History of English
Language is a medium of communication among people and it developed gradually over the period of time. In terms of English language it also florist gradually over the period of time and several factors such as geographical, historical, social diversities are responsible for the development of the English language.
Albeit it seems easy defining the term English in English studies but it poses several challenges. English does not refer to the England merely which is the part of United Kingdom of Great Britain and northern Ireland rather it refers to the English language. But which English language because it has multiple varieties such as geographical social and media diversity. To understand the English language we have to take into consideration these diversities.
Geographical diversities
1. National varieties such as American English, British English Caribbean English Indian English Singaporean English etc which compete in terms of their standard. R.p is considered a correct pronunciation of the word.
2. Regional varieties differentiate in terms of their pronunciation accent use of vocabulary and dialect as well as use of grammar.
3. Creoles it has all features of the native language and . It functions as a native language. As well as it has its own native speakers.
4. Pidgin it is a kind of secondary supporting language which has no native speakers.
Middle English -
It is dated from 1066 when the norman invaded from Normandy William the conquest took the Throne of England. It was the time when the Indo European languages such as French has been spoken widely. Around Ten thousands norman words have been taken into English language which start with the suffixes eg tion, ance, ence, ty, ment, ant, ent, etc
And prefixes eg co, pre etc.
Anglo saxon words for cow Ox ship swine, calf etc live or raw animal are anglo Saxon words where as beaf, veal, pork etc are french words for cooked animals.
French language is adopted by normans extensively, which was considered so called Romance language that was usually derived from latin not from the Germany which was the branch of Indo European languages. Not a single norse word survived in Normandy however other Romans spoke rural dialect of French with considerable Germanic influence usually called Anglo Norman or norman French . Which was quite different from the standard French of Paris of the French.
Arrival of the King Henry IV in 1399 English became the mother tongue of England, anglo norman world used to verbal languages such as Court administration culture, though Latin words used 4 written purposes such as Church and official records.
Majority of the population in estimated around 95% started to speak English language. Normans considered English as a low class languages where is French and Latin for the upper class or Elite class languages. Does two languages emerged and developed parallel gradually merging as norman and anglo saxon begin to interlinked or intermarry . The mixture of these two languages old English and Anglo Norman usually refers to the middle English.
Geoffrey chaucer played a significant role in the development of the English language. His book Canterbury Tales written around 1380 written in English language when the Latin and French words were dominating the society and influencing the people. He had contributed around two thousands vocabularies mostly from french in origin ,eg difficulty, significant, dishonest, ignorant etc
He had used much more old vocabulary and he also he used the word which had been falling out from the favor, eg churlish, farting, friendly, learning, loving, restless bhai feeling willingly etc.
List of words which occured first time eg absent,, accident, Add, agri, border box, desk desperate, envy, digestion, obscure observe, perpendicular, princess, Caesar, session, theatre,, Galaxy, Horizon,, wildly, etc.
This is the face of continuous Changing of the language all this time. Even day single authors used to right different spelling of the word in there different manuscript, chaucer also Incorporated a single word in different ways which was quietly visible, different spelling in a single manuscript differently, eg yeer, yere doughtren And doughtres etc.
Apart from chaucer William langland also Road in English language named Pears plowman, the anonymous; sir gawain, in 1384 John wycliffe produced t translation of the Bible. However that Church has banned this Bible because it was written in the Vernacular English language where the Latin was considered the godly language. Still unofficially it was circulated in the society, around 1000 words has been incorporated in the English language from Latin via french such As, Barbarian birthday,, childbearing, canopy, communication , crime,, dishonour, envy, Glory, humanity, nobility, justice, Madness, multitude,, zeal, etc. Wyclif's translation of Bible was nevertheless considered the landmark of the English language.
Early modern English
Early modern English is dated from 1500 ad to 1800 ad. This was the time when English florished on its real form along with latin and french. Latin was considered the language for learnings. The main distinction between middle English to modern English is great vowel shift, which started from middle English and continued till 1700. Long bowel but pronounced longer and short vowel are pronounced shorter. Long vowels word pronounced from front of the mouth. Like sheep, like etc
Words like H, c, k have been removed from English vocabulary, like knight became night, , walk, talk, history , lock, folk etc have been k, l, h etc sound were silent.
The main purpose of the great vowel shift is quite debatable till now but it can be said that it occured in order to distinct itself from the other Romance languages such as French Latin Spanish etc.
