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Рецензенты:

Д-р фшол. наук проф. В. В. 3ipica

канд. фшол. наук доц. А. I. АшЫмова

Панченко О. I.
П 16 Вступ до спещально! фшоло;ш : навч. пошбник. - Д. : Вид-во
Дншропетр. над. ун-ту, 2008. -12 с.

ISBN 978-966-551-266-0

Навчальний поабник MicraTb лекщйний матер1ал з предмета;«Вступ до

спещально! фшологн» гпризначений для студенпв першого курсу
спещальност» «АнглШськамова».
Лекцп супроводжуються практичними завданнями.

The manual presents the lecture material on the subject “Introduction to

Special philology’Mt can be used by the students of the 1st year of study o f the
speciality “English language”.
• The lectures are followed by practical tasks.

ISBN 978-966-551-266-0 © О. I. Панченко, 2008

 ■ INTRODUCTION ..
. The historical development o f any language is an interesting and
^compficated thing. In this course you are to learn:
- ^whcnvere the first people speaking Geimanic languages;
• where and how they lived;
•how and what they wrote;
•what their languages sounded like; ; _
•what grammar they used; . ,> ..;
•which words they had; , .• . •>.
•what the system o f Germanic languages is now.

To study this is afpng but interesting way. Good luck!

3.
 lecture 1
SPECIAL PHILOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

Introduction
Your future profession is connected with the language. Languages
are studied by philological sciences. Now you begin studying the first
of them- Special Philology.
After learning the fust lecture you will be able to answer the
following questions:
- What.does philology study?
- What does Special Philology study?
- Which method does it use?
- Who developed this method? -
Key words: linguistics, philology, Comparative and Historical
method, synchrony, diachrony.

1. Special Philology, its Subject and Tasks

• Special philology (Greek phileo, logos) is one of the subjects, which
„establish the basement o||he preparation of philologists. Philology as
a science appeared in antiquity in order to explain old texts, later its
tasks and notions have been changed. It used to be understood ..as a
science studying all types of not only texts but material remnants as
well.
•Now it is defined as a common name of subjects studying languages,
literatures, and culture with the help of texts of literature, history etc.
• Special philology as a branch of philology sometimes is not
distinguished from special linguistics. Our branch of special philology
is Germanic philology because the English language is a
representative of the Germanic group of the Indo-European family of
languages.
The SUBJECT MATTER of Germanic philology:
• it studies the languages of the Germanic group: /
• their origin, development and structure, /
• mutual connections, common laws,
• tendencies of development,
• interconnections with the languages of other groups.
 • Its main tasks are to explain modem state of Germanic languages and
to reconstruct their ancient forms. Modem state cannot be explained
without studying ancient situation.
Special philology is connected with other sciences:
• general linguistics,
• comparative linguistics,
• dialectology;' linguistic geography;
• history, archaeology, ethnography,
• history of art, religion etc.
It is divided into German philology, English, Scandinavian etc. It gives
the basis to study the history of the language, theoretical grammar,
lexicology etc.

2. Comparative and Historical method

• Linguistics uses various methods to study languages: descriptive,
statistic, experimental etc. One of.them is Comparative and Historical
method.
• This is a scientific way of reconstruction of those language
phenomena of the past, which were not fixed in written texts.
• The reconstruction can be effected by means of comparing later facts
of two dr more languages which are known from either written texts
or real speech. Sometimes only it works in studying language
phenomeiia, ? f •1234

1) to compare sounds and morphemes;

2) to establish common laws;
3) to es
4) to reconstruct a primary form.
The method is not ideal, it has some drawbacks:
•it can’t give the exact dates of this or that language change;
• it doesn’t explain several phenomena;
•it’s not suitable for all types of languages. .
It is necessary to develop and improve. The usage of this method
allowed - defining the place of Germanic languages among other
languages iof the world, tracing historic changes in their phonetics,
grammar’ and vocabulary, explaining important phenomena of their
modem state. . . if
5
 This method is based on the following principles: ■: ■
«Genetic commonness of the compared units. 1
« Comparison of the meaningful units (not simply sounds). o -:
« Regularity of correspondences,
о Phonetic laws.
» Semantic laws. •>.:?
The first scientists who developed this method are William Jones
(1746-1794) who began studying Sanskrit;' Franz Bopp (1791—1867)
the founder of the method, who compared Indo-European languages-
Rasmus Rask Christian (1787-1832) studied Germanic languages-
A.Vostokov, the investigator of Slavonic languages (1781^1:864);
Jakob Grimm, the author of the first comparative grammar of
Germanic languages (1785-1868); Karl Vemer, a student of phonetics
(1846-1896), F. de Saussure, Antoine Meillet and many others.

3. Main Notions of Special Philology: Substratum,

Superstratum, Adstratum; Synchrony, Diachrony
August Schleicher formed the theory that a language is " an
organism, with periods of development, maturity, and decline. Tie
explicitly represented languages as perfectly natural organisms that
could most conveniently be described using terms drawn from biology
e.g., genus, species, and variety. He invented a system of language
classification that resembled a botanical taxonomy, tracing groups, of
related languages and arranging them in a genealogical tree, His model,
the Stammbaumtheorie (family-tree theory), was a major development
in the study of Indo-European languages. During their historical
development the languages may relate to each other as substratum,
superstratum or adstratum.
Substratum (Latin substratum - bedding) means the traces of the
former language of an ethnic group influencing the present language of
this group and the former language itself. It influences mainly
phonetics and partially vocabulary and grammar. An example, of
substratum is the Celtic language for the English language.
Superstratum (Latin superstratum - upper layer) means the traces
of the influence of a language which used to be the language of
conquerors, rulers and culture and the language having such influence
itself. Mainly these traces demonstrate themselves in vocabulary and
syntax. An example of superstratum is French and Latin for English.
6
 Adstratum 1S a sort of bilinguism due to long coexistence of two
languages in the same territory. Linguistic changes in this case touch the
structure of languages. An example of adstratum is Irish and English.
The languages can be studied synchronically or- diachronically.
The structure of the language of any period whether it is the 20th or the
9th century can be studied as such. The complex study of a language of
a certain period means its synchronic study. However, if we study one
phenomenon at different times, for example the system of the English
noun, it would yield a diachronic result.
Both approaches are usually combined in special philology.
Now you are welcome to answer some questions.
i . Which language is the wordphilology from?
2. Which philology do we study?
3. The English philology is a part of {which} philology?
4. Which of the following is not a method of linguistics:
a) experimental;
b) comparative;
c) translation? . . .
5. Are there any disadvantages in Comparative and Historical
method? If yes, enumerate them.
Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some
practical tasks.
1. Complete the following passage: , и..л_, ,.чЛ —
The.Comparative and Historical method is based on the following .. . :
1) Genetic commonness of the compared units;
2) Comparison of the meaningful units (not simply . .
3) Regularity of correspondences;...
4}..... and .....laws. 'j. ' . : ; . , ,
2. Give the titles to the table columns

General linguistics, Comparative Germanic philology studies the

linguistics, study of dialects, linguistic
geography; bistory, archaeology,
ethnography, history of art, religion
etc. • . .. .
languages of the Germanic group:
origin, development and structure, -
mutual connections, common laws,
tendencies of development and
interconnections with the languages
of other groups
7
3. Give the name o f the notion which corresponds toi: the following
definition: . -ru - . ; ;
a. scientific way of reconstruction of those language phenomena of. the
past, which were not fixed in written texts

4. Which scientist studied which problem?

William Jones, A. Vostokov, Jakob Grimm;
Phonetic laws, Sanskrit, Slavonic languages. !.

5. Fill the text with numbers and words. , c-

There are .... language families in the world. One of the biggest of
them, the Indo-European family has .... branches of living languages
a n d .......branches of dead ones. The English language belongs to the
.....branch.

Use your knowledge to do the following tasks:

1. Compose the detailed plan of the lecture on Special Philology.
2. Give your own arguments concerning the necessity of studying it!
3. Find the additional material about the life and work of Karl Vemer.
You are welcome to add your material on the Internet site
(http://en.Wikipedia.org/w/index.php ?title=Karl_ Vemer&action-
edit). ■

For those who is fond of philology. It’s interesting.

What is philology and what is not? Let's see what other People
think.
PHILOLOGY, the generally accepted comprehensive name for
the study of the word, or languages; it designates that branch of
knowledge which deals with human speech, and with all that speech
discloses about the nature and history of man. Philology has two
principal divisions, corresponding to the two uses of word or speech, as
signifying either what is said or die language in which it is said, as
either the thought expressed which, when recorded, takes the form of
literature or the instrumentality of its expression: these divisions are the
literary and the linguistic.
Not all study of literature, indeed, is philological: as when, for
example, the records of the ancient Chinese are ransacked for notices
of astronomical or meteorological phenomena, or the principles of
geometry are learned from the textbook of a Greek sage; while, on the
other hand, to study Ptolemy and Euclid for the history of the sciences
represented by them is philological more than scientific. Again, the
study of language itself has its literary side: as when the vocabulary of
a community (say of the ancient Indo-Europeans or Aryans) is taken as
a document from which, to infer the range and grade of knowledge of
its speakers,, their circumstances and their institutions.
The two divisions thus do not admit of absolute distinction and
separation, though for some time past tending toward greater
independence. The literary is the older of the two; it even occupied
until recently the whole field, since the scientific study of language
itself has arisen only within the I9th century. Till then, literary
philology included linguistic, as a merely subordinate and auxiliary
part, the knowledge of a language being the necessary key to a
knowledge of the literature written in that language.
When, therefore, instead of studying each language by itself for
the sake of its own literature men began to compare one language with
another, in order, to bring to light their relationships, their structures,
their histories, the name comparative philology naturally enough
suggested itself and came into use for the new method; and this name,
awkward and trivial though it may be, has become so firmly fixed in
English usage that it can be only slowly, if at all, displaced.
European usage (especially German) tends more strongly than
English to restrict the name philology to its older office, and to employ
for the recent branch o f knowledge a specific term, like those that have
gained more or less currency with us also; as glottic, glossology,
linguistics, linguistic science, science of language, and the like. It is not
a question of absolute propriety or correctness, since the word
philology is in its nature wide enough to imply all language-study of
whatever kind; it is one, rather, of the convenient distinction of
methods that have grown too independent and important to be any
longer well included under a common name.

9
 ...щ

LECTURE 2
ANCIENT GERMANS '

Introduction
You already know what the subject matter o f our course is. Now
our task is to find out who the first people who spoke Germanic-
languages were. These were ancient Germans —tall warlike blbnds who
spread all over Europe. .
After learning the second lecture you will be able to answer-Ше '
following questions: .
- Where did ancient Germans live? :
- How did they live? ;
- What were the main historic events in their life?
- What languages did they speak?
Key words: tribe, dialect, migration, invasion.

1. The first testimonies on Germanic tribes

Germanic tribes are great ethnic complex of ancient Europe, a
basic stock in the composition o f the modem peoples o f Sweden, ■
Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Northern
Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Northern and Central
France, Lowland Scotland and England. In ancient times the territory:
o f Germanic languages was more limited than now. is-
Thus in the 1st century A.D. Germanic languages were only
spoken in Germany and in territories adjacent to it and also in
Scandinavia. It is considered that they lived in the territory between the
rivers Elbe and Odra, on the peninsula Jutland and- in the Southern
Sweden. At that time old Germanic tribes were passing through the
stage of development which is marked by the term “barbarism”. From
archaeology it is clear that the Germans had little ethnic solidarity; by
the 7th cent. B.C. they had begun a division into many peoples. They
did not call themselves Germans; the origin o f the name is uncertain.
Their rise to significance (4th cent. B.C.) in the history of Europe
began roughly with the general break-up o f Celtic culture in central
Europe. From these areas they spread out in great migrations
southward, southeastward, and westward.
10
 Geography made the territory o f the Germanic tribes attractive to
the Romans as a potential province to add to the already powerful
Roman Empire. The combination o f natural resources, agriculture, and
strategic value made the Romans eager to gain acquisition of this
territory. The main resources that Germany had to offer, came in the
form o f metals, more specifically, iron. Their iron was o f such quality
and was acquired in such, abundance that it was exported to Rome for
use in most everything that was created from iron.
The Germanic agricultural system was vital to the economy in
Germany. Most o f the Germans were farmers but a large portion of the
population, was herders. The Germans were agriculturists from the
beginning of their existence.' They established agricultural villages
based on .land plots that were grouped around a central water supply.
The main crops that they raised were cereal grains such as wheat,
barley, oats, and rye.
. .0 ..' Around the North Sea area, there was an emphasis on cattle
raising:;; Germany also had a great strategic advantage that was
appealing to the Romans. First o f all it could be used to protect Gaul
north o f the Danube w hich had already come under Rome influence.
Germany .also provided for- a buffer from Gaul. The tribes that
eventually settled in the Germanic area were tribes that had for the
most part been migrating throughout Europe for many years.
Our knowledge o f the ancient Germans is based on the testimonies
by Greek and Rom an writers, who for certain reasons were interested in
them. The earliest o f them was the Greek traveller and astronomer
Pytheas from Massilia (now Marseiilles) who lived in the 4th century
B.C. He sailed from his native town through the Gibraltar along the west
coast o f France to the Baltic. His book has not come down to us, drily
some pieces o f it were preserved by the Greek geographer Strabo (63
B.C. - 20 A.D.). Pytheas was the first who mentioned the Teutons.
Many other Germanic tribes appeared in various ancienT periods. The
Teutons, who were allieid with the Cimbfi in 103 B.C., were crushed
(102 B.C.) by Marius. B y an extension of the name of that tribe the
Germanic peoples are sometimes called Teutonic.

