十分钟英语史总结

莎士比亚的文学地位：是英国文学史上最杰出的戏剧家，也是欧洲文艺复兴时期最重要、最伟大的作家之一，当时人文主义文学的集大成者，以及全世界最卓越的文学家之一。

1590年到1600年是莎士比亚的创作的黄金时代。他的早期剧本主要是喜剧和历史剧，在16世纪末期达到了深度和艺术性的高峰。

接下来1601到1608年他主要创作悲剧，莎士比亚崇尚高尚情操，常常描写牺牲与复仇，包括《奥赛罗》、《哈姆雷特》、《李尔王》和《麦克白》，被认为属于英语最佳范例。在他人生最后阶段，他开始创作悲喜剧，又称为传奇剧。

扩展资料：

英国著名远程教育机构公开大学曾制作过一部《十分钟英语史》，把上下1600年的英语史浓缩在10集的公开课中。每一集公开课都讲述了英语史上一个重要的不能再重要的节点，而威廉·莎士比亚在这部语言学领域的公开课上占据了整整一集的分量。

在我们的印象中，莎士比亚没有编纂过字典，没有翻译过圣经，也没有研究过梵语，凭着他37部戏剧、154首十四行诗和两首长叙事诗，怎么就成了英语史上一个里程碑式的人物。

莎士比亚虽然从来不是英语的研究者，却可以称得上是英语最熟练、最优秀的使用者。英语的发展大致可以被分为古英语时期、中古英语时期和现代英语时期三个阶段，莎士比亚处在承上启下的早期现代英语时期。

那时的英语可不像现在这样强势又丰富，不仅在英国本土的地位低于拉丁语或法语，词汇和表达还十分匮乏，拼写和语法也很混乱。所以那一时期存在两个主要任务：一个是建立起英语的词汇，另一个是澄清英语的句法。回首历史，我们会发现，莎士比亚身体力行，把第一个任务完成得极为出色。

