Reading Assignment 1

ENG 101 | History of the English Language

AB-English Language |1

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF ENGLISH

The English language hasn't always been the way it is today. It is developed over hundreds and hundreds of
years. Today, hundreds of millions of people speak English all over the world, whether it's their first language
or their second language, or just one of the foreign languages that they speak and learn at school, and so on.
So, hundreds of millions of people speak English and learn English. But hundreds of years ago, the English
language that we know today didn't really exist. It sort of got put together gradually by different historical
events.
English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is therefore related to most other languages
spoken in Europe and western Asia from Iceland to India. The parent tongue, called Proto-Indo-European,
was spoken about 5,000 years ago by nomads believed to have roamed the southeast European plains.
The Celts. The British Isles have been inhabited by different people for at least 50,000 years, but we know
very little about the languages spoken until the coming of the Celts around 3,000 years ago Celtic languages
were spoken all over Europe and there were many tribes. Celtic people did not have written language. They
lived by hunting and planting. There were many Celtic tribes believed to have come from Central Asia. One
of these tribes may have been given a name such as pritaini ‘painted’ from which the names Britain and
British may derive. In Britain, the Celtic languages survive to the present in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, but
they are not considered English. Irish English and Scottish English are varieties of English influenced by the
Celtic languages. English still has some borrowed Celtic words like corgi meaning “little dog” from Welsh or
whisky “water of life” from Gaelic. The famous Stonehenge is believed to be the greatest contribution of the
Celts in human civilization.
Roman Invasion. The Roman invasion of Britain started in 55 B.C. under Julius Caesar, but this invasion was
not successful. About one hundred years later, under Emperor Claudius, forty thousand Roman troops made
a successful landing. And for the next four hundred years, England became a Roman province. The Roman,
“the benevolent protectors”, established a way of life similar to that of Rome. The Roman Empire spread in
different directions, and Britain is one of the directions they spread in. They came here, and stayed for a
while, and built some nice buildings, and they built a wall that goes across between Scotland and England,
called Hadrian's Wall, because the Emperor at the time was called Hadrian. When they came and stayed for
some time, they brought their language with them—the Latin language. The Latin language is called a dead
language today, but it has influenced so many other languages, especially in Southern Europe. Italian, French,
Spanish and Portuguese are all come from Latin. So, in this country, in the English language, we have had the
Latin influence at different times. The Romans brought their Latin language with them and the natives of this
country started learning Latin words and it became integrated into the language.
It is estimated that about 29% of the words in the English language have come from a Latin origin or Latin
source. Here are just a few of very words that we use every day which originate from Latin: human, animal,
dental (to do with the teeth), decimal (which is to do with the fingers because we have 10 fingers), digital
(also fingers), factory (where things are made or manufacture), library (where you read books, libre meaning
book and library is the building where the books are kept), manual (to do with if you do things with your
hand it comes from the Latin word for hand), lunar (to do with the moon, because the Latin word for the
moon was luna), solar (to do with the sun, again, because the Latin word was sol), military (anything to do
with soldiers because the word that was used for soldiers was melees), mile (the distance because that was
the distance that they would march before they had a rest), science (to do with knowledge), station, wall,
kitchen, wine, and street.
The Latin influence continues through medieval and renaissance times, not through actual migrations but
through the Catholic Church and intellectual developments such as Humanism and the Renaissance.
Germanic Migration. English officially starts when the Germanic tribes (from Germany) and their languages
reach the British Isles in 450 A.D. Several Germanic tribes — the Frisians, Angles, Saxons, and possibly the
Jutes—occupied the British Isles. The word ‘English’ derives from one of these tribes—the Angles (it is
derived from the Anglo-Saxon word Englaland meaning “Land of the Angles”). These Anglo-Saxon English
were brave, reckless, adventurous, rude and barbaric. They brought with them a rich folk literature, most of
which celebrated the great deeds of heroes—real and mythical.
What started as a Germanic dialect spoken in a small part of England is now a language spoken by over a
billion people in many parts of the world (as a first or second language). Even though it is a Germanic
language, English has adopted a large number of words from other languages.

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Reading Assignment 1
ENG 101 | History of the English Language
AB-English Language |2

