Äðóãîå : The History of English
The History of English
School Research Paper
Student:
Jakoubson
Julia
Grade: 9
“A”
School
¹9
Teacher
Gorbacheva M.V.
Kolomna 2003.
Contents
Pages
Introduction…………………………………………………………….3
I. Old English…………………………………………………………...3-17
a). Celtic
Tribes…………………………………………………………3-4
b). The
Romans…………………………………………………………4-10
c). Germanic
Tribes…………………………………………………….10-15
d). The Norman
French………………………………………………..15-16
II. Middle English……………………………………………………....16-19
III. Mordent English…………………………………………………...20-22
Conclusion……………………………………………………………....22-24
List of
Literature………………………………………………………..26
Supplement……………………………………………………………...27
Introduction.
Why do
people all over the world learn foreign languages? Perhaps because the world
is getting smaller, in a way: nations are more closely linked with each other
than ever before, companies operate world-wide, scientists of different
nationalities co-operate, and tourists travel practically everywhere. The
ability to communicate with people from other countries is getting more and
more important. And learning foreign languages broadens your horizons, too!
Before
learners of a foreign language are able to communicate, they have to acquire
many skills. They must learn to produce unfamiliar sounds. They must build up
a vocabulary. They must learn grammar rules and how to use them. And, last
but not least, they must develop listening, speaking, reading and writing
skills and learn how to react in a variety of situations.
All people like to travel. Some travel around their own
country, others travel abroad. Some like to travel into the future, others
prefer to travel into the past. While I was working out my research paper and
reading many books on English history, I had an exciting trip into a remote
past. It was a fantastical journey our Imaginary Time Machine and a Magic Wand.
The Time Machine took me into the depth of the centuries, into the very early
history of Britain. I waved the Magic Wand and the words began to talk, they
disclosed to me their mysteries, I discovered secrets hidden in familiar
things. In other words, you will be a witness of making of English.
I.
Old English. (450-1100)
a). Celtic tribes.
Make a first turn of the Time Machine and you will find
yourself on the British Isles in the time of the ancient inhabitants, the
Celts. The Celts were natives of the British Isles long before the English. The
Celts had their language, which is still spoken by the people living in the
part of Britain known as Wales. And though many changes happened on the British
Isles, some Celtic words are still used in the English language.
Two
thousand years ago there was an Iron Age Celtic culture throughout the British
Isles. It seems that the Celts, who had been arriving from Europe from the
eighth century BC onwards, intermingled with the peoples who were already
there. We know that religious sites that had been built long before the arrival
of the Celts continued to be used in the Celtic period.
For people in Britain today, the chief significance of
the prehistoric period (for which no written records exist) is its sense of
mystery. This sense finds its focus most easily in the astonishing monumental
architecture of this period, the remains of which exist throughout the country.
Wiltshire, in south-western England, has two spectacular examples: Silbury
Hill, the largest burial mound in Europe, and Stonehenge. Such places have a
special importance for anyone interested in the cultural and religious
practices of prehistoric Britain. We know very little about these practices,
but there are some organizations today (for example, the Order of Bards, Ovates
and Druids – a small group of eccentric intellectuals and mystics) who base
their beliefs on them.
The Celts preserved
their language in some parts of Britain, but they did not add many words to the
English vocabulary. Those, that are in use now, are mostly place-names: names
of regions, towns, rivers. The Celts had a number of similar words to name
rivers, like: Exe, Esk, Usk. All of them come from a word meaning water
(uisge). Later this word was used to name a strong alcoholic drink made
from barley or rye. It was first called “water of life”. The word changed its
from and pronunciation, and today at restaurants in the West one can see on the
menu among other spirits whisky, a Celtic word formerly meaning water.
b). The Romans.
One more turn of our Time Machine and it took me into
the 1st century of our era. At that time Romans came into Britain,
they ruled the country for 400 years. So, you can guess that many Latin words
came later into the English language through Celts, because, as you know,
Romans spoke Latin.
The Roman province of Britannia most of present-day
England and Wales. The Romans imposed their own way of life and culture, making
use of the existing Celtic aristocracy to govern and encouraging this ruling
class to adopt Roman dress and Roman language. The Romans never went to Ireland
and exerted an influence, without actually governing there, over only the
southern part of Scotland. It was during this time that a Celtic tribe called
the Scots migrated from Ireland to Scotland, where they became allies of the
Picts (another Celtic tribe) and opponents of the Romans. This division of the
Celts into those who experienced Roman rule (the Britons in England and Wales)
and those who did not (the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland) may help to explain
the development of two distinct branches of the Celtic group of languages.
The remarkable thing about the Romans is that, despite
their long occupation of Britain, they left very little behind. To many other
parts of Europe they bequeathed a system of law and administration which forms
the basis of the modern system and a language which developed into the modern
Romance family of languages. In Britain, they left neither. Moreover, most of
their villas, baths and temples, their impressive network of roads, and the
cities they founded, including Londinium (London), were soon destroyed or fell
into disrepair. Almost the only lasting reminder of their presence are
place-names like Chester, Lancaster and Gloucester, which include variants of
the Roman word castra (a military camp).
Roman rule lasted for 4 centuries. There are many
things in Britain today to remind of the Romans: wells, roads, walls.
To defend their province the Romans stationed their legions in Britain.
Straight roads were built so that the legions might march quickly. Whenever
they were needed, to any part of the country. These roads were made of several
layers of stones, lime, mortar and gravel. They were made so well that they
lasted a long time and still exist today. Thomas Hardy dedicated his poem to
Roman roads. Here is the beginning.
