LANGUAGE AND HISTORY

Old English,
Middle English,
and Modern English

Submitted by:
Shaier R. Alum

Submitted to:
Mrs, Imelda Buburan
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- The term "English" is derived from Anglisc, the speech of the Angles—
one of the three Germanic tribes that invaded England during the fifth
century. The English language is the primary language of several
countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United
Kingdom and many of its former colonies, and the United States, and the
second language in a number of multilingual countries, including India,
Singapore, and the Philippines.
- The English language has gone through distinct periods throughout its
history. Different aspects of the language have changed throughout time,
such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling, etc.
- It's an official language in several African countries as well, such as
Liberia, Nigeria, and South Africa, but is spoken worldwide in more than
100. It's learned around the world by children in school as a foreign
language and often becomes a common denominator between people of
different nationalities when they meet while traveling, doing business, or
in other contexts.
- Worldwide, there are over 400 million native speakers of English, and
over one billion more people speak it as a second language. English is
probably the third language in terms of number of native speakers (after
Mandarin and Spanish); and probably the most widely spoken language
on the planet taking into account native and non-native speakers.
- English is sometimes described as a "world language" or a "global
lingua franca". It is the world's most widely-used language in
international business and telecommunications, newspaper and book
publishing, scientific publishing, mass entertainment and diplomacy.
- lingua franca (noun): a language that is used as a common language
between people who speak different languages.
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

COMPARISON OF THE OLD, MIDDLE, AND MODERN ENGLISH

THROUGH “OUR FATHER” PRAYER

OLD ENGLISH

MIDDLE ENGLISH

MODERN ENGLISH
OLD ENGLISH
WHAT IS OLD ENGLISH?
 called a thousand years ago as EALD ENGLISC
 The Old English period began in 449 AD with the arrival of three
Germanic tribes from the Continent: the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. They
settled in the south and east of Britain, which was then inhabited by the
Celts. The Anglo-Saxons had their own language, called Old English,
which was spoken from around the 5th century to the 11th century.
 Old English, also called Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the
English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland
in the early Middle Ages.
 Old English was a Germanic language, and as such, it was very different
from the Celtic languages spoken by the Britons. It was also a very
different language from the English we speak today. It was a highly
inflected language, meaning that words could change their form
depending on how they were being used in a sentence.
 The Old English period was a time of great change for Britain. In 1066,
the Normans invaded England and conquered the Anglo-Saxons. The
Normans were originally Viking settlers from Scandinavia who had
settled in France in the 10th century. They spoke a form of French, which
was the language of the ruling class in England after the Norman
Conquest.
 The Old English period came to an end in 1066 with the Norman
Conquest. However, Old English continued to be spoken in some parts of
England until the 12th century. After that, it was replaced by Middle
English.
 “It has been estimated that only about 3 per cent of Old English
vocabulary is taken from non-native sources and it is clear that the strong
 preference in Old English was to use its native resources in order to
create new vocabulary. In this respect, therefore, and as elsewhere, Old
English is typically Germanic.”
—From "An Introduction to Old English" by Richard M. Hogg and Rhona Alcorn
 "Although contact with other languages has radically altered the nature of
its vocabulary, English today remains a Germanic language at its core.
The words that describe family relationships—father, mother, brother,
son—are of Old English descent (compare Modern German Vater,
Mutter, Bruder, Sohn), as are the terms for body parts, such as foot,
finger, shoulder (German Fuß, Finger, Schulter), and numerals, one, two,
three, four, five (German eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf) as well as its
grammatical words, such as and, for, I (German und, für, Ich)."
—From "How English Became English" by Simon Horobin

EXAMPLE OF OLD ENGLISH:

The most famous work of Old English literature is the epic poem,
"Beowulf."

Beowulf is an anonymous
Old English poem about a
hero from Geatland (in
modern Sweden) who
travels to Denmark where
he kills man-eating
monsters, and who, in later
life, back home in Sweden,
confronts and kills a fire-
breathing dragon, but dies
in the effort.
WHO WERE THE ANGLO-SAXONS?

The Anglo-Saxons were migrants from northern Europe who settled in

England in the fifth and sixth centuries.
Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or Ingvaeonic dialects
originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons
and Jutes.
The profound impact the Anglo Saxons had on the English language -
from bringing Old English to England, and shaping its vocabulary, grammar,
and alphabet - can still be seen today, and their legacy continues to be an
important part of the language's history and development.
OLD ENGLISH ALPHABET
 The Anglo-Saxons used two different systems of writing: runes, and the
Roman alphabet. Runes were of limited use, mostly used in the very
early period for carving onto stone or wooden objects; there are no
charter bounds written in runes, so these will not be considered here.