2. Classification of ancient Germanic tribes

This classification w as composed by Pliny the Elder.
1; The Vindili (including the Goths and the Burgundians) were th e,
tribes who lived m the eastern part. . .
1.1
 2. The Ingaevones - the north-western part (the Saxons)
3. The Iscaevones (Istaevones) the western part on the Rhine (the
Franks)
4. The Hermiones - the southern part. .; ; v , ... . ^ ,
5. The Peucini and Bastamae who lived near Rumania.
6. The Hilleviones in Scandinavia - northern part o f the territory.
The tribes of the fifth group can be joined with the first group. . ;
This classification still coincides with the modem point of view
on the classification o f ancient Germanic languages and is correlated
with modem Germanic languages. The physical features of each tribe
were very similar to each other. Tacitus described the Germans as
blond-haired, blue-eyed people with large frames. Other accounts tell
o f reddish-blond-haired figures that were well built and long skulled.
Thejr facial features are preserved on Roman monuments.
Although the earliest mention o f the Germans is by a Greek
navigator who saw them in Norway and Jutland in the 4th cent. B.C.,
their real appearance in history began with their contact (1 st cent, B.C.)
with the Romans. The Roman general, statesman and writer Julius
Caesar (100-44 DC) in his Commentaries on the W ar in Gaul gives
several chapters to the Germans, whom he combated and dealt with on
the Rhine. Apart from describing their barbarity and warlikeness,
Caesar Commentaries tell little. It also follows from Caesar’s account
that the Teutons were nomads in his time.

3. Roman Influence
The Romans saw themselves as having a highly advanced
civilization, and they looked down on the cultures o f the people Who
lived beyond the borders of the empire. In AD 122, Emperor Hadrian
built a wall separating the Roman part of Britain from the mountainous
land now called Scotland. The Romans called the Scottish people
'’barbarians," possibly because their native Celtic language sounded
like the bleating of sheep. The term was eventually used to describe
anyone who lived beyond the borders of the Roman Empire.
As the centuries passed the Germans became increasingly
troublesome to the Roman Empire. The Vandals in the west and the
Ostrogoths in the east were the first to attack the empire seriously. The
Ostrogoths were a part o f the Gothic people, often called the East
Germanic. The Goths apparently moved southeastwards from the
Vistula River to the Balkans, thence westwards across Europe. .
12
 The physical features o f each tribe were very similar to each
other. Tacitus described the Germans as blond-haired, blue-eyed
people with large frames. Other accounts tell of reddish-blond-haired
figures that were well built and long skulled. Their facial features are
preserved on Roman monuments.
Julius Caesar initiated the first contact with the German people.
He was the first person to take an interest in Germany. This coritact
came during the Gallic Wars in 58 BC when he put an end to the power
of the German tribes in Alsace. In 55 BC he crossed the Rhine to
persuade the Germans not to interfere with the war in Gaul. He crossed
the Rhine a final time in 55 BC to relieve him self of the pressure from
the rebelling Gauls. Other than these few contacts with Caesar the
Romans left the Germans pretty much in peace.
The invasions of Germany came later and under a new leadership.
Augustus remained in Gaul until 13 BC when Drusus the Elder took
control of the province. In 12 BC Drusus crossed the Rhine tb establish
his presence around Germany. The next year he pushed farther into
Germany, and by 9 BC had conquered many o f the German tribes.
Drusus died later that year and was replaced by his brother Tiberius
who fohght a number of smaller wars and eventually left Germany in
the hands of legates who had made friendly relations with many of the
native tribes. Augustus, satisfied with the accomplishments of both
Drusus and Tiberius, pushed to make Germany a province of the
Roman Empire. The Romans had overestimated their position in
Germany and found the tribes unwilling to accept the offer of
provincial status. The command then fell upon Varus who was caught
in a surprise attack while marching through the Teutoburg Forest and
was defeated with great losses. The Rhine now once again served as
the frontier o f the Roman Empire. After this defeat the Romans
practiced frontier defence along the Rhine with ten new legions. In AD
69 a revolt broke out involving many of the tribes.
The Romans saw this as their opportunity. Vespasian and the
Flavians gained control in 70 and punished the tribes for their actions.
The Flavians strengthened the already existing forts and defensive
lines. Rome assumed the role of organizing the tribes into a Roman
style of life, this left only a small mark on German civilization. Rome
did succeed in spreading their language to the Roman people with
mixed reactions. Roman rule was accepted with mixed emotions.
During the early years when they were first invaded by the Romans the
13
 German people were very reluctant, to accept Roman rule and to
become a province o f the Roman Empire. This attitude changed in
Lower Germany where many locals lived side by side with new settlers
in relative peace and accepted the new culture. Roman rule was based
on the rule o f the army. Germany had to have continuous military force
because o f the unwillingness of Germans to accept Roman rule and
become a province o f the Roman Empire. .Germany was in essence an
imperial province with constant military rule.
_, e Both Germany and Roman gained advantages by being in: the
Empire. Rome first o f all had much to gain. They had extension o f their
territory by gaining control o f Germany. Second, they gained military
advantage. They now had territory north, o f the Rhine and they could
now defend Gaul and many o f their other provinces. The Germans also
had much to gain from the Romans. First, they helped the Germans to
establish colonies and to organize themselves in communities. The
Romans also introduced the Germans to fortified cities and towns, and
also to the concept of building fortifications. The Germans stayed in
these colonies, which were towns and cities. The main cities that the;
Romans founded with the Germanic tribes were Cologne, which was
the capital Of Germania Inferior, Another city that became a major city
was Mainz which was the capital o f Germania Superior. The third
major city that developed during Germany’s provincial time was. Trier,:.
By the fifth century Germany had turned into utter chaos. I h €
Romans had lost most o f their control over the territory that they once
controlled. In AD 455 the Romans, still controlled Germany, but later
that year the Franks attacked and a conflict arose. By AD 457 Germany
was occupied by a number o f groups'w ith both Roman and Frankish
authority trying to prevail amongst all the strife. The ‘last Roman
soldiers entered into the Frankish army: but still managed to keep their
Roman identity. During this strife the Romans and the Franks' seemed
to coexist with each other.- The Franks Went so far as to elect Romans
to serve as their kings. Sources have also shown that the Romans and
the Germans allied together to fight the Goths and the Saxons. There
are no specific incidents that suggest how G erinm y passed out of
Roman hands, but the evidence seems to suggest that the Romans'
eventually merged with the many other groups that were, occupying
Germany at that time. This eventually led to the loss o f identity byjhe.
Romans and this led to Germany being free o f the Empire. ... /v
14
 xhe people who lived northeast of the Roman Empire spoke
languages Germans similar to modem German. These "Germanic
tribes" included the Vandals, Lombards, Alamanni, Goths, Franks, and
Burgundians. Most of the tribesmen did. not know how to read, but
unlike the Huns, they tended to farms and were not nomadic. Most of
the tribes'gave up their pagan beliefs and became Christians. In 376
the Huns forced the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) to leave their
homeland near the Danube River in modem Austria. The Visigoths
asked Emperor Valens permission to settle inside the Roman Empire
Valens agreed, but charged the Visigoths unfair prices for food and
their supplies. When the Visigoths protested, Valens ordered them to
leave. The Visigoths refused, and formed an army that defeated and
killed the emperor in 378.
Alaric was a Visigoth who joined the Roman army and rose to a
high rank. He left the army when his father died and became king of
the Visigoths. In 410, the Romans refused to pay a bribe, so Alaric’s
soldiers formed a siege around Rome/ When the city was close to
starvation, the Roman citizens opened the gates and allowed the
conquering army to enter. The Visigoths rampaged through the streets
for three days, pillaging and burning. Alaric ordered his army not to
molest women or destroy churches. Rome was not completely
destroyed, but for the first time in nearly 800 years, the "eternal city"
had been defeated. Germanic tribes overran what Was left of the
Roman Empire. The Visigoths conquered most of Italy, Greece, and
the western Balkans. с л:
The Vandals took control of the Roman territory in North Africa.
The Franks overran France, while the Saxons conquered the southern
part of England. All these movements influenced the development of
languages. Former dialects became separate languages, a lot of words
were borrowed, the adstratum and 'superstratum layers appeared. Thus
the former Germanic language gave'rise to, a great number of modem
languages and dialects. ; ° -/• •

4. Anglo-Saxon Invasion
The’ earliest mention of the British Isles is in the 4th century ВC
by PytheaS. At that time Britain was inhabited by Celtic tribes. e
5th century AD Britain was conquered by three Gerfnanic fri es, e
Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. These tribes were included mto the
15
group of the Ingaevones according to the classification of Р1щу t, ,
Elder. The Britons fought against the conquerors for about a centu 6
and a half. (According to legends, they were lead by a mysterious k i^
Arthur). The conquerors settled in Britain in the following way The
.Angles occupied most o f the territory north of the Thames; the Saxons
- south to the Thames; the Jutes in Kent and in the Isle of Wight.

And now you are welcome to answer some questions.

1. Now the territory where Germanic languages are spread is
- smaller;
- th e same;
- bigger than it used to be?

2. When did Germans become historically important? Give the number

of the century.

3. Which o f the following was not important for the Romans:

- strategic position of the German territory;
- the iron deposits;
- Germanic culture? ,-.r >

4. Who was the first to write about Germans? ,

- Pliny the Elder;
- Pytheas;
- Strabo.

5. How many groups of Germanic tribes does, the modem classification

include.?- ; '• ' ....... Л&:

Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some:

practical tasks.
1. Complete the following passage:
The ancient Germans lived in the territory between the rivers ...., on
the peninsula ... and in .th e ....... {Sweden. At that time old Germanic
tribes were passing through the stage of development which is marked
by the te rm .........From archaeology it is clear that the Germans had
little ethnic solidarity; by the .. .th cent. B.C. they had begun a division
into many peoples.
16
2 When did the Germanic tribes invade Great Britain? In which
century?
3. Fill the chart
Group of The place where they lived Representatives ~j
Tribes
The. Vindili The.....part of Europe the Goths
TheIngaeyones______ The north-western part 7

? The western part on the the Franks

Rhine
ph^lenniones The southern part of the Hermundurs
Europe
The Hilleviones ? the Sveones

4. Who classified the Germanic tribes?

5. Which Germanic tribe got badly known after the destruction of
Rome in 410?
6. Which legendary hero fought against the Germanic tribes in Britain?

Use your knowledge to do the following tasks:

1. Make a time-line of events connected with the struggle between
ancient Germans and the Roman Empire.
2. Using the map from the textbook Жлуктенко Ю.О., Яворська Т А.
Вступ до германсъкого мовознавства. К., 1974 (page 9) enumerate
as many Germanic tribes as you can relating them to 5 groups of the
classification.
3. Read the book "Song of the Nibelungs" and add some material about
the way of life of ancient Germans to the unit "It’s interesting".

It’s interesting
We haven't spoken much vet about the culture o f ancient Germans.
One example o f it is the stone pictures in Gotland
For well over a millennium and a half, the Gotlanders erected
skillfully carved stones that were decorated with symbols of renown,
death and resurrection, dramatic scenes and entwined dragons filled
with runes. They were probably erected both in memoriam and honour
of the deceased, and to foster the contemporary cults. Today, these
Gotlandic picture stones constitute unique monuments from our
prehistory. Together they comprise an important source of knowledge
of our ancestors’ world of myths and sagas, simultaneously providing
us with valuable information about daily life during prehistory.
17
 'j'jjg signs and figures on the picture stones illustrate religious
conceptions, housing, clothing, domesticated animals and weapons.
They provide us with increased knowledge of the design of the
contemporary ships and their equipment, wagons and sledges. Male
«gums wearing helmets without horns and well-groomed beards,
women with long, plaited hair both provide a very different picture to
that conjured up by many a modem imagination. Scenes of battles and
sacrifice reveal an alas far too common occurrence of violence.
 L E C TU R E 3
GERMANIC WRITINGS

Introduction
Have you ever paid attention to such strange advertisements
where somebody offers fortune telling with the help of the runes? Have
you ever thought how old the runes are and what they are used for?
Have you ever seen the runes themselves? Can you imagine an ancient
Germanic priest who spreads the white cover, then drops a set of runes
and tells the tribe about their future? It used to be so as the runes are
.vohe o f the most ancient type o f writing in the history o f mankind.
.. From ancient times mankind was appealed by unknown writings:
half-forgotten antique .languages, Egypt hieroglyphs, Indian
inscriptions... The fate o f runes was much happier - their sense wasn’t
•lost/ in the course o f time, even when Latin alphabet became
dominating one in Europe. For instance, runes were used in calendars
till the end .of the 18-th c. M odem linguists think that runes possess
another kind o f meaning, which we cannot find in ideograms,
hieroglyphs or in modem exotic alphabets — this meaning exists in
subconsciousness level. Runes were the personification of the
surrounding world, essence o f outlook? With the helpi o f special links
between runes a man could express nearly everything, compiling them
(so called combined runes). In different times mnes could change their
meaning, so we can say this adjusting system created dozens of
meanings of one and the same symbol. Linguists find confirmation of
this theory in the following example - every rune in different
languages had separate and original meaning, which didn’t fully
coincide with another one in the second language. So let’s look closely
at the mnes and try to study them in details.
After studying this lecture you will know:
®when and where the first Germanic alphabets appeared;
. • what they looked like and what they were used for;
• why they replaced each other.
Key words: alphabet, signs, letters, mnes.
Ancient Germans used to have three types of writings:
• Runic writing,
• Gothic alphabet, ....................
• Latin alphabet.
19
 1. Runic Alphabet
The word “nine” is translated as “secret’ (compare old Celtic
“run”, middle Welsh “rown”, modem German “raunen”). The most
important sources about runic history are ancient texts of Scandinavian
pagan religion - Old Edda by Brynolf Swesson and Lesser Edda by
Snorri Sturlusson. German runic writing was the letter system of
peculiar look, accounted by the writing technique oh bone, wood and
metal.
Tombstones, altars, pagan pillars called “runic stones” played
quite an important role in scientific researches - usually they are found
with miscellaneous writings (Gothland, Upland, Norway). The most
famous is Cilwer stone, which dates from the 5-th c. So we can .find a
lot of writings on jewels and weapon, for barbarians believed things
had to possess their own names (breakteats).
Main runic alphabet
Nowadays we have the main runic alphabet, consisting of 24
signs* may be more, but another ones are regarded as variants or
combined runes. The whole system is divided into *2 parts - futarks
(arises from the first symbols - F, U, Th, A, R* K: Old fotark (runes o f
Old German origin - o.f.) and Late futark (modifications of o.f. in
Northumbrian, Frisian and Anglo-Saxon alphabets).
Old Futark
s i 1 J ♦ J i f t У to 11 12 u И U U

ff'M-FKkXfHtUJ'CTM:
•I о fn • » * t‘ l i l j - - i t * *'
17 1» 1» JO 21 21 2J 24 25 24 27 2» 29 JO N.

