About the origins of the English language Выполнила : Носкова Маргарита, 6 класс, МБОУ СОШ № 2, г. Иркутск Руководитель : учитель английского языка : Баранова Наталья Валентиновна

The English language is spoken today in parts of Europe, in America, Asia, Africa, New Zealand, in some of the islands of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is spoken as a first language by million people. It is also used as a second language by almost the same number of people, and as a foreign language by millions more. English often called a “world language”. English is used for many different kinds of international communication. Politics and business are often carried out in English. Most medical and scientific studies are written in English. E. is the language of much of the world’s pop music and films. But who were the first English speakers? Let’s know about it!

Our understanding of the history of English began at the end of the 18 th century when Sir William Jones, a British judge who lived in India, began to study Sanskrit. He noticed many similarities between Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and other European languages. But the common source- the language from which all these languages developed- is now known as Proto-Indo- European. All development of English language can divide into three periods: 1. Old English; 2. Middle English; 3. Modern English.

Old English is the language spoken in England from arrival of the Anglo- Saxons at the end of the fifth century until the Norman Conquest in There were four main dialects of Old English: West Saxon, Kentish, Mercian, and Northhumbrian. The dialects had small differences in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Old English was almost completely Germanic. The dialects had very few Celtic words: only about twenty (e.g. crag, har- high; London, Avon, Esk etc.). As a result of the spread of Christianity from 597, the Anglo- Saxons borrowed a number of Latin words from the Roman Christians: monk, school, window, chest, to spend, to dance, to turn.

Like other Indo- European languages, Old English created new words by combining old words: high hill (heahbeorg) meant mountain; book-skill (boccraeft) meant literature; sun’s day (sunnandaeg) meant Sunday. Poets combined words very frequently to make many beautiful descriptions: an expression for body was bone- house, one for the sea was the water’s back. O. E. also created new words by adding letters before or after the main word: gan- to go; togan- to go into; utgan- to go out. Nouns had three genders, and adjectives and articles changed according to the gender of the noun.

The next great influence on the language came with a new group of invaders: the Vikings as the Anglo- Saxons called them. After that, the first book was appeared. The language was enriched following words: sister, wish, want, sick, ill, church, bag, cake, die, egg, get, give, husband, leg, neck, same, take.

Middle English In the four hundred years the English language changed more than in any other time in history. Thousand of words from French came into the language: chair, city, crime, fashion, fruit, gentle, government, medicine, music, palace, river, table, travel. New English words were created from some of the new French words almost immediately: -ly and –ful endings were added to French words to make gently, peaceful. At the same time several thousand words also entered English from Latin. They came from books about law, medicine, science, literature or Christianity: admit, history, impossible, necessary, picture.

The grammar grew simpler was by losing some of different endings for nouns, adjectives and pronouns: the plural noun ending –(e)s was accepted everywhere in England. The main change to verbs was to the past tense. More of the O. E. verbs that changed vowels for the past now began to end in –ed. People began to use prepositions: in, by, with, from instead of noun endings. The official papers of the government and the Church were written in Latin or French. But from the thirteenth century, English was used in official papers and also in literature. The greatest writers of that time were Geoffrey Chauser (“The Canterbury Tales”), William Shakespeare. In that century an important invention was. It was the printing machine. It had an enormous effect on the language, especially on the literature.

Modern English The sixteenth century was full of changes in Europe. At the beginning of the 16 th century Latin was the language of learning in all Europe. But in England people wanted to read books, for example, in English. During the 16 th and 17 th cent., writers in English borrowed about 30,000 words from about fifty languages (America, Africa, Asia, Mexico, Turkey, Persia, Spain, Portugal): desperate, expensive, explain, fact, chocolate, tomato, banana, coffee, caravan.

New words were also added to English in other ways: adventurous- to laugh, to scratch, shade; put two words together- chairman, uncomfortable. In the years of Elizabeth I the development of literature was- Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Jonson and William Shakespeare. In the years of King James I the Bible was translated into English and different expressions of everyday speech were appeared: by the skin of your teeth (you only just manage to do smth), the salt of the earth (a very honest person) etc. People began to use do with a main verb. Changes in pronunciation were continually taking place: the long vowels /i:/, /u:/. Sounds in some other words disappeared: the /k/ or /w/ at the beginning of words were lost- knee, write.

From 1800 to 2000 there were a few changes in English, but not very many. The main difficulty was misunderstanding the huge number of new words. Here some examples: combining two old words- airport, streetwise; computers- online, download, video; borrowings- pizza, disco; new things we buy- Coke from Coca-Cola, walkman from Sony Walkman; shortenings- photo, plane, TV; slang- boss; combining two different words- smog (smoke + fog), new created words- nylon, flip- flop. The dictionaries were appeared very quickly

English was, is and will be! Thank you for attention!