1. RUNES ALPHABET
 Anglo-Saxon runes are an extended version of Elder Futhark consisting
of between 26 and 33 letters. It is thought that they were used to write
Old English / Anglo-Saxon and Old Frisian from about the 5th century
AD. They were used in England until the 10th or 11th centuries, though
after the 9th century they were mainly used in manuscripts and were of
interest to antiquarians, and their use ceased after the Norman conquest in
1066.
 It is possibly that this alphabet was developed in Frisia and then adopted
in England, or that it developed in England and then spread to Frisia.
 From the 7th century the Latin alphabet began to replace these runes,
though some runes continued to appear in Latin texts representing whole
words, and the Latin alphabet was extended with the runic letters þorn
and wynn.

Notes about the Anglo-Saxon runes:

- The vowel sound of eo (ᛇ) is uncertain, as is the pronunciation of cweorð
(ᛢ).
- The letter stan (ᛥ) only appears in once in Futhorc writings, and the -
letters cweorð (ᛢ) and ior (ᛡ) appear only in ABC lists
- The letter ger (ᛡ) is written ᛄ in manuscripts

Anglo-Saxon runes (Futhorc/Fuþorc)

2. ROMAN ALPHABET
  Latin alphabet, also called Roman alphabet, the most widely used
alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the
English language and the languages of most of Europe and those areas
settled by Europeans.
 The Classical Latin alphabet consisted of 23 letters, 21 of which were
derived from the Etruscan alphabet. In medieval times the letter I was
differentiated into I and J and V into U, V, and W, producing an
alphabet equivalent to that of modern English with 26 letters. Some
European languages currently using the Latin alphabet do not use the
letters K and W, and some add extra letters (usually standard Latin
letters with diacritical marks added or sometimes pairs of letters read
as one sound).

The system of writing that we are interested in was brought to the Anglo-
Saxons through contact with the post-Roman world of Christian Europe. This is
essentially the same alphabet that we use today, but there are some letters
which, for the writing of Old English, have come and gone over time. There are
four letters which we don't use any more (‘thorn’, ‘eth’, ‘ash’ and ‘wynn’) and
two letters which we use but which the Anglo-Saxons didn't (‘j’ and ‘v’). Until
the late Old and early Middle English period, they also rarely used the letters
‘k’, ‘q’ and ‘z’.
The problem was that the Roman alphabet was designed for the language
of the Romans, namely Latin. But there were some sounds in Old English which
don't exist in Latin, and so there was no obvious way of writing them. One
example of this is the sound we represent in modern English by the letters th.

CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH:

1. Pronunciation in Old English
- The most significant feature of Old English is its pronunciation of words
differing from the ones that exist today. In the words of A.C. Baugh,
“The pronunciation of Old English words commonly differs somewhat
from that of their modern equivalents.”
- The long vowels in particular have gone a considerable modification.
Thus the Old English word ‘stan’ is the same word as Modern word
‘stone’, but the vowel is different.” In Old English script there are seven
vowels symbols – a, e, i, o, u and y and the digraph ‘ae’ which is called
‘ash’.
- All the seven vowels represent either short or long sounds. The Old
English consonants have mostly the same sounds as in Modern English,
but some need special comment. The letter ‘h’ was more strongly
pronounced than it is in Modern English. The Old English script does not
have the letter ‘v’, ‘f’ serves for the sounds of both ‘f’ and ‘v’.
- The Old English also had differences in spelling which baffle the modern
readers.
2. Grammar in Old English
- The second characteristic feature of Old English, which is most
fundamental and distinguishes it from Modern English, is its grammar. It
is an inflected language though not so highly inflected as the classical
languages such as Sanskrit, Latin and Greek. Old English indicates the
relation of words in a sentence largely by the means of inflections.
- Old English nouns have two numbers – singular and plural. It has three
genders – masculine, feminine and neuter. The system of gender is
irrational because it is not dependent upon the consideration of sex. In
Modern English all males are said to be masculine, females feminine and
inanimate things neuter.
- Thus in Old English stan (stone) is masculine, German words like
maegolon (girl), wif (wife), bearn (child, son) which we expect to be
feminine or masculine are in fact neuter. The word wifmann (woman) is
masculine because the second element of the compound is masculine.
- Another feature of Old English is that the adjectives like nouns have
gender. The adjective takes the gender of the noun with which it is
associated.
- There are four cases namely Nominative, Genitive, Dative and
Accusative. The system of declension is very complex. In the Old
English, noun gets inflected according to its number and case. It has
chiefly four cases and the endings of these vary with different nouns.
There are two chief declensions – vowel declension and consonant
declension. Vowel declension is called strong declension and consonant
one is weak declension.

