The History of English

An introduction to the Germanic people, the earliest examples of Proto-Germanic writing, as well as the Runic Alphabet, the Futhark

A look at the main characteristics that define the Germanic languages

A look at the reconstructed sounds of Proto-Germanic, including vowels, diphthongs, and consonants

An introduction to nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in Proto-Germanic, including examples of early and late noun declensions, and determiners

A look at thematic and athematic verb conjugations in Proto-Germanic as well as the irregular verb "to be"

A look at the numbers in Proto-Germanic and how they compare to Proto-Indo-European

An introduction to the subdivisions of Proto-Germanic, East, North, and West Germanic, and their daughter languages

A closer look at the extinct East Germanic daughter language Gothic, including its history, the Gothic alphabet, phonetic and phonological features, and how it differed from its sister Germanic languages

A look at some sample texts in Gothic including the Wulfila Bible and numbers, and what they sounded like

A look at the history and characteristics of the North Germanic language Old Norse, the language of the Vikings, and mother of the modern Scandinavian languages, including, Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish

A look at some texts in Old Norse, including an Old Norse "Edda", and Old Norse numbers, and what they sounded like

An introduction to various dialects of Old High German, the mother of Modern German and its dialects, including the High German Consonant Shift that sets these dialects apart from all other Germanic languages

A look at texts in various dialects of Old High German, including Upper, Middle, and Central, plus the numbers, and what they all sounded like

A look at Old Saxon, the mother of the modern Low German dialects and the language of the Heliand, one of the most famous epic poems in the older Germanic languages

A look at some sample texts from the epic poem, the Heliand, and the numbers, and what they sounded like

A look at Old Low Franconian, the mother of the eastern dialects of Dutch

A look at some sample texts in Old Low Franconian, plus the numbers, and what they sounded like

An introduction to Old Frisian, a close contemporary of Old English and the mother of Modern Frisian, the closest living relative of English

A look at some sample texts in Old Frisian, including the numbers, and what they sounded like

An introduction to the history of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, the dialect areas of Old English, and the influence of the Vikings' Old Norse on the language, as well as the influence of Latin

An introduction to the literary traditions of Old English, including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, epic poetry, the concept of alliteration, and the Old English riddles

A look at the sounds of Old English, including the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants

An introduction to the grammar of Old English, including the definite article, nouns, adjectives, and pronouns

A look at verbs in Old English, including an introduction to concepts including, infinitives, and present and past participles, plus a look at strong and weak verb conjugations, and conjugations for "to have" and "to be"

A look at the numbers of Old English and how they were formed

A look at some texts in Old English, including the epic poem Beowulf, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and what they sounded like

A look at the history of the period, starting with the Norman Conquest, about the influence of Norman French, and the literature of the period, including the famed Canterbury Tales

A look at the characteristics of the language and how it changed from the Old English period, as well as orthographic changes in Middle English

A look at the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants of Middle English, and a more in-depth explanation of phonological characteristics of the language

An introduction to the grammar of Middle English, including the articles, nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, and how they changed from Old English

A look at strong and weak verb conjugations in Middle English, as well as conjugations for "to have" and "to be", plus the Middle English numbers

A look at Middle English texts from various times during the period, including the famed Canterbury Tales, and what they sounded like

An introduction to the history of the period, and the literature and plays of the period, the same period during which Shakespeare wrote his famous works and the period during which the King James Bible was written

An introduction to some of the features of Early Modern English, including the Great Vowel Shift, and vast changes to the lexicon, as well as the orthography

An introduction to Early Modern English phonetics and phonology, including an in-depth look at the mechanics of the Great Vowel Shift, and an introduction to the International Phonetics Association (IPA) alphabet

A look at the nouns, adjectives, and pronouns of Early Modern English and how they changed from the Middle English period

A look at strong and weak verb conjugations in Early Modern English, as well as conjugations for "to have" and "to be", plus the Early Modern English numbers

A look at Early Modern English texts from various times during the period, including Shakespeare and the King James Bible, and what they sounded like

A look at the history of the period to the modern day technological revolution catapulting the language into an international lingua franca, as well as a look at the literature of the period

An introduction to the phonetics and phonology of Modern English, including the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants

A look at the nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, and numbers in Modern English, including current trends

A look at current and possible future trends for the English language, including spelling reform and trends in phonetics and phonology

This is an OPTIONAL assignment—an exercise pulling all of your knowledge together to try to come up with proto language examples for Proto-Polynesian, based on modern Polynesian language data I will give you. The first handout is the homework explanation, the second is the key and explanation. It will really test your chops as an historical linguist using the Comparative Method! Good luck!