参考资料来源：人民网-莎士比亚：你所不知道的造词大师

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多新词外，还从五十多种其它语言借了大量的词，主要来源为罗曼语的三个语种：法语、西班牙语和意大利语。从法语借来的词等。在这个时期，由于探险、贸易和开拓殖民地等活动，从世界各地也有不少新词进入英语词汇。在文艺复兴时期，英国出了三个大诗人：斯宾赛，莎士比亚)和密尔顿(Milton)。斯宾赛在他的诗歌里采用了许多英语的古词(溯源于古英语或中古英语)和英语的方言词，通过这个方式来丰富英语的词汇。莎士比亚在他的诗歌和戏剧作品里经常运用二万到二万五千个词，其中百分之九十是英语本族语，而不是从其它语言借来的外来语。莎士比亚的伟大贡献在于他主要运用了英语本族语创造出丰富多采、干变万化的语言形式，充分地、深刻地、优美地表达了人物的思想和感情。密尔顿吸收了大量的拉丁语词和拉丁语法结构来写他的英语涛篇，气势雄壮，声音铿锵，使英语词汇更富于表达力。这三个大诗人，通过他们的创作实践，证明了英语是一个很好的工具：英语具有很大的感染力和说服力，英语也具有很大的灵活性和适应性，足以表达各式各样的题材和内容。在这里，我们还应提到1611年出版的《圣经》标准英译本。这个英译本对英语文体发生了深远的影响。它和莎士比亚的作品一样，主要运用英语本族语和英语简单句型来翻译原文是希伯来语(引日约》)和希腊语(《新约》)的《圣经》。这个英译本《圣经》以文体质朴、优美著称。它运用的词汇当中英语本族语词占百分之九十四。这个例子又一次说明英语本族语本身的潜力非常大，创造力非常强。天才的和有经验的作家有能力把本族语和外来语巧妙地结合起来成为—．个充满了生命力的有机体。经过文艺复兴时期的实践，早期现代英语已基本上达到了英语发展的这个阶段。经过文艺复兴时期的创作实践，早期现代英语已成为堪与古代希腊、拉I—语相现代欧洲先进国家的语言(法语、意大利语)相比美的文学语言。到了十七世纪，英国爆发了资产阶级民主革命，解放了生产力，唯物主义思想和自然科学有了很大的发展，成立了相当于科学院的皇家学会。早期现代英语逐渐代替拉丁语而成为哲学和自然科学的语言。哲学家霍布斯(Hobbcs)和洛克(Locke)要求语言要准确、清晰、合乎逻辑，要有说服力。十七世纪文学家德莱登(DryJen)的散文作品的语言可以说达到了这样的标准。十八世纪英语发展的方向是继续发扬十七世纪对英语的要求：既纯洁又雄辩。十八世纪是“理性的时代”，因此要求语言必须纯洁(准确、清晰)，而且要雄辩(合乎逻辑，有说服力)。为了实现这样的语言理想，首先要求英语的发音、拼写、语法、词义达到规范化，合乎统一的标准。这样就诞生了对于字典和语法书的迫切要求。约翰孙博士(samuel Johnson)的《英语字典》)出版于1755年。这部字典有三大优点，是以前出版的英语字典所没有具备的：(1)给所收的每个词都下了准确、清晰约定义，(2)把所收的每个词的拼写固定了下来；(3)从英国各时期文学作品里引证了大量的例句来说明词义和词的用法。约翰孙博士的《英语字典》为《牛津英语大词典》(()小rJ EM夕AA DJf6J肋“ry，十三卷，完成于1933年)打下了结实、牢靠的基础。大多数十八世纪语法家所编的英语语法都是按照拉丁语法的规则编写的。这种语法书没有多大的参考价值。只有少数的十八世纪语法家重视词的用法(us。8。)，而不是生搬硬套拉丁语法条条。这样的语法书才有一定的参考价值，因为英语语言形式的正确性(correctness)不能取决于合不合拉丁语法，而应取决于合不合英语的约定俗成的习惯用法。十八世纪重视词的用法的英语语法书有约瑟夫·普里斯特里编的《英语语法入门》(乔治·坎贝尔写的《修辞学的哲学》等。由于国际贸易交往和开拓殖民他的活动，十八世纪的英国相世界各地的民族相文化都有了接触，结果使英语吸收了数干个新词，使英语词汇变得更加全世界化了。十九世纪和二十世纪英记的发展到了十九世纪，浪漫主义文学兴起，英语词汇更加丰富起来。一些古词复活了，新词不断诞生。产业革命导致社会矛盾的加深和科学技术的发展。批判现实主义文学作品和自然主义文学作品进一步丰富了英语词汇。科技的发展使英语词汇飞跃地增长。十九世纪和二十世纪的英语发展是突飞猛进的。英1i词汇的增长和变化打开英语词典来看，大约百分之八十的词都是从其它语言借来的，绝大多数的外来语来自拉丁语，其中一半以上是通过法语借来的，另外省大量的词直接或间接来自希腊语。相当多的词来自斯堪的纳维亚语。还有一些词来自意大利语、西班牙语、葡萄牙语和荷兰语。少数词来自世界各地的其它语种。古英语的词汇约有五万到六万个词，而现代英语大词典收的 词条足有六十五万到七十五万之多。但是英语最常用的词仍是英语的本族语，其中最常用的词有九个，它们是：and，have、of，the，to，will和you。大量的外来语丰富了英语词汇，使英语变得极端灵活，变化多端。英语的构词手段也具有多样性。最常见的构词法是复合，构成复台词。例如，motorway(＜名词motor‘汽车’十名词way‘道路’)这些复合河是明显的，一目了然的。有时，复合词并不象上面举的那些复合词那么明显，人们必须具有词源学的知识才能识别它们。有时，同一个复合词却有两个不同的词义和相应的不同的读音。英语另一种构词法是加上前缀(和后级。沼的前缀和后缀可以用来任意构成新词。)。转换词性是英语的另一种构词法。词义是“直达的，过境的”。英语还有一种构词手段，就是缩赂法(clippin8)。和缩略法相类似的另一种英语构词手段是首字母缩赂法(acMnym or initiali5m)。最后一种英语构词手段叫做混成法，即把两个词的音、义合并在一起而构成新词的方法。英语的特点下面总结一下英语的特点：英语的句子结构比较简单、自然，合乎逻辑思维的自然顺序，也就是说，英语的词序word order比较自然。英语不象德语或俄语，句子结构没有那么复杂，词序没有那么多的倒装现象(inversion)。英语的“语法”性别和“天然”性别相一致，不象俄语、拉丁语那样把所有的名词，按照“语法”性别，都分为阳性、阴性和中性。这样，现代英语就免去了名词和形容词的复杂的格的变化，而德语和俄语仍大量地保存着这些变化。所以说，英语的第一个持点就是它的结构比较简单，因此比较明白、易学。英语的第二个特点就是它的词汇非常丰富，因此它的表达能力特别强。据估计，英语词汇包括的单词超过一百万，居世界各语种的首位。英语的构词手段也很多样，g此英语不断产生新词。另外一个现象就是英语的词义不断发生变化，原有的词也可以获得新的词义，而且这种词义变化比较自然，显得毫不费力。例如，sophisticated的原义为：“非常有经验的，老练的，老于世故的”，它的基本词义是“失去了单纯性”。从这个基本词义发展到“复杂的，精致的”这一过程也是很自然的，不费气力的。这样，我们就可以用来修饰weapons，而得到“尖端武器”这个新的概念。这样，原有的s叩histica快d一词就变成两个词了，因为它获得了完全不同的新词义。此外．英语还有大量的短语动词，由动词加副词构成。这些动词词组使英语的表达力更加灵活，使英语变得乎易近人，生动活泼； 英语本身具有上述两个特点：结构简单，表达力强。加上其它的历史原因相当前的国际需要，无怪乎英语已成为国际 交往的公用语言。我们要把英语学得精通，早日实现我国社会主义现代化，为人类做出更大的贡献。

