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American English

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In the 18th Century, Dr. Samuel Johnson published his famous dictionary of the English Language which dominated English letters for a full century after its appearance. There was also A Short Introduction to English Grammar and several Pronunciation Dictionaries.

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King James Bible has contributed 257 phrases to the English language, more than any other single source, including the works of Shakespeare. Expressions such as “a Fly in the ointment”, “thorn in the side” and “Do we see eye to eye”, which are still commonly used today all originated in the Bible.

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The writings of Shakespeare actually influenced the English language, as his works contributed to standardize English language rules and grammar in the 17th and 18th centuries. The words and phrases that he wrote were embedded in the language especially in “A Dictionary of the English Language” by Samuel Johnson

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He settled a precedent in English Literature. He chose to write in English.

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Beowulf is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 6th century. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his memory.

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The Modern English period began when William Caxton brought the printing press in 1476. In the 18th Century, Dr. Samuel Johnson published his famous dictionary of the English Language which dominated English letters for a full century after its appearance. There was also A Short Introduction to English Grammar and several Pronunciation Dictionaries.

The language since 1500 is called Modern English. Chose to standardized London English. By the time we reach this stage in the development a large part of the original inflectional system has disappeared entirely, and we therefore speak of it as the period of lost inflections.

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In the summer of 1348 there appeared in the southwest of England the first cases of a disease that in its contagiousness and fatality exceeded anything previously known. The death rate during the plague approximated 30 percent. It is quite sufficient to justify the name “The Black Death”. As in most epidemics, the rich suffered less than the poor. A great spirit of discontent arose, which culminated in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. By and large, the effect of the Black Death was to increase the economic importance of the laboring class and with it the importance of the English language which they spoke.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century English was once more known by everyone. The most conclusive evidence of this is the direct testimony of contemporaries. As a result of the plague English must also have made its way more rapidly in the monasteries, as we know it did in the schools. Fort-seven monks and the abbt died at St.Albans in 1349. Their places were filled by men who often knew no other language than English-.

After 1349 English began to be used in the schools and by 1385 the practice had become general. Before the middle of the fifteenth century it was necessary to have a “secretary in the french language”.

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At the very time when the Norman nobility was losing its continental connections and had been led to identify itself wholly with England, the country experienced a fresh invasion of foreigners, this time mostly from the south of France. In short, in the course of Henry III’s long reign (1216-1272), the country was eaten up by strangers. Henry III was rapidly losing England.

Twice during these years the foreigners were driven from England, and when peace was finally restored and a little later Edward I (1272-1307) came to the throne, we enter upon a period in which England becomes conscious of its unity, when the governmental officials are for the most part English, and when the king can attempt to stir up the feelings of his subjects against the king of France by claiming that it was “his detestable purpose, which God forbid, to wipe out the English tongue”.

During the thirteenth century, French became a cultivated tongue supported by social custom and by business and administrative convention. Meanwhile English made steady advances. A number of considerations make it clear that by the middle of the century, when the separation of the English nobles from their interests in France had been about completed, English was becoming a matter of general use among the upper classes. It is at this time, as we shall see, that the adoption of French words into the English language assumes large proportions. It is at this time also that the literature intended for polite circles begins to be made over from French into English.

The French made a huge attempt to increase the use of their language, but it was obvious that the use of French was incredibly artificial.

Added to the fact that the French dialect in England was not good. It was possibly a mixture of various northern dialectal features, but with Norman predominating, and under the influence of English linguistic tendencies, it gradually developed into something quite different from any of the continental dialects.

In the course of the centuries following the Norman Conquest the connection of England with the continent, as we have seen, had been broken. It was succeeded by a conflict of interests and a growing feeling of antagonism that culminated in a long period of open hostility with France (1337-1453). The great victories of the English ar Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) fanned English patriotism to a white heat, though this auspicious beginning of the struggle was followed by a depressing peior of reverses and though the contest was interrupted by long periods of truce. In the reign of Henry V England again enjoyed a brief period of success, notably in the victory against great odds at Agincourt (1415). But the success did not continue after the young king’s death, and the exploits of Joan of Arc (1429) marked the beginning of the end.

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Shortly after 1200 conditions changed. England lost an important part of its possessions abroad. The nobility gradually relinquished their continental estates. A feeling of rivalry developed between the two countries, accompanied by an antiforeign movement in England and culminating in the Hundred Years’ War. In the fourteenth century English won its way back into universal use, and in the fifteenth century French all but disappeared.

The first link in the chain binding England to the continent was broken in 1204 when King John lost Normandy. John married the beautiful Isabel of Angouleme notwithstanding the fact that she was at the time formally betrothed to Hugh of Lusignan, the head of a powerful and ambitious family. Philip saw in the situation an opportunity to embarrass his most irritating rival. He summoned John to appear before his court in Paris. John maintained that as King of England he was not subject to the jurisdiction of the French court; Philip replied that as duke of Normandy he was. Philip invaded Normandy.

