As an English teacher, I find it helpful for me and my students to discuss the history of English. I always tell them that English has been developed for more than 1500 years (and is still developing) and could never be fully understood and grasped in just one sitting.
I always tell them that curiosity doesn't always kill the cat. Most of the time, it's stupidity that kills. Being curious about English doesn't give much trouble but ignorance of it and its use may lead to severe humiliation. This why I always start new meetings with the questions: HOW DID ENGLISH EMERGE AS A LANGUAGE? WHY THE HELL IS ENGLISH A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? WHY DO PEOPLES OF THE WORLD SPEND MUCH MONEY, EFFORT AND TIME TO STUDY ENGLISH?
Answers to the above questions, as I believe, would lead to better understanding and better use of English. I always compare the use of English as a medium of communication to love relationships. If the boyfriend knows his girlfriend well, it can promise a smooth sail. Imagine how helpful it is to know her history.
LET'S START.
ROMANS
410 AD, the Romans occupied Britain and left it to reinforce their walls in Italy. They left considerable amount of Latin words. Some of these are used as affixes and maxims in Today's English: pro, quo, mater, maximus, sub, facio, exor, etc.
Ad astra per aspera! Ad optimum educans!
Unfortunately, most of these words weren't useful in day to day conversations.
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ANGLES, SAXONS & JUTES
After the Romans left, Germanic tribes started occupying Britain. The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes came in and that is why we came to use the phrase Anglo-Saxon. The Jutes did not contributed much or made much influence so they had to blend in and adopt what seemed to prevail those times.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, four days of the week, are named after Anglo-Saxon gods. Useful words like man, wolf, bread and house can also be traced from the them.
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MODERN ROMANS
597 AD, they came back having Bibles and crosses in their hands. So began Christian missionaries. New words were brought by the Romans like church, candle, martyr, bishop, font, etc.
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VIKINGS
Around 800 AD, the Vikings made their influence. As we all know, Vikings were warrior-like, man-like and brawny human beings. Thus, they contributed tough words like, drag, ransack, thrust, die, rape, pillage, ax, enormous, etc.
Although these words are admittably tough, they also contributed the words give and take. No account of Viking contribution can be fully made without mentioning the kennings which are artfully played words they used in their literature. Most kennings can be found in the epic Beowulf: bent-neck wood, whale-road, war-cry, lightning storm, etc.
The Vikings contributed around two thousand words and phrases. The Church, since then started to use Latin as its official language until now, ad nauseam.
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THE FRENCH (NORMAN CONQUEST)
1066, William the Conqueror invaded England bringing new traditions, concepts and, of course, language to the land -- the French.
Opposite to the Vikings, the French language is a little loose and the French are soft, manner-conscious human beings who pronounce words in rather disturbing ways for early people. Little did they know that these pronunciations have made enormous effects to Today's English.
Many spellings were gallicized: cuncile to council; parlement to parliament; souverain to sovereign; and clerc to clerk. New words arrived freshly French from France like judge, jury, evidence and justice.
The French language became the language of the nobles during while Latin stayed in the Church. Commoners spoke the language they knew, the language England developed by the contributions of the Romans, the Jutes, the Angles, the Saxons and the modern Romans -- English.
During times when three languages divided three aspects of the society, everyone had to speak slowly with actions in order to be understood.
The words, cow, sheep and swine came from the English-speaking farmers and the menu-words, beef, mutton and pork were, of course, French.
Proud, taste, music, melody, jewel and more than ten thousand new words were injected to the English language because of the Norman Conquest.
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ANGLO-GALLIC WAR
After a hundred and sixteen (116) years of war against the French, in 1453, the Brits finally won their land back and English started to grow as a language of power.
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SHAKESPEARE
As it is a common knowledge to us all, more than two thousand words and phrases were coined and extended by William Shakespeare (1564-1616). He made elbow a verb from being just a noun. Now we can say "I elbowed my way through the crowd" without worrying about criticisms.
He specified and differentiated eyeball from eye. Because he had to maintain rhythm, meter and rhyme for his literary pieces, he had to invent puppy (dog), dauntless, besmirch and other words with affixes and extensions. One time, he had to invent alligator after using crocodile with Nile.
He also started catch phrases like green-eyed monster (jealousy), good-riddance, break the ice and many others because usual phrasings were "as dead as a doornail."
Because of Shakespeare, the world have known that English is a language by which one can limitlessly express the most extreme emotions.
