Exercises
History of English
The
English language we speak today went through three stages
called Old English, Middle English and Modern English. But
ages before even Old English came into being, many other languages
had to arise and develop. The oldest of these, as far as we
know, was the Indo-European family of languages, which were
beginning to be spoken clear back during the Stone Age. During
the Stone Age, some Indo-European people lived on the islands
of Britain.
The earliest known of these British Indo-Europeans
split into two groups called the Scots and the Celts. There
was another group, who were not Indo-European, called Picts.
Together these three peoples are known as Britons. The Britons
were a fierce, Stone Age people constantly making war on each
other. They dressed in animal skins, lived in caves or rude
wooden huts. These people had their own languages.
At the same time that the Stone Age Britons
were living their warlike life, the Greeks, far to the east
of them, were building a great civilization in Europe. Many
of our ideas of art, literature, science, philosophy and government
today come from the genius of these ancient people. As the
Greek civilization reached a high point, another great civilization
was being built in Italy by the Romans, whose language was
Latin. When the Romans conquered Greece and made it part of
their empire, they found a culture much older and far superior
to their own. So they borrowed it.
After conquering all of Europe, Rome invaded
Britain and made it part of the empire, in AD 43. Romans brought
their advanced culture to the Britons. Not only did they bring
their art, literature, law and the Latin language, they established
schools, built buildings and roads and provided an army to
protect themselves against invaders.
Meanwhile, the Germanic peoples of northern
Europe, known as "Norsemen" or "Northmen," were developing
another, separate European culture. Some groups of Norsemen
came to be known as Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Goths. They
were warriors, but also sailors and traders. In very early
times the Angles and Saxons began to trade with the Celts
in England. This was probably the first time the Britons came
into contact with other peoples.
During the four hundred years Britain was
part of the Roman Empire, Rome was getting weaker and weaker,
and the Norsemen were getting stronger and stronger. Finally
they thundered through the Roman defenses along the northern
boundaries of the empire. In addition to the attack from the
north, Rome was invaded from the east by Mongols, from the
south by the Moslems. Being attacked on all sides, Rome had
to call back her armies to protect what was left of the empire.
By AD 409, Rome had lost all control of Britain.
As soon as the Roman armies pulled out of
Britain, the Picts and Scots began to destroy the Celts. The
Celts turned for help to the Angles and Saxons across the
sea in Sweden and Denmark. The latter were quick to respond,
because they loved war. They saved the Celts; they also destroyed
practically all the culture which had been brought by the
Romans: literature, sculpture, schools and roads. The Germanic
languages of the Angles and Saxons combined to become Anglo-Saxon.
Since the Angles and Saxons had become the power in England,
the Anglo-Saxon language became the very early beginning of
English.
While the Anglo-Saxons were establishing their
power in England and making their language the main language
of that country, the Roman Empire was sinking deeper and deeper
into trouble. By AD 476 the western empire had ceased to exist.
And since the Germanic peoples had no interest in preserving
Roman culture, it just died. The Church was all that was left
of Roman civilization. But Latin survived as the language
of churchmen and the wealthy, educated classes, and was to
have a profound effect on the development of the languages
of southern Europe and England.
Gradually, between the sixth and eleventh
centuries, the feudal estates of Europe grew into powerful
kingdoms. Of these, the French kingdom of Normandy became
very important to the development of English.
The various peoples in England were coming
together as a nation also, under the rule of more powerful
kings such as Alfred the Great, who ruled between 871 and
899. Alfred was not only an efficient ruler and a great defender
of his people, he was also an eager scholar. He was able to
preserve some of the learning which had been left behind when
the Romans left England. In Anglo-Saxon he began a detailed
diary of events in his own time known as The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Although Alfred encouraged reading and writing in Anglo-Saxon
as well as in Latin, most works continued to be written in
Latin.
Alfred's efforts to unify England and establish
a national language apart from Latin were interrupted by an
invasion of yet another group of Norsemen, the Vikings. The
Vikings who invaded England were called Danes, and those who
invaded France were known as the Normans.
