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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