OLD ENGLISH (449-1050 A.D.

) The Anglo-
Saxon and Germanic Tribes corpus of poetry
and prose from 7
th
century. First Linguistic
evidence: spelling + sounds + vocabulary.SPK
MIDDLE ENGLISH (1066-1500 A.D.) The
effects of the French invasion on the English
language. The beginning of the standardization
of the English language, Literature (Geoffrey
Chaucer & the Canterbury Tales; Beowulf).WRT
MODERN ENGLISH (1500-1800 A.D.)The
English and Caxtons Printing Press, THE
RENAISSANCE: Queen Elizabeth, William
Shakespeare, King James Authorized Version of
the Bible, Johnsons Dictionary and The New
World.
1 An English Speaking World
RP (Received Pronunciation) and the Victorian Times: The Education Act =standard accent
XX century: (1870-1945) International Language:
World War I and World War II, War of Korea, Vietnam, Coca-colonialism,
New Independent Countries: English Official Language
International Affairs, Science & Technology=INTERNET
English language has three characteristics that can be counted as assets in its world state:
1. Unlike all other European languages: the gender of every noun in modern English is
determined by meaning, and does not require a masculine, feminine or neuter article.
2. English has a grammar of great simplicity and flexibility. Nouns and adjectives have highly
simplified word-endings.
3. Of great quality, English possesses a vocabulary which is 80 percent foreign-born.
2 The Mother Tongue
3 invasions and 1 Cultural Revolution:
Angles-Saxons-Frisians (Germanic Tribes)
Vikings (Scandinavian Invasions)
Normans (French Invasion)
Julios Ceasar and the Roman Legions arrive
in Britain in 49 B.C.
Roman army, architecture (walled cities);
Saint Augustine & the Cristianization
(churches, monasteries, monks/teachers):
CHESTER -- Latn Castra=CAMP:
Manchester, Winchester, Chesterfield
6000 B.C. to 4,000 B.C. The CELTS drifted throughout Europe: Britan.
CELTS stablished in the Highlands of Scotland, Ireland, Wales & Brittany.
CELTIC NAMES: AVON=river
Some towns have ROMAN names: LONDINUM became London,
LINDUM-COLONIA became LINCOLN
1st Invasion: The Angles-Saxons-Jutes
Germanic Tribes from todays Denmark, Germany and the
Netherlands ivanded Britain.
ANGLO-SAXONS: ENGLI-SC= ENGLISH= ENGLA-LAND
By 1,000 A.D. Britain was know as ENGLAND
The cornerstone- of the Anglo-Saxon culture was
Cristianization & Saint Augustine: the monks & priests
became teachers of poetry, astronomy and arithmetic. It
gave English the capacity to express abstract thoughts;
before it was easy to express common experience in life
(sun, moon, sky, earth, cold, hot).
Some 400 words of Old English survive today!
Now there were: GREEK & LATIN ready to perform
sophisticated functions.
The CONVERSION of ENGLAND to cristianism:
1. It gave it a large church vocabulary
2. It introduced ideas & words ultimately as from
far away as India and China: orange, pepper,
phoenix, camel, lion, cedar ,myrrh
3. It stimulated Anglo-Saxons to apply existing
words to new concepts.
the Anglo-Saxons settled down and began farming their new property: sheep,
shepherd, ox, earth, plough, swine, dog, wood, field & work
From Latin, Greek and
Hebrew came: Sabbath,
Angelos (msngr of God) and
diabolos (devil). From the
Mediterranean oyster and
mussel.
From Sanskrit: ginger.
LATIN= CORNUCOPIA:
Spiritus, Sanctus, Holy
Ghost, Evangelium (good
news=GOD-PELL=gospel
2nd Invasion: The Vikings
A natural pidginizationtook place both languages
share the same linguistic roots: germanic.
The Danes contributed to the simplification of the
language. Common words relied on word-endings
to convey meaning; these were replaced by
preposition words like: by, with and from.
The impact of Old Norse is seen in more that 900
words of Scandinavian origin: get, hit, leg, low, root,
skin, same, want, and wrong.
Thanks to the Danes the language was given
another dimension: more light and shade, & variety.
The Great Vowel Shift
3rd Invasion: The Normans
1066 the landing of the Norman French at the Hastings battle
The use of French was limited only to an elite of churchmen and magnates.
The continuity of English continued in the mass of ordinary people.
Why did English survive and wasnt absorbed by the dominant Norman
tongue:
First and most obvious: the pre-Conquest Old English Vernacular,
both written and spoken, was simple too well established, too
vigorous, and, thanks to its fusion with the Scandinavian languages.
It would have needed many centuries of French rule to eradicate it as the
popular speech of ordinary people. The English speakers had an
overwhelming demographic advantage. Pragmatically , it is obvious that the
English were not going to stop speaking English because they had been
conquered by a foreigner.
Second: English survived because almost immediately the
Normans began to intermarry with those they had conquered
imagine a Norman knight living in a small manor in the English countryside surrounded by English
peasants, served in the house by English maids, his estates managed by an English steward, and his
children playing with English children. He would have to pick up some English to survive
Third: In 1204 the Anglo-Normans lost control of their French
territory across the Channel. The Hundred Years War with France
(1334-1454) provided a major impetus to speak English.
3 A Muse of Fire
1558 Queen Elizabeth: The Elizabethians
: William Shakespeare : 35,000 words: Accommodation,
Assassination, Dislocate, Indistinguishable, Obscene, Pedant,
Premeditated, Submerged, Multitudinous. To Be Or Not To Be
William Caxton: Printing Press= Standardization of language
Middle Ages: LATIN, in EUROPE: Thomas More, Galileo Gallilei,
Francis Bacon, Goethe, Leonardo DaVinci, Dante Aligeri, (thermometer,
skeleton, gravity, excrement, atmosphere, pneumonia.
