HOW IT AML BEGAN The history of English (part one) About 5000'B.C."a tribe" called the Indo-Europeans lived in Central Europe. They were farmers and they had their ‘own language. They discovered the wheel around 3000 BC, After this they were able to travel, Some went east land others went west, 2 The Indo-Europeans who travelled to Britain were the Celts. Today the people of Wales, Wester Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall and Brittany (in Northern France) stil call themselves ‘Celts "The Celts were the only people in Britain for over 2,000 years, Then the Romans arrived. Julius (Caesar and his army Dbroughta new language - Latin, But the Romans lived in England and the Celts (hey’re sometimes called “Ancient” Britons) lived in Scotland and Wales. Only a few Latin words entered the Celtic language. Trompe of @ Roman mesae] «. “The Romans left Britainin 410A. DISu¢., Gay) meek Forty years laten a nie grotp h Brooching | invaders’ arived. These gah the ia : Angles and Saxons. Coday, Brtsh and American people are il fila called Anglo Saxons) They cic from Holland, Denmark and Germany. "a Hid. ‘The language of the Angles and'f¥ Saxons was Englise or OM ERIS vecaneea fhat's when Saint sAugustinebowght Christianity to Ue Satin Tastime, opted of Latin (apd Greek) words fered Old English their words are still in the dictionat today. Here are some examples = sheep, earth, dog sath ana field gf, Words like the dnd yo! ae, Saxon, t60,Se The next important step inthe history of English came between the years 750 and 1050. That's when the Vikings began to attack Britain. They came from Scandinavia and 1, Norse’, sounded a lot like modern mus in English today include get, ‘One of the most important dates in British history is 1066. That's when the French duke, William, beat the English king, Harold, atthe Battle of Hastings!™* After that, French words became an important part of English In the next 200 years, Old English (with all its new Norse, Latin and French vocabulary) changed and became Middle English’. Then in 1340 the first great English writer was born ~ Geoffrey Chaucer. His most famous book is called the Canterbury Tales! *" eie pleseonp man (pictuel on termywrel to pr ony phes netwo and thre womenroracios oF wi ve enprpntid atter the forme of this pretet leeere wobiche Se ee ee aimiee netter in to tly almonefrpe at the reed yale and haue than good chew Sinplicn het dala In the next century {around 1480) a man called William Caxton printed the Canterbury Tales on a new machine. was called a Se yrinting press. Printing bee = Tre very portant or fibe —olorge group English because it fied the ones grammar and spelling. acento e Jaks to Caxton, English oa ‘came clearer stronger yasr of out tons language Now twas ‘ho opposte oF ready for is next great invaders - people who weiter Wiliam tnter onother county Shakespeare by force | a: tales - stories i 7 bOCMRM SHAKESPEARIE TO NOW The history of English (part two) za Elizabeth I was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. These forty-five years are sometimes call ‘The Elizabethan Age’. Two famous. Elizabethans were Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. Drake and Raleigh were both sailors and explorers. Their journeys to the New World (America) and the West Indies were very important for two reasons. First, they brought, England a lot offi ey and power. Second, But perhaps the most famous Elizabethan of all was William Shakespeare (1564 — Did you know? 1. Shakespeare had a vocabulary of about 30,000 words. Even today, few people have a vocabulary of more than 15,000. 2 In Shakespeare's time, only six or seven milion people spoke English. ‘Shakespeare Company’ sz]In 1620 (four years after Shakespeare’s death), a ship called the Mayflower®™ sailed to America, The people on it weren't explorers like Drake and Raleigh they were settlers’. They stayed in America, built towns and started a new life there. In the next thirty years, more than 250,000 people from all over Britain followed them. But the English language didn’t just travel west to America. It went to Australia, too. A famous explorer called Captain Cook sailed there in 1770. Fighteen_years later the first settlers began to arrive. Many of'them were criminals’. Why did the English send thousands of criminals to Australia? Because there was a lot of crimesin the eighteenth century and the prisons were full The first English dictionary appeared in 1775. It contained more than 40,000 words (today, the Oxford English Dictionary contains half a million). The man who wrote it was called Dr Samuel Johnson. It took him thifty years. age - a period of years settlers - people: who decide to stoy in anew county criminals - people ‘nother important date in the history of English is 1807. That's when the Gi emai slave trade” stopped. For 150 years before 1807 British ships took West ’ the