The English Language YOUR QUEST FOR IT

1
The English LanguageYOUR QUEST FOR IT

• Long ago, in the far away British Isles peoples
  came, invaded, stayed and left their mark

2
The British Islesand the Origin of the English
Language

• In the British Isles, the Celts resided
  before the invasions by different peoples began.
  
• Although the history of the language can
  be traced back to the arrival of three Germanic
  tribes to the British Isles during the 5th
  century CE, the Isles had been invaded by the
  Romans earlier. The Romans brought Latin to
  Britain, which was part of the Roman Empire for
  over 400 years. But early English did not develop
  mainly from Latin.
• The Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons
  and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is
  present day Denmark and northern Germany.
• The inhabitants of Britain previously
  spoke a Celtic language. This was quickly
  displaced.
• The Angles were named from Engle, their
  land of origin. Their language was called Englisc
  from which the word, English derives.

3
Europe at the time of the Germanic tribes
invasion of the British Isles
4
Mapping the Evolution of the English Language

• Your quest begins here
• In order for you to achieve the ultimate goal,
  you must find out more about the Roman
• invaders of Britain. Your mission is to find the
  most important settlement they built and try to
• explain why they chose that specific geographical
  spot. An important clue for you in your
• quest is to think in terms of modern day Britain.
  
• Start at these websites
• http//www.museumoflondon.org.uk/frames.asp?http3
  A//www.museumoflondon.org.uk/MOLsite/templates/lea
  rn001.asp3Fpage_Name3Droman_london_brief
• http//www.roman-britain.org/maps/settlement_intro
  .htm and http//www.roman-britain.org/places/lond
  inium.htm

5
Roman Influence on the English Language

• Roman Letters and Script Alphabet
• Language is a system developed by people to
• communicate among themselves. The Roman
• alphabet is also such a system. The Latin
• Alphabet was brought over from Ireland by
• Christian missionaries. This alphabet has
  remained
• the writing system of English.
• Although the Roman alphabet was adopted
• for the written expression of the English
  language,
• it has always been inadequate for representing
• each sound of English (especially Modern English)
• with clear sound/symbol correspondences. This is
• why English is full of exceptions and examples of
• a letter representing different sounds when
• combined with other letters.

6
Latin in the English Language Vocabulary and
Grammar

• English has been called a Germanic language with
  a Romance vocabulary. The Germanic tribes who
  would later give rise to the
• English language traded and fought with the Latin
  speaking Roman Empire. Many Latin words for
  common objects therefore
• entered the vocabulary of these Germanic people
  even before the tribes reached Britain. Latin
  gave English words like street,
• kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel,
  bishop, martyr, and candle, to mention just a
  few.
• In Old English grammar we can see the direct
  influence of Latin in nouns, adjectives, and even
  the definite article which are
• inflected for gender, case, and number.
• Now begins the next stage of your quest
• You must choose one of the above words and find
  what the original was in Latin and whether it
  then had the same meaning as today.
• http//www.krysstal.com/wordname.html
• Below Hadrians Wall, Roman remains in northern
  Britain.

7
The Anglo-Saxon Influence on the English Language

• The Germanic tribes that invaded the British
  Isles in
• the 5th century had no form of writing and hence
• left no records. They must have spoken a dialect
  of
• a language called West Germanic and other
• dialects of this unknown language must have
• included the ancestors of such languages as
• German and Dutch. An Anglo-Saxon inscription
• dated between 450 and 480CE is the oldest sample
• of the English language in writing.
• We have written remains of Old English (or Anglo-
• Saxon), from the 7th century onwards. Although
  only
• about 5000 or so words from this period have
• remained unchanged, the heart of the language
• remains the Anglo-Saxon of Old English. These
• words include the basic building blocks of the
• language household words, parts of the body,
• common animals, natural elements, most pronouns,
• prepositions, conjunctions and helping verbs.

8
The Second Latin ComingThe Christian Church

• Christian missionaries coming to Britain in the
  6th century and 7th century brought with them
• Latin religious terms which entered the English
  language abbot, altar, apostle, bishop,
• church, clerk, disciple, mass, minister, monk,
  nun, pope, priest, school, shrive.
• With the establishment of Christianity in Britain
  and Ireland Celtic art was used for the first
  time
• as ornamentation for the written word, by monks
  whose job it was to reproduce copies of the
• gospels. These religious manuscripts, created
  between the 7th and 10th centuries CE and
• written in Latin, were often painstakingly
  decorated with colorful illustrations and
  intricate
• designs. And so, Christianity brought back the
  Celtic influence to Britain, if not in language,
• but in art.

