treefingers
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As in when did it start, and how was each word given a name/definition etc. This question can apply to language in general as well.
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Education & Reference How was the English language invented?
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as a progression from grunting
Shakespeare invented a fair few words too
Shakespeare invented a fair few words too
No real "invention" date. It's formed over thousands of years. To get back to its original roots, you'd be looking at when language first came into existence. The development and alteration of a language is a pretty organic process, and one that is constantly occurring.
English is also a real mongrel of a language, pieced together from a whole variety of other languages over the years. Compared to most other languages, it lacks simple rules and structure.
For what it's worth, though, English is primarily a Germanic language.
It developed from the languages of the Angles and the Saxons, who were german tribes that began to invade and occupy Britain around the 6th and 7th centuries, I believe. The language spoken in England before that would've been Celtic-based (which survive in Gaelic, Scots-Gaelic, and Welsh).
Specifically, English grammar is most like German grammar, which is why English speakers will find a lot of German sentences appear to make much more grammatical sense ("Was ist das?") than other Latin-based western european languages, where verbs, nouns, articles and modifiers will appear in different orders.
There is, however, a very hefty dose of Latin and Greek vocabulary in English, along with the odd word from all across the globe ("ombudsman" is Scandanavian, "pyjama" is Hindi, "pokemon" is Japanese).
There are a few recognised "stages" of English.
Old English was the language spoken in England from the Anglo-Saxon and Scandanavian invasions up until to the Norman conquest. It is pretty unrecognisable to modern English eyes and ears . The most famous "Old English" text would be Beowulf. Have a look at an untranslated page and see how much makes sense - probably not a lot, although, technically, it is still "English".
Middle English developed from the time of the Norman invasion (Battle of Hastings and all that). Around this time, a whole lot of latin and french-dervied words crossed the channel with the Normans. The Canterbury Tales is the most famous Middle-English work, and, as you can see, makes a whole lot more sense than Beowulf to the modern reader, although it's still pretty different from English as we know it.
Modern English really develops around the time of Shakespeare (who plays a big role in this himself, though not as much as the King James Bible).
You can look at an original piece of writing from this period, and once you wrap your head around the various spellings (there was no "correct" way to spell most words then - people just made it up as they went along), it is pretty much totally comprehensible to the modern reader. A few pronoun cases we no longer use (like "thou"), but it's pretty much modern english.
This wikipedia page has a version of the "Our Father" prayer from each of the three periods to compare.
It's also around this time that the various dialects spoken across England really start to be subsumed by "London" english, a process that didn't happen in other European countries until far later (as late as the early 20th century in Italy, and even now differences remain).
"Standard" spelling only really began to be properly codified in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the devleopment of dictionaries, and the growth of education.
Finally, the English alphabet is just the ancient Roman alphabet, with a couple of new characters - and, for what it's worth, the Roman alphabet has its origins in the Ancient Greek alphabet.
So, yeah, it took a while.
English is also a real mongrel of a language, pieced together from a whole variety of other languages over the years. Compared to most other languages, it lacks simple rules and structure.
For what it's worth, though, English is primarily a Germanic language.
It developed from the languages of the Angles and the Saxons, who were german tribes that began to invade and occupy Britain around the 6th and 7th centuries, I believe. The language spoken in England before that would've been Celtic-based (which survive in Gaelic, Scots-Gaelic, and Welsh).
Specifically, English grammar is most like German grammar, which is why English speakers will find a lot of German sentences appear to make much more grammatical sense ("Was ist das?") than other Latin-based western european languages, where verbs, nouns, articles and modifiers will appear in different orders.
There is, however, a very hefty dose of Latin and Greek vocabulary in English, along with the odd word from all across the globe ("ombudsman" is Scandanavian, "pyjama" is Hindi, "pokemon" is Japanese).
There are a few recognised "stages" of English.
Old English was the language spoken in England from the Anglo-Saxon and Scandanavian invasions up until to the Norman conquest. It is pretty unrecognisable to modern English eyes and ears . The most famous "Old English" text would be Beowulf. Have a look at an untranslated page and see how much makes sense - probably not a lot, although, technically, it is still "English".
Middle English developed from the time of the Norman invasion (Battle of Hastings and all that). Around this time, a whole lot of latin and french-dervied words crossed the channel with the Normans. The Canterbury Tales is the most famous Middle-English work, and, as you can see, makes a whole lot more sense than Beowulf to the modern reader, although it's still pretty different from English as we know it.