п п р 1г * * н т т к м
■ь « ■ • о * * * « j t* | k к

• 24 signs traditionally gradate into 3. groups of 8 symbols called atts

(“part of land “ or “kin” compare Scot, "airt”, Ireland “aird).
The origin of futark remains the matter of severe debates between
historians, linguists and philologists.
• There are two main theories: 1) Runic writing appeared on the basis
of Latin alphabet; 2) Cradles of these signs are in Transalpine and
North Italian scripts. Scientists have a lot of historical facts,
approving that Etruscan merchants used this system. Probably they
brought it to the North (6-th с. B.C.).
20
• However some researchers think that runes cropped up in German
tribes from ancient Rome Latin writing. But the construction of runic
alphabet (RA) is different from others - for example, order of the
first letters.
• Many runic symbols were used as icons, showing various things and
animals. Some riinologists suppose that even in the most developed
variant they are close to pictures: rune “Fehu” f symbolizes cattle,
, Thurisaz th, - thorn, Wunjp w - weathercock, Algiz z - elk, Zin xxs-
lightning, Yr u - bow, Edhwaz m - horse.
The top of development and complete formation of RA system was in
1-2 c. AD.
• 28 signs appeared in the middle of the 6-th c. In Britain where
German runes penetrated in the 5-th c. with Anglo-Saxon invasion,
Frisian futark was improved by the some additions and changes
(mostly combined runes) and numbered 29 units.
• In Northumberland 33 rune system existed already, with the mixture
of Celtic runes.
• In the middle of the 7-th c. the tendency to simplification appeared -
some runes changed in inscription, some were lost. To the middle of
the 10-th c. the number of runes decreased to 16 units and late futark
formed.
• It was purely writing system, which wasn’t used for fortune telling. It
got wide spreading not only on the territory of German Empire, but
in the North too, for example in Denmark and Swiss.

• The next step in development of RA took place in the middle of the

12-th c. by adding dots to 16 sign system (dotted alphabet). It was
used along with Latin one till the 16-th c. We can find its variants in
Slavonic manuscripts. Hipped and branchy RA weren’t alike to
dotted one.
Combined (constrained) runes.
• They attract attention by their unusual form —at is too difficult to
regard it as ordinary symbol. Their use is quite miscellaneous, in
amulets, braketeats, and everywhere when difficult magic formulas
were necessary. Runes are bind on the strength of common line.

2. Gothic Alphabet
• The Gothic alphabet was probably created by bishop Ulfilas who
also translated the Bible into the "razda" (language). Some scholars
21
 claim that it was derived from the Greek alphabet only,,while others
maintain that there are. some Gothic letters o f runic or Latin origin
There are very few references to the Gothic language in secondary
sources after about 800 AD, so perhaps it was rarely used by that
date. 1 _ .
• In evaluating medieval texts that mention the Goths, it must be noted
that many writers used'"Goths" to mean any Germanic people in
eastern Europe, many of whom certainly did not use the Gothic
language as known from the Gothic Bible. Some writers even
referred to Slavic-speaking people as Goths. There is also the case of
the "Crimean Goths". A few fragments of their language dating to the
16th century exist today. r-:
• The Gothic alphabet is ah alphabetic writing system used exclusively
for writing the ancient Gothic language. Before its creation, Gothic
was written in Gothic runes. The letter hwair was invented solely to
be able to translate the Gothic alphabet on a one-to-one basis. The
letter names are recorded in a 9th century manuscript o f Alcuin.

3. Latin Alphabet
• Latin was introduced into Germanic languages later in order to
organize church service. First glosses appeared to render the names
into Latin. The Latin alphabet o f that time had only 23 letters
(without J, W, V). Historically there were the following types of
Latin writing: scriptura capitalis, scriptura uncialis, semiuncialis and
minusculis.

And now you are welcome to answer some questions.

1. Choose the general notion for the following words:
old futark, late futark -
a) Edda;
b) missionary;
c) alphabet; ' ^ * ; V
d) att. •;Л ■ ' *■'2

2. Choose the sounds corresponding to the following runes:

- the first - a) a; b) f; c) d; d) r;
- the fourth —a) a; b ) f ; c) d; d) r • ;
- the last - a) a; b) f;fc) d; d) r ■ ... :: t У-:*ts№
22
 3 . Fill in the parts of the scheme
FUTARK

4. Choose the general notion for the following worrk-

Edda, Beowulf, Helibrand:
a) names of tribes; . •.
b) names of characters of books;
c) names of alphabets;
d) names of runes.

5. Cross out wrong words (write the number)

The (1) runes f 2) were (3) written (4) on (5) bone (6), wood (7)
wool (8) and (9) metal (10).

Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some

practical tasks. ' * " . "
1. Chbose the missing parts of the sentences-
Nbw runes keep their main original meaning - in the beginning they
w ere_____(The general matter why they didn’t get wide diffusion
before AD). Even the word “rune” corresponds as
(compare old Celtic “run”). \ .
- 1 ) used for divinatiori.... Fortunetelling;
2) usedforforturietedlihg;':... divination;
f ' - 3) written on wood.... Secret; ' w ';
- 4 ) usedfordivination....secret. ' ^ ' ^
2. Chbose the general notion for the following words:
;';“Rekl6ather”, Old. Edda, Lesser Edda ; ' _
’ a) runes; ; :V
^7 b)fhtaik; 4' J у; / V ’’ . ’
:c) written document; t 0 ' "Г. . , ;7 ^
d)alphabet. d

3. Match the definitions and the notions

Runes Runic alphabet organized by adding dots to 1 sign

“Runic stones” Characters of an ancient Germanic alphabet

Futark Pagan pillars covered with runic inscriptions w ot

23
 runes . .... ■ •:! ;
Atts The row of eight runes
Dotted runes The row of runes which name arises from the first
вз'тЬоЬ

4. Cross out wrong words (write the number)

3 (1) groups (2) of (93) 8 (4) symbols (5) were (6) called (7) atts (8)
(“part (9) of (10) land (11)“, “letter” (12) or (13)“kin” (M) •

5. Match the script and the type of writing.

Scriptura capitalis Runic alphabet
Greek signs Latin alphabet
Dotted signs Gothic alphabet

Use your knowledge to do the folio wing tasks:

1. Compose the plan of the lecture on Germanic runes. . .
2. Write your own name and surname in runes.
3. Find the additional material about the runes on the Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_language and add it to the
lecture summary. л ... 4 .

It’s interesting
Runic signs spread far from the territory pf the Germanic tribes,
even to the territories of Slavonic people. We can say that when
Slavonic tribes divided into non-relative kins, RA went through
changes of different kind. At the end of the 1-st millennium BC Veneds
were vanished by Germanic barbarian hordes and protorunic system
spread rapidly on the territory from the Black cea to Gaul. As it follows
from archaeological discoveries RA can be found on the Slavonic
jewels dated from 10-th c. AD, but it is difficult to say if they were
originally Russian or Scandinavian ones - perhaps, runes on the
jewelries were regarded as the part of design arid in was copied blindly.

f ~ Ъ* - 1 ' h " 'f t i-l:1

. •/. •’ ; Л - ' r .- f, g j . ;• > < ;. • ' ' ' V з Ш .Г ? Г ‘Л \ С '

24
 LECTURE 4
OLD GERMANIC LITERARY TEXTS
Introduction
We are so lucky that we can read some of ancient Germanic
books. After learning this lecture you will be able to answer the
following questions:
~ What are the most famous Germanic manuscripts?
■ - What languages are they written in?
- Who wrote them and when?
- What are they about?
Key words: manuscript, literary text, Beowulf, Edda

Gothic texts
• The Gothic language ( known to us by a translation of the Bible
known as Codex Argenteus ("The Silver Bible") dating from the 4th
century AD, of which some books survive is the only surviving East
Germanic language; the others, including Burgundian and Vandalian,
are known, if at all, only from proper names. Apart from the Bible,
the only other Gothic document is a few pages of commentary on the
Gospel of John. This document is usually called the "Seatrains". The
Gothic Bible and Seatrains were written using a special alphabet.

The Gothic language is only attested in a handful of codices, mainly

parts of the Bible translation of Ulfilas.
• Codex Argenteus: parts of the gospels, 188 leaves.
• Codex Ambrosianus (Milan) (and Codex Tardiness) five parts,
totaling 193 leaves.
• Codex Gassiness (Green) one leaf, fragments of Luke 23-24; found
' in Egypt in 1907, destroyed by water damage in 1945.
• Codex Carolinas: 4 leaves, fragments of Romans 11-15.
• Codex Vaticanus Latinus 5750: 3 leaves, pages 57/58, 59/60 and
61/62 o f the Skeireins.
• Naples Deed: papyrus fragment of 551, four signatures. vr_.
• Arezzo Deed: papyrus fragment (now lost), one signature.•

• There were other reports of discovery of parts of Ulfila's bible.

■'Heinrich May in 1968 claimed 12 leaves of a palimpsest containing
25
 parts of the gospel of Matthew had been discovered in England. The
claim was never substantiated.

Old English texts

BEOWULF
» Beowulf is a traditional heroic epic poem in Old English alliterative
verse. At 3182 lines, it is far more substantial than any similar work
in the language, representing about 10% of the extant corpus of
Anglo-Saxon verse. The poem is untitled in the manuscript, but has
been known as Beowulf since the early 19th century. The precise
date of the manuscript is debated, but most estimates place it close to
AD 1000. ...
• The poem is a work of fiction, but it mentions in passing some people
and events that were probably real, probably dating from between
AD 450 to 600 in Denmark and southern Sweden (Geats and
Swedes). The hero's name Beowulf means bee-wolf, a kenning for
"bear" (due to their love of honey). --'voai
• The story came to England at a time when the Germanic peoples
were still part o f the same cultural sphere and spoke what really were
just dialects of the same language. However, the arrival o f this legend
to England surprises modem Englishmen, who today are more
isolated from the rest of the Germanic world. Old English is the
ancestor language of modem English, but the language has changed
so much over the years that most modem English speakers would not
immediately recognize it as their own language. It is known only
from a single manuscript, kept in the British Library.

Ancient Scandinavian texts

EDDA
• . The Elder Edda, also known as the "Poetic Edda" is a collection of
Norse mythology. The main manuscript dates back a t .least to the
13th century containing many verses, which had been referenced by
Snorri Sturluson in the Younger Edda. The attribution is due to
Brynjolfur Sveinsson. What seems to be obvious, is. multiple
authorship over a long period o f time. Codex Regius (R2365) Was
stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen. In 1971 it was brought
back to Reykjavik.
• The Younger Edda, known also as the "Prose Edda" or "Snorri's
Edda" is an Icelandic manual o f poetics which also contains many
26
 mythological stories. It is attributed to the Icelandic scholar and
historian Snorri Sturluson, and was written around 1220. It survives
in seven main manuscripts, written from about 1300 to about
1600.The Norse sagas or Viking sagas (Icelandic: Islendingasogur),
are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about
early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and o f feuds
between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse
language. The texts are epic tales in prose, often with stanzas or
whole poems in alliterative verse embedded in the text, o f heroic
deeds o f days long gone, tales o f worthy men, who were often
Vikings, sometimes Pagan, sometimes Christian. The tales are
usually realistic (except, o f course, legendary sagas, sagas o f saints,
sagas o f bishops and translated or recomposed romances), sometimes
romanticized and fantastic, but always dealing with human beings we
can understand.

Old German and Old Saxon Texts

The most ancient texts in German were glosses (VIII-IX
centuries), then the most important prayers were translated. The earliest
text is the translation of the religious treaty by Icidor o f Seville “On
Catholic Faith” by an unknown translator (the end of the VIII century).
The end o f the 10th - the beginning o f the 11th century is marked by die
activity of Notker, a famous translator, and his school. He tried to
create the philosophical terminology in German.
The epic literature is presented by “Song about Hildebrandt”.
Saxon texts were not numerous. The most remarkable o f them is
“Heliand” (“Saviour” - a verse story of the life of Jesus Christ). Its two
copies are kept in Munich and in London.
The investigation o f all these texts is o f great importance for
studying ancient and modem Germanic languages.

And now you are welcome to answer some questions;.

1. Which was the first Germanic language which got its oyra alphabet
kept in the translations o f the Bible?
2. One o f the most famous English text is Beowulf. As far as it is
concerned number 3182 means:
• pages;
• books;
• lines.

27
3. What is Beowulf?
• a man;
• a wolf;
• a monster.
4 where is the Elder Edda kept?
• in the North
• inReikjavik
• in Sveinsson.
5. The Elder Edda is written in prose? in poetry?
The Younger Edda is written in poetry? in prose?

Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some

practical tasks.
1. Which language was the book written in?
Beowulf Gothic
Elder Edda Old English
the Silver Bible Icelandic

2. How many sections does Younger Edda have?

3. Fill the gaps.
The Younger Edda, known also as the "..........Edda" or "Snorri's
Edda" is lan Icelandic . . .......o f poetics which also contains many
mythological stories. Its purpose was to enable Old Norse poets and
readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, and to grasp
the meaning behind the many kennings that were used in the skaldic
tradition.
4. What did Ulfila translate?
• the Bible; .. :-,-
• the Gospel;
• the Bible and the Gospel
5. What is the significance of "Beowulf'? ;vi :
The poem is a work of fiction, but it mentions in passing some,;
people and events that were probably real, probably dating from..
between AD ........ to .........in Denmark and southern Sweden (Geats
and Swedes). It is a useful source for information not only about
Anglo-Saxon traditions, but also about Scandinavian personalities and
about continental Germanic personalities .
28
 Use your knowledge to do the following tasks:
1. Compose the plan of the lecture on Germanic texts.
2. Add some material about the literary texts in Old High German.
3. Find the additional material about the literary texts on the Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_language.

It’s interesting
You've studied the names o f the ancient literary monuments. Would
you like to read an extract from "Edda” translated into the modem
language?

THE GREENLANDISH WORDS OF ATLI

1. Very many have heard, how earlier
warriors prepared speech together, which was profit to few.
Private speech made, terrible to them afterwards,
and likewise to the sons of Gjuki, who were truth-betrayed!
2. Shaping was made for Skjoldings - they were fey! -
ill Atli counseled himself - though he had understanding! -
felled great pillars, did hard ill to himself:
sent bidding swiftly that kinsmen come straight away.
3. The house-Freyja was wise, thought with human wit,
she heard the lay o f words, what they spoke in secret;
then the wise one was unhappy, wished to help them,
they should sail over sea, but (she) herself came not.
4. (She) took to listing runes; Vingi confused them
- he was causing harm - before he gave them forth.
Afterwards Atli's messengers fared then
to the Lim Firth, where the keen ones dwelt.
5. There were friendly welcomes, and fires kindled
(for) those who were come there; they sensed no wiles,
took those treasures which the good one sent them,
hung on the pillars; thought not to be wary o f that.
6. Kostbera came then - she was Hogni's wife,
a very fine woman - and spoke to them both.
Glaumvor, whom Gunnarr married, was also glad,
swiftly (and) seemingly fulfilled what is needed for guests.
7. They invited Hogni home, if he would rather fare then;
the deception was visible, if they had given heed!
Gunnarr swore then that if Hogni would,
29
 Hogni did not deny what he suggested.
8..The famed women bore mead, there was much o f all
hospitality,
Many horns fared, until (everyone) seemed to have drunken fully;
9. the married folk went to bed as seemed wisest to them.
Kostbera was knowing, she knew (how to tell) the differences of
runes,
she looked at word-staves by fire's light:
guarded was her tongue within both jaws:
they were so confused that rede was lacking.

...Л■
' • ; “i . ;-

30
 LECTURE 5
; GERMANIC PHONETICS

Introduction
You already know who spoke Germanic languages and how the
ancient Germans wrote. Now our task is to find out how they spoke
which sounds they pronounced. Of course, it’s a difficult task, as these
sounds can be only reconstructed, not heard.
After learning the fifth lecture you will be able to answer the
following questions: , ,
- What was the system of ancient Germanic sounds like?
- What changes took place in it?
- Who discovered these changes?
- What was the ancient Germanic stress like?
Key words: consonant, vowel, shift, stress, syllable:

The phonetic system of Germanic languages was rather specific

and changeable. A great role in its changes was played by stress.

■ • Stress
In linguistics, stress-is the emphasis (shown by more forceful,
louder, and higher-pitched voice) given to some syllables (usually no
more than one in each word). In many languages, long words have a
secondary stress a few syllables away from the primary stress. Some
languages have fixed stress; i. e. stress is placed always on a given
syllable, as in French (where words are always stressed in-the last
syllable), Finnish (stress always on the first syllable) or Quechua
(always on the pehultima - the syllable before-the. last one). Other
languages have stress placed on different syllables in a predictable way
(they're said to have a regular stress rule), such as Latin.
There are also languages like English or Spanish, where stress is
unpredictable and arbitrary, being lexical —it comes as part of the word
and must be learned with it. In this kind of a language two words can
differ only by the position of the stress, and therefore it's possible to
use stress as a derivative or inflectional device.
There are languages that do not have a stress rule, instead
possessing accentual systems based on pitch or tone (i. e. paying
31
attention to the relative height of the syllable, instead of its loudness).
In English, stressed syllables have higher pitch than unstressed ones. In
tone (musical) languages, the tone can rise or fall during articulation of
the syllable, rather than some syllables, the stressed one, having higher
pitch than the others. It is considered that in Indo-European the stress
used to be dynamic (or musical as some scientists consider) and free.
But in Germanic it became fixed on the root syllable and turned into
the dynamic one.
The system o f phonemes included consonants and, vowels.
■ Ancient Germanic system of consonants was different from that of
Indo-European in the number of stops and fricatives. Germanic
languages had more fricatives than stops, Indo-European - v.v.
Germanic consonants included labials p,b,f; dentals t, d, th; back
sounds k, g, h; kw, gw, xw. These changes are explained by shifts.

Consonant Shifts
■ The changes in the Germanic consonant system are explained by
three shifts.
Grimm’s law
■ Grimm's law (also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift) was the
first systematic sound change ever to be discovered. The "law" was
discovered in 1822 by Jakob Grimm, the younger o f the Brothers
Grimm. It establishes a set of regular correspondences between early
Germanic stops and fricatives and the stop consonants of certain
other Indo-European languages / к ;.
> , It consists of three parts: ..
1. Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops change into voiceless
fricatives:
Indo-European p, t, к > Germanic f, J), x
2, Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become voiceless:
Indo-European b, d, g > Germanic p, t, к
3. Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops lose their aspiration and
change into plain voiced stops:
Indo-European bh, dh, gh > Germanic b, d, g
For example:
■ Indo-European pater > Germanic faeder (English father)
■ Indo-European tres > Germanic prie (English three) . ( ^
■ Indo-European cordis > Germanic heorte (English heart) ... .
■ Indo-European болото (Russ, Ukr.) > Germanic pol (English pool)
32
■ Indo-European duo > Germanic twa (English two)
■ Indo-European genu > Germanic спёо (English knee)
■ Indo-European bhrater > Germanic bropor (English brother)
■ Indo-European *ghordho- 'enclosed place' > Germanic *gard-
(Englrsh garden)
Verner's law
Vemer’s law, stated by Karl Vemer in 1875, describes a historical
sound change in the proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless
fricatives f, p, s and x, when immediately following an unstressed
syllableTn the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively
b, d, z and g. When Grimm's law was discovered, a strange irregularity
was spotted in5its operation. The Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops
p, t and к should have changed into Proto-Germanic f, p and x
according to Grimm's Law. Indeed, that was known to be the usual
development. However, there appeared to be a large set of words in
which the agreement of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Baltic, Slavic etc.
guaranteed Indo-European p, t or k, and yet the Germanic reflex was a
voiced consonant b, d or g. At first, irregularities did not give scholars
sleepless nights as long as there were many examples of the regular
butcome. Increasingly, however, it became the ambition of linguists to
formulate general and exceptionless rules of sound change that would
account for all the data (or as close to the ideal as possible. One classic
example of Indo-European t > Germanic d is the word for 'father',
Indo-European (Latin) pater - Goth, fadar. Curiously, the structurally
similar family term bhrater brother' developed as predicted by
Grimm’s Law (Germanic. bro:pe:r). Karl Vemer was the first scholar
who put his finger on the factor governing the distribution of the two
outcomes. He observed that the apparently unexpected voicing of
voiceless fricatives occurred if they were non-initial and immediately
preceded by a syllable that carried no stress in Indo-European. The
original location of stress was often retained in Greek and early
Sanskrit, though in Germanic stress eventually became fixed on the
initial (root) syllable of all words. The crucial difference between fadar
and bro:pe:r was therefore one of second-syllable versus first-syllable
stress. '
Since z changed to r in the Scandinavian languages and in West
Germanic (German, Dutch, English, Frisian), Vemer's Law resulted in
the alternation Is/ versus /г/ in some inflectional paradigms. For
33
 example, the Old English verb ceosan 'choose' had the past plural form
curon and the past participle (ge)coren < *kius- | *kuz- < * g e u s~ |
*gus-'taste, try'.
It is worth noting that the Verrier's Law comes chronologically
after Grimm's Law (because Grimm's Law provides most of its input)
and before the Germanic shift of stress to the initial syllable (because
the voicing is conditioned by the old location of stress). The stress shift
erased the conditioning environment and made the Vemerian variation
between voiceless fricatives and their voiced alternants look
mysteriously haphazard. The moral of Vemer's Law is that crucial
evidence necessary to sort out the historical evolution of a linguistic
lineage may reside where few people would dream of looking .for it.
Vemer found it "out there" in Greek and Sanskrit, while everyone else
had tacitly assumed that Germanic changes could be explained in
Germanic terms without recourse to external comparison.

The second shift

• Grimm also discovered another ("Second") consonant shift, which
accounts for the consonant system of High German. It did not
operate in the remaining Germanic languages, which meant that e.g.
the English system of stops and fricatives is more archaic (closer to
Proto-Germanic) than that o f Modem German.
For example
• English two vs German zwei /ts-/
• English pipe vs German Pfeife /pf-f-Z
• English make vs German machen /-x-/ . %

The third shift

■ The third shift took place only in Danish, where voiceless stops
became aspirated at the beginning of a word.
Other processes which took place in Old Germanic system^ of
consonants were doubling (gemination) and rotacism. Common
Germanic doubling of consonants took place in Proto-Germanic
language and was influenced by the sound N. The examples are not
numerous: ,•••"
IE snitno: Goth, snepan, OHG snitzen (tt -+tz) (cut).
Another type of doubling concerned West Germanic languages
where a consonant was doubled before J and J disappeared.
34
?:•; -; Goth, sitan (*sitjari), O.Sc. sitia, OE sittan, O.Sax. sittian (p).
Consonant R was not doubled. Sound R was connected with so-
called rotacism, the process of changing Indo-European S (z) into R:
Goth, maiza, OE тага, OHG тёго (more).

System of Vowels
• Indo-European system of vowels included 5 short and 5 long ones (a,
o, u, i, e). The first three were used in stressed syllables and are
■;considered the basic ones.
• ■In Germanic sound system was also a distinct difference between
short and long vowels, even more distinct than it used to be in Indo-
European. It is considered that the Indo-European A and О changed
into Germanic long A:
Lat. hostis - Goth, gasts, OHG - gast.
It is the most ancient change.
Long vowels A: and O: changed into O:
Lat. mater, OE modor, O.Sax modor.
• Indo-European short vowels I, E, U could move into Germanic
languages without changes. In other cases the following changes
took place:
• I —* E: Lat. vir (man) - Goth, wair,
• E —*I: Lat. ventus (wind) - OE wind
• U —+ O: Lat. iugum (yoke) - Olcel. ok.
• The long sound E: in early period changed into Germanic Ж which
in Gothic became E, in Northern and western Germanic languages A
and then returned to Ж in Frisian and English.
• Under the influence of dynamic stress there were changes among
monophthongs and diphthongs. The first element of Germanic
diphthongs tended to absorb the second element and diphthongs
became monophthongs. Later the opposite process began in the
languages especially in Old High German where monopthongs
became diphthongised.
• We also observe the processes of Ablaut and Umlaut in ancient
Germanic languages.

Ablaut
The process of Ablaut (from German ab-: off + laut: sound) is a
vowel change accompanying a change in grammatical function. For
example, the vowel change in English from I to' A and to U in sing
35.
(present tense), sang (preterit), sung (past-participle) referred to as an
ablaut.
Umlaut -1^".
The process of Umlaut (from German: u rn -, "around",
"transformation" + laUt "sound") is a modification of a vowel which
causes it to be pronounced more to the front of the mouth to
accommodate a vowel in the following syllable, especially when that
syllable is an inflectional suffix. This process is found in many
(especially Germanic) languages. Example - woman - women. Note
that English, being a Germanic language, has .preserved some of these
changes in irregular inflected forms such as man/men, tooth/teeth,
long/length, old/'elders, etc., even though it has lost the suffixes that
originally caused them, and has changed their spelling.

And now you are welcome to answer some questions.

1. The stress in Germanic languages changed compared with Indo-
European one and became:
• free dynamic;
• fixed dynamic;
• free musical.
2. Which languages had more stops, Indo-European or Germanic?
3. What is 1822 year specific for in Germanic philology?
4. Is Vemer's law addition to Grimm's law?
5. Which Indo-European sound changed into Germanic sound F?

Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some

• rp- practical tasks
1. Which languages did the second and third shifts take place in?
2. Fill the gaps in the table
Indo-European sounds Germanic sounds
BH
H
D

3. Which changes happened in the following examples:

OE drinkan - Germ, trinchan;
Lat. pater - OE faeder;
Lat. tres - E. three;
ОГЕ matar - OSax modar.

36~
4. Complete the following text.
Grimm’s law (also known as the {... }Germanic Sound Shift) was the
first systematic sound change ever to be discovered; its formulation
was a taming-point in the development of linguistics. The law was
discovered about {...}by Jakob Grimm, the younger of the Brothers
Grimm. It establishes a set of regular correspondences between early
Germanic stops and fricatives and the {...... .}consonants of certain
other.Indo-European languages.

