хочу все знать: английская историческая лингвистика (англ.)

[avva]

Есть ли среди моих читателей специалисты по английской исторической лингвистике?

Пару месяцев назад я задал вопрос в профильном сообществе linguaphiles, но не получил на него ни одного ответа по существу. Может, у этого же вопроса в моем собственном журнале судьба сложится лучше? Суть вопроса следующая: я хотел бы узнать, насколько устарело изложение в книге Йесперсена с точки зрения современной науки, и есть ли более современные книги, которые этот же материал излагают с не меньшим вниманием к подробностям и любовью к языку. Более точное изложение моего вопроса я копирую ниже, по-английски, из моей августовской записи. Если кто-то может помочь мне на него ответить, буду благодарен.

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My question is directed at people knowledgeable about English historical linguistics.

Many years ago, my mind was blown by reading Otto Jespersen's Modern English Grammar On Historical Principles. I read/skimmed mainly Part I: Phonetics, where Jespersen slowly, fascinatingly and painstakingly goes over the phonetical changes that occurred in English since the Middle English time (or before - I don't remember), including the Great Vowel Shift as well as changes that came after it. He doesn't just list the principal changes, he discusses at length when they occurred, approximately, what they were caused by, when this is known, and what were the exceptions to them. He gives many examples of words that underwent the changes or exceptions that didn't, and for the latter he discusses the reasons why (that was one of the most interesting aspects of the book - realizing that sound changes are not always as completely universal in a language as I'd naively thought).

I want to find this book again, read it, own it, etc. It's out of print and pretty expensive to obtain, volume by volume, from second-hand sources. But before I even do that, I'd like to understand if I should really be looking for a different book instead. After all, Jespersen wrote something like 100 to 70 years ago. Perhaps many of his explanations are considered outdated by now; perhaps there have been much better books of this kind. I wouldn't know - I'm not a linguist and my interest in this is amateur. If you know anything about how well his work stood the test of time, or about newer books of this kind I might be interested in, would you please let me know? I'd like to emphasize though that I'm not simply looking for, say, a concise one-volume "History of the English Language", of which there are dozens, many doubtless excellent. I looked at a few and their phonetics sections mainly listed the important sound changes that occurred, with a few examples. They lacked the obsessive "deep-dive" into many examples, exceptions, discussions of sources and methodology, etc. that I remember loving in Jespersen.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Comments

[cryinstone.livejournal.com]

There is a following great audio-course that I listened to, by the Teaching company: "History of the English Language" (Prof. Seth Lerer, Ph.D., University of Chicago) - 36 audio-lectures, 30 minutes each - from the beginning of English up to now. (http://www.teach12.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=2250)

The advantage of audio-lectures, as I see, is that you can not only read transcriptions of old phonetics, but to hear the examples as the lector pronounces.

O.Jespersen

[amir-ana.livejournal.com]

IMHO recently nobody has, is or will be doing anything of the kind. O.J. (and some of his contemporaries) have exausted the sources, new are not to come. In his sphere it is impossible to surpass him. He was called "the Great Dane" in Britain.

[l-hat.livejournal.com]

An interesting question to which I don't know the answer, so I've reposted it at LH: http://www.languagehat.com/archives/004041.php

[avva.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[bespechnoepero.livejournal.com]

мдя. я думал, что только в русском так - все до сих пор пользуются фасмером и прочими старичками, а толпы филологов, получивших образование за государственный счет, за последние лет семьдесят не произвели ничего подобного по размаху и по качеству. но, оказывается, и в английском так же. может быть, дело в том, что вся работа современных филологов разбросана по сотням тысяч статей и диссертаций, и собрать все это вместе в один труд задача то ли неподьемная, то ли в век узкой специализации просто не нашлось такого человека.

[status-constr.livejournal.com]

Напомнило начало старого советского фильма "Монолог", самокритичная речь главного героя про "подчищал"

и, разумеется, напомнило анахронизм - профессора Хиггинса - филолога ("фонетика", хехе) и в то же время богатого господина из хай-сосайети

"то ли в век узкой специализации просто не нашлось такого человека" может, не нашлось такого гранта?

но самое главное - наверняка, даже если "собрать все это вместе в один труд" - всё равно не получится картина ни достаточно copmrehensive, ни достаточно достоверная. Коллеги заклюют.

[worldtensor.livejournal.com]

How about what seems to be a standard textbook (http://www.amazon.com/History-English-Language-Albert-Baugh/dp/0130151661) on the subject?

[avva.livejournal.com]

It's a nice one-volume history, but it's not nearly detailed enough for my purposes.