English Language

What is English?

A short history of the origins and development of the English language

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders—mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from Englaland and their language was called Englisc—from which the words England and English are derived.

Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century.

Old English (450-1100 AD)
The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English.


Middle English (1100-1500)
In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

An example of Middle English by Chaucer.

Modern English
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.


Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.


Late Modern English (1800-Present)
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

Varieties of English
From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English).

Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.

The Germanic Family of Languages

English is a member of the Germanic family of languages.
Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.


A brief chronology of English
BC 55 Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar. Local inhabitants speak Celtish
BC 43 Roman invasion and occupation. Beginning of Roman rule of Britain.
436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete.
449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins
450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions. Old English
1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England.
c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English. Middle English
1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools.
1362 English replaces French as the language of law. English is used in Parliament for the first time.
c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales.
c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins.
1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press. Early Modern English
1564 Shakespeare is born.
1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published.
1607 The first permanent English settlement in the New World (Jamestown) is established.
1616 Shakespeare dies.
1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published
1702 The first daily English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London.
1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his English dictionary.
1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence.
1782 Britain abandons its American colonies.
1828 Webster publishes his American English dictionary. Late Modern English
1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded.
1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is published.

Taken from EnglishClub at:

http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm

ENGLISH LANGUAGE HISTORY

English is an Anglo-Frisian language brought to Britain in the 5th Century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany. The original Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries.

Keep reading to learn more.

English Language

English is a West Germanic language which is the dominant language in the United Kingdom, the United States, many Commonwealth nations including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other former British colonies. It is the second most spoken language in the world. It is estimated that there are 380 million native speakers and 300 million who use English as a second language and a further 100 million use it as a foreign language. It is the language of science, aviation, computing, diplomacy, and tourism. It is listed as the official or co-official language of over 45 countries and is spoken extensively in other countries where it has no official status. English plays a part in the cultural, political or economic life of the following countries.

Majority English speaking populations are shown in bold.
Antigua
Australia
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
Botswana
Brunei (with Malay)
Cameroon (with French)
Canada (with French)
Dominica
Fiji
Gambia
Ghana
Grenada
Guyana
India (with several Indian languages)
Ireland (with Irish Gaelic)
Jamaica
Kenya (with Swahili)
Kiribati
Lesotho (with Sotho)
Liberia
Malawi (with Chewa)
Malta (with Maltese)
Mauritius
Namibia (with Afrikaans)
Nauru (with Nauruan)
New Zealand
Nigeria
Pakistan (with Urdu)
Papua New Guinea
Philippines (with Tagalog)
Puerto Rico (with Spanish)
St Christopher and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent
Senegal (with French)
Seychelles (with French)
Sierra Leone
Singapore (with Malay, Mandarin and Tamil)
South Africa (with Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu)
Surinam (with Dutch)
Swaziland (with Swazi)
Tanzania (with Swahili)
Tonga (with Tongan)
Trinidad and Tobago
Tuvalu
Uganda
United Kingdom and its dependecies
United States of America and its dependencies
Vanatu (with French)
Western Samoa (with Samoan)
Zambia
Zimbabwe

History of the English Language

English is an Anglo-Frisian language brought to Britain in the 5th Century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany. The original Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second wave was of the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Norman (an oïl language closely related to French). The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD. Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the present day Denmark and northern Germany. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language. This was quickly displaced. Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. Their language was called Englisc from which the word, English derives. It is convenient to divide English into periods—Old English (or Anglo-Saxon; to c.1150), Middle English (to c.1500), and Modern English.

Old English

The invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants, whose languages survived largely in Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. The dialects spoken by the invaders formed what is now called Old English. Later, it was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north-east. The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distant, including the prefixes, suffixes and inflections of many of their words. The Germanic language of these Old English inhabitants of Britain was influenced by the contact with Norse invaders, which may have been responsible for some of the morphological simplification of Old English, including loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked case (with the notable exception of the pronouns). The most famous work from the Old English period is the epic poem "Beowulf", by an unknown poet. The introduction of Christianity added the first wave of Latin and Greek words to the language. It has been argued that the Danish contribution continued into the early Middle Ages. The Old English period ended with the Norman conquest, when the language was influenced, to an even greater extent, by the Norman French-speaking Normans. The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development. According to Lois Fundis, (Stumpers-L, Fri, 14 Dec 2001) "The first citation for the second definition of 'Anglo-Saxon', referring to early English language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of Elizabeth I, from a historian named Camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well-known in modern times."