THE ROMAN ROAD
The Roman road runs straight and bare
As the pale parting line in hair
Across the health. And thoughtful men
Contrast its days of now and then,
And delve, and measure, and compare,
Visioning on the vacant air
Helmed legionaries who proudly rear
The eagle as they pace again the Roman road…
One of the roads has a name – “KATLING
STREET”. It is a great Roman road extending east and west across
Britain. Beginning at Dover, it ran through Canterbury to London, thence
through St.Albans, Dunstable, along the boundary of Leicester and Warwick to
Wroxeter on the Severn. The origin of the name is not known and there are
several other sections of the road so called. In the late 9th
century it became the boundary between English and Danish territory.
To guard their province against the Picts and Scots
who lived in the hills of Scotland the Romans built a high wall, a military
barrier seventy-three miles long. It was called “Hadrian’s Wall” because it was
built by command of the Emperor Hadrian. Long stretches of “HADRIAN’S
WALL” have remained to this day.
In the capital of Britain you can see the fragments of
the old London wall built by the Romans.
What really happened in AD 61? In AD 61 the king of
the Celtic tribe Iceni died. Before he died he had named Roman Emperor Nero as
his heir. He hoped that this would put his family and kingdom under the
Emperor’s protection. But the result was the exact opposite of his hopes. His
kingdom was plundered by centurions, his private property was taken away, his
widow Boadicea was flogged, his daughters were deprived of any rights, his
relatives were turned into slaves. Boadicea’s tribe rose to rebellion. Boadicea
stood at the head of a numerous army. More than 70,000 Romans were killed
during the revolt. But the Britons had little chance against an experienced,
well-armed Roman army. The rising was crushed, Boadicea took poison to avoid
capture.
Her monument on the Thames Embankment opposite Big Ben
remind people of her harsh cry: ”Liberty of death” which has echoed down the
ages.
Some of the English words relating to meals are of
Latin origin, they were borrowed from the Romans in ancient times. The Romans
in the period of their flourishing and expansion came into contact with the
Germanic tribes, or the Teutons, who later moved to Britain and formed there
the English nation. The Romans were a race with higher civilization than the
Teutons whom they considered barbarians. They taught the Teutons many useful
things and gave them very important words that the forefathers of the English
brought with them to Britain and that remained in the English language up to
now. Kitchen and table are Latin words borrowed in those far-off
days, that show a revolution in culinary arrangements; dish, kettle and
cup also became known to the Teutons at that time.
The early words of Latin origin give us a dim picture
of Roman trades traveling with their mules and asses the paved roads or the
German provinces, their chests and boxes and wine-sacks full of goods that they
profitably bargained with the primitive ancestors of the nowadays English. Wine
was one of the first items of trade between the Romans and the Teutons. That’s
how this word came into use.
The Teutons knew only one fruit – apple, they
did not grow fruit trees or cultivated gardens, but they seem to have been
eager to learn, for they borrowed pear, plum, cherry.
The Teutons were an agricultural people, under the
influence of the Romans they began to grow beet, onion.
Milk was one of the main kinds of food with the
Teutons, but the Romans taught them methods of making cheese and butter
for milk.
Among other culinary refinements that came to the
Teutons from the Romans are spices: pepper, mint.
Judging by the Latin borrowings of that period the
ancestors of English were very much impressed by Roman food, weren’t they?
The word “calendar” came to us
from Latin. In the Latin there was a word “calendarium”. It meant “a
record-book”. Money-lenders kept a special book, in which they recorded to whom
they lent money and how much interest they will get. This book was called
“calendarium” because interest was paid on the “Calends”. By the Calends the
Romans named the first day of each month.
Time passed, the old meaning was forgotten. “Calendar” began to mean the record of
days, weeks, months within a year.
This is a story of the word “calendar”. But the story
of how a calendar was made is still more interesting indeed. We know that a
calendar provides an easy way to place a day within the week, month or year.
But it is not easy to make a calendar. The trouble is that the length of a year
is determined by the length of time the earth takes to revolve once on its own
axis. But the earth does not take an equal number of days to complete its year.
It needs 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. Obviously you cannot
divide a day of 24 hours into that. And the problem is further complicated
because the month is determined by the length of time it takes the moon to go
around the earth, which is 29 ½ days into 365 ¼ days, minus 11 minutes
and 14 seconds. The result is that most calendars were messes.
The English got their calendar from the Romans. But at
first the Romans had a very bad calendar. They had ten month of varying length,
and then they added enough days at the end to make the year right. Besides the
politicians changed the length of the months as they wished. They could change
the length of the month to keep themselves in office longer and to leave less
time for their opponents. I can’t imagine that somebody will reduce June, July,
August to two weeks each, and will take away more than half my summer vacation?
Will you like that? Of course, not.
The calendar varied so much that by the time of Julius
Caesar January came in August.
Meanwhile a very good calendar had been worked out in
Asia Minor and was in use in Egypt. Julius Caesar, a great Roman emperor,
changed it a little to fit the Roman customs and introduced it in Rome. This
calendar was called after him “the Julian Calendar”. As a matter of fact,
Caesar only gave the orders; he had the advice of a Greek astronomer named
Sosigenes. This calendar worked well for hundred years. But it provided only
for exact figure of 365 days a year and an extra day in every four years, it
did not count minutes and seconds. So, once more, the calendar year was getting
farther and farther from the year of the earth’s revolution around the sun.
Then in 1582 another change of calendar took place.
The Roman Pope Gregory XII suppressed ten days in 1582 and started new
calendar. The English people adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. And for a
time all dates were given two ways: one for the New Style, one for the Old
Style.
Now nobody uses the Old Style any more, but of course
the calendar is not quite accurate yet. Still it will be a long time before we
have to add or subtract another day.
The year is divided into months and every month has
its own name. Now we’d like to investigate how the names of months appeared.
But first, let’s think of the word “month” itself.
A month is a measure of time. It is a very old word. It goes back to Indo-European
base. Long time ago people probably- had
only three measures of time - year, which was the four seasons; a day which
was the period from one sunrise to the next; and a month, which had the period
from one moon to the next.