The first people who spoke the language which over time turned itself into English conquered England in
about the Year 450. These people were known as Anglo-Saxon and their language is also often called Anglo-
Saxon or Old English. Many words from this time are still around in English came from Germanic origin:
above, above, again, and, apple, bat, goat, cake, eat, drink, eye, feet, arm, boy, girl, house, hand, bread, food,
cow, house, bread and sword.
Christianity. In the 6th century St. Augustine came and started converting people to Christianity and brought
the language with him—the language of the Bible (Latin, Greek, and Hebrew) and all the books of learning.
Prior to the coming of St. Augustine, the British Isle has been a pagan country. Latin, Greek and Hebrew
languages spread all over Europe together with Christianity. About 6% of the words in English have come
from Greek words. The kind of words that they used were sort of academic life and the word academic itself
is one of Greek words. Some words which have Greek in origin are android, basic, cinema, democracy,
climate, economy, geography, history, idea, philosophy, politics, and technology. Hebrew also has great
influence on the English words. Some of the words that originate from Hebrew are amen, camel, cherub,
cider, cinnamon, emerald, jacket, jubilee, rabbi, Sabbath, and sack.
Viking Invasion. Between the 8th and 11th centuries, the Scandinavians (known also as the Vikings) raided
and plundered Britain. They also started extensive settlements. Scandinavian may be the most important of
the external influences on English grammar and vocabulary. Words such as egg, keel, leg, ill, odd, bask, call,
crave, screech, and thrive are borrowed from it. The disappearance of Old English endings might also be the
result of the Scandinavian influence on the grammar. Scandinavian words are often not seen as ‘foreign’
since they are very similar to words of English origin and are often ‘everyday’ words. The latter shows the
Scandinavian and English lived in close contact
Norman Conquest. In 1066, William of Normandy arrived and defeated Harold during the Battle of Hastings.
As a result, French became the language of the nobility and the court and much new vocabulary was
introduced. During this time, the Great Vowel Change changed pronunciation while spelling was
standardized. It’s still a Germanic language but with major Latin and French influences. The borrowed words
include many political and cultural terms, such as beef, pork, veal, continue, liberty, justice, journey, people,
very, government, authority, state, and judge, in contrast to the ‘everyday’ vocabulary borrowed from
Scandinavian. They changed English life by introducing a social, economic and political system called
feudalism and the form of government is monarchy. The ruling class emphasized Latin language which lasted
for 300 years. The influx of Norman had enormous consequences for English language (only 26% of the
English vocabulary is Germanic, but over 50% Roman language)
15th Century to Modern English. The English language doesn’t stop developing. People did not stop exploring
the world. In 15th century, Renaissance swept Europe. It means “rebirth” and refers especially to the revival
of ancient Greek learning. Books have been written in English since the 9th century, but it was with the
introduction of the printing press by Thomas Caxton in 1476 that publishing really took off. With the printing
also came an interest in a standard way of writing English which had not been present before.
The main events are perhaps the Renaissance love for Greek and Latin terms, the post—1700 spread of
English to the colonies—resulting in new words being adopted and varieties being formed—and the changes
in the technology from the 19th century to the present.
In 19th century, colonialism, British Empire or Britain became involved politically in other countries. In the
21st century, English has still developing. We’ve got the internet, speed of travel thousands of miles and
exploration. Thus, words keep from coming back from other countries. Looking at the British Empire
onwards, a lot of Asian words from the Middle East and on the Far East like balcony, bangle, bungalow, guru,
kiosk, pajamas, sandals, and shampoo. Talking about the internet and technology, words or names like
Google and Hoover become part of the English language and it’s changing all the times.

MODERN ENGLISH COMPARED TO EARLIER ENGLISH & OTHER LANGUAGES

Read the famous Caedmon’s Hymn, from a manuscript dated 737, and compare it with a word-by-word gloss
and the Modern English translation. Glosses for Old English (OE), are usually done as in the example below.
What do you observe?
Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard
Now should praise-INF heaven-kingdom-GEN guardian
‘Now we should praise the guardian of the heavenly kingdom’

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Reading Assignment 1
ENG 101 | History of the English Language
AB-English Language |3

You might notice that there is no letter v in hefaen ‘heaven’ and that the u in uard ‘guard’ is pronounced
differently — like w and unlike the present-day u in guard or tune. It is not completely clear how the Old
English sc and g are pronounced: sk and g or sh and y. With respect to the words and sentences, we notice
the lack of grammatical words such as of, the, and we. The Old English sentence contains five words, whereas
the Modern English one has twice as many.
Sounds of Modern English. Modern English has 13 or 14 different vowels: bit, beet, bait, bet, bat, but, bye,
boy, boat, boot, bout, bath, and bought all contain different vowel sounds. English has at least 25 consonants.
The most unusual English consonant is perhaps the one spelled as th, which, as we will see, represents two
different sounds. Many other languages, and many varieties of English, do not have this sound.
When speakers of such languages first learn a variety of English where th does occur, they often pronounce
th as d in that, as t in thing, as f in mouth, or as v in mother. In New York City English, for instance, that is
often pronounced /dæt/.
Structure of Modern English. English syllable structure is complex: there are English words such as strikes
and splits, with three consonants at the beginning of the syllable/word and two at the end. Across the world’s
languages, perhaps the most common syllable pattern is consonant-vowel (or CV).

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL CHANGE

The question of language change is really a question of why varieties develop within a language. For instance,
Canadian and South African English have developed their own identities even though they are still ‘English’
in their grammars. External and internal change are sometimes ascribed to ‘chance’ and ‘necessity’,
respectively. Many times, internal and external change interact.
External change talks about the social, economic, geographical, political, and historical forces and origin of
the English language while internal change talks about the linguistic features, structure, and sound and
grammar changes in the English language. External changes are brought about by language contact
(between speakers of different languages), or innovations by speakers, or issues of political or social identity.
Oceans may facilitate contact whereas mountain ranges may stop it. External changes are unpredictable
since it is impossible to foresee who will migrate where, or what fashion will catch on. They are sometimes
the easiest to trace as, for instance, in examining when loanwords first appear in a language.
Internal changes occur when, for instance, speakers stop using endings (or inflections) and start to rely on
words such as of, for, the, and have. They are more predictable. Internal reasons have to do with children
analyzing the language they hear in a slightly different way from the generation before them (and building
their grammars accordingly). These can be cases of changing a vowel or a consonant: Old English ham
changing to home and skip to ship. Internal change also occurs when the category of a word is reanalyzed
as, for instance, when prepositions start being used to introduce sentences, i.e. as complementizers. Like is
a preposition in She swims like a fish but is extended to introduce sentences in She did like I said. This is an
internal change, as is the loss of case marking on who and stranding the preposition in Who did you talk to.

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