THE EVOLUTION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The English that we know today is the result of various influences and
transformations, brought by different people to the British Isles.
There are three phases in the evolution of the English language : Old
English(450-1150), Middle English(1150-1500) and Modern English
(1500- present).
We don’t know much about the Celtic language: it belonged to the Indo-
INTRODUCTION European family and its influence can be still seen in places names like Kent,
which comes from the Celtic Canti and others (anyway many words
disappeared when the new invaders arrived).
Latin had a considerable impact on the language, particularly during the
Christianisation of the island.
The influence of Latin can be seen in words like mile from milia, wall from
vallum, table from tabula, master from magister …..

Runic inscription (Old English ws first written in runes , but shifted to the orthography of the Latin alphabet when
the Irish missionaries introduced it in the island)

In 449 the Anglo-Saxon tribes began their invasions. The language they
spoke was called Englisc/ English; they were an agricultural people, so their
vocabulary was rich in words related to farming. They also introduced
pronouns, prepositions, auxiliary verbs and everyday words like mann, wif,
cild, hus , which have become man, wife , child, house. Old English was an
inflected language (the meaning of words changed according to their
declensions).
OLD ENGLISH Old English had variation along regional lines as well as variation across
different times.
The four main dialectal forms of Old English were Mercian, Northumbrian,
Kentish and West-Saxon. Each of those dialects was associated with an
independent kingdom on the island.

After the process of unification of the different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

(Essex, Wessex, Sussex, Kent, Mercia, East Anglia, Northumberland) in 878
by Alfred the Great, there was a decline in the importance of regional dialects,
although they did not stop stopped existing.

However, most of the surviving documents from the Anglo-Saxon period are
written in the dialect of Wessex, Alfred's kingdom.

Old English was one of the first vernacular languages to have its literary
expression. Some of the most important surviving works of Old English
literature are Beowulf, an epic poem; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of
early English history; and Caedmon Hymn, a Christian religious poem.
There are also a number of prose works, such as sermons and saints' lives,
 biblical translations, legal documents, such as laws and wills, and practical
works on grammar, medicine, and geography. However, poetry is considered
the heart of Old English literature.

Image taken from the manuscript of Beowulf

At the beginning of the 13th century the Anglo–Normans lost their French
territories; moreover the rivalry between France and England (which led to
the Hundred Years’ War) made French the language of the enemy and English
regained importance. Another factor contributed to the importance of English:
it was spoken by the merchants and craftsmen , who formed the emerging
middle class, highly respected by all the people.
The English of this period was new both in grammar and vocabulary.
Gradually the distinctions in form had disappeared and English from being
an inflective language became analytic ( the meaning in a sentence was
given by word order and not by form).
The French influence was enormous : the number of words borrowed from
French concerned government and administration (empire, reign, parliament,
……..), the law (crime, accuse, adultery,…), fashion and social life(coat,
button, supper, dinner, orange,……), literature and architecture (art, painting,
poet, cathedral,….).
Another characteristic of Middle English was that it was not one language,
MIDDLE but it consisted of several regional dialects. Gradually the East Midlands
ENGLISH dialect became the most important, because of the increasing commercial and
economic importance of London. The triangle of Oxford, Cambridge and
London shared the same kind of English which became the basis for the
standard English of our time. Chaucer who came from the East Midlands
wrote in English marking the birth of it as a national language.
To the same period belong the translation of the Bible by Wycliff and a
considerable production of ballads and romances (matter of Britain – King
Arthur and the knights of the Round Table- and the matter of France –
Charlemagne).
It was significant that William Caxton adopted the Middle English language
for printed works.
These circumstances gradually contributed to the direct development of the
East Midland dialect into the Modern English standard language.

The Canterbury Tales by G. Chaucer

MODERN In spite of all this , the language of the government was still French . A
ENGLISH turning point went when in 1415 king Henry V used English in his official
documents. English became the language of the kings and gradually the one
of the institutional life.
A major change in the pronunciation of vowels marked the transition from
Middle English to Modern English during the 15th and 16th centuries. This
change was termed the Great Vowel Shift.

In the early part of the Modern English period, the vocabulary was enlarged
by borrowings from other languages. The revival of interest in Latin and
Greek during the Renaissance brought new words into English from those
languages. Other words were introduced by English travellers and merchants
after their return from journeys on the Continent. W. Shakespeare
incorporated a wide vocabulary reflecting the new geographical and cultural
horizons of the Renaissance.

William Shakespeare

In the late 17th century and during the 18th century, certain important
grammatical changes occurred and the formal rules of English grammar were
established during that period.