5. Define the type of the consonant:

• p, t, k;
• f , s, z ;
•m ,b ,p;
• t, d.

Use your knowledge to do the following tasks:

1. Find the information about the reasons of the consonant shifts in the
recommended textbooks (see Literature) and explain which theory you
consider to be the most reliable and why.
2. Reread some tales by brothers Grimm and find some philological
observations there. Summarize them in your essay.
3. Make a list of Ukrainian words and their Germanic parallels, which
can illustrate Grimm's Law.

It’s interesting
I would like to remind you that the scientist who discovered the
consonants shift was a famous story teller Jakob Grimm.
Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
were German brothers famous for their collections of folk songs and
folktales, especially for Kinder- und Hausmdrchen [Grimm's Faity
Tales] (1812-22). Both brothers were linguists who specialized in
historical linguistics, primarily investigating the language of Old High
German. They lived at Kassel until 1829, when, perhaps motivated
political necessity, they moved to the nearby University of Gottingen,
where they were given appointments as librarians and professors.
During this period in 1835, Jacob Grimm wrote Deutsche Mythologie
[German Mythology], which was widely acclaimed. Jacob Grimm
attempted to use peasant poetry, fairy tales, and mythology to
reconstruct the pre-Christian religion of the Germanic people.
37
 The Grimm brothers were dismissed from their positions at
Gottingen when Ernest Augustus, duke of Cumberland, became king of
Hanover in 1837. Feeling that the constitution of 1833 was too liberal^:
the new King repealed it and dismissed the Grimms after they (along
with five other professors later called the "Gottingen Seven") sent him
a note explaining their loyalty to the old constitution.
In 1840, after a number of years in exile, they accepted an
invitation from the king of Prussia, Frederick William TV, to .go to
Berlin and became members of the Royal Academy of Sciences. There
they started the Deutsches Worterbuch [German Dictionary], a guide
for the user of the written and spoken word as well as a scholarly
reference work. Such an ambitious endeavor, the work was never
completed during their lifetime. During what later were called the
Berlin years, the brothers were very productive, writing many o f their
influential works.

38
 LECTURE 6
G E R M A N IC M O R P H O L O G Y
N O M IN A L P A R T S O F SPE E C H
- I N A N C IE N T G E R M A N IC L A N G U A G E S
ч Ь. Introduction
We already know about ancient Germanic sounds. Now let’s
make friends with old Germanic grammar and begin our acquaintance
with'Nouns and Nominal Parts of speech. After learning this lecture
you will be able to. answer the following questions: ; ’зг_
• What was the system o f Germanic grammar categories Шеё?
• How did Nouns change?
• What peculiarities did the other Parts o f Speech have?

Key words: Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Numeral, Case, to

decline.

Categories
Unlike modem English, Old Germanic languages'- had
morphological diversity.
> They had the category o f case. It maintained several distinct cases:
the nominative, dative, accusative, genitive, and instrumental.
- Nouns were declined - that is, the ending of the noun changed to
reflect its function in the sentence.

Cases
• The nominative case indicated the subject o f the sentence (e.g.
"cyning" means '[king").
• The genitive case .indicated possession (e.g. the "cyninges scip" is
"the ship o f the king" or "the king's ship").
• The dative case indicated the indirect object of the sentence (e.g.
’’hryngas cyninge" means "rings fo r the king" or "rings to the king").
• The accusative indicates the direct object o f the sentence (e.g.
"JEpelbald lufode cyning" means "JEpelbald loved the king", where
Atpelbald is the subject and the king is the object).
■ The instrumental case indicates the agency whereby something was
done, e.g. "lifde sweorde", "he lived by the sword", where ’’sweorde”
is the instrumental form o f "sweord").
39
 Gender and Number
□ There were different endings depending on whether the noun was in
the singular (e.g. "hryng", one ring) or plural ("hryngas", many
rings).
□ Nouns are also categorized by grammatical gender - masculine,
feminine, or neuter. Masculine and neuter words generally share
their endings. Feminine words have their own subset o f endings.

Types of Nouns
□ Furthermore, Old Germanic nouns were divided as either strong or
weak.
a Weak nouns have their own fendings. In general, weak nouns are
easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their
declensional system.
□ There are only a couple dozen endings in practice, so it's a lot easier
than it sounds at first. 7 1

There were 9 classes of noun stems in Germanic languages according

to the stem-forming suffix. These suffixes were lost long ago, so this
division is a historical one. There were the following:classes:
• with the stem in -o-, e.g. Goth, dags, OE daeg (day);
• with the stem in -a-, e.g. Goth, giba, OE giefu (give);
• with the stem in -i- , e.g. Goth, gasts, OE giest (guest);
• withhhe stem in -u - , e.g. Goth sunus, OE sunu (sun);
• with the stem in -n -, e.g. Goth, namo, OE nama (name);
• with the stem in - r- , e.g. Goth.fadar, OE faeder (father);
• with the stem in -n t-, e.g. Goh.frijonds, OE freond (friend);
• with the stem in -s-, e.g. Goth agis (awe), OE aeg (egg);
• without suffixes - , e.g. Goth, nahts, OE niht (night). л
Here we can see one example o f Noun declension:

-j Wuldor ('glory’, n.) |

Singular Plural !
j.....■..J
|Nom.j| wuldor wuldor j:
;|Gen. | wuldres || wuldra j
jDat. wuldre | wuldrum
Acc. wuldor wuldor |

40
 Adjectives Прилагательные
" Old Germanic Adjectives originated from Nouns and were declined
like nouns.
• They fall under the same categories (strong or weak, masculine or
feminine or neuter, singular or plural) and have the same number of
cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental).
• The difference between the Nouns and the Adjectives was as follows:
a) every Adjective is declined both according to the strong and to the
weak declension. Weak declension forms are used when the
Adjective is preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the definite
article; they are associated with the meaning of definiteness. In ail
other contexts forms of the strong declension are used.
• Degrees of comparison were formed by means of suffixes -iz, oz;
-ista, osta, e.g. long - lengra - longest. The comparatives were
declined as strong adjectives; the superlatives rarely took the forms of
the strong declension and mostly follow the weak declension. Several
adjectives have suppletive forms of comparison or were derived from
adverbs.

Examples of Adjectives and how they were declined in Gothic

(Masculine Gender):
Strong
Nom. midjis (middle)
Gen. midjis
Dat. midjamma
Instr. midjana
Weak
Nom. blinda
Gen. blindins
Dat. blindin
Instr. blindan

Pronouns Местоимения
□■"Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender.
□ In the plural form most pronouns have only one form for all genders.
□ Germanic pronouns preserve the dual form (which is specifically for
talking about groups of two things, e.g. "we two" or "you two" or
"they two").
41
 □ There w ere such classes o f Pronouns as personal, interrogative
indicative and reflexive in som e languages. T hey had the same
categories as N ouns.

L et’s see some examples of pronouns and their declension In Old

English.
Personal pronouns
1st Person
Case Singular Plural Dual
Nominative ic, ic We wit v/v;.:.

Genitive min Ure uncer

Dative me Us unc
Accusative mec, me usic, us uncit, unc
2nd Person
Case ' Singular Plural Dual
Nominative b* Ge gh
Genitive bin eower incer
Dative be eow inc
Accusative Ьёс, be eowic, eow incit, inc
3rd Person
Case Singular Plural Dual

Nominative Ъё m., heo f., hit n. hie m., heo f.

j
Gemtive j his m., hire f., his n. hiera m., heora f.

Dative him m., hire f.} him n. him

Accusative hine m., hie f., hit n. Ыё m., hio f.

M any o f the form s above bear strong resem blances to their

contem porary E nglish language equivalents: for instance in the genitive
case eow er becam e "your”, ure becam e "our”, min becam e "mine .

Numerals ........>• ..
•N um erals w ere also a part o f noriiirial group. They w ere divided into
such types as cardinal and ordinal.

42
 •We can illustrate them by the examples from Old English: an, tw.egen,
thrie, feower, fif, siex, seofon, eahta, nigon, tien, endleofan, tw elf + 10
feower-tien; ty-+ tegund.
• Some Numerals had the forms of cases - Nominative, Genitive and
Dative.
•Numerals from one to three were declined as a strong Adjective.
Numerals from 4 to 19 were usually invariable if used as attributes to
a substantive, but they were declined if used without a substantive.,
•Ordinary numerals were derived from cardinals with the help of
suffixes tjo-to.
• The numeral FIRST derived from the preposition fore and got the
form jyrst; the number SECOND derived from the word ander.
•The cardinal numerals were declined as weak adjectives.

Adverbs
There were the following structural types o f them:
a) simple, or primary, usually monosyllabic: inn, up; "(ff: *
b) adverbs with suffixes: - e- кёг (here);
c) adverbs derived from a case noun form, usually genitive or dative:
OE anes —once.

Prepositions
Prepositions (like our words by, fo r, with, because) often follow
the word which they govern, in which case they are called
postpositions. They are not declined.

And now you are welcome to answer some questions.

1. Old Germanic languages had several distinct cases, i.e. Old
Germanic nouns were (not changed, declined, conjugated)
2. Old Germanic Nouns had 7 (genders, cases, groups).
3. Nouns are also categorized by grammatical gender. How many
genders did Old Germanic Nouns have? '
4. How many types o f adverbs were there?
5. How many Nominal Parts o f Speech were there in Old Germanic
languages?

Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some

practical tasks
l.Y o u know that Old Germanic Nouns >vere divided into several
classes according to the vowel or consonant in their stem. Which sound
was typical for the group o f Nouns denoting relatives?
43
 2. Which stems did these words have? V''.,
handus ,
guma
w ulf
giba
fadar
giest
3. Which Pronouns belong to which group?
meins
seo
hwa
ic
4. Which category o f Adjectives was formed by means of suffixes -iz-
or-oz-?
a. Degree o f Comparison;
b. Case;
c. Gender;
d. Number.
5. Solve the arithmetical problem:
(Twegen + nigon) x f i f - endleofan =

Use your knowledge to do the following tasks:

1. Make a table o f endings of Old English Nouns of 9 stems.
2. Write an essay in 20 lines about phonetic processes which
influenced the declension o f Old Germanic Parts of Speech.
3. Study the parts o f the textbooks recommended (see Literature) and
add some material about formation of prepositions in Old Germanic
languages. •
4. Find the article The history o f the English language on the site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ and write out the material concerning the
function of nouns in the Old English and Middle English periods.

It’s interesting
As you see, the Gothic language had rather specific
morphological system. If we compare it with another ancient language
spoken in India we can see a lot o f common features.
Prakrit
Group - Indie (with Hindi, Marathi etc.), Middle Indie (with Pali)
Geography & History - Prakrit history can be divided'' into 3
periods: the Early period, including the language o f Asoka's
44
inscriptions; the Middle period, when Shauraseni, Magadhi,
Maharashtri, Paishachi, different Jainist Prakrits were spoken in
different regions of the country and on the island of Ceylon; and the
Late period with the Apabhransha language.
The usage of Prakrits was based on social status of people - in
many classical works of Indian authors (Kalidasa, Bhasa and others)
kings and nobles always speak classical Sanskrit, noble ladies use
Shauraseni, ordinary people can speak only Magadhi, and peasant
women signs their songs in Maharashtri. This language division was a
part of the Indian caste system which penetrated into all aspects of
human life of Indians.

Phonetics - Prakrit phonetics does not have sonant vowels and

diphthongs; under the Dravidian influence syllables tend to end in a
vowel only; single consonants could disappear between vowels.

Morphology - The morphology can be characterized by the

further analytic processes, and both nominal and verbal systems were
reduced greatly. Noun stems were all united in vowel stems. Dual
number, medium voice, personal forms of the past tense were lost. All
those trends prepared the emerging of new Indie languages - mainly
analytic or agglutinative ones.

45
 LECTURE 7
G E R M A N IC V E R B

Introduction
You already know who spoke Germanic languages and how the
ancient Germans wrote and speak. Now our task is to find out how they
used their verbs.
After learning this lecture you will be able to answer the
following questions:
• What was the system of ancient Germanic verbs like?
• What types of verbs existed?
• W hat cla sses w ere th ey d iv id ed into?
• What are their modem correspondences?
Key words: Strong Verb, Weak Verb, Preterit-Present Verb,
Atypical Verb, Class of verbs ,,,

The main grammar categories of Germanic verbs were:

• Tense (Present and Past);
• Person - the 1st, 2nd, 3rd;
• Number - Singular and Plural (+ Dual in Gothic);
• Voice - Active, Passive, (Medio-passive in Gothic);
• Mood - Indicative, Optative and Imperative;
• Non-Finite Forms - Infinitive and Participles.

Types of Verbs
All verbs were divided into:
• Strong,
• Weak,
• Preterit-present and Atypical.

Strong Verbs
• trong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation (known as
aut). In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to
m icate the tense. We still have verbs like this in modem English: for
example, sing, sang, sung" is a strong verb, as are "swim, swam,
svmm" and "choose, chose, chosen."
46
• The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old
English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has
its own pattein:o f stem changes.

Stem Changes in Strong Verbs

Class Infinitive 1st Pretent 2nd Preterit Past Participle
Class I i: stigan a: stah i: stigon i: stigen
Class II e:o or u: e:a ceas u: curon o'.coren
ceosan
Class III e: helpan ea: healp u: hulpon o: holpen
Class IV e stelan JE stael se: staelon о stolen
Class V e giefan JE geaf ae: gaefon e giefen
Class VI ZLstanden o: stod o: stodon a standen
Class VII laetan e :o re :o le t e: or e:o leton laeten

Weak Verbs
Weak verbs are formed principally by adding endings to past and
participles. An example is ’’walk, walked" or "learn, learned". There
were only three different classes o f weak verb:
Classes of Weak Verbs
1) with the stem in - j — nerian - nerede -n e re d (save);
2) with - o~ stem - endian - endode - endod (end);
3) with -ai- stem - habban - haefde - haefd (have).
In Gothic there were 4 classes of weak verbs.