古英语时期从公元五世纪中叶开始，到公元十二世纪中叶为止（450-1150）[449-1066]。中古英语时期从公元十二世纪中叶开始，到公元十五世纪中叶为止（1150-1450）。现代英语时期约从公元十五世纪中叶开始（1450年以后）。现代英语时期又分为早期现代英语时期（约1450年开始-大约1700年为止）和现代英语时期（约从1700年开始-当前）。古英语在发音、词汇和语法等方面与现代英语有巨大的区别。从形态上看，完全是另一门语言，更接近现代德语。英国人与德国人是同祖同宗的关系。二战期间，希特勒轰炸伦敦实则为手足相残。与德国人的矛盾，使英国人减少了对盎格鲁-撒克逊文明研究的关注，阿尔弗烈德大帝也逐渐遭到普通英国人的忘却。而实际上，没有阿尔弗烈德大帝，很可能就没有英语语言和后来的大英帝国。英国人对古英语文本（如《贝奥武甫》）的关注晚于瑞典、德国和丹麦学者。十九世纪，语言学专家亨利·斯威特（HenrySweet,1845-1912）在古英语语言文学研究基础上，对英语语音学等研究领域做出了划时代性的贡献。

http://www.iselong.com/english/0001/1124.htm(英语简史(English Version))A Brief Look at the History of English The history of English is conventionally, if perhaps too neatly, divided into three periods usually called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and Modern English. The earliest period begins with the migration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century A. D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it continues until the end of the eleventh century or a bit later. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the language of the Viking invaders), and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on the lexicon, and the well-developed inflectional system that typifies the grammar of Old English had begun to break down. The following brief sample of Old English prose illustrates several of the significant ways in which change has so transformed English that we must look carefully to find points of resemblance between the language of the tenth century and our own. It is taken from Aelfric's "Homily on St. Gregory the Great" and concerns the famous story of how that pope came to send missionaries to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity after seeing Anglo-Saxon boys for sale as slaves in Rome: Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. Þa cwæð he, "Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on heofonum engla geferan beon."A few of these words will be recognized as identical in spelling with their modern equivalents -- he, of, him, for, and, on -- and the resemblance of a few others to familiar words may be guessed -- nama to name, comon to come, wære to were, wæs to was -- but only those who have made a special study of Old English will be able to read the passage with understanding. The sense of it is as follows: "Again he [St. Gregory] asked what might be the name of the people from which they came. It was answered to him that they were named Angles. Then he said, 'Rightly are they called Angles because they have the beauty of angels, and it is fitting that such as they should be angels' companions in heaven.' " Some of the words in the original have survived in altered form, including axode (asked), hu (how), rihtlice (rightly), engla (angels), habbað (have), swilcum (such), heofonum (heaven), and beon (be). Others, however, have vanished from our lexicon, mostly without a trace, including several that were quite common words in Old English: eft "again," ðeode "people, nation," cwæð "said, spoke," gehatene "called, named," wlite "appearance, beauty," and geferan "companions." Recognition of some words is naturally hindered by the presence of two special characters, þ, called "thorn," and ð, called "edh," which served in Old English to represent the sounds now spelled with th. Other points worth noting include the fact that the pronoun system did not yet, in the late tenth century, include the third person plural forms beginning with th-: hi appears where we would use they. Several aspects of word order will also strike the reader as oddly unlike ours. Subject and verb are inverted after an adverb -- þa cwæð he "Then said he" -- a phenomenon not unknown in Modern English but now restricted to a few adverbs such as never and requiring the presence of an auxiliary verb like do or have. In subordinate clauses the main verb must be last, and so an object or a preposition may precede it in a way no longer natural: þe hi of comon "which they from came," for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað "because they angels' beauty have." Perhaps the most distinctive difference between Old and Modern English reflected in Aelfric's sentences is the elaborate system of inflections, of which we now have only remnants. Nouns, adjectives, and even the definite article are inflected for gender, case, and number: ðære ðeode "(of) the people" is feminine, genitive, and singular, Angle "Angles" is masculine, accusative, and plural, and swilcum "such" is masculine, dative, and plural. The system of inflections for verbs was also more elaborate than ours: for example, habbað "have" ends with the -að suffix characteristic of plural present indicative verbs. In addition, there were two imperative forms, four subjunctive forms (two for the present tense and two for the preterit, or past, tense), and several others which we no longer have. Even where Modern English retains a particular category of inflection, the form has often changed. Old English present participles ended in -ende not -ing, and past participles bore a prefix ge- (as geandwyrd "answered" above). The period of Middle English extends roughly from the twelfth century through the fifteenth. The influence of French (and Latin, often by way of French) upon the lexicon continued throughout this period, the loss of some inflections and the reduction of others (often to a final unstressed vowel spelled -e) accelerated, and many changes took place within the phonological and grammatical systems of the language. A typical prose passage, especially one from the later part of the period, will not have such a foreign look to us as Aelfric's prose has; but it will not be mistaken for