Unidad # 1

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE – PART II
INTRO TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
B.A. ISMAEL ARÍSTIDES MERLOS JUÁREZ
 Getting acquainted with the
forms and functions of the
English language through a
systematic linguistic analysis
aiming at enhancing English
communication proficiency by
means of individual and
collaborative learning
strategies.

2
 1. Connect the different stages of development English went
through.
2. Identify the evolution of the functions of the English
At the end of this session, language until its modern version.

you will be able: 3. Clarify aspects of the development of the English language
as an individual language influenced by other languages.
Contenidos a desarrollar

1. Middle English
2. Early Modern English
3. Features that changed.
Welcome to the second
part
The topic for this week is the
second part of the History of the English
Language. Getting to know better
English will help you have a clear view of
why learning a second language is also
learning about science, history, and
love. Yes, love! Because the more you
know about English, the more you can
get in love with it, and when you love
something, you want to learn more and
more about, so continue trying to learn
and love all about the English Language.
 Middle English
The event that marks the end of the Old English
period, and the beginning of the Middle English period, is
the arrival of the Norman French in England, following their
victory at Hastings under William the Conqueror in 1066.
These French-speaking invaders became the
ruling class, so that the language of the nobility, the
government, the law and civilized life in England for the next
two hundred years was French. It is the source of words like
army, court, defense, faith, prison and tax.
These are some example of words that were added to the
English language through the contact it had with Old French.
These words still remain in use and are recognizable for us.
The words belong to fields that were administered by the
novelty of the middle English time.
But common people didn’t stop using their own language.
That is why we have a second option that is consider less
formal in English.
 We can see in this chart the words that are
consider more formal are the ones with an Old French or
Latin root because those words were used by the rulers and
nobles of the middle ages.

The words that are less formal reminds more to

other common words that still survived the middle English
period such as: to eat, to drink, fun, friend, etc.
 Yet the language of the peasants remained
English. The peasants worked on the land and reared
sheep, cows and swine (words from Old English) while the
upper classes talked about mutton, beef and pork (words
of French origin). Hence the different terms in modern
English to refer to these creatures “on the hoof” as
opposed to “on the plate.”
Throughout this period, French (or, more accurately, an English version of French) was the prestige language
and Chaucer tells us that one of his Canterbury pilgrims could speak it.

This is an example of Middle English,

She was cleped Madame Eglentyne
Ful wel she song the service dyvyne,
Entuned in her nose ful semely,
And Frenche she spak ful faire and
fetisly.
written in the late fourteenth century. It had changed
substantially from Old English, but several changes
were yet to take place before the language took on its
modern form.
Most significantly, the vowel sounds of
Chaucer’s time were very different from those we hear
in similar words today. Chaucer lived in what would
have sounded like a “hoos,”(house) with his
“weef,”(wife) and “hay” (they) might drink a bottle of
“weena” (wine) with “heer” (her) by the light of the
“mona.” (moon)
Early modern English
In the two hundred years, from 1400 to
1600, that separated Chaucer and Shakespeare, the
sounds of English underwent a substantial change
known as the “Great Vowel Shift.”
The effects of this general raising of long
vowel sounds (such as [oː] moving up to [uː], as in
mo¯ na → moon) made the pronunciation of Early
Modern English, beginning around 1500, significantly
different from earlier periods.
The starting point of modern English

