Story in English inextricably linked with the history of England. It began in the 5th century, when three Germanic tribes invaded Britain, then inhabited by Celts and partly Romans. The Germanic influence turned out to be so strong that soon there was almost nothing left of the Celtic and Latin languages on the territory of almost the entire country. Only in remote and hard-to-reach areas of Britain, which remained not captured by the Germans (Cornwall, Wells, Ireland, Highland Scotland), did the local Welsh and Gaulish languages survive. These languages have survived to this day: they are called the Celtic languages, in contrast to the Germans.
whom English.
Then the Vikings came to Britain from Scandinavia with their Old Norse language. Then in 1066 the French took over England. Because of this, French was the language of the English aristocracy for two centuries, and old English was used by the common people. This historical fact had a very significant impact on the English language: many new words appeared in it, the vocabulary almost doubled. Therefore, it is in the vocabulary that the splitting into two variants of English - high and low, respectively, of French and German origin - can be quite clearly felt today.
Thanks to the doubling of the dictionary, the English language today has many words of the same meaning - synonyms that arose as a result of the simultaneous use of two words. different languages who came from the Saxon peasants and from the Norman masters. A striking example of such social division is the differences in the name livestock coming from Germanic roots:
- cow - cow
- calf - calf
- sheep - sheep
- swine - pig
Despite all external influences, the core of the language remained Anglo-Saxon. Already in the XIV century, English becomes literary language, as well as the language of law and school. And when the mass emigration from Britain to America began, the language brought there by the settlers continued to change in a new direction, often retaining its roots in British English, and sometimes changing quite significantly.
The beginning of the globalization of English
By the beginning of the 20th century
eka English is increasingly becoming a language international communication. English, along with other languages of international communication, was used at international conferences, in the League of Nations, for negotiations. Even then, the need to improve its teaching and develop objective criteria for learning the language more effectively became obvious. This need stimulated the search and research of linguists different countries which have not dried up to this day.
It is clear that one of the most important components of the study of any foreign language is the accumulation of vocabulary. Only by acquiring some vocabulary can one begin to study the relationships of words - grammar, style, etc. But which words should be learned first? And how many words do you need to know? There are a lot of words in the English language. According to linguists, complete vocabulary The English language contains at least one million words.
The early grammars of the English language (the first of which was written in 1586) were written either to help foreigners master the English language or to prepare English-speaking students for the study of Latin. In general, these books were not designed to teach native English speakers. It was not until around 1750 that attempts were made to teach the English language.
Too bad it didn't happen a few generations later. Eighteenth century linguists based their study of the English language on wrong theories. For example, they believed that grammatical rules were the same for all languages, and, arguing that Latin was the ideal, they often tried to remake English expressions in the Latin manner. Moreover, they believed that the withering away of endings in words was a sign of degradation, not progress. They could not return the endings that had already disappeared, but they successfully preserved all the others. If not for their influence, irregular verbs in modern English would be much less. Their theories were consolidated and communicated to ordinary people thanks to a wave of widespread education in England. A huge number of irregular verbs and carefully preserved endings did not allow the English language to fully transform from a synthetic language into an analytical one.
With the spread of literacy, the English language slowed its change, but it continues to change to this day. The ease of use of the rules, as well as the richness of the vocabulary, which continues to expand, has allowed the English language to become an international language of communication over the past half century.
- English is the language of Shakespeare and the language of Chaucer. It is spoken by dozens of countries around the world from the USA to the tiny islands of Tristan da Cunha. It has traces of history from the Vikings to Internet communities. Here are 25 cards that explain how the English Language became what it is today and why it is so diverse. (pictures are clickable - link to the original with high resolution) not a literal translation of article 25 maps that explain the English language by Vox.
Origin of the English Language
Where did English come from
English, like more than 400 other languages, is part of the Indo-European language family, having common roots not only with German and French, but also with Russian, Hindi, Punjabi and Persian. This beautiful drawing by Finnish-Swedish comic illustrator Minna Sundberg perfectly shows the closeness of languages like French and German, as well as the distance of Greek and Farsi.
Indo-European language today
This map shows where Indo-European languages are spoken today in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, and it is also easy to see which languages do not have common roots with English, such as Finnish and Hungarian among them.
