Languages & Linguistics
History of English Language
The history of the English language traces its development from the early Germanic tribes who settled in Britain, through the influence of Latin and French, to its global spread and evolution into different dialects and variations. Key milestones include the Old English period, the Norman Conquest, the Great Vowel Shift, and the standardization of English through the printing press and dictionaries.
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11 Key excerpts on "History of English Language"
eBook - PDFLong Story Short:
An Interactive Journey through the History of English
- Paula Rodríguez Abruñeiras, Jesús Romero Barranco(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Publicacions de la Universitat de València(Publisher)
UNIT 1. LANGUAGE AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1.1. GETTING STARTED We start our journey into the history of the English language by considering some preliminary notions which are relevant to Historical Linguistics, a branch of linguistics which “is dedicated to the study of ‘how’ and ‘why’ languages change” (Campbell 1999: 4). In this journey, we should always bear in mind that language and society evolve hand in hand, and the history of English is a history of invasions. The melting-pot of civilisations that settled in England in the course of time brought their own cultures, traditions and languages with them, which generated sweeping changes in the form and structure of English to such an extent that Old English may look like a completely different language to the modern speaker. Moreover, we should also be aware that the multiplicity of changes which will be presented in the coming chapters “are usually embedded in a more general trend whose direction might become visible only within the time-span of several centuries” (Kastovsky 1999: 13). Language change is unavoidable and inevitable: all languages change over time, and yet the popular attitude towards change in language is resoundingly negative. The changes are often seen as corruption, decay, degeneration, deterioration, as due to laziness or slovenliness, as a threat to education, morality and even to national security. We read laments in letters to newspapers stating that our language is being destroyed, deformed and reduced to an almost unrecognisable remnant of its former and rightful glory. These are of course not new sentiments, but laments like this are found throughout history.
eBook - PDF- Mark Aronoff, Janie Rees-Miller(Authors)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
In fact, it is the concern of very few linguists; nevertheless, efforts to work out the history of human languages and their more distant family relationships will continue, though it is hoped that a more rigorous and careful methodology will be applied and that some progress will be made. Advances will be made in the explanation of how and why languages change. A favorite pastime of some linguists today is to speculate about what will happen to linguistics when Noam Chomsky retires and his personal influence no longer determines much of the central activity in linguistic theory. Here, speculations run rampantly in many direc- tions. It will be fascinating to see what the future will bring. Historical Linguistics 105 5 Historical Linguistics BRIAN D. JOSEPH 1 Introduction One remarkably striking observation about language, seemingly trivial but actually quite important, is that languages change through time. It is at least conceivable that language could remain unchanged over time, as is the case with some other human institutions, e.g. various taboos or the rules to some games, and with some aspects of human communication systems, e.g. morse code or the value of a smile as a nonverbal signal, 1 but the facts tell us otherwise. The mutability of languages can be demonstrated empirically through a comparison of a single language at different stages in its history. For instance, (1) below provides first lines of some great works from three periods of Eng- lish: Old English as represented by Caedmon’s hymn of the seventh century, Middle English as represented by Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales from the late fourteenth century, and early Modern English as represented by Shakespeare’s Othello from the early seventeenth century: (1) English at various stages in its history a. Ne wb sculon herian heofon-rcces Weard (Caedmon, Hymn, ca. 660) “Now we ought to praise the guardian of the kingdom of heaven.” b.
eBook - PDF- Alexander Bergs, Laurel J. Brinton, Alexander Bergs, Laurel J. Brinton(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
5 Summary Such insights, combined with the new synchronic resources just described, mean that English historical linguistics is, at the beginning of the 21st century, on the verge of mak-ing very considerable progress: a new “computational philology”, as Anneli Meurmann-Solin (p.c.) has termed it, has arisen. The discipline is in rude health internationally, both within and outside the Anglophone world, as the list of authors in the already-cited multi-volume Cambridge History of the English Language demonstrates; and the Cambridge History , which appeared between 1992 and 2001 under the general edi-torship of the late Richard Hogg, himself one of the most significant scholars of his gen-eration, is a summative enterprise that flags the maturity of the discipline. However (of course) such enterprises raise as many questions as they answer. It seems clear that – like all empirical disciplines – English historical linguistics will make progress most quickly if it acknowledges its status as an accretive subject, aware of the value of its methodological and theoretical inheritance from traditions of study extending over several centuries. 6 References Aarsleff, Hans. 1983. The Study of Language in England 1780–1860 . London: Athlone Press. Andresen, Julie Tetel. 1990. Linguistics in America 1769–1924: A Critical History . London: Routledge. 1310 XI. History of English Historical Linguistics Baldi, Philip and Ronald Werth (eds.). 1978. Readings in Historical Phonology . University Park and London: Pennsylvania State University Press. Bolton, Whitney F. (ed.). 1966. The English Language: Essays by English and American Men of Letters 1490–1839 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brugmann, Karl.
