History of English Language

1. History of English Language NOTES! KHB 2011-2012

2. Timelines • Task • Create two journal entries: • “Pre-English Timeline” • “Old English Timeline” • Tape the two timelines into your journals on the two separate pages (30 seconds) • Highlight important/surprising information on the timeline (2 minutes) • “Popcorn” your interesting selections (3 minutes) • Write a short summary of OE major events

3. Where are the roots of English?World Map Europe

4. Where are the roots of English?Map of Europe

5. Journal: “Old English Notes” • Angles • named from Engle, their land of origin; • language was called Englisc • Saxons • Jutes • Frissians Scotland Pictland Ireland Denmark Celts Wales Celts England Germany (Low German) • Northumbrian in Northumbria, north of the Humber River • Mercian in the Kingdom of Mercia • West Saxon in the Kingdom of Wessex • Kentish in Kent Inhabitants of Britain before 5th Century AD spoke a Celtic language 4 Germanic tribes arrive during the 5th Century AD, who crossed North Sea from present day Denmark and northern Germany. Celtic speakers pushed into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland, & Brittany Coast of France (descendants speak Celtic Language of Breton) An Anglo-Saxon inscription dated between 450 and 480 AD is the oldest sample of the English language. During the next few centuries four dialects of English developed During 7th & 8th Centuries, Northumbria's culture & language dominated

6. Journal: “Old English Notes” (cont) • Viking invasions of the 9th Century brought Northumbria’s domination to an end and destroyed Mercia); Wessex remained as independent kingdom. • By 10th Century, the West Saxon dialect is official language of Britain. • Old English was written in a Runic alphabet, derived from Scandinavian languages. • The Latin Alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries (via Rome) • Vocabulary of Old English consisted of: • Anglo-Saxon grammatical base • Celtic place & river names • (Devon, Dover, Kent, Trent, Severn, Avon, Thames) • Borrowed words from: • Danish • Norse (ex: sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window husband, fellow, skill, anger, flat, odd, ugly, get, give, take, raise, call, die, they, their, them) • Latin (ex: street, kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, martyr, candle)

7. This is what old English writing looks like. Many of the letters are familiar, but some of them are from a Runic alphabet. Most of the words are unfamiliar, but occasionally you will see one you know:

8. Old English Alphabet cat sound the sound w sound that sound • Notice there is no j, q, v, or z • There are four different letters:

9. Journal: “Old English Remnants” • What remains in Late Modern English: • Place Names • Prepositions (connecting words) and some adverbs • Common verbs (to be) • Common nouns and pronouns • “Basic” words

10. Listen to Middle English Prologue to The Canterbury Tales http://librivox.org/the-canterbury-tales-by-geoffrey-chaucer/ What do you notice about how this version of English sounds?

11. Journal: “Middle English Timeline” • Task • Tape the Middle English timeline into your journals (30 seconds) • Highlight important/surprising information on the timeline (2 minutes) • Report out your interesting selection and then pass Perry to your classmate! (3 minutes)

12. Journal: “Middle English Notes” • Task: • Make a 2-page journal entry for the notes printouts • Tape in the handout that says “1066-1204…” and “1204-1348” on the first page • Tape in the handout that says “1348-1509” and “Middle English Characteristics” on the second page • TIME: 30 seconds… get ready to take notes! 

13. 1066-1204 English Goes “Underground” French conquest and unification of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror (Bayeux Tapestry tells the story) Norman = North-man, descendants of Danes, spoke French influenced by Germanic dialect Frenchmen in all high offices Anglo Saxon Chronicle written until 1154 Imposition of feudal system, peasants bound to the land (they can’t travel with their language to spread it!) During this time, kings of England spoke French & lived mostly in France English was not the prestigious/academic language Latin was language of the Church and law documents Scandinavian still spoken in the Danelaw (Northern England) Celtic languages prevailed in Wales and Scotland Peasants and their immediate reports spoke English French was the language of the Norman aristocracy & added more vocabulary (:56-end) Norman officials became bilingual (Norman French and English) Very little written English from this period

14. 1204-1348 English Gains Power Some Norman landholders choose to stay in England and speak Anglo-French dialect Barons revolt against King John, Magna Carta (1215), origins and development of Parliament (rise of English nationalism!) French cultural dominance declines Rise in use of English, smoothing out dialectal differences, beginning of standard English based on London dialect Crusades &pilgrimages caused increase in communication & formation of common language

15. 1348-1509 English Wins!(Middle English Subperiod 3) In 1399, King Henry IV became the FIRST king who was a native speaker of English since the Norman Conquest Mid to late 14th century, English becomes academic language (language of schools) In 1362 English became official language of legal proceedings (Statute of Pleading); everyone in England spoke English by end of 14th century Increase in English writing, more common in legal documents than French or Latin 15th century Henry V (VIDEO) (:50-end) Printers' activity increased literacy (William Caxton) Black Death 1348-1351-> rise in prestige of English death of one third of English population social chaos labor shortages emancipation of peasants, wage increases Chaucer wrote in Middle English

16. Middle English Characteristics Latin Derivatives French (Norman) Derivatives • Characteristics of Middle English • loss of inflections • Word order in sentences begin to matter • loss of feminine/masculine nouns • more phonetic spelling • final -e pronounced, as well as all consonants • Germanic form of plurals (house, housen; shoe, shoen) was replaced by French method: adding an s (house, houses; shoe, shoes). • Some words retained their Germanic plurals: men, oxen, feet, teeth, children. • Spelling was affected i.e. cween became queen • “Status” of words • Example: “meat” English (German) Derivatives

17. Great Vowel Shift changed the Pronunciation of the vowels (about 1550) Example: short “i” / long “i” 1509 begins during the reign of Henry VIII, end of Middle English period “th” of some verb forms became “s” (loveth, loves: hath, has). Auxiliary verbs changed Vocabulary of English Language from multiple languages (CLICK!) Remaining historical influences in place names & derivations Shakespeare recorded/ coined countless words Borrowed words making up vocabulary languages borrowed from include is the largest of any language. Heart of the language remains the Anglo-Saxon of Old English (CLICK!) Notes: “Early and Late Modern English” Latin Greek French German Arabic Hindi (from India) Italian Malay Dutch Farsi (Persian) Nahuatl (Mexico) Sanskrit Portuguese Spanish Tupi (Brazil) Ewe (African lang) • household words • parts of the body • common animals • natural elements • most pronouns • Prepositions • conjunctions and auxiliary verbs

18. Early Modern English vs Late Modern English • EModEng did not have uniformity in spelling • Samuel Johnson's dictionary, published in 1755 influential in establishing a standard form of spelling. (England) • Noah Webster did the same in America, publishing his dictionary in 1828 • Late Modern English came to use a purely Latin alphabet of 26 letters • The letter “thorn” fell into disuse • “I” and “J” were distinguished from one another • Grammar Changes: • Thou/Ye disappears • LateModEng requires the use auxiliary verbs in questions: DID you go to the mall? • Literacy: • Public education increased literacy • More access to books (and to standard language) with the spread of public libraries

19. Early Modern English vs Late Modern English • Vocabulary additions (19th century): • Increased trade, settlement, migration to the US • Contact with other cultures • World War I and World War II (1910’s & 1940’s) • threw together people • greater social mobility afterwards • helped to lessen the differences between social accents, (particularly in UK). • development of radio broadcasting in the early 20th century familiarized the population with accents and vocabulary from outside their own localities, continuing with film and television. • The English language is STILL changing • Technology/Internet • WHO KNOWS!?