The History of the English Language

I - ANGLO SAXONS
1. "Up your Caesar" - This English phrase was used when the Romans left Britain. After that the Anglo-Saxons and the Jutes came to Britain bringing their vocab.
  1. Their vocab was consisted of words for simple everyday things such as: HOUSE - WOMAN- LOAF -WEREWOLF
    1. Moreover, four days of the week were named in honour of Anglo-Saxons´s gods: TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY- THURSDAY- FRIDAY
Latin was a hit fot the locals and some words from it were incorporated such as: FONT - BISHOP- MARTYR
Vikings (c.800) introduced around 2000 new words, among them: DRAG - RANSACK -THRUST-DIE as well as the phrase : "Watch out for that man with the enormous axe"
II- THE NORMAN CONQUEST
1. In 1066 William the Conqueror invaded England and brought new concepts from across the channel like the French language. Some examples are: JUDGE (1290)- JURY (1400) - EVIDENCE (1300) - JUSTICE (1154)
2. latin was still used at churches but the common man spoke English.
3. English speaking farmers VS French words: COW vs BEEF - SHEEP vs MUTTON- SWAIN vs PORK
4. The English language absorbed 10.000 new words from the Normans. The bonhomie ended when the 100 years war against France begun. English took over as the language of power.
III- SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
1. 2000 new words and phrases were invented by W. Shakespeare.
  1. Words such as: EYEBALL- PUPPY DOG -ANCHOVY - DAUNTLESS - BESMIRCH - LACKLUSTRE - ALLIGATOR
  2. Phrases such as: Hob nob - Flesh and Blood - Out of the house and home- Dead as a doornail- A good riddance- be given a short shrift- be hoisted by your own petard
2. Shakespeare poetry showed the world that English was a rich, vibrant language with limitless expressive and emotional power.
IV - THE KING JAMES BIBLE
1. In 1611 King James fostered an new translation of the Bible (Labor of Love) which could be understood by all men. It was a glossary of metaphors and morality. These changes still shape the way English is spoken today.
  1. Some examples were : " A leopard can´t change its spots" "A bird in a hand is worth two in a bush".
V- THE ENGLISH OF SCIENCE
1. Many physicists such as : Robert Hooke (1635-1703) - Robert Boyle (1627-1691) - Isaac Newton (1643-1727) formed the Royal Society in 1660. At first they worked in Latin (E.g. A POMUM falling to the TERRA from the ARBOR) but then they relized that all of them spoke English and they could transform their understandinig of the universe much quicker by talking in their own language.
2. New descoveries were named : ACID (1626) - GRAVITY (1641) - ELECTRICITY (1646) - PENDULUM (1660) - CARDIAC (1601)- TONSIL (1601) - OVARY (1658) - STERNUM (1667) - PENIS (1693) - VAGINA (1682) - CLITORIS (1615)
VI- ENGLISH AND EMPIRE
1. With English making its name as the language of Science, the Bible and Shakespeare, Britain decided to take it on tour. They went to the Caribean and discovered things such as : the BARBAQUE (1650) the CANOE (1550) and CANNIBALS (1550).
2. From India they incorporated words such as: YOGA (1820)- CUMMERBAND (1610)- BUNGALOW (1670)
3. From Africa they learned : VUDU (1870) - ZOMBIE (1871)
4. From Australia they learned words such as : NUGGET (1852) - BOOMERANG (1827) - WALKABOUT (1828)
VII- THE AGE OF THE DICTIONARY
1. With English expanding in all directions along came bid of men called lexicographers.
  1. Between 1746 and 1755 a Dictionary of the English Language was written with 42773 entries. People was able to know the meaning of words such as: PICKLEHERRING- JOBBERNOWL- FOPDOODLE
  2. In 1857 appeared the Oxford dictionary which has been revised till nowadays.
VIII- AMERICAN ENGLISH
1. From the moment Brits first landed in America they needed names for all the new plants and animals. They borrowed some words from the native americans such as : RACCOON - SQUASH -MOOSE
2. The Dutch arrived with words such as: COOKIES (1703)
3. The Germans arrived (1856) with words such as: PRETZEL and DELIKATESSEN.
4. The Italians brought words such as: PIZZA (1935) - PASTA (1874)- MAFIA (1875)
5. America spread a new language of Capitalism getting everyone worried about: BREAKDOWN (1914) - BOTTOM LINE (1967)- BLUE CHIP (1929)- WHITE COLLAR (1865)- FREEWAYS (1930)- SUBWAYS (1893) -DOWNSIZING - COOL MOVIES (1937)- GROOVY JAZZ (1913)
IX- INTERNET ENGLISH
1. In 1972 the first e-mail was sent and in 1991 the Internet arrived. New words were incorporated to the language such as : DOWNLOAD (1980)- TOOLBAR (1991) - FIREWALL (1990)
2. Abbreviations were commonly used: "MHO = In my humble opinion" - "BTW= By the way" - "FYI= For your information"- "LOL= Lough out loud, or, Lots of love"- "UG2BK= You´ve got to be kidding"
X- GLOBAL ENGLISH
1. In the 1500 years since the Romans left Britain, the English language has incorporated and absorbed words from over 3050 other languages and has established itself as a global institution.
2. Nowadays 1.5 billion people speak English. Of those, about 1/4 are native speakers; 1/4 speaks it as an L2 and 1/2 are able to use it but not proficiently.
3. In conclusion, this language has so little to do with England these days, it may well be stop called English.

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	Created by Mauricio Perez over 7 years ago