So, the Indo-European base “me-“
came into Old English, and became “mona”. The word meant "a measure of
time". Then it began to mean “moon”, since the moon measured time. Later
suffix "-th" was added to the end of the word; the word
"monath" meant the period of time which the moon measured. Still
later the English people dropped the "a" and called it "month”.
And now, stories
of the names of months. The Modem English names for the months of the year all
come from the Latin. But before the English people adopted the Latin names they
had their native names. And, in fact, in some cases the native names are more
interesting than the Latin ones.
The first month of
the year is January. January is the month of Janus. Janus was a Roman
God of the beginning of things. Janus had two faces: on the front and the back
of the head. He could look backwards into the past and forward to the beginning
year. January is a right name for the first month of the New Year, isn't it? On
the New Year eve we always think of what we have done in the past year and we
are planning to do better in the New Year.
Now, the Old
English had its own name for January. It was “Wulf-Monath", which means
“month of wolves". To-day England is thickly populated and a very
civilized country and it is hard, to imagine that their was a time when wolves
roamed the island. In the cold of the deep winter they would get so hungry they
would come into the towns to look for food, and so January was called “the
month of the wolves".
The name of February
comes from the Latin “februa” - "purification". It was a month when
the ancient Romans had a festival of purification.
Before the English
adopted the Latin name, they called this month “Sprate-Kale-Month”. “Kale” is a
cabbage plant, "sprote" means to sprout. So, it was “the month when cabbages sprout”
March is a month of Mar's, the Roman
God of war. March was the earliest warm time of the year when the Romans could
start a war. Before the time of Julius Caesar the Roman year began with March
which was then the first month of the year.
The Old English
name for March was "Hlyd-Monath", which means "the month of
noisy winds". March in Britain often comes with strong winds. By the way,
this explains the saying: "If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like
a lamb".
There are a few
stories about the meaning of the name “April”! The most spread one is a
pretty story that the month was named from a Latin word “aperire" – “to
open”. It is a month when buds of trees and flowers begin to open.
The English before
they adopted the Latin names, called April "Easter-Monath”, the month of
Easter.
“May” is named for the Roman goddess
of growth and increase, Maia. She was the Goddess of spring, because in spring
everything was growing, flourishing, increasing.
The English name
is not so poetic. They called the month "Thrimilce", which means
something like “to mi1k three times”. In May the cows give so much milk that
the farmers had to milk them three times a day.
Month of "June"
was so called after the Junius family of Rome, one of the leading clans of
ancient Rome. Besides, the Roman festival of Juno, the Goddess of Moon, was
celebrated on the first day of the month.
We think of June
as the month of brides and roses, but to the Anglo-Saxons it was
"Sere-Monath", the “dry month”.
“July” is the month of Julius Caesar.
The month began to be called that in the year when Julius Caesar was killed.
The English called July “Maed-Monath”, “meadow
month”, because the meadows are in bloom in July.
Now, comes “August”.
This month was once called “sexillis”, as it was the sixth month from March,
with which, as you remember, the year once opened. It was then changed into
August in honour of the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar, the nephew of Julius
Caesar. This man was chosen by Julius Caesar as his heir, he took the name
Caesar, and was given the title “Augustus” by the Roman Senate. This month was
“a lucky Month” for Augustus Caesar. By the way, Augustus refused to have
fewer days in his month of August than there were in the month of July. So he
borrowed a day from February and added it to August; that is why August has 31
days.
The Old English
name for August was "Wead-Monath", the month of weeds. You know, the
Old English word "weed" meant vegetation in generale.
“September”, “October”, “November”
and “December” are just "seventh", "eighth",
"ninth" and "tenth" months of the year. You remember that
before the Romans changed their calendar, March was the first month.
The English had
more descriptive names for these month. September was called
"Harfest-Monath", "the harvest month". October was
"Win-Monath", "the wine month". November was
"Bloo-Monath", because in November the English sacrificed cattle to
their gods. December was “Mid-Winter-Monath”, because this month was the middle
month of winter.
C). Germanic tribes.
At the beginning of the 5th
century the Romans left the islands, they had tî save their own country from barbarians. If you
want to know what events followed after that, turn on the Time Machine again.
So, here we are, in the 5th century, This is the time of the birth of the
English language. Òhe Germanic
tribes of Angles, Sàxîns and Jutes invaded thå misty fertile island. Some of
the native Britons were killed, mànó others fled from the invaders
"às from fire" into the hilló parts of the country. Anglås, Saxons ànd Jutes spread all over the fertile lànds of the Isles. Gradually thåó båñàmå one nation - English. They developed one
language - English. As historians write, "thå English language arrived in Britain on the point
of à sword"! The ðåîðlå îf that timå of thå history àrå called Àng1î-Sàõîns, their language is îld English îr Ang1î-Saxon as well.
Òhå next destination îf îur Òimå Ìàñhinå is the 7th century, when Christiànity was introducåd in Britain, monasteries with sñhools ànd libraries were set uð all îver thå ñîuntry. Òhå English language was
considerably enriched bó the Latin
woãds.
Now, with the help of the Òimå Ìàñhinå we'll fly over into the 8th ñåntuãó. Àt this time the ancient Scandinavians, càlled the Vikings, began to ãàid Britàin. Òhå Vikings continued thåir wars with the English until the timå the Ang1î-Saxîn king Alfred thå Great made à treaty with them ànd gave them à ðàrt of the country, that was ñàlled "Danelaw". Òhå Vikings settled thårå, married Ånglish wives ànd bågan peaceful life on the territory of Britain. Later military conflicts
resumed again, but by the 11th century they were over. The influence of these
events în the English lànguagå was great, indeed. À làrge number of Scandinavian words ñàmå intî Ånglish from "Danes" as thå Ang1o-Saxons called all the
Vikings.
