ENGLISH ACROSS TIME
Unit 2: AOS 1
History and changes in the English Language.
Unit outline
Term 2:
Week 9-10: History of English, Indo- European Languages
Research Task
 Term 3:
Week 1: Revise- Codification
Week 2: Table task due, Research Due. Australian English ?
Week 2-4: Changes in language: subsystems. Why language
changes.
Week 5: Attitude to change- Writing responses
Week 5-6: Period Analysis and writing responses
Week 7: Sac revision
Week 8/9: SAC
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How does language change and
survive?
After studying this unit you will understand:
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How language changes: the links between social/
cultural changes to linguistic changes and
movements
What language represents: social/ cultural change
and values
How people respond to this: Attitudes
Research Task: Due week 2
Introduction: the four periods
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What existed before English?
What led to the formation and social use
of the English language?
NEOLOGISM
How does English survive?
Why does it continue to change? Is it a cultural
evolution?
Linguistic engineering vs. social engineering
Cultural evolution: Chinese whispers
“ And he there at suitable time asleep
fell, stood him a certain man beside in
dream, greeted him by his name
called”.
Cultural evolution
“Flips his belly he upon, away
scramble starts to, and bring she
the knife down his calf muscle on”
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Take notes in your exercise book
Fill out MAJOR table in own time
Work on research task
The History of English p.p.139-145
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Rabbit Recipe p.p. 125-127
[ 3. L.L: 176]
What changes can you hear/ see?
Changes in vocabulary and spelling (u/v, y/i)
Semantics: Hakkyd- Hack!
Why have these words changed?
Culinary skills are different…We no longer
draw, gut, hack in the kitchen!
Technology!
Dramatic changes
Even in a recipe there are dramatic changes: Other
registers too!
These changes will leave a trace or link to a point of
origin:
……… these markings on the language represents the
social/ cultural changes, values and IDENTITY…
Therefore Modern English is full of relics, fossils
from Old, Middle and Early Modern English!
Reflection….
The English Language is like a fleet of
juggernaut trucks that goes on
regardless….
No form of linguistic engineering and
no amount of linguistic legislation will
prevent the cycles of change…
HOW did English evolve?
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-did-english-evolvekate-gardoqui
OLD English: 500-1050: No agreed spelling, pronunciation and word order
Celtic Language
600BC: Celtic tribes arrived
55BC:
Roman invasion:
introduced LATIN
Latin spoken in towns
Celtic still native tongue
Two languages
410AD: Roman invasion
ends
Why does Latin continue
to stream through?
460AD: Germanic tribes
Germanic tribes
arrive
incorporated Latin
borrowings
OLD ENGLISH starts
597: Church and Latin
influence: St Augustine
800s: Viking raids
1050AD
Gradual push
Germanic dialect
becomes the first form
of Old English
Addition of Latin influences: vocabulary
Why? Social use and relevance:
Runic alphabet changes to Roman alphabet
Addition of Scandinavian influences: vocabulary (everyday
words), pronouns [they/ them/ their], singular –s inflection,
copular verb: to be, plural ‘-s’
By the end, English moves towards ‘structure’
Scandinavian influence: plurals
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http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-brief-history-of-pluralword-s-john-mcwhorter
OLD ENGLISH- What does English look at this point?
Page 4-7: The History of English
No set word order or agreed set of spelling/pronunciation: leading
to variation according to individual scribes
x No set spaces between words
x No set punctuation: capitals, full stops, commas, possessive
apostrophe
x Old English letters and lexemes [archaic]
x Lacking in function words therefore reliant on inflections, L.L: 171172
As a sense of word order became apparent, the use of inflections
declined (M.E)
x Verb can appear before the subject OR end of a clause: word
order not fixed
x Vocabulary is also lacking: Why? They don’t have words for things
they do not know yet...
x
O.E
Alphabet: 23 letters- didn’t have ‘j’, ‘u’, ‘w’
Sounds didn’t exist in Latin alphabet
 /th/- th? Tt? Dh?
 No ‘w’: we
Latin V- ‘w’ sound. By 7th century ‘v’- /v/ sound
‘w’-u: small cursive of V
‘w’- uu: double u. 13th century- blended to ‘w’.
 Qu-cw
 C and ch: ‘c’. Cald [cold], Cild [child]
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Text example
Text example: Intro: page 5, H.E: page 7
Annotate features of O.E
 Words derived from O.E
 O.E lexemes
 O.E letters
 No full stops or capitals: punctuation
 Word order
 Lack of function words such as…..
