The history of the emergence and development of the English language, as in the case of any other language, cannot be considered in isolation from the history of the emergence and development of the state whose inhabitants speak this language. So, England.
Initially, the territory of the British Isles was inhabited by Celts who spoke Celtic. By the 5th century, conquerors from Rome successfully coexisted with them, bringing the Latin language to these lands. However, it was in the 5th century that several Germanic tribes came to British territories, so successfully gaining a foothold here that the original Welsh and Gaulish languages have remained to this day only in territories not conquered by the Germans - in Cornwall, the mountains of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, distant and extremely difficult to achieve. Modern English is Germanic English, which has very little in common with Celtic and Latin.
However, it did not end with the Germans. British territories were for some time attacked by Vikings who came from Scandinavia and spoke Old Icelandic. And in 1066, under the rule of the French, England began to farm out its native language to the uneducated lower strata of the population, recognizing only French, the language of the conquerors, as the language of high society. Thanks to this, by the way, the vocabulary of modern English has significantly expanded: the system of synonyms in the language is truly extensive. However, in many cases the same division into higher and lower languages can be traced. So, for example, cattle - the topic of conversation among peasants - has German names (cow - cow), but dishes prepared from it were discussed in the world, which is why they have French names (beef - beef). Exactly the same pair of names exists for calf - calf and veal - veal and other concepts.
Here are a few more examples:
sheep- sheep, but mutton- mutton;
swine- pig, but pork- pork.
Such external influences certainly have a significant impact on the language. But underneath the veneer of changes that have been introduced there is still a solid Anglo-Saxon foundation.
Some time passes, the culture of England develops, and naturally the English language finds literary use, and in the 14th century it was the language spoken by lawyers and specialists in various fields of science. A little later, thanks to mass migrations to the New World - America - the language received a new direction of development, now changing simultaneously, but not always equally in different territories.
Spread around the world
The opportunity to travel around the world and the need to build relationships not only with the closest neighbors on the continent has caused a rather significant problem to arise: what language should we speak among ourselves? English, along with some other languages, has been used for political negotiations and conferences since the beginning of the 20th century. There is a need to teach it, study it, and formalize it. It is the English language that is still one of the main subjects of close attention of linguists around the world.
Where does learning a foreign language begin? Of course, from the dictionary. Grammar, style, punctuation make no sense without vocabulary. According to scientists, the modern English dictionary contains more than a million entries. How many of them do you need to learn to become confident in the language?
The earliest grammar textbooks were created to help students studying Latin and foreigners studying English. That is, the task of teaching the English their native language was not set. This problem only began to be solved in 1750, and, like many pioneers, linguists made mistakes. In particular, Latin was adopted as the standard language. And grammatical rules were considered universal and applicable to all languages. This sometimes led to absurd attempts to adapt one language to another.
In addition to attempts to Latinize the language, scientists also resisted the course of its natural development towards simplification, considering this process to be degradation. For example, the endings of verbs died out. Conservative teachers and their textbooks, distributed throughout the country as part of widespread educational programs, have preserved for posterity - that is, for us - many more irregular constructions, irregular verbs and exceptions than would have remained without outside influence. But who knows, it is likely that in a few generations English will turn from a synthetic language into an analytical one? The process of change, although slowed down, did not stop completely. The only things that don't change at all are dead languages that no one speaks.
Despite all the specific features, the English language in our time remains simple enough to learn and at the same time a full-fledged, rich and colorful language to be successfully used as a truly universal international language of communication.
Today English is an international means of communication. It is taught in schools, in various courses and people of all ages study it to broaden their horizons and become a free "citizen of the world." It wasn't always like this.
The emergence of English
The English language has its origins around 800 BC. It was then that the first mentions of Celtic tribes who settled on the territory of the British Isles appeared.
The chronicles of that time say that the British Celts communicated in their own dialect, had a fairly developed culture with patriarchal foundations, men could have up to 10 wives, and children who reached a certain age were raised in a male society, learning the art of hunting and wielding weapons.
After the British Isles were conquered by Caesar, they became one of the Roman provinces. During this period, the Celts experienced the powerful influence of the Romans, which, undoubtedly, could not but be reflected in the language.
The presence of roots of Latin origin in many words of the English vocabulary. For example: street"street" (from lat. via strata"paved road") wall"wall" (from vallum"shaft"), wine"wine" (from lat. vinum"wine"), pear"pear" (from lat. pirum"pear"), pepper "pepper" (from Latin piper). Castra (from Latin 'camp') is today present in some modern British place names Lancaster, Manchester, Leicester.