One reason why Roman Britannia disappeared so quickly
is probably that its influence was largely confined to the towns. In the
countryside, where most people lived, farming methods had remained unchanged
and Celtic speech continued to be dominant.
The Roman occupation had been a matter of colonial
control rather than large-scale settlement. But, during the fifth century, a
number of tribes from the north-western European mainland invaded and settled
in large numbers. Two of these tribes were the Angles and the Saxons. These
Anglo-Saxons soon had the south-east of the country in their grasp. In the west
of the country their advance was temporarily halted by an army of Celtic Britons
under the command of the legendary King Arthur. Nevertheless, by the end of the
sixth century, they and their way of life predominated in nearly all of England
and in parts of southern Scotland. The Celtic Britons were either Saxonized or
driven westwards, where their culture and language survived in south-west
Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.
The Anglo-Saxons had little use for towns and cities.
But they had a great effect on the countryside, where they introduced new
farming methods and founded the thousands of self-sufficient villages which
formed the basis of English society for the next thousand or so years.
The Anglo-Saxons were pagan when they came to Britain.
Christianity spread throughout Britain from two different directions during the
sixth and seventh centuries. It came directly from Rome when St Augustine
arrived in 597 and established his headquarters at Canterbury in the south-east
of England. It had already been introduced into Scotland and northern England
from Ireland, which had become Christian more than 150 years earlier. Although
Roman Christianity eventually took over the whole of the British Isles, the
Celtic model persisted in Scotland and Ireland for several hundred years. It
was less centrally organized, and had less need for a strong monarchy to
support it. This partly explains why both secular and religious power in these
two countries continued to be both more locally based and less secure than it
was elsewhere in Britain throughout the medieval period.
Britain experience another wave of Germanic invasions
in the 8th century. These invaders, known as Vikings, Horsemen or
Danes, came from Scandinavia. In the ninth century they conquered and settled
the extreme north and west of Scotland, and also some coastal regions of
Ireland. Their conquest of England was halted when they were defeated by King
Alfred of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex. This resulted in an agreement which
divided England between Wessex, in the south and west, and the “Danelaw” in the
north and east.
However, the cultural differences between Anglo-Saxons
and Danes were comparatively small. They led roughly the same way of life and
spoke two varieties of the same Germanic tongue (which combined to form the
basis of modern English). Moreover, the Danes soon converted to Christianity.
These similarities made political unification easier, and by the end of the
10th century England was one kingdom with a Germanic culture throughout.
Most of modern-day Scotland was also united by this
time, at least in name, in a Gaelic kingdom.
Paopla in Anglo-Saxon times.
Living uncomfortably close to the natural world, were wall aware that though
creation is inarticulate it is animate, and that every created thing, every
“with”, had its own personality.
The riddle is a
sophisticated and harmless for of invocation by imitation: the essence of it is
that the poet, by an act of imaginative identification assumes the personality
of some crested thing - an animal, a plant, a natural force.
The specialists
consider that they know not enough about The Exeter Book collection of riddles.
Ridding was certainly a popular pastime among the Anglo-Saxons, especially in
the monasteries, and there are extant collections (in Latin, of course,) from
the pens of Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, Tatwin, Archbishop of Canterbury and
others.
The provenance and genesis of
the collection are unknown, and from internal evidence one can only draw the
modest conclusion that the ninety-five riddles were not written by one man.
In English a student and the little black circle in the center of the eye
are both called “pupils”? And the connection between them is a doll. Both the
words came into the English language through French from the Latin. In Latin
there was a word “pupa” – “a girl”, and “pupus” – “ a boy”. When the Latin ending
“illa” was added to “pupa” or “pupus”, the word meant “ a little girl” or “ a
little boy”. Since little girls and little boys went to school, they became
“pupils”.
But “pupilla”, a little girl, also meant “a doll”. It
is easy to understand why, isn’t it? Now, if you look into the pupil of
someone’s eye when the light is just right, you can see your reflection. Your
figure, by the way, is very, very small like a tiny doll. The Romans named the
black circle in the eye “pupilla” because of the doll they could see there. And
the word came into the English as “pupil” as well. And thus, we have in the
English language two words that are spelt the same and have the same origin,
but mean different things: “pupil” – a student, and “pupil” – a black circle in
the center of your eye.
Professor casts a quick glance at the wall and noticed
a map there. “This map is made of paper. But the word itself meant cloth
once. This word came into English from Latin, the Latin mappa was
cloth. First maps were drawn on fabrics. In Latin the combination of the
words appeared: mappa mundi – “cloth of the word”. It was the first
representation of the world as a drawing on the cloth. Later maps began to be
made of paper, but the word remained.
By another route the same word came into English for
the second time. In Late Latin this word was corrupted into nappa, and
later, through French, it entered the English language with the new meaning of
napkin.”
“When a teacher asks you a question. She expects you
will give a correct answer. Answer is a very strange word. Its spelling
makes no sense until you know its origin. This is a very old word. In Old
English the noun was andswaru and the verb – andswearing. So, you
see, it consisted of two parts: and and swear. The word and
at that time meant against; swear meant to give a solemn oath. In
the youth of the English language andswaru was “ a solemn oath made
against an accusation”. A man had to pronounce a solemn in reply to an
accusation, to prove that it is wrong. In the course of historical development
the word lost its solemnity and it means now a reply, to reply. Any
little child answer you back today.”