Preterit-Present Verbs
were a very ancient group. Their root of the present form derived from
Past form, and the Past tense was formed by means of the dental suffix
-D (-T), which possibly derived from the old form of the verb DO, or
from Indo-European suffix of Verbal Adjectives. Examples: sculan -
sceal - sceolde (shall);
magan - maeg - meahta (may);
cunnan - cann, cuthe (can);
witan - wat - wisse (know);
dugan - deag - dugon (dare).

Atypical Verbs
• Additionally there is a group of four verbs which are anomalous, the
verbs "will", "do", "go" and "be".
47
• These four have their o w n con ju gation sch em es w h ich differ
significantly from all the other c la sse s o f verb. T h is is not especially
m usual- "will", "do”, "go”, and "be" are th e m o st c o m m o n l y ^
verbs in the language, and are v ery im portant to the m eaning o f the
sentences they are u sed in. .
Ьёот, eart, bist, is, sind; was, waes (OE);
don, dyde (OE);
ga (go, OE). ...... _
• They have their o w n con ju gation sch em es to m ak e th em as distinct as
possible, to reduce the p o ssib ility that a listen er w ill mishear the
word.

Germanic verbs had both Finite and Non-Finite Forms

• The Verbals included Infinitive, Participle l and Participle 2.
• Infinitive originated from Verbal Nouns just naming the action but
not showing its characteristics. It included an Indo-European suffix -
N- e.g.- berenne, etanne (to bear, to eat). It used to be declined as a
Noun. It could have complex forms with auxiliary verbs.
Participle
• Participle 1 was formed from the present stem by means of suffix -
ND
• - e.g. berende (bearing).
• Participle 2 had suffix -D or N
• - e.g. boren (born).
• Participle 1 denoted action. Participle 2 o f transitive verbs had
passive meaning, non-transitive —active meaning. They were used in
descriptive verb constructions.

And now you are welcome to answer some questions

1. The main categories o f G erm anic verb s w ere:
Tense Person Num ber V o ic e M o o d N o n -F in ite F orm s
W hich categories w ere different in G oth ic?
2. A ll Germanic verbs w ere d ivid ed into Strong, W eak, Preterit-present
m odern^E^^ V erb s did the Strong V erb s d evelop into in

3. H ow m any classes o f Strong V erb s w ere there in Germanic

languages?
4. H ow m any classes o f W eak V erb s w ere there in O ld E nglish?
5. How many atypical verbs were there?
48
 ..Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some
f; - practical tasks
1. W hich grammar category is presented by the follow ing:
Present .
Indicative , ; . . " .... . ■ , ._
Dual l y; h 'l - . 4. ••••••■••• .. ... ..
Thefirst, the second, the third
Passive . ^ ... /• •: и / ; ^ 4 .; , . ; v

2. Strong verbs were conjugated in a sp ecialw ayw h ich w ascalled — -

----- . In this form of conjugation, th e -----of the word changes to
indicate the tense. There were (how many?) forms of the. strong verbs
which denoted Л л. /•> •
Infinitive
1st Preterit
2nd Preterit
and--------------
3. Fill the gaps in the rows of Strong Verbs
niman------ nomon-numen;
etan - aet - aeton- —— ;
feohtan - feaht - — ----fohten
4. Fill the gaps in the rows of Weak Verbs
deman---------demed; .
sceawian - sceawode-------
5. Which group does this Verb refer to:
maeg ■ ---■
helpan 1 ‘ л;- ’ : * ■■
endian - ‘ ::л' ••• ^
don aV3-/a‘"..v:;o- -ж:~r.- ■■■■■■■ . ■■ ■■■

Use your knowledge to do the following tasks:

1• You know that in Old Germanic languages there were more that 400
Strong Verbs. Now in English there are not more than a hundred and a
half Irregular Verbs. Study the list ..of verbs in the recommended
textbooks (see Literature) and find as many verbs as you can which
became Regular.

2. Write an essay of about 10 lines explaining the o r ig in o f modem

Modal Verbs. . Г \ '/
4%
3. Read the article on the Internet LATEST POST English strong and
weak verbs Jun 17, 2003 and make detailed plan o f it.

It’s interesting
The Verbs cause great problems for speakers and at the same time they
are considered to be humorous. I hope you'll find the following
remarks interesting.
Review o f "Words and Rules: the ingredients o f language" by Steven
Pinker (Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson) v

A woman gets into a taxi at Boston airport and asks: "Can you take me
someplace where I can get scrod."
The cabby replies "Gee that's the first time I ever heard it in the
pluperfect subjunctive". A joke about the educational level o f even taxi
drivers in intellectual Boston is just one o f the dozen's o f imaginative
ways used by Steven Pinker to examine irregular verbs.
The idea that irregular verbs have, a humorous side is odd enough - a
torture device for language students more like - but for a best-selling
author to devote a whole book to them seems at first sight, perverse.
The few jokes arise because, needing to be remembered, irregular
forms are particularly noticeable, so can be funny when we apply them
wrongly.

Variable Verbs
A boy who swims may say he swum,
But milk is skimmed and seldom skum,
And nails you trim, they are not trum.
When words you speak, these words are spoken,
But a nose is tweaked and can't be twoken,
And what you seek is seldom soken.
If we forget, then we'v eforgotten,*^ '[ u
But things we wet are пёvef wotfen, '* : 'Г '
And houses le tcahnOt be /o^ew ' л;
. The goods one sells afe a\wafs/sdld‘ ^ 4
But fearsdispelled ж6Ш£$$рЫ& ui~ta' ‘ ' ^ '
And what you smell is never smold.
When young, a top you oft saw
But did you see a grin e'er gruh, ; ; -
Or a potato nearly skun?
50-
 LECTURE 8
G E R M A N IC V O C A B U L A R Y

Introduction
You already know what the grammar and phonetics were like in
Old Germanic languages. Now our task is to find out which words the
OldGermans used. After learning this lecture you will be able to
answer the following questions: '■>•••• 7 r -v: =,
• How were the new words formed?
e Where were the words borrowed from?
« What stylistic layers existed? *
Key words: layer, borrowing, loan, style, poetic words,, neutral
words, bookish words. : .. .

Word-formation in Ancient Germanic languages.-, ..

The most typical ways of word-formation in Germanic languages were:
• 1) affixation (prefixes and suffixes), e.g.
• suffix ^ / (Modern' English-er,-or) - bocere (a man of books);
• suffixes -ing, -ung - lytling (a small thing); '
• - l- Wuljila, Attila;
• - i g - a suffix o f Adjectives - staenig (stony);
• prefix bi- bistanden (to stand around).
2 ) A b la u t + affixation . ... r ..•••. r.
Tbis way was also widely used, especially in the Gothic language, for
example - brinnan - gabrqnnjqn (to bum). ^
3) Word connection has been always typical for Germanic languages.
Some examples: goldsm ith (jeweller); gudhus {cbmcti).

Stylistic stratification of Ancient Germanic lexicon.

®Main stylistic layers of old Germanic vocabulary were:,
C om m on , neutral w ords, u sed b y all p e o p le , fo r ex a m p le
•'stan, geiz, aex, iss; ::;c ^:.Ьуат} со'
S& f .4-^ . V,«;. -v. \-y. Poetical terms.-'1. о?
• ^eeticai terms (metaphors, epithets^vsyndnymsi' etc) which were
widely used in literary texts, in. Beowulf first of allr ?
• F o f exam ple: ? "h ь.-хогг. • .'rv
• ^B b a d o^s^at^battle^edf= b\o od; « v ..’
51
 Bookish vocabulary
• Bookish vocabulary (Latin words, connected with the church service,
terms etc.), for example:
« creda (I believe), .r
• regol (rule);
• werlic, wiflic (masculine, feminine) etc.

Stratification of Ancient Germanic lexicon according to its origin,

о Tndo-European words denoted
» natural phenomena (sunna);
» animals (wulf); ’A
►plants (boc)\
9 birds (aened),

9 people (eare), ь
9 relatives (modor),

9 activity {feoh) etc.

Common Germanic words

• Common Germanic words mainly denoted the objects o f nature,
flora, fauna etc. , . , ^ •
• handus, giefen, land.
Latin words
• There were a great deal of Latin words in Germanic languages,
among them the days of the week, military terms, everyday words
like butter, cup, wine etc.
• For example, the word Friday was loaned from Latin where.it was
Veneris dies, and in Germanic this day was devoted to the goddess
Freia - Frige-daeg.
The basic sources of borrowings ^
• The words were borrowed into Germanic from many languages, first
of all, from Latin. A large percentage of the educated and literate
population (monks, clerics, etc.) were competent in Latin. It is
sometimes possible to roughly date the entry of individual Latin
words into Old English based bn which patterns of linguistic change
they have undergone, though this is not always reliable. " ::Г
• The second major source of loanwords to Old English Шв "the
Scandinavian words introduced during the Viking raids of the ninth
52
 and tenth centuries. These tend to be everyday words, and those,
which are concerned with particular administrative aspects of the
Dane law (that is, the area of land under Viking control, which
included extensive holdings all along the eastern seaboard of
England and Scotland).

Celtic loanwords
• The number of Celtic loanwords is of a much lower order than either
Latin or Scandinavian. As few as twelve loanwords have been
identified as being entirely secure. Out of all the known and
suspected Celtic loanwords, most are names of geographical features,
and especially rivers.

And now you are welcome to answer some questions.

1. To make acquaintance with Germanic Vocabulary we should know:
- word formation peculiarities;
- stylistic difference;
- origin difference.
The most typical ways of word-formation in Germanic languages were:
1) Affixation (prefixes and suffixes)
-Is-ISK a suffix or a prefix?
2) Ablaut + affixation (give example)
3) Word connection (give example).

2. Main stylistic layers of Old Germanic languages were:

1) common, neutral words
2) poetical terms
3) bookish vocabulary
What style does the word ’'rune" belong to?

3. Which language influenced the Germanic vocabulary most?

4. In the Roman mythology - goddess Venus; in the Germanic

mythology goddess - ?

Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some

practical tasks
1.. Which are the ways of word formation in the following Old
Germanic words:
53
ingangan
wazzar-faz
cymel

2. It is known that there were simple and complex words among Old
Germanic ones. Are these words complex?
Goth, staineins(stony) '
Old English ael-miehtig (allmighty) ’ '
Goth, barnilo (a child)
Old Icelandic gair-laukr (garlic)

3. Match the word and the language of its origin.

Handus
Wealas (Wales)
Straet (street)
Sunno
Torgh .....

4. Why do you think the Gothic language had the biggest portion of
Latin borrowings among other Old Germanic languages?
a. Wulfila translated the Bible from Latin.
b. Its structure was the closest to Latin.
c. The Goths had the most contacts with the Romans.

5. Which stylistic layer do these words belong to?

Maesse (mess)
Ploh (plough)
Swan-rad (the road o f swans = the sea) ;?

Use your knowledge to do the following tasks:

1. Compose a vocabulary for about 20 Old Germanic words denoting:
animals
natural phenomena
Latin borrowings.

2. Make the list of the Ukrainian words which have the same Indo-
European origin as Old Germanic ones.

3. Go to The Word origins Home Page on the Internet and search the
origin of 10 modem English words to your choice.
54
 It’s interesting
You know that a group of words were taken from Celtic languages.
Let's have some mbre information about it. ,

Celtic loanwords and religion

There is little Celtic influence in the English language. Only a
handful of Celtic words were borrowed, and a few have survived into
Modem English, sometimes in regional dialect use:
• Crag, cumb > deep valley
Binn > bin
Carr > rock
Dunn > grey, dun
Brock > badge
Forr > peak
Bannoc > piece
Rice > rule
Gafeluc > small spear
Bratt > clock
L u h > la ke \
Dry > sorcerer
Clucge > Bell

A great number o f loanwords have connections with religious

terms.
Crois > cross
Ancor >hermit.
Some Celtic words that survived in the English language are the
names o f the rivers such as the Thames, the Yare, Avon, Don, Exe,
Usk and Wye. Town names include Dover (water), Eccles (church),
Bray (hill), London (a tribal name), Kent, York and Lincoln. By means
of the combination of elements like -Chester and -caster with Celtic
elements appeared place-names such as Lancaster, Winchester,
Doncaster, etc.

