Is the English Language Insane?

We'll begin with a box and the plural is boxes;

But the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice;
Yet the plural of house is houses not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
History of the

English Language
Proto-Indo-European
No written record exists
Traces can still be found:
Father: vater in German, pater in
Latin, and pitr in Sanskrit
These words are all cognates, similar
words in different languages that
share the same root
Indo-European
Latin and the modern Romance
languages
The Germanic languages
The Indo-Iranian languages (incl.
Hindi and Sanskrit)
The Slavic languages
The Baltic languages of Latvian and
Lithuanian
The Celtic languages
Greek
Family Resemblances

English X Y
Pan A: Pfeffer A: Rastenie
Path B: Pfahl B: Skovoroda
Pole C: Pfad C: Perets
Pepper D: Pfeife D: Tropa
Pipe E: Pflanze E: Shest
Plant F: Pfanne F: Truba
Family Resemblances

English German Russian

Pan Pfanne Skovoroda
Path Pfad Tropa
Pole Pfahl Shest
Pepper Pfeffer Perets
Pipe Pfeife Truba
Plant Pflanze Rastenie
British Isles
The original inhabitants of the British Isles
would have spoken a non-Indo-European
language
The first Indo-European group to arrive on
English shores arrived several hundred
years BC
They undoubtedly spoke an early form of
the language we refer to as Celtic
They became the sole inhabitants of the
isles for a couple thousand years
The Invasions Begin
55 B.C. – Julius Caesar begins a
series of invasions
Resistance is so strong that Rome
leaves the islands alone for another
century
43 AD – Claudius invades
successfully
50 AD – Most of the area now called
England is subjugated. The northern
areas, however, remain free of
Roman rule
Invasions – Roman Rule

For roughly 400 years England is a

province of Rome
Roman houses
Roman villas
Roman running water
Roman highways
Roman religion (pagan and Christian)
Roman Law
Invasions – Trouble Back
Home
In the early 400s (5th Century), Rome
starts having troubles back home
Increasing invasions by Barbarians
Decline of effective government
As a result, Rome begins withdrawing
its troops from foreign lands
By 427 AD, Rome has left the Celtic
Islands
Invasions – Part Two: The
“English” Arrive in England

Roman rule held the Celtic people

together for several centuries
Once gone, the various tribes begin
fighting among themselves for
dominance
This makes them ripe for conquest by
any interested party
Invasions – Part Two:
The “English” Arrive in England
The interested parties come from Jutland
and Southern Denmark: The Saxons, Jutes
and Angles
The name “Angles” is the root for our
words “England” and “English”
They speak a mutually understandable
language, although each group has its own
dialect
This Anglo-Saxon language is what will
come to be known as “Old English”
Similar to Frisian, which today is spoken in
the northern parts of the Netherlands
Invasions – Part Two: The
“English” Arrive in England
Four major dialects of Old English
emerge:

Northumbrian in the north of England

Mercian in the Midlands
West Saxon in the south and west
Kentish in the Southeast
King Arthur
Legend, and some archeological evidence,
suggests that around 500 AD, many tribes
united under a man of Roman descent
He succeeded in holding back the Anglo-
Saxons for a time
Came to be known as “Arthur”
Irony: The great English icon would have
been speaking some form of Celtic while
defending his country against invaders who
spoke “English”
Ultimately lost, and the Anglo-Saxon
invasions continued until all Celtic speaking
people were pushed to the north
Anglo-Saxon Rule
The Anglo-Saxons, however, are no
Romans
Romans brought an astounding degree of
civilization, technological advancement, and
order
Anglo-Saxons bring a love of fighting each
other
The great Roman infrastructures (roads,
public works, cities) are left to decay
Peasants huddle in small villages
Anglo-Saxon Rule cont.

Christianity falters, replaced by Anglo-

Saxon paganism. Some of these
gods remain with us today in the
names of the days of the week:
Tie – Tuesday
Wodan – Wednesday
Thor – Thursday
Frig – Friday
The Lord’s Prayer – In Old
English
Fæder ure þu þe eart on Father our thou that art in
heofonum heaven

