History of English Language

874 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Factors for the evolution of contemporary English

English language has changed a lot. It is a very old language. The old English language originally comes from North West Germany. The history of English language has been divided in three different periods. It has been divided in Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. It has been influenced by many different other languages, and that’s what caused English to change and have new words. The language kept changing, even after the Renaissance. English has changed more before the renaissance. There was the Great Vowel Shift that caused to change the pronunciation. A lot of people in England left the country and moved in North America which is now the USA and Canada. They moved and colonized in Africa, India, New Zealand and Australia. The language continued to change until today and it is still happening.

The Jutes, Anglo and Saxons came from North West Germany, and invaded Britain and chased away the original citizens in England to Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland and somewhere in the north of France which they become the Bretons Celtics. As the Jutes, Anglo and Saxons mixed their old German language, it became old English. It was the start of English history. Anglo called their land Angle land, which sounds a lot like the country England. They called their language Englisc, which sounds almost like the language English. As the Roman came, new words from Latin were added. 28.24 percent of English language came from Latin. As the Normand Conquest happened in 1066, the Anglo-Saxon had to learn French terms. It was invaded by French, Normans and Bretons. Fortunately they were able to keep their old English, and that caused to make English even richer and stronger after the French lef...

... middle of paper ...

...garoo, chipmunk and skunk are native’s words. Now that many British explorers and other people from England set themselves in new areas far away from their home countries, the accents slowly becomes different, such as the Westerns in North America compared to England. It is still hard for many to tell the difference between Australian and British accent, and both countries are very far away from each other.

The English language history is something that truly happened since there are languages that have similar vocabularies, such as French with the word support, cliché, million and garage. There has been lot of shifting such as invasion and war. Now that English has changed, and influenced by other different languages, it is now a complete mix. It has been enriched by science and technology; it is complex and a huge spoken language.

Show More
Related

  • Elder Futhark Rune Symbols

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    According to Wiki, one theory states, “The Anglo Saxon originated from from Frisia. Afterwards, the script was used throughout England.”

    Read More

  • Dennis Barron's Ability To Banning The English Language In America

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since it’s been a predominant topic of our discussion, let us talk about the infamous English language. We can be sure that it has painstakingly progressed throughout generations of reevaluation and modernization, and has thus become what it is today. It has gone in several directions to try and mesh with the various epochs of language, from the Shakespearean era to the common English slang we use now, we can all agree that English is a language that has been transcending and will continue to transcend into many

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Changes In Australian English From The First Fleet To Present Day

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tracing the changes in Australian English from the First Fleet to present day is really about exploring the story of the nation, author Kel Richards says. The English language arrived in Australia a little more than 200 years ago and since that time it has been levelled, shaped and restyled to give Australians a specific dialect.

    Read More

  • History of the Spanish Language

    2475 Words  | 5 Pages

    A language, much like a person, is molded over time by different experiences, and is influenced by the languages which surround it. History has taught us time and time again that all it takes is one action to change the course of a language. During the battle of Hastings, King Harold II was shot in the eye by the Norman invaders; resulting in the Norman-French language all but taking over English in the 11th century AD. This seemingly insignificant event would forever change the way that English is spoken. Similar to English, Spanish is from the Indo-European family of languages. Unlike English however, Spanish is derived from a category of the Romance Languages, of which it is the most widely spoken today. The Spanish language is also known as Castilian, which is the dialect from which Modern Spanish is derived, and originated in the Iberian Peninsula of Spain. Today, Spanish is the official language of: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Spanish has evolved, in a multilingual environment, over the course of the last 2000 years, beginning with Vulgar Latin, it evolved into medieval Castilian in the 8th century, it then became Early Modern Spanish during 15th century, finally it became Modern Spanish from the 16th century on.

    Read More

  • A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson

    438 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson argues the importance of preserving language. Other dialects had a produced their own dictionaries, such as the French and Italians. Various writers of the eighteenth century were alarmed at the fact that there was no standard for the English language, since there was no standard it could easily become extinct. Johnson explored many points, such as how and why languages change as well as how many words are formed.