55
 LECTURE 9
MODERN GERM ANIC LANG UAG ES

Introduction : ^
The first lectures acquainted you with Old Germanic languages
history, phonetics, grammar and lexicon. Now let's see .what the
modem Germanic languages are. After learning this lecture you will be
able to answer the following questions: <
• What groups of modem Germanic languages exist?
• How many people speak these languages? ^
• How did the English language develop from Old to Modem?
Key words: classification, dead languages, alive languages,
speakers, family tree. - л-. л

FAMILY TREE
■ Linguists reconstructed a family tree for the Germanic languages. It
has three main groups:
■ Eastern (now extinct and represented only by texts in Gothic); С’Л
■ Northern (the Scandinavian languages) and v' r ‘
■ Western, which in turn has two main groups: German and Anglo-
Frisian: .... *'■

Distribution of Germanic Languages

West Germanic
■ English - about 443 Million Speakers (Great Britain, Ireland,-the
United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, India,
Philippines);
■ German - 118 Million Speakers (Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
parts of Alsace-Lorraine );
■ Dutch (including Flemish) - 21 Million Speakers (Netherlands and
Belgium);
■ Afrikaans - 10 Million Speakers (South Africa);
■ Yiddish - 5 Million Speakers (East and South Europe, the United
States);
■ Frisian - 1/2 Million Speakers (North Sea Coast-Holland to
Schleswig-Holstein)

56
 N o rth G erm an ic
" Swedish - 9 Million Speakers (Sweden, Finland);
" Danish - 8 Million Speakers (Denmark);
■Norwegian - 5 Million Speakers (Norway);
■ Icelandic —251,000 Speakers (Iceland);
BFaeroese - 47,000 Speakers (Faeroes Islands )

East Germanic (Dead languages')

■ Gothic
■ Vandalic
■ Burgundian
■ Rugian
■Heruler f

The general data from the Gothic language

It is a Germanic language known to us by a translation o f the
Bible dating from the 4th century. The language is Germanic but has
major differences from other known Germanic languages. It is the only
East Germanic language with a sizeable corpus; the others, including
Burgundian and Vandalic, are known, if at all, only from proper names.
Gothic is important for the understanding of the evolution of
Proto-Germanic into Old Norse. For instance, the final -n in North
Germanic languages, such as navn and namn (name) is explained by
referring to Gothic in which namo had its plural genitive namne.
Sometimes, Gothic explains forms o f words found on the oldest
runestones, such as the Gothic word gudja (priest) which explains the
word gudija found on the runestone o f Nordhuglo in Norway.
Being the first attested Germanic language, Gothic fails to display
a . number o f traits that are shared by all other known Germanic
languages. M ost conspicuously, Gothic contains no morphological
umlaut; the Gothic word gudja can be contrasted with the Old Norse
cognate gydja ("priestess")', the Norse form contains the characteristic
change /и/ > /у/ that indicates the influence o f i-umlaut; the Gothic
form shows no such change.
Gothic retains a passive voice inherited from Indo-European, but
unattested in all other Germanic languages. Gothic preserves several
verbs that display reduplication (haitan, "to be called" > haihait) in the
formation o f the preterit; it had dual number in pronouns and Verbs;
another Indo-European inheritance that has left only a few traces in Old
57
 Norse and Old High German, and is absent in all other Germanic
languages. ^

A brief sketch of history of the English language

Old English (500-1100 AD) ..,
" West Germanic invaders from Jutland and southern Denmark: the
Angles (whose name is the source of the words England and
English), Saxons, and Jutes, began populating the British Isles in the
fifth and sixth centuries AD.
Four major dialects of Old English appeared
■Northumbrian in the north of England,
■Mercian in the Midlands,
■West Saxon in the south and west, and
■Kentish in the Southeast.

' " Vikings •• ^

■ Also influencing English at this time were the Vikings: Norse
invasions, beginning around 850, brought mafty North Germanic
words into the language, particularly in the north of England. The
majority of words in modem English come from foreign, not Old
English roots.

T h e N orm an C on qu est and M id dle E nglish (T100 -1 5 0 0 1

■ William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and
conquered England and the AnglorSaxons in 1066 AD. The new
overlords spoke a dialect of Old French known, as Anglo-Norman - a
French dialect that had considerable Germanic influences in addition
to the basic Latin roots.
■ About 150 years later, the Black Death (1349-50) killed about one
third of the English population. The laboring and merchant classes
grew in economic and social importance, and along with them
English increased in importance .compared to Anglo-Norman. This
mixture o f the two languages came to be known as Middle English. :.
The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's Canterbpiy
Tales. The Middle English period came to a close around 1500 AD
with the rise of Modem English,
E arly M o d e m E n g lish ( 1 5 0 0 -1 8 0 0 )
- The next wave o f innovation in English came with the Renaissance
The revival o f classical science brought many classical Latin and

58
 Greek words into the Language. Words and phrases were coined or
first recorded by Shakespeare, some 2,000 words.
■ The last major factor in the development of Modem English was the
advent of the printing press. William Caxton brought the printing
press to England in 1476. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and
the first English dictionary was published in 1604.

Late-Modem English (1800-Present)

■ The principal distinction between early- and late-modem English is
vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the
same, but Late-Modem English has many more words. These words
are the result o f two historical factors. The first is the Industrial
Revolution andfhe tise o f the technological society. The second Was
the British Empire. At its height, Britain ruled one quarter o f the
earth's surface, and English adopted many foreign words and made
them its own.

The rise o f the British Empire ,i

■ The rise o f the British Empire and the growth o f global trade served
not only to introduce English to the world, but to introduce words
into English. Hindi, and the other languages of the Indian
subcontinent, provided.many words, such as shampoo,pajamas, and
juggernaut. Virtually every language on Earth has contributed to the
development o f English, from Finnish {sauna) and Japanese (tycoon)
to the vast contributions o f French and Latin.
■ Finally, the 20th century saw two world wars, and the military
influence on the language dining the latter half o f this century has
been great. Military slang entered the language like never before.
Blockbuster, nose dive, camouflage, radar, roadblock, spearhead,
and landing strip are all military terms that made their way into
standard English.
Thus Germanic languages developed like any other languages
taking innovations and retaining archaic element. So now we have rich
and unique languages o f the Germanic group, English among them.

And now you are welcome to answer some questions.

1. The family tree for the Germanic languages has main groups:

Eastern; . . .
and Western, which in turn has two main groups:----- and Anglo-Fnsian. •
59
2. East Germanic languages include Gothic, Vandalic, Burgundian,
Rugian and Heruler languages.
How many people speak these languages now?
Which of them was the first to use its own alphabet?

3. Which language belongs to which group?

Heruler
Yiddish
Faeroese

4. Which Germanic language is the most widely spoken?

Which Germanic language is the least widely spoken?

5. Write the beginning of the periods in the history o f the English

language.
Old English--------
Middle English---- —.
Early Modem English--------.
Late Modem English--------

Now try to use your theoretical knowledge to solve some

practical tasks
1. How many people speak these languages?
English
German
Afrikaans '" •
Yiddish
Swedish . . • ...
Frisian • •. ...

2. Which Germanic language do people speak in these countries?

Country Language у ь - л . - - . : v :: ?
the Philippines
the Netherlands
the Faeroes Islands
Finland

3. Who was this?

The first publisher
60
Founder of the modem English, creator of a number of new words The
author o f "Canterbury Tales"

4. Late-Modern English vocabulary has greatly increased. It was due to

historical factors. The first is the Industrial Revolution.
The,,second was the ------------- . At its height, Britain ruled o f the
earth's surface.

5. Which language is this word from?

tycoon
shampoo
sauna.

Use your knowledge to do the following tasks:

1. How many Germanic languages exist now? How many people speak
them? Which Germanic languages do you speak? Which Germanic
languages are you acquainted with?

2. Which Germanic language do you think to be the most exotic? Write

an essay o f it and add to the unit "It's interesting".

3. Make a time-line of the history of the English language. Add some

material from the books by B. A.Ilyish (see the list of literature).

It’s interesting
It's impossible to tell you everything about all modern Germanic
languages. Just some more information about such less known
language as Afrikaans.
Afrikaans is spoken in South Africa - a republic at the southern
tip o f Africa. South Africa is one o f the most ethnically diverse
countries in Africa, and has the largest white population on the
continent. Total speakers: 6 million. Afrikaans is a West Germanic
language. It was originally the dialect that developed among the
Afrikaner. Afrikaners are white South Africans predominantly of
Calvinist Dutch, German, French Huguenot and Belgian descent who
Speak Afrikaans. The language was greatly influenced by the Malayan
slaves that worked in the Cape and, developed Afrikaans out o f Dutch
•slang' and was known as Kitchen Dutch. This language came to be
known later as Afrikaans, with CJ Langenhoven being the pioneer in
having Afrikaans as an official language.
61
 PERSO N ALITIES
Franz Bopp (September 14, 1791 - October 23, 1867) was a German
linguist known for extensive comparative work on Indo-European
languages. He was bom at Mainz, but in consequence of the political
troubles of that time,, his parents removed to Aschaffenburg, щ
Bavaria, where he received a liberal education at the Lyceum. Friedrich
Schlegel's book, Uber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (<On the
Speech and Wisdom o f the Indians, Heidelberg, 1808), which had just
begun to exert a powerful influence on the minds of German
philosophers and historians, could not fail to stimulate also Bopp’s
interest in the sacred language of the Hindus.
In 1812, he went to Paris at the expense of the Bavarian
government, with a view to devoting himself vigorously to the study of
Sanskrit. He had access not only to the rich collection of Sanskrit
manuscripts but also to the Sanskrit books which had up to that time
issued from the Calcutta and Serampore presses.
The first fruit of his four years’ study in Paris appeared at
Frankfurt am Main in 1816, under the title On the Conjugation System
o f Sanskrit in comparison with that o f Greek, Latin, Persian and
Germanic. By a historical analysis of the forms, as applied to the verb,
he furnished the first trustworthy materials for a history of the
languages compared.
Bopp travelled to London, where he brought out, in the Annals of
Oriental Literature (London, 1820); an essay entitled, ”Analytical
Comparison of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Teutonic Languages", in
which he extended to all parts of the grammar what he had done in his
first book for the verb alone. On the publication, in Calcutta, of the
whole Mahabharata, Bopp discontinued editing Sanskrit texts and
confined himself thenceforth exclusively to grammatical investigation?-
A fter a short resid en ce at G ottingen, B opp gained, on the
recom m en dation o f H um boldt, appointment to the chair o f Sanskrit and
com parative grammar at B erlin in 1 8 2 i , and election as a member o f
th e R o y a l P russian A cadem y in the follow in g year. He compiled, a
Sanskrit and Latin glossary (1830) in which, more especially iPjthe
seco n d and third edition s (1847 and 1867), he also took account o f t e
cog n a te langu ages. H is c h ief activity, how ever, centred , on the
elab oration o f h is Comparative Grammar, w hich appeared .in six parts
at considerable intervals ( B e r l i n ; 18 3 3 ; 1 8 3 5 ,1 8 4 2 , 1 8 4 7 , 1849,d 852;)

62
Comparative Grammar o f Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian,
Gothic and German. Ли his Comparative Grammar Bopp set h im se l f a
threefold; task. to give a description of the original grammatical
structure o f the languages as deduced from their intercomparison to
trace their phonetic laws, and to investigate the origin of their
grammatical forms.
Bopp s researches, carried with wonderful penetration into the
most minute and almost microscopical details of linguistic phenomena,
led to the opening up of a wide and distant view into the original seats,
the closer or more distant affinity, and the tenets, practices and
domestic usages of the ancient Indo-European-speaking nations, and
one can date the science of comparative grammar from his earliest
publication. . -

Ferdinand de Saussure (November 26, 1857 - February 22, 1913)

was arSwiss linguist. Bom in Geneva, he laid the foundation for many
developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He perceived
linguistics as a branch of a general science of signs he proposed to call
semiology. His work Cours de linguistique generate (Course in
General Linguistics) was published posthumously in 1916 by Charles
Bally and Albert Sechehaye based on lecture notes. This became a
seminal linguistics work, perhaps the seminal structuralist linguistics
work,- in.the 20th century. De Saussure emphasized, a synchronic view
of linguistics in contrast to the diachronic (historical study) view of the
lgtii century. The synchronic view looks at the structure of language as
a;frmetioning system at a given point of time. This distinction was a
breakthrough1and became generally accepted.
De Saussure made an important discovery in Indo-European
philology.

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (January 4, 1785 - September 20, 1863),

German philologist and mythologist, was bom at Hanau, in Hesse-
Kassel. His energies had not found any aim beyond the practical one of
making himself a position in life. The first definite impulse came from:
the lectures of Savigny, the celebrated investigator of Roman law, who,
as Grimm himself says first taught him to realize what it meant to study,
any science. In the beginning of 1805 he received an invitation from
Savigny, who had moved to Paris, to help him in his literary work. In
1808 he was appointed superintendent of the private library of Jerome
63
Bonaparte, king of Westphalia. In 1814 he was sent to Paris to demand
restitution of the books carried off by the French, and in 1814-1815 he
attended the congress of Vienna as secretary of legation. Jacob Grimm
lectured on legal antiquities, historical grammar, literary history, and
diplomatics, explained Old German poems, and commented or -the
Germanic of Tacitus.
The first work Jacob Grimm published, XJber den altdeutschen
Meistergesang (1811), was of a purely literary'character. Both brothers
were attracted from the beginning by all national poetry, whether in the
form of epics, ballads or popular tales. They published in 1816-1818
an analysis and critical sifting of the oldest epic traditions of the
Germanic races under the title of Deutsche Sagen. At the same time
they collected all the popular tales they could find, partly from the
mouths of the people, partly from manuscripts and books, and
published in 1812-1815 the first edition of those Kinder- und
Hausmarchen which has carried the name of the brothers Grimm into
every household of the civilized world, and which founded the science
of folk-lore. Of all his more general works the boldest and most far-
reaching was his Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, in which the
linguistic elements are emphasized. The subject of the work is, indeed,
nothing less than the history, which lies hidden in the words of the
German language (the oldest natural history of the Teutonic tribes
determined by means of language). Grimm's famous Deutsche
Grammatik was the outcome of his purely philological work. Prior to
Grimm's time, philology was hdthing but a more or less laborious and
conscientious dilettantism, w ithoccasional flashes of scientific
inspiration. The importance of Grimm's generalization in the history of
philology cannot be overestimated. The most lawless etymologist bows
down to the authority of Grimm's Law, even if he honors it almost as
much in the breach as in the observance.
In the great German dictionary Grimm undertook a task for which
he was hardly suited. His exclusively historical tendencies made it
impossible for him to do justice to the individuality of a living
language; and the disconnected statement of the facts of language in an
ordinary alphabetical dictionary fatally mars its scientific character. It
was also undertaken on so large a scale as to make it impossible for
him and his brother to complete it themselves. The dictionary, as far as
it was worked on by Grimm himself, may be described as a collection
of disconnected antiquarian essays of high, value.
64
Gaius Plinius Secundus, (23 —.79) better known as Pliny the Elder,
was an ancient author and scientist of some importance who wrote
Naturalis Historia. He saw military service under Corbulo in Lower
Germany in 47, taking part in the Roman conquest of the Chauci and
the .construction of the canal between the rivers Maas and Rhine. As a
young commander of cavalry he wrote in his winter-quarters a work on
the use o f missiles on horseback, with some account of the points of a
good horse. In Gaul and Spain he learnt the meanings o f a number of
Celtic words. He took note of sites associated with the Roman invasion
of Germany, and, amid the scenes o f the victories of Drusus, he had a
dreamful which the victor enjoined him to transmit his,-exploits to*
posterity. He takes a keen interest in nature, and in the natural sciences/
studying them in a.w ay that was then new in Rome, while the small
esteem in which studies o f this kind were held does not deter him from
endeavouring to be of service to his fellow countrymen.

