1LECTURE 6A -A SHORT HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• 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.

• But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

• The Angles came from Englaland and their language was called Englisc - from which the words England and English are derived.

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• The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English.

• Old English did not sound or look like English today.

• Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English.

• Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots.

• The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

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• 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.

• For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French.

• In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added.

• This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

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• Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter.

• From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world.

• 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.

• Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English.

• Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

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• The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary.

• Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: 1. the Industrial Revolution and technology

created a need for new words 2. secondly, the British Empire at its height

covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

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From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English.

Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America.

In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is.

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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 (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies).

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• Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West.

• French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English).

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• Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet).

• But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.

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English has now inarguably achieved global status. Whenever we turn on the news to find out what's

happening in East Asia, or the Balkans, or Africa, or South America, or practically anywhere, local people are being interviewed and telling us about it in English.

To illustrate the point when the late Pope John Paul II arrived in the Middle East recently to retrace Christ's footsteps and addressed Christians, Muslims and Jews, the pontiff spoke not Latin, not Arabic, not Italian, not Hebrew, not his native Polish. He spoke in English.

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Indeed, if one looks at some of the facts about the amazing reach of  the English language many would be surprised.

English is used in over 90 countries as an official or semi-official language.

English is the working language of the Asian trade group ASEAN.

It is the de facto working language of 98 percent of international research physicists and research chemists.

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It is the official language of the European Central Bank, even though the bank is in Frankfurt and neither Britain nor any other predominantly English-speaking country is a member of the European Monetary Union.

It is the language in which Indian parents and black parents in South Africa overwhelmingly wish their children to be educated.

It is believed that over one billion people worldwide are currently learning English.

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As part of the European Year of Languages,  a special survey of European attitudes towards and their use of languages has just published.

The report confirms that at the beginning of 2001 English is the most widely known foreign or second language, with 43% of Europeans claiming they speak it in addition to their mother tongue.

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Sweden now heads the league table of English speakers, with over 89% of the population saying they can speak the language well or very well.

However, in contrast, only 36% of Spanish and Portuguese nationals speak English. 

What's more, English is the language rated as most useful to know, with over 77% of Europeans who do not speak English as their first language, rating it as useful.

French rated 38%, German 23% and Spanish 6%.

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English has without a doubt become the global language.

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The previous figure shows the timeline of the history of the English language.

The earliest known residents of the British Isles were the Celts, who spoke Celtic languages—a separate branch of the Indo-European language family tree.

Over the centuries the British Isles were invaded and conquered by various peoples, who brought their languages and customs with them as they settled in their new lives.

There is now very little Celtic influence left in English.

The earliest time when we can say that English was spoken was in the 5th century CE (Common Era—a politically correct term used to replace AD).

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In case you hadn’t made the connection, “England” <– “Engla Land” <– “Angle Land” (Land of the Angles, a people of northern old Germany).

Their name lives on in the district of England named East Anglia, and also in the Anglican Church.

In the present day there is still a region of Germany known as Angeln, which is likely the same area from which the original Angles came.

Angeln lies in Schleswig-Holstein on the eastern side of the Jutland peninsula near the cities of Flensburg and Schleswig.

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449 Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain begins 450-480 Earliest Old English inscriptions date from

this period 597 St. Augustine arrives in Britain. Beginning of

Christian conversion 731 The Venerable Bede publishes The Ecclesiastical

History of the English People in Latin 792 Viking raids and settlements begin 871 Alfred becomes king of Wessex. He has Latin

works translated into English and begins practice of English prose. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is begun

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911 Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger. The beginning of Norman French

c. 1000 The oldest surviving manuscript of Beowulf dates from this period

1066 The Norman conquest c. 1150 The oldest surviving manuscripts of Middle

English date from this period 1171 Henry II conquers Ireland

1204 King John loses the province of Normandy to France English Dictionary is published

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1348 English replaces Latin as the medium of instruction in schools, other than Oxford and Cambridge which retain Latin

1362 The Statute of Pleading replaces French with English as the language of law. Records continue to be kept in Latin. English is used in Parliament for the first time

1384 Wyclif publishes his English translation of the Bible

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c. 1388 Chaucer begins The Canterbury Tales 1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press

1492 Columbus discovers the New World

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1549 First version of The Book of Common Prayer

1604 Robert Cawdrey publishes the first English dictionary, Table Alphabeticall

1607 Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, established

1611 The Authorized, or King James Version, of the Bible is published

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1702 Publication of the first daily, English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, in London

1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his dictionary

1770 Cook discovers Australia 1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is

published

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THE END!

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