NEVER WORRY ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH AGAIN
By: Santiago Martinez
Tags: Learning And Development, English, Tuesday, Edutainment, Learning

NEVER WORRY ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH AGAIN

Recently, english has become one of the languages which is the most spoken around the world, and this is due to the influence of many english speaking countries that have over so many languages. For example, it is common to see instructions, tags, games, books, celebrities, devices,etc, which will prioritise the english position from others.

This may sound crazy and at the same time interesting, knowing that this language is around the world. But you may be wondering : Why have these languages gained such popularity? or Which is its origin? In the following paragraphs we will answer the mentioned questions and more.

The Beginning

This research is based on a brief history investigation from Oxford International English Schools, which uses data from Encyclopedia Britannica. According to it, English as a language itself really began with the invasion of Britain during the 5th century. There were 3 Germanic tribes: the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles whose ideal was to conquer lands, and cross over from the North Sea. During the invasion, the native Britons were driven north and west into lands we now refer to as Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Consequently, The word England and English originated from the Old English word Engla-land, literally meaning “the land of the Angles’ ‘ where they spoke English.

Ancient English

According to the investigation from a notable English professor at the University of Pennsylvania Albert Baugh, a notable English professor at the University of Pennsylvania specifies in his several researches that 85% of Old English is no longer in use; but, there are some existing elements form the basis of the Modern English language today such:

Prehistoric or Primitive (5th to 7th Century)

Early Old English (7th to 10th Century)

Late Old English (10th to 11th Century)

Early Middle English

Syntax was heavily affected during this period. In case you don’t know the meaning of this word, it is the simple arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences. Meanwhile, the British government and its wealthy citizens Anglicised the language, Norman and French influences remained the dominant language until the 14th century. Equally, the loss of case endings which are the suffixes on an inflected noun, pronoun, or adjective that indicates its grammatical function, provoking markers being replaced by complex language features.

Some linguists such as Charles Laurence Barber and John McWhorter highlighted that the influence of new dialects weakened the influence of Old English, due to some language limitations such as the inability to pronounce some words as it happened with the Norsemen that could communicate but its inability to pronounce left them not other option that to drop the old influence.

Late Middle English

In the 14th century a different dialect emerged known as the East-Midlands which according to many linguistics began to develop around the London area. For example, Geoffrey Chaucer identifies himself as the Father of English Literature, and thanks to his various works that the English language was more or less “approved” alongside those of French and Latin, for the previous reason, G Chaucer continued to write up some of his characters in the northern dialects.

During the 14th century something just appeared, a new terminology called the Chancery English. This term consisted in the written usage of the clerks of Chancery in London, who prepared the king’s documents. In case you didn’t know, papers were written merely in either french or latin. These languages were mainly used by royalty, the church, and wealthy Britons. However, the clerks started using a dialect up to date similar as the one we are using recently:

gaf (gave) not yaf (Chaucer’s East Midland dialect)

such not swich

theyre (their) not hir

Early Modern English

Moving forward to the 15th to mid-17th Century, some significant changes were implemented in the language but not only a change in pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar itself but also you can perceive it as the rebirth of english..

This time the influence came from its pan-European close relative; we are talking about the Italian Renaissance, Flourishing the 15th century with plenty of social and cultural movements.

By the side of the famous writer and diplomat William Caxton whose fascinating creation of the first model of the printing press allowed the english languages to become mainstream. Like almost magic, this invention propulsed english to its standardization thanks to the distribution of one of the most known books, published at a large scale: “The Bible”

Almost like in the midst of the 14th century, where common people could finally have access to the Bible in a language that they could recognize and read, resulting in the expansion of the common folk dialect.

Almost in 1600, it was accomplished the first complete translation of the Catholic Bible, provoking a huge impact, since it played an important role in the continued development of the language, since catholicism exerted a big influence in the population worldwide.Many years later the famous W. Shakespeare started to make a huge influence in writing during a time when the English language was undergoing serious changes due to war.

The use of words or different phrases from other languages were modified and added to the English language, enriching the language itself, since writers and authors did not consider the languages spoken by the common people was proper for the plays. This activity of adding lexic from other languages continued as in the case of adopting indigenous words Migration during the 17th, 18th and 19th century helped even more the flux of adding new varieties and dialects, coming from different areas including West African, Native American, Spanish and European influences.

Late Modern English

The new era has begun and the Industrial Revolution and the Rise of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and early 20th-century emerged and the same happened to the language. The advancements in different areas as sciences and technology during this period of time, opened the door to the origin of new lexical methods implemented in specific areas and concepts, for example: the creation of words with Greec roots as bacteria, nuclear ,biology, etc.

As the time passed by, the nature of these new words became popular in scientists, scholars, universities, schools.during the Revolution saw a need for new words, phrases, and concepts to describe these ideas and inventions. As this period of time opened doors for technology and other areas, it helped also to new colonialism ideas by not only promoting and spreading the language itself but also traditions and culture.

English in the 21st Century

Nowadays, if you are either a native speaker of a foreigner who is a fan of learning english a second, third, forth .. language. You can perceive that although english has suffered many changes, some structure and lexical mountains are as similar as before. Evidently, it is not the same however, the language follows some parameters and some rules as before.

The most important thing to highlight in these new years, it is that the evolving process continues. You may think : Is this possible ? Of course it is. Thanks to the internet and even more advancements. new words and expressions from different languages have been added to the register. Many will think that this is the degradation of the language since it mingles a lot of features from other languages, but that is rational thinking since we can learn a lot from other cultures.