Professional Documents
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History of The English Language
History of The English Language
History of The English Language
the English
Language:
Why is our
language so
inconsistent ?
Why is English so inconsistent?
Through
Though
Bough
Ought
Cough
Rough
Today’s goals and plans:
1) Today we will look more at how our
language developed.
2) You should takes notes of what caused
major shifts in language and include a few
examples.
Linguistically Influential Periods of
Early English History
Historical Notes:
OLD ENGLISH
(Celtic, Latin, Germanic,
Scandinavian)
+ FRENCH
= Middle English
Middle English (1100-1485)
WORDS: In 1066 the Normans conquered
– Because the English underclass cooked for Britain. French became the
the Norman upper class, the words for most language of the Norman aristocracy
domestic animals are English (ox, cow, calf, and added more vocabulary to
sheep, swine, deer) while the words for the English. More pairs of similar words
meats derived from them are French (beef, arose.
veal, mutton, pork, bacon, venison). French English
close shut
PLURALS:
reply answer
– The Germanic form of plurals (house,
housen; shoe, shoen) was eventually odour smell
displaced by the French method of making annual yearly
plurals: adding an s (house, houses; shoe,
shoes). Only a few words have retained their demand ask
Germanic plurals: men, oxen, feet, teeth, chamber room
children.
desire wish
SPELLING: power might
– French also affected spelling so that the cw wrath /
sound came to be written as qu (eg. cween ire
anger
became queen).
Middle English (1100-1485)
Middle English was the language of the great
poet Chaucer (c. 1340-1400), but it would still
be difficult for native English speakers to
understand today.
Middle English (1100-1485)
What did Middle English look and sound like?
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote When in April the sweet showers fall
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote That pierce March's drought to the root and all
And bathed every veyne in swich licour, And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
Of which vertu engendred is the flour; To generate therein and sire the flower;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth When Zephyr also has with his sweet breath,
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth Filled again, in every holt and heath,
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne The tender shoots and leaves, and the young sun
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,
And smale foweles maken melodye, And many little birds make melody
That slepen al the nyght with open eye- That sleep through all the night with open eye
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages Then folk do long to go on pilgrimage,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; To distant shrines well known in distant lands.
And specially from every shires ende And specially from every shire's end
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, Of England they to Canterbury went,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke The holy blessed martyr there to seek
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke. Who helped them when they lay so ill and weak
Early English
1 Roman Occupation
2 Anglo-Saxon and Viking
55 B.C.-410 A.D. Invasions 410 – 1066 A.D.
GERMAN(IC)
LATIN
The Norman Invasion
3 (The Battle of Hastings)
in 1066 A.D.
FRENCH
Modern English (1485-Present)
Modern English began around the 16th
century (late 15th century).
– Early Modern English (1485-1800)
– (Late) Modern English (1800-Present)
Examples:
(Irish) Ná bac le mac an bhacaigh is ní
bhacfaidh mac an bhacaigh leat.
(Literal translation) Don't bother with son
the beggar's and not will-bother son the
beggar's with-you.