The introduction of printing in 1476 brought

about significant changes, but because the printers
tended to standardize existing pronunciations in the
spelling of words (e.g. knee, gnaw), later pronunciation
changes are often not reflected in the way Modern English
(after 1700) is written.
the standardization of languages through books
had a great effect in consolidating the form of speaking
used by the people and help to the evolution of English to
the form we use now.
meaningful changes that mark the transition
of middle English to moder English.
 IN THE SOUNDS
• The initial [h] of many Old English words was lost.
• The velar fricative [x] dissapear as a sound in
modern English.
• The sound change known as metathesis involves a
reversal in position of two sounds in a word e.g.
frist = first, waps = wasp.
• Another type of sound change, known as
epenthesis, involves the addition of a sound to the
middle of a word e.g. emtig = empty, timr = timber.
IN SYNTAX
• Some noticeable differences between the structure
of sentences in Old and Modern English involve
word order. In Old English texts, we find the
Subject-Verb-Object order most common in
Modern English, but we can also find a number of
different orders that are no longer used.
• For example, the subject could follow the verb, as
in ferde he (“he traveled”), and the object could be
placed before the verb, as in he hine geseah (“he
saw him”), or at the beginning of the sentence, as
in him man ne sealde (“no man gave [any] to him”).
 IN THE SEMANTIC
The most obvious way in which Modern
English differs from Old English is in the number of
borrowed words that have come into the language
since the Old English period.
Less obviously, many words have ceased to
be used. Since we no longer carry swords (most of us,
at least), the word foin, meaning “the thrust of a
sword,” is no longer heard.
A common Old English word for “man” was
were, but it has fallen out of use, except in horror
films where the compound werewolf occasionally
appears.
Two other processes are described as
“broadening” and “narrowing” of meaning. An
example of broadening of meaning is the change from
holy day as a religious feast to the very general break
from work called a holiday.
Old English words such as luflic (“loving”)
and hræd (“quick”) not only went through sound
changes, they also developed more complex
evaluative meanings (“wonderful” and
“preferentially”), as in their modern uses: That’s a
lovely idea, but I’d rather have dinner at home tonight.
 Tabla de actividades

Nombre de la actividad Time line

Tipo de actividad Individual - homework

To get acquainted with the functions of the English language through a systematic
Competencias especifica de la asignatura linguistic analysis by means of individual and collaborative learning strategies

After you have read all the content from this lesson:
1- Create a time line using the web tool www.canva.com.
2-Include at least 8 important dates describing an event that marked the
development of the English language from Old English to Modern English.
Instrucciones
3- write a short description of each event.
4-Include images to support your time line and apply your creativity.
5-upload the link of your work in the homework folder. “UNIT 1 – Activity 5 –
English Language Time Line”.

Fecha de entrega Sunday, August 30th, at 11:59 pm

Instrumento de evaluación Rubrica

Ponderación 15 points
 Recursos Complementarios
Recurso Título Cita Referencial

PDF file The history of the English Language part II Material added to the platform
Youtube Video Where did English come from? https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=YEaSxhcns7Y
 Course: Introduction to Linguistics
Presentation video - Rubric

CATEGORY 1 (0.5 point) 2 (1 point) 3 (2 points) 4 (3 points)

Bare minimum of content covered.
DEPTH OF CONTENT
No extension of ideas evident.
Shows a basic level of coverage of key ideas Shows a solid grasp of most of the Shows a solid grasp of all the content
only. content. covered.
Extensions of the key ideas show a deep
Attempts extension of a few ideas. Shows extensions of most key ideas. understanding of the interrelated nature of
the content.

Present but difficult to separate from Present but not clearly related to key idea. Clear use of picture or image that relates Stands out meaningfully and grasps the key
CENTRAL IDEAS other information. to key ideas. ideas of the information presented via
artistic text.

A little evidence of key images. Has only Images and keywords are evident, but Images and key words clearly show an Images and key words clearly and
KEY WORDS/ IDEAS / a few keywords. either too few or some are imprecise. understanding of the content dynamically show an understanding of the
IMAGES content.

Included less than eight event and they Include less that eight events but they are The eight events are included but not all The eight events are in correct chronological
aren’t in chronological order. in chronological order. of them are in chronological order. order.
Chronological order

A little use of color, codes or links to Obvious attempt is made to use color, Clearly uses colour, codes, or links to Craftsmanship is skilful & uses color, codes,
Creativity illustrate connections between ideas codes or links to enhance clarity, but there clarify connections and to assist with or links to meaningfully clarify the theory.
is inconsistency of application memory for most aspects