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History of the English Language
A short history of the origins and development of English 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" [ sic ] and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England" and "English" are derived.
Old English (450-1100 AD)
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.
the vocabulary of Old English consisted of an Anglo Saxon base with borrowed words from the Scandinavian languages ( Danish and Norse ) and Latin. Latin gave English words like street, kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, martyr, candle. The Vikings added many Norse words: sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window ( wind eye ), husband, fellow, skill, anger,^ flat, odd, ugly, get, give, take, raise, call, die, they, their, them. Celtic words also survived mainly in place 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 raise rear ill sick bask bathe skill craft skin hide dike ditch skirt shirt scatter shatter skip shift
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
Characteristics of the Old English language The Germanic tribes were exposed to Latin before they invaded England, so the languages they spoke did have some Latin influence. After converting to Christianity, Latin had more influence, as evidenced in words pertaining to the church. Celtic did not have a large impact on English, as only a few place names are of Celtic origin, but Danish (Old Scandinavian) did contribute many vocabulary words. Nouns could be of three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter; but these were assigned arbitrarily. Numbers could be either singular or plural, and there were four cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. In all, there were seven groups of declensions for nouns. The infinitive of verbs ended in -an. In the present tense, all verbs had markers for number and person. The weak past tense added -de, while the strong past tense usually involved a vowel change. Old English also had many more strong verbs than modern English. Adjectives could be weak or strong. If preceded by a determiner, the weak ending was added to the adjective. If no determiner preceded the adjective, then the strong endings were used. They also agreed in gender, case and number with the nouns they described. The comparative was formed by adding -ra to the adjective, while the superlative had many endings: -ost, - ist, -est, and -m. Eventually the -ost and -m endings combined to form the word "most" which is still used before adjectives in the superlative today. Adverbs were formed by adding -e to the adjective, or -lic, the latter which still remains in modern English as -like. The syntax of Old English was much more flexible than modern English becase of the declensions of the nouns. The case endings told the function of the word in the sentence, so word order was not very important. But as the stress began to move to the first syllable of words, the
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.
Characteristics of Middle English The writing system changed dramatically in Middle English:
- þ and ð were replaced by th (and sometimes y, as in ye meaning the)
- (^) c before i or e became ch
- sc became sh
- an internal h was added after g
- hw became wh
- cw became qu
- the new symbols v and u were added; v was used word initially, and u was used everywhere else
- k was used much more often (cyning became king)
- new values were given to old symbols too; g before i or e was 0 1 F 0
0 2 pronounced ; (^) 9 2became j, and c before i and e became s in some cases
- a historical h (usually not pronounced) was added to some words (it was assumed that these words had once begun with an h): honor, heir, honest, herb, habit
- sometimes words were written with o but pronounced as [ 0 28 A] but later 0 2 were pronounced [ (^) 8 C]: son, come, ton, some, from, money, honey, front, won, one, wonder, of
Modern English
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
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.
Characteristics of Early Modern English Adjectives lost all endings except for in the comparative and superlative forms. The neuter pronoun it was first used as well as who as a relative pronoun. The class distinctions between formal and informal you were decreasing, so that today there is no difference between them. More strong verbs became weak and the third person singular form became -(e)s instead of -(e)th. There was a more limited use of the progressive and auxiliary verbs than there is now, however. Negatives followed the verb and multiple negatives were still used. The Great Vowel Shift (1400-1600) changed the pronunciation of all the vowels. The tongue was placed higher in the mouth, and all the verbs moved up. Vowels that were already high ([i] and [u]) added the dipthongs [aj] and [aw] to the vowels of English. Several consonants were no longer pronounced, but the spelling system was in place before the consonant loss, so they are still written in English today. The consonants lost include:
- Voiceless velar fricative lost in night; pronounced as f in laugh
- (^) [b] in final -mb cluster (dumb, comb)
- [l] between a or o and consonant (half, walk, talk, folk)
- [r] sometimes before s (Worcestershire)
- initial clusters beginning with k and g (knee, knight, gnat)
- [g] in -ing endings (more commonly pronounced [ 0 26 An])
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: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; 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.
The main characteristics for this stride of English language are as under:
- Receptiveness 2) Heterogeneousness 3) Simplicity of Inflexion 4) Fixed Word Order 5) Use of Periphrasis 6) Growth of Intonation.
words it is possible to say the something in many different ways in English. Periphrases is a very important quality of any language; because it makes the language rich and varied.
6. Development of intonation
The last but the significant quality of English is the great development of intonation to express different shades of meanings. Intonation can easily change the meaning of a sentence completely. Intonation can be described as the pitch and intensity or the tone of the voice.
