Transcript The History of the English Language

The History
of the
English Language
a boring way to say
“english..and how it got that way!!”
English 101
More than 300 million people in the world speak it!
Considered “common tongue”
--still has its issues
Ex: American English
vs. British English
The Brits
The Yanks
VS.
They say “Loo” or “W.C.”
We say “bathroom!”
They say…bloke
We say…guy
They say “solicitor”
We say…lawyer
The Brits
The Yanks
VS.
They say “silencer”
We say “muffler”
They say “boot”
We say “trunk”
English 101 cont.
157 of 168 airlines in world use English as
standard
In India, more than 3000 newspapers in English
EFTA (European Free Trade Assoc.) conduct
all business in English
“Puts us all at an equal disadvantage!”
What does that say??
What sets English apart?
Richness in vocabulary
Webster’s New Int. Dictionary lists 450,000 words
Revised Oxford English Dictionary--615,000
Total of 200,000 common usage
German--184,000
France--100,000
English limitations
Eskimos fifty words for snow
Italians 500 words for macaroni
What sets English apart?
Flexibility
Movement between active and passive
Ex: “I kicked the dog.” OR “The dog was
kicked by me.”
“Nerbs”--words that are nouns and verbs
Ex: drink, fight, sleep, silence, run, blame, cut,
look, view, reach, etc.
What sets English apart?
“Simple” spelling and pronunciation
“tchst”
“sthm”
Matchstick
Asthma
Catchphrase
“tchph”
No REAL way to measure quality or
efficiency of ANY language!
However…English has an edge…or two
What sets English apart?
The English “Edge”
1. Pronouns are uninflected
Ex: In German, seven words for “you”
Du, dich, dir, Sie, Ihnen, ihr, euch
2. Conciseness
Ex: Wirtschaftstreuhandgesellschaft (business trust
company)
In contrast, English uses many acronyms--IBM, NATO
What sets English apart?
Complexity--for better or for worse!
Example: The word “what”
“What” takes up 5 pages and 15, 000
words in the Oxford English Dictionary
English=illogical and complicated
The Idiot’s Guide to Idioms!
Idiom: a common expression that has acquired a
definition different from its literal meaning--“It’s
raining cats and dogs!”
LOTTERY TIME!
The BIG Questions
What is language and where does it
come from in the first place??
What’s the purpose of language??
Where do OUR words come from?
What is Language??
Language: a system of conventional
vocal signs by means of which human
beings communicate
Language affects how we think!
English= 11 color terms
Other languages= fewer colors
What is Language??
Three basic language roots:
Semitic
Hamitic
Indo-European
50% of world’s population
speaks a language underneath
this group
What is Language??
Origin of Indo-European:
Educated Guess: Inland area
between north Europe and
southern Russia
Reasons for that educated guess!
No common word for ocean
Plant names (alder, ash, elm,
oak, willow) of trees that grow in
temperate climate
Animal names (wolf, bear, etc.)
found in temperate areas; not
from Asia
Indo-European Origin
Some believe I.E. people were the
Kurgans who lived near Caucasus
region
Approx. 5000-3000 B.C.
People then scattered; languages
change
English Evolution Timeline
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
Anglo-Frisian
English Evolution Timeline Cont.
English
Old English
449-1100 A.D.
Middle English
1100-1500 A.D.
Modern English
1500-present
How Does Language Change?
Sound Changes
Semantic Changes
Word Creation
Loan Words
Sound Changes
Stress
Ex: theof
-----thief
Assimilation
Ex: cupboard
---kobard
Dissimilation
Ex: February
---Febyuary
Sound Changes
Ellipsis (to leave out)
Ex:
family
---famly
Intrusion
Ex:
warmth
---warmpth
Metathesis (transpose)
Ex:
comfterble
---comfortable
Sound Changes
Juncture
Ex: a napple
---an apple
Semantic Changes
Generalization
Mill orig. meant “making meal”
Specialization
Corn=Grain; now means “corn”
Desexed Language
Foreman=supervisor
Stewardess=flight attendant
Woperdaughter
Word Creation
Root Creation
Ex: Kodak, Nylon
Echoic Word
Words that sound like noises
Ex: bang, burp, splash, MOO!
What’s the literary term??
Onomatopoeia
Word Creation Cont.
Compounds
-two or more words put
together to form a new word
with a different meaning
Ex:
blackboard, fireman
hot rod
Word Creation Cont.
Amalgamated Compounds
Definition: words merged together,
but blended in a way that original
words are indistinguishable
Ex: Daisy=“eye of the day”
Word Creation Cont.
Clipped Form
Ex: bra, phone, zoo
Functional Shift
Word changed from one part of
speech to another
Ex: “head a committee”
“park a car”
Blend (twirl, smog, brunch, motel)
Loan Words
Greek
chlorine, acronym
Scandinavian
skin, ski, geyser
French
cigarette, picnic, police
Spanish
chocolate, macho
Italian
music terms
African
gorilla, voodoo, zombie
Loan Words
Dutch
boom, bouy, deck, shipper
German
luck, pretzel, gesundheit
Hebrew amen, rabbi, Jehovah
Arabic
alchemy, almanac, al-
American Indian
squaw, tomahawk, moccasin