Anglo-Saxon migration
This is how the English Language came about: After the Roman armies left Britain in the early 5th century, three Germanic peoples - the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes - settled the islands and established their own kingdoms. They brought with them the Anglo-Saxon language, which, combined with some Celtic and Latin words, created Old English. Old English was first spoken in the 5th century and would be completely incomprehensible to a modern English speaker if he heard it. About 4,500 Anglo-Saxon words have survived in modern English. Which corresponds to only 1 percent of the words in the Oxford Dictionary, but many words are the backbone of the language, such as "day" and "year," the body parts "chest," arm, "and "heart," and many verbs: "eat," " kiss," "love," "think," "become."
Danelaw (The Danelaw)
The next donor of new words was the Old Norse language. Vikings from the territory of modern Denmark, led by Ivar the Boneless, attacked the east coast british isles in the 9th century. They eventually took control of half of Britain. From that time, such words as: "law" and "murder", "they," "them," and "their" have survived. It's funny that "arm" is an Anglo-Saxon word, but "leg" is Old Norse; "wife" is Anglo-Saxon," but "husband" is Old Norse.
Norman Conquest of England
The really major changes that led to today's English came with William the Conqueror from Normandy, modern northern France. The language (French) spoken by Wilhelm and his nobles eventually evolved into Anglo-Norman. It became the language of the medieval English elite. It contains about 10,000 words, many of which are still in common use. Sometimes they supplanted Old English words, sometimes they were used as synonyms. War words (battle, navy, march, enemy), state words (parliament, noble), legal words (judge, justice, plaintiff, jury), and religious words (miracle, sermon, virgin, saint) were almost all Norman.
Great vowel shift
If you think English pronunciation is confusing - why "head" is absolutely not like "heat," or why "steak" doesn't rhyme with "streak," and "some" doesn't rhyme with "home" either - blame it on the Great Vowel Shift. Between 1400 and 1700 the pronunciation of the consonants changed. "Mice" is no longer pronounced like "meese." "House" is no longer pronounced like "hoose." This shift is from medieval English to modern English. No one really knows why these changes occurred.
Spread of the English Language
Colonization of America
British settlers came to various parts of America in the 17th and 18th centuries, they were from different regions, social classes and adherents of various religions. East Anglia Puritans made a significant contribution to the Boston accent; Royalists migrating south brought twangs and so on. Today's American English is closer to 18th century British English than modern British English.
Early exploration of Australia
Many of the first Europeans to settle in Australia, beginning in the late 1700s, were convicts from the British Isles, and the Australian English accent probably originated with their children around Sydney. Australia, unlike the US, does not have such a variety of local accents. Some words from Aboriginal languages have made their way into English: kangaroo, boomerang, and wombat among them.
Canada
British Loyalists sailed to Canada during the American Revolution. As a result, Canadian English sounds like American English but retains the "ou" words (honor, colour, valour). Canada is experiencing its own vowel shift, for example pronouncing "milk" like "melk". Also, Canadian is quite homogeneous, unlike American and British.
India
The British East India Company brought English to the Indian subcontinent in the 17th century and during the period of colonialism it was state language. It is still part of an unimaginable linguistic diversity. Some words have migrated from local languages such as "shampoo," "pajamas," "bungalow," "bangle," and "cash."
Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha is the most inland archipelago in the world: it is located in the south of the Atlantic Ocean at the same distance between Uruguay and South Africa. It is part of the British Territories with 300 native English speakers.
English is the world language
Percentage of English speakers in Europe
English is one of three official languages European Union. The German President recently proposed to make it the only one. But how well people in each European Union country speak English varies greatly. This map shows where most people can - and cannot - speak English.
Where is the English Wikipedia popular?
English dominated the early days of the Internet. But the web is becoming more and more linguistically diverse. As of 2010, English no longer dominates, and advances in technology have made it easier to use non-Latin scripts. However, English is the dominant language of Wikipedia, the map shows where people use the English version as the main one.
Sources of English words
This elegant graphic is based on data from the Oxford English Dictionary, showing where the words originally came from. Most words come from Germanic languages, Romance languages, and Latin, or are formed from English words already in use. But since the statistics from 1950 at the moment, everything can be even more motley.
