History of the English Language

The origin of a word is called its Etymology

Introduction
 In the study of English vocabulary, it is important to
know about the history of English.
 We will look at the major historical events that have
shaped the English language.
 We pay special attention to the development of the
native Germanic vocabulary, and to the forces that
introduced a large number of foreign words, especially
from Latin, Greek, and French.
 This combination makes English vocabulary extremely
rich and heterogeneous among the world languages.
 #1
Old English begins when the Anglo- Saxons
invaded England in 500 A.D.

Old English is an Anglo-Saxon Germanic

language
Old English (450-1100)
 In the fifth century, the Germanic invaders conquered
and occupied the eastern part of the British island. The
Celtic language originally spoken in that area was
replaced by the West Germanic dialects spoken by the
invaders, as the original inhabitants (the Celts) were
killed, were relocated, or adopted the language of the
now dominant society.

 Roughly speaking, the tribes that settled in Britain

comprise three groups: the Angles, the Saxons, and the
Jutes. The Angles and the Saxons occupied the greatest
part of the country, so that the Germanic civilization that
emerged in Britain is often called Anglo-Saxon. The
Angles lent their name to the language—English, and to
the land —England (the land of Angles).
Old English (450-1100)

 The period from 450 to 1100 is known as the Old

English or the Anglo-Saxon period.
 In the sixth century, the Roman missionaries headed by
St. Augustine brought Christianity to the Germanic
tribes (mainly the Saxons). The English language
adopted many words from Latin, the official language of
the church. Latin provided not only religious vocabulary
(e.g., abbot, altar, disciple, hymn, nun, mass, pope, and
priest) but also a surprising number of what are now
everyday words (e.g., candle, cap, school, and spend).
Almost every one syllable
word we speak is from
Anglo Saxon German
Old English 500-1065AD
Today,
One fifth of the
English words
we use are
derived from this
Anglo-Saxon
English.
Middle English 1066-1550AD
In 1066, William the Conqueror
from Normandy, France invaded
England.
Middle English (1100-1500)
 The Middle English period is from 1100 to 1500. The
most important event to affect the history of English, the
Norman Conquest (1066), took place at the end of the
Old English period. The big changes that this invasion
produced in the English society were accompanied by
equal effects in the vocabulary of Middle English.
 After their victory in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings
under William the Conqueror, the Normans quickly
assumed leadership and privilege in England.
 The Normans were originally Vikings—their name comes from
North man (i.e., ‘Norse’). In a sense, the Norman conquest can
be seen as yet another Germanic invasion. But there was a
difference this time. The Normans had earlier been given the
control of a large piece of land along the northern coast of
France—Normandy. As French subjects, they had adopted
French culture. So the language they brought with them was
not a Germanic language, but French.

 The Norman dialect of French became the language of the

upper class, while English completely lost its scholarly and
literary importance, and was used only by the peasants and
people of the working class. This resulted in a massive
borrowing of French words into English vocabulary.
 During this period, English assimilated a large number of Old
French words. Crystal (1988: 174) gives the following list of
French borrowing during the Middle English period.

Government: court, duke, baron, county, crown, government,

liberty, majesty, minister, peasant, parliament, prince, realm, sir,
tax, tyrant, trial
Religion: abbey, baptism, cathedral, charity, confess, mercy,
religion, prayer, pity, saint, salvation, sermon, immortality,
miracle, solemn, trinity, virgin
Military: peace, enemy, arms, battle, moat, army, battle, navy,
soldier, spy, retreat, guard, defend, captain, ambush
General: gown, robe, emerald, diamond, feast, savory, cream,
sugar, age, paper, music, romance, city, easy, foreign, hour,
people, real, reason, river, special, use, wait, joy
Middle English

1066—Norman invasion introduces

French to Old English—these amalgamate
into Middle English
Middle English has some hybrid qualities
of both French & Old English
England becomes bilingual during
Middle English
English: ox, sheep, swine, calf
French: beef, mutton, pork, veal

The rich and upper class

spoke French Latin, but the
lower class spoke Anglo-
Saxon German.
Another half of our English vocabulary is

ofFrench and
Romance origins.

•No, not that kind!

In the fourteenth century,
English/Wessex again became the language
of the English upper class.
The new standard was a London dialect
since London was now the capital city.
During the three hundred years kings of
England had spoken French, the English
language had changed greatly.
The French spoken by nobles became more
like English. The English of the common
people was now full of French words.
Middle English:
1150 - 1500

Reduced inflections 1066:Norman

Increasingly fixed conquest
word order 1340?-1400: Geoffrey
French and Latin Chaucer
official languages
French influence on
English vocabulary

Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
English poet, who is regarded as the
greatest and most renowned of
Middle English writers. His
masterwork is The Canterbury Tales
(1387-1400).