English language development
Historically, it is believed that the ancestors of the British were the ancient Germanic tribes of the Saxons, Angles and Jutes, who appeared on the territory of Britain in 449 and gradually assimilated. Therefore, after the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the islands, very few Celtic words remained in English.
After the beginning of Christianization in 597 AD. Roman Church, by the beginning of the 9th century almost half of the population of Britain professed Christianity. During this time, the English language borrowed more than 600 words from Latin, most of which related to religion and politics. For example, school"school" (from lat. school"school"); Bishop"bishop" (from Lat. Episcopus"supervisor"); mount"mountain" (from lat. montis"mountain"); priest"priest" (from Lat. presbyter"presbyter").
The first translator of the Gospel into the Anglo-Saxon language was the English educator Bede the Venerable, whose work had a great influence on the further development of the language.
At the end of the 9th century, the conquest of British lands by the Danes and their active assimilation with the local inhabitants began. As a result, the English language has been replenished with many words borrowed from the Scandinavian group of languages. Very often this is indicated by the presence of letter combinations sk- or sc- at the beginning of words: sky"sky", skin"leather", sake"scull".
After the conquest of Britain by the peoples of northern France, starting in the mid-11th century, the era of three languages began: French was considered the language of the aristocracy, Latin the language of science, and ordinary citizens spoke Anglo-Saxon. It was as a result of the mixing of these three languages that the process of formation of modern English began.
How did the English language originate?
Linguists around the world define English as a mixed language. First of all, this is evidenced by the fact that many words that have a similar meaning do not have a single root. So, if you compare a number of words that have a similar meaning, in Russian “head head head”, in English they will sound completely different.” chapter head chief". This is explained by the process of mixing languages mentioned above. Thus, Anglo-Saxon words denoted specific objects, hence the word head. The word chapter, used in science, came from Latin, and from the French language of the nobility chief.
Similar phenomena can be found in other semantic series of the English language. Thus, the words denoting the name of the animal are of Germanic origin, and the name of the meat of this animal is Old French: cow cow, but beef beef; calf calf, but veal veal, sheep sheep, but mutton mutton; pig pig, but pork pork, etc.
After 1400, the English language underwent significant changes in grammar and pronunciation: many verbs lost their endings, vowel sounds began to be pronounced more briefly.
.jpg)
With the advent of the Renaissance, the English language was enriched with many new words, and the invention of the printing press only contributed to the development of the literary language. William Caxton is considered the first printer in Britain, who published the first book in English in 1474. While working, Caxton often invented his own rules of grammar, which after the publication of the book began to be considered the only correct ones. Thanks to this, many English words fixed their spelling and acquired a complete form.
By the beginning of the 17th century, the rules of grammar and spelling were fixed, and the London dialect became the standardized form of the language, which at that time was spoken by almost 90% of native speakers. In 1604, the first dictionary of the English language was published.
Modern English
The colonization of North America at the beginning of the 17th century by the British contributed to the emergence of the American version of the English language. In part, American English is more similar to the language of Shakespeare's time than modern British. Many American words originated from British expressions and came into widespread use in the English colonies before disappearing in England. As the colonialists moved west, where Spain dominated, the language was replenished with new words. For example, alligator, anchovy, banana, cannibal, hurricane, potato, sombrero, tobacco and many others.
Linguists consider American English easier to understand and learn. Today it ranks second in the list of the most widely spoken languages on the planet. According to researchers, it is spoken by between 600 million and 1.6 billion. There are also Canadian English, Australian English, and various dialects and dialects are common in Great Britain itself.
Modern English, and in particular its American version, is the language of international communication. It is enshrined as the official language of 53 countries of the world, as well as the language of the United Nations. Politicians, cultural figures, scientists, members of public organizations communicate in English. Knowledge of the language allows you to freely travel around the world, communicating with representatives of any nationality.