Middle English

For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and the high nobility spoke only a variety of French called Anglo-Norman. English continued to be the language of the common people. While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continued until AD 1154, most other literature from this period was in Old French or Latin. A large number of Norman words were assimilated into Old English, with some words doubling for Old English words (for instance, ox/beef, sheep/mutton). The Norman influence reinforced the continual evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in what is now referred to as Middle English. Among the changes was a broadening in the use of a unique aspect of English grammar, the "continuous" tenses, with the suffix "-ing". English spelling was also influenced by French in this period, with the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds being spelled th rather than with the letters þ and ð, which did not exist in French. During the 15th century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of printing. Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William Shakespeare. The most well-known work from the Middle English period is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Various contemporary sources suggest that within fifty years most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with French remaining the prestige language largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, a historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he only learned French as a second language. English literature starts to reappear circa AD 1200, when a changing political climate, and the decline in Anglo-Norman, made it more respectable. By the end of that century, even the royal court had switched back to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in specialised circles for a while longer, but it had ceased to be a living language.

Modern English

From the late 15th century, the language changed into Modern English, often dated from the Great Vowel Shift. English is continuously assimilating foreign words, especially Latin and Greek, causing English to have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. As there are many words from different languages the risk of mispronunciation is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, notably in the West Country. In 1755 Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary.

American English and other varieties

Also significant beginning around 1600 AD was the English colonization of North America and the subsequent creation of American English. Some pronunciations and usages "froze" when they reached the American shore. In certain respects, some varieties of American English are closer to the English of Shakespeare than modern Standard English ('English English' or as it is often incorrectly termed 'British English') is. Some "Americanisms" are actually originally English English expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost at home (e.g., fall as a synonym for autumn, trash for rubbish, and loan as a verb instead of lend). The American dialect also served as the route of introduction for many native American words into the English language. Most often, these were place names like Mississippi, Roanoke, and Iowa. Indian-sounding names like Idaho were sometimes created that had no native-American roots. But, names for other things besides places were also common. Raccoon, tomato, canoe, barbecue, savanna, and hickory have native American roots, although in many cases the original Indian words were mangled almost beyond recognition. Spanish has also been great influence on American English. Mustang, canyon, ranch, stampede, and vigilante are all examples of Spanish words that made their way into English through the settlement of the American West. A lesser number of words have entered American English from French and West African languages. Likewise dialects of English have developed in many of the former colonies of the British Empire. There are distinct forms of the English language spoken in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and many other parts of the world.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STATISTICS

English is currently one of the most widely spoken and written languages worldwide, with some 380 million native speakers. Through the global influence of native English speakers in cinema, music, broadcasting, science, and the Internet in recent decades, English is now the most widely learned second language in the world. Because a working knowledge of English is required in many fields and occupations, education ministries around the world mandate the teaching of English to at least a basic level. And there are some other facts about English you might be interested in knowing. In no particular order, here are some of the numbers about English:

English is the most widespread language in the world and is more widely spoken and written than any other language.

Over 400 million people use the English vocabulary as a mother tongue, only surpassed in numbers, but not in distribution by speakers of the many varieties of Chinese.

Over 700 million people, speak English, as a foreign language.

Did you know that of all the world's languages (over 2,700) English is arguably the richest in vocabulary; and that the Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words, and there are a half-million technical and scientific terms still uncatalogued?

Three-quarters of the world's mail, telexes and cables are in English.
More than half of the world's technical and scientific periodicals are in English

English is the medium for 80% of the information stored in the world's computers

English is the language of navigation, aviation and of Christianity; it is the ecumenical language of the World Council of Churches

Five of the largest broadcasting companies in the world (CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC and CBC) transmit in English, reaching millions and millions of people all over the world.

The main language used throughout the world on the internet is English.

The media that make up the Internet are overwhelmingly American in origin, so it is no wonder that the mother tongue of the Web is English.

Four factors determine the degree to which a given language finds use on the Internet: 1. The number of users of the language2. The extent of its use as an official language3. The economic power of the language and ;4.

