FREE ESSAY ON HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

History of English Language
As I stated previously in my Abstract, the title of my research paper is "History of the
English language". In this paper I will discuss where and how the English language
originated and how it has spread to become one of the most spoken languages in the world.
Before I started my research on my topic of choice, my original hypothesis was that the
English language was started by a whole assortment of Germanic tribes invading England
thousands of years ago. This ultimately became the goal of my paper, to see if Germanic
tribes started the English language, or if it was started from some other tribes that I
was not aware of.
The history of the English language is of significance because English is spoken more
frequently than any other language except Chinese, (Bright, 1992). A Germanic language,
English is spoken by an estimated 1,500,000,000 people, and that number is ever
increasing, (Crystal, 1992).
English is the chief language of world publishing, science and technology, conferencing,
and computer storage as well as the language of international air traffic control
(Crystal, 1992). English is also used for purposes of international communications, and
international politics, business communications, and academic communities (Crystal,
1992).
The history of English can be traced to the colonization of people from a family of
languages, which spread throughout Europe and southern Asia in the fourth millennium BC,
(Crystal, 1992). It is thought that a semi nomadic population living in the region to
north of the Black Sea moved west to Europe and east to Iran and India, spreading their
culture and languages (Crystal, 1992). The European languages and Sanskrit, the oldest
language of the Indian sub-continent, were tied to a common source. When a systematic
resemblance was discovered in both roots and verbs and in grammar forms, by comparing
similar features of the European languages and Sanskrit, a common source language were
reconstructed named Proto-Indo-European (Crystal, 1997).
The Proto-Indo-European language was more complex than English today. It is possible to
reconstruct three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and up to eight cases
(nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, locative, instrumental).
Adjectives agreed in case, number, and gender with the noun. The verb system was also
rich in inflections, used for aspect, mood, tense, voice, person, and number. Different
grammatical forms of a word were often related by the feature of ablaut, or vowel
graduation: the root vowel would change systematically to express such differences as
singular and plural or past and present tense, as is still the case in English foot/feet
or take/took (Crystal, 1997).
The Proto-Indo-European language is thought to have been spoken before 3,000 BC, and to
have split up into different languages during the following millennium (Crystal, 1997).
The languages families include Celtic, Germanic, Italic, Indo-Iranian, Tocharian,
Armenian, Anatolian, Albanian, Greek, Balto-Slavic, and Slavic languages. Yiddish,
German, Afrikaans, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and English make up the West Germanic
subgroup of the Germanic Branch (Crystal, 1997). 
Scholars renamed the language group the Indo-European family after 3,000 BC (Crystal,
1997). Theorists suggest that the horse was a major element of the Proto-Indo-European
and the Indo-European family of languages. They speculate that warriors who conquered
from horse-drawn chariots spread the culture. 
The Proto-Indo-European, the Indo-European, and specifically the Germanic language, of
which English is a derivative, influenced the early history of the English Language. The
early history of the English language began in Britain and with several groups of people.
At first people migrated to the placed now called England. Several invading groups joined
the original settlers of England, bringing with them their language and culture. English
became a mixture of languages that adapted to the circumstances and the needs of the
people. England eventually commanded an empire, thus, spreading the language around the
world. When the empire diminished the Americas continued to spread the English language
because of their political power and wealth. 
The Celts were the first Indo-European people to spread across Europe, (Crystal, 1997).
They emerged from south central Europe and spread throughout most of Europe, reaching the
Black Sea and Asia Minor. They migrated to southwest Spain, central Italy, and throughout
Britain in a series of wave-like migrations.
The first group of Celts went to Ireland in the 4th century and later reached Scotland
and the Isle of Man. The second group went into southern England and Wales, and later to
Brittany, producing a type of Celtic know as British. During the greatest days of the
Roman Empire, their law ruled all men from Britain to Egypt, from Spain to the Black Sea,
(Van Doren, 1992). 
Britain was acquired as a province of the Roman Empire during the 14 century, following
the death of Augustus. Words from Latin and Greek languages were adopted into the
language. The Greek alphabet, with a few minor changes, is used in the English language
today (Asher, 1994).
English became a distinct tongue about 449 AD when Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who spoke
Germanic dialects, arrived in Celtic-speaking Britain. Groups of Angles, Saxons, and
Jutes came to aid the Britons who were besieged by Picts and Scots after the Roman
military withdrew in 410 AD (Bright, 1992). English owes its origin to the Angles,
Saxons, and Jutes who crossed the sea and settled in Britain (Dalby, 1998). The
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms covered most of what is now England by around 600 AD. The West
Saxons were the most powerful of the new kingdoms, and the only one able to withstand the
Viking invasion in the 9th century AD. It was also in Wessex or the West Saxon kingdom
that a written language first flourished. The International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
divides the history of English into three periods: Old English, Anglo-Saxon from 700 to
1100 AD, Middle English from 1100 to 1500 AD, and Modern English or New English from 1500
to the present (Bright, 1992).
Old English (OE) was a highly inflected language. There were suffixes on nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and demonstratives. It had an elaborate system of personal interrogative and
relative pronouns. The four dialects during the Old English period were Kentish in the
southeast, West Saxon in the south and southwest, Mercian in the Midlands, and North
Umbrian above the Humber River. West Saxon was the written standard during the reign of
Alfred the Great from 871 to 899 AD. Old English morphology included noun forms of
singulars and plurals, with five cases, and three genders. Old English personal pronouns
have been retained, and have transferred into New English, more of their morphological
variations than any other form class.