- Previously, the English alphabet had 1 letter more. The 27th letter was the symbol The word queue will sound the same even if the last four characters are removed from it;
- Punctuation marks in English appeared only in the 15th century;
- The most commonly used letter in the English alphabet is "e";
- More words in the English language begin with the letter "s" than with any other;
- The English language is rich in various synonyms. The word drunk has the most synonyms - the state of alcoholic intoxication can be conveyed using about 3000 words and expressions;
- Sound in English can be represented by various letter combinations. For example: He believed Caesar could see people seizing the seas;
- Offer " The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" contains all the letters of the English alphabet;
- Due to an error made in the printing house, from 1932 to 1940 the word existed in the English dictionary dord, which didn't matter;
- Most often, mistakes in pronunciation are made precisely in the word pronunciation, which is translated as “pronunciation”;
- The word bride comes from a German verb meaning the process of cooking.
- One of the most difficult tongue twisters in the English language is " Sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick";
- The word set has 68 meanings and two hundred different variations;
- The longest word consisting of one syllable is screeched "squealed";
- The word mortgage came into English from French and is translated as “lifetime contract”;
- Every year, the English dictionary is replenished with approximately 4,000 new words, that is, approximately 1 word every 2 hours;
- There are more English speakers in Nigeria than in the UK;
- There are about 24 different dialects of English in the United States.
The history of a language always helps to better understand it when studying and increase the efficiency of its assimilation. We will be glad if our article is not only informative for you, but also strengthens you in your desire to learn this beautiful language or improve your skills.
The history of the English language began in the 5th century, when Britain, then inhabited by Celts and partly by Romans, was invaded by three Germanic tribes. The German influence turned out to be so strong that soon almost nothing remained of the Celtic and Latin languages in almost the entire country. Only in remote and inaccessible areas of Britain that remained unoccupied by the Germans (Cornwall, Wells, Ireland, Highland Scotland) were the local Welsh and Gaulish languages preserved. These languages survive today: they are called Celtic languages, in contrast to Germanic English. Then the Vikings came to Britain from Scandinavia with their Old Icelandic language. Then in 1066 England was captured by the French. Because of this, French was the language of the English aristocracy for two centuries, and Old English was used by the common people. This historical fact had a very significant impact on the English language: many new words appeared in it, the vocabulary almost doubled. Therefore, it is in the vocabulary that the split into two variants of English - high and low, respectively of French and German origin - can be quite clearly felt today.
Thanks to the doubling of the vocabulary, the English language today still has many words of the same meaning - synonyms that arose as a result of the simultaneous use of two different languages, which came from the Saxon peasants and from the Norman masters. A clear example of this social division is the difference in the name of livestock, which comes from Germanic roots:
cow - cow
calf - calf
sheep - sheep
swine - pig
while the names of the cooked meats are of French origin:
beef - beef
veal - veal
mutton - lamb
pork - pork
Despite all external influences, the core of the language remained Anglo-Saxon. Already in the 14th century, English became a literary language, as well as the language of law and school. And when mass emigration from Britain to America began, the language brought there by the settlers continued to change in new directions, often maintaining its roots in British English, and sometimes changing quite significantly.
The beginning of the globalization of English
By the beginning of the 20th century, English was increasingly becoming the language of international communication. The English language, along with other languages of international communication, was used at international conferences, in the League of Nations, and for negotiations. Even then, the need to improve its teaching and develop objective criteria that would allow learning the language more effectively became obvious. This need stimulated the search and research of linguists from different countries, which has not dried up to this day.
It is clear that one of the most important components of learning any foreign language is the accumulation of vocabulary. Only after acquiring some vocabulary can you begin to study the relationships between words - grammar, stylistics, etc. But what words should you learn first? And how many words should you know? There are a lot of words in the English language. According to linguists, the complete vocabulary of the English language contains at least one million words. The record holders among the famous dictionaries of the English language are the second edition of the 20-volume Oxford dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989 by Oxford University Press, and Webster's 1934 dictionary Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd Edition, which includes a description of 600 thousand words. Of course, not a single person knows such a number of words, and it is very difficult to use such huge dictionaries.
The “average” Englishman or American, even those with a higher education, hardly uses more than 1500-2000 words in his everyday speech, although he passively owns an incomparably large stock of words that he hears on TV or encounters in newspapers and books. And only the most educated, intelligent part of society is able to actively use more than 2000 words: individual writers, journalists, editors and other “masters of words” use the most extensive vocabulary, reaching 10 thousand words or more in some especially gifted individuals. The only problem is that each person who has a rich vocabulary has a vocabulary as individual as handwriting or fingerprints. Therefore, if the vocabulary base of 2000 words is approximately the same for everyone, then the “plumage” is quite different for everyone.