3. Vocabulary of Old English

 - The Old English was pure and unmixed. Except for a few Latin Words
relating to the Church and its rituals, and sprinkling of Celtic and Old
Norse words, its vocabulary with the exception of five hundred loan
words consisted of about thirty thousand words inherited from the
common Teutonic stock.
- Many thousands of these words survived a number of historic and
linguistic upheavals and are still in daily use; however lot meanings,
functions and forms may have been modified. These words throw light on
the condition of life, occupations, culture and civilization of the English
race at that stage.
- The Old English writers preferred coining compound words and
derivatives from native words. This resourcefulness is characteristic of
Old English.
- Old English vocabulary is pure and unmixed. Yet, it is a rich and
picturesque one, capable of expressing new ideas.

MIDDLE ENGLISH
What is Middle English?
 Middle English is the form of English used in England from roughly the
time of the Norman Conquest (1066) until about 1500. After the
conquest, French largely displaced English as the language of the upper
classes and of sophisticated literature. In Chaucer's time this was
changing, and in his generation English regained the status it had enjoyed
in Anglo-Saxon times, before the Normans came. English was once again
becoming the language of the royal court and of the new literature
produced by Chaucer and his contemporaries.
 Middle English – a period of roughly 300 years from around 1150 CE to
around 1450 – is difficult to identify because it is a time of transition
between two eras that each have stronger definition: Old English and
Modern English. Before this period we encounter a language which is
chiefly Old Germanic in its character – in its sounds, spellings, grammar
and vocabulary. After this period we have a language which displays a
very different kind of structure, with major changes having taken place in
each of these areas, many deriving from the influence of French
following the Norman Conquest of 1066.
 The French influence on English in the Middle Ages is a consequence of
the dominance of French power in England and of French cultural pre-
eminence in mainland Europe in areas such as law, architecture, estate
management, music and literature. Vocabulary was especially affected in
important fields such as ecclesiastical architecture, where French
architects in England adapted Continental sources for their cathedral
designs. The associated terminology needed to express this shift of vision
was very large, covering everything from building tools to aesthetic
abstractions.
 Middle English also saw a huge increase in the use of affixes (prefixes
and suffixes), producing an influx of new words. Excluding inflectional
 endings, there are just over 100 prefixes and suffixes available for use in
everyday English, and at least one of these will be found in around half of
all the words in the language. It is during Middle English that we find the
first great flood of these affixed words, with French introducing such
(Latin-derived) prefixes as con-, de-, dis-, en-, ex-, pre-, pro- and trans-,
and such suffixes as -able, -ance/-ence, -ant/-ent, -ity, -ment and -tion (at
the time, usually spelled -cion). The suffixes were especially productive,
a trend typified by words such as tournament, defendant, solemnity and
avoidance. The -tion ending alone produced hundreds of creations, such
as damnation, contemplation and suggestion.

EXAMPLE OF MIDDLE ENGLISH:

The Canterbury Tales is a

collection of stories held
together by a framing
device (the story of the
pilgrimage). In this way,
two narratives are
operating at the same time
within the work. In the
links between the tales, the
pilgrims bicker and chatter
in a way that brings the
characters to life.

