MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 1, Lesson 1
1
Focus of the lesson: the history of the English language
and etymology of English words
To the student:
The first unit of this course focuses on the Word Analysis and Vocabulary section of
the Reading strand in the English SOL, which includes study of word origins and
derivations; roots and affixes; and inflections. To provide a context for this study,
the unit begins with a lesson on the history of the English language, as well as
information on word histories.
PART I: THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
1.
Read the history of the English language and examine the chronology
found at the following website:
What is English? History of the origins and development of the English language
2.
Examine the three versions of the Lord’s Prayer found below. To
hear how Old English and Middle English were pronounced, use the
links that follow versions 1 and 2 of the prayer.
VERSION 1 (11
th
century)
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum;
Si þin nama gehalgod
To becume þin rice
Gewurþe ðin willa
On eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg
And forgyf us ure gyltas
Swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
And ne gelæd þu us on costnunge
Ac alys us of yfele soþlice.
Click on one of the following links to hear the Lord’s Prayer read in Old
English:
http://bitterscroll.podomatic.com/entry/2006-08-09T16_02_07-07_00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wl-OZ3breE
MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 1, Lesson 1
VERSION 2 (1390)
Oure fadir that art in heuenes,
halewid be thi name;
thi kyngdoom come to;
be thi wille don, in erthe as in heuene.
Yyue to vs this dai oure breed ouer othir substaunce,
and foryyue to vs oure dettis, as we foryyuen to oure dettouris;
and lede vs not in to temptacioun, but delyuere vs fro yuel.
I couldn’t find an audio version of the Lord’s Prayer in Middle English, but to hear
what Middle English sounded like, you can access the audio file (from the Prologue
to the Canterbury Tales) found at the following link:
Canterbury Tales Prologue in Middle English
This is the text you will listen to:
General Prologue
Here bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunterbury
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10
15
20
25
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
Bifil that in that seson, on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght was come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
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MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 1, Lesson 1
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35
40
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
And wel we weren esed atte beste;
And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
And made forward erly for to ryse
To take our wey, ther as I yow devyse.
But nathelees, whil I have tyme and space,
Er that I ferther in this tale pace,
Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
To telle yow al the condicioun
Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
And eek in what array that they were inne;
And at a knyght than wol I first bigynne.
VERSION 3 (1928 Book of Common Prayer)
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 1, Lesson 1
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ACTIVITY 1-1-1
Use information from the “What Is English?” website
( http://www.englishclub.com/english-what.htm ), including the
chronology, to answer the following questions:
Questions on the History of the English Language
1.
What are the major periods of the English language?
2.
What language was spoken in Britain prior to the arrival of the Angles,
Saxons, and Jutes?
3.
To which language is English most closely related: Old Norse, German,
Latin, or Greek?
4.
What event brought about a dramatic change in English around 1100
A.D.?
5.
Name one factor that brought about the addition of a large number of
new words to the English language during the sixteenth century.
6.
In which version of English were Shakespeare’s works written?
7.
The publication of what work marks the beginning of the late modern
English period?
8.
What is one example of a word modern English has borrowed from
another language?
MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 1, Lesson 1
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PART II: CHANGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE OVER TIME
Read the information below, which illustrates changes in the English
language over time.
Some examples of Celtic words in Modern English:
bard, car/carry/career, cargo/carpenter, crag, druid, peat, bog, cairn, glen, plaid, slogan,
trousers, bug, flannel, flummery.
Some examples of Scandanavian (Norse) words in Modern English:
anger, bleak, blink, call, creek, crook, dirt, dowdy, doze, egg, fellow, flat, flaw, fleck, gasp,
gaze, gloat, happen, harsh, inkling, kick, kilt, law, leg, muck, nasty, oaf, odd, root, scalp,
scant, skill, skull, sky, thrall, thrift, ugly, want, window.