A knight ther was, and that a worthy man,

That fro the tyme that he first bigan
To ryden out, he loved chivalrye,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and courteisye.

English: knight, man, worthy, tyme, first, bigan, ryden, loved, trouthe
(truth), Fredom (freedom)
French: chivalrye (chivalry), honour, courteisye
Danish: fro
Early Modern English:
1500-1700

Levelled inflections 1476: Caxton’s

Fixed word order printing press
Latin and Greek Reformation
influence on Renaissance
vocabulary 1564-1616: William
Increasing Shakespeare
standardisation
Modern English (1500-the present)
 Modern English is usually divided into Early (1500-
1800) and Late (1800-the present) Modern English.
 Thanks to the Renaissance (early 14th C-1650), great
numbers of Latin and Greek words were added to
English. Scholars translated literature from Latin and
Greek into English, so over 10,000 Latin and Greek
words entered the English language.
 Among the borrowed words from Latin were exterior,
appendix, contradict, exterminate, temperature, and so
on. At about the same time, Greek provided catastrophe,
anonymous, lexicon, skeleton, and so on.
Early Modern English
~1500--Renaissance introduces new wave of
Latin vocabulary into English. Great Vowel
Shift and loss of most inflections leads to Early
Modern English. Printing press slows down
language change
~1700+--colonialism introduces new
vocabulary from America, India, etc.; language
scholars introduce “Correctness”
Late Modern English (1800-the present)
 The late modern English runs from the beginning of the 19th
century to the present. After the Industrial Revolution,
England became a great economic power. English began to
absorb words from all major languages of the world.
 Among these words are names for animals and places (moose,
skunk, Michigan, Chicago, Manhattan) from American Indian
languages; food terms (yam, gumbo, banana) from African
languages; new species and technologies (kangaroo, koala,
boomerang) from Australian languages; unusual weather
phenomena and customs (typhoon, kowtow) from Chinese; and
many others.
 After World War II, thousands of new words have been
created to express new ideas, inventions, and scientific
achievements.
 Admittedly, English does rank high in its hospitality to
loanwords. But it remains at its core a typical Germanic
language. In general, the most basic, most frequently used,
and simplest words of Modern English are inherited from its
Germanic ancestor languages. Words such as sun, moon, lamb,
life, death, mother, health, and god; prefixes such as un- and
be-; suffixes such as -ness, -ly, -some, -ship, and -hood; and
thousands more words and elements are all native to English.
 In spite of the extensive borrowing from other languages, the
most common words in the English language are still native
English words.
English borrowings
• Old English (450–1100): Beginning of an influx of religious
terms from Latin and borrowings of everyday words from
Viking Norse.
• Middle English (1100–1500): Extensive borrowing from
French, especially terms from law, government, the military,
and higher culture.
• Modern English (1500–present): Heavy influx of scientific
vocabulary, including many neologisms based on elements
from Latin and Greek. Borrowings from many other languages
with which English has had contact in Europe, Asia, Australia,
Africa, and the Americas.
Present Day English
Many dialects around the globe: some are
more influenced by American English,
others by British English.
Continued simplification of syntax; for
example, we are currently losing the
“less/fewer” distinction.
Language continues to change, mostly by
adding vocabulary.
Vocabulary Sources of the English
Language
Words come from all over!
From Anglo-Saxon English
bread, good, shower,
home, stones, fox
From Latin Christianity
priest, bishop, anthem, candle,
epistle, hymn
From Scandinavian Settlers
Husband, sky, skin, club, gape,
root, egg, take, give, window,
leg, skin, crawl, die, sister
 From Norman French
and Vulgar Latin
Legal terms: judge, jury, tort,
attorney, crime, assault
Terms of rank: prince, duke,
baron, parliament, countess
Others: honor, courage, season,
manner, study, castle. . .
 From Latin and Greek during the
Renaissance and after
Words for science,
invention, and
technology: conifer,
cyclamen, helium,
halogen, intravenous,
isotope, metronome,
polymer, telephone
Word Parts from Greek and Latin
Prefixes: (“Pre” from Latin means earlier or
before)
“bi-” from Latin means _____
“extra” from Latin means _________
“fore” from Old English means _____
“il” from _______ means ______
“mis” from Latin means ________
“pre” and “post” mean ___________
 Word Parts from Greek and Latin
Suffixes: ( from Latin for “to fasten beneath”)
For example: “-ment” from Latin is a word part that
indicates product, means, action, or state.

We often use “-ment” to turn a verb into a noun:

Excitement is the state of being excited.
Encouragement is the action of encouraging.
Discouragement is the product of being discouraged.
 Words from everywhere over the past
three hundred years
tobacco, banana,
pajamas, squash,
raccoon, prairie,
chowder, canyon,
ranch, chop suey,
kudzu, pretzel,
kindergarten, bagel,
pizza coleslaw,
bedspread, tomato,
jazz, yams