Professor History remarks, “ I see that some of you
write with a ballpoint pen, others with a pencil, and there are some who write
with a fountain pen. So, you can’t do without ink, after all. A simple
three-letter word ink comes from a nine-letter ancestor that meant a
branding iron. And now a few steps away from the skill of writing towards the skill of healing wounds. When we have a
wound we cauterize it, we burn it with heat or with a chemical in order to
close it and prevent it from becoming infected. The ancient Greeks used to
cauterize a wound as we do, and the grandparent word of cauterize is kauterion,
a branding iron. The Greek not only sealed wounds with heat, but they used
much the same process in art for sealing fast the colours of their painting. It
was customary then to use wax colours fixed with heat or, as they expressed it,
encauston, burned in. In Latin this word changed to encaustum,
and it became the name for a kind of purple ink that the emperors used
when they signed their official documents. In Old French encaustum
became enque. English adopted the word as enke or inke,
that is how today we have our ink, coloured liquid used for writing or
printing.”
“The start of spoken language is buried in mystery and
in a tangle of theories,” Professor History begins his lecture. “The history of
written language also disappears in the jungles, in the deserts and far fields
of unrecorded time. But at least the words that have to do with writing tell us
much about the early beginning of the art and the objects that were used to
record the written symbols.
The word write was spelled writan in Old
English. It first meant to scratch, and it is exactly what the
primitives did on their birch-bark or shingles with sharp stones and others
pointed instruments. In the more sophisticated lands that surrounded the
Mediterranean the papyrus plant was used instead of the bark of the trees; as you
already know, that gave us the word paper.
Pen with
which we write now, in its Latin form penna, meant a feather and in some
ancient collections you can still see quill pens. And pencil that we
hold inherits its name from the Latin penicillum, meaning a little
tail, and this refers to the time when writing was done with a tiny brush
that looked indeed like a little tail.
The term letter designating a written symbol, a
letter of the alphabet is thought to be relative to the Latin word linere,
to smear, to leave a dirty mark on some surface. Isn’t it a good description of
some of the early writing?
But what is written should be read. In read we
have an odd little word, from the Old English raedan, which meant first to
guess, to discern. And again it is just what you had to do to interpret
what was scratched on wooden shingles. Anything that had to be interpreted was
called a raedels. Later on people began to think that the word raedels
was a plural because of the “s” on the end. A new singular, raedel was
formed and here is the ancestor of our word riddle. Finally the word read
took on its modern meaning: if you can read, you have the ability to look at
and understand what is written.
Of course the basis of all writing is language.
But it is first of all, a spoken activity, and hence this noun is derived from
a word referring to the organ of speech primarily involved. In this case it is
the French word language, which goes back to the Latin lingua,
tongue. The English, though, retained their native word to name that soft
movable part inside your mouth whish you see for tasting and licking and for
speaking”, a tongue. Sometimes you may hear the word tongue used in the
meaning of language, but it is an old-fashioned and literary use.
If you want to read what is written in a foreign
language, you need a dictionary. The term dictionary comes from the
Latin word dictio, from dico, say or speak. A dictionary is
really a record of what people say, of the pronunciation, spellings, and
meanings that they give to words.”
In Old English there was a different word with which
the Englishmen called bread, it was half. But then as a result of the
Vikings invasion and Scandinavian influence on the English language a new word
of the same meaning entered the English vocabulary from Scandinavian: cake. Since
the English had already their own word (half), they started to use the
word cake for a special type of bread. First it referred to a small loaf
of bread of flat and round shape. From the 15th century it began to
mean sweet food, as it does now.
To the Scandinavians, living in Britain, called their
bread by the word brauth. The English had a similar word – bread
meaning a lump, a piece of bread. Under the influence of the
Scandinavian language the word bread widened its meaning and began to
mean bread in general, while the word loaf (from Old English half)
narrowed its meaning, now it is a large lump of bread which we slice before
eating.
The Great Englishman Caxton, who introduced printing
in Britain in 1476, wrote in a preface to one of the books about a funny
episode with egg. The thing is that in Old English the word egg
had a different form which spelled as ey in Middle English; its plural
form was eyren. And again the Scandinavians brought with them to Britain
their word egg. It first spread in the northern English dialects, the
southerners did not know it and used their native word.
Caxton tells the readers that once English merchants
from the northern regions were sailing down the Thames, bound for the
Netherlands. There was no wind and they landed at a small southern village. The
merchants decided to buy some food. They came to a house and one of them asked
a woman if she could sell them eggs. The woman answered that she did not
understand him because she did not know French. The merchant became very angry
and said that he did not speak French either. Then another merchant helped. He
said they wanted eyren, the woman understood him and brought them eggs.
For rather a long period of time two words existed in
Britain: a native English word eyren was used in the South, and the
Scandinavian borrow eggs in the North. The Scandinavian word has won
after, as you can see.
D). The Norman French.
I made another excursion into
the past. The Time Ìàñhinå has ñàrried me into the 11th century, into the year of
1066. An àwful picture îðåns before my eyes: à great battle at Hastings, the
English king Íàrold is
killed, the English are defeated, the Norman invaders have won à victory. Òhe Normans ñàmå frîm across the British Ñhannål, from the part of France called Normandy. Òhåó conquered the English under the head of their
leader, Duke William, who later got the name of William the Conqueror. Òhå Normans brought into Britain not în1ó their king, but their French language as well.
So it åxplàins why there are so many French words in the
English vocabulary.
The successful Norman invasion
of England in 1066 brought Britain into the mainstream of western European
culture. Previously most links had been with Scandinavia. Only in Scotland did
this link survive; the western isles (until the thirteenth century) and the
northern islands (until the fifteenth century) remaining under the control of
Scandinavian kings. Throughout this period the English kings also ruled over
areas of land on the continent were often at war with the French kings in
disputes over ownership.
Unlike the Germanic invasions,
the Norman invasion was small-scale. There was no such thing as a Norman area
of settlement. Instead, the Norman soldiers who had been a part of the invading
army were given the ownership of land – and of the people living on it. A
strict feudal system was imposed. Great nobles, or barons, were responsible
directly to the king; lesser lords, each owing a village, were directly
responsible to a baron. Under them were the peasants, tied by a strict system
of mutual duties and obligations to the local lord, and forbidden to travel
without his permission. The peasants were the English-speaking Saxons. The
lords and the barons were the French-speaking Normans. This was the beginning
of the English class system.
