Chapter 2: A national language

Question 1

National language*

Answer 1

Main language spoken by a nation such as England.

Question 2

Language in England before English

Answer 2

Prior to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain in the 400s, the inhabitants of the island spoke Celtic languages. Eng. only has few traces of it.

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, E. was not the first langage of the ruling classes. French and Latin were spoken in England as well as English which was the language of everyday life and the lower classes.

In the 14th century, when official governnment documents were written in English, a sense of a national, standard variety of English had begun to emerge.

Question 3

standardisation*

Answer 3

The social and political processes by which norms of language usage are agreed and enforced.

Question 4

Standard English*

Answer 4

Codified in dictionaries and grammars, prescribed in schools and promoted by the media.

Question 5

1. Pre-English period: AD 450

7 Ages of English

Answer 5

Languages in Briatain are Celtic. After ROman invasion 55 BS, Latin becomes dominant language of culture and government. Communities in Britain are bilingual Celtic-Latin.

Question 6

2. Early Old English: 450 - 850

7 Ages of English

Answer 6

Anglo-savon invasion, after Romans have withdran.
Settlers bring variety of Germanic dialects from mainland.
First English literature appears in 700. E. borrows many words from Latin via the Church.

Question 7

3. Later Old English: 850 - 1100

7 Ages of English

Answer 7

Invasion and settlement from Scandinacia. In the noth of Engl. dialects of English became influenced by Scandinavian languages.
In South King Alfred arranges for myn Latin texts to be translated.

Question 8

4. Middle English (110-1450)

7 Ages of English

Answer 8

Norman conquest and Norman rule.
English vocabulary and spelling now aaffected by French, which becomes the official language.
Educated people speak French, Latin and English.

Englang begins to become recognised as political entity withing Britain.

Question 9

5. Modern English (1450 - 1750)

7 Ages of English

Answer 9

Renaissance, Elizabethan era and Shakespeare.
Role of Church, Latin and French declines ang Engl. becomes language of science and government.
Britain grows commercially and acquires colonies.
Eng. is taken to America, Australia, India.

Question 10

6. Modern English (1750-1950)¨

7 Ages of English

Answer 10

Britain experiences Industrial Recolution and consolidates imperial power, introducing English medium education.
Eng. becomes the international language of advertising and consumerism.

Question 11

7. Late modern English (1950- now)

7 Ages of English

Answer 11

Britain retreats from emipre. Engl. becomes the international language of cummunications technology.

Question 12

Internal evidence/direct evidence*

for the ways in which English is spoken and written for different purposes, by different people in different places

Answer 12

linguistic evidence that comes from examples of language use, such as texts written in the language.

Question 13

External/indirect evidence*

for the ways in which English is spoken and written for different purposes, by different people in different places

Answer 13

Comres from sources such as commentaries on the language or archaelogical finds.

Question 14

Evidence of language prior 700

Answer 14

no written record prior to 700 (Anglo-Saxons converted to christianity; church produced texts). problem: written text only reflects the written language used by the intelects and literate (=Belesenen/Alphabeten). They do not cover the whole usage of the language, especially not the spoken language.)

Question 15

England before English

Answer 15

Britons living in Englad at the time spoke Celtic languages. Archaelogical evidence show that Britons may have lived alongside Anglo-Saxons.

The vast majority of “old English” is more influenced by the language of the Anglo-Saxons as by the Celtic language (=original language that was spoken before the Anglo-Saxon invasion.
Languages from today that are similar to Celtic language: Welsh, Cornish and Breton (influence of the Celtic folk).

Most Latin words now used in English come not from the Roman occupation (-410) of Britain but were brought over later by the invasion of the Anglo Saxons (450-). –>mix of Germanic dialects.

Question 16

English before England

Answer 16

All the language of the Anglo -Saxon invaders belonged to the West-Germanic group, therefore there is still the continuing similarities between English, German and Dutch (e.g. foot, Fuss, voet).
Along with this Germanic word-stock, the Anglo-Saxons brought over words that had been borrowed from Latin, as a result of trade or the Roman occupation of Germania.
Tactius described Germani as comprising separate tribes some of which will have been ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

The linguistic heritage of the Anglo-Saxon invaions of the fith ventury wass not a unified language but a variety of West Germanic languages or dialects spoken by settlers.

Question 17

Foreign influence

Danes and the Danelaw

Answer 17

First Vikings camte to England from Sandinavia in 783 (later Old English period).
In ninth century groups of Scandinavians were beginning to winter in England. In the second halve Danish invaders brought armies with a view to conquest and permanend settlement. Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia were conquered, wirh only Alfred in Wessex holding out. In 878 a treaty was signed acknowleding the rule of Danish king Guthrum in an area noth east of from London to Chester. This was know as the Danelaw.
Within this area we find place names with Norse elements (-by = village, -throphe = farmsteasd, -toft = plot of land

Within Danelaw Danes ang Angles lifed together and understood each other’s language to a vertain extend and the English was influenced by the Nore language.

Norse affected grammar as well; it added pronouns they, them and their. The legacy of Scandinavian settlers in England can be found today both in regional dialects of the area and in the standard language.

Question 18

The Norman Conquest (1066) and French in England

Answer 18

The Norman Conquest of 1066 was to introduce French which would take over from English in higher-status functions. From wthis time until the 13th century the ruling and governing classes of England would have French as their first language. Church and learning was Latin and courtly literature was in French.

Question 19

English and ideas about diversity in the 14th century.

Answer 19

The uses of French began to decline althought it was not until Henry IV came to the throne in 1399 that England thad its first king who spoke English as his first language.

A turningpoint: Standardisation of English
Once English became a medium of education there was a need for some kind of standard for instruction.
But dialectal diversity was still the norm.
There are hints in 14th century literature that the dialegt of London was gaining prestige because of its association with the capital and the Court. Accompanying the prestige to the dialect was a derogatory attitude towards other varieties.

Question 20

Standardisation / stages of standardisation

Early Modern period and beyond

Answer 20

• Selection of a variety to be the standard
• codification, by which norms are elucidated and caputures in dictionaries or grammars
• elaboration, involves the extension of the standard to a wider variety of functions
• implementation, whereby norms are imposed and variability suppressed.

added:
- prescriptivism: judgements about the correctness and desirability of certain linguistic features serve to maintain the standard.

Question 21

William Caxton

Answer 21

Produced an English translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. He introduced the technology of printing into Enland. He wanted to ensure that his books had as wide a market as possible. He needed his text to be read and understood troughout the country.
He was writing in a variety that was already taking on the functions of a standard.

Question 22

Shakespeare

Answer 22

Our present-day understaning of Shakespeare as a lone and highly innovative geniud stems from Romanticism (late 1700, era which emphasies aesthetic and emotional values) and distorts the wider picture of what was actually going on in the sicteenth and seventennth centuries.

Shakespeare was not exceptional but one of many writers who made a contribution at a time when English vocabulary was greatly expanding.

English did not have a vocabulary for registers used in domains as philosophy, science and religion.

Question 23

Conclusion

Answer 23

The development of English language was not a story of uninterrupted progress but more a result of encounters between social groups who brought various languages into contact with one another (Anglo-Saxons (Germanic) vs. Vikings (Scandinavian) vs. Normans (French) vs. Latin…). It is also formed by political decisions (Act of Union) and a result of changing in thinking (prior to the 1800s diversity of language was the norm before the belief changed to a stronger prescriptivism). By saying English is the national language of England doesn’t mean England is monolingual. In 2000 a study reported that London schoolkids spoke 300 languages between them. It also remains a place of great dialectal diversity.