History of English

Question 1

Old English (Anglo Saxon) (400CE-1066CE)

Answer 1

-Celts were ruled by the Romans 40-400-AD and their language was influenced (‘chester’ derived from Latin word for ‘camp’)
-Celtic place name suffixes ‘ing’ ‘ton’ ‘ham’ denote ‘people of’ ‘enclosure/village’ ‘farm’
-the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded, driving the Celtic language to the edges of England (Wales, Cornwall and Scotland)
-The Germanic tribes recorded their language in runes
-The revival of Christianity introduced the Latin script
-had a lexicon of around 25,000 words
-Norse invasion was during this time

Question 2

Norse invasion

Answer 2

-793CE vikings raided coastal monasteries
-865CE vikings send army to invade
-controlled the North and East 5 years later, spreading their language across the land
-Alfred of Wessex’s campaign against the vikings helped to retain the english language
-signed a treaty with the Danes, creating a border which would only be crossed for trade and intermarriage
-communities mixed and Danish language was absorbed into English

Question 3

The Norse Invasion’s impact on the English Language

Answer 3

-‘by’, ‘thorpe’ and ‘thwaite’ suffixes on place names introduced
-‘son’ in names also
-Norse has had most influence on Northern dialects
-‘sk’ sound
-introduced prepositions instead of inflection on nouns
-simplified the grammar system

Question 4

Influence of Latin on OLD English (Pre-1066)

Answer 4

-Roman rule prior to 439 CE
-Alfred wanted commoners to be able to understand religious text
-let scholars learn Latin so translations can take place
-lots of old english writing took place

Question 5

Norman Invasion

Answer 5

Marked the transition from Old to Middle English.
-1066 Invasion meant that the aristocracy would speak French and they brought Latin speaking clergy with them
-common people began to speak some French too as it was the language of official matters and the court

Question 6

Impact of the Norman Invasion on the English Language

Answer 6

-Introduced words relating to social order (duke, baron, peasant), food (mutton, beef, veal), and law (arrest, judge, jury)
-some English words were pushed onto a more specific meaning
-around 10,000 words entered English from Old French

Question 7

Loss of French influence

Answer 7

John Lackland 1166-1216: Lost lands in France

The Black Death reduced the number of French speakers (killing 30-50% of the whole country), meaning that positions previously held by French speakers were given to English speakers

Hundred Years’ war 1337-1453: damaged relations with France

Bible translations from Latin to English

Question 8

Translations of the Bible

Answer 8

1380- John Wycliffe, aimed to translate the bible into Latin but struggled with the difference in syntax, left it in its Latin form

The Church banned his edition of the bible, arresting him and his associates
1500s William Tyndale attempted to translate the bible once more (but not the entire thing) and put it into english syntax

1600s, King James Bible, was 85% like the William Tyndale version
-Tyndale and James version used archaic (old english) language to create an impression of authority

Question 9

Printing Press

Answer 9

William Caxton introduced this to England in 1476

helps to standardise the language, especially spellings

William Caxton printed the Canterbury tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)

Question 10

Great Vowel Shift

Answer 10

schwa is the most neutral vowel
long vowels were raised (see used to rhyme with the French thé)
the already close vowels became dipthhongs (two adjacent vowels within one syllable) as they are now (moos became mouse and sheen became shine)
short vowels were unaffected

1400-1700

Question 11

Shakespeare

Answer 11

1564-1616
-2000 words are first recorded in Shakespeare’s work
-Shakespeare would have learnt Latin in school, used it in his writing. Also used compounds and regional (midlands) words.

Question 12

Early Modern English

Answer 12

-external, exaggerate, industrial
-Ink horn controversy was an attempt to preserve Old ‘pure’ English, without the influence of other languages
-dictionary: first written 1604 by Robert Cawdery
-many ever day words and phrases (“my better half’,”far-fetched’) come from the works of Sydney
-1590s Southwark street slang was simple and direct
-the return of classical scholarship brought back some words of Latin and Greek origin

Question 13

First Dictionaries

Answer 13

-Robert Cawdrey’s ‘A Table Alphabetical’ (1604) contained 3000 words
-Samuel Johnson’s ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1747) contained 43,500 words
-The Oxford English Dictionary took 70 years to complete and was published in 1884 and contained 400,000 words

Question 14

Globalisation

Answer 14

400 million native english speakers and possibly 2 billion non native

from colonialism and the rising influence of the USA, English has become a global language

Question 15

The Internet

Answer 15

Has added thousands of words of new vocabulary

People encounter dialects they would not have otherwise. There are 400 million native english speakers and perhaps 2 billion non native, and these can all interact with each other online

Online communities may develop their own new dialects, for example, Tumblr.

