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History OF English Language

College English (University of the Philippines Diliman)

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HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

AUTHOR: Joe Essberger

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who
invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes,
crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the
inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west
and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles
came from "Englaland" [sic] and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words
"England" and "English" are derived.

Old English (450-1100 AD)

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we
now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English
speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of
the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The
words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until
around 1100.

Middle English (1100-1500)

In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and
conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of
French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For
a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and
the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again,
but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language
of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers
to understand today.
Modern English

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great
Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century
the British had contact with many peoples from around the world.
This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases
entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common
language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also
brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of
London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English
dictionary was published.

Late Modern English (1800-Present)

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late
Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial
Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its
height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign
words from many countries.

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HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

AUTHOR: Maad M. Mijwel

The English language was born thanks to the Germanic invaders who came to the British Isles from what is
now the northwest of Germany and the Netherlands, (badly called Holland) which is a mere province of this
European kingdom), in addition to those of southern Denmark. At first, this language was composed of a set of
dialects, among which the Western Saxon stood out. To him it was necessary to add other many and deep
influences, coming, above all, from Scandinavian conquerors (in the north and east of England, where they
constituted a Danelagh or Danelaw because their laws prevailed over the Anglo-Saxons). To these migrations must
be added the Germanic and especially the Normans who came to Britain between the eighth and eleventh
centuries. Hence, it can be assured that the current English is, in fact, a conglomerate of influences from
Scandinavia and continental Europe. In particular, from France. All these migrations provacaron the extinction of
the old Celtic languages and the Latin that was spoken in some cities.
But it is no less true that the influence was there: having to pay tribute to the gentlemen in French, the
Englishman was about to disappear or, at least, be relegated as the language of the lower classes. Little by little,
more and more Norman words and expressions would be introduced in the British imaginary. This linguistic
pressure was based on the control by the Norman class of administration, commerce and culture. As an anecdote,
it should be noted that current English speakers consider expressions derived from French much more formal than
those derived from Germanic dialects. This can be seen in multiple constructions, ranging from welcoming a person
to the name given to certain farm animals, such as pigs and cows. For example, the duals that exist in English to
designate the pig: "pig" but "pork" (which is the meat already sacrificed that was served to Mr. Norman). The sheep
of the flock are "sheep", Anglo-Saxon word (Schaf in German) and young lambs "lamb" (Lamm in German) but the
meat that the lord eats is "mutton" of the French " mouton " (nothing like the German Hammelfleisch). The same
goes for the very English "beef" or "bœuf "French, which is the meat that is eaten (" Rindfleisch "in German) and
has nothing to do with the live animal" ox "or" Ochse "in German. Likewise, the French gave rise to duals related to
trade such as "commence" and "start", "continue" and "go on", "encounter" and "meet", "purchase" and "buy",
etc. Norman was also clearly noted in ancient British literature. Usually it is written in Latin. In fact, there are
numerous words from the Romance language by antonomasia that were incorporated into the considered ancient
English.
This community of nations maintains English as the only official language. Some countries in which English
is spoken, although not officially, are Bahamas, Jamaica (English is the de facto language, but the official language is
Jamaican Patois) and Trinidad and Tobago, among many others. On the other hand, places as exotic as Bangladesh,
the Philippines, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Tanzania use it officially with the aim of unifying
the country, without renouncing their native languages. In any case, there are many more nations in which it is
spoken. From North America to Oceania, through Africa and Asia. It is true that it is not official in many of these
places, but the colonial past has made people of many nationalities and countries living irremediably in English. It
should be noted that it is one of the official languages of the United Nations, as well as being a vehicle in the
European Union and the International Olympic Committee. Despite this, it should be noted that English is not the
most spoken language on the planet. Mandarin Chinese has that honor, with almost 1,100 million speakers. English
occupies the 2nd place, with 942 million. Spanish is placed 3rd, a bit far from the first 2, with 520 million people.
However, these figures do not count as much for native speakers as for those who have acquired the English
language as a second language.
In this case, Spanish would be the second world language by number of speakers. If we count those who
study the language, English would be the first language with some 2,000 million native people or able to
communicate in that language with some skill, almost a third of the world's population. A peculiar conjugation of
verbs Regarding the conjugation of verbs in English, it must be said that it has undergone an evolution very similar
to that experienced in languages such as German and others derived from Romance languages, such as French and
Spanish. Specifically, different forms have been created to allude to the past, present and future, as well as other
conjugations known as periphrasis (also seen in those that come from Latin), which denote that an action is going
to be carried out or is being carried out. Despite everything, there are differences. For example, English, as a
Germanic language, has been forgotten in the subjunctive mood, related to phrases that show a lack of certainty or
constructions of hypotheses. This has not happened in the Romance and other Germanic languages, such as
German. In English, the subjunctive has been weakened and condemned to the background. In all other cases, it
must be said that English complies with the traditional rules included in any language. For example, there is the
difference between singular and plural, something that was incorporated in more modern stages, since it was
something that did not happen in Old English. In certain cases, it does not make gender differences (like the
formulas "we" and "you"). This does not happen in the Romance languages, in which the pronouns have a variant
for each gender and number ("we" and "we" and "you" and "you").
To conclude, it must be said that the Norman invasion made the words of Anglo-Saxon origin almost
disappear. In the fourteenth century there were barely 4,500 words of Old English in front of the more than 10,000
from France. In spite of everything, the Anglo-Saxon words survived, being key in the day to day of the speakers.