Invention of printing press
Printing press is considered one of the World's great technological invention and it played a significant role in the development of the English language. Almost ten thousands to twelve thousands words have been incorporated in the English language due to printing press. Around twenty thousands books have been printed in around one hundred fifty years . Firstly printing press was invented in Germany bye guttenberg but later on it had been travelled to England by William caxton, who published his first book translated from latin language named "rucuyell of history of Troy". It also played a many mental role for the universality of the spellings.
Renaissance contribution in English language
It started from fifteen century and continued its impact till meet 17th century. Renaissance is considered the revival of the art and humanity. Literature and music was dominated during this age. The major impact of Renaissance was religious consciousness and spirit for enquiry increased. People started to Quest about the things and became reasonable. .
Shakespeare, the renowned figure of The Renaissance contributed alone in the English vocabulary , he himself used around thirty five thousands words and around two thousands new words have been coined by Shakespeare. He used now as a verb, work as a adjective, he used prefix and suffixes for the creation of the new words.
Coming of the dictionary
Samuel Johnson has come up with the dictionary of English in 1755. Which has been greatly impacted the English language in terms of vocabulary pronunciation as well as spellings. Before the coming of the dictionary there were a number of spelling had been circulated in the society. But after its compilation uniformity of spelling came into existence.
Translate
translation of Bible
Earlier the Bible was translated by wycliff later on it had been translated by tyndele which was executed by the king because of that time the church was dominating the society and due to the translation it made people aware of the religion , so he had been assassinated. In 1611 James first translated Bible into English language because of that there are innumerable words have been found, as well as phrases like, God created Heaven in the earth, root of the matter, B horribly terrified, turn the world upside down etc.
Coming of the English grammar
In addition to English dictionaries several grammars started to appeared in 18th century. The most influential grammar book was considered Robert lowth's gay short introduction to English grammar published in 1762. And lindley Murray's English grammar in 1794. Distance from Kudi grammar it clarify to correct use the way of English, and not to use preposition at the end of the sentence. The first newspaper was published in 1622 named courante. London gadget it was published in 1665. time of London was published in 1790 during that time of influential periodicals the tatler and the spectator, which established the style of English.
1602 1800 what is considered the golden age of the English language. During this period of early modern English in 1650 around ten thousands words have been added in the English vocabulary . During this period all scholarly articles were published in either latin or French. Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas more etc used to publish their articles in Latin. Francis Bacon firstly published his writings in Latin and after that in English. He has coined the terms like thermometer pneumonia encyclopaedia etc.
International trade
In 16th and 17th century international trade was started by Britain throughout the world . In order to trade marketing there were several foreign words were taken into English language such french word bizzare, position, chocolate, congrats, comrades. Etc.
Establishment of schools and institution
Establishment of the school and institution played a significant role in the standardization of the English language through these institution the main received pronunciation of the word are to be spoken out by the people. .
The distinction between early modern English and let modern English or simply modern English is sometimes refered to lies in its vocabularies pronunciation grammar and spelling remained rather unchanged. Let modern English accumulated many more words which was result of to measure historical factor such as industrial revolution which necessitated several words for things and ideas that had not previously existed. And second was growing of the British Empire which adopted several foreign words and made it own.
Industrial revolution
The most of the innovation and invention of 18th and 19th century were British origin. Late 18th century and 90th century scientific and technological output were written in English. Various development of Technology and equipment as well as manufacturing industry as well as new means of transportation eg steamship Railway etc.
There are a number of words has been added to English eg camera refrigerator photography typewriter .
Words from medical field alsojoined in english eg conjunctivitis cancer, insulin, aspirin.
What's
British Empire or colonization
Since Britain has started its colonization from 16th century but it reached to the its apex in 18th century to early 20th century. This was the time when the English became the language of power it was dominating all over the world. In other words English became the language of the world.. Britain was drooling organised the almost one fourth of the world from Canada to Australia India to Singapore Egypt to South Africa.
Colonies were happy to learn English language in order to get profit from British industry and Technology advancements. They were numerous words have been adopted by British and they made them own. Some Australian words like Kangaroo as well as some Indian words such as pajamas, bunglo, loot, jungle, shampoo etc.
Due to the colonization over the period of time English became the language of the world and later on it was divided into several new English such as American English Caribbean English Singaporean English British English Indian English.
Conclusion
Through the history of English language it can be drawn that English is one of the language originated from every part of the world through different periods and different languages. It's the inventions contributed over the period of time to flourish the English language and it continued. in order to expand the English language everything like books translation grammar school business inventions have contributed and now the English language became the global language and it has several parts such as English as a foreign language English as a secondary language and English as a native language. And the basic nature of the English is to evolve and it continues to evolve every year.
