THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

ENGLISH TODAY: -NEW ZELAND -AUSTRALIA -AFRICA -ASIA -AMERICA -EUROPE -ISLANDS (of the Atlantic,Indian,and Pacific

Ocean )

ENGLISH IS :

-FIRST LANGUAGE and SECOND LANGUAGE spoken by 320/370 million people

-FOREING LANGUAGE spoken by MILLIONS more

THAT´S WHY ENGLISH IS CONSIDERED :

WORLD LANGUAGE

SPREAD OF ENGLISH

--17th and 18th century with the British settlement of North

America, The Caribbean, Australia and Asia. --19th century English became important

internationnally. (Britain was one of the world´s leading industrial nation) --20th century the use of English spread with the growth

in international business. --21st century continues with the growth, internet,

English is the working language for the European Central Bank (in Germany), shopping, making travel arrangement,…

THE BEGINNING SANSKRIT (Ancient language of India)Sanskrit many similarities with European languages: Sanskrit Latin Greek English pitr pater pater father matar mater matr mother bhratr frater phrater brotherAll these languages and many other ones, all belong to

one “family” of related languages called the INDO-EUROPEAN - PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN family (see photocopy)

INVADERS *CELTSThey were the first group of Indo-European speakers to move

across Europe.Their homeland was in central Europe, north of the Alps. They reached the Black Sea, south-west Spain and central Italy, and the

whole Britain and Ireland.

*ROMANSINVADED BRITAIN-STAYED FOUR HUNDRED YEARS (Introduced new way of life and new language. Some British Celts learnt to

speak and write Latin)

*GERMANS TRIBES ATTACKEDROMANS LEFT BRITAIN IN AD 410

*THE SAXONS, THE ANGLES AND JUTES CAME FROM GERMANY AND DENMARK IN THE MIDDLE OF 5TH C. ADAll these people spoke dialects of a language they called ENGLISC . They called the British Celts “wealas” meaning : foreigners. From this comes de word Welsh.

*By the end of 5th c. the ENGLISH LANGUAGE BEGAN TO DEVELOP WITH THE CONTRIBUTION OF GERMANIC AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS TRIBES,

OTHER INVADERS *Other invaders were THE VIKINGS (called DANES by

Anglo-Saxons). They came from Denmark and Norway. Influence in language: words beginning with sk-: skin, skirt, sky. Some pronouns and adjectives:they, their, them

*THE NORMANDS- French invaders (1066). French became the lg for two hundred years, until 13th

century. Used mainly by the upper class, ordinary people used English.

In 15th c. English completed replaced French in the home, in education and in government.

DIALECTS *The dialects of the first Anglo-

Saxons became what we now call Old English (OE). There were four main dialects: West Saxon, Kentish, Mercian, Northumbrian. Old English was almost completed Germanic. The dialects had very few Celtic words. However, they borrowed some Celtic words, for example, some English cities and and rivers: London, Leeds and Thames.

*Monks from Rome to teach the Anglo-Saxons about Christianity,left latin words in education and some connected to the Church.

*Eighty-five per cent of the OE vocabulary has been replaced in ModerEnglish (ME) with words from Latin and Greek. However, the hundred most common words in ME all come from the language used at that time.

OE ME

wif wife

cild child

hus house

drincan drink

etan eat

slaepa sleep

MIDDLE ENGLISH In the four hundred years that followed the Norman

Conquest, the English language changed more than in any other time in history. Thousands of words from French came into the language, and many Old English ones left.

At the same time Middle English changed grammatically, mainly by becoming simpler.

OE: climb-past- clomb ME: climbpast climbed Between 1100 and 1500, about 10,000 French words

were taken into English, three-quarters of which are still in use. French words came into every part of life: for example, chair, city, crime, fashion, fruit,…

MODERN ENGLISH

The 16th c. full of changes in Europe (explore America, Africa, Asia, and learning in all areas flowered)

Isaac Newton W. Shakespeare