An Interesting Thing That Teachers Never Tell You- The History of English (Part two: Ending? Never)
In part one, I have talked about part of English history (from the first century to 410 AD). Now, I will discuss the entire history with you.
During the Scandinavian Viking invasion (the 9th century), old Norse was spread in England. Words such as “drag”, “ransack”, “thrust”, “die”, “give” as well as “take” were invented. At the end of the 9th century, only Wessex remained independent from Vikings. King Alfred the Great (848-899), a king of Wessex/Anglo Saxons was a great military leader and scholar who promoted the translation of Latin works into the vernacular (Old English) to encourage literacy. As for the rest of England, people spoke between English and Danes, which became known as the Danelaw.
In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded Britain (The Norman Conquest) and brought with him French words to add to the English Language. French became used for “all official business” (i.e. the language of prestige, law and religion up until the 14th century). Some words are still remaining in English. They are “judge”, “jury”, “evidence” and “justice”. In that period, Latin was still used in church. People spoke English (old English) words for animals from English-speaking farmers. About 10,000 words were absorbed from French marking the beginnings of Middle English. Here are some examples: “beef (cow)”, “mutton (sheep)” and “pork”(swine).
From 1337 to 1453, England was at war with France. The was a hundred year’s war. After that, English took over as the language of power. English evolved from contact between these languages. Today, English is continuously evolving.
In conclusion, English developed from complex patterns of contact between speakers of different languages. From the earliest times, English has varied in response to historical events and social change. Next time, when you are blamed that you did not speak “proper English’, you should ask those people a question: how to define “proper English”? If you look at the history of English, there is no “proper English” because English is everchanging in the world!
Reference:
Viney, B. (2008). The history of the English language (Oxford bookworms library. Factfiles. Stage 4). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
The City University of Hong Kong-English on the Move (Course code: EN2011) Week two power point