ALPHABET OF MIDDLE ENGLISH

The basic Old English Latin alphabet consisted of 20 standard letters plus
four additional letters: ash ⟨æ⟩, eth ⟨ð⟩, thorn ⟨þ⟩, and wynn ⟨ƿ⟩. There was not
yet a distinct j, v, or w, and Old English scribes did not generally use k, q, or z.
 Ash was no longer required in Middle English, as the Old English
vowel /æ/ that it represented had merged into /a/. The symbol nonetheless came
to be used as a ligature for the digraph ⟨ae⟩ in many words of Greek or Latin
origin, as did ⟨œ⟩ for ⟨oe⟩.
Eth and thorn both represented /θ/ or its allophone /ð/ in Old English. Eth
fell out of use during the 13th century and was replaced by thorn. Thorn mostly
fell out of use during the 14th century and was replaced by ⟨th⟩. Anachronistic
usage of the scribal abbreviation (þe, "the") has led to the modern
mispronunciation of thorn as ⟨y⟩ in this context.
Wynn, which represented the phoneme /w/, was replaced by ⟨w⟩ during
the 13th century. Due to its similarity to the letter ⟨p⟩, it is mostly represented
by ⟨w⟩ in modern editions of Old and Middle English texts even when the
manuscript has wynn.
Under Norman influence, the continental Carolingian minuscule replaced
the insular script that had been used for Old English. However, because of the
significant difference in appearance between the old insular g and the
Carolingian g (modern g), the former continued in use as a separate letter,
known as yogh. This was adopted for use to represent a variety of sounds: [ɣ],
[j], [dʒ], [x], [ç], while the Carolingian g was normally used for [g]. Instances of
yogh were eventually replaced by ⟨j⟩ or ⟨y⟩ and by ⟨gh⟩ in words like night and
laugh. In Middle Scots, yogh became indistinguishable from cursive z, and
printers tended to use ⟨z⟩ when yogh was not available in their fonts; this led to
new spellings (often giving rise to new pronunciations), as in McKenzie, where
the ⟨z⟩ replaced a yogh, which had the pronunciation /j/.

Under continental influence, the letters ⟨k⟩, ⟨q⟩, and ⟨z⟩, which had not
normally been used by Old English scribes, came to be commonly used in the
writing of Middle English. Also, the newer Latin letter ⟨w⟩ was introduced
(replacing wynn). The distinct letter forms ⟨v⟩ and ⟨u⟩ came into use but were
still used interchangeably; the same applies to ⟨j⟩ and ⟨i⟩. (For example,
spellings such as wijf and paradijs for "wife" and "paradise" can be found in
Middle English.)
The consonantal ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩ was sometimes used to transliterate the Hebrew
letter yodh, representing the palatal approximant sound /j/ (and transliterated in
Greek by iota and in Latin by ⟨i⟩); words like Jerusalem, Joseph, etc. would
have originally followed the Latin pronunciation beginning with /j/, that is, the
sound of ⟨y⟩ in yes. In some words, however, notably from Old French, ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩
was used for the affricate consonant /dʒ/, as in joie (modern "joy"), used in
Wycliffe's Bible. This was similar to the geminate sound [ddʒ], which had been
represented as ⟨cg⟩ in Old English. By the time of Modern English, the sound
came to be written as ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩ at the start of words (like "joy"), and usually as ⟨dg⟩
elsewhere (as in "bridge"). It could also be written, mainly in French loanwords,
as ⟨g⟩, with the adoption of the soft G convention (age, page, etc.)

CHARACTERISTICS/FEATURES OF MIDDLE ENGLISH:

The Middle English period (1150–1500) was marked by momentous
changes in the English language, changes more extensive and fundamental than
those that have taken place at any time before or since. Some of them were the
result of the Norman Conquest and the conditions which followed in the wake
of that event. Others were a continuation of tendencies that had begun to
manifest themselves in Old English.

1. DECAY OF INFLECTIONAL ENDINGS

The changes in English grammar may be described as a general reduction
of inflections. Endings of the noun and adjective marking distinctions of
number and case and often of gender were so altered in pronunciation as to lose
their distinctive form and hence their usefulness. To some extent the same thing
is true of the verb. This levelling of inflectional endings was due partly to
phonetic changes, partly to the operation of analogy. The phonetic changes were
simple but far-reaching.

2. LOSS OF GRAMMATICAL GENDER

Another feature of the Middle English is the Loss of Grammatical
Gender. Old English had grammatical genders (m., f., and n.), like the modern
continental languages. And like its modern counterparts, Old English sometimes
exhibited a disparity between grammatical and biological gender. Hence þæt
wif, “the woman” (n.), se stan, “the stone” (m.), or seo giefu, “the gift” (f.). But
starting in the tenth century, we begin to see the loss of grammatical gender in
Old English. This loss begins in the north of England and over the next few
centuries spreads south, until grammatical gender is completely gone from the
language by the middle of the fourteenth century. The loss of grammatical
gender is pretty much complete in Northumbria by the beginning of the eleventh
century. By the middle of that century the loss becomes apparent in texts from
the Midlands and is largely complete there by the beginning of the thirteenth
century, although some Midlands dialects retain vestiges of grammatical gender
until the end of the thirteenth century. The south of England loses grammatical
gender over the course of the late-eleventh through thirteenth centuries, and
Kent is the last holdout, maintaining grammatical gender into the middle of the
fourteenth century.

