A History of English

Language
 An introduction
When analysing how language has changed, the following need to be
considered for each period:

• Semantics

• Lexis

• Syntax

• Phonology

• Graphology
 Early periods of English

450-1150 = Old English

1150-1500 = Middle English

Key dates 1500-1700 = Early Modern English

1700-1900= Modern English

1900-present = Late Modern English

Where does the ENGLISH
we speak today come
from?
The answer lies in the History of the British Isles

The Celts settled in England more than 2500 years

ago.

First known languages:

the Celtic ones: Welsh and Scots-Gaelic.

Some Celtic words survive today (whisky “water of

life”)
THE ROMANS 55 BC
Roman Invasion

The Romans spoke Latin.

Latin names to places:

any place name containing “chester”

comes from the Roman word for “camp.”

Can you think of any??

Old English Period
 In 5th century AD, three Germanic tribes invaded
OLD ENGLISH Britain,
(450 – 1100 AD) the Angles, the Jutes and the Saxons.Germanic
tribes invaded England (5th century) and established
the Anglo Saxon Heptarchy and introduced their
language.

The invaders spoke languages of Germanic origin.

Similarity between many English and German words,
the numbers (seven/sieben, eight/acht,nine/neun,
ten/zehn) or the pronouns (mine//mein, me/mich).
Half of the most commonly used words in Modern
English have Old English roots: be, strong, water
etc.
Old English’s Context
Celts had been invaded by the Romans which brought Latin words into the
language

Celtic words are rare in modern English, although Celtic languages do still
remain: Welsh, Irish, Gaelic and Cornish

The conversion of the Anglo Saxons to Christianity began in the late 6th century
– meaning a large amount of the texts that have been found of this time are
religious

Vikings began to invade at the end of the 8th century. Their Old Norse language
resembled that of the Anglo Saxon invaders and much of its vocabulary was
absorbed.
 Words from Old English
Words used today Archaic words
• Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, this, that, these, those • Fulsome: rich, plentiful

• Nouns: friend, husband, anger, window, bull, cake, dirt, sun • Onuppan: above

• Adjectives: happy, cold, black, bloody, tight, low, ill • Pudh: horrible

• Verbs: can, shall, get, give, want, call • Yore: years ago

• Conjunctions: as, and, but, so, then • Fere: friend, companion

• Prepositions: up, down, in, on, to, by • Beseech: request, ask

• Adverbs: while, when, where • Nary: none, nothing

Key features of Old English
• No single, agreed system of spelling

• Heavy use of inflections (parts of words, usually endings, that indicate grammatical
functions, e.g. ‘-eth’)

• Muscular quality to the words: short, direct and forceful

• Grammatical gender in nouns and adjectives

• Writing system involved runes as well as the Roman alphabet

• Use of kennings, e.g. ‘bone-house’ = body

• Flexible word order due to inflections

OLD ENGLISH
But old English did not sound or look like English
today. Native English speakers now would have
great difficulty understanding Old English e.g.
Beowulf

Key dates for Old English 450 Beginning of the

Old English period 1000 Approximate date of the
only surviving manuscript of Beowulf
 Middle English Period 1150-1500
This period followed the Norman invasion which brought a lot of French into the language. This is because
William, Duke of Normandy, crowned himself the king of England but only spoke French. This meant English was
considered as only suitable for lower classes

• As a result of the Black Death, however, (1348-1351) there was a need for working class labourers. These
people all spoke English, which led to a rise in the language

• The printing press arrived near the end of the period (1476) from William Caxton. He printed all kinds of texts
and in the following 150 years around 20,000 books were printed. This led to improved literacy rates and lowered
price of books. Printers were able to choose which grammar and spellings to use, leading to a more standardised
language • The accessibility of texts led to an increased interest in literature • The society was very religious at
the time (influencing attitudes and also the texts written at the time)

• There was a lack of medical knowledge, so illness was a constant threat

• Exploration of the New World brought new words from across the empire, including coffee, yoghurt, kiosk
(Turkish) and bizarre, chocolate, vogue (French)
Key features of Middle English

• Non-standard / inconsistent spelling • Capitals used for proper nouns but also for
important common nouns
• Biblical-sounding syntax and imagery
• Emergence of ‘;’ although not yet standardised •
• Grammatical conversions: verbification, Changing vowel sounds (as the Great Vowel Shift
prefixation, suffixation, compounding began)

• The spelling of words resembles the literal • French words: more elegant and refined with softer
pronunciation, influenced by the Bible which was sounds and different stress on the endings of words
meant to be a spoken text • Loss of many inflections, making word order more
important
• Prepositional semantic shifts
• Context can be used to decipher the meaning of
• Lack of ‘do’ constructions for questions / negatives unfamiliar words in texts of this period (unlike Old
(e.g. ‘enter not’, ‘sit not’ English where words are difficult for modern readers
to understand)
Middle English Literature Example
From Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Great Vowel Shift
A great vowel shift changed English
vowels usage and ultimately the
whole pronunciation of words. Here
two vowels were dropped
completely.
 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (1500– 1800)
After the invention of the printing press in London, many more books could be published. English needed to
be written in a standard way. Spelling and grammar became fixed.1604 First English dictionary was compiled.

