History of English Language Essays

History of English Language Essays History of English Language Essay History of English Language Essay English linguistic communication. like many elements in the history. has gone many transmutations for nil is lasting in this universe. There are many lending factors that played in its development as what it is now including different influences brought to it by unifying of civilizations and sometimes war. English linguistic communication besides differs depending on the civilization of one’s state. since non merely one state is utilizing this as their official linguistic communication but many of them ; and. each has gone some alteration that represents their civilization. In this planetary period. English linguistic communication is considered as the world’s functionary linguistic communication through which. all states are united header towards future economic advancement and common apprehension of all people in the whole universe. Through this besides. war is avoided. common ends are set for the good of all. and hapless states are taken into history by international organisation. English linguistic communication so as widely accepted fact. is the lingua franca of the universe and the linguistic communication of economic sciences. English linguistic communication. since it is replacing other antecedently dominant linguistic communications of the universe such as Gallic and Spanish. is taught in about schools in all states from Pre-elementary classs to college classs. Through this emerging tendency. many pupils from flush states avail themselves of western instruction which they consider as an advantage in their calling. Some would even take English lessons in other states to get eloquence and competence. The ground buttocks is that. English is the lone means to pass on with all the people of the universe wherever you are or what of all time state you may be. Thus. international communicating is now possible regardless of which state you come from every bit long as you know even merely the basic and as their linguistic communications unite their apprehension of their civilization is strengthened. Development of Old English Language Old English linguistic communication had been developed through many constituents with its beginning from the history. Although. many historiographers believed and developed the hypothesis that English linguistic communication and other linguistic communications in many parts of Europe were indistinguishable because of groundss of similarities of many words. Aside from that. it was besides believed that Sanskrit. the old linguistic communication of India which was much older than Greek or German. had preserved common characteristics with that of Old English linguistic communication ( Baugh A ; Cable. p. 18 ) . It is easy hence to assume that English is a byproduct of the development of many linguistic communications in Europe which had merely one beginning. The Arrival of Celts in Britain English linguistic communication was known as the linguistic communication of English people. nevertheless. it was non the linguistic communication spoken by earliest colonists of the lands ; historiographers believed that many races had come and their linguistic communications were non known and recorded in the history until the reaching of the Celts which had the hint of Old English linguistic communication. and began the history of its development. The Celts were bronzy and iron-age dwellers and when they reached Britain they pushed the earlier colonists into the distant corners of the state through their mighty arms. Harmonizing to history. they arrived about 500 BC with linguistic communication known for being the first Indo-germanic lingua to be spoken in Britain. Celts and Celtic linguistic communication as they say had really small part in the Old English. as they tried to follow some of those words. However. bookmans believed that they influenced the grammatical construction of the linguistic communication ( Baugh A ; Cable. p. 82-83 ) . At this widespread promotion of English. many of those linguistic communications are no longer traced ; though. it is believed to be the first among the subscribers of the English linguistic communication development. nevertheless. its influence is no longer recognized today. Anglo-saxon Colonies In the beginning. Old English was an mixture of group of idiom linguistic communications. reflecting the diverse beginning of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England. Anglo-Saxon was a group of different races with the Germanic people as the dominant among them who arrived in Britain during the 5th and 6th AD upon the invitation of the King of Briton to assist them against Roman encroachers. This group had acquired influences of the Latin civilization including linguistic communication that after the prostration of Roman Empire in their state arrived in Britain to happen colony besides. Harmonizing to Barbara Fennell. there was no written record about linguistic communication usage in Britain before the Anglo-Saxon invasion ( Fennell. p. 55 ) . There were indicants that England was inhabited for 1000s of old ages prior to Anglo-Saxon invasion. with its known early dwellers as the Celts or Scotts. The Romans did non hold much lingual part on the linguistics development. but the collapsed of the Empire paved the manner for the colony of Anglo-Saxon. The native Britishers were either pushed into stray and farthest countries or they adapted the Anglo-Saxon’s manner of life. The Angli was really a Germanic folk which has been in Britain a twosome of centuries prior to Roman invasion. These Anglo-Saxon spoke Germanic idiom which had some similarities with the original colonists. the Celts which finally blended with them. Therefore. Germanic tribes began geting and settling in Kent. Not long when the Germans formed a land known in history as the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. As