In 1204 Rouen surrendered and Normandy was lost to the English crown. It gradually became apparent that the island kingdom has its own political and economic ends and that there were not the same as those of France. England was on the way to becoming not merely a geographical term but once more a nation.

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By 1204, the Anglo-Normans lost control of their French land in France, and the noblemen who possessed lands in both countries were forced to declare their loyalty to France or to England. There followed the Hundred Years War (1337-1454), and as anti-French feeling increased, the separation of the languages became inevitable. The Black Plague also contributed to raise the position of the working man. Since so many people died, a new generation of nuns and abbots were chosen from the lower classes. They, of course, spoke neither Latin nor French, English Grammar began to be taught in schools, and by the end of the 14th Century, all the speeches or depositions made by the monarchs were in English.

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From 1150 to 1500 the language is known as Middle English. During this period the inflections, which had begun to break down toward the end of the Old English period, become greatly reduced, and it is consequently known as the period of leveled inflections.
The period known as Middle English extends from the 11th Century to the 15th Century.

1. Surnames (Fitz, Mc)

2. Chaucer as the main poet

3. Printing press

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It is quite impossible to say how many Normans and French people settled in England in the century and a half following the conquest, but because the governing class in both church and state was almost exclusively made up from among them, their influence was out of all proportion to their number.

At first those who spoke French were those of Norman origin, but soon through intermarriage and association with the ruling class numerous people of English extraction must have found it to their advantage to learn the new language, and before long the distinction between those who spoke French and those who spoke English was not ethnic but largely social. The language of the masses remained English.

The most important factor in the continued use of French by the English upper class until the beginning of the thirteenth century was the close connection that existed through all these years between England and the continent.

Under the circumstances it is not surprising that the attention of the English should often be focused upon affairs in France. Indeed, English kings often spent a great part of their time there. What was true of the royal family was equally true of the nobility in general. The English nobility was not so much a nobility of England as an Anglo-French aristocracy.

There is no reason to think that the preference that the governing class in England showed for French was anything more than a natural result of circumstances. It is true that English was not an uncultivated tongue, the language of a socially inferior class. But there is also plenty of evidence of mutual respect and peaceful cooperation, to say nothing of intermarriage.

How completely French was the English court at this time is clearly shown by the literature produced for royal and noble patronage.

We have already remarked that the use of French was not confined to persons of foreign extraction, but that all those who were brought into association with the governing class soon acquired a command of it. It was a mark of social distinction.

If by the end of the twelfth century a knowledge of English was not unusual among members of the highest class, it seems equally clear that a knowledge of French was often found somewhat further down in the social scale. Among the knightly class French seems to have been cultivated even when the mother tongue was English.

Thus in the period preceding the loss of Normandy in 1204 there were some who spoke only French and many more who spoke only English. There was likewise a considerable number who were genuinely bilingual as well as many who had some understanding of both languages while speaking only one. Among people accustomed to learn more through the ear than through the eye, learning a second language presents no great problem. The ability to speak one of more languages besides one’s native tongue is largely a matter of opportunity, as can be seen in a number of European countries today.

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When in January 1066, after a reign of twenty-four years, Edward the Confessor died childless, England was again faced with the choice of a successor. The most influential noble was Godwin. Godwnin’s son was then elected king.

But William, the duke of Normandy, was a second cousin to the late king. But the English had had enough of French favourites, and when the time came Harold did not consider himself bound by his former pledge.

William the Great, as the chroniclers called him, was not the man to relinquish a kingdom without struggle. William had made all the formal arrangements before landing in England.

His landing was unopposed. Harold was occupied in the north of England meeting an invasion by the king of Norway. Hardly had Harold triumphed in battle over the invaders when word reached him of William’s landing. The English were not fully prepared for it. Harold was forced to meet the invader with such forces as he had. After a great fight, the English lost. BATTLE OF HASTINGS.

One of the most important of these consequences was the introduction of a new nobility. Many of the English higher class had been killed on the field at Hastings. Those who escaped were treated as traitors, and the places of both alike were filled by William’s Norman followers.

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What the language would have been like if William the Conqueror had not succeeded in making good his claim to the English throne can only be a matter of conjecture. It would probably have pursued much the same course as the other Germanic languages, retaining perhaps more of its inflections and preserving a predominantly Germanic vocabulary, adding to its word-stock by the characteristic methods of word formation already explained, and incorporating words from other languages much less freely. In particular it would have lacked the greater part of that enormous number of French words that today make English seem, on the side of vocabulary, almost as much a Romance as a Germanic language.

The Norman Conquest changed the whole course of the English language.

