The History of the English Language

The History of the English Language

Research Question

• Why is the English language the largest in the world?

etymology

• The study of word origins

Text Source #2

• Works Cited
• Beers, Kylene. Holt Literature and Language Arts. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2001.

Source #1

• Engel, Elliot. A Light History of the English Language. Raleigh: Media Consultants, 1997

The Celts #1

• Celtic language first in Britain.
• Scots, Irish, Welsh descendants of Celtic

England

England

Old English 500-1065 AD

• Anglo Saxon Germanic language

Romans: Julius Ceasar

• He spoke Latin; He conquered:
• Romance Languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian.

#1 Old English begins when the Anglos, Saxons, Jutes invade England in 500 A.D.

• Old English is an Anglo-Saxon Germanic language

Then the Vikings Invade! #1

• Vikings from Scandinavia invade England in 793AD
• They speak Old Norse
• O.E.
• (The Light History of English)
• Light History.

Beowulf- Epic Poem #1

• First work of English literature

Source 1

• Almost every one syllable word we speak is from Anglo Saxon German
• Old English 500-1065AD

Middle English 1066-1550AD

• In 1066, William the Conqueror from Normandy, France invades England.

The Norman Conquest

England becomes bilingual during Middle English

• English: ox, sheep, swine, calf
• French: beef, mutton, pork, veal
• The rich and upper class spoke French Latin, but the lower class spoke Anglo-Saxon German.

Chaucer was a 14th century author of The Canterbury Tales M.E.

• Decided dialect to used as national language
• Frame story. Prologue: meeting @ Tabbard Inn, all taking pilgrimage (religious journey) to Canterbury, arranging story competition, and describing people from diff. walks of life
• Then individual stories from traveling pilgrims
• Then back to the Tabbard

Caxton brings the Printing Press to England in 1476

Modern English is 1500 to present #1

• Renaissance-rebirth of Greek and Roman art

William Shakespeare

• Used 21,500 different words
• 3,000 invented words

Shakespeare invented:

• Words Shakespeare Invented
• Academe accused addiction advertising amazement arouse assassination backing bandit bedroom beached besmirch birthplace blanket bloodstained barefaced blushing betbump buzzer caked cater champion circumstantial
• Coldblooded compromise courtship countless critic dauntless dawn deafening discontent dishearten drugged dwindle epileptic equivocal elbow excitementexposure eyeballfashionablefixtureflawedfrugalgenerousgloomygossipgreen-eyedgusthinthobnobhurriedimpedeimpartialinvulnerablejadedlabellacklusterlaughablelonelylowerluggagelustrousmadcapmajesticmarketablemetamorphizemimicmonumentalmoonbeammountaineernegotiatenoiselessobsceneobsequiouslyodeolympianoutbreakpanderspedantpremeditatedpukingradiancerantremorselesssavageryscufflesecureskim milksubmergesummitswaggertorturetranquilundressunrealvariedvaultingworthlesszanygnarledgrovel

King James Bible 1604

1755 Johnson’s Dictionary

Good

• Good, gode, guod, guode, goode, goed, gowd, godd, guid guide, gud, gwde, guyd, gewd
• 7 years in the making. This dictionary helped standardize spelling.

France

Text Source #2

• Works Cited
• Beers, Kylene. Holt Literature and Language Arts. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2001.