History of the English language: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

History of the English language

Old English

The principal invading Germanic tribes were the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Their Anglo-Saxon dialects developed into Old English. The most commonly used words today derive from those early Anglo-Saxon roots, but English vocabulary has also been greatly influenced over time. First, it was influenced by Scandinavian invaders who spoke Old Norse, which was probably mutually comprehensible with Old English. Later, the language was influenced, to an even greater extent, by the French-speaking Norman invaders. It has been argued that the Danish contribution occurred as late as the early Middle Ages.

The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of English and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development, however. The Oxford English Dictionary observes, "I. English Saxon, Saxon of England: orig. a collective name for the Saxons of Britain as distinct from the "Old Saxons" of the continent. Hence, properly applied to the Saxons (of Wessex, Essex, Middlesex, Sussex, and perhaps Kent), as distinct from the Angles. a. n. (the only contemporary use)."

According to Lois Fundis, (Stumpers-L, Fri, 14 Dec 2001) "The first citation for the second definition of "Anglo-Saxon," referring to early English language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of Elizabeth I, from a historian named Camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well-known in modern times."

Fundis reports that the OED continues, "b. adj. absol. In this Dictionary, the language of England before 1100 is called, as a whole, "Old English" (OE.); Anglo-Saxon, when used, is restricted to the Saxon as distinguished from the Anglian dialects of Old English;"

In the same thread, T.F. Mills wrote, "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is actually a compilation of nine separate 9th-11th century manuscripts that might not have been called by their collective name until the 19th century." He later added: "I believe that the earliest editions called it the Chronicum saxonicum anyway, and not Chronicum anglo-saxonicum."

In The Human Robot, Understanding the Emotional effects of Industrialism Jules Siegel comments, "Elizabeth II is a descendant of the House of Hanover, who were not even English but Germans, distant relatives invited to take over the British throne in the 18th Century when the English royal line abruptly ended without a legitimate heir. George I hardly spoke English. The Hanovers ruled Saxony. The term Anglo-Saxon was probably promoted to help legitimatize this embarrassing fact. ... Old English is the proper philological term for the language spoken in England before the Norman conquest. Anglo-Saxon came into prominence as a description of the British people well after the ascent of the Hanovers, not before."

For over two hundred years, the Norman French rulers governed and ran the church, educational and court systems in French, and French was the language of the aristocracy, while English remained the language of the common people. However French words were inevitably absorbed into English, and as a result, English gradually changed from its roots to such an extent that Modern English speakers cannot understand Old English. It lost most of its word inflections and gained a great deal of French vocabulary. Interestingly, Old English would be understood fairly well by today's Icelandic-speaking folk.

Such was the influence of French that, had nature not intervened, English may not have survived as a separate language. However, in the 14th century the Black Death killed so many of those in positions of power that many English speakers from the working classes rose to fill such positions, so displacing many of the French speakers. In 1362, English replaced French as the language of commerce and the courts, and the Lord Chancellor even addressed Parliament in English. However it was not until the coronation of Henry IV in 1399 that an English monarch made an address in English, after 333 years of French being spoken by the monarchy. Norman French is still used to give the Royal Assent to Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

By about the time of the Renaissance, the language had evolved into what is known as Middle English, which Modern English speakers can understand with a little difficulty. From the late 1400s, the language changed further into what is described as Modern English, and as a result of the Great Vowel Shift.

English has continued to assimilate foreign words, especially Latin and Greek, even to the present time. As a result of this history of assimilation, English today is commonly believed to have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. As there are many words from different languages the risk of mispronunciation is high. Vestiges of the older forms of English remain in a few regional accents, notably in the West Country.

In 1755 Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary.

Old English

Beowulf lines 1 to 11, approximately 900 CE

Hwæt! We Gar-Dena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning!

Middle English

From The Canterbury Tales by Geoffry Chaucer, 14th century Here bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunterbury

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open eye- (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

Early Modern English

From Othello by William Shakespeare, 1603

Iago: Though in the trade of Warre I haue slaine men, Yet do I hold it very stuffe o'th' conscience To do no contriu'd Murder: I lacke Iniquitie Sometime to do me seruice. Nine, or ten times I had thought t'haue yerk'd him here vnder the Ribbes.

Othello: 'Tis better as it is.

Modern English

From the United States Declaration of Independence, 1776, by Thomas Jefferson IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.