How English Evolved

7/23/2019 How English Evolved

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1. Anglo-SaxonAs the Romans Empire collapse, the Romans started to leave

Britain, a lot of Germanic tribes start ooding in, tribes such as The

Saxons in Germany and eastern olland, the !utes, possibly from

northern "enmar# $the area no% called !utland&, and the Angles,

probably living along the coast and on islands bet%een "enmar# and

olland' (t is also li#ely that the invaders included )risians from northern

olland and northern )ran#s from southern olland'The fact is, there %ere so many Angels in Britain, you may as %ell

call it *Angle land+ *England+ and their language called *Englisc+

*English+, tough this language %ere very di-erent from English' Those

tribes living along together and get their culture and language mixed'

Their language is #no%n as the Anglo.Saxon' /e called this period as

the 0roto English period'

The Romans left some very straight roads behind, but not much oftheir 1atin language' The Anglo.Saxon vocab %as much more useful as

it %as mainly %ords for simple everyday things li#e *house+, *%oman+,

*loaf+ and *%are%olf+' )our of our days of the %ee# %ere named in

honour of Anglo.Saxon Gods' They didn2t bother on 3onday, Sunday

and )riday as they all gone o- for long %ee#end'The 4ld English period began %hen the 5hristian missionaries stole

in, bringing %ith them leaets about 6umble sales and more 1atin'

5hristianity %as a hit %ith the locals and made them much happier to

ta#e on fun#y ne% %ords from latin li#e *3artyr+, *Bishop+ and *)ont+'Around the year 788 A'"', the 9i#ings invaded Britain, %ith their

action.man %ords li#e *"rag+, *Ransac#+ *Thrust+ and *"ie+' They may

have raped and pillaged but they %ere also into *Give+ and *Ta#e+, t%o

of around :888 %ords that they gave English'2. The Norman Conquest

Everything %as ;ne until ormans invaded and

%on' True to his name, /illiam the 5on?ueror, he and the >ormans

invaded Britain and bringing ne% concepts from acrosss the channel

li#e the )rench language' )rench %as de riguerfor all o@cial business,

%ith %ords li#e *6udge+$orman ruling class %ould refer to the meat they %ere

served using their o%n %ords li#e *beef+, *por#+, *mutton+, but the

poorer Anglo.Saxon still using their early old English %ords li#e *co%+,

*pig+, *sheep+, until this day' That is %ay English is one of the very fe%

languages on earth that has a di-erent name for the meat of the animaland the name of the animal it came from'


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All in all the English absorbed about ten thousand ne% %ords from

the >ormans, this %as more than a ?uarter of English vocabulary on

that time' This 3iddle English period ended %hen the English nation

too# their ne% %arli#e lingo of *armies+, *navies+ and *soldiers+ and

began the hundred year %ar against )rance' (t actually lasted e%ton' The royal society %as formed out of

the invisible college after they put it do%n some%here and couldn2t ;nd

it again'At ;rst they %or#ed in 1atin' After sitting through >e%ton2s story

about *pomum+ falling to the *terra+ from the *arbor+ for the

*umpteenth+ time, the bright spar#s realied they all spo#e English and

they couldn2t transform their understanding of the universe much

?uic#er by tal#ing in their o%n language' But science %as discovering

things faster than they could name themH %ords li#e *acid+, *gravity+,

*electricity+ and *pendulum+ had to be invented 6ust to stop their

meetings turning into an endless game of charades'&. #nglish an' #mpire (1")3-1*14+


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/ith English ma#ing its name as the language of science, the Bible

and Sha#espeare, Britain decided to ta#e it on tour' )rom ot only the accent, but also the vocabulary and

grammar' This di-erence later #no%n as American English and British

English' Those terms aren2t actually correct' The Brits actually have

many di-erent accents li#e 04S, 5oc#ney, South 1ondon and Received

0ronunciation or The Iueen2s English' This also happen in JSA, people

in "5 have di-erent accent %ith the people in Texas'*. /nternet #nglish

(n


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had ever had to *do%nload+ or *upload+ anything before, let alone use

a *toolbar+' And the only time someone set up a *;re%all+'

5onversations are getting shorter than the average attention span' /hy

bother %riting a sentence %hen an abbreviation %ould do and leave you

more time to *blog+, *po#e+ and *reboot+ %hen your *hard drive+crashedK' *(n my humble opinion+ become (34, *By the %ay+ became

BT/, *)or Lour (nformation+ )L(, and to tell someone that you thin#

something is funny, you 6ust say 141 even %hen you don2t thin# that

it2s funny at all' Some changes even passed into spo#en English'10. lo!al #nglish

(n the

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How English Evolved