Modern English really develops around the time of Shakespeare (who plays a big role in this himself, though not as much as the King James Bible).
You can look at an original piece of writing from this period, and once you wrap your head around the various spellings (there was no "correct" way to spell most words then - people just made it up as they went along), it is pretty much totally comprehensible to the modern reader. A few pronoun cases we no longer use (like "thou"), but it's pretty much modern english.
This wikipedia page has a version of the "Our Father" prayer from each of the three periods to compare.
It's also around this time that the various dialects spoken across England really start to be subsumed by "London" english, a process that didn't happen in other European countries until far later (as late as the early 20th century in Italy, and even now differences remain).
"Standard" spelling only really began to be properly codified in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the devleopment of dictionaries, and the growth of education.
Finally, the English alphabet is just the ancient Roman alphabet, with a couple of new characters - and, for what it's worth, the Roman alphabet has its origins in the Ancient Greek alphabet.
So, yeah, it took a while.
treefingers
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Wow, thanks for that. It's interesting how it has changed so much over time. I wonder what it will be like in a thousand years.
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revert back to grunts?
lol
danielcan
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Much respect to J Moore for such a comprehensive response.
Strangely, Die Welt recently explored why Germans speak German... "Warum wir Deutsch sprechen, nicht Schwäbisch"
An equally fascinating discussion that follows on from OP is how English became the lingua franca of the world.
Strangely, Die Welt recently explored why Germans speak German... "Warum wir Deutsch sprechen, nicht Schwäbisch"
An equally fascinating discussion that follows on from OP is how English became the lingua franca of the world.
If you're keen on further info and up for a great read, I would recommend
Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Very funny book but explains the evolution of English from German and French to name a few.
It's available as an orange cover Penguin Classic for about $10
Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Very funny book but explains the evolution of English from German and French to name a few.
It's available as an orange cover Penguin Classic for about $10
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The old SBS series, "The adventure of English" tells you all that J_Moore just said. Can be a bit boring in parts, but equally as interesting in others.
lets answer you in a quickie. There were a number of tribes prevalent in England. One of the tribes had Ingles as their language. There were constant fights between each tribe. When the Ingles won then naturally their language Inglish which later spelled English became the official language of the country. Throughout several centuries this language suffered many changes. Now also it is ever evolving and becoming a completely new language than what it was previously.
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This might be hard to explain but I have always wondered how/why "swear words" were exactly that. Like just as one example, why is the word F**K such a bad word? When it was invented, why couldn't it just be normal like most other words?
Who deemed what was an offensive term and what wasn't?
Who deemed what was an offensive term and what wasn't?
A few of our swear words are from Norwegian (I think), I don't know why they became rude though. I did linguistics last year at uni but bombed it otherwise I could've blitzed this thread because this is exactley what we were sposed to study
.On another note a lot of English language and literature was lost when I think the Vikings invaded (or whoever it was). If anyone's every heard old English spoken it sounds like German.
WorldGame94
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Based on Latin like most European Languages i think. Then mixed with the anglo/Northern languages of the middleages.
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Some scholars and linguists have argued controversially that in this day in age English is a latin language spoken with a German tongue.
It could technically be both a latin language and a germanic language.
Old egnlish is definitely a germanic language but modern english resembles latin more
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Syntax and grammar reflects a Germanic origin, as do the most fundamental components of the language. To be, to have, etc. If you ever study a Latin language you will see the huge differences between the way we compose sentences and the way Latin languages do.
The Norman invasion has resulted in us borrowing many words of Latinate origin, but that doesn't make it Latin at all - especially given that so many Latinate words in our language also have a Germanic equivalent which we can choose to use. I think the structure and style of a language is more important. And not only that, we have countless words from Greek and many other languages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IndoEuropeanTree.svg
As The Adventure of English indicates, it's a mongrel language that has incorporated many strong influences over time. The Western Germanic one was the greatest influence, mainly because it drew together the then segregating celtic languages, but there have been very strong influences from the 'wogs and frogs' (that rhymes Marge, you know it rhymes...admit it!).
One of the highlights of that doco was seeing how even further back how the languages evolved from Sanskrit.
One of the highlights of that doco was seeing how even further back how the languages evolved from Sanskrit.