contemporary writing either. The following brief passage is drawn from a work of the late fourteenth century called Mandeville's Travels. It is fiction in the guise of travel literature, and, though it purports to be from the pen of an English knight, it was originally written in French and later translated into Latin and English. In this extract Mandeville describes the land of Bactria, apparently not an altogether inviting place, as it is inhabited by "full yuele [evil] folk and full cruell." In þat lond ben trees þat beren wolle, as þogh it were of scheep; whereof men maken clothes, and all þing þat may ben made of wolle. In þat contree ben many ipotaynes, þat dwellen som tyme in the water, and somtyme on the lond: and þei ben half man and half hors, as I haue seyd before; and þei eten men, whan þei may take hem. And þere ben ryueres and watres þat ben fulle byttere, þree sithes more þan is the water of the see. In þat contré ben many griffounes, more plentee þan in ony other contree. Sum men seyn þat þei han the body vpward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun: and treuly þei seyn soth þat þei ben of þat schapp. But o griffoun hath the body more gret, and is more strong, þanne eight lyouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this half; and more gret and strongere þan an hundred egles, suche as we han amonges vs. For o griffoun þere wil bere fleynge to his nest a gret hors, 3if he may fynde him at the poynt, or two oxen 3oked togidere, as þei gon at the plowgh.The spelling is often peculiar by modern standards and even inconsistent within these few sentences (contré and contree, o [griffoun] and a [gret hors], þanne and þan, for example). Moreover, in the original text, there is in addition to thorn another old character 3, called "yogh," to make difficulty. It can represent several sounds but here may be thought of as equivalent to y. Even the older spellings (including those where u stands for v or vice versa) are recognizable, however, and there are only a few words like ipotaynes "hippopotamuses" and sithes "times" that have dropped out of the language altogether. We may notice a few words and phrases that have meanings no longer common such as byttere "salty," o this half "on this side of the world," and at the poynt "to hand," and the effect of the centuries-long dominance of French on the vocabulary is evident in many familiar words which could not have occurred in Aelfric's writing even if his subject had allowed them, words like contree, ryueres, plentee, egle, and lyoun. In general word order is now very close to that of our time, though we notice constructions like hath the body more gret and three sithes more þan is the water of the see. We also notice that present tense verbs still receive a plural inflection as in beren, dwellen, han, and ben and that while nominative þei has replaced Aelfric's hi in the third person plural, the form for objects is still hem. All the same, the number of inflections for nouns, adjectives, and verbs has been greatly reduced, and in most respects Mandeville is closer to Modern than to Old English. The period of Modern English extends from the sixteenth century to our own day. The early part of this period saw the completion of a revolution in the phonology of English that had begun in late Middle English and that effectively redistributed the occurrence of the vowel phonemes to something approximating their present pattern. (Mandeville's English would have sounded even less familiar to us than it looks.) Other important early developments include the stabilizing effect on spelling of the printing press and the beginning of the direct influence of Latin and, to a lesser extent, Greek on the lexicon. Later, as English came into contact with other cultures around the world and distinctive dialects of English developed in the many areas which Britain had colonized, numerous other languages made small but interesting contributions to our word-stock. The historical aspect of English really encompasses more than the three stages of development just under consideration. English has what might be called a prehistory as well. As we have seen, our language did not simply spring into existence; it was brought from the Continent by Germanic tribes who had no form of writing and hence left no records. Philologists know that they must have spoken a dialect of a language that can be called West Germanic and that other dialects of this unknown language must have included the ancestors of such languages as German, Dutch, Low German, and Frisian. They know this because of certain systematic similarities which these languages share with each other but do not share with, say, Danish. However, they have had somehow to reconstruct what that language was like in its lexicon, phonology, grammar, and semantics as best they can through sophisticated techniques of comparison developed chiefly during the last century. Similarly, because ancient and modern languages like Old Norse and Gothic or Icelandic and Norwegian have points in common with Old English and Old High German or Dutch and English that they do not share with French or Russian, it is clear that there was an earlier unrecorded language that can be called simply Germanic and that must be reconstructed in the same way. Still earlier, Germanic was just a dialect (the ancestors of Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit were three other such dialects) of a language conventionally designated Indo-European, and thus English is just one relatively young member of an ancient family of languages whose descendants cover a fair portion of the globe.