Gradually, as all invaders do eventually,
the Danes settled down and became peaceful farmers. Their
language mixed with Anglo-Saxon and became what we know as
Old English. Old English was established as the language of
the land by the tenth century. For the next hundred years
or so after the Danish invasions, the English people lived
in peace. If they had continued that way the English language
today might be quite different from what it is; it would be
something similar to Dutch, Danish and German. But about nine
hundred years ago, England was invaded again, and another,
very different language was brought to the country. When this
language arrived, English moved away from Danish and Anglo-Saxon
and passed from Old English into Middle English.
The new foreign language which was to have
such an important influence on the development of Middle English
was French. In 1066, the Norman French people invaded England.
The invasion is known as the Norman Conquest, and it is very
important for two reasons. First, it was the last time England
was ever to be invaded. Second, Old French became as important
an influence as Danish and Anglo-Saxon to the development
of English as it is today.
The Normans brought their law, customs and
literature to England. Since there was still so much Latin
in their own language, Latin again began to have an influence
on English. But this time, the English people did not allow
their language to be swallowed up by a foreign language in
the way their Celtic and early Anglo-Saxon ancestors had.
Although the invading Norman French became the rulers of the
land, and French became the language of government and law
in England, the English people stubbornly refused to give
up their own language. English remained the spoken language
of the people. And when they did accept French words, they
mispronounced them so badly that no one could recognize them
as French.
So,
for a time, England was a land where there were two languages─the French of the ruling class, and the Anglo-Saxon, or
Old English, of the servant class, the English people.
Smart people of both classes learned both languages, and eventually
the two languages came together to form what we know today
as Middle English. Middle English was neither French nor Anglo-Saxon;
it was a completely different language combined of both. The
change from Old English to Middle English took place gradually
over a period of about three hundred years.
Middle English was a very disorganized language.
But in Europe and in the Middle East, many changes were taking
place which would have an important effect on the future of
the English language. Let's look back for a moment to see
what these changes were.
As western Europe split into feudal estates
the Moslems of the Middle East were pushing farther west and
threatening the Christian rulers of the eastern empire. In
638 the Moslems had captured Jerusalem. European kings wanted
it back, because they felt it belonged to Christians. They
broke through the Moslem defenses and began a long series
of wars called the Crusades. For two hundred years, from 1095 to 1291, European
Christians joined forces with Middle Eastern Christians against
the Moslems.
Europe lost the wars of the Crusades. But the Crusades
had brought the Europeans back into contact with the superior
ancient Greek and Roman cultures, and those cultures had been
enriched by the Moslem's advance knowledge of mathematics, astronomy,
geography and medicine.
This renewed contact with all the knowledge
marks the beginning of a period in Europe known as the Renaissance,
which means "re-birth of learning." The lost works of ancient
Greek and Roman writers were rediscovered in Europe, inspiring
countless new works of literature, art and science. The Renaissance
began in Italy, but eventually the new learning spread north,
to France, Germany and England.
Geoffrey Chaucer was born some hundred years
after the last war of the Crusades, in the early part of the
Renaissance. About one hundred fifty years after Chaucer's
death William Shakespeare was born in the last part of the
Renaissance. During
the lifetimes of these two great writers and over all the
years between, the English language was sorting itself out
from the chaos of Middle English. By the time of
Shakespeare's death in 1616, the English history and language
had entered the modern period.
The English of Shakespeare's time is considered
modern English because, except for some different spellings
and a few words we no longer use, the language is quite similar
to the English we speak today. Many of the old sayings we
use every day come right out of Shakespeare's writings. When
we think something is unimportant we "laugh it off." Describing
something which is strong and in good condition, we say it
is "sound as a bell." When we are disgusted with something,
we say it is "lousy." If you know or use these expressions
you are quoting Shakespeare.
After Shakespeare's time English was to change
a great deal more, but the changes were gradual. The changes
came as a result of the growth of the English Empire, advancements
in
transportation and communication and a continuing contact
between English-speaking peoples
and peoples from all parts of the
world.
Between the sixteenth
and nineteenth centuries England built an empire which included
north America, some Caribbean islands, Australia, New Zealand,
parts of Asia and parts of Africa. About nine or ten years
before Shakespeare's death, England had established her first
American colony, Virginia. Three hundred years later, England
no longer had an empire, but the lands which she had conquered
still spoke the English language. Today, English is the native
or official language of not only the United States but also
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Kenya, South Africa,
Trinidad, Jamaica and more─lands on every continent of this
planet.
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