3. MIDDLE ENGLISH SYNTAX

Middle English syntax (or sentence structure) is similar to Modern
English. The default, or basic, word order is Subject-Verb-Object. The most
direct way to avoid this kind of ambiguity is through limiting the possible
patterns of word order. The process of development from the highly synthetic
stage of Old English to the highly analytic stages of Late Middle English and
Modern English can be seen in the Peterborough Chronicle. Written in
instalments between 1070 and 1154, this text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronide
spans the period from Old English to Early Middle English. Within the
continuations of the text it is possible to trace first a significant loss of
inflections and afterwards a corresponding rigidity of word order, making clear
the direction of cause and effect.

4. FRENCH INFLUENCE ON THE VOCABULARY

French influence is much more direct and observable upon the
vocabulary on the Middle English. Where two languages exist side by side for a
long time and the relations between the people speaking them are as intimate as
they were in England, a considerable transference of words from one language
to the other is inevitable. The number of French words that poured into English
was unbelievably great. There is nothing comparable to it in the previous or
subsequent history of the language.
An important result of this Norman Conquest was the introduction of a
large number of French words which are the bulk of English Vocabulary.
Another result of the Norman Conquest was that the French scribes were given
the task of writing in English.
 These scribes didn’t know the traditional spellings. Thus, the phonetic
character of English spelling in the Old English was lost. With the weakening of
the Old English inflectional endings, the grammar of the Middle English period
had become simplified.
Thus in its grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of the words, Middle
English was quite different from Old English.
The French words came into the English vocabulary. They were related to
the customs, ideas, art, literature and ways of the life of Normans. These words
are poet, prose, poem, art, painting, beauty, image, palace, mansion etc.
Chief of them were related to government, warfare, law and church.
Words like chaplain, charity, grace, miracle, army, navy, diplomacy, corps etc.
were borrowed from French.

MODERN ENGLISH
What is Modern English?
 Modern English is typically defined as the English used after the Great
Vowel Shift, which took place approximately between the late 15th
 century and 18th century. Before Modern English came Middle English,
and before Middle English came was the Old English.
 The emergence of Modern English coincided with the invention of
the printing press, which saw the mass production of books and
newspapers and required a standardized language (i.e., an agreed-upon set
of spelling, grammar, etc.), and with the spread and adoption of English
worldwide due to British colonization.
 Today there are thousands of dialects of Modern English spoken all over
the world, such as American English, British English, Australian English,
Indian English, and more.
 While some linguists refer to the English we use today as 'late' or
'contemporary' Modern English, others call it Present Day English (PDE).
Additionally, some linguists call for a further classification of English
titled 'World English,' which would begin in the 1940s and reflect
English's use as a global language.

MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD

 The birth of Modern English began in the late 15th century (i.e., at the
end of the 1400s). English hasn't changed all that much since the late
1500s. Modern English is actually as old as Shakespeare, and many of his
plays and poems were written in what we now call 'Early Modern
English'.
Modern English is often divided into two sections; Early Modern English
(the 1500s-1700s) and Late or Contemporary Modern English (the 1700s -
today).

EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (the 1500s - 1700s)

 Whereas Middle English was largely fragmented and improvised, Early
Modern English underwent a standardization process. In 1439, Johannes
 Gutenberg invented the modern printing press - this required an agreed-
upon language to print, and a standardized Modern English, based on the
London dialect, was formed.
 Early Modern English soon grew in popularity, and dictionary creators,
writers, lawyers, grammarians, and the government all began using and
sharing this new standardized version of English.
 The plays and poems of William Shakespeare were written in Early
Modern English.
 Over the years, Early Modern English underwent a simplification process
(e.g., simpler syntax and removal of many inflections), and, by the late
18th century, English looked a lot like how it looks today.
INFLECTION - A word formation process where letters are added to the end
of a word to express grammatical meaning. For example, walked - here the
letters 'ed' show the action happened in the past.

EXAMPLE:
As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion
bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns,
and, as thou sayest, charged my brother, on his
blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my
sadness.
- As you like it, William Shakespeare, 1600
LATE MODERN ENGLISH (1700s – today)
 English, as we know it today, evolved from Early Modern English. We
typically consider 'late' or 'contemporary' to be the use of English from
the 1800s onwards. The main change from Early to Late English was the
vocabulary, as the spelling, pronunciation, and grammar largely remained
the same.
  Differences in vocabulary included the introduction of more Latin and
Greek words and Shakespearian words, such as majestic, obscene,
amusement, suspicious, and many more.
 Technical and scientific advancements in the 19th century also created a
need for the creation of new vocabulary, many of which had Greek roots.

