A (Very) Brief History of the English Language Lingua Franca \ ˈliŋ-gwə-ˈfraŋ-kə \ vehicular language bridge language trade language link language interlanguage 6 official languages of the UN Arabic Chinese English French Russian Spanish Spanish-speaking Countries Russian-speaking Countries Arabic-speaking Countries English history timeline Prehistoric Britain BC Roman Britain 43 AD Anglo-Saxon Britain 450 English language timeline: Old English (449-1100), Prehistoric Old English (c. 450 to 650) Early Old English (c. 650 to 900) Late Old English (c. 900 to 1170) Viking Britain 793 Medieval Britain 1066 Tudor Britain 1485 Stuart Britain 1603 Georgian Britain 1714 Victorian Britain 1837 Modern Britain 1902 + Middle English (1100-1500) • Early Middle English (1100 – 1250) • Central Middle English (1250 – 1400) • Late Middle English (1400 – 1500) Modern English (1500-). • 1500 – 1775 – Early Modern English • XVIII – XX – Late Modern English • XXI Century – Contemporary English Avebury Circle – 3000 BC Stonehenge – 2800 – 2000 BC Bell-Beaker culture – 2100 BC The Celts – Britons 'Pretani,’ = the ‘painted’ or the ‘tattooed’ ones = Britannia (Roman) Celt – Keltoi (Greek) = barbarians The Celts: •the Goidelic Celts (Gaels or Gaelic, 700 BC): Scotland, Isle of Man, Ireland •the Brythonic Celts (Britons , 500 BC): Wales, Cornwall. Celtic place-names: Thames, London, Dover, Kent, Arden, Avon, Exe, Leeds, Severn, words with components cumb/comb ‘deep valley’, dun ‘hill fort’, lin ‘lake’; torr, pen, crug, bre ‘hill’. Berkshire, Bray, Bredon, Cambridge, Carlisle, Cirencester, Doncaster, Gloucester, Ilfracombe, Lancaster, Leicester, Lincoln, Malvern, Manchester, Penkridge, Penzance, Wiltshire, Winchester, Worcester. Roman Britain 43 AD Julius Caesar 55 and 54BC Caligula AD40 Claudius AD43 Old English word Modern English Latin origin belt belt balteus butere butter butyrum camp camp = field, battle campus candel candle candela catt cat cattus ceaster city castra cupp cup cuppa cyse cheese caseus draca dragon draco mil mile mille plante plant planta sacc sack saccus stræt street strata weall wall vallum The Venerable Bede (672-735) Introduction of Anglo-Saxons: 500 - 600 1st Anglo-Saxon Period: 600 – 850 AD "Church" contribution 2nd Anglo-Saxon Period: 850 – 1066 AD "Viking" contribution Alfred the Great (849-899) Alfred the Great - chartered the Old English alphabet, - translated classical works from Latin into English, - set up public schools, - began the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "...if we have peace, that all the youth now in England - revised and expanded the law code may be devoted to learning." Alfred the Great By the 11th Century – Late West Saxon = "Winchester standard" = "classical" Old English Winchester - the capital city of the Saxon kings inflectional language: 5 cases (for nouns, adjectives, pronouns): nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental; particles are added to words (etan = to eat). Syntax: SVO (subject-verb-object); variation in sentence structure. Certain letters derive from the runic alphabet: used interchangeably to represent the "th" sound of "that" and "thin" - that was a good king =g Beowulf /ˈbeɪ.oʊwʊlf/ - an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative lines (8- the early 11th century). - alliteration in every line; - compounding: feorhseoc (feorh = life, seoc = sick) – mortally wounded; - kennings: metaphoric compoundings: banhus (ban + hus = "bone-house“) = human body; hronrad (hron + rad = "whale's road“) = the sea; rodores candel = "sky's candle" = the sun Anglo-Saxon humour – Poetic Riddles Ic wiht geseah in wera burgum seo pæt feoh fedeð. Hafað fela topa; nebb bip hyre æt nytte, niperweard gongeð hippeð holdlice ond to ham tyhð, wæpeð geond weallas, wyrte seceð Aa heo pa findeð, pa pe fæst ne bip; læteð hio p wlitigan, wyrtum fæste, stille stondan on stapolwonge, beohrte blican, blowan ond growan I saw a creature in the towns of men which feeds the cattle. It has many teeth; its beak is useful, it points downward, it plunders gently and returns home, it searches along the slopes, seeks roots, always it finds those that are not firm; it leaves the fair ones fixed by their roots, quietly standing in their proper place, brightly gleaming, blowing and growing (rakes) Wrætlic hongað bi weres peo, frean under sceate. Foran is pyrel. Bið stip ond heard, stede hafað godne; ponne se esne his agen hrægl ofer cneo hefeð, wile pæt cupe hol mid his hangellan heafde gretan pæt he efenlang ær oft gefylde. A wondrous thing hangs by a man’s thigh, full under the clothes. In front is a hole. It is stiff and hard, it knows its proper place; when a young man lifts his tunic above his knee, he wants to be able to enter with the head of his hanging thing the hole that it has often filled before. (a key) 1066 – the Norman Conquest – Anglo-Norman language Some of the Old English words replaced by French loans Earlier version Later version (c. 1200) (c. 1250) æhte boc-runen bolle gauel heren marmon-stane milce munuccliff munstre wisen Tresur Letter Coupe Truage Serve Marbre Grace Abbey Nonnerie Atyr Modern English Treasure Letter Cup Tribute Serve Marble Grace Abbey Nunnery Attire The Norman variety calenge prison reward The Parisian variety challenge prison regard Peterborough Chronicle (1122-1154) – 29 new words: religious words (abbat ‘abbot’, cardinal, miracle); social position words ‘countess’, curt ‘court’); (duc ‘duke’, cuntesse administrative words (canceler ‘chancellor’, concilie ‘council’, rent); law and politics (iustise ‘justice’, werre ‘war’, pais ‘peace’). 