4. Did you know that English is the most
widespread language in the world
and is more widely spoken and
written than any other language?
Did you know that over 400 million
people use the English vocabulary as
a mother tongue, only surpassed in
numbers, but not in distribution by
speakers of the many varieties of
Chinese?
Did you know???
5. Did you know that over 700 million people,
speak English, as a foreign language?
Did you know that three-quarters of the
world's mail, telexes, cables, and technical
and scientific journals are in English?
Did you know that the main language used
throughout the world on the internet is
English?
Did you know that English is the
language of navigation, aviation and
of Christianity?
Did you know???
6.
7. The earliest The Romans
colonized Latin became
inhabitants of the the prestige
British Isles are England under
Julius Caesar language of
the Britons who administration,
migrated from and kept it as a
colony until the education and
Europe sometime social life in
in the second half middle of 5th
century AD. Only England.
of the first
millennium B.C. Wales and North
These Britons are West Scotland
Celtic speakers. remained largely
unconquered.
8. The language spoken by the Britons has
The Celtic developed into:
Welsh- Wales
Element Gaelic- Scotland
Erse- Ireland
Breton- Brittany, France
• The influence of Celtic upon Old English was
slight. In fact, very few Celtic words have lived
on in the English language.
• The following words are survivals of the
British words and they have been imported
into English at a later date:
Brock= badger
Bannock= a loaf of bread
Bin= manger
Welsh: druid, flannel, gull, bard
Gaelic: cairn, clan, plaid, whisky
Irish: brogue, shamrock, galore
9. The Celtic
Element
The Anglo-
Saxon
Element
Around 430AD, the Celtic warlord
Vertigern invited the Jutish brothers
Hengest and Horsa (from Jutland) to
settle in Britain to form a bulwark against
sea raids.
10. Thr ee G m c Tr i bes:
er ani
A es- Schl esw g
ngl i
Saxons- H st ei n
ol
Jut es- Jut l and
11. The Coming of
Christianity
and Literacy
St. Augustine and his
40 missionaries from
Rome brought
Christianity to the
pagan Anglo-Saxons
of the rest of England
in 597 AD.
12. Priest Demon Angel Fork
Altar Disciple Verse Spade
Mass Hymn Baptism
School
Paradise Monk
Chorus Rose
Church Eucharist
Cleric Circle
Bishop Presbyter
Creed Pope Paper
Nun
Cross Spider
13. VERBS
The Celtic 1. Strong verbs are verbs that signal
Element change in tense through the change in the
root vowel of the word.
(drink, drank, drunk; run, ran; and
think, thought)
2. Weak verbs are those that signal the
The Anglo-
past tense with a suffix ending in -d or -ed.
Saxon Their vowel does not change.
Element (walk, walked; love, loved; care, cared)
3. Many strong verbs have been
changed, over time, into weak verbs. For
OE example, the word meaning to
Characteristics grow, wax, was once a strong verb; now
it’s just wax, waxed. Some verbs still
remain strong (shine, shone), but weak
14. Nouns
The Celtic 1. Moreover, like many other European
Element languages, OE had full grammatical gender:
nouns were masculine, feminine, or neuter.
Concept nouns (ending in “ness”) were
feminine.
Hand- Feminine
Fot (=foot)- Masculine
The Anglo- Heafod (=head)- Neuter
Saxon Wif (=wife)- Neuter
Element Wifman (=woman)- Masculine
Dag (=day)- Masculine
Niht (=night)- Feminine
2. OE often signaled the plural of nouns with
OE a final -s, as we still do today. But there were
Characteristics groups of nouns whose root vowel changed
between singular and plural. Thus, man,
men; foot, feet; mouse, mice, goose, geese.
15. The Celtic Consonant Clusters
Element
The consonant cluster
“sk” changed into “sh”
The Anglo- so that skield became
Saxon
Element shield.
OE disk became dish
Characteristics skip became ship
16. Old English Modern English
Oure fadir þat art in heuenes Our father which art in
halwid be þi name; heauen, hallowed be thy
þi reume or kyngdom come to name.
be. Be þi wille don in herþe as it Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
is dounin heuene. done in earth as it is in
yeue to us today oure eche
heauen.
dayes bred.
And foryeue to us oure dettis
Giue us this day our daily
þat is oure synnys as we bread.
foryeuen to oure dettouris þat is And forgiue us our debts as we
to men þat han synned in us. forgiue our debters.
And lede us not into temptacion And lead us not into
but delyuere us from euyl. temptation, but deliuer us
from euill. Amen.
18. The Danish The Danish/ Viking Element
Element
• Towards the close of the 8th
century, the Northmen or Danes
appeared, first as raiders, then as
conquerors and settlers. For a
time, they were held at bay by Alfred
and the country as divided into two:
Northern half or Danelaw- Danes
Southern half- Alfred
• But in 1016, after Alfred’s death, a
Danish King, Canute, became King of
all England as well as of Denmark and
Norway.
