The Development of the English LanguageThe Development of the English Language

Old English => Middle English => Modern English

• See New Surfing the World pp 70-71

• + Online Expansion• http://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/ne

wsurfingtheworld/espansioni/

Old English a synthetic language with inflections and

declensions

Indo-European (ca 5000 BC) > Proto Germanic – West Germanic >

O.E: Core Germanic vocabulary : mann, wif, cold, hus, land etan, drincan

+ influences from Celtic =>Avon

Latin (Romans + Christianity) => -chester /-wick Old Norse =>- by Old Saxon => –ing (son of; - ham (homestead) – tun (enclosure; - ford (crossing) – bury (fortress)

OE PHONETICS : first condsonant shift

IE *pater > OE fæder

* dent > toÞOE SYNTAX

A synthetic language with inflections and declensions

VERBS: past, presetn, infinitive

weak and strong forms

Languages used in Medieval England

• Anglo- Norman French: court, the legal system, scholars (until 13° century)

• Latin => church, scholars, liturgy (until 15° c. )

• Middle English: common people (home/work), sermons

gradually in all contexts by 16° c.

Middle English (1100-1450)ANALYTIC LANGUAGE: – Loss of most inflections/declensions from synthetic to analytic lang. (eg definite article Þe for all cases)– Preference for fixed word order and prepositions

RELEXIFICATION Scandinavian (niman> taka> take) French (frið > pes > peace) Latin (regal)

STANDARDIZATION (The London Chancery standard) - educated classes

- Used in institutions - Printing Press (William Caxon 1474)

Middle English literature

• The father of English literature: Geoffrey Chaucer, The

Canterbury TalesWritten around 1386–1395First puyblished sometime in the

early fifteenth century• Originally circulated in hand-copied

manuscripts

• Narrative collection of poems• A group of PILGRIMS leave the

Tabard Inn in London to go to Canterbury to visit Thomas Becket’s Shrine

• Characters from all walks of life: a lively picture of Medieval society (parody, satire)

• .

The Canterbury Tales

Modern English pp 70-71

• Since the Renaissance (Shakespeare = early modern English

• International travel and colonies: borrowings and great vocabulary expansion

• 1755 . Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary

• Use od auxiliaries do/does/did and of continuous forms

(since 17th-18th century

English as a global language

• Reasons: leading role in politics, economics, science, technology, business

• Varieties: see Am. E p 160• Globish ? = highly simpilfied,

unidiomatic , “lingua franca”• Internationalisim vs identity: a

challange for the future