The existence of two words for
the larger farm animals in modern English is a result of the class divisions
established by the Norman conquest. There are the words for the living animals
(e.g. cow, pig, sheep), which have their origins in Anglo-Saxon, and the
words for the meat from the animals (e.g. beef, pork, mutton.), which
have their origins in the French language that the Normans brought to England.
Only the Normans normally ate meat; the poor Anglo-Saxon peasants did not!
The strong system of government
which the Normans introduced meant that the Anglo-Norman kingdom was easily the
most powerful political force in British Isles. Not surprisingly therefore, the
authority of the English monarch gradually extended to other parts of these
islands in the next 250 years. But the end of the thirteenth century, a large
part of eastern Ireland was controlled by Anglo-Norman lords in the name of the
English king and the while of Wales was under his direct rule (at which time
the custom of naming the monarch’s eldest son the “Prince of Wales” began).
Scotland managed to remain politically independent in the medieval period, but
was obliged to fight occasional wars to do so.
II. Middle English.
(1100-1500)
The English which was used from
about 1100 to about 1500 is called Middle English. The cultural story of this
period is different. Two hundred and fifty years after the Norman Conquest, it
was a Germanic language (Middle English) and not the Norman (French) language
which had become the dominant one in all classes of society of England.
Furthermore, it was the Anglo-Saxon concept of common law, and not Roman law,
which formed the basis of the legal system.
Despite English rule, northern
and central Wales was never settled in great numbers by Saxon or Norman. As a
result the (Celtic) Welsh language and culture remained strong. Eisteddfods,
national festivals of Welsh song and poetry, continued throughout the medieval
period and still take place today. The Anglo-Norman lords of eastern Ireland
remained loyal to the English king but, despite laws to the contrary, mostly
adopted the Gaelic language and customs.
The political independence of
Scotland did not prevent a gradual switch to the English language and customs
in the lowland (southern) part of the country. First, the Anglo-Saxon element
here was strengthened by the arrival of many Saxon aristocrats fleeing the
Norman conquest of England. Second, the Celtic kings saw that the adoption of
an Anglo-Norman style of government would strengthen royal power. By the end of
this period a cultural split had developed between the lowlands, where the way
of life and language was similar to that in England, and the highlands, where
(Celtic) Gaelic culture and language prevailed – and where, because of the
mountainous landscape, the authority of the king was hard to enforce.
It was in this period that
Parliament began its gradual evolution into the democratic body which is it
today. The word “parliament”, which comes from the French word parler
(to speak), was first used in England in the thirteenth century to describe an
assembly of nobles called together by the king. In 1295, the Model Parliament
set the pattern for the future by including elected representatives from urban
and rural areas.
Many food names in English are
French borrowings. After the Norman Conquest under William the Conqueror (1066)
French words began to enter the English language increasing in number for more
than tree centuries. Among them were different names of dishes. The Norman
barons brought to Britain their professional cooks who showed to English their
skill.
Learners of the English language
notice that there is one name for a live beast grazing in the field and another
for the same beast when it is killed and coked. The matter is that English
peasants preserved Anglo-Saxon names for the animals they used to bring to
Norman castles to sell. But the dishes made of the meat got French names. That
is why now we have native English names of animals: ox, cow, calf, sheep,
swine, and French names of meals from whose meat they are cooked: beef,
veal, mutton, pork. (By the way “lamb” is an exception, it is a native
Anglo-Saxon word). A historian writes that an English peasant who had spent a
hard day tending his oxen, calves, sheep and swine probably saw little enough
of the beef, veal, mutton and pork, which were gobbled at night by his Norman
masters.
The French enriched English
vocabulary with such food words as bacon, sausage, gravy; then:
toast, biscuit, cream, sugar. They taught the English to have for dessert
such fruits as: fig, grape, orange, lemon, pomegranate, peach and the
names of these fruits became known to the English due the French. The English
learned from them how to make pastry, tart, jelly, treacle. From the
French the English came to know about mustard and vinegard. The
English borrowed from the French verbs to describe various culinary processes: to
boil, to roast, to stew, to fry.
One famous English linguist
exclaimed: “It is melancholy to think what the English dinner would have been
like, had there been no Norman Conquest!”
The period of Middle English is
the time of the fast development of English literature. The greatest poet of
the 14th century was Geoffrey Chaucer. He is often called the father
of English poetry, although, as we know, there were many English poets before
him. As we should expect, the language had changed a great deal in the seven
hundred years since the time Beowulf and it is much easier to read
Chaucer than to read anything written in Old English. Here are the opening
lines of The Canterbury Tales (about 1387), his greatest work:
Whan that
Aprille with his shoures swote
The droghte of Marche hath
perced to the rote
When April with his sweet showers
has stuck to the roots the
dryness of March…
There are five main
beats in each line, and the reader will notice that rhyme has taken the place
of Old English alliteration. Chaucer was a well-educated man who read Latin,
and studied French and Italian poetry; but he was not interested only in books.
He traveled and made good use of his eyes; and the people whom he describes are
just like living people.
The Canterbury Tales total altogether about 17,000
lines – about half of Chaucer’s literary production. A party of pilgrims agree
to tell stories to pass the time on their journey from London to Canterbury
with its great church and the grave of Thomas a Becket. There are more than
twenty of these stories, mostly in verse, and in the stories we get to know the
pilgrims themselves. Most of them, like the merchant, the lawyer, the cook, the
sailor, the ploughman, and the miller, are ordinary people, but each of them
can be recognized as a real person with his or her own character. One of the
most enjoyable characters, for example, is the Wife of Bath. By the time she
tells her story we know her as a woman of very strong opinions who believes
firmly in marriage (she has had five husbands, one after the other) and equally
firmly in the need to manage husbands strictly. In her story one of King
Arthur’s knights must give within a year the correct answer to the question
“What do women love most?” in order to save his life. An ugly old which knows
the answer (“to rule”) and agrees to tell him if he marries her. At last he
agrees, and at the marriage she becomes young again and beautiful.