law African people to America and the West Indies. There, they sold them to trade - buying and rich farmers. These West African ‘slaves’ were the first black Americans. sellingia SHAKESPEARE FO INO (Continued) Between 1800 and 1900 Britain became the richest country in the world. It was powerful’, too. Queen Victoria (she was queen from 1837 to 1901) controlled an ‘empire’ of foreign countries. ‘These included India, Canada, New Zealand, Nigeria and South Africa. Because of the British Empire, English was now an important language on every continent. But many people in Australia, Africa, Asia and North America didn’t speak the official At the same time, the U.S.A. was quickly growing richer and more powerful. Finally, by the 1950s, America and not Britain was the English-speaking superpower. After that, a new chapter began in the history of English. It was already an important language. Now, in the age of TV and satellites it was ready to become something even bigger. ‘Queen's English’. Their accents and vocabulary were very different from hers! English was already growing and changing internationally. Britain kept its empire until the middle of the 20th century. Then, one by one, countries like India, Kenya, Canada and New Zealand became independent. (They left the empire, but stayed good friends with Britain. Today, many of these countries are in the Commonwealth” - an international club of English- speaking countries.) centennial reworks ot the Status of User New YorkAMERICAN ENGLISH From Independence to the 1990s eer oe ‘The United States and its language both grew very quickly in the nineteenth century. These were the days of cowboys, Indians, gold and railways. Every year, ‘thousands of pioneers" travelled west. Soon, many of thom reached the Pacific Ocean and in 1850 California ‘became the thirty-first state. Only twenty years later it, ‘was possible to travel there by train from New York. ‘The American population also grew quickly. Between 1800 and 1900, sixteen million Europeans began new lives in the U.S.A. Many of them came from Italy, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia and Central Burope. Alf them brought new words and expressions to American English. ‘Today there are thousands of nineteenth-century words in American English. They're the vocabulary of cowboys, slaves settlers and railway-builders. There are thousands of twentieth-century words, too, of course In fact, American English is growing faster now than. cever before, Where are the new words coming from? The same people ~ pioneers and settlers, but these days the settlers ‘come from south- cast Asia and Central America and the pioneers are scientists and = teenagers. spape than oli ras tat taSibad VE aMalited For 150) years Fire HIB Ametica was a British” ‘colony®, At that ‘time British and ‘American English syore almost exaefly the same. Then in 1776 there: ‘was a war betwen Britain and America It wa8, “called the War of Independen “alter 1776 it betate a fee, independent count. ts first president was George Washington, Tn 1802, U.S. leaders began to talkvabout:the = ‘American language’. At that time there were 4 Y2 ‘tillion Americans. 90% of them came from the , Ameriea won, and: Incfontattack ne kon Hoe powerful ~ strong colony ~a country ‘which is part of ‘another country’s empire pioneers ~ the first people to explore 0 Country (or a subject) aD)AMERICAN ENGLISH What’s the difference? VOCABULARY “American English | British English iat apartment ‘automobile ‘cupboard biscuit Ti aston tap sound oor motorway | rubbish dustbin - 7 es | petrol 7 main 08d mad angry — nail} post a — ‘math maths movies| the cinema pants | porketbook [— ‘potato chips — railroad restroom | sunglasses it pavement shop cooker [ tube, underground Wainy van, forty vacation _American English _| aaa ced [cheque ~ color | colour 7 tense | ~defenes 1 iaiogue _ jewelery [theatre — - ye = | ‘Traveler traveller atl — realize realise —Tavorite | ~favourte 1 American English often uses the past where British English uses the present perfect. US.—Did you eat yet? GB.~Have you eaten yet? 2 American English sometimes uses the verb ‘to have’ differently from British English. US.~ Do you have a problem? 6.B.~Have you gota problem? 3. The past participle of ‘get’ in American English is ‘gotten’. In British English it is, ‘got’. US.- Weve never really gotten to know each other. 6.B.- We've never really got to now each other 4 There are lots of small differences in the use of prepositions. For example ... Ss 68. check something out check something do something over o something again fill out a form filin a form meet with somebody meet somebody protest” something protest about something stay home stay at home visit with somebody visit somebody ‘Monday thru Friday Monday to Friday ten of eleven ten to eleven 5 On the telephone. US. —Hello is this Susan? 6.8. Hello, is that Susan?