Introduction. English as one of the most widespread languages in the world.

HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

LECTURES

Lecture 1

Plan

1. Introduction. English as one of the most widespread languages in the world.

2. The subject of the History of English.

3. The languages of the British Isles. Historical background and their language history.

4. Stages in the development of the English language.

Introduction. English as one of the most widespread languages in the world.

Different nations speak different languages. The total number of languages in the world is from 2,500 to 5,000. The most widespread languages are Chinese, English, Spanish, Russian, Hindu and others. These languages are alive. i.e. they are in use. In addition to these, there are ‘dead’ languages, which are no more means of communication. These are, for example, Latin, Old Slavonic and some others. All these languages are called natural, because there is a number of artificial or universal languages. The world-known non-specialized language is Esperanto. There are also programming languages, which are used in computers. These are specialized languages.

English is the living and the most important language, which is spoken practically all over the world. It is spoken as the mother tongue in Great Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A great number of people speak English in China and Japan. In many Asian and African countries, such as India or Egypt, in former British colonies people speak English beside their native language. Lots of people also speak English in Europe. English is one of the 6 official working languages in the UNO.

Knowing Great Britain’s history makes it easier to understand how the English language came to be as it is. Many English words were borrowed from the language of the Angles and Saxons, the Danes. Thousands of French words had slipped into English. French words that came into English didn’t crowd out Anglo-Saxon words which meant the same things. Therefore, there are many pairs of words with the same meaning. The list below gives a few of them.

Anglo-Saxon French Ukrainian

deed act вчинок, справа

pretty beautiful красивий, вродливий

shape form форма

stream river річка, потік

Many new words have been brought into English by traders and travellers. These words came from all parts of the world. The list below tells from what languages they came:

umbrella (парасолька) - Italian

skates (ковзани) - Dutch

tea (чай) - Chinese

cigar (сигара) - Spanish

tulip (тюльпан) - Turkish

potato (картопля) - Spanish

Some words came into English directly from the Old Latin. In the Middle Ages Latin was the language of the church and of the Universities. Almost all early printed books were in Latin. Latin words slipped into common talk of the scholars and from there into the talk of the common people.

Some English words of today are derivatives. One way of manufacturing new English words is to put together two or more old English words: ‘railway’, ‘football’, ‘newspaper’ and so on.

A great many new English words – especially new scientific words – have been made from Latin or Greek words instead of English ones. ‘Telephone’, for instance, was made from the Greek words for ‘far away’ and ‘talk’.

Some people think that the language spoken in the United States should be called American instead of English. So many changes have been made in it, that they say it is no longer English. Of course, it is not surprising that American English is different from the English of Britain. In both countries the language was bound to change, and the countries are 3,000 miles apart. Thus, the English say ‘tube’ for ‘subway’, ‘flat’ for ‘apartment’, ‘in the street’ for ‘on the street’ and so on. The English pronounce some words differently, too. But even though there are many differences between British English and American English, there are far more ways in which they are alike.