A Brief Look at the History of English The history of English is conventionally, if perhaps too neatly, divided into three periods usually called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and Modern English. The earliest period begins with the migration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century A. D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it continues until the end of the eleventh century or a bit later. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the language of the Viking invaders), and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on the lexicon, and the well-developed inflectional system that typifies the grammar of Old English had begun to break down. The following brief sample of Old English prose illustrates several of the significant ways in which change has so transformed English that we must look carefully to find points of resemblance between the language of the tenth century and our own. It is taken from Aelfric's "Homily on St. Gregory the Great" and concerns the famous story of how that pope came to send missionaries to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity after seeing Anglo-Saxon boys for sale as slaves in Rome: Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. Þa cwæð he, "Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on heofonum engla geferan beon."A few of these words will be recognized as identical in spelling with their modern equivalents -- he, of, him, for, and, on -- and the resemblance of a few others to familiar words may be guessed -- nama to name, comon to come, wære to were, wæs to was -- but only those who have made a special study of Old English will be able to read the passage with understanding. The sense of it is as follows: "Again he [St. Gregory] asked what might be the name of the people from which they came. It was answered to him that they were named Angles. Then he said, 'Rightly are they called Angles because they have the beauty of angels, and it is fitting that such as they should be angels' companions in heaven.' " Some of the words in the original have survived in altered form, including axode (asked), hu (how), rihtlice (rightly), engla (angels), habbað (have), swilcum (such), heofonum (heaven), and beon (be). Others, however, have vanished from our lexicon, mostly without a trace, including several that were quite common words in Old English: eft "again," ðeode "people, nation," cwæð "said, spoke," gehatene "called, named," wlite "appearance, beauty," and geferan "companions." Recognition of some words is naturally hindered by the presence of two special characters, þ, called "thorn," and ð, called "edh," which served in Old English to represent the sounds now spelled with th. Other points worth noting include the fact that the pronoun system did not yet, in the late tenth century, include the third person plural forms beginning with th-: hi appears where we would use they. Several aspects of word order will also strike the reader as oddly unlike ours. Subject and verb are inverted after an adverb -- þa cwæð he "Then said he" -- a phenomenon not unknown in Modern English but now restricted to a few adverbs such as never and requiring the presence of an auxiliary verb like do or have. In subordinate clauses the main verb must be last, and so an object or a preposition may precede it in a way no longer natural: þe hi of comon "which they from came," for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað "because they angels' beauty have." Perhaps the most distinctive difference between Old and Modern English reflected in Aelfric's sentences is the elaborate system of inflections, of which we now have only remnants. Nouns, adjectives, and even the definite article are inflected for gender, case, and number: ðære ðeode "(of) the people" is feminine, genitive, and singular, Angle "Angles" is masculine, accusative, and plural, and swilcum "such" is masculine, dative, and plural. The system of inflections for verbs was also more elaborate than ours: for example, habbað "have" ends with the -að suffix characteristic of plural present indicative verbs. In addition, there were two imperative forms, four subjunctive forms (two for the present tense and two for the preterit, or past, tense), and several others which we no longer have. Even where Modern English retains a particular category of inflection, the form has often changed. Old English present participles ended in -ende not -ing, and past participles bore a prefix ge- (as geandwyrd "answered" above). The period of Middle English extends roughly from the twelfth century through the fifteenth. The influence of French (and Latin, often by way of French) upon the lexicon continued throughout this period, the loss of some inflections and the reduction of others (often to a final unstressed vowel spelled -e) accelerated, and many changes took place within the phonological and grammatical systems of the language. A typical prose passage, especially one from the later part of the period, will not have such a foreign look to us as Aelfric's prose has; but it will not be mistaken for contemporary writing either. The following brief passage is drawn from a work of the late fourteenth century called Mandeville's Travels. It is fiction in the guise of travel literature, and, though it purports to be from the pen of an English knight, it was originally written in French and later translated into Latin and English. In this extract Mandeville describes the land of Bactria, apparently not an altogether inviting place, as it is inhabited by "full yuele [evil] folk and full cruell." In þat lond ben trees þat beren wolle, as þogh it were of scheep; whereof men maken clothes, and all þing þat may ben made of wolle. In þat contree ben many ipotaynes, þat dwellen som tyme in the water, and somtyme on the lond: and þei ben half man and half hors, as I haue seyd before; and þei eten men, whan þei may take hem. And þere ben ryueres and watres þat ben fulle byttere, þree sithes more þan is the water of the see. In þat contré ben many griffounes, more plentee þan in ony other contree. Sum men seyn þat þei han the body vpward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun: and treuly þei seyn soth þat þei ben of þat schapp. But o griffoun hath the body more gret, and is more strong, þanne eight lyouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this half; and more gret and strongere þan an hundred egles, suche as we han amonges vs. For o griffoun þere wil bere fleynge to his nest a gret hors, 3if he may fynde him at the poynt, or two oxen 3oked togidere, as þei gon at the plowgh.The spelling is often peculiar by modern standards and even inconsistent within these few sentences (contré and contree, o [griffoun] and a [gret hors], þanne and þan, for example). Moreover, in the original text, there is in addition to thorn another old character 3, called "yogh," to make difficulty. It can represent several sounds but here may be thought of as equivalent to y. Even the older spellings (including those where u stands for v or vice versa) are recognizable, however, and there are only a few words like ipotaynes "hippopotamuses" and sithes "times" that have dropped out of the language altogether. We may notice a few words and phrases that have meanings no longer common such as byttere "salty," o this half "on this side of the world," and at the poynt "to hand," and the effect of the centuries-long dominance of French on the vocabulary is evident in many familiar words which could not have occurred in Aelfric's writing even if his subject had allowed them, words like contree, ryueres, plentee, egle, and lyoun. In general word order is now very close to that of our time, though we notice constructions like hath the body more gret and three sithes more þan is the water of the see. We also notice that present tense verbs still receive a plural inflection as in beren, dwellen, han, and ben and that while nominative þei has replaced Aelfric's hi in the third person plural, the form for objects is still hem. All the same, the number of inflections for nouns, adjectives, and verbs has been greatly reduced, and in most respects Mandeville is closer to Modern than to Old English. The period of Modern English extends from the sixteenth century to our own day. The early part of this period saw the completion of a revolution in the phonology of English that had begun in late Middle English and that effectively redistributed the occurrence of the vowel phonemes to something approximating their present pattern. (Mandeville's English would have sounded even less familiar to us than it looks.) Other important early developments include the stabilizing effect on spelling of the printing press and the beginning of the direct influence of Latin and, to a lesser extent, Greek on the lexicon. Later, as English came into contact with other cultures around the world and distinctive dialects of English developed in the many areas which Britain had colonized, numerous other languages made small but interesting contributions to our word-stock. The historical aspect of English really encompasses more than the three stages of development just under consideration. English has what might be called a prehistory as well. As we have seen, our language did not simply spring into existence; it was brought from the Continent by Germanic tribes who had no form of writing and hence left no records. Philologists know that they must have spoken a dialect of a language that can be called West Germanic and that other dialects of this unknown language must have included the ancestors of such languages as German, Dutch, Low German, and Frisian. They know this because of certain systematic similarities which these languages share with each other but do not share with, say, Danish. However, they have had somehow to reconstruct what that language was like in its lexicon, phonology, grammar, and semantics as best they can through sophisticated techniques of comparison developed chiefly during the last century. Similarly, because ancient and modern languages like Old Norse and Gothic or Icelandic and Norwegian have points in common with Old English and Old High German or Dutch and English that they do not share with French or Russian, it is clear that there was an earlier unrecorded language that can be called simply Germanic and that must be reconstructed in the same way. Still earlier, Germanic was just a dialect (the ancestors of Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit were three other such dialects) of a language conventionally designated Indo-European, and thus English is just one relatively young member of an ancient family of languages whose descendants cover a fair portion of the globe.