How vocabulary has changed
The absorption of words from other languages did not stop when Old English evolved into Medieval English. The Age of Enlightenment brought an influx of Greek and Latin words - especially for all kinds of scientific phenomena. On the other hand, Mark Twain, the master of the American dialect, relied on the good old Anglo-Saxon words in his books.
Lexicon of Shakespeare and benchmarks
Designer Matt Daniels took 35,000 words from rap lyrics and compared them to 35,000 words from Moby Dick and 35,000 words from Shakespeare's plays for a vocabulary test. He found that some of the lexicons were larger than those of Shakespeare or Melville. But of course, the size of a dictionary cannot be an indicator of quality. Nevertheless, the comparison is interesting.
Learning English as a second (third) language
Language Learning Quality Map
English is the second most colloquial in the world. But there is more more people English language learners. Here is Education First's English test score card. Green and blue countries have more high levels skill than red, yellow and orange. Scandinavian countries, Finland, Poland, Austria are very good. The Middle East as a whole is pretty bad.
Latin is considered the founder of all languages. Therefore, it is not surprising that many modern words are so similar to Latin ones. Yes, and many languages are similar to each other, because they originated from the same base. For example:
1. German occurred as a result of a mixture of Latin and the language of the Gothic tribes;
2. The French language appeared as a result of a mixture of Latin and the language of the Gauls tribe;
3. English appeared as a result of a mixture of Latin and the language of the Celtic peoples.
Do not forget about Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. All of them originated from Latin, and therefore, incredibly similar to each other. When communicating, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese can speak their native languages and will understand each other.
A bit of history
The appearance of the English language dates back to the 8th century BC. Then modern Great Britain was inhabited by the Celtic people. Even the name of the country itself comes from their language, because in Celtic “brith” was translated as “painted”. In addition, a few more words came from the Celtic language, which are used to this day. After 7 centuries, Caesar declared the territory of Britain a part of the great Roman Empire and began to populate these lands with the Romans. Willy-nilly, the Celts had to communicate closely with the Romans, so Latin was added to the Celtic language, which greatly affected it in the future. A lot of modern words were borrowed from Latin. Both peoples communicated with each other until the 5th century AD, creating new words for the future English language. In the 5th century, Germanic tribes invaded Britain, so a completely new stage began in the development of the English language.
Formation and development of the English language. Three periods of formation.
The emergence of the English language takes quite a long period. Its formation was created by mixing several languages and dialects and went through three stages:
1. Old English period. This stage lasted from 449 to 1066. At this time, the invasion of the Germanic tribes led to the fact that the number of Celts was exaggerated by the invading tribes. Over time, the Anglo-Saxon dialect began to displace the dialect of the Celts, transforming already established words into their own language. Many areas of Britain that are located in hard-to-reach places, were not subject to the Germanic tribes, so the Celtic language was perfectly preserved there. These areas are Ireland, Cornwall, Wells and Scotland. If you want to feel the atmosphere of the formation of the English language, then you should visit this country. Thanks to the invading tribes, many words with common Germanic-Latin roots remained in the language.
In 597, Rome began to Christianize all the countries subject to it, including Britain. This had a great effect on the language, since a lot of lexemes appeared (Latin words assimilated by Germanic dialects). In those days, the English language was replenished with about 600 new words that had both Germanic and Latin roots.
In the 9th century, the Danes began to seize the lands of the Saxons. As a result, the English language was replenished with the dialect of the Scandinavian Vikings.
2. Middle English period. It lasted from 1066 to 1500 AD. In the 11th century, England was invaded by the French. This led to the fact that in the development and formation of the language, the so-called era of "three languages" began:
1) French, which was used to communicate between aristocrats and the judicial system;
2) Anglo-Saxon, which was spoken by ordinary people;
3) Latin, which was used by doctors.
The beginning of this era led to the final formation of the English language exactly as we know and learn it today. Due to the fact that several languages participated in its formation, its vocabulary has almost doubled. Undoubtedly, traces of the past division have remained in the language. For example, you can see that animals are translated into English as "cow", "calf", "sheep" - these are words from the "common people" dialect. The name of the meat of these animals has already come to us from the aristocracy, so it sounds different - “beef”, “veal”, “mutton”.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the language acquires literary features, therefore it becomes the main language of people's education and the formation of law. Also, at this time, the first English book. At this time, the English language acquires the first rules in grammar and phonetics, adjectives acquire degrees of comparison, endings for verbs disappear.