Rasmus Christian Rask (November 22, 1787 - November 14, 1832),

Danish scholar and philologist, was bom at Brandekilde in the island of
Funen or Fyen in Denmark. In 1811 he published, in Danish, his
Introduction to the Grammar o f the Icelandic and other Ancient
Northern Languages, from printed and manuscript materials
accumulated by his predecessors in the same field of, research. Rask
visited Iceland, where he remained from 1813 to 1815, mastering the
language and familiarizing himself with the literature, manners and
customs o f the natives. To the interest with which they inspired him
may probably be attributed the establishment at Copenhagen, early in
1816, o f the Icelandic Literary Society of which he was the first,
president.
He published, in Swedish, his Anglo-Saxon Grammar in 1817. In
1818 there appeared at Copenhagen, in Danish, an Essay on the Origin
o f the Ancient Scandinavian or Icelandic Tongue, in which he raced the
affinity of that idiom to the other European languages, particularly
Latin and Greek. In the same year he wrought out the first complete
editions of Snorro's Edda and Saemund's Edda, in the original text,
along with Swedish translations o f both Eddas. From Stockholm he
went in 1819 to St Petersburg, where he wrote, in German, a paper on
"The Languages and Literature of Norway, Iceland, Sweden and
Finland," in the sixth number of the Vienna Jahrbiicher. From Russia
he proceeded through Tartary into Persia, and resided for some time at
65
Tabriz, Teheran, Persepolis and Shiraz. In about ‘six weeks1he made
himself sufficiently master of Persian to be able to converse freely.
In 1820 he embarked at Bushire for Bombay; and during his
residence there he wrote, in English, "A Dissertation on-the
Authenticity of the Zend Language". From Bombay he proceeded
through India to Ceylon, where he arrived in 1822, and soon afterwards
wrote, in English, "A Dissertation respecting the best Method of
expressing the Sounds of the Indian ' Languages in European
Characters". He died at Copenhagen on 14 November 1832.

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel (March 10, 1 7 7 2 -January Tl-:

1829), German poet, critic and scholar, was the younger brother of
August Wilhelm von Schlegel. He was bom at Hanover. He studied1
law at Gottingen and Leipzig, but ultimately devoted himself entirely"
to literary studies. He published in 1797 the' important Шё'
Griechen und Romer, which was followed by the suggestive
Geschichte der Poesie der Griechen und Romer (1798). At Jena, where
he lectured as a Privatdozent at the university, he contributed to the
Athenaeum the aphorisms and essays in which the principles of the
Romantic school are most definitely stated. In 1802 he went to Paris,
where he edited the review Europa (1803), lectured on philosophy and
earned on Oriental studies, some results of which he embodied in an
epoch-making book, Uber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (1808).
A permanent place in the history of German literature belongs to
Friedrich Schlegel and his brother August Wilhelm as the critical
leaders of the Romantic school, which derived from them most of its
governing ideas as to the characteristics of the middle ages, and as to-
the methods of literary expression. Of the two brothers, Friedrich was
unquestionably the more original genius. He was the real founder of
the Romantic school; to him more than to any other member of the
school we owe the revolutionizing and germinating ideas, which
influenced so profoundly the development of German literature at the
beginning of the 19th century. "

August Schleicher (February 19, 1821 - December 6,1868) was bom

in Meiningen. He began his career studying theology* and Indo-
European, especially Slavic languages. Influenced by Hegel, he formed
the theory that a language is an organism, with periods of development,
maturity, and decline. In 1850 Schleicher completed a monograph

66
systematically describing the languages of Europe The languages o f
Europe in systematic perspective. He explicitly represented languages
as perfectly natural organisms that could most conveniently be
described using terms drawn from biology e.g., genus, species, and
variety; Schleicher claimed that he himself had been convinced of the
natural descent and competition o f languages before he had read
Darwin’s Origin o f Species. He invented a system of language
classification that resembled a botanical taxonomy, tracing groups of
related languages and arranging them in a genealogical tree. His model,
the family-tree theory was a major development in the study of Indo-
European languages. He first introduced a graphic representation of it
in articles published in 1853.
By the time of the publication of his Deutsche Sprache (German
language) (1860) he had begun to use trees to illustrate language
descent. Schleicher is commonly recognized as the first linguist to
portray language development using the figure of a tree.

Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (c. 55-c. 117), Roman orator,

lawyer, and senator, is considered one of antiquity’s greatest historians.
His.major works-the Annals and the Histories-took for their subject
the history of the Roman Empire's first century, from the accession of
the emperor Tiberius to the death of Domitian.
As a young man he studied rhetoric in preparation for a career in
law and politics. He survived Domitian's reign of terror-that he was
serving in the, provinces from c. 89 to c. 93 doubtless helped-and from
his seat in the .Senate he advanced to the consulship in 97, being the
first o f his family to do so. In the same year he reached the height of
his fame as an orator when he delivered the funeral oration for the
famous, old soldier Verginius Rufus. In the following year he wrote and
published bis three minor works, after which he returned to practicing
law. In 100 he, along with his old friend Pliny the Younger,
successfully prosecuted Marius Priscus (proconsul of Africa) for
corruption; Pliny wrote a few days later (Letters, 2.11) that Tacitus had
spoken "with all the majesty which characterizes his usual style of
oratory". After.a lengthy absence from politics, during which time he
wrote his.two major works, he held the highest civilian governorship,
that o f the Roman province of Asia in Western Anatolia, in 112. He is
thought to have died around 117; it is unknown whether he was

67
survived by any children, though the emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus
falsely claimed him as an ancestor.
His two major works are a continuous history of the first century
in the Roman Empire, from the death of Augustus to the death of
Domitian; though parts have been lost, what remains is an invaluable
record of the era.
The book Germania begins with a description of the lands, laws
and customs of the Germans (chapters 1-27); it then segues into
descriptions of individual tribes, beginning with those dwelling closest
to Roman lands and ending on the uttermost shores of the Baltic, with a
description of the primitive and savage Fenni and the unknown tribes
beyond them.

Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt (June 22, 1767 - April 8, 1835),

government functionary, foreign diplomat, philosopher, founder of
Humboldt Universitat in Berlin, friend of Goethe and especially of
Schiller, is especially remembered as a German linguist who
introduced a knowledge of the Basque language to European
intellectuals. Humboldt is credited with being the first linguist to
identify human language as a rule-governed system, rather than just a
collection of words and phrases paired with meanings.
The great work of his life, on the ancient Kawi language of Java,
was interrupted by his death, but its introduction The Heterogeneity o f
Language and its Influence on the Intellectual Development o f
Mankind was published in 1836. Humboldt was also a philosopher of
note and published On the Limits o f State Action in 1810, the boldest
defence of the liberties of the Enlightenment. As Prussia minister of
education, he oversaw the system of Technische HochschUle and
Gymnasia that made Prussia, and subsequently the German Reich, the
strongest European power and the scientific and intellectual leader of
the world.
As a successful diplomat between 1802 and 1819, Humboldt was
Prussian minister plenipotentiary at Rome from 1802, ambassador at
Vienna from 1812 during the closing struggles of the Napoleonic Wars,
at the congress of Prague (1813) where he was instrumental in drawing
Austria to ally with Prussia and Russia against France, a signer of the
peace treaty at Paris and the treaty between Prussia and defeated
Saxony (1815), at Frankfort settling post-Napoleonic Germany, and at
the congress at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. However, the increasingly

68
reactionary policy of the Prussian government made him give up
political life in 1819; and from that time forward he devoted himself
solely to literature and study.
: Humboldt was an adept linguist who translated Pindar and
Aeschylus, but as a philologist his work in the Basque language has
had the more extended life. In this work Humboldt endeavored to
show, by an examination of geographical place names, that a race or
races speaking dialects allied to modem Basque once extended
throughout Spain, southern France and the Balearic Islands; he
identified these people with the ''Iberians" of classical writers, and he
further surmised that they had been allied with the Berbers of northern
Africa. Though it has been superseded in its details by modem
linguistics and archaeology, Humboldt’s pioneering work is sometimes
still uncritically followed even today.

Sir William Jones (September 28, 1746 - April 27, 1794) was a
British philologist and student of ancient India, particularly known for
his discovery of the Indo-European languages family,
Jones was bom in London; his father (also named Sir William
Jones) was a mathematician. The young William Jones was a linguistic
prodigy, learning Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic and the basic of
Chinese writing at an early age. By the end of his life he was reported
to be able to speak twenty-eight languages.
Graduating from University College, Oxford in 1764, he
embarked on a career as a tutor and translator for the next six years.
During this time he published Histoire de Nader Chah, a translation of
a work originally written in Persian and done at the request of King
Christian VH of Denmark who had visited Jones - who by the age of
22 had already requir ed a reputation as orientalist - into French. This
would be the first of numerous works on Persia, Turkey, and the
Middle East in general.
For three years starting in 1770 he studied law, which would
eventually lead him to his life work in India; after a spell as a circuit
judge in Wales (and a fruitless attempt to resolve the issues of the
American Revolution in concert with Benjamin Franklin in Paris), he
was appointed to the Supreme Court of Bengal in 1783.
Of all his discoveries, Jones is best known today for making and
propagating the observation that Sanskrit bore a certain resemblance to
Greek and Latin. In The Sanscrit Language (1786) he suggested that all
69
three languages had a common root, and that further they might all be
related in turn to Gothic and Celtic languages, and to Persian. Although
the Dutchman Marcus Zuerius van Boxhom (1612-1653).andothers
had had been aware that Ancient Persian belonged to-Lthe same
language group as the European languages no later than the mid­
seventeenth century, Jones' discovery really popularized the Indo-
European language family, and was perhaps the first important use of
th e technique of comparative philology.
Jones is also indirectly respons ible for some of the feel of the
English Romantic movement's poetry (including the likes of Lord
Byron and Samuel Taylor Coleridge), as his translations of''eastern''
poetical works were a s ource for that style.
 Основна лггература:
1. Арсеньева М. Г. и др. Введение в германскую
филологию .-М ., 1968.
2. Арсеньева М! Г. Введение в германскую филологию 7
М. Г. Арсеньева, С. П. Балашова. - М.,. 1980.
3. Гухман М. М. Готский я з ы к .-М ., 1958. .
4. Жирм унский В. М. Введение в сравнительно-историческое
изучение германских языков. -М .-Л ., 1964.
5. Жирмунский В. М. История немецкого языка. -М ., 1965.
6. Жлуктенко Ю. О. Вступ до германського мовознавства /
Ю.О. Жлуктенко, Т. А. Я в о р сь ка.-К ., 1974. ■ •
/ 7 . Лине кий С. С. Введение в германскую филологию. -
Днепропетровск, 1975.
8. Миронов С . А. История нидерландского языка. - М., 1986.
9. Прокош Э. Сравнительная характеристика германских
языков. - М ., 1954.
10. Стеблин-Каменский М. И. История скандинавских
язы ков.-М .-Л ., 1964.
11. Ярцева В. Н. Развитие национального литературного
английского языка. - М ., 1969.

Навчально-методична литература:
1. Методическая разработка к семинарским занятиям по
курсу “Введение в германскую филологию” . - Днепропетровск,
1975.
2. Методическое пособие “Введение в германскую
филологию” . - Днепропетровск, 1975.
3. Методические указания к изучению курса «Введение в
германскую филологию /готский язык/». -Днепропетровск, 1983.
4. Методична розробка до семшарських занять з курсу.
«В ступ до герм анського м овоз навства». - Дншропетровськ, 1983.
5. Словник фшолога-анг люта. - Дншропетровськ, 2000.

Сайги в мёреж г 1нгернет

Encyclopedia Gothic alphabethtm
http // en.wikipedia.org

71
 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION........................................................................л........................3.,
LECTURE 1. SPECIAL PHILOLOGY AS A SCIENCE....................................4
LECTURE 2. ANCIENT GERMANS............. ...................................................Ю
LECTURE 3. GERMANIC WRITINGS............................................................19
LECTURE 4. OLD GERMANIC LITERARY TEXTS............... ................1 25
LECTURE 5. GERMANIC PHONETICS....................................
LECTURE 6. GERMANIC MORPHOLOGY NOMINAL
PARTS OF SPEECH IN ANCIENT GERMANIC
LANGUAGES............... ................................................................. ............ 3Q
LECTURE 7. GERMANIC VERB............................................. . ................ .46
LECTURE 8. GERMANIC VOCABULARY................................
LECTURE 9. MODERN GERMANIC LANGUAGES............ . ...........i;....... 56
PERSONALITIES....................................................................... . ........... .^....6 2
OCHOBHA Л1ТЕРАТУРА........................................................... .... ...........V...71

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Редактор Л. В. Омельченко
Техшчний редактор В. А. Усенко
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