History of the English Language

1
History of the English Language
2
Why is English so inconsistent?

• Through
• Though
• Bough
• Ought
• Cough
• Rough

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Linguistically Influential Periods of Early
English History
1. Pre-Roman/Celtic Period ? up to 55 B.C. 2.
Roman Occupation ? 55 B.C. 410 A.D. 3. Invasion
of Angles, Saxons, Jutes ? 4101066 A.D. 4.
Norman Conquest ? 1066 A.D. 5. Renaissance
Great Vowel Shift ? aft. 14th century
4
(1) Pre-Roman/Celtic Period
Stonehenge was built during the time of the Celts.

• Historical Notes
• The island we know as England was occupied by a
  race of people called the Celts. One of the
  tribes was called they Brythons or Britons (where
  we get the term Britain)
• The Celts were Pagans and their religion was
  known as animism, a Latin word for spirit.
  Celts saw spirits everywhere.
• Druids were their priests their role was to go
  between the gods and the people.

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(1) Pre-Roman/Celtic Period
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(2) Roman Occupation

• Historical Notes
• Julius Caesar began invasion/occupation in 55
  B.C.
• Occupation completed by Claudius in 1st century
  A.D.
• Hadrians Wall built about 122 A.D. to identify
  the northernmost reaches of the Roman Empire
• Romans left in 410 A.D. because Visigoths
  attacked Rome
• St. Augustine landed in Kent in 597 and converted
  King Aethelbert (king of Kent, the oldest Saxon
  settlement) to Christianity Christianity began
  to take hold in England (but does not fully
  displace Paganism for several hundred years)

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Todays goals and plans

• 1) Today we will look more at how our language
  developed.
• 2) You should takes notes of what caused major
  shifts in language and include a few examples.
• 3) After our notes, you will get to look at the
  runic alphabet and try creating some words with
  it!

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(2) Roman Occupation

• Some Characteristics of the Language
• LATIN influence
• Latin was the official language of the Romans and
  it heavily influenced the development of the
  English language
• The Roman practice of recording history led to
  the earliest English literature being
  documented
• The Latin Alphabet

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(2) Roman Occupation

• Early Latin Borrowings

Latin Meaning Mod. Eng
caseus cheese cheese
pondo weight pound
calx chalk chalk
uncia twelfth inch
milia thousand paces mile
strata road street
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(3) Invasion of Angles, Saxons, Jutes

• Historical Notes
• 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, Saxons, and Jutes,
  crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark
  and northern Germany.
• The Angles were named from Engle, their land of
  origin. Their language was called Englisc from
  which the word, English derives.

Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and
south coasts in the 5th century.
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(3) Invasion of Angles, Saxons, Jutes

• What happened to the Celts?
• Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and
  north by the invaders, mainly into what is now
  Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
• One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of
  France where their descendants still speak the
  Celtic language of Breton today.

Scotland
Ireland
Wales
Brittany Coast of France
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(3) Invasion of Angles, Saxons, Jutes

• Germanic invaders called the native Celtic
  peoples wealas, meaning foreigners. Their
  territory became known as Wales.
• The Celts called all Germanic invaders Saxons,
  regardless of tribe, but by the 6th century, the
  term Angli began to be used. (This is where
  the term Anglo-Saxon is derived).
• Because the language spoken by the German
  invaders was Englisc, their territory became
  known as Englaland (England).

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(3) Invasion of Angles, Saxons, Jutes

• During the Anglo-Saxon Period, England was
  divided into seven sovereign kingdoms (heptarchy)
• Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy Seven Kingdoms
• Northumbria
• Mercia
• East Anglia
• Wessex (West Saxon)
• Essex (East Saxon)
• Sussex (South Saxon)
• Kent

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(3) Invasion of Angles, Saxons, Jutes

• Some Characteristics of the Language
• GERMAN / NORSE / DANISH / SCANDINAVIAN influence
  
• Old English, the earliest form of our language,
  finally developed.

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Old English (450-1066 A.D.)

• 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.
• There were many dialects of Old English, because
  there were separate kingdoms founded by related ,
  but different cultures Angles, Saxons, Jutes,
  Scandinavians, etc.