The volume of information disseminated in that language. Today, English reigns supreme in all four respects. It is studied as a foreign language throughout the world and employed by a majority of Internet users. Of the 163 member nations of the U.N., more use English as their official language than any other. The easiest way to calculate the economic influence of a language may be to add up the gross domestic products (GDP) of all the nations where it is spoken. People who count English as their mother tongue make up less than 10% of the world's population, but possess over 30% of the world's economic power. Therefore, in terms of the quantity of transmitted information, English is the leader by far.

After English, 26 nations in the U.N. cite French as their official tongue, 21 Spanish and 17 Arabic. Each of these three languages forms a sizable linguistic constituency on the Internet.

Taken from English Language Guide at:

http://www.englishlanguageguide.com/english/facts/history/

Sugested links:

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

Krysstal Language Page http://www.krysstal.com/english.html

FROM MY SECRET MAIL... Contractions

A 7 Secrets email from http://EnglishClub.com

Hello, Antonio!

7 Informal Contractions
WANNA know what GONNA means? LEMME show you.

Have you seen words like "gonna" or "wanna" and wondered what they mean? Perhaps you have looked in a dictionary and been unable to find them. That's because these words are"informal contractions" or short forms of other words that people use when speaking informally. They are not exactly slang, but they are a little like slang. In fact, if youlook in a good (big) dictionary, you will usually find them.

Here are the 7 most common informal contractions, with example sentences:

1. GIMME = give meGimme your money.Don't gimme that rubbish.Can you gimme a hand?

2. GONNA = going toNothing's gonna change my love for you.I'm not gonna tell you.What are you gonna do?

3a. GOTTA = (have) got aI've gotta gun.I gotta gun.She hasn't gotta pennyHave you gotta car?

3b. GOTTA = (have) got toI've gotta go now.I gotta go now. We haven't gotta do that. Have they gotta work?

4. INIT = isn't itThat's smart, init? Init strange?

5. KINDA = kind ofShe's kinda cute. Are you kinda mad at me?

6. LEMME = let meLemme go! He didn't lemme see it.

7a. WANNA = want toI wanna go home. I don't wanna go. Do you wanna watch TV?

7b. WANNA = want aI wanna coffee. I don't wanna thing from you. Do you wanna beer?

Please remember that these are *informal* contractions. That means that we do not use them in "correct" speech, andwe almost never use them in writing. We use them only when speaking fast and informally, for example with friends. Also,the sentences above may be a little artificial because when we use a contraction like "wanna", we probably also use other contractions in the same sentence, as follows:

Do you want a beer?
Do you wanna beer?
D'you wanna beer?
D'ya wanna beer?
Ya wanna beer?
Wanna beer?

There are more Informal Contractions at:
http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/contractions-informal.htm

Next...

MATERIAL FOR ADVANCED ENGLISH CLASS

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN BROWN NHE BK6 U2 P39

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OCTOBER

EARTH WISDOM : Chief Seathl's testament for the earth. Taken from: Onevillage.org

In the mid 1800s, as European settlement in North America spread westwards, a message was sent by President Franklin Pierce to the Chief of the Suquamish people in the American northwest, to the area around what is now called Seattle in the State of Washington....

....All around, the takeover of ancient lands by the settlers was going on with limited, if any, concern for the wellbeing of the native American population that had lived there for centuries.
But this Chief of Seathl sought peace with the so-called «Bostons», the eastern immigrants, hoping that peoples could respect and live together in harmony.

As a small boy he had watched the arrival of Captain Vancouver in Puget Sound, and had a vision in the form of a white seagull. The gull was to the Suquamish a symbol of peace, and as the vision was a white gull, this indicated that the boy's mission should be to seek peace with the white men.
He was 22 when he became Chief Seathl – Chief of the Suquamish. The message that was sent to the Chief by the President was a request that the Suquamish lands might be sold to the immigrants.
On receipt and consideration of the request, the Chief is known to have made a reply by way of a speech in 1855 to a tribal confederation.

It is not certain what would have happened had the «request» been refused; in all probability lands would have been sequested anyway, as they were in most places.
Chief Seathl's speech was made in the Salish language and was recorded in note form by Dr Henry Smith, a member of the commission to agree settlement regarding lands for native Americans.
All of 32 years after the speech was given, after Chief Seathl had died, Dr Smith submitted an English transcript to the newspaper The Seattle Star, admitting as he sent it that the transcript was only a partial record of what was actually said.