A good deal of Middle English prose is religious. The Ancren
Riwle teaches proper rules of life for anchoresses (religious women) how
they ought to dress, what work they may do, when they ought not to speak, and
so on. It was probably written in the thirteenth century. Another work, The
Form of Perfect Living, was written by richard
rolle with the same sort of aim. His prose style has been highly
praised, and his work is important in the history of our prose.
john wycliffe, a priest, attacked many of the religious ideas of his
time. He was at Oxford, but had to leave because his attacks on the Church
could no longer be borne. One of his beliefs was that anyone who wanted to read
the Bible ought to be allowed to do so;
but how could this be done by uneducated people when
the Bible was in Latin? Some parts had indeed been put into Old English long
ago, but Wycliffe arranged the production of the whole Bible in English. He
himself translated part of it. There were two translations ! 1382 and 1388),
of which the second is the better.
It is surprising that Wycliffe was not burnt alive for
his attacks on religious practices. After he was dead and buried, his bones
were dug up again and thrown into a stream which flows into the River Avon
(which itself flows into the River Severn):
The Avon to the Severn runs,
The Severn to the sea,
And Wycliffe's dust shall spread abroad,
Wide as the waters be.
An important Middle English prose work, Morte
D'Arthur [= Arthur's Death], was written by sir thomas malory. Even for the violent years just before and
during the Wars of the Roses, Malory was a violent character. He was several
times in prison, and it has been suggested that he wrote at least part of Morte
D'Arthur there to pass the time.
Malory wrote eight separate tales of King Arthur and
his knights but when Caxton printed the book in 1485 (after Malory's death) he
joined them into one long story. Caxton's was the only copy of Malory's work that
we had until, quite recently f1933-4;. a handwritten copy of it was found in
Winchester College.
The stories of Arthur and his knights have attracted
many British and other writers. Arthur is a shadowy figure of the past. but
probably really lived. Many tales gathered round him and his knights. One of
the main subjects was the search for the cup used by Christ at the East Supper.
(This cup is known as The Holy Grail. Another subject was Arthur's battles
against his enemies, including the Romans. Malory's fine prose can tell a
direct story well, but can also express deep feelings in musical sentences.
Here is part of the book in modern form. King Arthur is badly wounded:
Then Sir Bedivere took the king on his back and so
went with him to the water's edge. And when they were there. close by the bank,
there came a little ship with many beautiful ladies in it; and among them all
there was a queen. And they all had black head-dresses, and all wept and cried
when they saw King Arthur.
III. Modern English (1500-to
the present day)
By the beginning of 20th century, Britain
was no longer the world's richest country. Perhaps this caused Victorian
confidence in gradual reform to weaken. Whatever the reason, the first twenty
years of the century were a period of extremism in Britain. The Suffragettes,
women demanding the right to vote, were prepared both to damage property and to
die for their beliefs; the problem of Ulster in the north of Ireland led to a
situation in which some sections of the army appeared ready to disobey the
government; and the government's introduction of new types and levels of
taxation was opposed so absolutely by the House of Lords that even Parliament,
the foundation of the political system, seemed to have an uncertain future in
its traditional form. But by the end of the First World War, two of these
issues had been resolved to most people's satisfaction (the Irish problem
remained) and the rather un-British climate of extremism died out.
The significant changes that have taken place in this
century are dealt with elsewhere in this book. Just one thing should be noted
here. It was from the beginning of this century that the urban working class
(the majority of the population) finally began to make its voice heard. In
Parliament, the Labour party gradually replaced the Liberals (the 'descendants'
of the Whigs) as the main opposition to the Conservatives (the 'descendants' of
the Tories). In addition, trade unions managed to organize themselves. In 1926,
they were powerful enough to hold a General Strike, and from the 1930s until
the 1980s the Trades Union Congress (see chapter 14) was probably the single
most powerful political force outside the institutions of government and
Parliament.
From about 1600, explorers,
adventurers, settlers and soldiers went out from Britain to found settlements
and colonies overseas. They took the English language with them. At the height
of their power, during the 19th century, the British could claim that the sun
never set on their Empire. Today almost all the countries of the old Empire
have become independent. However, most of them are now members of the
Commonwealth of Nations, and English continues to be an important language for
them.
After the Second World War the
United States became what Britain had been in the 19th century: politically
and economically one of the most powerful nations in the world. As its power
spread, so the English language spread.
Five hundred years ago they didn't speak English in
North America. The American Indians had their own languages. So did the Inuit
(often called 'Eskimos') and Aleuts in Canada. So did the Aborigines in
Australia, and the Maoris in New Zealand.
The English arrived and set up their colonies. And
then other people came from all over the world, bringing many different
languages and cultures.
The USA has the biggest mixture of all: it is often
called a 'melting pot' of cultures. In 1619 a small ship arrived in Jamestown,
Virginia, with twenty slaves from Africa. For over two hundred years, the
Americans imported, bought and sold African slaves. Today there are over 29
million black Americans living in the USA.
In 1848 the population of the United States was still
very small. Then two important things happened: they discovered gold in
California and a new law, the Homestead Act, gave free land to farmers.
Suddenly millions of immigrants came to America, 'The Land of Opportunity'.
At first they were English, Irish, German and
Scandinavian. Then Italians, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, Russians and Poles came.
Most immigrants came because economic conditions at home were bad. But there
were also other problems in Europe. About three million Jews came to the USA
between 1880 and 1910 because of religious persecution in Russia and other
countries.
