ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1: AN OVERVIEW

 

Dear Students,

The purpose of this course is to encourage you to acquire/develop the mental and intellectual underpinning for English Language Two, the latter being essentially practical and linguistic in nature. It aims to provide some insight into the development of English since its arrival in Britain following the Roman departure. Attention will be paid to German, Nordic, French, Latin and Greek influences, as well as to recent developments, such as those engendered by the British Empire, the USA and the globalisation of business.

The course takes the form of a series of lectures, which are but the tip of the iceberg, merely providing you with a door to your own research and study. You are encouraged to share the results of your studies with the class, helping not only your fellow students, but your lecturer. We are, after all, in the same boat, even if I am at the helm. Evaluation will be by unseen short written essays. I shall provide some examples of questions at the end of this hopefully helpful guide.

The course kicks off with the early story of English. The main language spoken in Britain was Vrionic (there are various spellings!), from the name of the main Celtic tribe of Britain, hence the name ‘Britannia’, given by the Romans. There were of course variations, such us Gaelic, spoken by another Celtic tribe, the Gaels, many of whom moved to Scotland and Ireland. It is significant that the Roman Tacitus wrote that the languages of Gaul and Britain were similar. The Romans introduced the alphabet to the illiterate Britons, and left a few words such as ‘street’, which derives from ‘strata’. Many places also have a name derived from Latin, such as ‘Chester’, deriving from the Latin for ‘castle’, ‘castrum’. Because the Romans did not settle in Britain to the same extent as they did in Gaul, their cultural influence was less than it was across the Channel, where more Latin entered the Celtic spoken in France.

By 410 AD, the last Roman legions had left Britain to go and protect Rome against the onslaught of barbarian invaders. In 449, pagan German hordes invaded Romano-Celtic Britain, thus initiating a dark and chaotic period of around two hundred years, when a huge number of Britons, many of whom were Christian, were pushed westwards. The three main German tribes were the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Their brand of German is known as ‘Old English’ or ‘Anglo-Saxon’. Some Celtic words nevertheless survive to this day, mainly in place-names such as ‘aber’, which means ‘mouth’. Hence ‘Aberdeen’, ‘Thames’ and ‘tor’(peak).

Thus in most of the area that would become known as ‘England’, Old English became the main language. The next linguistic invasion was that of the Vikings, both northern and Danish, who spoke Norse (itself a very early form of German). It had less endings, and thus influenced Old English to the extent of removing some endings. There are around one thousand eight hundred words of Norse origin in the English language today, such as ‘window’, ‘skirt’, ‘Thursday’ (from the Norse god, Thor), ‘wing’, ‘take’, ‘slaughter’, ‘awkward’ and ‘rotten’. Apart from this, about one thousand five hundred places in Britain have names deriving from Norse, such as places ending in ‘-thorpe’ (village), ‘-by’ (farm) and ‘-thwaite’ (isolated area). Needless to say, such names are found mainly in the North. It is the same with people’s names. ‘Mallinson’, for example, derives from Norse.

In 1066, with the Norman invasion of what was beginning to be known as ‘Englalond’, a dramatic infusion of French words began to infiltrate Old English. The Normans, although originally illiterate Danish Vikings who had settled in northwestern France, had found a culture far superior to theirs, and therefore become almost more French than the French. French became the official language of England, as a result of which thousands of French words also passed into the spoken English of the masses in the wake of the written additions.Many of these French words were based on Latin, some of the latter deriving from Greek. Examples of this influx include ‘baron’, ‘council’ (‘conseil’ in French, from the Latin ‘consilium’), minister, tyrant (began with Greek!), ‘treaty’, ‘creator’, ‘immortality’(the French ‘é’ became ‘y’), ‘accuse’, ‘pardon’, ‘fashion’ (from ‘façon’), ‘vinegar’, ’oyster’, ‘certain’, ‘conversation’ and ‘forest’. By 1150, this had all led to what we call ‘Middle English’. Today, the word ‘kingly’ is from Old and Middle English, ’royal’ from French, and ‘regal’ from Latin. Similarly, we have the words ‘ask’, ’question’ and ‘interrogate’. With the introduction of French words, some verb endings were also cut off. For example, the archaic ‘thou givest, he giveth’ has become’ ‘you give, he gives’. Generally, the similarity between Old and Middle English with modern German is remarkable, which is why English is still a Germanic language.

