Sherwin V.

Santiago
AB English 1 – A

The Origin and Development of English Language

Activity #1
1. What is the oldest language long before the Germanic tribes invaded Britain?
Answer: Old English Language, also called Anglo – Saxon

2. Who were the Germanic tribes invaded Britain during 5th century?
Answer: The Angles, Saxons, and the Jutes.

3. Who were the Vikings and what happen during the Viking invasion?
Answer: Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norse
explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship
as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North
Africa and east as far as Russia, and through the Mediterranean as far as
Constantinople and the Middle East, acting as looters, traders, colonists and
mercenaries.

Previous invasions were for loot, but this one led to semi-permanent settlement.
A large force of Danish Vikings attacked Anglo-Saxon England. This army
appeared in East Anglia in 865. Unlike earlier Vikings who made brief raids on
England, the Great army stayed for many years in an attempt to conquer all of
England.
4. What word of ‘’English’’ language is derived from?
Answer: The term "English" comes from the term "Englisc."

5. What do you mean by ‘’Englisc’’?

Answer: Englisc, from which the word English is derived, means 'pertaining to
the Angles'. In Old English, this word was derived from Angles (one of the
Germanic tribes who conquered parts of Great Britain in the 5th century).
During the 9th century, all invading Germanic tribes were referred to as Englisc.

6. What is it that means of conventional system used for human

communication?
Answer: It can use multiple writing systems to represent the same language.

7. State at least three characteristic of English language and explain elaborately

why do you say so?
Answer: Receptiveness, Heterogenousness, Simplicity of Inflexion.
Receptiveness- willingness or readiness to receive (especially impressions or
ideas); "he was testing the government's receptiveness to reform"; "this
receptiveness is the key feature in oestral behavior, enabling natural mating to
occur"; "their receptivity to the proposal". receptivity, openness.

Heterogenousness - consisting of dissimilar or diverse ingredients or

constituents.

Inflexion - means that it can indicate the relationship of words into a sentence
with only the minimum of change in their shapes
8. Who do you think is William Shakespeare and what is his contribution during
the Modern English period?
Answer: William Shakespeare was a poet, playwright, and actor from England.
Many Shakespearean words and phrases became embedded in the English
language as a result of his contributions to the standardization of the English
language.

9. What happen during the Middle English period?

Answer: The vowels are pronounced shorter, resulting in an abrupt and
noticeable change in pronunciation.

10. Describe the changes of English language during this present time which in
the 21st century.
Answer: The English language is still developing in the twenty-first century. As
a result of the evolution of local dialects and slang in many countries. Every
year, approximately 1,000 new and allowed words are added to the online
version of the English dictionary, and these are only the terms that are deemed
important enough to be included. Technological improvements are partly to
blame for this massive increase of new terms and how people spontaneously
coin new terms in their email and text exchanges, which then spread fast and
efficiently via social media.
 Activity #2

Illustrate the diachronic changes of English language from Old English

to present day which is the Modern English.

By the late 18th century, the

British Empire had spread English
through its colonies and
geopolitical dominance. English
also facilitated worldwide
international communication.

English is a West Germanic
language that
originated from Anglo-Frisian
dialects brought to Britain in the
mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by
Anglo- Saxon migrants from what is
now northwest Germany, southern
Denmark and the Netherlands
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 .