19. The Danish Element
The Danish
Element • Adjectives:
flat, happy, low, ugly, weak, wron
g
• Verb: want, call, cut, die, take
• Nouns:
leg, skin, skull, knife, sky, Thursday
• The Danish “are” replaced the AS
“sindon,” and “same” replaced
“thilke,” and it is because of the
Danes that today we say “eggs”
instead of “eyren,” and “window”
instead of “eye-thril.”
20. The Danish
Element
The Danish Element
ENGLISH DANISH
Shirt Skirt
No Nay
Drop Drip
Sit Seat
Rear Raise
From Fro
Blossom Bloom
21. D i d t h e N o r ma n s r e a l l y
c onque r Engl i s h?
For about 300 1362- Edward III
In 1066 William the years, two opened the 1415- Henry V
Conqueror, the parliament in
Duke of Normandy, languages are could not
being spoken English
invaded England.
Statute of Pleading
speak French.
The new conquerors side by side in
brought with them England. The enacted that Accordingly, “It
proceedings or law is easy for me
French, which official language courts should be in
became the was French and English because to conquer the
language of the English was “French has become kingdom as to
Royal Court, and the spoken by the much unknown in
ruling and business this realm.” speak so much
common people.
classes. more French.”
T h e N o r ma n
E l e me n t
22.
23. ME Characteristics
The Danish
Element
Sound Change
• OE began to lose some of the
characteristic consonant clusters that
gave it its distinctive sound.
• Certain OE words underwent a special
The Norman
Element
sound change called metathesis (eg.“aks”
for “ask”) During the late OE and early
ME period, certain words permanently
metathesized their sounds: brid > bird;
axian > ask; thurgh > through; beorht >
bright.
ME
Characteristics
24. VOCABULARY
The Danish Political terms: prince, sovereign, throne,
Element crown, royal, state, country, people, nation,
parliament, court, chancellor, minister,
council.
Chivalry and Refinement: honour, glory,
courteous, duty, polite, conscience, noble,
The Norman pity, cruel
Element Building and Architecture: arch, pillar,
palace, castle, tower
Warfare: war, peace, battle, armour, officer,
soldier, navy, captain, enemy, danger, march
Law: justice, judge, jury, court, crime, traitor,
ME assize, prison, tax, money, rent, property,
Characteristics injury
Religion: religion, service, saviour, prophet,
saint, sacrifice, miracle, preach, pray
25. VOCABULARY
The Danish
Element NORMAN ENGLISH
Castle, city Town, hamlet, house, home
Relations, ancestors, descendants Father, mother, sister, brother, son,
daughter
Pleasure, comfort, ease, delight Happiness, gladness, work
NORMAN ENGLISH
The Norman Fruit, flowers Sun, moon, wind, stars, evening
Element Beauty, design, ornament Grass, wheat, oats
Lowly English workers was a Men who came into contact
shoemaker, fisherman, with rulers are called tailors,
shepherd, miller, smith, baker barbers, painters, carpenters
ME Normans used chairs, tables, Englishmen had only the
Characteristics furniture humble stool
26. VOCABULARY
Normans eat dinner, feast, Englishmen had the simple
The Danish
Element supper at which food will breakfast
be boiled, fried, roasted
ENGLISH NORMAN
Ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, Beef, veal, mutton, pork,
deer bacon, venison
Saxon Origin French Origin
The Norman
Element Foe Enemy
Friendship Amity
Freedom Liberty
Unlikely Improbable
Homely Domesticated
Happiness Felicity
ME Fatherly Paternal
Characteristics
Motherhood Maternity
Bold Courageous
Love Charity
27. The Great Vowel Shift
F r o m Mi d d l e E n g l i s h
t o Mo d e r n E n g l i s h
28. What is the Great Vowel
Shift?
• The GVS was a systemic shift: that is, it was
a change in a system of pronunciation, not a
change in individual sounds.
• The GVS can be described in terms of
articulatory phonetics:
Front vowels were raised and fronted.
Back vowels were raised and retraced.
High vowels were made into
diphthongs.
29. What happened?
1. The high front vowels represented by the letters i and
u in ME became diphthongs: that is, they became
pronounced differently, each as a cluster of two sounds.
In early Modern English of the sixteenth century, words
like mice and mouse (in ME, pronounced “mees” and
“moose”) would have been pronounced “moice” and
“mohuse.” By the end of the seventeenth century, they
were pronounced “mah-ees” and “mah-oose” —very
close to our own pronunciations, which are diphthongs.
2. The mid vowels, in ME written as e and o, were
raised. Thus ME feet, pronounced “fate,” came to be
pronounced as Mod English “feet.” ME do, pronounced
“dough,” came to be pronounced as Mod English “do.”