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English.
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Old English (450-1066 A.D.)

• The Runic Alphabet
• Old English was first written in an alphabet
  called Runic, derived from the Scandinavian
  languages, but shifted to the Latin alphabet that
  was reintroduced to the land by Christian
  missionaries coming from Ireland.

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Old English (450-1066 A.D.)

• Old English is mainly Germanic in grammar (syntax
  and morphology) and lexicon (words)? the core of
  or modern English is vastly influenced by this
  early linguistic DNA

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Old English (450-1066 A.D.)

• Old English vocabulary
• an Anglo Saxon (German) base
• borrowed words from the Scandinavian languages
  (Danish and Norse)
• sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window (wind eye),
  husband, fellow, skill, anger, flat, odd, ugly,
  get, give, take, raise, call, die, they, their,
  them
• borrowed words from Latin
• street, kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine,
  angel, bishop, martyr, candle
• surviving Celtic words (mainly place names and
  river names)
• Devon, Dover, Kent, Trent, Severn, Avon, Thames

Many pairs of English and Norse words coexisted
giving us two words with the same or slightly
differing meanings. Examples below.
Norse English
anger wrath
nay no
fro from
ill sick
bask bathe
skill craft
ski hide
skirt shirt
scatter shatter
skip shift
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Old English (450-1066 A.D.)

• What did Old English look like?

Line Original Translation
1 Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum, Father ours, thou that art in heaven,
2 Si þin nama gehalgod. Be thy name hallowed.
3 To becume þin rice, Come thy rich (kingdom),
4 gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. Worth (manifest) thy will, on earth also as in heaven.
5 Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg, Our daily loaf sell (give) us today,
6 and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum. and forgive us our guilts as also we forgive our guilty (lit. guiltants).
7 And ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. And lead thou us not in temptation, but loose (release) us of evil.
8 Soþlice. Soothly.
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Old English (450-1066 A.D.)

• What did Old English sound like?
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vav-37L0G8lw

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(4) Norman Invasion

• Historical Notes
• 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.

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(4) Norman Invasion

• Some Characteristics of the Language
• A period of linguistic class division
• Upper classes, political leaders, royal court
  spoke French
• Lower classes spoke Old English
• By the 14th Century
• English became dominant in Britain again, but
  with many French words added.
• In 1399, King Henry IV became the first king of
  England since the Norman Conquest whose mother
  tongue was English. By the end of the 14th
  Century, the dialect of London had emerged as the
  standard dialect of what we now call Middle
  English.

OLD ENGLISH (Celtic, Latin, Germanic,
Scandinavian)
FRENCH


Middle English
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Middle English (1100-1485)

• WORDS
• Because the English underclass cooked for the
  Norman upper class, the words for most domestic
  animals are English (ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine,
  deer) while the words for the meats derived from
  them are French (beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon,
  venison).
• PLURALS
• The Germanic form of plurals (house, housen
  shoe, shoen) was eventually displaced by the
  French method of making plurals adding an s
  (house, houses shoe, shoes). Only a few words
  have retained their Germanic plurals men, oxen,
  feet, teeth, children.
• SPELLING
• French also affected spelling so that the cw
  sound came to be written as qu (eg. cween became
  queen).

In 1066 the Normans conquered Britain. French
became the language of the Norman aristocracy and
added more vocabulary to English. More pairs of
similar words arose.
French English
close shut
reply answer
odour smell
annual yearly
demand ask
chamber room
desire wish
power might
ire wrath / anger
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Middle English (1100-1485)

• Middle English was the language of the great poet
  Chaucer (c. 1340-1400), but it would still be
  difficult for native English speakers to
  understand today.

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Middle English (1100-1485)

• What did Middle English look and sound like?