No longer available |Learn more- (Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Learning Press(Publisher)
A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level. It is one of six official languages of the United Nations. One impact of the growth of English has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, and its influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Conversely the natural internal variety of English along with creoles and pidgins have the potential to produce new distinct languages from English over time. History of the English language English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. These two invasions caused English to become mixed to some degree. Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance languages (Latin-based languages). This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government.
eBook - ePub- Bruce M. Rowe, Diane P. Levine(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
CHAPTER 14 Historical linguistics: the history of languagesDOI: 10.4324/9781003268369-14LEARNING OBJECTIVES- List and describe the main reasons that languages change over time.
- Identify the contributions of August Schleicher, Johannes Schmidt, and Sir William Jones to the study of historical linguistics.
- Define the terms language family and protolanguage.
- Describe how the comparative method is used to show relationships between languages and to reconstruct protolanguages.
- Compare the family tree model and the wave model of language relationship. Analyze the benefits and difficulties of each model in terms of their ability to explain historical linguistic phenomena.
- Explain what cognates are and provide examples.
- Explain the relatedness and regularity hypotheses.
- Define Grimm’s law.
- Explain the difference between conditioned and unconditioned phonological changes and provide examples of each type of change.
- List some examples of morphological changes and syntactic changes in language.
- Provide some examples of sociocultural and semantic changes in the English language.
- Discuss how sociocultural and semantic changes are related to each other.
- List and explain the ways linguists attempt to determine the rate at which daughter languages change from a mother language.
- Discuss the two main competing hypotheses on the location of the origin of Indo-European.
- When we speak of the spread of English throughout the world, it is more accurate to speak of the spread of “Englishes.” Analyze this statement.
All the elements of culture change over time. The political systems, economic systems, religion, kinship, and art are all modified by the passage of time; so is language. Culture change occurs for a variety of reasons. The movement of people spreads new ideas, values, beliefs, behaviors, and language. This movement might be due to peaceful trade and travel or invasion and warfare. Because people move around and take their language with them, languages that develop in one area can wind up being widely distributed. For instance, the spread of the British Empire distributed the English language throughout the world, starting at the beginning of the seventeenth century. By the end of World War I, the British had delivered the English language to about 25 percent of the world’s population. The entertainment industries in the United Kingdom and the United States as well as other media have continued to spread the English language throughout the world.
