Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 11 • 103
Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 11
11.1
Regular Sound Correspondences
A. Which of the following languages is/are Indo-European?
B. On what do you base your answer? Can you identify any regular sound correspondences?
Answers will vary.
C. Can you identify the non-Indo-European languages? What language family are they members
of? A key to this exercise appears at the end of this section.
L1 L2 L3 L4 L5
ichi ekas jedyn en egy
11.2
Non–Indo-European Languages
Choose a non-Indo-European language and research it (you can choose from the list of non-Indo-
European languages we provide in the chapter). A good source is the Ethnologue website, http://
www.ethnologue.com/
Write a summary of your research in which you answer the following questions:
a. Where is the language spoken, and by how many speakers?
b. What language family is the language a member of? What are some related languages? Or
is it an isolate, a language with no other existing family members?
104 • PART 2 Answer Key
c. What are two other facts about the language that you find particularly interesting or strik-
ing and that you didn’t know before (pronunciations, morphology, word order, vocabulary,
interesting facts about its origins)?
11.3
Major Changes from Indo-European to Germanic
All Germanic languages in their oldest forms share characteristics that distinguish them from other
Indo-European languages. These six features unique to Germanic languages are given on page 368.
A. Choose a Germanic language (other than English), conduct some research, and then explain and
illustrate how it exhibits two of these characteristics. Give the characteristic, an example, and a
brief explanation.
Characteristic: alveolar suffix for the past tense
Example: Old English: ic sce ‘I seek’
B. Now, choose a non-Germanic language and show that it doesn’t exhibit the two characteristics
you illustrated in A. For example, verbs in Latin, a Romance language, do not have alveolar suf-
fixes in the past tense.
Example: Latin: sagi ‘I perceive’
11.4
Old English Grammar
Discuss differences in vocabulary and syntax that you can identify in the following Old English sen-
tences. What are some of the different word orders that you can identify? What prefixes or suffixes,
if any, do you find? What words look familiar to you? Which are completely unfamiliar, and what do
they mean? What differences in spelling do you find?
a. þa geseah ic beforan unc onginnan ðeostrainða stowe.
‘then saw I before us begin to darken that place’
Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 11 • 105
b. Her is seo bot, hu ðu meaht þine æ ceras betan gif hie nellaþ wel weaxan.
‘here is the remedy, how you can your fields restore if they will not well grow’
c. Ic ahsige eow, forhwi swa geornlice leorni ge?
‘I ask you, why so eagerly study you?’
d. Hwæt sægst þu, fugelere?
‘what say you, bird-hunter?’
e. ond þæs oþrew þone mæstan dæl hie geridon ond him to gecirdon buton þæm cyninge
Elfrede.
‘and of the rest the greatest part they seized and (to) them submitted except the king Alfred’
f. Her for se here to Cirenceastre of Cippanhamme. One þy geare gegadrode an hloþ wicenga
‘here went the army to Cirencester from Chippenham. And in that year assembled a troop
(of) Vikings’
11.5
Old English to Middle English Spelling
The following words are given in their Old English and Middle English spellings. Examine the list,
and describe the spelling environments that determined the change in spelling of the Old English
letter c during the Middle English period (from Millward 2012: 132).
Old English Middle English Present-Day English
candel candel ‘candle’
106 • PART 2 Answer Key
Old English Middle English Present-Day English
cild child ‘child’
corn corn ‘corn’
crypel crepel ‘cripple’
cuppe cuppe ‘cup’
cycene kichene ‘kitchen’
kynd kind ‘kind’
cyrnel kernell ‘kernel’
a. In what environments did OE c remain ME c?
b. In what environments did OE c become ME ch?
c. In what environments did OE c become ME k?
d. In what environments did OE c become ME q?
Answers:
In what environments did OE c remain ME c?
In what environments did OE c become ME ch?
In what environments did OE c become ME k?
In what environments did OE c become ME q?
<c> becomes <q> before <w>
108 • PART 2 Answer Key
c. þerefter come ðe kinges dohter Henries, ðe hefde ben emperice in Alamanie.
d. þe King him sithen name in Hamtun.
e. Sume he iaf up, and sume ne iaf he not.
From Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, “Tale of Melibee” (late Middle English)
f. Thre of his olde foes han it espyed.
‘Three of his old foes have noticed it.’
g. Wepyng is not thing deffended to hym that sorweful is.
‘Weeping is by no means forbidden to him that is sorrowful.’
h. And whan this wise man saugh that hym wanted audience, al shamefast he sette hym down
agayn.
‘And when this wise man saw that audience was lacking for him, all ashamed he sat down
again.’
i. My lord, I you biseche as hertely as I dar and kan, ne haste yow nat to faste.
‘My lord, I beseech you as heartily as I dare and can, don’t move too fast.’
j. But seyeth and conseileth me as you liketh.
‘But tell and counsel me as it pleases you.’
Answers to (f–j):
f. Thre of his olde foes han it espyed.
11.7
Semantic Change
Remember that the meanings of words shift over time and that many words in contemporary English
originally meant something entirely different. Look up the following words, and find out what their
meanings were both before and after the Early Modern English period. Explain whether their mean-
ings have ameliorated, pejorated, narrowed, or broadened (you may have to go back to Chapter 9
for a quick review!).
lust, battle, carp, harlot, scant, jolly, luxury, sermon, read, knave, boy
Answers: A: ameliorated, P: pejorated, N: narrowed, B: broadened
Earlier meaning Present meaning Change
lust: pleasure/delight/desire unrestrained sexual desire/craving N, P