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HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

AUTHOR: John Algeo

The English language has had a remarkable history. When we first catch sight of it in historical
records, it is the speech of some none-too-civilized tribes on the continent of Europe along the North
Sea. Of course, it had a still earlier history, going back perhaps to somewhere in eastern Europe or
western Asia, and long before that to origins we can only speculate about. From those murky and
undistinguished beginnings, English has become the most widespread language in the world, used by
more peoples for more purposes than any other language on Earth. How the English language changed
from being the speech of a few small tribes to becoming the major language of the Earth—and in the
process itself changed radically—is the subject of this book. Whatever language we speak—English,
Chinese, Hindi, Swahili, or Arapaho— helps to define us personally and identify the community we
belong to. But the fact that we can talk at all, the fact that we have a language, is inextricably bound up
with our humanity. To be human is to use language, and to talk is to be a person.

The language gift that is innate in us is not English or indeed any specific language. It is instead
the ability to learn and to use a human language. When we say, “Bread is the staff of life,” we do not
mean any particular kind of bread— whole wheat, rye, pumpernickel, French, matzo, pita, or whatever
sort. We are talking instead about the kind of thing bread is, what all bread has in common. So also,
when we say that language is the basis of our humanity, we do not mean any particular language—
English, Spanish, Japanese, Tagalog, Hopi, or ASL (American Sign Language of the deaf). Rather we mean
the ability to learn and 1 use any such particular language system, an ability that all human beings
naturally have. This ability is language in the abstract, as distinct from any individual language system.

A DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE A language is a system of conventional vocal signs by means of

which human beings communicate. This definition has several important terms, each of which is
examined in some detail in the following sections. Those terms are system, signs, vocal, conventional,
human, and communicate. LANGUAGE AS SYSTEM Perhaps the most important word in the definition of
language is system. We speak in patterns. A language is not just a collection of words, such as we find in
a dictionary. It is also the rules or patterns that relate our words to one another. Every language has two
levels to its system—a characteristic that is called duality of patterning. One of these levels consists of
meaningful units—for example, the words and word parts such as Adam, like, -d, apple, and -s in the
sentence “Adam liked apples.” The other level consists of units that have no meaning in themselves,
although they serve as components of the meaningful units—for example, the sounds represented by
the letters a, d, and m in the word Adam. The distinction between a meaningful word (Adam) and its
meaningless parts (a, d, and m) is important. Without that distinction, language as we know it would be
impossible. If every meaning had to be represented by a unique, unanalyzable sound, only a few such
meanings could be expressed. We have only about 35 basic sounds in English; we have hundreds of
thousands of words. Duality of patterning lets us build an immensely large number of meaningful words
out of only a handful of meaningless sounds. It is perhaps the chief characteristic that distinguishes true
human language from the simpler communication systems of all nonhuman animals.

LANGUAGE AS SIGNS In language, signs are what the system organizes. A sign is something that
stands for something else—for example, a word like apple, which stands for the familiar fruit. But
linguistic signs are not words alone; they may also be either smaller or larger than whole words. The
smallest linguistic sign is the morpheme, a meaningful form that cannot be divided into smaller
meaningful parts. The word apple is a single morpheme; applejack consists of two morphemes, each of
which can also function independently as a word. Apples also has two morphemes, but one (-s) can
occur only as part of a word. Morphemes that can be used alone as words (such as apple and jack) are
called free morphemes. Those that must be combined with other morphemes to make a word (such as
-s) are bound morphemes.