Si þin nama gehalgod be thy name hallowed

to becume þin rice come thy kingdom

gewurþe ðin will be-done thy will

on eorðan swa swa on on earth as in heavens

heofonum.
Invasion Three:
The Empire Strikes Back
By 600 AD, Rome invades again –
not with armies, but with missionaries
Pope Gregory sends a conversion
force to the southern part of the
islands
The conversion meets with great
success
This conversion will play an important
role in the evolution of the English
language
Christianity and the English
Language
The intellectual community of Europe was
centered around the Church of Rome
The Roman Church dealt almost
exclusively in Latin
England gives up its Runic alphabet in
favour or the Latin alphabet which is the
most efficient way of recording virtually any
language
As a result, English is now written as well
as spoken by more people than ever
With the alphabet come numerous Latin
words
A New English Scholarship

As part of the Latin intellectual

community, scholarship in England
advances at a surprising rate
Between the 7th and 8th centuries (the
600s and the 700s), English scholars
are in demand even in the elite
centers of Europe
Invasion Four: The Great
Danes
787 AD: the first real attack by a
new group from the Indo-
European tree
Significantly different language.
Significantly different social
structure.
Called the Danes by the English,
but we know them more
commonly as the Vikings.
Begin attacking in the northern
part of the island
Gain control over a large portion
of England called Danelaw.
Map Showing Danelaw
Invasion Four: The Great Danes
cont.
Not big on the whole “intellectual
community” thing
Pagan – no compunction about
raiding and looting monasteries: in
fact, this makes for a profitable
livelihood
By the late 800s, have seized control
of large areas of northern England
and are steadily making their way
south
Norse and English words
Norse English
Anger Wrath
Nay No
Fro From
Raise Rear
Ill Sick
Bask Bathe
Skill Craft
Skin Hide
Dike Ditch
Scatter Shatter
Skip Shift
Vikings and the English
Language
Through their various invasions, the
Vikings exert a strong influence over
the language
“On a foggy Thursday, a sly dirty-
necked, scowling outlaw skulked into
the bank with a knife, ransacked it,
and crawled out the window seeming
happy”
Every word in the above sentence
comes from the Vikings except: a,
into, the, with, it, and, out
King Alfred the Great – The Man
Who Created England
In 871 the Danes are defeated
in their advance by King Alfred
In 878 he defeats them again.
Unifies England until much of
Danelaw is recovered
He is the only king to whom
the British ever gave the title
“Great”
The English Become English
With the Danes in check, King Alfred begins to
bring the country back to its former glory.
Arranges for Latin texts to be translated into
English
Founds schools
Institutes the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
continuously updated on major events year
after year
His heirs are competent rulers who followed in
his tradition
England once more becomes a major force in
the intellectual community
King Aethelred the Unready
The standoff with the Danes doesn’t last long
Olaf Tryggvason of Norway and King Svein
Forkbeard of Denmark join forces to attack
Southeast England
King Aethelred raises armies but can’t defeat the
invaders
In order to hold off the Danes, the English begin
paying a regular “tax” known as “Danegeld”
Finally, in 1016, Canute, the son of King Svein
Forkbeard, becomes King of England
England Ruled by the Danes
Canute consolidates his power and
places both English and
Scandanavians in positions of power
In 1018, he paid off his army with one
last great collection of Danegeld
Ruled as a Christian King
Promised an end to problems with the
Vikings
Canut’s heir’s lose the power in 1042
to King Alfred’s line
But the biggest invasion is just around
the corner
1066 And All That
In 1066 the French invade
They are called Normans and
speak a version of French we
call “Old French”
The English forces are
defeated when their king,
King Harold, is killed with an
arrow in his eye
This is to be the last
successful foreign invasion,
but it will also be the most all-
encompassing
England Under the
Normans/French
English are removed from official positions
and replaced by French
All official business and all government is
conducted in French
Many of the kings from this point on don’t
even speak English
Along with replacing the language, the
French also replace the social structure,
introducing feudalism: a state hierarchy
with every individual responsible to
somebody above him
Feudalism and the English
Language
The peasants still speak English, but
feudalism keeps them bound to a
particular plot of land
Travel becomes rare
English speakers seldom speak to
other English speakers more than 10
or 15 miles away
English in Tatters

Until King Alfred, English had

generally been a second-class
language
Now it fragments into hundreds of
separate dialects
French becomes the prominent
language of the country
A Contemporary Account of
English Under the Normans
Ranulph Higden:
Children in school, contrary to the usage and custom
of other nations, are compelled to drop their own
language and to construe their lessons and other
tasks in French, and have done so since the
Normans first came to England. Also, gentlemen's
children are taught to speak French from the time
that they are rocked in their cradles and can talk
and play with a child's toy; and provincial men
want to liken themselves to gentlemen, and try
with great effort to speak French, so as to be more
thought of.
Duplicate words