Normandy? Rollo, the viking leader who established himself on French shores. In 912 the right of the Northmen to occupy this part of France was recognized: Rollo acknowledged the French king as his overlord and became the first duke of the Normans. They profited from their contact with French military forces and, adding French tactics to their own impetuous courage, soon had one of the best armies, if we may use the term, in Europe. They accepted Christianity and began the construction of those great Norman cathedrals that are still marvels to the modern architect. But most important of all, they soon gave up their own language and learned French.

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When Cnute, king of Denmark, inherited the English throne, the fusion of the Old English and Danish was complete (A.D.1000)

Vikings tried to raid England and they were stopped by Alfred the Great, who built and rebuilt monasteries. After Alfred, the Saxons and Danes continued to live alongside each other for a long time. It was at this time that the Norse element blended in a way with Saxon, simplifying the language.

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Near the end of the Old English period English underwent a third foreign language influence, the result of contact with another important language, the Scandinavian.

Vikings entered from Scotland, from the north. They also went to Ireland, lands that were abandoned since the arrival of the Celts.

After some time, the Danes continued to observe , they assimilated to most of the ways of English life. That many of them early accepted Christianity is attested by the large number of Scandinavian names found not only among monks and abbots, priests and bishops, but also among those who gave land to monasteries and endowed churches.

The relation between the two languages in the district settled by the Danes is a matter of inference rather than exact knowledge.

The most reliable depend upon differences in the development of certain sounds in the North Germanic and West Germanic areas. One of the simplest to recognize is the development of the sound sk. In Old English this was early palatalized to sh (written sc), except possibly in the combination scr, whereas in the Scandinavian countries it retained its hard sk sound. Consequently, whily native words like ship, shallm, fish have sh in Modern English, words borrowed from the Scandinavians are generally still pronounced with sk: sky, skin, skill, scrape, scrub, bask.

Among the most notable evidence of the extensive Scandinavian settlement in England is the large number of places that bear Scandinavian names. Places like Grimsby, Whitby, Derby, Rugby, with names ending in -by.

It may be remarked that a similarly high percentage of Scandinavian personal names has been found in the medieval records of these districts. Names ending in -son, like Stevenson or Johnson.

The Danish invasions were not like the introduction of Christianity, bringing the English Into contact with a different civilization and introducing them to many things, physical as well as spiritual, that they had not known before. The civilization of the invaders was very much like that of the English themselves. Consequently, the Scandinavian elements that entered the English language are such as would make their way into it through the give-and-take of everyday life. Words like birth, bull, calf, leg, skin, skirt, sky, slaughter.

The results are just what we should expect when two rather similar languages are spoken for upwards of two centuries in the same area.

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It is probable that the use of Latin as a spoken language did not long survive the end of Roman rule in the island that such vestiges as remained for a time were lost in the disorders that accompanied the Germanic invasions. There was thus no opportunity for direct contact between Latin and Old English in England, and such Latin words as could have found their way into English would have had to come in through Celtic transmission. The Celts, indeed, had adopted a considerable number of Latin words but the relations between the Celts and the English were such, as we have already seen, that these words were not passed on. Among the few words that the Anglo-Saxons seem likely to have acquired upon settling in England is ceaster. This word, which represents the Latin castra (camp), is a common designation in Old English for a town. It forms a familiar element in English place-names such as Chester, Colchester, Dorchester, Manchester, Winchester, Lancaster, Doncaster, Gloucester, Worcester, etc. Some of these refer to sites of Roman camps.

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In 597, when the man who was to become Pope Gregory the Great sent St.Augustine to Britain to convert the Anglo-Saxons, they were aware that these tribes were notorious by savage. But Augustine was lucky to land in Kent, and so the conversion was peaceful and gradual. The Latin Element became present in the British Isles.

The greatest influence of Latin upon Old English was occasioned by the conversion of Britain to Roman Christianity beginning in 597. The introduction of Christianity meant the building of churches and the establishment of monasteries. Latin, the language of the services and of ecclesiastical learning, was once more heard in England. Because most of these words have survived in only slightly altered form in Modern English, the examples may be given in their modern form. The list includes abbot, alms, altar, angel, anthem, Arian, ark, candle, canon, chalice, cleric, cowl, deacon, disciple, epistle, hymn, litany, manna, martyr, mass, minister, noon, nun, offer, organ, pall, palm, pope, priest, provost, psalm, psalter, relic, rule,, shrift, shrive, stle, synod, temple and tunic, cap, sock, silk, purple, chest, mat, sack, beet, caul, lentil, millet, pear, lobster, pine, aloes, balsam, marshmallow, rue, school, masterm meter, anchor, fever, sponge, elephant, legion.

The flourishing state of the church that resulted in these significant additions to the English language unfortunately did not continue uninterrupted. One cause of the decline is to be attributed to the Danes. Returned with the work of King Alfred.