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HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

AUTHOR: Thomas Blued

Ever wondered how English with approximately 750,000 words came to be the wonderfully
expressive and multifaceted language it is today?
Unlike languages that developed within the boundaries of one country (or one distinct geographical
region), English, since its beginnings 1,600 or so years ago, evolved by crossing boundaries and through
invasions, picking up bits and pieces of other languages along the way and changing with the spread of
the language across the globe.
Old English (450-1.100)
The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded
Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North
Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a
Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders – mainly
into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from “Englaland” [sic] and their language
was called “Englisc” – from which the words “England” and “English” are derived. Their language, now
known as “Old English“, was soon adopted as the common language of this relatively remote corner of
Europe. Although you and I would find it hard to understand Old English, it provided a solid foundation
for the language we speak today and gave us many essential words like “be”, “strong” and “water”.
Middle English (1.100 – 1.500)
The Viking invasion: With the Viking invasions (Vikings were a tribe of Nordic people that ransacked
their way through Northern and Northwestern Europe 1,000-1,200 years ago), Old English got mixed up
with Old Norse, the language of the Viking tribes. Old Norse ended up giving English more than 2,000
new words, including “give” and “take”, “egg”, “knife”, “husband”, “run” and “viking”.
The French are coming: Although English was spoken widely on the British Isles by 1,000 AD, the
Norman invasion established French as the language of royals and of power. Old English was left to the
peasants, and despite its less glamorous status, it continued to develop and grow by adopting a whole
host of Latin and French words, including everyday words such as “beer”,”city”, “fruit” and “people”, as
well as half of the months of the year. By adopting and adapting French words, the English language also
became more sophisticated through the inclusion of concepts and words like “liberty” and “justice”.
Modern English
Early Modern English (1500 – 1800) – the tempest ends in a storm: In the 14th-15th century, following
the Hundred Years War with France that ended French rule of the British Isles, English became the
language of power and influence once again. It got a further boost through the development of English
literature and English culture, spearheaded by William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s influence on the development of the English language and its unique and rich culture is
hard to grasp; the man is said to have invented at least 1,700 words, including “alligator”, “puppy dog”,
and “fashionable”, in addition to penning classics like Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet!
Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel
Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had
contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning,
meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant
that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to
read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the
dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English
dictionary was published.
Last Modern English (1800 – Present): The main difference between Early Modern English and Late
Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal
factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the
English-speaking world was at the center of a lot of scientific progress, scientific advances went hand-in-
hand with the evolution of the language.
English goes global
Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA’s dominance of cinema,
television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other
varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English,
Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.

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HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

AUTHOR: Thomas Blued

Every year thousands of new words enter English, either imported from the different
countries across the globe, invented to respond to developments in technology and culture
(selfie, anyone?) or made up as slang by yoofs and others. And as the language expands and
morphs to envelop these new words, it develops and changes.

Now, this might seem enough to put you off learning English entirely, but it’s a fact of
existence in most large languages. Specialists in linguistics (the study of languages, their
component parts and the way they work) have even created models to describe the ‘life cycles’
of languages old and new – from the single words that mark their births, at the places where
different people meet to work, trade or do battle, to the twilight days in which they’re dwindling
and little-spoken, often preserved primarily for their sentimental or cultural importance. Latin,
once spoken widely throughout Europe and North Africa, began its slow decline with the
collapse of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. – but lived a strange sort of
afterlife as the official language of Church, state and mind-numbing grammar school exercises
in numerous countries until well after the Renaissance.

Wales and Ireland, meanwhile, are currently fighting uphill battles to resuscitate and
revive their native languages – battles which seem to mainly to involve compulsory lessons in
saying ‘I like horse-riding’ for pained fourteen-year-old children (rydw i’n hoffi merlota, in case
you’re wondering) and the world’s easiest GCSE exam (take it from someone who managed to
get a ‘C’ using almost exclusively the phrase above). English, like many of the world’s larger
languages, is lent a special richness by the fact that it’s both very old, and very much alive. The
language of Hollywood, Shakespeare and Manchester United (as well as shadier and more
unpleasant things like the old British Empire), English usage continues to grow worldwide, and
shows no signs of slowing down. It’s perhaps somewhat ironic, then, considering its dominance,
that the richness of English is in large part a direct result of the number of powerful influences
upon it – or, in other words, peoples who invaded and conquered the country in the past. As
they installed the language of their home country or tribe as that of government, trade and
religion, each of England’s conquerors left a distinct and lasting mark on what would eventually
become the English vernacular. Many of these marks are still perceptible today in the
language’s huge and varied vocabulary, and the statuses of different words.

One of the reasons most often cited for the near-deification of William Shakespeare in
England (aside from the fact that the Bard still makes us loads of money in tourism, that is), is
the playwright’s near-boundless verbal invention. A very generous study (which included words
that Shakespeare merely prefixed, joined to other words or added new endings to) recently
calculated that Shakespeare invented almost 20,000 words, many of which entered and remain
in the popular vernacular, like sea-change, moonbeam, or remorseless. Though of course
Shakey’s contribution to English was relatively tiny compared to some of the other influences
mentioned here, anyone who could come up with such gems as premeditated, puking,
swagger, submerge, majestic, epileptic, deadening and dawn in my opinion deserves a place in
any discussion of the history and development of the language.

