A Concise History Of The English Language
There are so many people on the planet that can speak English, and even more learning how to communicate English. However, not more and more people know the origins of the English language. angliyskiyazik This article seeks to provide a brief history of the English speech.
The history of the English language starts throughout the 5th century AD, with the arrival of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes to Britain from what is today Denmark and Germany. The Angles came from "Englaland" and spoke "Englisc" which is where "England" and "English" comes from. In fact, the French word for English (Anglais) also comes from this word. These invaders settled in what's now called England and pushed the native Celtic speakers west and north into Scotland, Walks and Ireland.
These Germanic tribes spoke very similar languages and these languages developed into something called Old English which was used from around 450-1100 AD. This version of English has quite little similarities to what we speak today, however some popular words have their roots from old English. For example, one of the most widely used verbs in the English language is 'be' also it originates from Old English.
After this time, we move into what's called Middle English, which was used from around 1100-1500 AD. William the Conqueror successfully invaded Britain in 1066 and they bought together a form of French. This French language divided the nation and the lower classes spoke in English whereas the upper lessons used French. English became more popular again around 1400 AD, but English incorporated many of the French words to the languages. This is one of the reasons, English has two words for many animals, one being on your own place and ready to eat whereas English uses another word for an animal being alive and well! For instance, pig and pork, cow and beef.
Then we enter into the era of Modern English, which was used from around 1500 AD to 1800 AD. This type of English is much more similar to what we use today and is characterised by a very distinct and sudden change in vowel pronunciation. During this time period spellings became standardised because of the invention of the printing press which resulted in books becoming more widely available and far cheaper. It was also during this time period, in 1604 that this first British dictionary had been published and for that reason spelling and grammar become standardised.
What we speak today is known as Late Modern English. The English language has changed considerably in the last few hundred years due to industrialisation, technological advances as well as the rise of the British Empire. angliyskiyazik New words were needed for new inventions and English borrowed many words from Britain's colonies. For example, Shampoo originally derives from India and the word gigabyte is an extremely new word that wasn't have you ever heard of 100 or maybe 50 years ago.
The English language will continue to evolve. Words are being shortened even further and these are now making their way into the The english language dictionary. For example, the Oxford Concise Dictionary has added the word 'lol' that comes from the recent internet phenomenon showing people who you are 'laughing out loud' to their joke!
