delivered for my Communications Class of Public Speaking on The Transition of the English Language. I really enjoy history very much which is why some of my projects and knowledge reflect this. I could not include everything in the speech due to there being time limit, so this basically an overall speech on the topic I chose.
Imagine yourselves in the year 600 AD in England. Since you speak the
English language, you might think that you would have no problem
understanding the inhabitants. But this is what you might actually hear…
“Hwaet! We Gar-Dena in gear-dagum”! Did anyone comprehend what I just said? Linguists, people who study languages, have recently discovered interesting links to explain how our English evolved from the Old English (what you just heard) of the Anglo-Saxons in England. In my speech I will be talking about some very big events that occurred which changed Old English into the form we speak today: from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, to the Viking settlements in the 700s, to the Norman
Conquest in 1066, then via the standardization brought by writing and the
printing press, and finally, throughout globalization.
Have you ever wondered why nearly all European languages such as Spanish, French, and German, require the proper use of gendered nouns? For example, in Spanish you say el libro for book, which is masculine, while you say la pluma for pen, which is feminine. However, in today’s English we say, the book and the pen, because English considers objects to be without gender. Linguists have provided us with an explanation as to how English came to be the only European language to lose these gendered forms.
For now, let us return to England, before large numbers of Vikings settled
in the mid 9th centuries. At that time, the native tongue Old English did
have gendered nouns. For instance, sço sunne (the Sun) was feminine, while se môna (the Moon) was masculine. However, then generations of Vikings came in contact with this language when they intermarried with the Anglo-Saxons, and ended up changing the language. Apparantly the adult Vikings, in the same way that all adults have trouble learning a foreign language, simplified much of the Old English grammar, and the genders of objects were eventually lost. The masculine moon became an it rather than a he. Another smoothing out that occurred was the loss of some initial consonant sounds. To illustrate, the hwaet of Old English lost the initial H sound to become the what of today.
After the Vikings, came the Norman Conquest in 1066. Interestingly enough, William the Conqueror, the leader of the invading Normans, also had Viking roots. Notice that he was called William, rather than the French equivalent, Guillame. As a result of the conquest, the Normans settled in Enlgand and brought along their government, religion, and cuisine, which is itself a French word. While the Vikings easily assimilated, the Normans insisted on establishing themselves as an upper class having their own culture of high status.
The English Parliament and the official records of all government
proceedings were written down in Norman French for 300 years. Even after
government speeches were shifted to English, the written records remained in French for the next sixty years until Henry V established English the
official language. Nevertheless this English, now called Middle English, had
been changing significantly. This English had borrowed and Norman French
words such as prince, dame, master, court, rent, poor, rich, prison, crown,
purple, and prove. These words themselves show the separation of the English people into a class under the Norman French.
While the common people were speaking English, the imported Norman Church proceedings where conducted in Latin. Literature was also written in Latin as the more educated language, linked to classical Rome. Borrowing from Latin, English took on the Latin religious terms of prophet, saint, miracle, and paradise. Meanwhile, the Normans changed the way the English talked about their food on the table. The Norman word for pig was pork. Even today we don’t say we’re having pig for dinner; we say we’re having pork. Overall, English became a trilingual country where English, French, and Latin were all spoken. However, after the Black Death the surviving common people became more valuable due to the scarcity of labor. As a result, the laborers native tongue of English assumed even a greater proportion among the three languages.
Next I will move on to the transition into Modern English. An important
change took place, which caused English to sound distinctly different from
every other European language. This event, called the Great Vowel Shift,
mainly developed in the 1400s thanks to written English and the printing
press, resulting in a greater standardization of English. Before the vowel
shift, the English pronounced the vowels in the European way of: ah, eh, ee, aw, ooh. In contrast, today we say a, e, i, o, u. The vowel shift included a middle transition way of saying these vowel sounds. In Middle English,
modern words such as mice were pronounced “mees.” With the Vowel Shift, “mees” was changed into “moice,” which was then changed to “mah-ees.” Today we say a shortened form, mice. If you want to get an idea of what the Vowel Shift sounded like, listen to pirate talk in the next pirate movie you see. Linguists speculate that “Pirate English” remained stuck in this vowel shift because these raiders lived far away from where standardized English was developing. Instead of saying mate, the pirates say mataye as in “ahoy mataye.”
To summarize, we can now see why there is a tremendous change in how Old English sounds in comparison to our Modern English. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, English currently has over 600,000 words—which is more than any other language. For instance, French has only 100,000 words. The flexibility and openness of the English language has contributed to its use as a world language as globalization progresses. English continues to absorb new words and to become even richer in its power of expression and communication of technological advances.
Other Notes:
I originally completed and delivered this speech a month. which I got 100%
on and my class really liked my speech
--Though I do not like to brag.What made me interested in the transition of English was as to why all the
other branches of Indo-European languages had gender meaning to all their words and why English did not. I also had trouble with trying to learn
Spanish because of the gender meanings. No offense to anyone though.
There is still more to find out and explore on the transition of English.
I had made a visual aid for my speech presentation but I do not know where my digital camera is.
The Anglo-Saxons arrived at the British Isles around the mid-5th century.
Vikings were also raiding England while some just settled down.
“Hwaet! We Gar-Dena in gear-dagum” is actually the first line in the English
Epic of Beowulf which translates in Modern English as "So! We of the
Spear-Danes in days gone by."
When saying Old English words, all of the consonants and vowels are used.
Also the area of South-Western England, informally known as West Country, has not totally gone along with the Vowel shift, so a West Country accent would sound similiar to Pirate English.
The closest living relative of the English Language besides creole
languages, is Scots (also know as Lowland Scots to distinguish it from
Scottish Gaelic which is spoken in the Highlands), for it descends from Old
English. The next closest language related to English is Frisian
Bibliography:
“Beowulf” Learning Changing Language. The British Library Board. 29 Sept.
2006
.
“Black Death Image.” The Royston Tapestry. Royston and District Museum. 14
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2006 .
Durkin, Phillip. History of English. Oxford University Press. 29 Sept. 2006
.
“English Language” Wikipedia. 6 Oct. 2006. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 8 Oct.
2006
.
Jarrett, Julia. “Illustration of Anglo-Saxon Settlement.” Archaeological
Illustration by
Students at Leicester University. 2001-2006. Association of Archaeological
Illustrators & Surveyors. 14 Oct. 2006
.
Lerer, Seth. Lectures: The History of the English Language. Audio Cassette.
Lectures: 8,
9, and 14. The Teaching Company Limited Partnership. Springfield , VA. 1996.
McWhorter, John. Lectures: The Story of Human Language CD Disk 13. Lecture
25.
The Teaching Company Limited Partnership. Chantilly, VA. 2004.
Samuels, Edward. “Printing Press Image.” The Illustrated Story of Copyright.
2000. 14 Oct. 2006
.
“Viking Ship Image.” Who Discovered America? Queens University of Charlotte.
14 Oct. 2006 .
