A Brief History

of the

English Language

Prepared by

ZIA UR REHMAN

Lecturer in English

Cadet College Kohat

Pakistan

ENGLISH

ENGLISHENGLISHENGLISHENGLISH

ENGLISH

A Brief History

of the

English Language

( Why English is Hard to Spell! )

CONTENTS

• Introduction

• Three Periods in History of English

1. Old English : 500 - 1066

2. Middle English : 1100 - 1500

3. Modern English : 1500 – Present

• English and 21st

Century

• Interesting Facts about

English Vocabulary

• Conclusion

The Indo-European family of languages

12

3 4 5 6

English is the official language of How many nations.

about

45Countries

English is spoken by how many people?

more than

400 million

English is one of

the two working

languages of the

United Nations. The

other one is __?___.

French

English is the mother tongue

of the people in the British

Isles, USA, Australia, New

Zealand.

The history of the English

Language

parallels the

history of the

English people

and the British

Islands.

The British Isles

English spread because

of

British exploration, colonization, and empire building during the

17th

18th

And 19th centuries

Periods in History of English

1. Old English : 500-1066

2. Middle English :1100-1500

3. Modern English : 1500 – Present

An Englishman of 1300 AD wouldn’t

have understood the English of 500

AD; nor would he understand the

English we speak today.

Old English (500-1066 AD)

The earliest known residents of the British

Isles were the Celts, who spoke Celtic

language.

In the middle of the 5th century

• Tribes of Germanic invaders -- Angles, Saxons, and Jutes -- brought their

languages across the English Channel to the British Isles.

Germanic TribesAngles, Saxons, Jutes

The name ENGLAND

• The Angles came from "Englaland" and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England" and "English" are derived.

• The name England was developed from the tribal name Angles, possibly because this tribe was dominant.

Vocabulary

From Anglo-Saxon English

Fox, bread, good, shower,

home, stones

In the sixth century

• Christian missionaries arrived in England and brought Latin with them.

• The language of the Church was Latin, and the missionaries injected hundreds of new Latin words into the English language.

From Latin Christianity

priest, bishop, anthem,

candle, epistle, hymn

VIKING INVASION

The Vikings were sea-

faring, explorers, traders

and warriors, Scandinavians

during the 8th-11th

centuries.

Expeditions that plundered

and ended in conquest and

settlements of Britain.

From Scandinavian

Settlers

Husband, sky, skin, club, gape,

root, egg, take, give, window,

leg, skin, crawl, die, sister

• By the ninth century,

Anglo-Saxon (a dialect

spoken in Southern England) had become standard English.

• Today, one fifth of the English words we use derive from this Anglo-Saxon English.

Anglo-

Saxon

The Norman Conquest and the Development of Middle English

NORMAN CONQUEST 1066

• Norman Conquest in 1066 is the most important event in the development and history of the English language.

• The Norman Conquest of Britain brought foreign rulers whose native

language was French

For more than three hundred years

• French was the official language of England.

• French was the language of the court, literature, and, along with Latin, in the church.

• English remained the language of household staffs and other so-called common people.

RISE OF THE MIDDLE ENGLISH

•It was not until the14th century—300 years later—that English became dominant in Britain again.

•In 1399, King Henry IV became the first king of England since the Norman Conquest whose mothertongue was English.

•By the end of the 14th Century, the dialect of London had emerged as the standard dialect of what we now call Middle English.

27

Another half of our English vocabulary is of French

Anglo-

SaxonOther

French/

Romance

MIDDLE ENGLISH: 1100-1500

The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Unlike Old English, MiddleEnglish can be read, albeit with difficulty, by modern English-speaking people.

The Canterbury Tales

Middle English

Here bygynneth the

Book of the tales

of Caunterbury

Whan that aprill

with his shoures

soote

Modern English

Here begins the

Book of the Tales

of Canterbury

When April with his

showers sweet

Following the 100 Years War, many

people regarded French as the

language of the enemy. The status of

English rose.

The universities of Oxford &

Cambridge were established.

Literacy increased but books were

still copied by hand and were

therefore extremely expensive.

Legal terms:

Judge, jury, attorney, crime,

assault

Terms of rank:

prince, duke, baron,

parliament, countess

Others:

courage, season, manner,

study, castle.

THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT

The Great Vowel Shift was a

change in pronunciation that began

around 1400 and separates Middle

English from Modern English.

The shift is still not over,

however, vowel sounds are still

shortening although the change

has become considerably more

gradual.

MODERN ENGLISH

• The Middle English period came to a

close around 1500 AD with the rise of

Modern English.

I. Early Modern English (1500-1800)

II. Late Modern English (1800-Present)

EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

(1500-1800)

The Renaissance brought the

revival of classical scholarship and

brought many classical Latin and Greek

words into the Language.

“The age of Shakespeare" or "the

Elizabethan era“ --early 16th century to

the early 17th century.

SHAKESPEARE

•Shakespeare’s works

present early modern

English.

• Elizabethan English has

much more in common with

our language today.

•Many familiar words and phrases

were coined or first recorded by

Shakespeare.

Words for science,

invention, and

technology:

isotope, metronome,

polymer, telephone,

helium, halogen,

intravenous,

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PRINTING PRESS

The last major factor --

advent of the printing

press.

William Caxton brought it

to England in 1476.

Books became cheaper

and literacy more common.

Publishing for the masses

in English became

profitable.

LATE MODERN ENGLISH (1800-PRESENT)

The principal distinction between

early and late-modern English is

vocabulary.

Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling

are largely the same.

New words are the result of two

historical factors:

the Industrial Revolution

the British Empire Expansion

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

England began the Industrial

Revolution in18th century

New technical words were added to

the vocabulary as inventors designed

various products and machinery.

trains, engine, combustion,

electricity, telephone, telegraph,

camera etc

BRITISH EMPIRE.

• ‘The Dictionary of the English

Language’ was published in 1755 by

Samuel Johnson.

• English language across the world -

to the USA, Australia, New Zealand,

India, Malaysia and Africa.

• 'kangaroo' is native Australian

words, 'juggernaut' and 'turban'

came from India.

ENGLISH & 21ST

CENTURY

• It is in this century that we get

doodlebugs, gasmasks, mods and

rockers;

• we enjoy eating dim sum,

cappuccino, chicken tikka masala

and pizza;

• we talk of chavs, mingers and

weirdos; and

• we are addicted to tellies, websites,

cybercafes and compact discs.

RAPID SPREAD OF ENGLISH &

THE 21ST

CENTURY.

• Many other varieties of English around the

world

• American English is particularly influential,

due to the USA's dominance

• Australian English, New Zealand English,

Canadian English, South African English,

Indian English and Caribbean English

• According to some linguists, English

contains some 500,000 words.

• Generally, speakers with well-

developed vocabularies employ 30,000

words.

• That leaves the most articulate among

us about 470,000 words short.

• Nearly 60% of all he or she says is

said with just 100 different words.

CONCLUSION

English language has become the

lingua franca of the Modern World

One quarter of the world’s

population, or b/w 1.2 and 1.5

billion people, are already fluent

or competent in English.

About 750 million more people

speak English as a foreign

language.

• English is hard to spell, but it

is a wonderful, versatile,

expanding language!

Expand your English vocabulary

By

Reading, Writing, Listening &

Speaking English

CONCLUSION