King James Authorized Version of the Bible (6 groups of
translators form Oxford, Cambridge and the clergy).
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Francis Drake
The Discovery of the New World
New Words: Amerindian Words:
to bury the hatchet, water of fire: whiskey, go
on the war-path, to smoke the pipe of peace,
Indian summer. Dakota , Massachusetts,
Miramichi, Connecticut.
Canada (Iroquoise) Kanata= town, village.
New settlements: New York, Boston, Bedford,
Cambridge, Lincoln, Darmouth, Baltimore
Nova Scotia, New Amsterdam, New Orleans.
4 The Guid Scots Tongue
Jacobite Rebellions
Bonnie Prince Charlies
William Wallace
Samuel Johnsons Dictionary
400,000 word definitions the
compilation lasted 9 years.
Scotland
Scots immigration first to Ireland (Ulster) and later to America.
NOVA SCOTIA -CANADA
Highlands of Scotland
Prefix Mac -son of- Campbell, Cameron,
Macdonald, Macleod, Mcartney, McKinney
McBurney,
and Hamilton.
Aint, cant,
dont , mad.
5 The Loaded Weapon (Ireland)
Ireland patron: SAINT PATRICK : welsh slave who introduced Christianity in Ireland
In 1171 Henry II came to Ireland and this event marked the beginning of the English
domination: ALL ENGLISH MEN IN IRELAND SHOULD USE ENGLISH SURNAMES, SPEAK ENGLISH
AND FOLLOW ENGLISH CUSTOMS.
There was an IMPOSITION of British in the North and Protestantism and as a result 200 years of
civilian and military settlements followed until the ACT of UNION 1803 in which Ireland became
part of the United Kingdom.
The Irish Gaelic is strongly associated with Roman Catholicism whereas English refrends the
Protestant Supremacy.
The English believe that Irish are under-educated.
Irish Family names: Fitzgerald, Logan, Sheridan.
10th Century: Golden Age of Irish Saints and Scholars
6 Black on White
BLACK ENGLISH IS THE PRODUCT OF
ONE OF THE MOST INFAMOUS EPISODES
IN THE HISTORY OF OUR CIVILIZATION
Black English represents the
disadvantaged past, an obstacle to
advancement, something better
unlearned, denied, or forgotten
Voodoo
Banjo
Banana
Jamsession
Sambo
Rock and roll
PIDGIN is an auxiliary language, one that has no native speakers. It is a
speech-system that has been formed to provide a means of
communication between people who have no common language.
When a pidgin (English, French, or Portuguese) becomes the
principal language of a speech community- as on the slave ships- it
evolves into a creole.
African Slavery
Imagine two slaves who have met on a ship.
The children of these pidgin-speaking slaves,
who have been brought up to speak their
parents pidgin as a native language, then
develop it into a CREOLE. The word creole
seems to have come from the Portuguese
crioulo, meaning a slave born in a masters
household, a house Slave.
African Slaves did not receive any type of
formal eduaction
6,000 Africanisms
Negrodialect
KU-KUX-KLAN
The Blacks inspiration: Jazz, Blues, Rock & Roll
After being released the African slaves moved towards
the Mississippi northern direction. They hit Chicago and
other parts of the north and eventually spreaded their
music throughout the rest of the United States (1880).
The music was their way of expressing their emotions.
BLUES (sadness), ROCK & ROLL (sexual connotation):
angel-food cake, cookie, jelly, honey.
CONTRAST WORDS acquired a new meaning: BAD= good,
get busted, heavy =
serious, Groovie, chill-out,
chick, cool, funky
TO TAKE THE RAP: BLAME
Civil Rights Movement
Black History, Black English, Black
Studies, Black English Vernacular,
BROTHER, SOUL, Blood brother,
EBONICS
CIVIL RIGHT and BLACK
POWER became new
concepts that appeared to
stay
Bob Marley: Bufalo Solder
7 Pioneers! O Pioneers!
Independece of the United States
Spanish and French Territories
First American English Reform
First American Dictionary:
Am-COLOR/Br- Colour
Am-wagon/Br-waggon, Am-fiber/Br-fibre,
American Literature: Mark Twain,
The Last of the Mohicans
GO WEST- to die (like the sun- to
dissapear). OK- zero death
Mici sibi (big river) chippewa
POKER game FRENCH- poque
YOU BET, BLUFFING (impress)
hit the jack pot, loaded dice,
play a wild card, cocktail, saloon
COWBOY, indian,
mexican, bronco,
chaps, pinto, poncho,
ranch, lassoo, rodeo,
mustang, stampede,
long time no see, to
beat the dust, iron
horse, tomato.
Massive Immigration fromEurope to America
IMMIGRANT is an american word coined in 1789. ENGLISH, IRISH
(Guinness), GERMANS (ecology-okilogie, cookbook-kochbuch,
frankfurters became hotdogs) , HUNGARIANS,
ITALIANS (pizza, pasta, lasagna, spaguetti,expresso, minestrone,
paremsan, vermicelli, macaroni, ravioli, broccoli, zucchini,
godfather, the family, capo, mafia) , RUSSIANS, JEWISH (Yiddish,
schmuck, to get lost, bagles ), DANISH (delicatessen)
to do dirty job, loan shark, camouflage, sabotage, digging in,
no mans land. AMERICA HAVE BECOME: THE WORLD POWER
Am-elevator/Br-lift, Am-garbage/Br-rubbish, Am-elevator/Br-lift
Am-sidewalk/Br-pavement, Am-Vacation/Br-Holiday.