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The first English translation of the bible was the Great Bible commissioned by King Henry VIII. The second was the Bishop's Bible in 1568.
1611, the King James Bible was finished from a long labor that started from 1604. King James VI of Scotland and I of England commissioned scribes to create a new English translation of the Scriptures to mend errors cited by Puritans. Forty-seven scholars worked for this mission.
English translation of the scriptures was meant for all men to understand, for even the simplest man. Being so, the Bible has been given new readers.
The Bible presented new language styles like parallelism, metaphors, hyperbole and allusions. Words and phrases of this sexy new Bible took every corner of England.
The King James Bible taught us that a leopard can't change its spots, that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, that the wolf in sheep's clothing is far difficult to spot, etc. The Bible begot new glossaries and metaphors that are still spoken today.
Amen.
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SCIENCE
Before the seventeenth century, scientists started sprouting from England: scientists like Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle and other scientists not called Robert like Isaac Newton. In order to evade the restrictions of the Church, these scientists had to meet in secret. 1660, the Invisible College made way for the Royal Society.
These physicists stated to hold meetings in Latin but they realized that they can use their own language.
Science was discovering things faster everyday even before they could name them. Words like acid (1626), gravity (1641), electricity (1646), pendulum (1660), etc. had to be invented.
Scientists then started to get interested to the human body; thus, the start of anatomical words like cardiac, tonsil, sternum, ovary, vagina, penis, etc.
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ENGLISH EMPIRE
From 1583 to 1914, English as a language went on tour. Seeking for land, wealth, natural resources and obedience to the crown, English also acquired local words in return and gave words they could give to colonies.
The Brits went to the Carribean discovering the barbecue, the canoe, etc. The Brits went to India discovering yoga, bungalow, etc. In Africa, the Brits discovered voodoo, zombie, etc. From Australia, boomerang, nugget, etc. were discovered and taken into the new vocabulary.
Aside from those mentioned above, below is a list of more countries the British Empire colonized, ruled or controlled. Just imagine how they affected Today's English.
North America Canada, the U.S
The Caribbean Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago
Sub-Saharan Africa Botswana, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa
SW Asia and N. Africa Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait,Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, UAE, Yemen
South Asia Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
SE Asia Brunei, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore
Australia and Oceania Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Tuvalu
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DICTIONARY
After spreading the seeds of the English language almost in all direction of the globe, English started to grow in all direction as well. Because of this, there came a new profession, lexicography. These people worried about what if we spell words in different ways and what if we use words differently.
To prevent this kind of anarchy, they thought of ways and among of the greatest are Doctor Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language and Noah Webster's Dictionary. 1746-1755, nine years passed before Doctor Johnson finished his dictionary. It contained 42773 entries.
Initially, the aim of these lexicographers is to standardize the language but it was futile. Almost everyday, people step into and invent new words to make conversations easier.
In 1857, a new book, The Oxford English Dictionary took 70 years to complete. In 1958, the book was completed but new words kept on being invented.
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AMERICAN ENGLISH
Due to their interest in empires, the Brits reached America. In 1607, they landed in America and had to borrow words from the natives for news plants and animals discovered. Raccoon, squash and moose are a few of them.
Due to waves of immigrants flooding America, new words were imported from the Dutch (coleslaw and cookies), Germans (pretzels) and the Italians (pizza, pasta and mafia).
Through the progress that America acquired after they cast away the Brits, English picked up new words by and by. Words like subway and parking are manifestations of infrastructural progress. Words like downsize and merger are manifestations of economy.
The Americans kept on using words that are no longer used in UK.
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INTERNET
As it is common knowledge to us all, the internet is one thing that made a great leap for many things under the sun, including language. Many words were extended: cookie, mouse, tweet, etc. and many words were coined: blog, download, upload, reboot, etc.
Conversation became shorter in the advent of this technology. As we can see LOL is becoming known and TC is more preferred than its original.
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GLOBALIZATION
After successfully pilfering from over 350 languages, English has become the universal language. Unfortunately, all efforts to standardize the language were exhausted to no avail. The Chinese, The Korean, The Africans, The Filipinos, The Singaporeans and The Japanese speak notably different sounds and types of English.
English has gotten a long way after more than 1500 years. This is why it seems not to have something to do with England anymore. Some linguists propose that it shouldn't be called English anymore so others call it THE LANGUAGE.
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