The History of English

1. The History of English Why our language is so hard to learn

2. Where do languages come from? • We never ask ourselves this question. They just seem to be there: French in France, English in England, Chinese in China, Japanese in Japan, and so forth. Yet if we go back only a few thousand years, none of these languages were spoken in their respective countries and indeed none of these languages existed anywhere in the world. So where did they all come from?

3. Think of language like a family tree

4. Overview of dates • Celts – up to 55 B.C. • Roman Conquest – 55 B.C. – 407 A.D. • Anglo-Saxon Period – 407 A.D. – 787 A.D. • Viking Invasions – 787 A.D. – 1066 A.D. • Norman Conquest begins 1066 A.D. • Middle English – 1100 - 1500

5. Cuneiform • Earliest form of writing • Based on pictograms to relay information about crops and taxes

6. Rosetta Stone • Slab of stone with 3 forms of writing

7. Rosetta Stone Cont. • Jean Champolion spent 22 years solving the stone • Finally solved it by comparing the language to Greek

8. Pre-Old English • The Roman Occupation

9. The Roman Occupation • Julius Caesar begins invasion in 55 B.C. • Completed in 1st century A.D. • Latin starts to influence English • Christianity starts to replace paganism

10. The 5th Century

11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQVyol7N1Jo

12. What happened to the Celts? • These invaders pushed the original, Celtic-speaking inhabitants out of what is now England into Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. Though some Celtish words survive today, it is considered a dead language.

13. 6th Century • Then Christian missionaries arrived in England and brought Latin with them

14. 9th Century

15. But in the 11th Century… • The Norman Conquest of Britain brought foreign rulers whose native language was French and this changed everything

16. For 300 Years…

17. Middle English 100-1500

18. The Canterbury Tales

19. The Great Vowel Shift Change of pronunciation that began around 1400 This is what separates Middle English from Modern English

20. Early Modern English The Renaissance brought the revival of classical scholarship and brought many classical Latin and Greek words into the language. This is Shakespeare’s language We can thank him for some 2,000 words and idioms Some of his sayings include: “one fell swoop,” “vanish into thin air,” and “flesh and blood”

21. The Printing Press The last major factor in the development of Modern English was the printing press William Caxton brought it to England in 1476 This allowed books to become affordable and literacy rates to increase It also standardized English

22. Prayer through the ages