MASTERS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 1ST CEB

WRITTEN ENGLISH

WORKSHEET ON THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH

The History of the English Language in 10 minutes

Try to recall the information you heard and answer or complete the sentences below:

a) Why do you think the narrator asks whatever happened to the Jutes?
b) Which days were named after the Anglo-Saxon gods? Why not the remaining
days?
c) Latin was said to be used ad nauseam at church after the Norman Conquest of
1066. Why is that?
d) There were several doublets in Middle English due to the coexistence of
Norman French and English. Can you give examples?
e) How long did the Hundred Years War last?
f) Complete the following Shakespeares catch phrases: flesh ________________;
out of our _________________; ___________ the ice; dead as _____________.
g) What was cross-dressing at the time of Shakespeare?
h) Besides being a poet and dramaturge, what else did Shakespeare do?
i) King James Bible brought numerous metaphors and language of morality.
Complete the expressions that follow: ______________ that be; labour
_____________; got the _____________; all things to _____________; went
from strength _______________; salt of ______________; a leopard cant
___________________; a bird is _________________; a wolf in
_________________; a fly in _____________________.
j) Science was produced in Latin, until the 16th century. The story of gravity was
being told for the _____________ time, using ____________ for apple,
______________ for tree and ______________ for earth.
k) Scientists became aware of their body and came up with words, such as ______
l) What does take it on tour mean?
m) English took the words _____________________________ from the Caribbean,
_____________________ from India; ____________________ from Africa and
_________________________ from Australia.
n) What is the name given to the people who make dictionaries?
o) Dr. ______________s dictionary came up with pickleherring, jobbernaul and
fopdoodle. What do you think they mean?
p) The idea that you can stop people from making up new words is complete
__________________.
q) After the English settled in America, the Dutch came and brought the word
_____________, then the German with ___________________________ and
the Italian with _________________________________________.
r) The expressions break __________, __________ line, ______________ collar
and _______________ collar workers, subways and motorways, parking
_____________, merger and downsizing are example of English as a
_________________ language.
s) American English maintains old words that the British have stopped using, such
as _______________, ______________, ______________ and _____________
for ______________, ______________, ______________ and _____________.