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Old English words have a muscular quality: short direct and forceful
 Beowulf in O.E [prologue] :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7VTH8ii_8
Middle English: 1050AD-1450AD: Moving towards STRUCTURE/ Social Usage- How does English survive???
1066AD: Norman Conquest
French influence: vocabulary:
10,000words, grammar: affixes
Will
experience a
gradual push
However, English remains: it
was an already established
language, strong oral
tradition, considerable
literature [Page 10 H.E]
French scribes started to write what they
heard using French conventions: this gives us
word order, function words ,affixes ,spellingcont. later
During this period, French and Latin was the accepted
written language, English was still the language of the
common people: therefore there was division:
- Upper class/ Barons: French
- Lower class: English
1343-1400 CHAUCER:
1362AD:
1384AD
English establishes
within the bodies of
law
English establishes
itself through
religious sector
Chose to publish his writings in English- not French or Latin. He
wanted to emphasise the importance of English and its social values.
Made literature accessible to everybody
Replaces French as the language of Law (Latin
remains in records)
First publication of the bible in English (John Wycliffe).
Latin was the language of Religious Faith
Wycliffe wanted it accessible to all.
English gradually makes it way through all obstacles and challenges
other Languages: French and Latin and aspects of SOCIAL life
-Law, administration
-Religion
-Education
-Literature
1400AD:
English establishes
itself through
Education
Great Vowel shift: 7 vowel sounds change. This signifies the
growing importance of the language- as change only
happens if it is valued or needed.
Finally, towards the end of this period, English replaces
Latin as the language of instruction (schools) except
Oxford.
Linguistic change:
Loss of a large number of inflections BUT there was still no
agree system of spelling. Range of different spellings were
greater than the O.E period!
In addition the Scandinavian influences were not felt until the
13th century
Beginning 90 % drops to 75 %: borrowings
What does M.E look like?
French invasion: 10,000 words, French scribes write what they hear using French
written conventions: French spelling, French suffixes, more word order therefore a
reduction in O.E inflections, suffix: -ment, -tion, -en, -ity, -ance, ex-, con- etc..
 Other affixes:-ed/ -es/-s : 1200 onwards: synthetic language to analytcal
 Spelling is still inconsistent
No ‘w’ in ‘we’
/w/= v or u or uu [13th century- ‘w’]
Long vowels marked by silent ‘e’: tale, gate, side
French preferred to double the letters: tree, sweet, sleep, seed
Double vowels in: foot, good, blood
12th century: short vowel: double consonant: ill, spell, upp, purr, dogg, catt, mess, cliff,
skull, mess, doll
What about moth? Mothth? Fishing- fishshing?
Cw-qu
H-gh: might
 Great vowel shift
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Text: Chaucer- Canterbury Tales
Prologue
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Collection of over 20 stories
Tales are in verse some in prose: story telling
context by a group of pilgrims that travel togetherunprecedented diverse collection
The prize is a meal at a tavern
It popularised the literary use of vernacular [native
language] English
No standard
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No standard therefore no sense of purity or
‘Englishness’ within the language
No significance in the particular choice of French
words within the English language
Not until the next period [16th century] that people
become more conscious of English and the need to
purify and ennoble it- prescriptive, exuberance of a
nation
Early Modern English: 1450-1700AD (Renaissance)
We enter this period with English already establishing itself but has yet to
reach any state of stability: heading towards a standard. Before 1500s (16th
Century there was no set rules!)
1476AD: William Caxton sets
up printing press
Standard English: (speaking,
grammatical structures)
London dialect was chosen. It
was the centre of: education,
law, commerce, etc... Therefore
the chosen standard could
easily spread and adopted by
other regions
Complications (spelling is not standard yet)
due to printing- English is yet to be stable
because: [H.E: p. 14]
- Printers bought in
their own spelling
- Line alignment: shorten or
lengthen words
- Scholars wanted to indicate
Latin origins of words: silent
(Renaissance)
So now we have reach stability - English continues to grow and change
as people begin to value and see the importance of English. Scholars
and linguist begin to start ‘talking’ about grammar, vocabulary more
and more ...English takes off during and after the 1500s.