The version of the speech reproduced below is longer than the Seattle Star report, developing the themes of the original speech. We do not claim it to be a verbatim translation of the original but it is believed to be near enough to be worthy as Chief Seathl's Testament for the earth.
The Chief's wisdom remains a powerful inspiration for all of us today.
Please take time to read it.








The Great Chief sends word that he wishes to buy our land.

The Great Chief also sends words of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him since we know he has little need of our friendship in return. But we will consider your offer. For we know that if we do not sell, the white man may come with guns and take our land.



How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.
Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap that courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white man's dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth,
for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony and man – all belong to the same family.
So when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief send word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to buy our land.






But it will not be easy, for this land is sacred to us. This shining water that moves in the streams and the rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors.
If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people.

The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father. The rivers are our brothers; they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children.

If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and also your brothers. Therefore you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.



The red man has always retreated before the advancing white man, as the mist of the mountain runs before the morning sun.
But the ashes of our fathers are sacred. Their graves are holy ground, and so are these hills, this portion of the earth is consecrated to us.
We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is like a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.

For him the earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it he moves on. He leaves his father's graves behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children. He does not care. His father's graves and his children's birthright are forgotten.

He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eye of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand....










There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in the spring or to hear the rustle of insect's wings. But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter seems only to insult the ears.
And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pond at night? But I am a red man and do not understand.

The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleansed with the midday rain, or scented with the pinion pine.


The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath – the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath.


The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us; that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.
The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. And the wind must also give our children the spirit of life. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow's flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land....

If we decide to accept, I will make one condition: the white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. I am a savage and do not understand any other way. Yet I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. How is the smoking iron horse more important than the buffalo that we would kill only to stay alive?










What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected. You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the land is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children: that the earth is our mother.



Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know ~
The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know.



All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.


Man did not weave
the web of life;
he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does
to the web he does to himself.



But we will consider your offer to go to the reservation you have for my people. We will live apart, and in peace.
It matters little where we spend the rest of our days. Our children have seen their fathers humbled in defeat. Our warriors have felt shame, and after defeat they turn their days in idleness and contaminate their bodies with sweet foods and strong drink.

It matters little where we spend the rest of our days. They are not many.
A few more hours, a few more winters, and none of the children of the great tribes that once lived on this earth or that roam now in small bands in the woods will be left to mourn the graves of a people once as powerful and hopeful as yours.
But why should I mourn the passing of my people? Tribes are made of men, nothing more. Men come and go, like the waves of the sea. Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from common destiny.

We may be brothers after all; we shall see.




One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover – our God is the same God. You may think now that you own him as you wish to own our land; but you cannot.
He is the God of man, and his compassion is equal for the red man and the white. The earth is precious to him, and to harm the earth is to reap contempt on its creator.
The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.
But in your perishing you will shine brightly, fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and the red man.


That destiny is a mystery for us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the hills blotted out by talking wires.
Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.




So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we agree, it will be to secure the reservation you have promised. There, perhaps, we may live out our brief days as we wish. When the last red man has vanished from this earth, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, these shores and forests will still hold the spirit of my people. For they love this earth as the newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you take it. And with all your strength, with all your mind, and with all your heart, preserve it for your children, and love it as God loves us.

One thing we know: our God is the same God. This earth is precious to him.
Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see.






The Chief's image still stands
in today's Seattle –
looking out into the city


Presentation by One Village with the help of a monk of Mount Saint Bernard Abbey. Photography © Roy Scott

http://www.onevillage.org/Chief-Seathl.htm

http://www.onevillage.org/index.htm

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

What is English?

A short history of the origins and development of the English language

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders—mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from Englaland and their language was called Englisc—from which the words England and English are derived.

Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century.

Old English (450-1100 AD)
The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English.

Middle English (1100-1500)
In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

An example of Middle English by Chaucer.

Modern English
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.


Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.

Late Modern English (1800-Present)
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

Varieties of English
From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English).

Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.

The Germanic Family of Languages

English is a member of the Germanic family of languages.
Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.