英语的起源一 英语的“家谱” 英语是印欧 (1ndo-European)语系。印欧语系是世界上最大的语系，包括欧洲、美洲和亚洲的大部分语言。讲印欧诸种语言的总人数约有十八亿七千五百万，占世界总人口的一半左右。早在1786年，英国梵文（Sanskrit)学者威廉·琼斯爵士 (Sir William Jones) 就指出：欧洲、印度、波斯等地的大多数语言，包括古希腊语、古拉丁语及古印度语属于同一“家族”。 原始印欧人是什么样的人? 他们居住在何方? 他们的语言究竞是什么样子的? 对这些问题，我们今天仍缺乏文献的考证。但是通过长时期的研究，语言学家们得出了探索性的结论他们发现：属于印欧语系的许多语种都有表示“冬天”、“雪”和“寒冷”等意义的词，这说明原始印欧语最初是在气候比较冷的地一带使用的。另一方面，某些热带地区动植物名称的词，如“狮子”、“大象”、“稻米”、“竹”、“棕榈树”等，在原始印欧语中是不存在的；而印欧语系各语种中却都有表示“白杨”、“栎树”、“柳树”、“白桦”、“熊”、“狼”、“羊”、“鹰”、“蜜蜂”等动植物名称的相似词。通过这样的探索和研究，许多人认为，当人类进入新石器时代，欧洲中东部曾居隹着一些游牧部落，他们饲养着象羊、狗、奶牛和马这样的家畜，会使用马和简陋的马车，并能够驰骋于一望无际的原野上。这些游牧部落就是原始印欧人，他们用于交际的语言就是原始印欧语。大约在公元前3500年至公元前2500年间，这些原始印欧人开始迁徒。有些向西移动，有些向东移动，而有些则向南移动，到达今天的南亚次大陆。这些部落的大迁徒导致印欧语系的逐步形成。古印度语与古代欧洲语言之所以非常相近，其历史根源即在于此。 印欧语系包括：（一）印度语族(Indic);（二）．伊朗语族(Iranian);(三)斯拉夫语族（Slavic）,(四)波罗的话族（Baltic）,（五）日耳曼语族（Germanic）,（六）拉丁语族（亦称罗曼语族[Romance]）, （七）凯尔特语族（Celtic）,（八）希腊语族；（九）阿尔巴尼亚语（Albanian）,（十）亚美尼亚语族（Armenian）, （十一）吐火罗语族（Tocharian;Tokharian）（十二）赫梯语族（Hittite）。日耳曼语族是一个比较大的语族。它又分为三个语支：(一)东日耳曼语支（EastGermanic）主要以现已绝迹的哥特语（Gothic）为代表；（二）北日耳曼语支（North Germanic）,主要以古北欧语（Oid Norse）为代表，包括今日的挪威语（Norwegian）、冰岛语（Icelandic）、瑞典语和丹麦语等；（三）西日耳曼语支（West Germanic）包括低地德语（Low German） 今日的荷兰语（Dutch）、高地德语（High German）、英语、弗里西亚语（Frisian）佛兰芒语（Flemish）等。因此，我们说：英语属于印欧语系的日耳曼语族的西日耳曼语支。 二 英语的形成 英国南面隔英吉利海峡（the English Channel）、多佛尔海峡（the Straits of Dover）与法国相望，东面和东南面隔北海(the North Sea)与荷兰、比利时、丹麦、挪威遥对。距 欧洲大陆最窄处的多佛尔海峡仅三十公里宽。英国的领土主要包括大不列颠岛和爱尔兰岛东北部。大不列颠岛包括三个地区：英格兰占南部和中部，威尔士占西部山地半岛，苏格兰占北部；其中以英格兰最为重要。大不列颠岛是欧洲第一大岛，海岸非常曲折，长达一万一千四百五十公里。英语就是在这样的地理环境中形成的。为了说明英语的起源，我们有必要回顾一下英语形之前的英国史前史。文物考查已经证明，古代印欧游牧部落西移之前今天的不列颠诸岛上已居住着旧石器人(Paleolithic Man)。那时，不列颠诸岛和欧洲大陆是连成一片的，英国和法国之间还没有今天的英吉利海峡和多佛尔海峡，莱茵河(the Rhine)与泰晤士河(the Thames)之间尚由其支流相接、今天的英国仍属欧洲大陆的一部分。大约在距今九千年的时候；由于地壳的变迁，大不列颠诸岛从欧洲大陆分离出来。所以史前的旧石器人能够在不列颠定居下来并不足为怪。曾任过英国首相的温斯顿·邱召尔Sir Winston Churchill）(1874?