Language change over time. Flashcards
Before English, what language did the brits speak?
Celtic.
What occurred in the 5th century AD?
Settlers from west Germany crossed over to Britain, tribes known as the Saxons, Jutes and Angles. They spoke a dialect of the German language and this slowly evolved into the English we speak today.
Define Old English?
The language spoken by the Germanic settlers developed differently to the forms found in what is now known as Germany. This early form of English is known as ‘Old English’.
What occurred in the 8th century?
Vikings invaded, part of their Scandinavian language (closely related to Germanic languages too), including words describing family and animals, spread into norther England. The words were integrated into Old English.
Outline the events of 1066.
French became the dominant language of the court, the church and the nobility. The rest of the country spoke variations of English.
English slowly becomes more widely used by the educated upper classes and by 1245 English was used universally again in speech and writing. However, by now it had changed completely from Old English and was known as middle English.
Outline the features of middle English.
Grammar: became much simpler, reflecting the way the two languages had to co-exist. Inflections disappeared (all plurals ended '-en', '-es' or 's'.
French Lexis: especially legal, religious and administrative terms such as justice, jury, govern and sovereign.
Latin words: Thousands of Latin words, found in old French, replaced old English terms. An estimated 85% of old English words fell out of use after the Viking and Norman invasions.
Pronunciation: no standardised system of spelling. Pronunciation was changing and vowels were becoming shorter e.g. ‘teem’ became ‘time’ - this was known as the Great Vowel Shift.
Outline early modern english.
1476 - William Caxton introduced the printing press to Britain.
Mass text production was now possible, allowing movement towards standardisation in how they were printed, in terms of spelling and punctuation.
Greek and Latin texts were translating into English.
Caxton chose the East Midlands (London, Oxford, Cambridge) dialect to print works in. This soon became the most prestigious form of English.
World exploration: brought new words from African, Asian and New World languages.
The European Renaissance: a huge number of Latin, French and Greek words entered the English language: words were needed for new concepts like psychology.
Shakespeare: coined around 1,700 new words, such as courtship, excitement and outbreak.
Outline the influences of Latin.
More than half our modern English vocabulary is Latinate (of Latin origin) e.g. colossal, dignified, emotion and history.
Most of our prefixes and suffixes come from Latin, e.g. anti-, post-, pre-, -al,
-ate, -ic.
Outline the progression of Late Modern English.
1700 onwards, English became more standardised and similar to the language we recognise today.
1755 - Samuel Johnson finished the first ‘Dictionary of English’. His was the most comprehensive version.
1762 - Robert Lowth published the first English grammar book, which laid out some of the fundamental rules for ‘correct’ usage.
Outline Standardisation and Prescriptivism.
During 1700 many writers made attempts to define the lexicon and grammar of English (Johnson and Lowth etc). Which led to a view that some non-standard varieties of English were inferior - this is called Prescriptivism.
Latin was upheld as the ideal language and used as a model for English grammar, even though it had a very different stucture.
Outline the 19th century English.
Rail travel, colonial expansion, the spread of literacy and mass production of the printed word extended everyone’s access to a standard written form of English.
The Industrial Revolution changed the way people lived their lives, so new words were needed.
English borrowed a huge amount of words from all over the world and American English was becoming a language in its own right, with its own rules and spelling.
Outline the modern developments.
English is now a world language of communication.
Electronic media like mobile phones and the internet have radically changed the way we communicate with each other.
A more colloquial and casual style of language reflects major social changes.
Estuary English (a south-eastern dialect) has become widespread in the UK.
American English increasingly influences British English and English worldwide.
Outline the complete timeline of British literary history.
Old English (450-1066).
Middle English (1066-1500).
Renaissance (1500-1660).
Neoclassic (1600-1785).
Romantic (1785-1832).
Victorian (1832-1901)
.
Edwardian (1901-1914).
Georgian (1910-1936).
Modern (1914-1945).
Postmodern (1945-present).