Some examples of Latin words in Modern English:
area, bacteria, cancer, camera, circus, complex, equilibrium, fungus, inertia, latex, opera,
pauper, peninsula, propaganda, series, simile, status.
Some examples of French words in Modern English:
bastard, beauty, castle, choice, conquest, constraint, defeat, destroy, dinner, forest,
garden, govern, honest, interest, judge, loyal, marvel, place, priest, push, quest, stuff,
sure, tempest, trick.
Modern English words from Old English vs. Modern English words from French:
Old English
Cow (cu)
Hog (hogge)
Sheep
House (hus)
French
Beef (boeuf)
Pork (porc)
Mutton (mouton)
Mansion (maison)
Here are samples of Old English Words and how they changed, through Middle English,
to Modern English:
Old English
brieg
faestnian
iegland
langung
niwe
strang
Middle English
bregge
festen
eland
longinge
newe
stronge
Modern English
bridge
fasten
island
longing
new
strong
Relatively recent additions to English include the following:
MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 1, Lesson 1
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Carjacking (an incident by which an armed individual coerces the
driver of an automobile to give up his vehicle or drive it and the
assailant to some specified location [blend of car and hijacking ])
Mallrats – (collective term used for pre-teens and teenagers for whom
it is commonplace to spend large amount of time socializing and
wandering through urban shopping malls)
Pooper-scooper (An instrument comprised of a scooping device on a
long pole used for the collection of animal waste matter)
Snail mail (the standard system of mail delivery in which letters,
documents, and packages are physically transported from one location
to another, in contrast to electronic mail)
Spam (multiple posts of the same message to the same or different
Usenet newsgroups or to an e-mail account. The message is usually
advertisements or marketing promotions and contains no useful or
worthwhile information)
Etymology – the study of the origin and history of words.
 Origins of words in the English language:
Centuries-old words from the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and French
languages make up about eighty percent of our language. The other
twenty percent is made up partly of borrowed words and partly of three
other kinds of words:
Eponyms—words from the names of people and places (for example,
July and August, named after Roman emperors; Braille, after Louis
Braille, who invented this written language for the blind; leotard, after
the French gymnast Julius Leotard; pasteurize, after Louis Pasteur, who
discovered the process; and even proprietary eponyms, based on
trademarks of popular products such as Frisbee, Kitty Litter, and
Kleenex)
Imitative words—primarily words that imitate sounds, such as bang,
thud, crunch, zap, and burp
Invented words—words made up by someone to name or describe
someone or something that currently existing words can’t adequately
describe. Examples: moron, coined by Dr. Henry Goddard in 1910 as an
official designation for someone whose I.Q. is below 75 but who ranks
above an imbecile or an idiot, and squawk, a word invented by the
author Lewis Carroll by combining the words squall and squeak.
MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 1, Lesson 1
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Current examples, invented primarily by the media, include celebutante
(a combination of celebrity and debutante—e.g., Paris Hilton);
Brangelina (invented by combining the first names of Brad Pitt and
Angelina Jolie); and metrosexual, defined as an urban male who likes
the finer things in life that are usually associated with women’s tastes.
 History of words in the English language:
Both the definitions and the connotations of words can change over time.
Notable examples include the following—
Housewife – Both housewife and hussy come from the same source
word, the Middle English husewif. Through the centuries, one has come
to mean “a woman who manages the home while her husband earns their
living” and the other to mean “a woman or girl who shows improper
behavior.”
Gymnasium – This word in Greek (gymnasion) means “a place where
naked people train or exercise,” because in ancient Greece athletes
trained and competed in the nude. Since about 1600, in English it has
meant “a place where people exercise.”
Assassin – This word comes from the old Arabic word hashshshin,
which meant "someone who is addicted to hash," that is, marijuana. It
originally referred to a group of warriors who would smoke hash before
battle in order to increase their fearlessness.
ACTIVITY 1-1-2
Write a paragraph or two in which you explain how you believe the English
language will change during the next fifty years and why these changes
will occur.