1200 - Ancrene Wisse (Anchorites’Guide) – 250 new words: religious terms (grace, letanie ‘litany’, sauter ‘Psalter’, scrowe ‘scroll’) abstract words (chastete ‘chastity’, daunger ‘arrogance’, defaut ‘fault’, delice ‘pleasure’, deuout ‘devout’, kurteisie ‘courtesy’, largesse ‘generosity’). everyday words (avancen ‘advance’, broche ‘brooch’, cite ‘city’, flur ‘flower’, jurneie ‘journey’, manere ‘manner’, messager ‘messenger’, propre ‘suitable’, reisun ‘reason’, tendre ‘tender’) Word formation French (Latin-derived) prefixes: con-, de-, dis-, en-, ex-, pre-, pro-, and transFrench suffixes: -able, -ance/-ence, -ant/-ent, -ity, -ment, and -tion (at the time, usually spelled -cion). The mix of French and Old English morphemes: • Old English suffixes + Old French nouns (beautiful, graceful, merciful, faithful, pitiful). • French affixes + Germanic words (knowable, findable, speakable, doable, makeable) • French + Germanic suffixes in one word (unknowable, discovering) Middle English – the beginning of literary language 1100 – 1250 Early Middle English – the Old English system of writing 1250 – 1400 Central Middle English: formation of literary dialects, change of orthography, the loss of pronunciation of final unaccented -e, the borrowing of Anglo-Norman words; the rise of the London dialect (John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer) 1400 – 1500 Late Middle English: the spread of the London literary dialect, the loss of the old system of declensions in the noun, adjective and pronoun. Geoffrey Chaucer – the Father of English literature (Canterbury tales) Chaucer's poetic vocabulary = 8,000 words, of which about 4,000 are French. But Chaucer's function words (pronouns, demonstratives, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs) are from Old English. A KNYGHT ther was, and that a worthy man, A knight there was, and he a worthy man, That fro the tyme that he first bigan Who, from the moment that he first began To riden out, he loved chivalrie, To ride about the world, loved chivalry, Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie. Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy. GRAMMAR Major changes • no separate noun declensions, PRONUNCIATION • new verbs get the weak (regular) conjugation (-(e)d), The Great Vowel Shift All long vowels were raised and fronted/moved forward and higher in the mouth: Middle English grene (pronounced grain) name (pronounced nahm) bone (pronounced bawn) boot (pronounced boat) Modern English green name bone boot • future tense appeared (Old English expressed futurity by context), • fixed sentence order. ORTHOGRAPHY using g and th instead of p, and ð High vowels became diphthongs: Middle English Modern English mus (pronounced moose) Mouse write (pronounced wreet) Write The final -e was pronounceable (as ə, like the a in sofa) PUNCTUATION • a point • a virgule (/) for comma • a mark of interrogation • a colon (:) • a paragraph mark (¶). • a double virgule (//) - word breaks at the end of a line TRIGLOSSIA LATIN FRENCH the primary language of religious expression and the language of law (Domesday Book) the spoken language of the court and the regional aristocracy, starting from 13th Century – of law, literature and the arts legal lexical doublets Doublet acknowledge and confess breaking and entering final and conclusive fit and proper give and grant had and received keep and maintain lands and tenements made and provided new and novel pardon and forgive peace and quiet shun and avoid will and testament wrack and ruin ENGLISH the second-class spoken language, the language of the defeated. Starting from the 15th Century – the language of law triplets Sources English/French English/French French/Latin English/French English/French English/French English/French English/French English/Latin English/French French/English French/Latin English/French English/Latin English/French give, devise, and bequeath (English / French / English) right, title, and interest (English / English / French) Doubling regardless of language of origin: French words: null and void, cease and desist, heirs and assigns, aid and abet English words: have and hold, let or hindrance, each and every !! Norse: give, call, knife, take Stylistic choice/ lexical alternatives Germanic Ask Climb Clothes Fast Fire Guts Holy House Kingly Rest Rise Sorrow Wish Weariness French Question Attire Firm Flame Entrails Courage Sacred Mansion Royal Remainder Mount Distress Desire Latin Interrogate Ascend The introduction of printing by Caxton in 1476 The beginning of standardized spelling Secure Conflagration Problem: a huge variety of different spellings. Consecrated church - 30 different ways of spelling, people - 22, receive - 45, she - 60, though - 500. Regal Residue Ascend Lassitude The “-ing” participle (e.g. running) = “-and” / “-end” / “ind” (e.g. runnand, runnend, runnind). The "-eth" and "-th" verb endings (e.g. goeth) = "-es" and "-s" (e.g. goes) Why England and not Saxonland? 