With the arrival of the Christian religion at the end of the 6th century, some Latin
words were added. About 2,000 Danish words and phrases were also added to Old English. At
that time, the combining of native elements in prefixing, suffixing, and compounding was
the most characteristic way of expanding the word stock. (Bright, 1998)
Britain was invaded again during the Viking age of about 750 to 1050. This invasion was
mostly by Danes who then settled in central and southern England. Throughout Britain,
most of the people spoke Old English and few words from the Celtic influence remained.
Middle English began with the 1066 Norman Conquest. French-speaking Normans carried out
government and educational duties. The Norman invasion caused a bilingual environment
with the middle class speaking both French and English. It brought approximately 10,000
Norman French words into Middle English. The Normans exerted a great influence in food,
fashion, education, religion, government, law, and the military.
With the approach of the 18th century, English became an analytical language. Its rich
inflectional system weakened, causing a great increase in the use of prepositional
phrases, in new phrasal prepositions, and in periphrastic verb construction (Bright,
1992). 
During the Renaissance, English displaced Latin as the language used in philosophy,
science, and other learned arenas. Since English was lexically deficient, it borrowed
Latin and Greek words for nouns and adjectives. It is estimated that during the first 150
years of New English, more than 10,000 words from 50 languages were borrowed. It also
asserted that the current English language has borrowed foreign words from more than 75
languages with French as the principal donor (Crystal, 1992). The Old English method of
using affixes and compounding to form words was displaced in New English by borrowing
words as the favorite way of enlarging the English word stock. The history of Modern
English has three important themes. The themes include the extension of English into new
subject areas, the spread of English to many parts of the world, and the growth of
English into Standard British English (Crystal, 1992).
The extension of the language began with the first printed English translation of the
Bible in 1525. The Authorized Version of the English Bible was translated in 1611.
Finally, the revised Book of Common Prayer was published in 1662. The Bible and the
prayer book were in everyday use in Anglican churches until the 1970(s), where they
influenced the speaking and writing of English for over 300 years. English took the place
of Latin during the 16th century in religion, science, and scholarship. To make this
transition possible, vast numbers of loan words have been added to the English language.
English has spread to many parts of the world. It became a native language for
English-speaking colonies, which are now independent and powerful states. British trade
and influence also spread English; it is the second language of many other states because
the ex-colonial countries have no better choice of a national language. English is
currently acknowledged as the universal language of diplomacy and science. It is also the
language that people usually speak when addressing foreigners, and it is the most popular
second language (Dalby, 1998).
Standard British English is the widely accepted standard language, the language of London
and its elite. It is sometimes called the Kings (or Queens) English, BBC English, and
Received Pronunciation. This standard use of English has been helped by the spread of
education and literacy, the extension of printing and publishing, and recently the
influence of radio and television. All these factors have increased the standardization
of pronunciation, spelling, and spoken and written style.
English shares linguistic features with other Indo-European languages. However, the
lexicon, morphology, and phonology are characteristically Germanic. One example of this
is that past tense inflections are a Germanic characteristic. Another distantly Germanic
characteristic is the fixed primary stress on the first syllable, as expressed in the
word brother (Bright 410).
After completion of my research paper on the history of the English language, I can
conclude that my hypothesis was generally correct. I had hypothesized that the English
language was derivative from the Germanic tribes that invaded England during the fourth
and fifth centuries. All the information I have found leads me in the direction of my
original hypothesis except for the section that discusses the involvement of the Celtic
tribe to the language. However, the overall conclusion that the language had derived from
Germanic tribes is true, thus my hypothesis is correct.
Only after researching through various books and dictionaries did I come to the
conclusion that my hypothesis was correct. Although other tribes from with other
languages such as the Vikings tried unsuccessfully many times to invade England, it
remained a Germanic based language.
The English language is a complex language to understand, it has been around for many
years, and has proven to be the language of the world. Better understanding of how this
language became what it is today will help to better the knowledge of millions of English
speaking people. One does not begin to comprehend the extent of the language until
research such as the one presented here is done; only then can one truly appreciate the
language and how it has evolved. I would most certainly encourage others to take part in
my research and learn a little about the language that they all speak. With the world as
it stands today, the English language remains the most important language to know.
Countries all over the world that speak different languages stress the importance of
knowing English, fore the universal language is English, and it shall remain English for
centuries to come.
Bibliography
Bibliography
1. Asher, R.E. and J. M. Y. Simpson. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. 10
Vols. New York: Pergamon Press, 1994. 1125.
2. Bright, William. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 4 Vols. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1992. 410-415.
3. Craig, Albert M., et al., Eds. et The Heritage of World Civilizations. 2 Vols. New
York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986. 446-447.
4. Crystal, David, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. 2nd Ed. New York: The Press
Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1997. 298-299.
5. Crystal, David. An Encyclopedia Dictionary of Language and Languages. USA: Blackwell
Publishers, 1992. 121-122, 134, 185-186.
6. Dalby, Andrew. Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to more than 400
Languages. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 1998.166-179.
7. OGrady, William, Michael Dobrovolsky and Mark Aronoff. Contemporary Linguistics. 3rd
Ed. New York: St. Martins Press, Inc., 1992. 332.
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Ballantine Books, 1992. 154.