30. What happened?
3. The low back vowel written in ME as a rose to fill the place
left by the older ME e. Thus, a word like name, pronounced in
ME as “nahme,” became pronounced “naim.”
4. Finally, the long, open o (pronounced like “aw”) was raised
to the long o. Thus, the ME word so, pronounced like “saw,”
came to be pronounced “so.”
Middle English Sounds like Modern
y,i "myne, sight" "meet"
e, ee "me, meet, mete" "beg"
(close e)
e "begge, rede" (open e) "bag"
a, aa "mate, maat" "father"
u, ou "hus, hous" "boot"
o, oo "bote, boot" (close o) "boat"
o "lof" /o (open o) "bought"
31. Why did it happened?
1. Migrations from the north and
the Midlands into London brought
speakers into contact.
2. This mix of dialects created
social pressures to develop or
select a set of pronunciations that
would have new social status or
prestige.
32.
33. What has been the effect of GVS?
• In educated and official writing, spelling was
old-fashioned: it was, in effect,
etymological. It did not reflect the newer
sounds of speech in the GVS.
• An added effect of this growing separation
was a change in how punctuation was used.
In the Middle Ages, punctuation was, in
essence, ear punctuation: It signals breaks
in reading aloud. By Caxton’s time,
punctuation was moving toward eye-
punctuation, which signals syntactic or
clausal units of a sentence.
35. Early Modern English
Early Modern
William Caxton establishes the first
English 1476
English printing press.
1564 Shakespeare is born.
Table Alphabetical, the first English
1604
dictionary, is published.
The first permanent English settlement
1607 in the New World (Jamestown) is
Late Modern established.
English 1616 Shakespeare dies.
Early Modern
1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published English
The first daily English-language
1702 newspaper, The Daily Courant, is
published in London.
Samuel Johnson publishes his English
1755
dictionary.
English
Thomas Jefferson writes the American
Today 1776
Declaration of Independence.
Britain abandons its American
1782
colonies.
36. Early Modern English
Early Modern By the time of Shakespeare (1592-1616),
English the language had become clearly
recognizable as Modern English. It was
during the English Renaissance that most
of the words from Greek and Latin entered
English. This period in English cultural
history is sometimes referred to as "the
age of Shakespeare" or "the Elizabethan
era", taking the name of the English
Renaissance's most famous author and
most important monarch, respectively.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I there
was an explosion of culture in the form of
support of the arts, popularization of the
printing press, and massive amounts of sea
travel.
37. Early Modern English
Early Modern
English
During the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I
there was an
explosion of culture
in the form of
support of the arts,
popularization of the
printing press, and
massive amounts of
sea travel.
38. Early Modern English
Early Modern Best foot forward Addiction
English
Brave new world Bedazzled
Break the ice Cold-blooded
Come what may Courtship
For goodness’ sake Design
Full Circle Engagement
Forever and a day Eyeball
Lie low Fashionable
Melted into thin air Gossip
Naked truth Shooting Star
Own flesh and blood Tardiness
39. Late Modern English
Early Modern
English • The main difference between Early
Modern English and Late Modern
English is vocabulary.
Late Modern
English
English
Today
40. Early Modern English
Early Modern There were three big developments in the
English world at the beginning of Modern English
period: the Industrial Revolution, and the
British Colonialism.
Late Modern
English
41. Early Modern
Late Modern English
• The industrial and scientific revolutions
English created a need for neologisms to describe
the new creations and discoveries. For this,
English relied heavily on Latin and Greek.
Words like oxygen, protein, nuclear, and
vaccine did not exist in the classical
Late Modern languages, but they were created from Latin
English and Greek roots.
• Such neologisms were not exclusively
created from classical roots though, English
roots were used for such terms as
horsepower, airplane, and typewriter. This
burst of neologisms continues today,
perhaps most visible in the field of
electronics and computers. Byte, cyber-,
bios, hard-drive, and microchip are good
examples.
42. Early Modern
Late Modern English
English Webster publishes his
1828 American English
dictionary. Late
The British Broadcasting Modern
1922
Late Modern Corporation is founded. English
English The Oxford English
1928
Dictionary is published.
43. English Today
Early Modern • Languages that have contributed words to
English English include Latin, Greek, French, German,
Arabic, Hindi (from India), Italian, Malay,
Dutch, Farsi (from Iran and Afghanistan),
Nahuatl (the Aztec language), Sanskrit (from
ancient India), Portuguese, Spanish, Tupi
(from South America) and Ewe (from Africa).
Late Modern
English • From around 1600, the English colonization of
North America resulted in the creation of a
distinct American variety of English. Some
English pronunciations and words "froze"
when they reached America.
English
• English has without a doubt become the
Today
global language.
44. Early Modern
English
Late Modern
English
English
Today English has without a doubt
become the global language.
