HISTORY

Ancient origins

The origins can be traced all the way back to the Neolithic Period around 5000 BC, to a prehistoric
people known as the Indo-Europeans or Proto-Indo-Europeans. They began to spread across
Europe and Asia, their languages began to diverge and develop. A particular branch settled in the
regions of Germania; these Germanic tribes eventually migrated from the continent to Britain.

Old English

Gradually the Germanic tribes had settled over most of the mainland, separating into smaller
kingdoms. Eventually, one kingdom became the most dominant, the Saxons. It is thought by many
historians that what is now referred to as Old English, emerged around this time.

Old English gradually developed into four distinct dialects, Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon,
and Kentish. There are still a few words in Old English that are recognizable or even identical in
spelling to words used today.

Middle English

After many centuries of transition Old English was constantly changing, expanding, and
progressing with lexical enrichment. It had gradually developed into a full poetic language,
complete with alliteration, synonyms, subtleties of meaning and more. The English language
proved resilient, and still emerged as the dominant speech of the country some 200 years after the
Norman Conquest.

Shifting towards modern English

Innovations continued with the vocabulary, the 16th and early 17th centuries witnessed the
English Renaissance, which included massive Elizabethan and Shakespearean influences. Another
major factor was the arrival of the printing press. This stabilized spelling and grammar.

English today

The modern-day English language has, largely due to the rich and complex history, several
inconsistencies, and differences in spelling and pronunciation, however, it remains one of the most
influential and important languages in the world today.

INCLUSIVE LANGUAJE

Inclusive language is defined as “language that avoids the use of certain expressions or words that
might be considered to exclude particular groups of people”.

Language is powerful, it has a huge impact on people, we can be affected by it and that shows how
important and necessary Inclusive Language is. People can claim that is too politically correct or
that the solution would be just not get offended, however, language has and continues to be used
to spread prejudice, discrimination, and violence against marginalized groups and individuals.
Inclusive language may not be the solution to all problems but at least is something.
Class

Class discrimination or classism is defined as “a biased or discriminatory attitude based on

distinctions made between social or economic classes”. It is typically used to refer to people who
are not wealthy or privileged. It is all too easy to perpetuate classism through your language, as
our social class is tied directly to the way we speak.

Avoid: Alternatives:
Impoverished Economically disadvantaged
Needy A person experiencing poverty
Unfortunate A person living below the poverty line

Disabilities

Person-first language (PFL) is used when referring to a person with a disability, you should always
put the person first, rather than the disability.

 “A person who is blind” rather than “a blind person”.

 “A person with epilepsy” rather than “an epileptic person”.

Gender and Sexual Orientation

This is a topic that should be treated very carefully, because is quite easy to exclude people who
are not cisgender or heterosexual.

Avoid: Alternatives:
Ladies and gentlemen All assembled/colleagues/everyone
He/his/she/her as generic pronouns They/them
Mankind Humanity

There are many other instances in which we should watch out what we say, for example,
regarding race and ethnicity, instead of saying “mixed race” or “foreigners”, say “multi-racial
individuals” and “international people”. Regarding religion, instead of saying “Before Christ” say
“Before Common Era”. Regarding size, instead of saying “obese” or “overweight” say “person of
size”.

The reason why I wanted to include the history was to prove that language can change and has
being changing since its very beginning and will continue to do so; language is not just rules that
we must follow, language is a tool, as I said earlier, that we use to express ourselves, and if we
change it in a way that promotes respect and inclusion, slowly things may change for good.