A brief chronology of English
BC 55 Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar. Local inhabitants speak Celtish
BC 43 Roman invasion and occupation. Beginning of Roman rule of Britain.
436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete.
449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins
450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions. Old English
1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England.
c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English. Middle English
1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools.
1362 English replaces French as the language of law. English is used in Parliament for the first time.
c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales.
c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins.
1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press. Early Modern English
1564 Shakespeare is born.
1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published.
1607 The first permanent English settlement in the New World (Jamestown) is established.
1616 Shakespeare dies.
1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published
1702 The first daily English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London.
1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his English dictionary.
1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence.
1782 Britain abandons its American colonies.
1828 Webster publishes his American English dictionary. Late Modern English
1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded.
1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is published.

Taken from EnglishClub at:

http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm

ENGLISH LANGUAGE HISTORY

English is an Anglo-Frisian language brought to Britain in the 5th Century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany. The original Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries.

Keep reading to learn more.

English Language

English is a West Germanic language which is the dominant language in the United Kingdom, the United States, many Commonwealth nations including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other former British colonies. It is the second most spoken language in the world. It is estimated that there are 380 million native speakers and 300 million who use English as a second language and a further 100 million use it as a foreign language. It is the language of science, aviation, computing, diplomacy, and tourism. It is listed as the official or co-official language of over 45 countries and is spoken extensively in other countries where it has no official status. English plays a part in the cultural, political or economic life of the following countries.

Majority English speaking populations are shown in bold.
Antigua
Australia
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
Botswana
Brunei (with Malay)
Cameroon (with French)
Canada (with French)
Dominica
Fiji
Gambia
Ghana
Grenada
Guyana
India (with several Indian languages)
Ireland (with Irish Gaelic)
Jamaica
Kenya (with Swahili)
Kiribati
Lesotho (with Sotho)
Liberia
Malawi (with Chewa)
Malta (with Maltese)
Mauritius
Namibia (with Afrikaans)
Nauru (with Nauruan)
New Zealand
Nigeria
Pakistan (with Urdu)
Papua New Guinea
Philippines (with Tagalog)
Puerto Rico (with Spanish)
St Christopher and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent
Senegal (with French)
Seychelles (with French)
Sierra Leone
Singapore (with Malay, Mandarin and Tamil)
South Africa (with Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu)
Surinam (with Dutch)
Swaziland (with Swazi)
Tanzania (with Swahili)
Tonga (with Tongan)
Trinidad and Tobago
Tuvalu
Uganda
United Kingdom and its dependecies
United States of America and its dependencies
Vanatu (with French)
Western Samoa (with Samoan)
Zambia
Zimbabwe

History of the English Language

English is an Anglo-Frisian language brought to Britain in the 5th Century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany. The original Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second wave was of the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Norman (an oïl language closely related to French). The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD. Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the present day Denmark and northern Germany. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language. This was quickly displaced. Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. Their language was called Englisc from which the word, English derives. It is convenient to divide English into periods—Old English (or Anglo-Saxon; to c.1150), Middle English (to c.1500), and Modern English.

Old English

The invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants, whose languages survived largely in Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. The dialects spoken by the invaders formed what is now called Old English. Later, it was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north-east. The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distant, including the prefixes, suffixes and inflections of many of their words. The Germanic language of these Old English inhabitants of Britain was influenced by the contact with Norse invaders, which may have been responsible for some of the morphological simplification of Old English, including loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked case (with the notable exception of the pronouns). The most famous work from the Old English period is the epic poem "Beowulf", by an unknown poet. The introduction of Christianity added the first wave of Latin and Greek words to the language. It has been argued that the Danish contribution continued into the early Middle Ages. The Old English period ended with the Norman conquest, when the language was influenced, to an even greater extent, by the Norman French-speaking Normans. The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development. According to Lois Fundis, (Stumpers-L, Fri, 14 Dec 2001) "The first citation for the second definition of 'Anglo-Saxon', referring to early English language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of Elizabeth I, from a historian named Camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well-known in modern times."

Middle English

For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and the high nobility spoke only a variety of French called Anglo-Norman. English continued to be the language of the common people. While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continued until AD 1154, most other literature from this period was in Old French or Latin. A large number of Norman words were assimilated into Old English, with some words doubling for Old English words (for instance, ox/beef, sheep/mutton). The Norman influence reinforced the continual evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in what is now referred to as Middle English. Among the changes was a broadening in the use of a unique aspect of English grammar, the "continuous" tenses, with the suffix "-ing". English spelling was also influenced by French in this period, with the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds being spelled th rather than with the letters þ and ð, which did not exist in French. During the 15th century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of printing. Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William Shakespeare. The most well-known work from the Middle English period is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Various contemporary sources suggest that within fifty years most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with French remaining the prestige language largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, a historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he only learned French as a second language. English literature starts to reappear circa AD 1200, when a changing political climate, and the decline in Anglo-Norman, made it more respectable. By the end of that century, even the royal court had switched back to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in specialised circles for a while longer, but it had ceased to be a living language.

