In 1066 England was invaded by the Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror. The new conquerors also known as Normans, brought with them a kind of French, and that became the language of the Royal court, the ruling, and the business classes. For a certain period of time people differentiated between classes where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. But in the 14th century the English language became leading in Britain again, with many French words added to it, which is called the Middle English today, and that was the language of Chaucer the poet (c1340-1400). [1]
Modern English
- Early Modern English (1500-1800)
At the end of Middle English, started a sudden and major change in the pronunciation called the Great Vowel Shift. Vowels were being pronounced shorter and shorter. Both the contact of the British with many different people around the world and the rebirth of Classical learning have affected the language with many new words and phrases entering it. The invention of printing meant that there is a common language in print, it brought standardization to English and book became cheaper and a lot of people learned to read. Spelling and grammar was set, and the dialect of London, where most of the publishing houses were, became standard. The first English dictionary was published in 1604. [1]
Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" line, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.
- Late Modern English (1800-Present)
The difference in vocabulary is the main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English. Late Modern English has more words because of two main reasons: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology development forced a need for new words; secondly the British Empire have covered one quarter of the earth at its peak of power, so the English language have adapted so many foreign words from different countries all over the world. [1]
- Varieties of English
The English colonization of North America in the 1600, caused a creation of a different American variety of English. We can say that Modern American English is more like the English of Shakespeare as mentioned before "Early Modern English" than the Modern British English. Some of the expressions which Americans use nowadays the British call them "Americanisms" but they are originally British expressions which were lost in Britain but were kept by the colonies, for example:
- Trash for Rubbish
- Loan as a verb instead of Lend
- Fall for Autumn
Spanish has also effected American English (and later on British English) with words like canyon, ranch, stamped and vigilant, are all examples of Spanish words which have effected English after the settlement of the American West. French words has also effected American English and to a certain extent, British English.
Today American English is considered as the most influential because of the media, for example cinema, television, music and also technology. But there is a great variety of English Languages around the world like: Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, Indian English and many more. [1]
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.
- Difference between American and British English
As established above, we can now understand that American English is the form of English used within the United States of America. As for British English it’s the form of English used in the United Kingdom. The differences between British and American English are showed below: [2]
[3]
- Difference in Pronunciation
[4]
Websites:
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Book:
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A history of the English Language by , , First Published 1951.
