Transcript of The History of the English Language - Concisely

The History of English Language - Concisely

The First Peoples of England

The Celts

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What language did the Celts and Romans leave behind?

(cc) photo by theaucitron on Flickr

(cc) photo by theaucitron on Flickr

copy paste branches if you need more....

"The native Celts had become civilized, law-abiding people, accustomed to government and
reliable police, nearly as helpless before an invading host as most modern civilian populations
would be."

The Romans invaded in 43 BC and remained until 450 AD. The Celts lived alongside the
Romans for many generations. The Celts were on the island for nearly 1,000 years, while the
Romans were there for 367 years. However, In 410 AD the Romans began to withdraw and left
the Celts to whatever may come. This is the time in history that becomes legend (King Arthur).

From the Celts: few words, mostly place names (London, Dover and Kent, & the rivers Thames
& Wye)

The Permanent Invaders

The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes

5000 BC to 410 AD

The Literate Invaders

Christianity - Saint Augustine

The Returning Invaders

The Vikings

The Final Invaders

The Normans

Chaucer

Shakespeare

From the Romans: around 200 Latin words (win (wine), candel (candle), belt (belt) and weall
(wall).

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Around 450-480 the first sentence in English is recorded on a gold medallion, “This she-wolf is a
reward to my kinsman.”

Even though the Saxons survive and thrive, eventually the island (English) and its language
(English) take their name from the Angles. Their early history on the island is lost because they
only had a runic alphabet.

Sunday The Sun

Monday The Moon

Tuesday Tiw

Wednesday Woden

Thursday Thor

Friday Frig (Woden’s wife)

Saturday Saturn

Roman words that

Angles, Saxons and Jutes brought with them

street
pillow

wine

inch

mile

table

chest

450 AD

597 AD

789 AD

1066 AD

Old English

Middle English

Early Modern English

St. Augustine and his forty missionaries brought literacy to the pagan Anglo-Saxons.

King Ethelbert was converted to Christianity and within 100 years, England became the center of
learning.

Many of the new words derived from Latin refer to religion, such as altar, mass, school, and
monk, but others are more domestic and mundane such as fork, spade, spider, tower, and rose.

Old English

included much of the complexities of the invaders’ Germanic dialects of Indo-European

languages

Arbitrary Gender

wheat - masculine

oats - feminine

corn - neuter

Verbs
seven classes of strong verbs

three classes of weak

no future tense

Inflections

Adjectives

"green" or "big" could have

up to eleven different forms

“the”

masculine, feminine or neuter

five cases of singular

four cases of plural

The Danes were related to the Anglo-Saxons in both blood and language

For many, many years in some places the people spoke only Old English while on the next
hillside, they spoke only Old Norse. Eventually, the two languages merged peacefully.

Impact on the language

New Scandinavian Words

freckle

leg

skull

meek

rotten

clasp

crawl
dazzle

scream

trust

lift

take

husband

sky

New Synonyms

craft--skill

wish--want

raise--rear

Words that changed spelling

and eventually their meanings

shriek--> screech

scatter--> shatter

skirt--> shirt

bathe--> bask

wake--> watch

break--> breach

The Normans were Vikings who settled in Northern France 200 years before. They abandoned
their language and adopted a rural dialect of French. There were zero Norse words in Normandy,
but they would eventually bequeath 10,000 words to English. After the 1066 conquest of
William, the kings of England would not speak English until 1399 with Henry IV.

“Norman society had two tiers: the French-speaking aristocracy and the English-speaking
peasantry. Not surprisingly, the linguistic influence of the Normans tended to focus on matters of
court, government, fashion, and high living. Meanwhile, the English peasant continued to eat,
drink, work, sleep, and play in English.”

Humble trades

(Anglo-Saxon names)

baker

miller

shoemaker

Skilled Crafts

(French names)

mason

painter

tailor

Animals

sheep

cow

pig

mutton

beef

pork, bacon

Norman French words still in use

justice
jury

felony

traitor

petty

damage

prison

marriage

sovereign

parliament

govern

prince

duke

count

baron

Not King and Queen

1150 to 1500 AD

1342-1400

(cc) image by nuonsolarteam on Flickr

Middle English undergoes dramatic changes, including the demise of inflections.

Sometimes words were modified in one grammatical situation but left unmodified in another.
That left several spelling pairs.

half/halves

grass/graze

grief/grieve
calf/calves

life/lives

Plurals

Endings reduced to "-s" or "-en"

shoes or shoen

house or housen

Three "weak" plurals

leftover

children

brethren

oxen

Traces of Old English plurals

men

women

feet

geese

teeth

Added to Old English

motherhood maternity

friendship amity

brotherhood fraternity

About 85% of Old English words died out under the Danes and Normans. That means that only
4,500 words survived, which accounts for only 1% of the Oxford Dictionary.

BUT!!

They are words that are

essential to life:

Man

Wife

Child

Brother

Sister

Live

Fight

Love

Drink

Sleep

Eat

House

Etc.

Function words as well:

To

For

But

And

At

In

On

That means in any sample of modern English writing, at least half of those words will be in Old
English of Anglo-Saxon origin.
ALL of the 100 most common words are Old English.

THEREFORE!

1500 to present day

We say: What are you reading?

He says: What do you read?

“I am going.”

“I was going.”

“I have been going.”

“I will (or shall) be going.”

These meanings would have confused him:

1564-1616

“The house is being built.”

Also confusing...

Old English (c.1000) sample

Fæder ure þuþe eart on heofonum

si þin nama gehalgod tobecume þin rice gewurþe þin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonum

urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg

and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum

and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice.

Middle English (1384), the same text starts to become recognizable to the modern eye:

Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi name;

þi reume or kyngdom come to be. Be þi wille don in herþe as it is dounin heuene.

yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred.

And foryeue to us oure dettis þat is oure synnys as we foryeuen to oure dettouris þat is to men
þat han synned in us.

And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.

Finally, in Early Modern English (King James Version, 1611) the same text is completely
intelligible:

Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen.

Giue us this day our daily bread.

And forgiue us our debts as we forgiue our debters.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliuer us from euill. Amen.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we
shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island,
whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender,
and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated
and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would
carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might,
steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

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