Modern English, a global language spoken around the world by over 2 billion people can trace its roots to the Germanic language introduced by Anglo-Saxon invaders in the 5th century. Before the arrival of the Anglo Saxons, many parts of Britain were bilingual Celtic-Latin speakers, although very few traces of Celtic remain in the English language – other than in place names, for example Avon and Ouse – which derive from the Celtic word for ‘water’, and words found more in local dialects than mainstream English – for example ‘broc’ for badger.
The Germanic languages of the Anglo Saxons themselves evolved as a result of centuries of Roman occupation and interaction among different tribes. [1] Furthermore the invaders did not introduce a single language that can be referenced as ‘ground zero’ for English; rather they brought a mix of dialects that together form the basis of the language. Changes in lexis, orthography, semantics and syntax, the influence from other languages, and modifications in use have combined to produce a language that is, at first glance very different from its Germanic origins.
I intend considering the extent to which the English language has changed over the last 1500 years, with particular reference to these linguistic features Examining different versions of the same text highlights lexical changes over time. An Old English version of Genesis Ch3 v1[2] bears little resemblance to the modern version, we can pick out a few words – ‘God’, ‘wife’, ‘and’ – but otherwise the language looks completely alien.
The Term Paper on Translation Errors in the English Version of Tourism Publications
Although many tourism publications have English translations interspersed between passages of Chinese, the quality of these translated texts is not so satisfying. Some postgraduates are often engaged in translating Chinese into English; therefore, as an English teacher, the author thinks it is necessary to discuss the errors in these translation works so as to develop good English taste among ...
Similarly comparison of Old and Modern English versions of Caedmons’s Hymn[3] reveal few easily recognisable words a basic knowledge of German, would however offer a clue to others – for example ‘barnum’ meaning children. Loan words have come in use in English as a result of contact with other nations – through trade, invasion and colonialism. Many words of Norse origin made their way into common usage, and remain today.
These are often ‘everyday’ words – for example ‘husband’, ‘sky’, ‘egg’ which probably became established as a result of relationships between the Angles and the Danes. Following the Norman Conquest, many words were borrowed from French. These words tend to demonstrate the difference in status between the language of the conquerors, and that of the conquered. The English words that remain are those of the lower classes – in terms of clothing ‘shirt’ rather than ‘apparel’, for food ‘sheep’ compared to ‘mutton’.
In more modern times the interaction of English speakers with other languages, through first colonialism, and later the emergence of English as a global language has enriched the vocabulary (‘pyjama’) and led to the evolution of different versions of English around the world, for example the hybrid ‘Singlish’ that has emerged in Singapore. The integration of loan words into English were also a reflection of how the language was used; French was the language of court government and law, and many words used in these contexts are borrowed from French for example ‘accuse’ ‘justice’ and crime.
Returning to the Genesis texts, changes in the appearance of words (in particular the loss of some characters) underline that English today is very different from English 1500 years ago. The character ‘? ’ has been replaced by ‘y’, The character ‘? ’ has been replaced by the sound ‘th’ in that, o by the sound ‘th’ in thin and ‘? ’ is used for the short ‘a’ sound in ‘nap’. If we replace these characters with their modern equivalents, then alien looking Old English words become much more recognisable. For example – ‘? onne’ becomes ‘thonne’ much closer to the modern ‘than’ and – ‘?? ’ is ‘that’. There have also been changes in semantics. The word ‘wife’ though visually the same, has a much narrower meaning today. In Old English it was the term used for women in general, today it is specifically used to refer to a married woman. Other words have fallen out of common usage – ‘fell’ in Middle English means ‘cruel’. Although the word was still in use in Shakespeare’s time, it is no longer used in this sense today. Regional variations in spelling were probably a result of regional pronunciation differences.
The Term Paper on Weird English Words Facts
The oldest English words are about 14,000 years old that originate from pr-Indo-European language group called “Nostratic” which means “Our language”. Words that have survived from this language group in modern English include: Apple (Apal) Bad (Bad) Gold (Gol) Tin (Tin) The oldest words in the English language are around 14,000 years old, originating in a pre-Indo-European language group called ...
Although these differences continue today, many variations in written English were gradually eliminated through a process of standardisation. The end of the fourteenth century saw the first post conquest King of England whose first language was English[4] and it became the language of government. Official documents were written in English, and since these had to be understood throughout the country, the language used had to be consistent. The Westminster clerks who produced court documents used London English, and with this the number of variants in the language were significantly reduced.
Spelling variations decreased over time and the technology of printing introduced by William Caxton in 1486 would have had a marked impact on this process. The grammatical structure of the language has also changed. An early grammatical development was the introduction from the Scandinavian languages of third person plural pronouns – they, them their. The old English equivalents ‘hi’ and ‘hie’ were easily confused with the first person pronouns he heo and hi. This is a notable addition to standardised English that was adopted by the Westminster Clerks as part of the process of standardisation.
Old English retained the basic structure of the Germanic languages. The meaning of a sentence was expressed by changing word endings whereas in modern English it is expressed by changing word order. In modern English the normal word order is subject, verb, object – there is seldom any ambiguity in the meaning of the sentence. In old English ambiguity was avoided through the use of inflectional word endings – so that the subject had a subject ending, and the object had an object ending. This can be demonstrated from a translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The Essay on The English Language People Words Period
The English language is the language spoken by an estimated 300 million people as a first language in the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It has official status in over fifty countries, notably in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, and is the most widely used second language in the world. Germanic speakers began settling in England from northern Germany and southern ...
A direct translation ‘and when realised the king this, and he to the door went, and then bravely himself defended until he at the noblemen looked and then out rushed on him’ reads in modern English as ‘and when the king realised this he went to the door, and bravely defended himself until he noticed the nobleman; and then he rushed out at him. This inversion of word order continued through to the sixteenth century, but is rarely used in modern English. [5] In conclusion, while the English language is visually and structurally different from the language introduced by the Anglo-Saxons in the fifth entury; it retains recognisable elements that shape the modern language. Since languages continually evolve this process continues today through global interaction. This may lead in time to the fragmentation of the language so that there are multiple versions of ‘English’ possibly retaining a written ‘standard’ that is recognisable around the world.