/FONT>1965)在其《说英语的民族史》（History of the English Speaking Peoples）一书中，曾这样描写居住在不列颠的旧石器人：很明显，那些赤身裸体或只披着兽皮的男人和女人或觅食于原始密林之中，或涉猎于沼泽、草滩至于他们所说的语言，尚无史料可查。大约在公元前3000年，伊比利亚人（Iberians）从地中海地区来到不列颠岛定居。他们给不列颠带来了新石器（Neolithic）文化，同时征服了先前在那儿居住的旧石器人。大约从公元前500年开始，凯尔特人；（Celts）从欧洲大陆进犯并占领了不列颠诸岛。凯尔特人最初居住在今天德国南部地区，他们是欧洲最早学会制造和使用铁器和金制装饰品的民族；在征服不列颠之前，他们曾征服了今天的法国、西班牙：葡萄牙、意大利等地区；来到不列颠后，一部分凯尔特人在今天的爱尔兰和苏格兰定居下来，其余的一部分占领了今天的英格兰的南部和东部。每到一处，他们都对伊比利亚人进行残酷的杀戳。凯尔特人讲凯尔特语。今天居住在苏格兰北部和西部山地的盖尔人（Gaels）仍使用这种语言。在英语形成之前凯尔特语是在不列颠岛上所能发现的唯一具有史料依据的最早的格言。 公元前55年的夏天，罗马帝国的恺撒大帝（Julius Caesar）在征服高卢（Gaul）之后来到不列颠。那时，他的目的未必是想征服不列颠，而是想警告凯尔特人不要支持那些居住在高占的、正受罗马人奴役的凯尔特同族人。恺撒大帝的这次‘不列颠之行’并没有给罗马帝国带来什么好处，相反却在一定程度上降低了他的威信。第二年，即公元前54年的夏天，恺撒大帝第二次亲临不列颠。这次，他在不列颠岛东南部站稳了脚跟，并与当地的凯尔特人发生了一些冲突。恺撒大帝虽然取胜，但并没有能使凯尔特人屈服。不久，他又回到了高卢；在以后的大约一百年间，罗马帝国并没有对不列颠构成很大的威胁。 英国历史上的真正的“罗马人的征服”(Roman Conquest)是在公元后43年开始的。当时罗马皇帝克罗迪斯(Claudius)率领四万人马，用了三年时间终于征服了不列颠岛的中部和中南部随后，整个的英格兰被罗马牢牢控制了。，随着军事占领，罗马文化与风格习惯渗入不列颠。罗马人的服装、装饰品、陶器和玻璃器皿很快在不列颠得到推广；社会生活开始：“罗马化”这必然导致拉丁语在不列颠的传播。在以胜利者自居的罗马人看来，凯尔特人无疑是“低贱的”，凯尔特语自然不能登“大雅之堂”那时，在不列颠，官方用语、法律用语、商业用语等均是拉丁语；拉丁语成了上层凯尔特人的第二语言。这就是凯尔特语词汇为什么很少能幸存下来的历史原因。在今日英语中，只是在一些地名和河流名称方面还保留着凯尔特的词汇成分。例如the Thames ,the Cam,the Dee ,the Avon , the Esk , the Exe , the Stour , the Aire , the Derwent , the Ouse , the Severn , the Tees , the Trent , the Wye等，均是凯尔特人命名的河流。在Duncombe, Winchcombe, Holcome, Cumberland, Coombe 等地名中，也可看到凯尔特语cumb (=deep valley::深谷）一词的成分，在Torcross , Torquay,Torrington等地名中，尚保留着凯尔特语torr (=high rock or peak;高岩或山顶）一词的成分。英国著名城市多尔佛（Dover）、约克(York)的名称也源于凯尔特语。罗马人占领不列颠长达四百年，直到公元407年，罗马人才因罗马帝国内外交困不得不开始撤离不列颠。 大约在公元449年，居住在西北欧的三个日耳曼部族侵犯不列颠。他们是盎格鲁（Angles）、撒克逊人（Saxons）和朱特人（Jutes）他们乘船横渡北海，借罗马帝国衰落、自顾不暇之机‘一举侵入大不列颠诸岛。他们遭到凯尔特人的顽强抵抗，征服过程拖延了一个半世纪之久：到了公元六世纪末，大不列颠请岛上原先的居民凯尔特人几乎灭绝，幸存者或逃入山林．或沦为奴隶。这就是英国历史上发生的“日耳曼人征服”，亦称“条顿人征服”Teutonic Conquest）。这次外来入侵．对英语的形成起了十分关键的作用。 盎格鲁人、撒克逊人和朱特人属古代日耳曼人。分市在北欧日德兰半岛、丹麦诸岛、德国西北沿海一带。在罗马帝国时期，他们往往统称为“蛮族部落”。他们从事畜牧和狩猎，过着半游牧的生活，且很早就知道农耕。