1564AD:
Shakespeare is born
He uses London Dialect- it is the standard
He was and still is an influential writer because his plays
were/is valued and read by many (therefore also
‘promoting’ London Dialect as standard)
-Vocabulary: borrowings, creation of new
words
- Spelling: addition/ loss of syllables
- Grammar: structure
1600-1700AD:
Renaissance: New wave (2nd) of loan words arrive from:
Italian, French, Greek, Spanish, Latin take 2, Portuguese
...And so as we move into the Modern English period, we have
a stable form of English and a society that is increasingly
discussing and seeing the importance of English.
THE SEARCH FOR STABILITY continues, H.E: page 17
-Still missing set spelling, set grammar because lack of
authoritative text.
- Wide spread prescriptive view against foreign influence
and neologism entering the English language.
What does E.M.E look like?
Latin take 2:
 Prefixes: anti-, post-, pre-,
 Suffix: -ate, -ic, -al
Spelling: inconsistent
Added –tch: hatch, match
Add silent ‘e’ to /v/ sounds: love, live
Add silent ‘e’ to long vowels
Silent ‘e’ for words of Latin origin
Dutch spelling ‘gh-’: ghost
 Vocabulary: influx of borrowings
 Shakespeare: changes in spelling, new words, more word order
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Text: Shakespeare
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EGEUS
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/shakespearean-datingtips-anthony-john-peters
 Activity: using Shakespearean language come up
with a pick up line
Use the Iambic Pentameter: 10 syllables, stressed/
unstressed: ~/~/~/~/~/
Giving it a spin
Star Wars- if Shakespeare wrote it!
A New Hope: Scene 2
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Three little pigsJohn Branyan
Twitterature:
Macbeth
Modern English: 1700AD-present:
Codification, establishing authority and spread
The 18th Century (1700s) became a time for authorisation
1755AD:
Samuel Johnson publishes first dictionary.
His intentions were to banish “colloquial
barbarianism” and determine correct usage of
English FOR GOOD
English becomes the preferred language over
Latin in everything: education, commerce, law,
science etc...
Industrial
Revolution
Large numbers of
handbooks become
regulated
More
dictionaries
published
More grammar
books published
NOTION of prescriptive grammar became highly topical
Influential figures
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English and Religion
During the fourteenth and fifteenth century, the
movement was under way to force English into a
central place in society.
It was the church that the English Language had its most
violent struggle with.
During that time, Latin was the language of
God..... who at that time controlled and pervaded all
aspects of earthly life.
John Wycliffe
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The central power of words in the
fourteenth and fifteenth century
England lay in the bible.
The prime mover in the fourteenth
century was a scholar, John Wycliffe.
He inspired two biblical translations in
1384. More than 250 manuscripts still
survives (They were all hand written).
After his death, despite being
condemned by the church, his
translations continued to be produced
and circulate- even when it became a
mortal crime to possess one.
Chaucer: Middle English
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Most importantly he decided not
to write in Latin, instead in
English- London based English
High use of function words
Period of ‘realism’: avoided
following literacy models
He tailored his language to suit
everyday story tellingexposed language to everyday
people- written to read out loud
Shakespeare: Early Modern English
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Spelling and pronunciation
Vocabulary
Grammar
Explain the following quotes:
The English Language is like a fleet of
juggernaut trucks that goes on
regardless….
No form of linguistic engineering and
not amount of linguistic legislation will
prevent the cycles of change…
Exercise
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Quiz questions
Extension- links to SAC
Research task continue
Complete table task
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Video clip: Revision
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Videos
Other resources:
Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure of English is a 8 episode documentary.
Episode 1: Birth of the language: O.E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGYiM_ZnjAc
Episode 2: English goes underground: Looking at the French and Latin dominance during the E.M period
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QcFbHkWXk4
Episode 3: The battle for the language of the Bible: Medieval church kept the Bible in Latin, while those
possessing an English translation risked death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfgons95HnA
Episode 4: This Earth, This Realm, This England: Naval enterprise and foreign trade brought scores of new words,
scholars brought new Latin terms and Shakespeare combined the languages of the common people....to take
English to new heights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeP42sGX2S4
Episode 5: English in America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FVMIHIgMzA
Episode 6: Speaking proper: 18th century- the first dictionary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGQD-W7uAPg
Episode 7: The language of Empire: English was enriched by other cultures and languages: India, Caribbean.
Australia- transportation of convicts: escaping from the shadows of Standard British English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8EeMEfIR0w
Episode 8: Many Tongues called English, One World: Globalisation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rFYB68KRPk