The English language has many words which originate from different
languages. Numerous words in our 'Modern English' are from foreign
languages that are from countries that previously invaded England. Our
language has been changing throughout the ages and 'Modern English' is
the finished product. There are still 'slang' words developing, and
many people are becoming more inclined to speak 'slang'.
In 500 B.C the Celts invaded England. Their language (Celtic) has
influenced Scottish, Gaelic and Irish. In 449 A.D Teutonic tribes
forced the majority of the Celts out of England into Wales and
Cornwall.
Julius Caesar and his strong Roman army invaded England in 55 B.C. He
was unsuccessful at taking over the country or the language.
However Emperor Claudius and his Roman army invaded and conquered
England in 43 A.D. Their language was called Latin. Latin never really
took off and ordinary people did not speak Latin. The Romans stayed in
power for almost 400 years.
In 449 A.D Teutonic tribes from Scandinavia and Northern Germany
started to invade England. The tribes which invaded were the Saxons,
the Angles, the Jutes and the Frisians. Nearly all the Roman towns
were destroyed. The Angles and the Saxons united together to form
several kingdoms. The language they created was Anglo-Saxon or Old
English. It was closely related to Old High German, Frisian, and
Scandinavian.
By the end of the 6th century the Anglo-Saxons came to be called the
'Angles' or the 'Engles'. Old English was 'Englisc' and England was
called 'Engaland'. 'Engaland' and 'Englisc' eventually formed into
England and English.
Anglo Saxon
English
twa
two
siex or syx
six
Solmonath
February
hundred
hundred
fif hundred þreo ond twentig
five hundred and twenty-three
hwær
where
hlaf
bread (loaf)
cese
cheese
scyld
shield
reod
red
geolu
yellow
Geola
The current decade’s slang is very important to the teen culture. Teens often use slang to speak only to one another and not to adults as said in the following article, “Every generation has its slang — new words that allow kids to communicate without their parents understanding”(53 Slang… 1). Kids will use slang terms to communicate without adults being able to comprehend what exactly kids are saying, it is basically a secret code. Since the 1930’s slang has evolved in countless ways. These words will constantly be changing, even within the same decade as said in this Huffington Post article, “words change all the time and overtime”(“These 12…” 1). Words within the English language can constantly have little tweaks added to them; sometimes this will create an entire new word. Slang terms can change throughout decades and era’s rapidly even though it is within a short time span, and this article supports the fact that words do not need decades to change it can take as little time as a few
Many people may have heard of the story of Beowulf, but not know who the Anglo-Saxons were. According to an article on BBC History, the term Anglo-Saxon refers to settlers from the German regions of Angeln and Saxony. The Anglo-Saxons made their way over to Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire around AD 410 and the period lasted for 600 years. During this period there where many rises and falls of bishops and kings, as well as many important battles. The Anglo-Saxon warriors had a variety of weapons and armor to defend them. This includes spears, scramaseaxes, swords, shields, helmets, and body armor.
According to Wiki, one theory states, “The Anglo Saxon originated from from Frisia. Afterwards, the script was used throughout England.”
Chaucer's Prologue is an introduction to the characters that he will soon be talking about in his short stories. It was written to combat the Italian Buchartio, and write his own version to achieve fame. The reason that the Italian version became so popular is because of how it was written in the Italian of the street people, in other words, it could be understood by the whole of Italy, not just the rich. Chaucer wanted to do the same thing, but came to halt when he was deciding what language to write it in, he thought of Russian and other languages, but soon decided on English. This is extremely important because it is the first time that English has ever been written down, usually it is just a spoken language with no written form. This is why it was so important to the English language that he wrote it specifically in English. Giving the language a written form, sort of. It was a mixture of German of the east and native language from the Anglo Saxons. It is difficult to read, because this is the first time English has been written down, so there wasn’t any set way to spell words, and they were spelled how they sounded phonetically.”Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March Hath Perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich liquor” (Page 97 Lines 1-3). Typically, this meant that the same word was spelled fifty different ways throughout the entire Prologue. Though it is hard to read it is still an excellent story, and has very depth in its characters, which are fully developed and give further detail into the story and make it one of the best stories in English there is today.