eBook - ePub- Claire Bowern, Bethwyn Evans, Claire Bowern, Bethwyn Evans(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
section 5 ).We view historical linguistics as having three very different lines of inquiry. We can treat language change as a way to explore: (a) language and its structure; (b) human (pre)history; and (c) human cognition and psychology. Firstly, we can, of course, study language change on its own terms. Many handbooks of historical linguistics have focused on this, and the standard textbooks in historical linguistics (Campbell 2004; Crowley and Bowern 2010; Fox 1995; Hock and Joseph 1996; Ringe and Eska 2013; Trask 2003, among others) all devote much attention to the types of changes which we find in the different domains of language, often with little reference to external factors such as physiology, psychology, speaker biases, or social factors (see further section 3.3 ).Language also gives us insights into other areas of study. On the one hand, language is a tool for investigating the past . Just as past cultures have left traces in the archaeological record, we can recover parts of prehistory through current languages: through language distribution, through correspondences among related languages, through the study of loan words, and so on. In this case, language serves as a proxy for the populations who speak it. Epps3 makes this point in her discussion of the use of language in studying material culture, while Heggarty and Hale discuss some of the difficulties in treating language as a proxy for other aspects of human organisation.Language is also a tool for investigating the mind (Hruschka et al . 2009) and historical linguistics provides useful data here too. If linguistic organisation does indeed reflect more general cognitive processes (see Bybee and Beckner), then empirical data on language change can shed light not only on speakers’ linguistic behaviour, including aspects of language and language use that speakers pay attention to (cf. Maiden 2005), but also on other more general aspects of their cognitive behaviour. This can be seen, for example, in the types of constructions that are commonly grammaticised in language (Evans and Levinson 2009), and also in the kinds of constructions that are conservative (or stable) across time and space (see Wichmann
eBook - ePubTeaching English Language 16-19
A Comprehensive Guide for Teachers of AS and A Level English Language
- Martin Illingworth, Nick Hall(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Chapter 8Language change
Pre-teaching thinking
Potentially this is an overwhelmingly large subject. It includes the history of the English language (450AD to the present), the technical ways in which languages change, a look at contemporary changes in language and a consideration of English as a world language. It might seem overwhelming but it is also absolutely fascinating.The assessment of this area is, fortunately, much narrower in scope. Students are given a text, or texts, which illustrate language development. They are invited to comment on what that text shows us about language at that time and the ways that it has developed subsequently.Deciding what to include and the scope of your study is key to being successful in this unit. Students need to feel that they are prepared as they go into the examination. When the subject-matter appears so vast, students must have the interpretative skills required to look at any text, from any time and any social background. As with language acquisition, you have choices in the approach that you take.One option is to investigate the history of the English language chronologically. This is helpful to those students who like shape and order to their studies. An overview of the three main periods of the history of English and the significant features of each period makes a good starting point in building that background awareness of what sort of features to look for at certain dates through time. The texts used in examinations are exclusively from the modern period. However, it is important that students know where the language has travelled from to reach this point.A second option is to consider individual texts in isolation, making the chain of development by linking those texts together. You need not necessarily look at these texts in chronological order. In the examination, your students need to look at the text in front of them and identify how that language is different from today. This skill can be developed quickly through this approach. Students need to be able to spot the internal features of a text (visible features in the text, such as unfamiliar letters or points of grammar) and the external features (the ideologies expressed in the text, the things that the text has to tell us about the time, place and context). Remember that a text from a certain time is not representative of all texts from that time. It is merely one example of a text and needs to be dealt with for what it is, in isolation.
- Anita K. Barry(Author)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Praeger(Publisher)
Who are more likely to be the innovators? 3. What effect do you think widespread access to radio, television, print media, and the Internet has had on language change? HISTORY OF ENGLISH: INTRODUCTION The history of the English language presents a good example of how language in general can change. The history of English has allowed it to be shaped by other languages, and its internal changes are clear examples of how language systems shift from within. A closer look at the history of English provides a useful perspective to anyone involved in the teaching of modern English. It gives us a vivid reminder that our current language is merely one stage of an ever-evolving language, that it is always subject to change, and that its current shape and form is largely a result of historical accident. English began in England in the year A.D. 449, the year that several Germanic tribes from northern Europe invaded the island and drove out the Celts. The Celts had lived under Roman domination for many years, but as the Roman Language Change and Variation 87 Empire began to collapse, the Romans withdrew from England to defend their territories elsewhere. The Celts, unable to defend themselves against invaders, were driven north and west of England to places like Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. The Germanic tribes—the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, and the Fri- sians—settled into England, consolidating politically and linguistically. The closely related languages they spoke merged into what is known now as Old English, or Anglo-Saxon. During these early centuries, the English kings estab- lished strong alliances with the Church, and by A.D. 700 the island was Chris- tianized. During these years, too, England weathered repeated invasions from certain Scandinavians, known then as the Danes or the Vikings, who at one point had virtually conquered the country. Through the able leadership of King Alfred the Great, England rebounded and in A.D.