WorldGame94
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English is actually closer to Latin languages like italian, french etc.. if you don't believe the historic facts, then listen to the similarities between many words in english and words in french, and italian etc... you will find that there are far more words and phrases that sound similar in these languages than languages such as german and polish.
Meh. I've studied a Latin language, I'm aware of the similarities. It also means I'm aware of the huge differences in sentence structure. The way a language is constructed is what gives it its identity, not its vocabulary. Vocabulary doesn't make it closer to Latin at all. No language expert would ever argue that English was closer to a Latin language. Borrowed words at best replaced existing Germanic ones (and in many cases there is still a Germanic option - holiday vs vacation, for example) - it didn't change the way the language was spoken. English and Latin languages pronounce many letters differently, and letters combine to form different sounds. It's far easier to fake a good German accent than an Italian one (let alone French).
BTW, look at some German or Dutch some time and note all the similar roots (and also, only about two words in that sentence actually have a Latin root - 'note' and 'similar'. And two in this one!). And their concepts are far more mutually understandable, than a Germanic and Latin language. Germanic sentence structure is far more easily translated into English than a Latin language. In fact syntax is almost identical with some of the Scandinavian languages - just substitute new words! You can't say this for a Latin language.
The historic facts are in the link I provided, if you bothered to click it. I'm hardly just making it up that English is a Germanic language. That's what it's classified as. Textbook. Don't be deceived by superficial differences - here, have a fun toy to play with. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php
Anyway, you destroyed your credibility or demonstrated your complete ignorance when you said "Polish". Polish isn't a Germanic language (and yet I found it just as easy to 'guess' what was written on many signs in Poland as I did in France - why does this similarity not also deceive you?).
Or maybe you all destroy your credibility when you misunderstand the meaning of the word 'related'. I have more similar hair colour to my best friend than my brother, so does that mean I'm more closely related to her?
Go read a book or two on the subject, please. Or at least read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#Classification_and_related_languages
Note the section on the closest relatives of English (Scots and Frisian) and the discussion on the borrowing of French words which have acquired English pronunciation and stress.
(Some) words are borrowed. The language is not.
danielcan
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Germanic.
The definitive reference is from Ethnologue.
More on Indo-European languages here.
To paraphrase BomberGal more briefly, borrowed vocabulary from other language families eg Latin, French, Italian etc occurs in all other languages BUT the incidence of borrowed words doesn't change how English is defined as a Germanic language.
As a German speaker, ich find there are more similarities mit Englisch. Zum Beispiel, the cases like nominative und accusative although in Englisch, we drop the genitive und dative cases. Then there are similarities in conjugating verbs, und past und imperfect tenses.
As a sometimes speaker of French and Italian, I find those two to be more similar and they are, being Italic-Romance languages.
There are also plenty of English words that originated from Greek, but that doesn't make English a Greek language.
It is not about vocabulary and borrowed words, but the origin of the language (not words here and there).
The definitive reference is from Ethnologue.
More on Indo-European languages here.
To paraphrase BomberGal more briefly, borrowed vocabulary from other language families eg Latin, French, Italian etc occurs in all other languages BUT the incidence of borrowed words doesn't change how English is defined as a Germanic language.
As a German speaker, ich find there are more similarities mit Englisch. Zum Beispiel, the cases like nominative und accusative although in Englisch, we drop the genitive und dative cases. Then there are similarities in conjugating verbs, und past und imperfect tenses.
As a sometimes speaker of French and Italian, I find those two to be more similar and they are, being Italic-Romance languages.
There are also plenty of English words that originated from Greek, but that doesn't make English a Greek language.
It is not about vocabulary and borrowed words, but the origin of the language (not words here and there).
BomberGal, I clicked your link (the first one) but it didn't work. Nonetheless you are 100% correct, as I'm sure you're aware.
Related to the 'language spread/superceded by war' point, is language mutated by trade. Before large-scale migration, language barriers mirrored geographical/cultural bordersI have a German mate whose mother grew up near the border with France. On either side of the border the people speak German, French and an old school hybrid of the two.
The evolution of language is the story of the growth of mankind and thus is endlessly fascinating.
Related to the 'language spread/superceded by war' point, is language mutated by trade. Before large-scale migration, language barriers mirrored geographical/cultural bordersI have a German mate whose mother grew up near the border with France. On either side of the border the people speak German, French and an old school hybrid of the two.
The evolution of language is the story of the growth of mankind and thus is endlessly fascinating.