9
Your next clue

• And now, the next stage of your quest
• Find out who the next invader of the
• British Isles was, (see clue in the picture
• to the right) where they came from,
• why they came and find two examples
• of what mark they left on the
• language.
• One example should be a place
• name, while the other can be
• any- thing you choose.
• http//paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/language/english.html
  
• and
• http//www.krysstal.com/wordname.html

10
The Normans Language, Culture and Charter of
LibertyThe Norman influence in the British Isles
was far-reaching, all-encompassing and
long-lasting.
11
The Norman Impact

• The Normans who invaded England in 1066 came from
• Normandy in Northern France. However, they were
• originally Vikings from Scandinavia. (See map on
• previous slide). Although the Normans are best
• remembered for their military achievements, they
  also
• showed remarkable skill in government.
• They established many schools, monasteries,
• cathedrals and churches and after conquering
• England built many castles to defend their new
  land. 
• Historians regard the Norman Conquest as one of
  the
• pivotal events in British history. It had an
  immense
• political, social and cultural impact on Britain.

12
Language under Norman Dominion

• The Norman Conquest of 1066 gave England a two
• tiered society with an aristocracy that spoke
  Norman
• French and a peasantry that spoke English. From
  1066
• until Henry IV became king, the royal court of
  England
• spoke French. However, the Norman rulers made no
• attempt to suppress the English language. By the
  time
• we see Middle English in the 14th century, the
• Normans had contributed roughly 10,000 words to
• English, of which 75 remain in use.
• Old English had six ways of marking plural nouns.
  
• The Germanic form of plurals (house, housen
  shoe,
• shoen) was eventually displaced by the French
• method of making plurals in Middle English
  adding
• an s (house, houses shoe, shoes). Only a few
  words
• have retained their Germanic plurals men, oxen,
• feet, teeth, brethren, children.
• Because the aristocracy spoke French and the
  simple
• people English, many pairs of words with a
  Latinate
• word in the higher register and a Germanic word
  in

• English. The names of the animals when they
• appear as food, as the nobility saw them, are of
• Latin origin poultry, veal, beef, mutton, pork.
  Other
• such include close/shut desire/wish
  gentle/mild
• labor/work novel/new verity/truth.
• During the reign of the Normans, many words
• related to the ruling classes and the business of
  
• government entered English from French.
• French also affected spelling so that the cw
  sound
• came to be written as qu (eg. cween became
• queen).
• The next stage in your quest takes you deeper
  into
• the French influence on the English language.
• In order to move on, you must find two phrases
• which retain the French construction of noun
• followed by adjective.

13
Modern English

• The language spoken in Britain from the early
  13th century onwards is called Middle English. It
• is similar to Old English with French grammar and
  many French words added, as we saw in
• the previous slide. The most famous poet of these
  times was Chaucer, whose language is
• difficult to understand for someone who speaks
  Modern English.
• Modern English, which began in the early 16th
  century, is still spoken today. The big change in
• the language was caused mainly by the printing
  press. Just as radio, television, video, and
• computers, have changed communication in our
  time, so did printing after about 1500 CE. It
• had a stabilizing effect on spelling and meant
  that the language spoken in different parts of
• Britain became more similar. Now there was a
  common language in print.
• Now came the Renaissance in Europe - a time of
  great advance of learning and culture. By
• this time, English was not very different from
  the English used today.
• And the most beloved, well-known, eloquent,
  insightful playwright of all times made his
• appearance on the scene of the English language.

14
William Shakespeare1564-1616

• The most famous person to write in English in
  this period (and any other) was William
• Shakespeare. His insight into human nature, and
  his gift for using words, make him
• possibly the most famous playwright of all time!
  Having in his hands such a new rich
• language must have helped him too.
• Shakespeare gave the English language many
  phrases and sayings, which English
• speakers still use every day. Often, they do not
  realize these words came from
• Shakespeare's plays or poems!
• "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet "
  (Romeo and Juliet)
• "If music be the food of love, play on and give
  me excess."
• (12th Night)
• "Of one who loved not wisely but too well."
  (Othello)
• "All our yesterdays.." "Out, out brief candle."
  (Macbeth)
• "To be or not to be......" (Hamlet)

15
Shakespeare's Language

• Reading Shakespeare is, among other pleasures, an
  exercise in historical
• linguistics. It may not immediately seem so,
  because Shakespeare is normally
• known in modern packaging, the typographical
  appearance of his plays and
• poems resembling that of modern printed works.
  But even in its original form
• Shakespeare's text, despite the erratic spelling
  and odd punctuation, is in the
• main recognizable and graspable. Shakespeare
  wrote early modern English at
• the end of the sixteenth century, by which time
  most of the grammatical
• changes from Old and Middle English had taken
  place.
• Shakespeare coined over 1600 words.