However, conventional bilingual dictionaries and explanatory dictionaries, which provide definitions of words in one language, strive to describe as many words as possible in order to increase the likelihood that the reader will find most of the words he is looking for. Therefore, the larger the regular dictionary, the better. It is not uncommon for dictionaries to contain descriptions of tens or hundreds of thousands of words in one volume.
In addition to ordinary dictionaries, there are dictionaries that do not contain the largest possible number of words, but rather a minimal list of them. Dictionaries of the required minimum vocabulary describe words that are used most often and have the greatest semantic value. Because words are used with different frequencies, some words are much more common than all other words. In 1973, it was found that a minimum dictionary of the 1,000 most common words in the English language describes 80.5% of all word usage in average texts, a 2,000-word dictionary describes approximately 86% of word usage, and a 3,000-word dictionary describes about 90% of word usage.
It is clear that minimum lexical dictionaries are intended for language learning by students, and not at all for translators. With the help of a minimum dictionary it is impossible to learn natural language in its entirety, but you can quickly and effectively learn that part of it that is of greatest value for the practical needs of communication.
English has long been the language of international communication. It spread throughout the world, became the main language of the Internet and united all continents. Why this became possible can be partly answered by the history of the emergence of the English language, in which fascinating events took place.
Many learners know that English belongs to the Germanic group of languages, but if you compare it with German, you will see huge discrepancies. Of course, you will find words that sound similar. And yet, an Englishman who has not studied German will never understand a native German.
At the same time, according to the majority of Europeans, and even residents of other continents, English speech is the easiest to memorize and reproduce. In many countries, this language is included in school curricula and is studied as one of the main subjects.
In linguistic universities, the history of the emergence of the English language cannot be explained briefly, so it is singled out as a separate subject for study. We will note the main periods of history and elements of influence on the development of the English language.
How it all began
In the 5th century AD, tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes settled the British Isles (mostly the territory of modern Great Britain). The Celts, who inhabited these lands at that time, were unable to provide worthy resistance - and went deeper into the island.
Assimilation with the Celts was weak, and therefore they had little influence on the English language (which became dominant). The first result of the change in Anglo-Saxon vocabulary was the conquest of the island by the Vikings, who “left” on the island such words as sky, window and others.
The beginning of the rapid development of English - the English language and culture - occurs during the reign of King Alfred the Great, who marked the birth of the English state and strengthened its influence.
A period of great change
In the 11th century, Britain was occupied by the Normans, led by William the Conqueror. They themselves were descendants of German tribes (Normans - northern people), who, having captured part of the territory of France, assimilated with the local residents and adopted the French language as a means of communication.
The rule of the Franks lasted about two centuries, and they had a huge influence on the development of English. As a result, an almost new language was formed, in which the main cases disappeared, and more than 50 percent of lexical units were replaced by French words.
It is interesting that the London nobility, most of whom were Franks, retained that part of the vocabulary that was close to them. For example, they did not keep livestock, but ate meat products. Therefore, the names of animals and basic life-sustaining things were retained by the Anglo-Saxons - peasants: cow - cow, sheep - sheep, horse - horse, swine - pig, bread - bread, house - house. The Franks consumed everything indicated as food, luxurious living and entertainment, so they left such words as: pork - pork, beef - beef, veal - veal, palace - palace, etc.
Shakespeare, Catholics and Modernity
The history of the development of the English language did not end there, and several more significant changes occurred. The era of Shakespeare (1564-1616) and the rapid development of theater and other arts had a significant impact on its change. The heroes of the great poet gained immortality, and the English language was enriched with new phraseological units: “the wild-goose chase” - “the pursuit of the impossible” and much more.
By the way, several advents of Latin took place, since already at the end of the 5th century the Catholic Church began to actively penetrate Great Britain. Services in temples were conducted in the language of the ancient Romans, which was no longer used in worldly life, but many words and expressions were borrowed.
Thus, English became a conglomerate of the main European languages, changing the basic principles of word formation and syntax. From a synthetic language (the language of cases and endings) it turned into an analytical means of communication, where context (the place of a word in a sentence and in the text) took on the leading role.
To make the history of the development of the English language more clear to you, the Lim English website provides a presentation of its main periods. The evolution of English is most amazing, and it has never stopped. It continues to this day - which is confirmed by the gradual elimination of the use of the auxiliary verb shall, when describing events in the future.