Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Recent awareness of “endangered languages” and a new sensitivity to eco-linguistics have made clear the success of English brings problems in its wake.  The world is poorer when a language dies on average every two weeks.  For native speakers of English as well, the status of the English language can be a mixed blessing, especially if the great majority of English speakers remain monolingual.  Despite the dominance of English in the European Union, a British candidate for an international position may be at a disadvantage compared with a young EU citizen from Bon or Milan or Lyon who is nearly fluent in English.  Referring to International English as “Global,” one observer writes: “The emergence of Global is not an unqualified bonus for the British… for while we have relatively easy access to Global, so too do well-educated mainland Europeans, who have other linguistic assets besides.” Work Cited: Baugh, Albert C., and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. 5th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978. Print.

Quotation, Paraphrase and Summary “The world is poorer when a language dies on average every two weeks” (Baugh and Cable 19). Paraphrase of above quotation Two weeks from now another language may die and the world will be less diverse because of it (Baugh and Cable 19). Summary of paragraph from previous slide According to Baugh and Cable, English only speakers are less desirable as employees in the global market (19).
 



Paragraph 1 “The English language has undergone such change in the course of time that one cannot read Old English without special study. In fact a page of Old English is likely to at first to present a look of greater strangeness than a page of French or Italian because of the employment of certain characters that no longer form a part of our alphabet. In general the differences that one notices between Old and Modern English concern spelling and pronunciation, the lexicon and the grammar” (Baugh and Cable 53).

Old English HWÆT, WE GAR-DEna in geardagum, 
þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, 
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon! 
oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, 
monegum mægþum meodosetla ofteah, 
egsode eorlas, syððanærest wearð
feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum weorðmyndum þah, (From Beowulf, author unknown)

Paragraph 2 “Out of this variety of local dialects there emerged toward the end of the fourteenth century a written language that in the course of the fifteenth won general recognition and has since become the recognized standard in both speech and writing. The part of England that contributed most to the formation of this standard was the East Midland district, and it was the East Midland type of English that became its basis, particularly the dialect of the metropolis, London. Several causes contributed to the attainment of this result” (Baugh and Cable 192).

Middle English Whan that April with his shoures sote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendered is the flour Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne (Chaucer 3)

Paragraph 3 “For the student of the English language the most interesting period of immigration to America is the first. It was the early colonists who brought us our speech and established its form. Those who came later were largely assimilated in a generation of two, and though their influence may have been felt, it is difficult to define. It is to these early settlers that we must devote our chief attention if we would understand the history of the English language in America” (Baugh and Cable 352).

Early American English Mrs. Mary Rowlandfon Who was taken Prifoner by the INDIANS with feveral others,, and treated in the moft barbarous and cruel Manoer by thofe wile Savages : With many other remarkable Events during her Travels.