Tănase Maria Mădălina

Engleză – Germană
anul III

“The Story of English” – chapter 7 “Pioneers! O Pioneers!”

“The Story of English” is a book written in 1986, which accompanies an eponymic television

series, presenting a detailed description of the English language evolution. The book focuses

on the input streams that shaped English over the centuries and on the geographic movement

of the language from the borderlands of Anglo-Saxon England across the island, the kingdom

and across the oceans to America and the Empire. The book and the series have gained a lot

of popularity due to their complexity and in-depth analysis and encyclopedic indexing of

different changes in the language and they have been and are currently used in university

courses all around the world. The book provides not only historical facts presented

chronologically, but also a series of pictures and maps in order to make the experience of

reading fun and informative. Another fun detail is how the book ends with a question mark,

reminding us that the language is ever-evolving.

The book slowly begins by describing how the English language became globalized in

the recent past, due to the influences of social classes, global wars and development of

technologies such as radios and motion pictures as well as the evolution of a global economy

and popular culture. This argument of globalization is resumed in another work of Robert

McCrum, “Globish”, where he argues that English may find itself unable to remain a unitary

language and it might disintegrate into various threats still related but rather distinct

languages. The book is however full of anecdotes and diversion into history – some of which

are quite amusing and entertaining to read. The term “globish” is a mixture between “global”

and “English” and it was first coined in 1995 by Jean-Paul Nerriere to describe a very simple

English – about 1500 words of vocabulary – that are being used more and more across the

world.
 Tănase Maria Mădălina
Engleză – Germană

Chapter 7 – Pioneers! O Pioneers!

The seventh chapter and correspondent episode provides insight on how the American

Revolution represented a turning point in the making of a new, American language. While

trying to separate from the mother country in every department of life, they also considered

of great importance the idea of having their own language, so much so that in 1802 the

Americans used for the first time the phrase “the American language”. Among the rebels

wanting to separate from the old country there was also the Virginian lawyer, Thomas

Jefferson, who showed a fascination for words that big that he sometimes even invented new

ones: “belittle” being one of the most famous, “much ridiculed in London at the time”

(McCrum 253). He is also stated to be the one who approved of the new currency terms,

including “cent” and “dollar”. In a short time, the American language became “a proud badge

of independence” (McCrum 254), a language of a nation and of the future of the new country.

Most of the Loyalists who backed the British government were sent into exile in the

north of the continent, what we know today as Canada. The existing settlements consisting of

English, German and French speakers along with the exiled citizens helped form a new

mixture of the English language – what we call today Canadian English. While Canadian

English is difficult to distinguish from some other North American varieties without the use

of phonetics, McCrum argues that a Canadian would easily recognize a fellow Canadian in a

crowd just by the use of hearing. However, linguistically speaking, the main differences are

mostly spotted in the vocabulary and in the pronunciation of the words, with the grammar

being identical – with the mention that Canadian English retains more of the formality of

Standard British English in terms of spelling.

 Tănase Maria Mădălina
Engleză – Germană

Mark Twain’s English

Because of the many wars, the English language has acquired a series of new words and

phrases and the war between the states in the U.S. brought the people from Midwest in the

national spotlight and in the everlasting history – Lincoln and Mark Twain, both

Midwesterners, helped include their American speech along the standard American English.

In December 1865, Mark Twain published a story that would change forever the way

American language and literature are perceived. Twain managed to “render the rhythms and

vocabulary and tone of the American English vernacular in a way that was neither a parody

nor a caricature but literature” (McCrum 281). The oral speech became part of the national

literature and later universal literature and the use of language thus became more complex,

more versatile. Among authors who strongly influenced the language, McCrum notes and

remembers the works of Whitmann and Hemingway.

Finally, the chapter introduces the reader to the various nationalities that have

influenced the American language, such as Italians and Germans establishing in the U.S. and

reforming the language with every generation passing. In “Globish”, McCrum also analyzes

how slavery became a major influence for American English and how the African languages

entered and influenced what we know today as American English.

Further questions:

1. Considering the book was written some decades ago, is there any chance for a new edition including

the metamorphosis of the language due to the social media?

2. How can we improve the older generation’s reluctance towards assimilating and including foreign

words and structures in our own native language since this is the natural way for a language to evolve?

3. How can we respectfully praise the evolution of English as a language while delimiting linguistics from

politics and history and being respectful towards the countries that were colonized?