16
Words, Words, and More Words

• During the English Renaissance, from around
• 1500-1650, some 10,000 to 12,000 words
• entered the English lexicon, including
• lexicon. Many of these words were
• borrowed directly from Latin, both in its
• classical and medieval forms. Some
• examples include allusion, democratic,
• dexterity, enthusiasm, imaginary, juvenile,
• sophisticated.
• Samuel Johnson 1709-1784
• Next only to William Shakespeare, Samuel
• Johnson is perhaps the most quoted of
• English writers.
• This stage of the quest demands that you become a
  
• detective to find out what monumental literary
  work
• Samuel Johnson was responsible for. The title on
  this page is a

17
Modern English

• Since the time of Shakespeare, English has
  continued to
• change. Because of the contact that the British
  had with
• many peoples from around the world, and the
  Renaissance,
• many words have entered the language. New words
  were
• created at an increasing rate.
• Settlers from Britain moved across the world - to
  the USA,
• Australia, New Zealand, India, Asia and Africa,
  and in each
• place, the language changed and developed, and
  took in
• words from other local languages. For example,
  'kangaroo
• and 'boomerang' are native Australian Aborigine
  words,
• 'juggernaut' and 'turban came from India.
• With the increase in communication, travel, radio
  and
• television, all these different types of English
  have mixed. So in
• Britain now, because of American and Australian
  TV
• programming, many parts of Australian and
  American English
• are used. And words from many other languages -
  French,
• German, Spanish, Arabic, even Nepali - have been
  borrowed.
• So English continues to change and develop, with
  hundreds of
• new words arriving every year. For better or
  worse, it has truly

18
Bibliography

• Bryson, Bill, The Mother Tongue English and How
  It Got That Way. New York Avon, 1990.
• Hughes, Geoffrey. Words in Time. Oxford Basil
  Blackwell, 1988.
• Kent, Roland G. Language and Philology. New York
  Cooper Square, 1963.
• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil.
  The Story of English. New York Elisabeth Sifton,
  1986
• http//www.danshort.com/ie/timeline.htm
• http//justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/20.html
• http//www.soon.org.uk/page18.htm
• http//paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/language/english.html
• http//www.krysstal.com/wordname.html
• http//www.britannia.com/history/londonhistory/
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  ml
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  .htm
• http//www.roman-britain.org/places/londinium.htm
• http//www.answers.com/main/ntqueryjsessionidcf2
  ewrw5r151?method4dsid2222dekeyListofLatinw
  ordswithEnglishderivativesgwp8curtab2222_1
  sbidlc07alinktextList20of20Latin20words20wi
  th20English20derivatives
• http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp//www.
  celticxstitch.ie/products/pr-kells-john.jpgimgref
  urlhttp//www.celticxstitch.ie/history.htmlh200
  w150sz8tbnidNsCY-Ga1r9QJtbnh99tbnw74hl
  enstart15prev/images3Fq3Dchristianity2Bto
  2BBritain26svnum3D1026hl3Den26lr3D
• http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp//www.
  historyonthenet.com/Normans/images/normansmap.gif
  imgrefurlhttp//www.historyonthenet.com/Normans/w
  howere.htmh288w276sz7tbnidVHy9vUyXwxIJtb
  nh110tbnw105hlenstart7prev/images3Fq3DN
  ormans26svnum3D1026hl3Den26lr3D
• http//www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/basics.html
• http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp//www.
  cardiff.ac.uk/learn/images/history/normans_in_brit
  ain.jpgimgrefurlhttp//www.cardiff.ac.uk/learn/a
  rchaeol/normans_britain.phph167w300sz21tbni
  dYLyPt4PECXUJtbnh61tbnw111hlenstart48pr
  ev/images3Fq3DNormans26start3D4026svnum3D10
  26hl3Den26lr3D26sa3DN