English for

Academic and
Professional
Purposes
 Interesting

About English
• A sentence that contains all 26 letters of
the alphabet is called a "pangram".
• The following sentence contains all 26
letters of the alphabet: "The quick brown
fox jumps over the lazy dog." This
sentence is often used to test typewriters
or keyboards.
• The most common letter in English is
"e".
• The most common vowel in English is
"e", followed by "a".
• The word "alphabet" comes from the first
two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha,
bēta.
• The dot over the letter "i" and the letter
"j" is called a "superscript dot".
• The most common consonant in English
is "r", followed by "t".
• Every syllable in English must have a
vowel (sound). Not all syllables have
consonants.
• Only two English words in current use end in
"-gry". They are "angry" and "hungry".
• The word "bookkeeper" (along with its
associate "bookkeeping") is the only
unhyphenated English word with three
consecutive double letters. Other such words,
like "sweet-toothed", require a hyphen to be
readily readable.
• The word "triskaidekaphobia" means
"extreme fear of the number 13". This
superstition is related to
"paraskevidekatriaphobia", which
means "fear of Friday the 13th".
• In normal usage, the # symbol has several
names, for example: hash, pound sign,
number sign.
• In English, the @ symbol is usually called
"the at sign" or "the at symbol".
• The shortest complete sentence in English
is “I am.”
• The word “checkmate” in chess comes
from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat”
meaning “the king is helpless.”
What are the things that you
want to learn in this subject
EAPP?
The English (plural noun): the
people of England
English (adjective): relating to
England (or the language)
• English is a language—originally the
language of the people of England.

• Today, English is the main language of the

United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States
of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
and more than fifty other countries.
• English is probably the third language in terms of
number of native speakers (after Mandarin and
Spanish).
• The history of the language can be traced back to
the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British
Isles during the 5th Century AD.

 Angles
 Saxon
 Jutes
• The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin.
Their language was called Englisc from which the word,
English derives.

• Consequently 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.
English uses a writing system based on the classical Latin
or Roman alphabet—the English alphabet with twenty-
six letters that have:

Small or lowercase forms

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Capital or uppercase forms
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
English has also borrowed many loanwords from other
languages all over the world, for example:
• mattress, algebra (from Arabic)
• tulip, jackal (from Turkish)
• bazaar, caravan (from Persian)
• shampoo, dungarees (from Hindi)
• fjord, ski (from Norwegian)
• kayak, igloo (from Eskimo)
• mosquito, siesta (from Spanish)
• soprano, casino (from Italian)
 Answer the following questions:

• Is it necessary to know the facts about the

English language? Why or why not?

• What do you think will be its advantage when it

comes to education and in daily
life?
The history of the English
language really started with the
arrival of three Germanic tribes who
invaded Britain during the 5th
century AD.
 Old English(450-1100 AD)
• The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages,
which in Britain developed into what we now call Old
English.
• Native English speakers now would have great difficulty
understanding Old English.
• Later, it was strongly influenced by the North Germanic
language Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled
mainly in the north-east.
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.
Middle English (1100-1500)
• In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain
again, but with many French words added. This language
is called Middle English.

• The Norman influence reinforced the continual evolution

of the language over the following centuries, resulting in
what is now referred to as Middle English.
Middle English (1100-1500)
• Among the changes was a broadening in the use of a
unique aspect of English grammar, the "continuous"
tenses, with the suffix "-ing".
• English spelling was also influenced by French in this
period, with the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds being spelled “th”.

• The most well-known work from the Middle English period

is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
rly Modern English (1500-1800)
• 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.

• Printing also brought standardization to English.

• In 1755 Samuel Johnson published the first
significant English dictionary.
te Modern English (1800-Present)
• The main difference between Early Modern English and
Late Modern English is vocabulary.

Industrial Revolution British Empire

Varieties of English
• From around 1600, the English
colonization of North America
resulted in the creation of a
distinct American variety of
English.
• Some expressions that the British
call "Americanisms" are in fact
original British expressions that
were preserved in the colonies
while lost for a time in Britain.
• Spanish also had an influence on
American English (and subsequently
British English).
• French words (through Louisiana) and
West African words (through the slave
trade) also influenced American English
(and so, to an extent, British English).
• Today, American English is particularly
influential, due to the USA's
dominance of cinema, television,
popular music, trade and technology
(including the Internet).
 Other Varieties of English
• Australian English
• New Zealand English
• Canadian English
• South African English
• Indian English
• Caribbean English.
What are the different periods in the history
of English Language?

Which do you think is the most progressive

period in the history of English language?
Explain your answer.