With the arrival of the Normans, the development of English spelling was held up and altered, since the Norman scribes wrote down what they heard, with interesting results. For example, ‘cween’ became ‘queen’. Consider what would happen if modern Italians invaded England, and applied the Roman alphabet to the word ‘queer’, from simply listening to it. They might end up with ‘cuir’. Apart from that, English had not yet developed into a standard language: there were various spelling systems and pronunciations in different parts of the country. It was the East Midland dialect that ended up predominating, since it was spoken in the South East. At any rate, the Norman invasion helps to explain why, even today, pronunciation is ahead of spelling, and why English is hardly phonetically comprehensible to many learners. English seems to have few rules in pronunciation.

The replacement  of French as the official language by English in 1400, during the so-called One Hundred Years’ War, also had a galvanising effect on the language, with various vowel alterations also taking place. For example, ‘noo’ became ‘now’. In Scotland today, many people nevertheless still say ‘noo’. With the advent of printing through William Caxton in 1476, we see the use of a rarefied East Midland English of the London area, and what we can term ‘early modern English’. The Renaissance was now in full swing, and wending its way to England. Indeed, years before, Chaucer had already gleaned much from his continental travels with the king’s court. The writings of William Shakespeare and his homologues epitomise the fine-tuning and beautifying of English. The influence of the Grammar Schools, where Greek and Latin were taught, also led to the introduction and invention of new words. Shakespeare is credited with having invented thousands of new words and expressions, such as ‘tower of strength’, ‘in my mind’s eye’, ‘cold comfort’ and ‘assassination’. From the Fifteenth Century onwards, more words poured in, the result of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Age of Exploration. To name but some, we have ‘catastrophe’, ‘chaos’, ‘scheme’, ‘criterion’ (Latin and Greek), ‘bayonet’, ‘colonel’, ‘detail’ and ‘grotesque’ (French), ‘design’, ‘sonnet’, ‘grotto’ and ‘carnival’ (Italian), ‘anchovy’, ‘banana’ and ‘hurricane’ (Spanish and Portuguese), and ‘bazaar’ and ‘caravan’ (Persian). From imperial Britain, we have words like ‘bungalow’ (Bengali) and ‘thug’ (from the Indian tugees, who robbed and strangled you). And what about such words as ‘serendipity’? The word was actually coined from an old Ceylonese story, made popular by Horace Walpole in the Eighteenth Century, ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’, who used to come across pleasant things by chance.

The linguistic invasion did not stop with the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. In the Eighteenth Century, various French ‘loan words’ came in, for example ‘bouquet’, ‘canteen’, ‘clique’, ‘espionage’ and ‘souvenir’. In the Nineteenth, we have such words as ‘acrobat’, ‘beige’, ‘chauffeur’ and ‘volte-face’, while in the Twentieth, ‘au pair’, ‘brassiere’, ‘fuselage’, ‘garage’ and others entered. The Industrial Revolution also had a certain effect, with a whole host of medical and other terminology, often based on Greek. Even the word ‘psychology’ is based on Greek, although I am not sure that it ever existed in ancient Greek.

Then of course we have the story of the ‘Americanisation’ of English, with a plethora of words and expressions, often euphemistic, such as ‘collateral damage’. Some people in England now use the word ‘apartment’ instead of ‘flat’. I have even seen ‘airplane’ instead of ‘aeroplane’. ‘On the weekend’ (instead of ‘at the weekend’) has also slithered in.

Obviously, language is constantly developing, perhaps faster in Britain, where no official language academy exists as, for example, in France. But do not forget that signs of the beautiful past exist in various corners of the land, not to delve too deeply into Scotland and Wales. In Cumbria, you can still hear: ‘Aas gaan doon to’t holmes to laik aboot a bit at’t beck’, which means: ‘I am going down to the flat fields to play about a little by the stream’. Here we see northern Viking influence.

Although Britannia no longer rules the waves, at least not on her own, some say that she waives the rules. Whether this last criticism holds true or not is a moot point, but it could be true as regards language, where flexibility seems to be a strength. Is English simply a predator language, or a linguistic sponge, taking in and modifying meanings at will? And is English a ‘substitute language’, since more people now speak it as a second language than a first one? Is true English a dying language? Has English polluted other languages, destroying indigenous words, or enriched them? And is it American English that has done this, or English English? Will the speakers of decent, traditional English be limited to a small group of linguistic dinosaurs in fifty years?

At any rate, the actual examination will test your understanding of the development of English. Typical questions from past exam papers have been:

‘How did English become English?’

‘If you think that William Shakespeare influenced English, how did he do it?’

‘Is English dying?’

‘What did the Vikings do to English?’

If you happen to think that learning these few pages parrot-fashion will enable you to pass my examination, think again: they represent only a skeletal outline. I shall immediately see through any examination paper that appears to rely only on this brief guide! Most marks will be awarded for evidence of originality and thinking, as well as of knowledge. Have fun!

 

Yours faithfully,

William Mallinson,

24 October 2011 in the year of our Lord.