• Exploration and colonisation also affected the use of language and meant more words were picked up

• The Renaissance led to a growth in interest in classical culture, contrasting to the ‘intellectual sterility’ of
medieval times

• Latin was still spoken and was influential of the English language, aided by the Renaissance

Words of Latin origin

Ambiguous History Magnificent Opponent Vacuum

Colossal Immense Monopoly Quotation etc.
Emotion Intellect Nation Ultimate
Exaggerate
 Father of Early Modern English
SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
Shakespeare (1564-1616) • Shakespeare made a huge impact on the English
language, leading to a more romantic style of literature, with French and Italian
influences (as well as creating his own words)

• He reduced inflections on endings of words, which led to grammatical conversion

(particularly making verbs from nouns), e.g. ‘season your admiration’, ‘destruction
shall dog them at their heels’, ‘I, who at Phillipi, the great Brutus ghosted’

• He also introduced idiomatic expressions into normal language, e.g. ‘in my mind’s
eye’, ‘a tower of strength’, ‘be cruel only to be kind’, ‘love is blind’ • His use of
hyphenated compounds also proved influential, often to form new words e.g.
‘faire-play’, ‘ill- tuned’, ‘pell-mell’
Key features of Early Modern English
• The grammar reflected the transition between Middle English and contemporary English

• Spelling and punctuation started to become more standardised.

• Phonology was influenced by the Great Vowel Shift. This is where the pronunciation of long vowel sounds
transformed to become similar to the pronunciation we have today

• Latin and French influences on spelling still remained: ‘v’ and ‘u’ were interchangeable • Many prefixes (anti-,
post-, pre-) and suffixes (-ate, -ic, -al) were taken from Latin. Latin words are often lengthy and sound weighty
and learned

• Word order became more fixed: subject > verb > object

• There is evidence of class correlation with standard English (higher classed and better- educated people
speaking the standard language)

• Different tense usage (e.g. ‘glad we are got acquainted)

Early Modern English
• Literature flourished due to the Renaissance and the accessibility of texts

• Shakespeare and Bibles / Book of Common Prayer increased the normality of idioms

• Shakespeare’s work utilised unusual words, some inflections (such as ‘–est’ and ‘–eth’)
were favoured while others completely rejected, and pronouns ‘thou’, ‘thee’ and ‘thy’ were
used in his work. The use of inflections was reduced.

.The first English version of the Bible 1549 The first version of the Book of Common Prayer
of the Church of England was published.
Modern English years
1700-1900
Many more languages got introduced into
English due to:

The industrial revolution.

The expansion of the British Empire.

New technology.
Key features of Modern English
• Spelling became much more consistent and standardised

• Regional differences in language lessened

• A leap in quality of education, literacy and communication meant English became much more
standardised as a whole

• Americanisms and American spellings (e.g. or/our and re/er endings) started to form

• Newly coined words were used more heavily and quickly

• Use of auxiliary verbs became mandatory in interrogative sentences, e.g. ‘did he go running?’

• Archaic possessive pronouns were still in use in earlier examples of texts, e.g. ‘thy’ and ‘thou’
Modern
English
Johnson’s dictionary (1755)

• Samuel Johnson published his dictionary in 1755. It was not

the first dictionary but was the most thorough and authoritative,
giving advice on usage and different senses of words as well as
definitions.

• The dictionary provided clear, prescriptive standard spellings,

though this took several decades to filter through to everyday
use.

• 1828 Webster publishes books on grammar, creating

standards for grammar as well as spelling.
 Late Modern English, 1900-present
Technology has influenced the language.

• ‘Text words’ such as ‘lol’ and ‘omg’ have included into everyday usage.

• The Internet, texting, new gadgets (smart phones, tabs etc.) come with entirely new lexical sets as well as
jargon and specialist language

• English is now very much a global language, with many influences and new words being created constantly

• Regional differences in England have lessened, aided by widespread education, standardisation of language and
the media (where the Internet has increased accessibility to types of language)

• Attitudes changed towards religion, believes, society. World wars, terrorism and environmental threats also
impact values and attitudes in society.
 Key features of Late Modern English
• Standard spelling and grammar systems

• Acronyms have become a normal part of language, e.g. ‘omg’, ‘lol’,

‘fomo’, ‘Imao’

• Grammar rules can be flouted more easily, e.g. experimenting with

syntax and fronted conjunctions. The grammar can be used to suit the
formality of the text

• Slang and jargon is heavily used

• In the written word, informality is much more common, especially in

journalism where fronted conjunctions and the use of bullet points are
normal, particularly in online news articles (appealing to on-the-go
readers)
Chronology 1994 Text messaging is introduced, and the first
modern blogs go online
1914-1918 World War I
2006 Twitter is formed, leading to impulsive
1922 BBC founded online expressions, fast-spreading news and a
constant (but concise) vent for users’ thoughts
1928 Oxford English Dictionary is published

1939-1945 World War II

1961 Webster’s Third New International Dictionary is

published

1988 The Internet is released to the public

Different Dialects
Of
English
 English as a Lingua
Franca
From the 18th Century, English
is widely spoken language
around the globe.

English is considered to be a
‘lingua franca’ of the world as it
is thought to be the language of
trade, technology and
communication.
THE
END