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The period from 450 to 1150 is known as Old English. It is sometimes described as the period of full inflections, because during most of this period the endings of the noun, the adjective and the verb are preserved more or less unimpaired.
The vocabulary of Old English is almost purely Germanic. A large part of this vocabulary,moreover, has disappeared from the language. When the Norman Conquest brought French into England as the language of the higher classes, much of the Old English vocabulary appropriate to literature and learning died out and was replaced later by words borrowed from French and Latin.

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About the year 449 began the invasion of Britain by certain Germanic tribes, the founders of the English nation. Settlers migrated from their continental homes in the region of Denmark and the Low Countries and established themselves in the south and east of the island, gradually extending the area they occupied until it included all but the highlands in the west and north. These were the Jutes, Saxons and Angles.

Britain had been exposed to attacks by the Saxons from as early as the fourth century. Even while the island was under Roman rule these attacks had become sufficiently serious to necessitate the appointment of an officer known as the Count of the SAXON SHORE. The Celts had come to depend on Roman arms for this protection. They had, moreover, under Roman influence settled down to a more peaceful mode of life. Consequently when the Romans withdrew in 410 the Celts found themselves at  a disadvantage.

Such civilization as had been attained under Roman influence was largely destroyed. The Roman towns were burnt and abandoned. There were seven tribes, Nrtuhumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex and Wessex. But the grouping was not very permanent, sometimes two or more being united under one king, at other times kingdoms being divided under separate rulers. Under Alfred Wessex attained a high degree of prosperity and considerable enlightenment.

The English language of today is the language that has resulted from the history of the dialects spoken by the Germanic tribes who came to England in the manner described.

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There came a Romanization of England, with  huge paths, military centers, hundreds of cities, Roman baths and houses, temples, theatres, habits of life. Heating apparatus, water supply, mosaic on the floors, roman dress, ornaments and utensils, pottery and glassware. By the third century Christianity had made some progress in the island. LATIN ELEMENT

In spite of this, the Celtic language did not die. Its use probably began to decline after 420, the approximate date at which the last of the Roman legions were officially withdrawn from the island.

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In A.D.42 Claudius, emperor of Rome, sent a larger force than Caesar’s and for the next 400 years, England became a Roman colony. Wales and Scotland, however, remained unconquered, and the old Celtic language was still spoken, while Latin was never really spread outside the military camps.  Their interest? TAXING.

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In the summer of 55 B.C. Julius Caesar, decided to invade England. Their main aim probably was to discourage the Celts of Britain from coming to the assistance of Celts of Gaul. The resistance of the Celts was unexpectedly spirited. Accordingly, the following summer he again invaded the island, after much more elaborated preparations. This time he succeeded in establishing himself in the southeast. But after a few encounters with the Celts, he had to return to Gaul. Britain was not again troubled by Roman legions for nearly a hundred years.

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They were nomads. Druids, the high priests were the first ones to leave written records about the Celts. They were pagans. Oral tradition.

The Germanic conquest was fully accomplished In the east and southwest. Large numbers of the defeated fled to the west. Here it is apparent that a considerable Celtic-speaking population survived until fairly late times. It is altogether likely that many Celts were held as slaves by the conquerors and that many of the Anglo-Saxons chose Celtic mates.

It is natural that Celtic place-names should be more common in the west than in the east and southeast, but the evidence of these names shows that the Celts impressed themselves upon the Germanic consciousness at least to the extent of causing the newcomers to adopt many of the local names current in Celtic speech and to make them a permanent part of their vocabulary.

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“Neolithic” is likewise a convenient rather than scientific term to designate the peoples who, from about 5000 B.C possess a superior kind of stone implement, often polished, and a higher culture generally. It was a dark race of slightly larger stature than the Paleolithic population. They came from the south. They domesticated the common domestic animals and developed elementary agriculture. They made crude pottery and did a little weaving, and some lived in crannogs, structures built on pilings driven into swamps and lakes. They buried their dead. But they did not have the artistic gifts of late Paleolithic peoples. Their language has not survived. The first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge are the Celts. It used to be assumed that the coming of the Celts to England coincided with the introduction of bronze into the island. But the use of bronze probably preceded the Celts by several centuries.

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Paleolithic humans, the earliest inhabitants of England, entered at a time when this part of the world formed a part of the continent of Europe, when there was no English Channel. The people of this period were short of stature, averaging about five feet, long-armed and short-legged, with low foreheads and poorly developed chins. They lived in the open, under rock shelters or, later, in caves. They were dependent for food upon the vegetation that grew wild and such animals as they could capture and kill. The humans whose remains are found in the latest Paleolithic strata are distinguished by a high degree of artistic skill. But representations of boar and mastodon on pieces of bone or the walls of caves tell us nothing about the language of their designers. We know nothing about the language, or languages, of Paleolithic culture.