This new edition is concerned primarily with the learned vocabulary of English - the words borrowed from the classical languages. It surveys the historical events that define the layers of vocabulary in English, introduces some of the basic principles of linguistic analysis, and is a helpful manual for vocabulary discernment and enrichment. The new edition has been updated with a discussion of the most recent trends of blending and shortening associated with texting and other forms of electronic communication and includes a new classification of the types of allomorphy. It discusses important topics such as segment sonority and the historical shifting of long vowels in English, and includes a new section on Grimm's law, explaining some of the more obscure links between Germanic and Latinate cognates. Exercises accompany each chapter and an online workbook contains readings and exercises to strengthen knowledge acquired in the classroom.
Covers the historical development of the English phonological system. Phonological evolution is a major component of the overall history of the language; the subject matter is both significant on its
This 2003 study uses evidence from early English verse to reconstruct the course of some central phonological changes in the history of the language. It builds on the premise that alliteration reflects faithfully the acoustic identity and similarity of stressed syllable onsets. Individual chapters cover the history of the velars, the structure and history of vowel-initial syllable onsets, the behaviour of onset clusters, and the chronology and motivation of cluster reduction (gn-, kn-, hr-, hl-, hn-, hw-, wr-, wl-). Examination of the patterns of group alliteration in Old and Middle English reveals a hierarchy of cluster-internal cohesiveness which leads to new conclusions regarding the causes for the special treatment of sp-, st-, sk- in alliteration. The analysis draws on phonetically based Optimality-Theoretic models. The book presents valuable information about the medieval poetic canon and elucidates the relationship between orality and literacy in the evolution of English verse.
This new edition is concerned primarily with the learned vocabulary of English - the words borrowed from the classical languages. It surveys the historical events that define the layers of vocabulary in English, introduces some of the basic principles of linguistic analysis, and is a helpful manual for vocabulary discernment and enrichment. The new edition has been updated with a discussion of the most recent trends of blending and shortening associated with texting and other forms of electronic communication and includes a new classification of the types of allomorphy. It discusses important topics such as segment sonority and the historical shifting of long vowels in English, and includes a new section on Grimm's law, explaining some of the more obscure links between Germanic and Latinate cognates. Exercises accompany each chapter and an online workbook contains readings and exercises to strengthen knowledge acquired in the classroom.
Covers the historical development of the English phonological system. Phonological evolution is a major component of the overall history of the language; the subject matter is both significant on its
World class editor and contributors address the phonetic, phonological, prosodic and morphological correlates of weakness, illustrated with historical and dialectal case studies.
The fourth in a series of collections arising out of conferences at the University of California at Los Angeles on studying the history of the English language, this volume contains 19 contributions i