7 Century – Angli, Anglia – Latin writers (the Angles opposed to the Saxons and Jutes). 8 Century – Angli Saxones (as opposed to the ‘Old Saxones’ from the continent) 880 – English is opposed to Danish in Anglo-Danish Peace treaty (and further on) 11 Century – Domesday Book - Engla lande Different spellings: Engle land, Englene londe, Engle lond, Engelond, Ingland 14 Century – England • 1500 – 1775 – Early Modern English The New Testament of William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536), published in 1525–6, revised in 1534. Problem: linguistic choices during translation: congregation or church, repentance or penance, seniors or priests, charity or love. Tyndale’s introductions: let there be light, the truth shall make you free, am I my brother’s keeper?, let my people go, the powers that be, blessed are the peacemakers, the signs of the times, and eat, drink, and be merry. 120 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary have a first recorded use attributed to Tyndale: fisherman, jesting, weakling, viper, betrayer, busybody, castaway, childishness, excommunicate, matrix ‘womb’, momentary, murmurer, prophesying, sanctifying (noun), sorcerer, unbeliever, ungodliness, ungodly, whoremonger, and zealous; compounds: broken-hearted, fellow-soldier, house-top, long-suffering, rose-coloured, sea-shore, stumbling-block, two-edged, wine-press. New grammatical uses: abrogate as a verb, beggarly as an adjective, brotherly as an adverb, nurse as a verb (‘bring up’). King James I (1566 – 1625) *Choosing older word orders and verb forms, *Introducing idiomatic expressions (whited sepulchre, the signs of the times) *Shortenings (straight and narrow from ‘strait is the gate, and narrow is the way’) 1604 – 1611 – King James’s Bible (8.000 lexemes) Examples of commonly used words Shakespeare created accommodation aerial amazement apostrophe assassination auspicious baseless William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) Vocab.: 20.000 lexemes lexical innovation = 2,035 instances bloody bump castigate changeful clangor control countless courtship critic critical dexterously dishearten dislocate dwindle eventful exposure fitful frugal generous gloomy gnarled hurry impartial inauspicious indistinguishable invulnerable lapse laughable lonely majestic misplaced monumental multitudinous obscene palmy perusal pious premeditated radiance reliance road sanctimonious seamy sportive submerge suspicious Examples of Introduced phrases all that glitters isn’t gold all the world’s a stage break the ice breathe one’s last brevity is the soul of wit clothes make the man frailty, thy name is woman et tu, Brute? fair play green eyed monster heart of gold catch a cold cruel to be kind disgraceful conduct heartsick hot-blooded housekeeping it smells to heaven it’s Greek to me live long day long-haired too much of a good thing to be or not to be wild goose chase witching time of the night the milk of human kindness a dog will have his day naked truth English journalist, Bernard Levin: “If you cannot understand my argument and declare it’s Greek to me, you are quoting Shakespeare. If you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare. If you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare. If you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied – a tower of strength – hoodwinked or been in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows – made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play – slept not one wink – stood on ceremony – danced attendance on your lord and master – laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift – cold comfort, or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days, or lived in a fool’s paradise, why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are as good luck would have it, quoting Shakespeare. If you think it is high time, and that that is the long and the short of it, if you believe that the game is up, and that the truth will out, even if involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low – till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge at one fell swoop – without rhyme or reason, then to give the devil his due if the truth were known for surely you have a tongue in your head, you are quoting Shakespeare. Even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a doornail, if you think I am an eyesore – a laughing stock – the devil incarnate – a stony-hearted villain – bloody-minded, or a blinking idiot, then by jove – o lord– tut, tut! – For goodness sake – what the dickens! – but me no buts – it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.” Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) - 400 lexemes, including amorousness, appassionate, artist, beautified, bookishness, counterbalance, harmfulness, hazardous, outflow, praiseworthiness, refreshing. Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) - 500 lexemes, incl. amenable, baneful, blandishment, cheerless, chirruping, dismay, heart-piercing, heedless, indignant, jovial, lambkin, lawlessness, life-blood, suffused, tambourine, thrilling, violin. Thomas Nashe (1567 – 1601) - 800 lexemes, incl. adequation, apophthegmatical, baggagery, clientry, collachrymate, confectionate, discernance, intermedium, oblivionize, chaucerism, conundrum, grandiloquent, harlequin, impecunious, Latinize, Mediterranean, memorize, multifarious, plausibility, seminary, silver-tongued, terminate, transitoriness, balderdash, earthling, helter-skelter, motherhood, cum-twang (a term of contempt), ninny-hammer (‘simpleton’), temptress. Dictionaries and Grammar 1604 – Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall – the first single-language English dictionary 130 pages, 2,543 words and their definitions. Aim: to create an in-depth guide for the lesser educated who might not know the “hard usual English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French.” 1702 – John Kersey's A New English Dictionary (included common words) 1721 – Nathan Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary (included common words) 1755 – Dr Johnson’s Dictionary (1755) – 40.000 words Aim: to standardize the spelling of the words, illustrating the meanings by literary quotation of authors like Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden. In addition, Johnson added notes on a word's usage. 1762 - Bishop Robert Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar 1774 - John Walker’s Pronouncing Dictionary of English (1774) Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) XIX Century • Industrialization, urbanization, new technologies, scientific discoveries • The changing pace of communication • The introduction of mass education • British empire has 20% of the world’s land surface, 400 million people. The number of speakers of English reached over 126 million. 1828 - Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language 1857 – Archbishop Richard Chenevix Trench: the dictionary-maker was to be ‘an historian, not a critic’. In future the dictionary-maker should describe the objective facts of language rather than aiming to provide, as had often been the case in earlier works, a range of subjective opinions about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ usage. 1870 - the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison 1884 - Oxford English Dictionary (A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles), part 1, edited by James Murray Aim: to ‘exhibit the actual variety of usage’- and to act as a neutral witness to language. Grammar changes: • the rise of the progressive passive (‘the ship is being built’) • the decline of the subjunctive after ‘if’ or ‘unless’ (‘if I were’/ ‘if I was’; ‘unless I be’/ ‘unless I am’) • the increasing use of got (‘it got broken’) • the split infinitive Development of Linguistics dialectology, phonology, morphology, lexicology… Videos to watch: 1) History of English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s 1) Where did English come from? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEaSxhcns7Y 1) The Adventure of English (BBC documentary): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV50II2XzmY-9GLZWAuieOp27mZUQfKnj Episodes 1-8: Episode 1 Birth of a Language Episode 2 English Goes Underground Episode 3 The Battle for the Language of the Bible Episode 4 This Earth, This Realm, This England Episode 5 English in America Episode 6 Speaking Proper Episode 7 The Language of Empire Episode 8 Many Tongues Called English 1) History of the English Language (1943): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fJiHmR85cU Movies: Samuel Johnson: The Dictionary Man Drama-documentary telling the story of Samuel Johnson's creation of the first English dictionary, in an attic room just off Fleet Street in Georgian London. The depressive writer-for-hire with Tourette's syndrome did for the English language what Newton had done for the stars, classifying words, fixing their meaning and bringing order to the chaos of language. It took him nine years, but in the process an anonymous writer became a literary superstar. The Professor and the Madman The film is about professor James Murray, who in 1879 became director of an Oxford University Press project, The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (now known as the Oxford English Dictionary) and the man who became his friend and colleague, W. C. Minor, a doctor who submitted more than 10,000 entries while he was confined at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum at Crowthorne after being found not guilty of murder due to insanity.
