You need to understand the historical material in this chapter's 6 sections.
But FIRST: Go back to the HW of several days ago and read the Wikipedia page "Genetic History of the British Isles." This page is as close as we can get to discussing how speakers of an Indo-European language reached Britain. It also summarizes what is known about the populations of Britain before recorded history. As you will see, there was a great deal of population change during these times. However, we know next to nothing about the languages spoken there until the arrival of Celtic speakers -- and we don't know precisely when they arrived. When recorded history begins for the British isles -- roughly 55 B.C., when Julius Caesar briefly invaded, only to retreat -- Britain was Celtic speaking.
Concentrate on Section 3: "Indo-European to Germanic: Sound Changes"; Section 4: Indo-European to Germanic: Changes in morphology and syntax"; and Section 5: "Reconstruction Methods".
These three sections are central. But they won't make any sense unless you first study Sections 1 and 2, to learn what "Indo-European" and "Germanic" mean, and how they are related to one another and to other language families and to theories of language origin and evolution.
Grimm's Law: We need to master this thoroughly. It is very important -- and also very interesting!
Study pages 39-42 carefully.
There are many other discussions of Grimm's Law. Drout has another -- we will read it for next class.
For more clarity read over this Wikipedia page on Grimm's Law. It really is very helpful!
(We are not concerned with the Second Sound Shift in this class. It's important for anybody who is studying German, however.)
Section 4 explains, in part, the change from synthetic to analytic in language generally (using the example of Sanskrit to Hindi / Urdu). English has changed from synthetic to analytic, so make sure you understand this.
Section 5 is on the Comparative Method. You need to understand this, as it is the foundation of all of Historical Linguistics -- of which the History of the English Langauge is one part.
This University of Texas web page, Archived really is helpful. Do read it over. It will help clarify things for you.
(UTx has a great many useful web pages on Proto-Indo-European. If interested, start with this page.)
Written homework assignment: Do Exercise 7, and two of the following: Exercises 3, 4, and 6 on pages 48-49.
For Exercise 7 use the following two web pages:
Make sure your written HW assignment is at least 300 words in length.
Email to me. NOT to your group.
NB: As always, bring your text to class with you.