The Final Exam for this class is on Tuesday, December 13 ...



The Final Exam for this class is on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 in LA 135

What you need to know for the final examination.

A. Figures in the story of English: For each of the people below, be able to state who they were, the general period/type of English they affected, and one specific example of how they have contributed to the Story of English.

Geoffrey Chaucer Benjamin Franklin Alfred the Great

William Caxton Julius Caesar St. Patrick

James I of England Samuel Johnson H.L. Mencken

Sir William Jones William Shakespeare Noah Webster

Jonathan Swift Mark Twain Mutaburaka

B. Events/phenomena in the Story of English: for each of the terms/events/ linguistic phenomena below, be able to state its contribution to the Story of English.

The Act of Union The Middle Passage The Renaissance

Afrikaans Flash Language Gaelic

The BBC The Black Death African American English

Gullah Jargon Inner/outer/expanding Circles

Creole Pidgin Lindesfarne

Bible Translations Johnson’s dictionary The Danes

Impact of Scots Impact of Irish Dub Poetry

Norman invasion Loss of inflections The Venerable Bede

Ulster English Migration to Australia Colonialism in India

Canterbury Tales Printing Press Immigration to America

The Celts and the Picts A language system An Alphabet

Syntax Phonology British Public School

Standard English Arbitrariness in Language Spread of English

Questions:

1. Where did the Angles, Saxons and Jutes come from and what effect did they have on English?

2. Who Christianized Britain?

3. Which groups of people today have Celtic ancestry?

4. What do Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex have in common?

5. What is the Anglo-Saxon chronicle?

6. Where did the Vikings come from?

7. Why are the military events of 1066 important to the story of English?

8. How did the Normans affect English?

9. What important changes happened in English as printing became widespread?

10. How did the period of the renaissance affect the English language?

11. Why does English have such a large vocabulary?

12. How and why did language changes in America?

13. How does a language become standardized?

14. Why has English spread around the world and become an international language?

15. Which document do we most closely associate with Middle English?

16. Which writer do we most closely associate with early modern English?

17. Beowulf was written during what period of English?

18. What are some features that differ between British and American English?

19. Why are British and American English so different?

20. What influence did Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin have on American English?

21. Who was Noah Webster and why is he so important to the story of English?

22. What are some differences between Canadian English and British/American English?

23. What influence did the Mississippi river and steamboat life have on English?

24. What influence did the Gold Rush have on English?

25. What influence did Gambling have on English?

26. What influence did cowboys and their lifestyle have on English?

27. What influence did the railroad have on English?

28. Why is Mark Twain such an important figure in understanding American English?

29. What influence did massive immigration to America have on English?

30. What influence did WWI have on English/

31. Who was H.L. Mencken and why was he so important to the story of English?

32. How and why did the first English settlers reach Australia?

33. How did George Bernard Shaw, Herman Melville, and Charles Dickens contribute to the story of English?

34. How did Cockney start out? What did it become? What are some characteristics of Cockney?

35. Explain rhyming slang. Explain back slang.

36. What did Australian Aborigines contribute to English? What did English do to Aborigine languages? Why were there so many new words in English coming from Australia?

37. Why did the Victorians consider Australian English coarse and rude? How does/did Australian English reflect the people who spoke it?

38. How does the language of Australian men and women tend to differ? Why?

39. The “rising” inflection of Australian English is also common in parts of the United States. To what is this attributed?

40. What is “flash language” and what is its significance?

41. What do Baker and Mencken have in common?

42. Why do you suppose New Zealand English is closer to the language of the Falkland Islands than to Australian?

43. Where is Afrikaans spoken?

44. What are the different feelings of native speakers of Xhosa and Zulu towards English and Afrikaans? Why are these feelings so different?

45. Who is the most important Scottish poet to the Scots?

46. What is a vernacular?

47. Where is Gaelic spoken?

48. What are the roots of the Appalachian language?

49. What is the native language of Ireland?

50. Name at least three U.S. presidents with Ulster lineages.

51. What documents have helped to standardize English?

52. Why was Jonathan Swift important in the movement to standardize English in Britain?

53. What language varieties are spoken in Ireland.

54. When did English domination begin in Ireland?

55. What is Blarney?

56. What happened to the native Irish language as a result of English domination?

57. What does the word “Hiberno” refer to?

58. What is the “loaded weapon” in the title of the chapter?

59. How has Irish increased in usage?

60. What are some features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE)?

61. Name two proposals concerning the origin of AAVE.

62. What is the difference between a pidgin and a creole?

63. What is Gullah and why is it important to an understanding of AAVE?

64. Is AAVE a legitimate variety of English? Why or why not?

65. Name at least two countries where English is used as an official second language (outer circle) and where English is used as an international language (expanding circle).

66. Why is international English different from inner circle varieties of English? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

67. Explain Robert Burchfield’s thesis on the decline of the English language. What do you think of his idea?

68. What is a “nation language” and where is this used?

69. What would you say to someone who criticizes language change?

70. Think of some phrases/pronunciations/grammatical constructions/words that may be a part of mainstream standard English in the next 20 years.

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