these German folks struggled for high quality. Kent. the chief colony. emerged as the dominating folk which claimed sovereignty over all the lands of the South. Barbara Fennel pointed out that they dominated mostly because of the influence of centres of larning at Linchfarne. Subsequently. the land was passed from King Egbert down to his grandson Alfred the Great. and on to King Edward the Confessor who became Rex Anglorum. which means King of the English in 1026 BC ( Fennel. p. 57 ) . The meeting of Anglo-Saxon and Celtics had come to be known as the English people. and their linguistic communication as the English linguistic communication. The Norse Influence Of class. there had been more developments and important part towards the lingual development of the English linguistic communication. But. finally. invasions and colonies had been the major factors for this development. The invasion of the Romans and the prostration of the Empire lay the land for the colony of Anglo-Saxon. while the inflow of more Germanic tribesmen overlay the initiation of a new state. In 787 to 850 AD. a new invasion and colony had taken topographic point ; the Norse under King Guthrum invaded Britain which was under King Alfred. As the Danes were defeated by King Alfred. they withdrew from King Alfred’s district but remained in Britain. Finally. he accepted Christianity and was baptized. The colony of these people in England non merely involved political and lingual assimilation but besides civilization and faith which are indispensable in the development of linguistic communication. The wining political assimilation that follows after the Norse invasion every bit good as the exogamies of political swayers had been instrumental in Anglo-Saxon – Celtic people to be identified as an English people. Fennell said that King Henry’s replacement Richard II. was renowned as the lion’s bosom †¦who spoke small or no English at all. and spent merely six months in entire on English soil ( p. 57 ) . Fennel’s accent on speaking English and passing six months on English soil meant two things. the beginning of the English linguistic communication and of the English state. The Linguistic Development during the Middle Ages Middle Ages had been a really important in the development of English linguistic communications after its assimilation during the meeting of Anglo-Saxon and Celts. This period gave manner to the promotion of the linguistic communication in footings of words incorporation from other native linguistic communications specifically the Northern European and some Germanic folks. This was besides important in the enlargement of the linguistic communication in its grammatical construction. Change in the Inflectional Endings Inflectional terminations are unstressed syllables at the terminals of words of most of Old English linguistic communication such as –en in drunken. The decay of inflectional terminations was attributed to the influence of Vikings in their linguistic communication and at the same clip. the Germanic linguistic communication has a emphasis on the first syllable and non on terminations. Some of those terminations that were omitted were -a. -e. -u and –an. which had been equally reduced to -e. ( pronounced ) . Another change involved the loss of concluding -n after -e in unstressed syllables. For illustration. drinken. from Old English drincan to drink. became first of all drinke and so imbibe ( Baugh and Cable. 1993. p. 155 ) . Fennel had besides observed these important alterations in the English linguistic communication. She pointed out that the development of more fixed words order and the loss of inflections ( p. 97 ) . characterizes the Middle English. Further. she observed little consonantal alterations in such that certain sonant consonants became unvoiced and other unvoiced consonants became sonant ( p. 97 ) . The Noun and Adjectives Old English is besides typified in footings of infection wherein they add letters to the terminal of the word to mean another significance either from remarkable to plural or gender differences. For case. the remarkable stan. stanes and stane holding its plural signifier of stanas. stana and stanum ; which harmonizing to Baugh and Cable. reduced to stan. stanes and stane. These alterations have been observed in the Modern English. Old English was seen as holding similarity with the Latin grammar which was more inflected. To observe. Old English had four instances: the nominative. accusatory. possessive and dative instances that are emphasized by adding letter/s at the terminal of the word. For illustration. the remarkable neuter had an stoping –a. feminine had –o. masculine had –n. On the other manus. Latin had six instances such as nominative. vocative. accusatory. possessive. dative and ablative. This development in English linguistic communication was evidently an influence of Roman in their linguistic communication. Throughout the development procedure. particularly coming into the Middle Ages. English linguistic communication had survived its –s plural signifier and the weak –n signifier go infrequent as in the instance of cattle. brethren. kids and cattle. Verb Form The Middle English had a grammatical regulation similar to the Modern English. In general. the first individual singular of the Middle English present tense verbs terminal in –e. the 2nd individual had –est. while the 3rd individual had –eb. This is applied to strong verb. while in weak verbs. word terminations used are –ed ( vitamin E ) . -d ( vitamin E ) . or –t ( vitamin E ) . It was besides usual in the Middle English the Object -Verb sequence whereas the Modern English follows the Verb-Object form ; for illustration: so fell he down. which is contrast with today’s grammar construction as so he fell down. ( Fischer. p. 180-181 ) The infinitive –to was besides usual in Middle English which was later replaced by that. For case. He commanded them that they should bind him up. ( Fischer. p. 211 )