The history of English
The most commonly spoken language in our day, would be English or as
some people might call it The Lingua Franca . It is a language, which is taken
almost a thousand years to evolve, mainly through its borrowings from other
languages such as French and Latin. It is actually classified as part of the
Germanic group of languages. Even though it is the most commonly spoken
language today, it is not without its faults, which would be its phonetic symbols
only, representing one sound and each sound would have its appropriate symbol.
Most European languages are very similar to those spoken in India and
Persia, assuming that most of the European peoples are descendants of the
original Aryans, speaking the common language called Indo-European. As time
went on, each civilization ( Greek, Roman and later English ) broke away from
the above mentioned language and started to develop their own closely linked
one. (Lecture notes, M. Disney)
The English language was brought to the British Isles by the Germanic
tribes (Saxons and Jutes), they settled there between the fifth and sixth
centuries. The English spoken then was so different from our present version of
English that a Modern English reader would not be able to comprehend the text.
The main difference between the two was actually the vocabulary. They had a
complicated system of nouns and adjectives, and had many different forms
according to their grammatical relationship. (Lecture notes, M. Disney)
During the past thousand years there have been many contributions
towards the development of the English language. These contributors have been
mainly, due to the invasions of the Danish, Normans and the Romans. Other
contributors have been through literary and scientific extractions from both the
Latin and Greek civilizations. (Lecture notes, M. Disney)
Latin influenced English before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England. The
Germanic tribes who later settled on the isles were in contact with small parts of
the Roman civilization. Some of the words borrowed by the Germanic groups
were:
Mint: Minet,
Street: strata via
When the first English tribes came to settle in England they made contact
with the people that had been part of the Roman Empire which probably spoke a
form of Latin. Some of their words past in to the language of the new conquerors.
(Lecture notes, M. Disney)
In the sixth century St. Benedict reintroduced Christianity. As the religion
spread English added a large number of Latin words to itself to express new
ideas connected with the religion. However, this lead to the loss of grammatical
gender of the language and therefore mixed the vocabulary. (Internet 1)
In the eighth century the Danes made continual raids upon the English
coasts which they later settled. They were then defeated by King Alfred the
Great. A hundred years later another Danish King invaded England and
managed to get his son, Canute, was put upon the English throne. These Danish
invasions, however destructive they were, had quite a tremendous influence
upon the English language. The English borrowed words such as skin, ill, get and
leg. (Lecture notes, M. Disney)
In 1066, William the conqueror of Normandy invaded and conquered
England. After that French became the tongue of the ruling classes in England
and was commonly spoken by most of the English man. The French language is
actually almost directly derived from Latin. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth
century there was a lot of French literature translated to English. Which resulted
in a large number of French words incorporating in to English. Some examples
are:
Words connected with the household - master, servant and dinner.
(Lecture notes, M. Disney)
After the battle of Hastings, and the ascendancy of an Anglo-Norman
throne, the English language went through dramatic changes, shifting from a
majorly inflected language with a word stock of a relatively average to a heavily
French influenced grammatical structure with a heavily used French vocabulary.
(Internet 1)
The language usage of Chaucer, middle-English greatest poet, still
sounds unfamiliar to Modern-English speakers, mainly due to his retention of
many several of the Germanic consonant sounds. But it moves ever closer to our
modern usage, and readies the stage for William Shakespeare , arguably the
most gifted and flexible wordsmith ever to work in this changing language.
(Internet 2)
Shakespeares English however is not or has not quite achieved the BBC
standard that most of us interpret as English but along with many other writers
such as Marlowe, Milton, Donne and Spenser in its company English was never
more inventive and clear.
(Internet 2)
Another person who should also be credited with the development of
English would be William Caxton who brought and opened his own printing press
in England contributed to the fixing of spelling , which in turn increased the
literacy rate and started the movement of the translations of classic folklore and
literature.( Internet 1)
During the Reformation period in Europe due to Henry VIII disputes with
the Pope , reduced the power of the church and in turn started the translations of
the bible into English. The education system was then transferred to the state
and therefore great emphasis was placed upon the learning of the English
language. (Internet 2)
In 1588 once the English had control of the seas their process of
colonization started throughout the world and due to the new exotic products
being imported words had to be borrowed from non-Indo European languages.
This also lead to the spread of English around the world. (Internet 2)
The Greek influence in English is actually of modern origin and is used
mainly to express scientific ideas, such as telephone and ballistic. Many other
words from different languages have been incorporated in the language to
represent modern technological products. (Lecture notes, M. Disney)
Even though English do over a billion people today speak the most
common language there are still many faults in it. In a perfect alphabet , every
sound would have a spelling symbol representing it , the closest any language
has come to that would be The Persian and Arabic alphabets. By this standard
the English language is considered quite defective for it has not enough symbols
to represent each sound and so the same symbol may be used to represent
more then one sound. By pointing out this, we come to the obvious conclusion
that Modern English is not phonetic. (Lecture notes, M. Disney and Internet 1)
I now can conclude that English due to its certain drawbacks is still one of
the easiest and most proficient languages of our time. Due to its borrowings from
many different languages it has become easy to learn , for most cultures would
have quite a lot of similarities associated with it. Not to mention that most legal
documents and charters have been written and officiated in English it has
become a necessity for almost all countries to teach and subject their peoples to
English as at least their second language.
(1215 words
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