The English language comes from a West Germanicline of heritage originated from Anglo-Frisian dialect brought to Britainduring the mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by the Anglo-Saxonmigrants, which is now a part of northwest Germany, Netherlands, and southernDenmark. The language of the Anglo-Saxons is now termed ‘Old English.’ English isconsidered to be originated in England and is also now one of the most dominantlanguages all across the world. The English language is the first choice oflanguage in most countries, and its status has given its position as a globallingua franca.
Modern English is relatively uninflected incomparison to the Proto-Indo European tongue of the most modern Europeanlanguages like French, Greek, Russian, German, etc., which are synthetic orsomewhat inflected. Over the last few thousand years, the language of Englishhas been simplified from variable forms of Greek, Sanskrit, Russian, Latin,etc., toward forms that cannot be varied as those in Vietnamese and Chinese. English Speaking Classes in Pune. The language's vocabulary mainly comes from thecore Germanic stock, despite the extensive contact of the German settlers withthe Roman colonists; the language already was inclusive of a number of wordsfrom Latin.
History of the English Language
Thispristine language has gone through several transitions before becoming what itis today. The Angles came from ‘Englaland’ and there language was knownas ‘Englisc’ - from which the words‘English’ and ‘England’ were later derived.
· Old English (450-1100 AD): The Germanic tribes that invaded Britainspoke similar languages. There were developed into English in Britain and aretoday termed ‘Old English.’ This form of English does not sound anything liketoday's modern English. Today's native English speakers would certainly havegreat difficulty in comprehending old English. Despite all of this, today'smodern-day English certainly consists of the old English roots.
· Middle English (1100-1500 AD): The Duke of Normandy, William theConqueror (1066), invaded and then conquered England. These new settlers wereknown as the ‘Normans.’ The Normans brought a certain form of French, which wasalso the language of the Royal Court. During this time, the lower classes spokeEnglish while the nobles spoke French forming a lingual bias. In the 14thcentury, English was dominant and French words were added to it. This was knownas ‘Middle English.’
· Modern English:
Ø Early Modern English (1500-1800 AD): There was a sudden distinct change inthe pronunciation of Middle English called the Great Vowel Shift. The vowelswere pronounced shorter and shorter. With increased contact and the Renaissanceof Classical Learning, new phrases and words were added to the EnglishLanguage. Grammar and spelling became fixed, and the first dictionary wasprinted in 1604 as an attempt to standardize the language. Language Classes in Pune.
Ø Modern Late English (1800-Present): The major distinction between the twomodern forms of English is the vocabulary used. This form of modern English hasmany words and phrases arising from two principal factors, including theindustrial revolution and the extent of the British Empire. Soon modern Englishincorporated words from a large variety of foreign languages.