Later, when the mass migration of the British to America began, the language underwent a change towards the British and American dialect.
3. New English period. It dates from the beginning in 1500 and reaches our days. Many consider W. Shakespeare to be its founder. Thanks to him, the English language was “cleared” of impurities, acquired its own form and vocabulary.
It is believed that the English language appeared by mixing different languages, and even in our time it does not stand still, constantly developing and modernizing. English is the official language in many countries. These include India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Rwanda, Ghana, etc. As you understand, in all these countries people communicate in “their own English”. There are many phrases from other languages, the accent changes, and sometimes even the grammar rules. England and America still have a huge influence on the formation and development of the language. Of course, it is Britain that is a model of pure English, but "American English" is still considered international. The United States has strongly influenced modern world, and if we teach English in schools and universities, then it is the American dialect. Of course, England and America strongly influence each other. They exchange their vocabulary, as a result of which the language is constantly updated with new expressions and names. Bottom line: English became the main means of communication during the formation of the world, so it is generally accepted that it is international language. With its help, people from various countries and continents can communicate. Therefore, without him modern society cannot be dispensed with.
The article was prepared by the site of the company I-Polyglot -
The history of the English language, as well as its appearance, is rich in events. The territory of modern Great Britain was inhabited different nations, she was captured and released more than once, and each invader wanted to "invent" for the UK new language. This is reflected in the diversity of the English language. Every period English history contributed to the origin and general formation of the English language as we know it. We have prepared for you a short tour of what each of the periods of its formation left in the English language.
Celtic period
Emergence and the history of the English language began in the 8th century BC. when the Celts settled in what is now Great Britain. The emergence of English is directly related to them. They communicated in the Celtic language from which the word brith came, which meant "painted". The appearance of this word is due to the fact that the Celts painted their bodies blue to intimidate the enemy. The first seizure of British territory by the Romans is associated with the same period.
The Celtic languages of later times gave modern English such well-known words as:
whiskey- whiskey (from Irish uisce beathadh "living water")Many borrowings from Latin, which remained after the Roman conquest for 44 years, have also been preserved in modern English. So, for example, English names settlements such as Lancaster, Leicester and Manchester were able to form, based on the Latin word castra - "camp".
slogan- slogan (from Scot. sluagh-ghairm "battle cry")
plain- plaid
street- street (from lat. via strata "paved road")
wall- wall (from lat. vallum "shaft")
Old English period
The time of the German conquests is connected with the Old English period, when the Anglo-Saxons (Germanic tribes) - the ancestors of modern Englishmen - penetrated into Britain. The Anglo-Saxon dialect quickly supplanted the Celtic language from widespread use and prevented the emergence of something new. The Germans themselves brought many Latin words that they managed to borrow from the Romans. Among these words in our short dictionary there are those that are still used today:
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wine- wine (from lat. vinum "wine")
pear- pear (from lat. pirum "pear")
pepper- pepper (from lat. piper "pepper")
butter — butter(from lat. butyrum "cow's butter")
cheese- cheese (from lat. caseus "cheese")
miles- mile (from Latin milia passuum "thousands of steps")
Saturday- Saturday (from lat. Saturni dies "Saturn's day")
The Christianization of Britain and the appearance in the language of many more borrowings from Latin are also associated with the Old English period, including:
school- school (from lat. schola "school")
master- teacher (from lat. magister "teacher")
pea- peas; pea (from Latin pisum "pea")
priest- priest "(from Latin presbyter" presbyter ")
In 876 AD the Battle of Wedmore took place, as a result of which a peace treaty was concluded with the Danes, who had long ravaged British lands. This world also affected the English language, which allowed the formation of a multitude of Danish words.
auk— auk
aye- yes/always
axle- axis
sky- sky
skull- scull
skin– skin
Middle English period
The Middle English period is famous for the Norman takeover of Britain. The Normans (French-speaking Vikings) defeated the Anglo-Saxons and seized power in Britain. This is connected with the emergence of the trilingual English everyday life of that time: the language of courts, administration, the royal court and the aristocracy was French, the language of the common people continued to be Anglo-Saxon, and the language of education was Latin. This is what allowed the emergence of the so-called "New English" language. Influence French very noticeable in modern English:
pork- pork (from French porc "pig")
tennis- tennis (from French tenez "hold")
New England period
In the New English period, printing appeared. In 1474 (1475), the pioneer printer William Caxton printed the first book in the English language. He himself translated the book from French. When translating, he relied on the spelling of the handwritten tradition, which allowed the formation of the first canon - this led to a slowdown in spelling changes in the English language, because written sample"it should be".