Modern English

From the late 15th century, the language changed into Modern English, often dated from the Great Vowel Shift. English is continuously assimilating foreign words, especially Latin and Greek, causing English to have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. As there are many words from different languages the risk of mispronunciation is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, notably in the West Country. In 1755 Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary.

American English and other varieties

Also significant beginning around 1600 AD was the English colonization of North America and the subsequent creation of American English. Some pronunciations and usages "froze" when they reached the American shore. In certain respects, some varieties of American English are closer to the English of Shakespeare than modern Standard English ('English English' or as it is often incorrectly termed 'British English') is. Some "Americanisms" are actually originally English English expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost at home (e.g., fall as a synonym for autumn, trash for rubbish, and loan as a verb instead of lend). The American dialect also served as the route of introduction for many native American words into the English language. Most often, these were place names like Mississippi, Roanoke, and Iowa. Indian-sounding names like Idaho were sometimes created that had no native-American roots. But, names for other things besides places were also common. Raccoon, tomato, canoe, barbecue, savanna, and hickory have native American roots, although in many cases the original Indian words were mangled almost beyond recognition. Spanish has also been great influence on American English. Mustang, canyon, ranch, stampede, and vigilante are all examples of Spanish words that made their way into English through the settlement of the American West. A lesser number of words have entered American English from French and West African languages. Likewise dialects of English have developed in many of the former colonies of the British Empire. There are distinct forms of the English language spoken in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and many other parts of the world.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STATISTICS

English is currently one of the most widely spoken and written languages worldwide, with some 380 million native speakers. Through the global influence of native English speakers in cinema, music, broadcasting, science, and the Internet in recent decades, English is now the most widely learned second language in the world. Because a working knowledge of English is required in many fields and occupations, education ministries around the world mandate the teaching of English to at least a basic level. And there are some other facts about English you might be interested in knowing. In no particular order, here are some of the numbers about English:

English is the most widespread language in the world and is more widely spoken and written than any other language.

Over 400 million people use the English vocabulary as a mother tongue, only surpassed in numbers, but not in distribution by speakers of the many varieties of Chinese.

Over 700 million people, speak English, as a foreign language.

Did you know that of all the world's languages (over 2,700) English is arguably the richest in vocabulary; and that the Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words, and there are a half-million technical and scientific terms still uncatalogued?

Three-quarters of the world's mail, telexes and cables are in English.
More than half of the world's technical and scientific periodicals are in English

English is the medium for 80% of the information stored in the world's computers

English is the language of navigation, aviation and of Christianity; it is the ecumenical language of the World Council of Churches

Five of the largest broadcasting companies in the world (CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC and CBC) transmit in English, reaching millions and millions of people all over the world.

The main language used throughout the world on the internet is English.

The media that make up the Internet are overwhelmingly American in origin, so it is no wonder that the mother tongue of the Web is English.

Four factors determine the degree to which a given language finds use on the Internet: 1. The number of users of the language2. The extent of its use as an official language3. The economic power of the language and ;4.

The volume of information disseminated in that language. Today, English reigns supreme in all four respects. It is studied as a foreign language throughout the world and employed by a majority of Internet users. Of the 163 member nations of the U.N., more use English as their official language than any other. The easiest way to calculate the economic influence of a language may be to add up the gross domestic products (GDP) of all the nations where it is spoken. People who count English as their mother tongue make up less than 10% of the world's population, but possess over 30% of the world's economic power. Therefore, in terms of the quantity of transmitted information, English is the leader by far.

After English, 26 nations in the U.N. cite French as their official tongue, 21 Spanish and 17 Arabic. Each of these three languages forms a sizable linguistic constituency on the Internet.

Taken from English Language Guide at:

http://www.englishlanguageguide.com/english/facts/history/

Sugested links:

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

Krysstal Language Page http://www.krysstal.com/english.html