    Read More

  • The Significance of the Beowulf Poem

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    how the English language has changed in the many years from then until now. The

    Read More

  • The Anglo-Saxon Period

    1754 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Angles were a Germanic tribe that occupied the region which is now Scleswig-Holstein, Germany. With their fellow ethnic groups, they formed the people who came to be known as the English. The Saxons were a Germanic people who first appeared in the beginning of the Christian era. The Saxons were said to have lived in the south Jutland Peninsula in the north of what is now Germany, but the fact has not been proven. They attacked and raided areas in the North Sea throughout the third and fourth centuries. By the end of the sixth century, the Saxons had taken all of the Roman territory within north-west Germany, as far as the Elbe River. The Angles joined the Saxons in the invasion of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. British resistance to the 'Anglo Saxon' invaders in the second half of the fifth century ended with the Anglo Saxon’s victory at the battle of Mount Badon. After the British were defeated, though, the Angles and the Saxons continued to fight over their religion for many years (Irvin, Vacca, Probst, Beers, p.46).

    Read More

  • The English Renaissance

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    As you can see, there are many differences and similarities between these distinctive periods in literary history. The Anglo-Saxon period was the time of heroism. The Medieval period was the time of chivalry and courtly love. The Renaissance period was the time of a rebirth and humanism. Lastly, the seventeenth century was a time of the Puritans and the Cavaliers. Each period revolved a new topic, theme and writing style. However, no matter what differences our literature goes through, we always go back into our roots and pull out our beginnings and use them efficiently. The English language has surely evolved through each stage of time and it will continue to grow to new heights because of its predominant history.

    Read More

  • Italic Branch of the Indo-European Language Family

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... language. The earliest forms of French was called Old French and lasted until the fifteenth century. Modern day French was developed from the dominant dialect in the twelfth and thirteenth century in central France, around Paris. Norman French, located in northern France, spread to England in the eleventh century and became known as Anglo-Norman as it developed in England but English eventually dominated and wiped it out. Occitan was spoken in the South and developed greatly during the Middle Ages until the North overtook them in the early thirteenth century. Occitan can still be found in southern France today (Fortson 258). Spanish

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare's Influence on the English Language

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    The English language has been in constant transition throughout its history, but the most significant transformation in modern English can be credited to William Shakespeare. With Shakespeare’s invention of commonly used expressions, his creation of new words, and his use of iambic pentameter, he was able to affect the language in a way that no person since has. Shakespeare’s influence on modern English is not only visible in everyday speech, but also in the fact that his work has survived over four hundred years and it continues to be performed and read worldwide.

    Read More

  • Anglo Saxon Heptarchy

    1857 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Anglo-Saxon time period is marked by the end of Roman rule in Britain circa 410 A.D to the Norman Conquest of 1066 (Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, 8). When the Romans abandoned Britain, the native Britons had to protect themselves from intruders such as the ferocious Scots of the West and the persistent Picts of the North. The Britons asked two Saxon princes of modern day Germany to help them defend their land against such intruders (Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, 29). The Saxons came immediately and were more than successful in defeating the enemies of the Britons and forming an alliance with the Scots and Picts, but they did not leave Britain after their task was done. They wanted to stay because of the fertile lands and wealth that the country

    Read More

  • Norman English And The English Language

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another significant influence on the formation of the English language was the writer Geoffrey Chaucer from the 13th century, who wrote the infamous “Canterbury Tales”, which is usually considered the first great works of English...

    Read More

  • Development of the English Language

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    The beginnings of English can be found in the occupation of England from the 5th century by north and west German ethnic groups who brought their 'indigenous dialects' (Seargeant, P. 2012, p. 1). The Oxford English Dictionary defines English as 'Of or related to the West Germanic language spoken in England and used in many varieties throughout the world' (Seargeant, P. 2012, p. 7). Invasion in the 9th century by Scandinavians, who settled in the north of England and the establishment of Danelaw in 886 AD defining the area governed by the Danes in the north and east, had a marked effect on the language spoken there (Beal, J. 2012, p. 59). These periods are known as Early and Later Old English (Beal, J. 2012, p. 50).

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On English As A Global Language

    1810 Words  | 4 Pages

    The English language arose from the early Anglo Saxon inhabitants in ancient England and spread to Scotland and other European countries via the British Empire and later to the United States through colonial political and economical influences. It later dispersed to other parts of the world through these same influences to become one of the leading languages of the world. It has over the years developed by adopting different dialects to create a language, which is the standard lingual Franca in many countries. The rapid growth of the English language and its adoption by different cultures across the globe is sufficient ground to make it the global language.

    Read More

  • Lingua franca

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...rld has there been a language more widespread than that of English. No one can know what path it will continue to take. As discussed scholars have made predictions in history which were proved wrong by time ; Webster and Sweet.

    Read More

More about History of English Language

Open Document