Saxons from Germany began to assault and plunder the coasts of Britain, The Saxon’s raids start small and were easily defeated, but in 286 AD one group seized power over Britain for a decade until Emperor Constantius invaded and retook Britain. Back under Roman control, the people of Britain lived peacefully and began to prosper again. A few decades past and the Western Roman Empire went into economic and political decline. In 367 AD the Scots joined with the Saxons and began to raid Britain, but the Romans were able to keep order. The raids were contained until Roman soldiers began to be withdrawn in 383 AD and the raiding grew worse. The last of the Roman troops left in 407 and the Romano-Celts were left to defend themselves. “Roman Britain split into separate kingdoms but the Romano-Celts continued to fight the Saxon raiders.Roman civilization slowly broke down. In the towns people stopped using coins and returned to barter. The populations of towns were already falling and this continued. Rich people left to be self-sufficient on their estates. Craftsmen went to live in the countryside. More and more space within the walls of towns was giving over to growing crops. Roman towns continued to be inhabited until the mid-5th century. Then most were abandoned. Some may not have been deserted completely. A small number may have
Normans: (911 - 1750) The Normans formed alongside Viking settlers. They spread across Europe through conquests, at one point encompassing England, Sicily,
In the beginning of this semester, English 1302 seemed as though it would be the subject that would be the toughest for me to pass. The pace, the work load and everything in between seemed overwhelming for me. As time proceeded to pass, the course didn’t seem as overpowering. By taking the work one step at a time, it simply became another step to achieve the overall goal of this first half of the semester. I have made improvements as well as learned lessons from my mistakes made along the way.
Geoffrey Chaucer was a man with an interesting life to say the least. From imprisonment and royal service to being renowned as one of the greatest poets and writers of the 1300s. Chaucer's life had many mysteries to it as well such as what intrigued him to write The Canterbury Tales, one of his most famous works.
It is not hard to apply Chaucer's description of the greedy doctor to today's medical system, nor is it difficult to find modern-day people with equivalent personalities to those of many of Chaucer's other characters. However, it is the institutions of his time as well as their flaws and hypocrisies that Chaucer is most critical of; he uses the personalities of his characters primarily to highlight those flaws. The two institutions that he is most critical of have lost much, if not all, of their influence; in many instances, the Church has only slight hold on the lives and attitudes of the people as a whole, and the strict feudal system has entirely disappeared. Few institutions today are as clearly visible and universally influential as those two forces were in the Middle Ages, so, if Chaucer were writing his tales today, he would most likely turn to the hypocritical attitudes of the general populace and the idiosyncracies of our daily lives. He gives some emphasis to these in the Tales (for example, he mentions the prioress's ladylike compassion for even the smallest creature in the Prologue, but has her tell an anti-Semitic tale later), but, in today's American culture, he would be most likely to criticize businessmen, middle-class parents, and the demand formust instantaneous gratification.
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).
Sommerville, J. P. "Anglo Saxon England II." History Department, University of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
If a class were given the assignment to read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, they would discover how gifted Chaucer was in the art of social commenting. After reading the tales, the class would now have knowledge on the inner workings of a medieval society. However, if students were to read the Canterbury Tales just for pure entertainment, they would be neglecting to understand why Chaucer was imparting this knowledge through his texts. Literature, as a whole, is a main part of our cultural make up. Through literature we are able to view our customs and traditions in many different ways. Some words that can help emphasize the way in which literature shapes culture are words
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.
The Italic languages, as its name suggest, come from the ancient Indo-European languages that were spoken in Italy. The most prominent of these languages is Latin, which mostly gave rise to many of the surviving Italic languages in the modern age. Latin began as a local language among others and it was not anticipated to dominate among its sister languages (Fortson 245). It was originally spoken among a tribe that worked on agricultural settlements named Latini, whose origins were in a region called Latium. Latium was located on the western coast and spread out centrall...
History is divided into different eras. Each era is defined by behavioral characteristics share by a nation or the population worldwide; like in the US we defined the Roaring 20s. Those who break that specific period’s template are the ones that contribute to the evolution of society. Geoffrey Chaucer an English writer was one of the people responsible for breaking the mold of the literature in the medieval period. In his work The Canterbury Tales he presents a mixture of both medieval and renaissance traits, making him a transitional writer. These traits are represented by the predominant presence of Christian values and the comicality.