eBook - ePub- E.F.K. Koerner(Author)
- 2003(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
If this assessment is accurate, it seems that, at least in North America, continued efforts to explain the usefulness of the subject may be required. My European colleagues, I know, feel that given the existence of three journals devoted to the subject and a few additional minor periodicals (bulletins, newsletters, etc.), monograph series, many specialized conferences, regional and international, and scholarly societies in many countries, there is no need to lobby for a place of the History of Linguistics within linguistics tout court any more. I would like to think that they are right. It remains interesting to note that subjects like the History of Medicine and the History of Science generally, for example, are flourishing subjects in North America; even the History of Psychology and the History of Philosophy are wellestablished subjects of research and university instruction. So one might well ask why the History of Linguistics has fared less well. Even if we put the beginning of linguistics as a science only as far back as 200 years, the study of language can boast a tradition as long as chemistry or biology. It is therefore curious to note that, whereas these natural (and some social) sciences have enjoyed the establishment of courses devoted to the history of their own discipline, no comparable arrangement exists with regard to linguistics. The science of language, a discipline in which the coexistence of diverging theoretical views and possibly contrasting methodological procedures, would, in my view, need a historical perspective more, not less, than, say, that modern medicine would be in need of history to guide its understanding of present-day health sciences. In view of this state of affairs regarding the History of Linguistics we may have to ask ourselves whether the work of historians of other disciplines has a sounder scientific basis, or how the apparent flourishing of the history of science may otherwise be explained
eBook - PDFLanguage
Its Structure and Use
- Edward Finegan, , , (Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
As with the earlier CD-ROM, the online ver-sion makes it possible to discover all the words that entered the language in a specified time period or all those borrowed from a particular language—say, Japanese or French or Hindi. ■ Computers and the Oxford English Dictionary Summary • English belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is not descended from Latin, but both Latin and English are members of the Indo-European language family and are descended from Proto-Indo-European. • The Germanic branch of the Indo-European family shows characteristics of vocabulary, phonology, and morphology that are not shared by any other I-E branch and are hypothesized to be innovations or borrowings from non-I-E languages after Germanic became separated from other members of the I-E family. • In the course of its history, English has been enriched by thousands of loan words from more than 100 languages—most notably French, as the descendants of the Norman invaders started using English in the thirteenth century, and Latin, when the vernacular came to be used during the Renaissance in arenas previously reserved for the classical language. • Beowulf is an epic poem of the Old English period (700–1100). Chaucer (1340–1400) wrote during the Middle English period (1100–1500). Shakespeare (1564–1616) wrote early in the Modern English period (1500–present). • Old English was a highly inflected language, but sound changes subsequently eroded most inflectional morphology in English. • As a result of the erosion of inflections in the Middle English period, Modern English is an analytical language, relying principally on word order to express grammatical relations that were formerly marked by inflections. Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
eBook - PDF- Ans van Kemenade, Bettelou Los, Ans van Kemenade, Bettelou Los(Authors)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
The demographic shift in the English-speaking population had already moved away from Britain, and the unity of the language whose history had once centered on an island was forever broken. The twentieth century would be declared the American cen-tury, the Empire would strike back, and the center would not hold. Although most of Churchill’s so-called English-speaking peoples were white and their history was largely the history of the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants, now black Americans alone, who speak English, are equivalent to nearly half of the population of Britain, and the speakers of English in Britain itself by the end of the twentieth century included a few million black Britons. Our story in this chapter is as much about changes in the English language itself as it is about changing perceptions of the English language as its users spread it from its origins as the tongue of a small island to become a world language spoken by millions. Over the course of its 1,500 years of use, English has undergone quite dramatic changes, as noted in other chapters of this volume. By the time the story of this chapter begins, in the seventeenth cen-tury or the Early Modern English period, the most radical changes to English 590 Suzanne Romaine grammar had already taken place, and certainly, the phonology of English underwent nothing like the series of changes called the Great Vowel Shift (see chapter 1, this volume). The main linguistic changes in the modern period would be in vocabulary as English expanded to meet the demands of an increasing number of users and uses. The seventeenth century had seen concerted efforts on the part of lexicographers, grammarians, and writers to remedy the per-ceived inadequacies of English to enable it to meet a continually expanding range of functions, and the eighteenth century was a time for putting the final touches on it, to fix things once and for all.
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