他们的土地是氏族的公有财产，农业经营带有原始的流动性质。随着社会的发展，氏族公社逐渐解体，出现了氏族贵族和军事首领。他们的财富和权势在频繁的掠夺中剧增。军事首领名义上是由民众大会推选产生的，实际上都出于同一家族。恩格斯曾把这种氏族部落的管理制度称作军事民主制；他这样写道：“其所以称为军事民主制，是因为战争以及进行战争的组织现在已成为民族生活的正常职能。邻人的财富刺激了各民族的贪欲。这些民族把获得财富看成是最重要的生活目的之一。他们是野蛮人。进行掠夺在他们看来是比进行创造性劳动更容易，甚至更荣誉的事情。以前进行战争，只是为了对侵犯进行报复，或者是为了扩大已经感到不够的领上；观在进行战争，则纯粹是为了掠夺，战争成为经常的职业了。“ 这些所谓的‘蛮族”，在摧毁当时罗马帝国的奴隶制，以及推动西欧封建制度的诞生过程中，起过十分重要的作用。征服不列颠后，盎格鲁人主要占领了洪伯河（the Humber）以北地区；撒克逊人主要占领了泰晤士河以南地区；朱特人主要盘踞在英格兰东南端的肯特（Kent） 和南汉普郡（Southern Hampshire）；以及位于英格兰之南、靠近今天的朴次茅斯(Portsmouth)的怀特岛（the Isle of Wight），形成许多小国。公元七世纪初，这些小园合并为七个王国：南部有撒克逊人的威塞克斯（Wessex）、萨塞克斯(Sussex)和埃塞克斯(Essex)；东北部和中部有盎格鲁人的梅尔西亚(Mercia)、诺森伯里亚（Northumbria），和东盎格里亚(East Anglia)；东南部有朱特人的肯特(Kent)王国。各国竞相争雄，达两百年之久；在英国历史上称为“七国时代”(the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy)。这三个日耳曼部族虽然有各自的方言，但这些方言均属低地西日耳曼语(Low West Germanic)。有许多共同之处．因此三个部落在语言方面基本上是相通的。他们都使用一种叫做茹尼克（Runic）的文字。这种文字是古代日耳曼各民族通用的文字．它的字母主要由直线组成，以便于刻在木头或石块上，是一种由古希腊语和拉丁语发展起来的北欧碑文字。随着人类社会的发展，盎格鲁人、撒克逊人和朱特人逐渐形成统一的英吉利民族．他们各自使用的方言也逐渐溶合，出现了一种新的语言枣盎格鲁撒克逊语(Anglo-Saxon)。这就是古英语。它是在特定的地理和历史环境中，经过一系列民族迁移与征服的过程所形成的。 那么English和England的名称是如何来的呢？原来，凯尔特人将征服他们的盎格鲁人、撒克逊人和朱特人习惯地统称为Saxons(撒克逊人)。早期拉丁语学者仿照凯尔特人的习惯．也将这三个日耳曼部族称作Saxones．并将他们征服的不列颠称作Saxonia。到了公元七世纪． 由于用森伯利亚王国和梅尔西亚王国在政治上和文化上的影响剧增，而在这棿�ň酉吕吹闹饕�前桓衤橙耍��栽缙诶�⊙д哂殖S?/FONT>Angli和Anglia指所有的三个部族和他们在不列颠所占有的地盘。随后,Angli和Anglia在拉丁语著作中分别代替了Saxones和Saxonia。到了公元700年所有的人都把当时通行在不列颠岛上的语言称作Englisc（盎格鲁人一直就是这样称呼其使用的语言的)，三个入侵的日耳曼部族则统称为Angelcynn(=kin of the Angles即“盎格鲁人的家族”)到了公元1000年整个国家则被称作Englaland (=land of the Angles盎格鲁人的土地)。由于语言内部在发音和拼写方面发生了演变Englisc和Englaland才变成了今天的English和England。 在追溯英语的历史发展时，我们通常将它分为三个时期：（一）古英语(Old English)，从公元450年至1150年；(二)中古英语(Middle English)，从公元1150年至1500年；，（三）现代英语(Modern English)，从1500年至今。为便于研究，我们常把1500?/FONT>1700年的英语称作“早期现代英语”(Early Modern English)，1700年至今的英语称作“后期现代英语”(Later Modern English)。这样的分期当然不是绝对的，但它有助于我们对英语历史发展全过程的了解和研究。

History of English