In French, the word "boef" means

both a male cow and beef
But it was Anglo-Saxons who tended
the animals, and they called them by
Old English names (cow, pig, sheep)
When the food was served, the
Normans used the French names
(beef, pork, mutton)
Duplicate words
Many legal terms, such as indict, jury, and verdict
have Norman roots because the Normans ran the
courts
Sometimes French words replaced Old English
words; crime replaced firen and uncle replaced
eam
Other times, French and Old English components
combined to form a new word, as the French
gentle and the Germanic man formed gentleman
Other times, two different words with roughly the
same meaning survive into modern English. Thus
we have the Germanic doom and the French
judgment, or wish and desire
Black Death

1348 AD, the Black Death strikes

England
Has already been raging in Europe
Between 1348 and 1351 roughly 1/3
of the people in England die
This causes a massive labour
shortage
A New Work Force
For the first time since the Norman
invasion, peasants become a force to
be reckoned with
They begin to travel
They begin to demand wages for their
toil
The ruling classes have to deal with
the peasants. Which also means
having to deal with their language
The Hundred Years War

The English begin taking back

England
At the height of their success, the
English even manage to capture land
in France
Eventually, they are driven out by
French forces led by Joan of Arc
The English Language: Our Story
So Far
1000 BC: proto-Celtic speaking people arrive
43 AD: Rome invades, pushing the Celtic speakers to the north
427 AD: Romans leave
Post 427 AD: Anglo-Saxons invade, bringing the language that
would become known as Old English
600 AD: Pope Gregory sends conversion force. Introduces Latin
to the language
787 AD: Viking invasions begin. Introduce Norse language
878 AD: King Alfred halts the Vikings, England divided
Alfred begins consolidating the English language
Early 1000s, Danes begin new invasions
1016: a Danish king is on England’s throne
1042: England ruled again by an English King
1066: The Norman Invasion
1348: The Black Death comes to England
1336-1352: The Hundred Years War
Assembling a Language
With the Normans gone, there is no longer
a reason to continue speaking French
Problem: there is now little in the way of a
cohesive “English” language
London had long been the central city in
England attracting people from all over the
country
Result: develops a hybrid version of
English
Becomes “Standard” English and is the
basis of English as spoken everywhere in
the world now
English Enters Adulthood
The language now enters the phase known
as Middle English
When spoken, it is somewhat
understandable to the modern ear
True “English” literature begins to appear:
Chaucer – the first great English writer
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – a Middle
English story based on a tale from the early
Celtic Arthurian tradition
Chaucer’s English
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
When April with his showers sweet with fruit
The drought of March has pierced unto the root
And bathed each vein with liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;
When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath
,Quickened again, in every holt and heath,
The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun
Into the Ram one half his course has run,
And many little birds make melody
That sleep through all the night with open eye
(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-
Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,
And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.
And specially from every shire's end
Of England they to Canterbury wend,
The holy blessed martyr there to seek
Who helped them when they lay so ill and weal
Modern English
No other country ever invades England
again – although the Spanish give several
valiant attempts in the 18th century, and the
Germans pound London to a pulp in the
20th century
England develops as a true empire,
complete with colonization
With centuries of a linguistic tradition of
incorporating outside languages, as the
English colonize other countries, their
languages colonize English
“English” grows exponentially
English Today
By the 19th century, English has become the largest language
in the world
Today the English vocabulary outstrips every other by a margin
of almost two to one
Estimated: 300 million native speakers, 300 million English as a
second language speakers, 100 million use it as a foreign
language
It is the language of science, aviation, computing, diplomacy,
and tourism
It is listed as the official or co-official language of over 45
countries and is spoken extensively in other countries where it
has no official status
This compares to 27 for French, 20 for Spanish and 17 for
Arabic
What percentage of the modern
English vocabulary consists of
words from other languages?
10%
30%
45%
75%
89%
98%

98% - only 2% of the English language is

actually “English”
Borrowed Words:
Amoy (Sino-Tibetan family)
Ketchup Fish brine
Tea A refreshing drink
Borrowed Words: Basque (No
known family)
Anchovy Dried fish
Bizarre Beard
Jingo God (used in
“jingoism”)
Byzantine Greek: Extinct (Indo-
European family)
Diaper White
Ancient Egyptian: Extinct (Afro-
Asiatic)
Ammonia Camel dung (burning
camel dung produces
ammonia)
Barge Cargo boat
Asphalt Asphalt (used in
mummification)
Paper Papyrus