EXAMPLE:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably
want to know is
where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and
how my parents were
occupied and all before they had me, and all that David
Copperfield kind of crap, but I
don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
- The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger, 1951

CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN ENGLISH OR ENGLISH AS A

MASCULINE LANGUAGE

1. Extraordinary Receptive and Adaptable Heterogeneousness

- It borrows any foreign elements without any hesitation when the occasion
needs it. From its origin to modern time it has been borrowing elements
from Greek, Latin, French etc. and has been accepting and adapting the
 elements to its vocabulary as its integral part. This general heterogeneous
receptiveness helps make the English language to be an attractive
language in the world.
2. Clear and Precise Phonetic System
- The English consonants are distinctively separated from each other and
they are clearly and precisely pronounced. There are no indistinctive
consonants in English that are abounding in Danish or any other
language. For the most part, the English vowels are more independent
than in other languages as English consonant is seldom changed by the
vowels on either side. Moreover, English abounds in two or more
consonant sounds in such words as– prompt, tempt, weather, feast etc.
3. Briefness, Terseness and Conciseness
- From the viewpoint of its grammar, English has got rid of a great many
superfluities that are found in Old English and other Teutonic group of
languages. In the sentence, “All the good students passed who appeared
in the examination”. Here ‘all’ and ‘who’ (pronouns); ‘the’ (article);
‘good’ (adjective); have not received any mark of plural except only the
noun “students”.
4. Grammatical Word Order
- Other words in English do not play hide and seek as they often do in
Latin and other languages. In English, the helping verb (auxiliary verb)
does not stand far from the principal verb. For example, ‘Corbett had
killed a tiger’. Here the auxiliary verb ‘had’ stands just before the main
verb ‘killed’. Thus negative words generally stand in the immediate
neighbourhood of the main verb as- “He did not like the book.” Here the
negative word ‘not’ has stood just before the main verb ‘like’. Again, in
the same manner, an adjective also stands before the word it qualifies. For
example, “Ram was a good king”. Here the adjective ‘good’ has stood
just before the word ‘king’ which is qualified by the adjective ‘good’.
5. Highly Logical
- In English the difference between the past ‘he went’ and the past perfect
‘he had gone’ are maintained with great logical force. In this respect, it
seems that it is one of the most logical languages in the world.
6. Sober and Grave
- Any speaker of English does not like to use more words or words of more
syllables than are strictly necessary for conveying his sense or ideas. For
example, we generally say – “Raman has taken the photo of the sight”,
instead of saying “Raman has taken the photograph of the sight”.
7. Free from Narrow-minded Pedantries
- This freedom from pedantry appears most clearly in number. Thus the
word- clergy, family, committee, etc. are grammatically singular in
number though they can denote more than one person. Most other
languages can treat these words only as singular but in English, they can
take a singular verb if the idea of singularity is predominant. For
example- “The existing clergy is better than the previous one”.
- On the other hand, they can take a plural verb when the idea of plurality
is predominant. For example- “The clergy were not unanimous to
maintain a new order”.
8. The last but not the least characteristic of the English language is that a
speaker of the English language is free from the complication of words and
their meanings. A speaker determines the choice of words, but not the
words that determine the choice of purpose.

1. OLD ENGLISH ( 700-

1100C.)
- fully inflected
- free word order
- Germanic vocabulary
SOURCES:
https://langster.org/en/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-english-language-from-old-
english-to-modern-days
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-english-language-1690652
https://www.englishclub.com/what-is-english/
https://youtu.be/niCzhsMy3mU?si=xsxEpUaW3jluWhck
https://www.thoughtco.com/old-english-anglo-saxon-1691449
https://langscape.org.uk/OEtutorial/thealphabet.html#:~:text=This%20is
%20essentially%20the%20same,'%20and%20'v
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/futhorc.htm
https://www.examweb.in/short-note-old-english-characteristics-
features-5315#:~:text=Old%20English%20indicates%20the
%20relation,upon%20the%20consideration%20of%20sex.
https://www.examweb.in/characteristics-middle-english-language-read-short-
note-5340
https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english/english-language-study/
modern-english/
https://menonimus.org/characteristics-of-modern-english-language/
#:~:text=The%20most%20outstanding%20characteristics%20(which,free
%20from%20any%20word%20complication.