English: Origin

By Lauren Molin

English: (ing-glish) Noun.

• A language of business, international trade, communication, tourism, and entertainment.
• A language that seems to have been created for the sole purpose of being weird.

We’ve been talking a little over nine months about little things that make English weird. To kick off the new year, I thought I’d take us through the origins of the English language.

A long time ago….

In a galaxy far, far away…

Ok I’m joking, but it really did start a long time ago.

OLD ENGLISH

English originates from the Proto-Indo- Europeans language Family in the Germanic line, specifically West Germanic. Three Germanic tribes, the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles came to the British Isles in the 5^th century in what historians call the Germanic Invasions. These three tribes pushed the native Celtic-speakers into what we now call Wales, Cornwall, and Scotland. These three tribes eventually began to mix together and, as they did, a new dialect emerged: Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.

But why do we call it ‘English’? Why, because the Angles came from a land known as Engle, and they spoke a language known as “Englisc”. This new dialect spoken by the three tribes also added the Latin that was left behind by the Roman Invasion and Norse words brought by the Viking when they eventually invaded.

Do you recognize these Latin, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon words that we still use today?

Latin

• Villa
• Pictura
• Agricola
• Nota

Norse

• Egg
• Bylög
• Skil
• Happ
• Húsbóndi

Anglo-Saxon

• ond
• bean
• blæd

MIDDLE ENGLISH

Old English lasted until around 1100 when the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror came and, er, conquered Britain. However, for someone who took over the place, he wasn’t very eager to learn the language. So what did the upper-class speak in England for over a hundred years?

French.

For a long time, the common language was known as the language of the lower class while the court spoke French. The old Germanic words were pushed to being considered lower than their French equivalents. Swine (OE) v pork (F) and sheep (OE) v mutton (F), to name a few examples. This lead to confusion as you can imagine, but they weren’t particularly worried.

Until the Hundred Years War when the British and French had a bit of a falling out, this resulting in the breaking up of the court permanently. As a matter of pride, they naturally had to switch languages to dissociate themselves from the French. But some French words survived and still remain in the English Language. This also lead to a vowel shift in the English language where longer vowels were now pronounced higher in the mouth, similar to French.

Do you know these words?

French

• Brunette
• Hôpital
• Salade
• Adorable

MODERN ENGLISH

This period of English is divided into two subsections: Early Modern English and Late Modern English.

Early Modern English

Linguists say Early Modern English started with the invention of a little thing called the printing press in 1476 (the British version! The German one was invented 1450). Because of this hot new thing, books were more easily made and distributed. Literacy grew and English became more standard.

Suddenly, an explosion of art and culture occurred around that time, the Renaissance. So, when you try to imagine Early Modern English, just imagine our buddy William Shakespeare with all his beautiful, beautiful puns and insults. More Greek and Latin phrases were added to English as interest in classical works and values rose. Support for the arts increased, as did sea travel and books.

Early Modern English

• vyolence
• bytwene
• creacyon

Then, WHAM!

Late Modern English

The Industrial Revolution hit Britain, marking the second half of Modern English.

With this sudden spark, work traditionally done in the home, often by hand, was done in factories by machines. With this whole new world, words had to either change or new words had to be created in order to adapt. With the revolution, the British also began to colonize. As the Empire swept across the world and learned about new cultures, they learned new words such as kangaroo, juggernaut, shampoo, and jungle. Language became more what we know today. Unnecessary letters and vowels were changed or dropped.

Today, English is constantly changing. Since last September alone, over 1,100 words have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, giving us around a quarter million words (although the dictionary also states about 47,156 of these are obsolete). Who can say where we’ll all be, or what we’ll all be speaking, in 300 years!

Answers:

Latin

Villa– villa and village

Pictura – picture

Agricola – agriculture

Nota – note

Norse

Egg – egg

Bylög – bylaw

Skil – skill

Happ – happy

Húsbóndi – husband

Anglo-Saxon

ond – and

bean – bean

blæd – blade

French

Brunette – brunette

Hôpital – hospital

Salade – salad

Adorable – adorable

Early Modern English

vyolence – violence

bytwene – between

creacyon – creation

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Works Cited

“A Brief History of the English Language.” A Brief History of the English Language, Study English Today, www.studyenglishtoday.net/english-language-history.html.

“Early modern English pronunciation and spelling.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/.

“History of English.” EnglishClub – to learn or teach English, EnglishClub, www.englishclub.com/history-of-english/.

“How many words are there in the Engli… | Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-english-language.

“Ten things you might not have known about the English language.” OxfordWords blog, Oxford, 18 July 2016, blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/08/12/ten-things-you-might-not-have-known-about-the-english-language/.

Crystal, David, and Simeon Potter. “English language.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 26 Jan. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/English-language.

Hansen, Dr. Randall S. “ EnhanceMyVocabulary.Com.” English Vocabulary Derived from Latin – Page 1, EmpoweringSites, www.enhancemyvocabulary.com/word-roots_latin.html.

Jordan, John EriK. “139 Old Norse Words That Invaded The English Language.” The Babbel Magazine, Babbel, www.babbel.com/en/magazine/139-norse-words.

The Fowler Collection, http://www.ibiblio.org/lineback/words/sax.htm.