The work of William Shakespeare also left a huge mark on the history of the English language.(well, who else?), who was able not only to “invent” modern English, but also to introduce many new words - where he himself took them from is not always clear. Many of the words found in Shakespeare's works can also be found in modern English.
swagger- swagger around → swag- be in style
At the end of the 18th century, the Englishman William Jones spoke of the need to study the ancient Indian language in depth in order to more competently build a science of language. In modern English there are many words related to the words of the ancient Indian language.
path- path, path (from pathin "road")
bandanna- bandana (from bandhana "bandage")
Modern English
Modern English is called mixed - a lot of words that have common sense, do not have a common root. This is a consequence of the trilingualism characteristic of the Middle English period.
The English language is constantly developing, replenishing and acquiring dialects, each new concept gives people the opportunity to come up with many new words around it. Some words, on the contrary, go down in history as unnecessary.
Video about the history of the English language:
Some linguists boldly point to Old English, Middle English and New English periods, but the language began to exist much earlier. So, today we will find out how, when and under what circumstances the English language appeared.
We will not torment readers for a long time and say that the history of the English language began in the distant VIII century BC. on the territory of modern Great Britain, when the migration from the continent to the territory of the British Isles of the tribes of the Celts began. The "settlers" were given the name "Britons", which they inherited from the local tribes of the Picts - Pryden. Interestingly, one theory of the origin of the name "Britain" is associated with the Celts: the Celtic root "brith" means "painted", and the annals of past years indicate that the Indo-European peoples painted their faces before going into battle. Despite such an ancient period of existence, the Celts had a developed culture. Time passed, and in the 1st century BC. Caesar came to the territory of Britain, declaring it part of the Roman Empire. It was in the 1st century BC. ancient Roman authors found the earliest mention of the term related to the official name of the country Britannia (Britannia, Brittania). This name comes from Latin and means "land of the Britons". The migration of the Romans and their communication with the Celts was reflected in the language: thanks to this, in English today there are words of Latin origin. Such interaction of peoples continued until the 5th century AD, after which the Germanic tribes of the Saxons, Jutes, Angles and Frisians invaded the territory, bringing with them the local dialect. Thus began a new branch of the development of the English language, which was filled with Germanic words.
Then there was a period of Christianization, which was reflected in the language. Many "settled" words from Latin were mixed with Germanic dialects, resulting in new vocabulary units. During this period, the language became richer by 600 words.
With the beginning of the Viking attacks and after the arrival of the Danes in the 9th century, Old Norse words began to appear in the language, which were mixed with local dialects. This is how the words of the Scandinavian group appeared in English, which have the characteristic combinations "sc", "sk".
In connection with the accession of the Norman house in England XI - XVI centuries. were marked by the appearance in English French words, however, Latin and Anglo-Saxon also dominated. It was at this time that the English that we speak today was born. The mixing of languages has led to an increase in the number of words. A pronounced division of the language into lower classes (words derived from German) and higher classes (from French) became noticeable.
The Middle Ages represent the heyday of literature. This was facilitated by the first printed book published in English. It was translated by William Caxton, who became a significant figure in the field of linguistics. To translate and publish the book, he needed to choose a dialect that would be understandable to most readers, which contributed to the development of English orthography. Since literature began to develop, the foundations of the grammatical structure and changes in the morphology system began to appear: the verb endings, the degree of comparison of adjectives and the first outlines of normative phonetics appeared. London pronunciation has come into vogue.
But how did English come about? Mass immigration of people from England to North America became a starting point in this direction. By that time, there were already French, Spaniards, Italians, Germans and Danes in America. The Spaniards settled in the southern part of the mainland, and the French in the northern part, but the British turned out to be the majority, so it was English that began to spread in these territories, acquiring the outlines of American English.
And, of course, one cannot fail to mention the great William Shakespeare, thanks to whom the literary English language was formed and strengthened in many aspects. One of the few writers who vocabulary At 20,000 words, Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words that we still use today.