HISTORY OVERVIEW
OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH (A.D 450 – 1100)
OLD ENGLISH PERIOD (A.D. 450 – 1100)
◘ 43 A.D Romans invade Britain
◘ 180 A.D First evidence of Christianity in Roman Britain
◘ Early 5th Century – Roman withdrawal from Britain –
► Rome had occupied Britain for 350 years
► Cut off from Rome, Christian populations develop their own Celtic church
◘ Native Briton or Celt tribes left defenseless
► Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Breton are examples of Celtic languages
◘ circa. 450 A.D Jutes, Angles, Saxons invade Britain
► These tribes came from present day Denmark and North Sea coast Germany
► Invaders spoke dialects of Teutonic or Old West German language
► These tribes were “pagan” (they were not Christian)
◘ New country was called Angle-land (England) – the language: Anglisc (English)
◘ 597 A.D Augustine of Canterbury (who would become the first archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Christian church in England) and other missionaries are sent from Rome to preach in Kent. Eventually all of England converts to Christianity.
◘ The Venerable Bede (673?-735) - English Benedictine monk and scholar
► Wrote Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the
English People), a history of England from the Roman occupation to 731, the year
it was Completed
► Knowledge of England before the 8th Century rests substantially on Bede's work
Characteristics of Old English
◘ Like German and Latin, Old English contained many inflections to convey meaning
and relationships between words
► Inflection (def.):A change in the form of a word to show a grammatical function or a quality such as tense, person, or
number
◘ When people started to write Old English, they borrowed the Roman alphabet, and
spelled phonetically
◘ Beowulf is the best known example of Old English
► Beowulf is generally considered the work of an 8th-century Anglian poet
► Fusion of Scandinavian history and pagan mythology with Christian element
MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (A.D. 1100 – 1500)
◘ 1066 – Norman Conquest
► Invaders from Normandy in France brought and imposed language and culture
► Norman French became ruling class
◘ For a Century, 2 distinct languages were spoken in England
► French was language of court, government, art, culture, literature, etc.
► Old English continued as language of lower class, language of labour, farming, etc.
◘ Middle English was born as the two languages blended together over the years
Characteristics of Middle English
◘ Middle English used word order, not inflection, to convey meaning
◘ Examples of the same words from both languages
► English: Swine, Sheep, Ox, Calf ► French: Pork, Mutton, Beef, Veal
◘ In many cases, some English words were kept and some French words were adopted
► English: King, Queen ► French: Prince, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Duke
◘ Most popular work in Middle English is probably Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
► The text is a satirical account of a pilgrimage, and was begun in 1386
► Chaucer uses a frame narrative technique
Early 5th Century
Roman Withdrawal
From Britain
|
| gradual invasion
| by Angles, Saxons
| and Jutes
| |
| | 1066
| | Norman Conquest
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | / | / | / |450 A.D 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900
HISTORY OVERVIEW
EARLY MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD (1500 – 1800)
◘ 1476 – William Caxton imports + operates first printing press in England
►Printing press helped to standardize spelling + created larger body of literate people
► Before printing, spelling was phonetic. For example: whair / wher / whear / wheare
◘ Renaissance – meant renewal of interest in classical civilization and literature
► This had a huge impact on English – many words were borrowed from Latin & Greek
► Greek: Skeleton Latin: Expectation
◘ World exploration, trade, and industrialization à inter-cultural influence and borrowing
◘ Shakespeare’s writing contained a larger vocabulary than any other writer of his time
► Shakespeare was innovative in borrowing words and coining new words
◘ Protestant Reformation lead to new translations of the bible (accessible versions)
► King James Bible (1611) – Used plain English
► This version was widely distributed and read across England
◘ In time, impetus grew for standardization of the language
◘ Samuel Johnson – A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
► Originally, Johnson’s purpose was to refine and fix the language
► Ultimately, Johnson realized language change is inevitable – no language can be
‘fixed’
◘ Johnson’s dictionary included 40 000 entries
► This text established the form of ‘The Dictionary’ as an authority
HISTORY OVERVIEW
PRESENT DAY ENGLISH (1800 – TODAY)
◘ By early 1800’s, most of Britain’s exploration & colonization was complete
► “The sun never set” on the British Empire
◘ After American Revolution (1776), national dialects developed independently
► However, except for minor differences, English has retained astonishing worldwide
uniformity
◘ Linguistic influences have come from rapid advances in science and technology, and from
globalization
◘ U.S spelling reformer Noah Webster – Webster’s Dictionary (1828)
► Distinguished between American and British English
► U.S – labor British – labour
theater theatre
◘ 1857 – Oxford English Dictionary (OED) project begins
► Designed to include every English word since 1150
► 15 487 pages, 1.8 million words + contexts
► 1970’s + 80’s – 4 volume supplement added to original 13 volumes
◘ English today – the International Language
► English is the most widely used language in the world today
► English à international language of air traffic controllers and communication
technology
►It is estimated that 4/5 (four fifths – 80%) of information stored on computers
worldwide is in English