Question 16

Esperanto

Answer 16

an attempted lingua franca developed in the 19th century

Question 17

American English

Answer 17

19th century saw English becoming the dominant language in North America, two Englishes: American-English and British English
• ‘Skyscraper’, ‘hotel’ derived from French given its modern meaning, ‘elevator’ instead of lift ‘wardrobe’ instead of closet, ‘drapes’ not curtains
• Dickens called it a corrupted version of the language
• Edwardians saw American English as barbaric

• migrants, especially black ones, brought new vocabulary and slang to northern US cities
• ‘jazz’ and ‘blues’ come from African American speech
• ‘bad’ first recorded as meaning good in USA

• European migrants brought their languages to USA
• hamburger, ouch, so long from German, Yiddish also had an impact

Question 18

First World War

Answer 18

• vision of equality and new figures of speech
• ‘bombarded’ for stressed, ‘no man’s land’, ‘over the top’
• saw general shift in power to America due to destruction in Europe compared to growth in the new world

Question 19

Prohibition

Answer 19

• chick, bimbo, broad, babe
• spill the beans, the fuzz

Question 20

1930s cinema

Answer 20

• cliffhanger, slapstick, trailer
• global sharing of English
• Alex Knox called American English evil, Daily Telegraph called transatlantic importations a plague (referring specifically to ‘worth-while’, ‘nearby’)
• these opinions were generally ignored in Britain because of the popularity of Hollywood

Question 21

Second World War

Answer 21

• 1940, Churchill studied speeches of Elizabeth I, using traditional english words 1000 years old: never, ground, island, fight
• Americans were told that Britons were, although soft spoken and polite, not soft

Question 22

David Crystal on what causes a language to spread

Answer 22

political and social factors are the driving force behind the spread of it, not its ‘strength’

Question 23

Computer technology

Answer 23

1948: first computer made in England, introducing new vocabulary
• 85% of web pages are written in English
• world trade by english is the largest

Question 24

International reactions to English

Answer 24

40 million speak English in India, spoken as if it is the first language 33.3% having some familiarity
where ever english is spoken, more are coming into contact with it
500 million are bilingual with english
about 2billion have some english
most medical journals published firstly in English
toubon law: France made a law in 1994 to fine those who use English words when there is an adequate French equivalent in written documents, advertisements, etc

becoming a language of international official matters could alter the perception of English

people will make English their own and in doing so will change it, as happened to Latin

Question 25

Variations of English on the British Isles

Answer 25

Scotts-Gaelic speakers vary language depending on context, using English with the tang of the Gaelic

Scots still use old english vowel sounds

Bradford: large amounts of South Asian migrants, speaking Yorkshire English with a distinct accent, integrating words from their own language into English.

Question 26

Arguments for and against the spread of English

Answer 26

-some argue English is good
• useful as a global language which is comprehensible, accessible and usable

-some react against the authority of British and American standards
• Robert Phillipson 1992 argues that english and its spread disadvantages other languages, causing them to lose prestige or die out

Question 27

The future of English 1

Answer 27

• language is messy, complex and unpredictable,it will continue to change in the future
• some believe it will become more uniform, some countries have adopted English as their official language (to be one tat everybody in the country can understand)
• American English is becoming a global standard (World Standard English) because of US films, music, brands etc
• communication technology will contribute to this, 80% of information stored on computers worldwide were English in 2005, internet and mobile phone communication will change how punctuation is used
• computer software often uses American spelling as the standard, spell checks may lead to less emphasis on teaching spelling in schools

Question 28

The future of English 2

Answer 28

• English could also become more diverse, splitting into separate languages as happened with latin
• separate varieties used to display national identity and independence, rejecting cultural imperialism
• English might stop dominating the internet as translation software improves and the need for learning American or British English lessens
• India and China are likely to have a greater part in science and technology
• standard forms may become more uniform while varieties become more diverse