The Evolution of English Language

History of Language

Q1_Explain briefly that four Dialects as an old English language are recognized!
Really old English language varied somewhat from one region to another.Four
dialects are usually recogniced:

1-Northumbriam,its delimitation is sufficiently denoted by its name which was

spoken in north of the river Humber.

2-Merician,spoken in the Midlands from East Anglia across westwards to Welsh

border.Merician and Northumbrian have definite features in common that
differentiate them from West Saxon and Kentish and they are sometimes grouped
together as Anglian (Pyles 1982: 104).

3-Kentish, the speech of Jutes who inhabited Kent in the Southeast

(Feebron 1987: 23).

4-West Saxon, spoken in the South and Southeast, i.e. in the area of Themes
exclusive of Kent,They are described as dialects since they were mutually
intelligible vernaculars of the same language.
They are described as dialects,since they were mutually intelligible vernaculars of
the same language.

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History of Language

Q2_Explain briefly what was the origins of English language!

The present English language is the amalgamation of the language of three tribes
from Northern Germany,the Angles,Saxon and jutes,because their languages were
closely akin to eachother might be called dialects of which a general Germanic
tongues practiced by all these tribes.That is to say the English belongs to low
Germanic Branch of the Indo-European family,English language shares some
specific features common to all Germanic languages.

Q3_Explain briefly the outstanding characteristics of Middle English!

One of the outstanding characteristics of Middle English is its extensive variety in
the various places of England.The Middle English dialects can be classiffied into
four dominant ones;Northern,Southern;East Midland and West Midland,The
aspects that differentiate each dialect from another slightly matters of
pronounciation,somewhat of vocabulary,and partly of inflection.The East Midland
dialect was the adminstrative speech .later it became the language of most
scholars and the language of writing.later it had become the accepted standard in
both speech and writing.later on it become the dialect of london.

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History of Language

Q4_Explain briefly the significant features which helped English language to

regain its old prestige!

The significant features which helped english to regain its old prestige was the
improvement in the codition of the majority of the people and the rise of
substantial middle class.As it has been stated the significance of the language is
extensively determined by the importance of the people who speak it.

Q5_what are there three factors which helped english language to become the
literary mediun,Explain them briefly?

By about 1700 Latin which had great prestige as the language of international
eductation was neglected and slipped into disuse as the means of instruction in
England three factors helped English language.

1-The religion factor came into focus,at the period of restoration books and
pamphlets were to be codified in English.

2-Another factor was the emergence of social and professional groups that acted
in favor of English,A great deal of work especially for the language were written in
English.

3-The third one was the national consciousness that had achieved alot of with the
respect to the establishment of English as the national language,A wonder interest
and pride in national language resulted from this growth of the national feeling
which led to conscious attempts to cultivate a vernacular of the literature.

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History of Language

Q6_Explain briefly what were the reasons for selecting the East Middle dialect as
the base standard English!

The reasons for selecting the East Midland dialect as the base of standard English
were:

1-In the first place,as a Midland dialect,the English of this area covered a Middle
position between the farthest separation of the North and South.it shares with its
neighbors is some of phonological and Morphological features of its sounds and
inflections.

2-In second place,the fame of the East Midland,Middle sex,Oxford and Norfolk
throughout the late Middle Ages,was the largest and the most heavily populated
of the main provencial dialects.

3-A third factor was the existence of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in
this area,and they became important academic centers,they supported,especially
cambridge the East Midland dialect,which was at the end selected as a standard.

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History of Language

Q7_Explain briefly the significance London standard English!

London,was the greatest important factor in the emergence of Standard English,
_because it was,and still is,the capital and center of political affairs and
commercial business of England.
_The significance of this was that its language became the prevailing dialect.
_London from the begining has been the center of book publishing in England,
which was the reason that London English gained and acceptance as a result which
were published from Caxton's press and his successor's,But it couldn't achieve its
entire homogeneity through the extent of only some generation.

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 The Evolution of English Language
History of Language

Q8_Explain briefly the common factors and conditions that helped standard to be
elaborated!

1-The Renaissance and changing condition in the modern period,since the

widespread diffusion of printing press in Modern Europe, new factors emerged
such as the raise of popular education, mass communication and the growth of
social and nationality consciousness.

2-Printing was the reason of publishing a book in a thousand copies or a hundred

thousand,everyone absolutely like the other thus a forcible factor was brought
about for cultivating a stand,uniform language.

3-popular Education:by the end of the Middle Ages a considerable number of

people of the Mid-order could read and write as the poster letters illustrate

4-Another factor,which is regarded to have crucial significance nowadays for

language,is Mass communication,it is the means,which has gathered many various
parts of the world together via trade,transportation and the rapid means of
communication.

5-Social consciousness is another significant factor which makes the one to

promote himself to another social or economic or intellectual class,he tries to
adopt the standards of pronounciation and the grammar of the people with whom
he has become identified.

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History of Language

Q9_Explain briefly the codification of phonology system of English language!

Most studies of language standardization have an inclination to slight phonological
standardization further more,phonological codification is frequently regarded as
an outcome of standardization.At present,most British,in the phonetic
transcription follow the model of Danial Jones in writing,which was recorded for
the first time in the dictionary publish in (1917).

His model was refered to the ''Received pronounciation (RP).This type of speech
had for centuries been considered a type of standard,and it can be pre-sumed that
most of speakers in various classes of society began to use RP or a type of
pronounciation nearly approximate to it.

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History of Language

Q10_Explain briefly the history of writing and indicate the reasons of delimitation
between Middle and Modern English!

The old English manuscripts utilized from the letters,which are depended on the
Irish reformation of the Roman alphabet,but the general practice of the
manuscripts has been followed by printers,the problem was not only that English
spelling,was in appropriate because even at present it is still bad and no one
correspond to the system,since there was no commonly recognized spelling,And
one reason of the inconsistency between spelling and pronounciation in Modern
English is the mess of the English orthography,another and more significant reason
the alteration in the pronounciation of tense vowels that support the delimitation
between Middle and Modern English.

Q11_indicate the reasons of the complexity of english Morphology!

The complexity of English Morphology is due to the vast borrowing of words from
other languages,English language received not only the words themselves but also
the prefix which becomes part of English Morphology.

Rewrited by: Omer Mustafa Qader

Dec 14 2020 – Monday

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