English Department

The Past of English

Studieninfotage lectureProf. Dr. Olga Timofeeva

Outline

ì English today: dominance and linguistic diversity

ì English 1200 years back: marginality and linguistic diversity

ì Parallels between (post-)colonial Latin and (post-)colonial English

ì Conclusions

Page 1

ìEnglish today: dominance and linguistic diversity

Page 2

English around the world

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/23/the-worlds-languages-in-7-maps-and-charts/

2021 update: 7.9 billion

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English around the world

http://www.popupenglish.es/anglo-speaking-worlds-or-world-englishes

35 countries use English as an official language: Belize, Botswana, Canada, Cameroon, Eritrea, Fiji, Ghana, Guyana, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Solomon Islands, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Trinidad and Tobago, Tanzania, Uganda, Vanuatu, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

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What is modern English like?

ì For example, (1) it is a storm in a tea cup. This idiom means that, it is much excitement about something trivial. In this case, if one considers the meaning of each word in the expression, it is quite different from the real meaning of the idiomatic expression. This contributes to the problem up meaning.

ì Here at Wikipaedia it's recommendit that fowk uises"tradeetional" pan-dialect spellins. Awtho thir isna sae strict as in Inglis we ettle tae come up wi writin that's easy tae read an can be soondit bi readers in thair ain dialect. Ae thing tae mynd is that maist fowk that kens better disna uise the apologetic apostrophe onymair. Mair oot ower evite slang in an encyclopaedia.

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English in Switzerland

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population.html

0 m 1 m 2 m 3 m 4 m 5 m

Languages usually spoken at home

Permanent resident population 15 years or over. Persons interviewed could indicate more thanone language.

© FSO 2021Source: FSO – Structural survey, 2019

0 200 000 400 000 600 000

Number of speakers

Confidence interval (95%)

Italian

German

French

Swiss german

other languages

Romansh

Dialect from Ticino,italo-grison

Serbian/Croatian

Spanish

Albanian

Portuguese

English

0 m 1 m 2 m 3 m

Languages usually spoken at work

Permanent resident population 15 years or over. Persons interviewed could indicate more thanone language.

© FSO 2021Source: FSO – Structural survey, 2019

0 30 000 60 000 90 000 120 000

Number of speakers

Confidence interval (95%)

Italian

English

French

German

Swiss german

other languages

Romansh

Serbian/Croatian

Albanian

Dialect from Ticino,italo-grison

Spanish

Portuguese

• English is the most frequently learned language in all language regions (34%), i.e. far ahead of French and German (15% each).

• On the labour market, Swiss German is the most frequently used language (63% of employed persons), followed by German (standard language) (34%), French (28%), and then English (21%).

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English today: some conclusions

ì English as a native language vs. 2nd languageì English as a home language vs. work languageì English as an official language or lingua francaì English as a base for pidgin and creole languagesì Varieties of English: British, American, Australian, Indian, etc.ì Varieties of British English: British, Scottish, Irish, etc.ì Regional varietiesì Social varietiesì Spoken vs. written varietiesì etc.

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ìEnglish 1200 years back: marginality and linguistic diversity

Page 8

Historical English

Basic periodization

450-1150 Old English

1150-1500 Middle English

1500-1700 Early Modern English

1700-1900 Modern English

1900-present Late Modern English

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_settlement_of_Britain#/media/File:Anglo.Saxon.migration.5th.cen.jpg

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Britain within Roman Empire

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/256142297527448187/

Page 10

English in the Roman Empire

ì Imperial/colonial language was Latin

ì Proto-Old English was a minority language

ì Not a written language, not a standardised language

ì Not even one language, but many tribal languages/dialects/varieties

ì Not a prestige language

ì The majority of the speakers lived outside the empire

Page 11

How were English speakers affected by Rome?

ì Speakers of the Germanic languages took part in trade, diplomacy and raiding

ì They served as mercenaries in the Roman army

ì Some of them were Christianised in the 4th century AD

ì Some of them spoke a bit of Latin or knew a few Latin words (cheese, cup, fork, table, wine)

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How was Rome affected by English speakers?

ì Rome benefited from trade

ì and employed Germanic mercenaries

ì Several innovations are associated with Germanic peoples:• a war-cry, barritus• the raising of leaders on a shield• long swords• trousers (brāc(c)ae ‘breeches’ < Gaulish *brācca < Old Germanic

*brôk-)• soap (sāpo < early Germanic *saipōn-)• Compare: pyjamas (from Urdu), shampoo (from Hindi)

Page 13

Christianity at c. AD 600

http://themiddleagesportfolio.weebly.com/maps.html

Page 14

What is Old English like?

Franks Casket (early 8th c), British Nuseum

Fisc flodu ahof on fergenberig;warþ gasric grorn, þær he on greut giswom.Hronæs ban.Mægi.

‘The flood lifted up the fish on to the cliff-bank;the terror-king became sad, where he swam on the shingle.Whale’s bone.Magi.’

Northumbrian dialect

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What is Old English like?

Lindisfarne Gospels, Matthew (c. 700), British Library

boc ‘book’

onginneð godspelles‘begins gospel’s’

cynnreccenisse‘kin-reckoning’

Latin: incipit euangelii genelogia matheiLiber generationis Ihu Xpi filii David filiiAbrahamNorthumbrian: ???

Page 16

‘Spoken’ Old English

ì Leofwin: eala! Ic eom Leofwin! Ic eom ðritig gear eald. Golde is min wif. Heo is nigon and twentiggear eald. Ic hæbbe tu bearn, Foxtægele and Clufweart. Foxtægele is cnapa, and Clufweart is mægð.

From Learn Old English with Leofwin by Matt Love (2014)

http://www.asbooks.co.uk/audio/c1s3.mp3

Page 17

Conclusions

ì Political dominance and linguistic dominance comes and goes

ì There is always place for linguistic variety

Page 18

Questions?

Page 19

Answers and links

ì Page 5, Nigerian English: International Corpus of English, Nigeria, University of Münster• https://www.uni-

muenster.de/Anglistik/Research/EngLing/research/ice-nig.html

• https://www.ice-corpora.uzh.ch/en.html (UZH)

ì Page 5, Scottish English:• https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Spellin_an

_grammar

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