       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 halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open eye- (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 in April the sweet showers fall That pierce March's drought to the root and all And bathed every vein in liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower When Zephyr also has with his sweet breath, Filled again, in every holt and heath, The tender shoots and leaves, and the young sun His half-course in the sign of the Ram 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 folk do long to go on pilgrimage, And palmers to go seeking out strange strands, To distant shrines well known in distant lands. And specially from every shire's end Of England they to Canterbury went, The holy blessed martyr there to seek Who helped them when they lay so ill and weak
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Early English
Roman Occupation 55 B.C.-410 A.D.
1
Anglo-Saxon and Viking Invasions 410 1066 A.D.
2
GERMAN(IC)
LATIN
The Norman Invasion (The Battle of Hastings) in
1066 A.D.
3
FRENCH
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Modern English (1485-Present)

• Modern English began around the 16th century
  (late 15th century).
• Early Modern English (1485-1800)
• (Late) Modern English (1800-Present)
• Why did it change?

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Modern EnglishEarly Modern English (1485-1800)

• Why did it change?
• (1) 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.

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Modern EnglishEarly Modern English (1485-1800)

• Why did it change?
• (2) Other things that helped the evolution from
  Middle English to Modern English
• New words and phrases
• Resulted from
• Increased contact with many peoples from around
  the world
• The Renaissance of Classical learning
• Standardization of language, dialect, spelling,
  grammar
• Resulted from
• Invention of printing
• Mass availability of books
• Increased literacy
• Dialect of London standardized by publishing
  houses located there
• Publication of the 1st English Dictionary (1604)

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Modern EnglishEarly Modern English (1485-1800)

• Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English.

Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines were
written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.
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Modern English

• Although Modern English began around the 16th
  Century, like all languages it is still changing.
  
• One change occurred when the th of some verb
  forms became s (loveth, loves hath, has).
• Auxiliary verbs also changed (he is risen, he has
  risen).

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Modern English(Late) Modern English
(1800-Present)

• 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) 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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So what does the evolution of English look like?
Old English 400-1066 Beowulf (from Beowulf!) Gaæþ a wyrd swa hio scel (OE) Fate goes ever as it must (MnE)
Middle English 1066-1485 Chaucer (from CT) Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote . . . (ME) When that April with its sweet showers . . . (MnE)
Early Modern English 1485-1800 Shakespeare (from KL) Sir, I loue you more than words can weild ye matter (EMnE) Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter (MnE)
Modern English 1800-present Austen (from PP) It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
OEOld English MEMiddle English EMnEEarly
Modern English MnEModern English
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What about American English?

• 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. 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).
• 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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Other Varieties of English

• 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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Bibliography

• http//www.englishclub.com/english-language-histor
  y.htm
• http//www.krysstal.com/english.html
• Abrams, M. H., and Stephen Greenblatt, Eds.
  Introduction. The Norton Anthology of English
  Literature, seventh ed., vol. 1. New York W.W.
  Norton, 2000. 1-22, 29-32.
• Anderson, Robert, et al. Eds. Elements of
  Literature, Sixth Course, Literature of Britain.
  Austin Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1993. 2-42.
• Burrow, J. A. Old and Middle English Literature,
  c. 700-1485. The Oxford Illustrated History of
  English Literature. Ed. Pat Rogers. Oxford
  Oxford UP, 1987.
• Grant, Neil. Kings and Queens. Glasgow Harper
  Collins, 1999.
• Hollister, C. Warren. The Making of England, 55
  B.C. to 1399. 6th ed. Lexington, Mass. D.C.
  Heath, 1988
• Pyles, Thomas and John Algeo. The Origins and
  Development of the English Language. 4th Ed. Fort
  Worth Harcourt, 1993.
• Wikipedia (articles on Norman Invasion, Roman
  Occupation of Britain, King Alfred, King
  Aethelbert, Vikings, and Battle of
  Hastings). Dates of access August 10-20, 2006.

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Some Characteristics of the Language CELTIC A
vigesimal number system (counting by
twenties) verb-subject-object (VSO) word order
bifurcated demonstrative structure Examples (Ir
ish) Ná bac le mac an bhacaigh is ní bhacfaidh
mac an bhacaigh leat. (Literal translation) Don't
bother with son the beggar's and not will-bother
son the beggar's with-you. (Welsh) pedwar ar
bymtheg a phedwar ugain (Literal translation)
four on fifteen and four twenties