British History (597-1066)
• Old English (Wikipedia)

6. The Viking Invasions (750-1050 AD)

- The Viking invasion and settlement of Eastern Britain is one of the great migrations in European history; what began as plunder-raids ended as conquest and settlement.
- The interaction between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings melded Old English and Viking, both Germanic languages, and helped simplify the language.
- Old Norse words: get, hit, leg, low, root, skin, same, want, wrong, sk- words like sky:
- Old Norse enriched the language by providing more synonyms: rear or raise a child; wish and want; craft and skill, hide and skin.
- Beowulf, the greatest single work of Old English: a fusion of Saxon and Viking

• Old English (Wikipedia)
• General History of English Language
• Chronology of Events in History of English Language
• Five Events That Shaped the History of English
• A Brief History of English
• History of the English Language
• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
• Timeline of British History (597-1066)
• The Old English Period (Powerpoint)
• Wichstow (A Medieval Virtual Village) 
• BBC site with Viking and English stuff.
• Audio: “Old Norse": Gunnlaug’s Saga

GROUP THREE: 
The Norman Conquest and Middle English Period:

7. The Norman Invasion (1066 AD: the Battle of Hastings)

- When England was conquered by the Normans in 1066, the French language becomes the official language of the ruling class: the aristocracy and the government.
- Legal language: felony, perjury, attorney, bailiff, nobility
- French literary, courtly culture provided the language of chivalry: the brave, honorable, and courteous character attributed to the ideal knight.
- English, however, survived as the language of the common man, too hardy by this point to be obliterated.
- Another layer to enrich the language: King (OE) and now royal, regal, sovereign (French)
- Synonym Word groups: rise-mount-ascend; ask-question-interrogate, time-age-epoch: a rich treasure chest of synonyms for writers 

• Norman England
• Middle English (Wikipedia)
• History of the English Language
• General History of English Language
• Chronology of Events in History of English Language
• Five Events That Shaped the History of English
• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
• The Norman Conquest and Middle English
• The Battle of Hastings 1066
• The Middle English Period 1100-1500 AD
• Timeline of English History (1066-1486)
• Secrets of the Norman Invasion
• The Norman Invasion and Conquest
• Norman Conquest information
• Art: Bayeaux Tapestry The Code of Chivalry
• A virtual tour of Canterbury Cathedral, goal of medieval pilgrimages
• Audio Clips
• French and English
• Word Origin Game

8.  Middle English (1150-1450 AD)

- Anglo-Normans were cut off from their previous homeland on the continent.
- English was revived as the official court language as a political tool to inspire patriotic feeling
- 100 Years War with France: war and plague make labor scarce; common men achieve higher status, a new generation of non-French speakers assume positions of power in the church and government
- We have a record in writing of the changes that had taken place in spoken English over this long period
- Observe the loss of Old English word endings and the rise of prepositions like by, with, and from. 

Chaucer (1400 AD)

- This poet made a conscious choice to write in English and not French, symbolic of the rebirth of English as a national language: a patriotic statement.
- subject matter: individuals from all classes of English society
- Chaucer was alive to the energy and potential of the language of everyday

- The richness of Middle English, Latinized and Frenchified by Christianity and Conquest inspires Chaucer.

Welcome, my knyght: English
Peace: French
Suffisance: French from Latin roots

- The variety of Middle English enables the talented poet to invent language appropriate to character so that an individual emerges whose autonomy expresses itself in unique linguistic forms; without flexibility of language, expressions of character are limited.

• "Sumer is icumen in" - manuscript image (London, British Library, Harley MS 978, f. 11v); RealAudio recording (Elly van Gelderen's audio page)

• Chaucer's English
• History of the English Language
• Five Events That Shaped the History of English
• General History of English Language
• Chronology of Events in History of English Language
• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
• Middle English (Wikipedia)
• Chaucer: General Information about Chaucer
• To Adam Skryven (Chaucer)
• Audio Clips
• Word Origin Game
• Yorkshire Folk Talking
• Dialectizer