Today the USA is still much richer than most of its
neighbors. Its most recent new citizens are many Spanish-speaking people from
Puerto Rico, Mexico and South America.
The population of Britain is
only about 58 million. But throughout the world English is spoken by over 700
million people.
About 350 million people speak
English as their first language in 12 countries such as Britain, the USA.
Canada Australia. New Zealand. South Africa.
About 300 million use English as
a second or official language in over 60 countries, for example, in India. They
usually use it when doing business, or when completing official documents and
forms.
It is estimated that at least
100 million people throughout the world use English fluently as a foreign
language.
There are over 3.000 languages
in the world. So why has English become so widely spoken?
Today the English language is almost the same all over
the world. You can tell a person's nationality from their accent - Australian,
Scottish, Canadian and so on. But the words are more or less international.
It's strange that the differences in Britain itself
are greater than those between Britain and other English-speaking countries.
For a Londoner, it's easy to understand an American, but quite difficult to
understand the dialect of Newcastle in the North of England!
But not many people speak dialects in Britain these
days. A hundred years ago (before radio and television) all ordinary working
people did. In Emily Bronte's book Wuthering Heights the old man Joseph
speaks Yorkshire dialect:
“Take these in tuh t'maister, lad. Un' bide theare.
Aw's gang up tuh my awn rahm.” (Take these in to the master, boy. And stay
there. I'm going up to my own room.)
Don't worry. Joseph doesn't say very much in the book
- the rest is in normal English!
In a country like New
Zealand, English is the first language. In fact it’s the only language for most
people. About 100,000 Maoris have their own language, but they also speak
English. Most of this book is about countries where English is the first
language – Canada, Ireland, the USA and so on.
But in more than sixty other countries English is a
second language. The government, business and universities use it. Some of the
people, but not all, speak it well and use it for certain parts of their lives.
IV. Conclusion.
I enjoy
learning English, it is really great' I like to learn new words, to look up in
the dictionary their meanings. English grammar is difficult, but I try hard to
understand it, to learn the rules, to put them into practice.
I think it is very
interesting to read English books, newspapers, magazines. I came to know a lot
of exciting facts and new things. It is like a new world where you can enter if
you know the language.
English folklore is very rich.
I believe, it is good to know English proverbs and tongue-twisters, English
rhymes and limericks. English sayings and songs.
When you learn
tongue-twisters, it helps you to improve your phonetics.
I know quite a number of them.
Here is a good one:
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper:
A peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked:
If
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper
Where's
the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked!
This one is my favorite:
A
thatcher of Thatchwood went to Thatchet a-thatching
Did a
thatcher of Thatchwood go to Thatchet a-thatching?
If a
thatchcr of Thatchwood went to Thatchet a-thatching
Where's
the thatching the thatcher of Thatchwood has thatched?
While writing my research paper report I had to read a lot of books on
English History I came to know a lot of English folk songs, they are simple and
nice. Some of them help me to learn words. Solomon Grundy is a folk song it
helps you to remember the days of the week. It is a sad song/ but 1 the same
it’s funny too.
Solomon Grundy
Born on Monday
Christened on Tuesday
Married on Wednesday
Ill on Thursday
Worse on Friday
Died on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
This is the end
Of poor old Solomon Grundy.
English proverbs are useful in
many situations. Here are a few examples. When there's a will, there's a way.
Or: All’s well that ends well. No sweet
without sweat. Lend money and lose a friend. East or West, home is best.
English jokes are very funny.
They often laugh at nationalities of the British Isles. Here is a typical
one. “An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman were alone on a desert
island.” One day the Englishman found an old bottle. He broke it and out came
a genie. The genie said: “I'll give you and your friends three wishes. But
choose well, because you may have only one wish each” “My wish is quite simple”,
- said the Englishman, - “I wish to be taken home”. “Your wish is my
command”, - said the genie, and the Englishman disappeared. “Yes, I'd like the
same”, - said the Scotsman. And in a minute he was at home as well. Then the
genie turned to the Irishman. “And what about you? What's your wish?” The
Irishman thought a little and then said: “I'm very lonely without my friends.
I wish they were back here with me.”
English literature has very rich
traditions. English poetry is well known in the world best Russian poets
translated English poetry into Russian. But of course, when you study English
it's a pleasure to learn English poems in the original. My favorite poem is
“If by R. Kipling. I think, he gives very good advice for the young people in this
poem.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are loosing theirs and blaming it on you*
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master:
If you
can think - and not make thoughts your aim.
If you
can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And
treat those two imposters just the same.
You can
bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted
by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or
watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And
stoop and build them up with worn-out tools:
If you
can make one heap of all your winnings
And
risk it on one turn of pitch and toss,
And
lose, and start again at your beginning
And
never breathe a word about your loss;
If you
can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To
serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so
hold on when there is nothing in you
Except
the will which says to them; “Hold on!”
If you
can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk
with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If
neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all
men count with you, out non much;
If you
can *ill the unforgiving minute
With
sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.
Yours
is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And –
which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
Yes, to
learn English is such a fun, indeed!!!
List of Literature
1. Speak Out 3/2001 – pages 2-4 Èçäàòåëüñòâî «ÃËÎÑÑÀ».
2. Áîðèñîâ Â.Ñ., Áîðèñîâà
Ë.Ì. «Àíãëèéñêèé íå äëÿ âñåõ»
3.
Mark Farrell
«The World Of English» England Longman 1995.
4.
James
O’Driscoll «Britain» Oxford University England Press 1995.
5.
«Treasures
Of Historical English» Áîðèñîâà Ë.Ì.
6.
«History And
Mystery Of The English Words» Áîðèñîâà Ë.Ì.
7.
G.C. Thorney
«An Outline Of English Literature» England Longman 1984.
Supplement
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