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Brief History of English

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Structure of EnglishLanguage

Structure

system

Phonetics

Phonology

grammar

Morphology

Syntax

Semantics

Vocabulary

Discourse

Use

social cognitive

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Basic questionsEnglish is a Global Language but…• When and where was it born?• How did it evolve?• How did it spread around the globe?• What languages are related to

English?• What other languages influenced

English?

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The English Language Timeline

Pre-English: Celts and Romans up until 410 AD

Stage 1: Old English (OE) from 410 – 1150 AD

Stage 2: Middle English (ME) from 1150 – 1450

Stage 3: Early Modern English (EME) from 1450 – 1750

Stage 4: Modern English (ModE) from about 1750

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The Celtic StockThe Celtic language was one of

the first known to be recorded in Britain before the following invasions of the island.

Celtic tribes (coming from Europe) lived in Britain in the Iron Age for over 500 years until the arrival of the Romans.

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The Celts in Europe

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The Roman invasion

Julius Caesar conquered Britain in 55 BC and Claudius in 43 AD, but it wasn’t permanent or really influential.

Latin was never the language of the people, it was only the language of the ruling class.

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In the English versions of Asterix, the Latin jokes are not translated or explained. Very few Asterix fans know Latin. Some may know Veni Vidi Vici, or even Alea Iacta Est, but that's about it.

"There's lots of 'Alea jacta est' references in Asterix books. It just means 'the die is cast'.

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The Roman invasion

Rome introduced Latin words in commerce, religion, army, some place names, etc.

Christianity introduced more Latin in the English language later on.

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The Roman Empire

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The English Language Timeline

Stage 1: Old English (OE) from 410 – 1150AD

Stage 2: Middle English (ME) from 1150 – 1450

Stage 3: Early Modern English (EME) from 1450 – 1750

Stage 4: Modern English (ModE) from about 1750

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The Anglo-Saxon Conquest

Different Germanic tribes coming from current Denmark conquered Britain in 449 AD.

The Angles and the Saxons were very important and gave English its basic vocabulary and structures. English is Teutonic in essence.

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The Anglo-Saxon Conquest

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Old English

The Anglo-Saxon language is also known as Old English and it is the primitive form of modern English.

The Angles gave the name of the country (England, “land of Angles”).

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Old English

Some words coming from Anglo-Saxon are:

This language also left the “Saxon Genitive” (Terry’s brother)

man eat housework woman

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The Germanic family

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The VikingsIn the 9th and 10th centuries

Vikings from Scandinavia occupied the North-East of Britain.

Their language, Old Norse (connected with the Anglo-Saxon), gave many words to the English language.

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The Viking Invasion

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Old Norse

Some basic everyday words in English come from Old Norse:

sky leg take window call dirty

church

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Similarities between Old Norse and Old English

An example of how close the languages were earlier is the Saga of Gunnlaugr Serpent-Tongue

(Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu) which is one of the Icelandic sagas. It was composed at the end of the 13th century and contains 25 verses of poetry.

It is an important work in both Norwegian and Icelandic literary history.

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The Voyage of Ohthere – Ottars reise

Den gammalengelske teksten lyder:

• Ohthere sæde his hlaforde, Ælfrede cyninge, þæt he ealra Norðmonna norþmest bude. He cwæð þæt he bude on þæm lande norþweardum wiþ þa Westsæ.

Samme tekst på norsk:

• ”Ottar fortalte sin herre, kong Alfred, at han bodde lengst nord av alle nordmenn. Han sa at han bodde nord i landet, ved Vesterhavet.”

Norwegian: Ottar fra Hålogaland

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Translation

Old English• Ohthere sæde his hlaforde,

Ælfrede cyninge, þæt he ealra Norðmonna norþmest bude.

• He cwæþ þæt he bude on þæm lande norþweardum wiþ þa Westsæ.

Modern English• Othere said to his lord, King

Alfred, that he lived northernmost of all the Northmen (or Norwegians).

• He said that he lived in the land [that is] northward along the Western Sea (i.e. the sea to the west of Norway).

Source: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/engl401/texts/ohthfram.htm20100121

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The Voyage of Ohthere – Ottars reise

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The English Language Timeline

Stage 1: Old English (OE) from 410 – 1150AD

Stage 2: Middle English (ME) from 1150 – 1450

Stage 3: Early Modern English (EME) from 1450 – 1750

Stage 4: Modern English (ModE) from about 1750

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The Norman Conquest

The Normans came from Normandy, Northern France in 1066.

It was the last invasion in England but had an enormous influence in many aspects of British life: habits, language, society, literature, justice, etc.

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The Norman Conquest

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French Influence

French was the language of the top of society (government, church, justice…) and little by little its influence spread a bit to the rest of the population who always spoke English.

This is the birth of Anglo-French.

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French InfluenceThe Normans brought more than

10,000 words into English, 75% still in use and no longer felt as foreign.

By the 13th / 14th centuries only the top class uses French. By 15th century it disappears but always as a favourite foreign language.

With French also came a lot of Latin vocabulary.

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Middle English

This is the span from 11th to 15th centuries.

Some French words incorporated were:

court advise mutton govern sovereign duke

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Middle EnglishThe Great Vowel Shift meant the

complete dissolution between spelling and pronunciation (the first was kept while the second evolved a lot).

English was not a unique language but a collection of dialects (Southern dialects were more important).

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Middle English dialects

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The English Language Timeline

Stage 1: Old English (OE) from 410 – 1150AD

Stage 2: Middle English (ME) from 1150 – 1450

Stage 3: Early Modern English (EME) from 1450 – 1750

Stage 4: Modern English (ModE) from about 1750

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Early Modern EnglishThis is the span from 15th to 17th

centuries.The use of the printed press

helped to fix the language.The Renaissance meant the

arrival of many classical terms from Latin and Greek (only at cultivated level).

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Classical languages

These languages gave many words for different sciences and disciplines (not for common language) and grammar rules.

physics radius history architecture

educate algebra

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The British Isles

English is now the official language imposed on the whole of Great Britain and also taken to Ireland.

More regional languages (Welsh and Pictish) are pushed away and nearly disappeared.

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The British Empire

Britain is now a powerful nation and begins its colonial expansion.

North America was the first colony but later many more territories were incorporated to the Empire.

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The British EmpireBy 1870 67% of non-European

countries are British.

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Other languages

The expansion of English worldwide meant contact with other languages that gave more new words to English:

tea tornado sauna tattoo yatch futonboomerang pasta

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The English Language Timeline

Stage 1: Old English (OE) from 410 – 1150AD

Stage 2: Middle English (ME) from 1150 – 1450

Stage 3: Early Modern English (EME) from 1450 – 1750

Stage 4: Modern English (ModE) from about 1750

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Lingua Franca

Today English is an international language for communication :

• 380 million as native speakers• 2 billion as foreign speakers• Mandarin, Hindi and Spanish

have more native speakers than English.

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Varieties of EnglishEnglish has different variations in

every country (British, American, Australian…) and also more local dialects (Brummie, Geordie, Cockney… in the UK)

American English is no doubt the predominant one (TV, cinema, music, the Internet…)

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Future of English

English will probably be the international language in the future.

Today’s communication prevents the breaking up of English into different languages.