From around the beginning of the seventeenth century, scholars became anxious about
what they perceived as the chaos of English, which allowed huge variation in spelling and
grammatical forms. The first dictionary, Robert Cawdrey’s Table Alphabeticall, was published in
1604, and listed and defined just 3000 words. Cawdrey’s dictionary is full of interest, but an
influential and authoritative dictionary was not to emerge for another 150 years, until Samuel
Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755). It took Johnson 9 years to prepare, and
constituted a spectacular scholarly achievement as well as a milestone in the development of
the English language. The dictionary was meticulous, painstaking and complete, but Johnson’s
personality and views everywhere emanate from his definitions. Among his best jokes
are: Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the
original and detailing the signification of words. Oats: a grain which in England is generally given
to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. Monsieur: a term of reproach for a Frenchman.
So, there ends my whirlwind tour of the history of the English language. Got any good
etymological or linguistic facts of your own? Please post them in the comments below!

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HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

AUTHOR: Kaisa Ñ

Ever wondered how English – with 1.5 billion speakers in all corners of the world and approximately
750,000 words – came to be the wonderfully expressive and multifaceted language it is today?
Unlike languages that developed within the boundaries of one country (or one distinct geographical
region), English, since its beginnings 1,600 or so years ago, evolved by crossing boundaries and through
invasions, picking up bits and pieces of other languages along the way and changing with the spread of
the language across the globe.
The Anglo-Saxon connection
The origins of the English language lie – surprise, surprise – in today’s England and the arrival of Anglo-
Saxon tribes from Central Europe to the British Isles in 400 AD. Their language, now known as “Old
English“, was soon adopted as the common language of this relatively remote corner of Europe.
Although you and I would find it hard to understand Old English, it provided a solid foundation for the
language we speak today and gave us many essential words like “be”, “strong” and “water”.
Run from the Viking with a knife!
With the Viking invasions (Vikings were a tribe of Nordic people that ransacked their way through
Northern and Northwestern Europe 1,000-1,200 years ago), Old English got mixed up with Old Norse,
the language of the Viking tribes. Old Norse ended up giving English more than 2,000 new words,
including “give” and “take”, “egg”, “knife”, “husband”, “run” and “viking”.
Bring on the French
Although English was spoken widely on the British Isles by 1,000 AD, the Norman invasion established
French as the language of royals and of power. Old English was left to the peasants, and despite its less
glamorous status, it continued to develop and grow by adopting a whole host of Latin and French
words in 1,000-1,400 AD, including everyday words such as “beer”,”city”, “fruit” and “people”, as well as
half of the months of the year. By adopting and adapting French words, the English language also
became more sophisticated through the inclusion of concepts and words like “liberty” and “justice”.
The alligator ate my puppy dog, Mr Shakespeare
In the 14th-15th century, following the Hundred Years War with France that ended French rule of the
British Isles, English became the language of power and influence once again. It got a further boost
through the development of English literature and English culture, spearheaded by William Shakespeare,
perhaps the most celebrated poet/playwright of all time. Shakespeare’s influence on the development of
the English language and its unique and rich culture is hard to grasp; the man is said to have invented –
yes, INVENTED – at least 1,700 words, including “alligator”, “puppy dog”, and “fashionable”, in addition
to penning classics like Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet!
The science of new words
If Shakespeare established English as a culturally significant, rich language, the rapidly developing world
of science started changing the English language in the 17th-18th centuries, necessitating the invention
of new words, including “gravity”, “acid” and “electricity”. And as the English-speaking world was at the
center of a lot of scientific progress, scientific advances went hand-in-hand with the evolution of the
language.
English goes global
But it wasn’t until Britain became the colonial master of the (known) universe – or Planet Earth anyway –
that the spread of English really picked up pace. By the early 20th century Britain had
established imperial control over more than a quarter of the world – from Asia to Africa – and more than
400 million (newly) British subjects. In addition to spreading the English language far and wide, this
resulted in the development of dozens of local versions and dialects of English and brought with it – yes,
you guessed it – more new words! The word “barbeque”, for example, was picked up from the Caribbean
while “zombie” was adopted from Africa.
A dictionary to the rescue
The rapid spread of the language resulted in a problem: how do you make sure that the language
remains intelligible across borders? The language bible known as the Oxford English Dictionary, first
published in 1884, standardized spelling and ensured that English speakers all over the world could
understand each other (or at least try to). Currently at 20 volumes (that’s more than 21,000 pages of
dictionary definitions!), each new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary takes decades to compile,
although new words are added to the online version several times a year.
OMG, food baby and other 21st century gems

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