How the English language appeared: on hiera dagum Hengest and Horsa gesohton Bretene. Origin of the English language

The history of the emergence and development of the English language, as in the case of any other language, cannot be considered in isolation from the history of the emergence and development of the state whose inhabitants speak this language. So, England.

Initially, the territory of the British Isles was inhabited by Celts who spoke Celtic. By the 5th century, conquerors from Rome successfully coexisted with them, bringing the Latin language to these lands. However, it was in the 5th century that several Germanic tribes came to British territories, so successfully gaining a foothold here that the original Welsh and Gaulish languages have remained to this day only in territories not conquered by the Germans - in Cornwall, the mountains of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, distant and extremely difficult to achieve. Modern English is Germanic English, which has very little in common with Celtic and Latin.

However, it did not end with the Germans. British territories were for some time attacked by Vikings who came from Scandinavia and spoke Old Icelandic. And in 1066, under the rule of the French, England began to farm out its native language to the uneducated lower strata of the population, recognizing only French, the language of the conquerors, as the language of high society. Thanks to this, by the way, the vocabulary of modern English has significantly expanded: the system of synonyms in the language is truly extensive. However, in many cases the same division into higher and lower languages can be traced. So, for example, cattle - the topic of conversation among peasants - has German names (cow - cow), but dishes prepared from it were discussed in the world, which is why they have French names (beef - beef). Exactly the same pair of names exists for calf - calf and veal - veal and other concepts.

Here are a few more examples:
sheep- sheep, but mutton- mutton;
swine- pig, but pork- pork.

Such external influences certainly have a significant impact on the language. But underneath the veneer of changes that have been introduced there is still a solid Anglo-Saxon foundation.
Some time passes, the culture of England develops, and naturally the English language finds literary use, and in the 14th century it was the language spoken by lawyers and specialists in various fields of science. A little later, thanks to mass migrations to the New World - America - the language received a new direction of development, now changing simultaneously, but not always equally in different territories.

Spread around the world

The opportunity to travel around the world and the need to build relationships not only with the closest neighbors on the continent has caused a rather significant problem to arise: what language should we speak among ourselves? English, along with some other languages, has been used for political negotiations and conferences since the beginning of the 20th century. There is a need to teach it, study it, and formalize it. It is the English language that is still one of the main subjects of close attention of linguists around the world.

Where does learning a foreign language begin? Of course, from the dictionary. Grammar, style, punctuation make no sense without vocabulary. According to scientists, the modern English dictionary contains more than a million entries. How many of them do you need to learn to become confident in the language?

The earliest grammar textbooks were created to help students studying Latin and foreigners studying English. That is, the task of teaching the English their native language was not set. This problem only began to be solved in 1750, and, like many pioneers, linguists made mistakes. In particular, Latin was adopted as the standard language. And grammatical rules were considered universal and applicable to all languages. This sometimes led to absurd attempts to adapt one language to another.

In addition to attempts to Latinize the language, scientists also resisted the course of its natural development towards simplification, considering this process to be degradation. For example, the endings of verbs died out. Conservative teachers and their textbooks, distributed throughout the country as part of widespread educational programs, have preserved for posterity - that is, for us - many more irregular constructions, irregular verbs and exceptions than would have remained without outside influence. But who knows, it is likely that in a few generations English will turn from a synthetic language into an analytical one? The process of change, although slowed down, did not stop completely. The only things that don't change at all are dead languages that no one speaks.

Despite all the specific features, the English language in our time remains simple enough to learn and at the same time a full-fledged, rich and colorful language to be successfully used as a truly universal international language of communication.

The history of the English language began in England. English is a West Germanic language originally spoken in England. Currently, English is the most widely used language in the world. The history of the English language includes the spread of English across a significant number of countries and continents. English is the first language of most people in several countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. It is the third most widely spoken mother tongue in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. English is the most popular language as a second language. The total number of people speaking English - including native and non-native speakers - exceeds the number of people speaking any other language. English is the official language of the European Union, many Commonwealth countries and the United Nations, as well as many world organizations.

History of the emergence of the English language.

The history of the English language began in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and in what is now south-eastern Scotland, but was then under the control of the kingdom of Northumbria. It was in this region that the English language originated. Thanks to the extensive influence of Great Britain from the 18th century, through the British Empire, and the United States from the mid-20th century, it was widely spoken throughout the world and became the leading language of international communication in many regions. Historically, the English language is born from a fusion of closely related dialects. Old English was brought to the east coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) settlers. A significant number of English words are based on Latin roots because Latin was used in some form by the Christian church. The language was further influenced by Old Icelandic due to the Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries. The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French. In vocabulary and spelling there was a close connection with the Romance languages. This is how Middle English was formed. Changes that began in the south of England in the 15th century led to the formation of modern English based on Middle English. Due to the assimilation of words from many other languages throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary. Modern English has not only assimilated words from other European languages, but also from all continents, including words of Hindi and African origin. This is the history of the English language.

Invading Britain. It became native to the majority of the population of Great Britain, and with the territorial growth of the British Empire, it spread to Asia, Africa, North America and Australia. After the British colonies gained independence, English remained either the native language of the majority of the population (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) or one of the official languages (India, Nigeria).

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Linguogeography

English is the native language of about 335 million people (2003), the third native language in the world after Chinese and Spanish, and the total number of speakers (including a second language) is over 1.3 billion people (2007). One of the six official and working languages of the UN.

English is the official language in 54 countries - Great Britain, USA (the official language of thirty-one states), Australia, one of the official languages of Ireland (along with Irish), Canada (along with French) and Malta (along with Maltese), New Zealand (along with with Maori and sign language). Used as an official language in some countries of Asia (India, Pakistan and others) and Africa (mostly former colonies of the British Empire that are part of the Commonwealth of Nations), while the majority of the population of these countries are native speakers of other languages. Speakers of English are called Anglophones in linguistics; The term is especially common in Canada (including in political contexts, where Anglophones are in some respects contrasted with Francophones).

Variation of the English language

The English language has a long history of formation, development and territorial distribution, which is inextricably linked with changes in the language over time, as well as the geographical and social diversity of its use. Different dialects took part in its formation within England, and with the expansion of the zone of mass settlement of speakers of this language beyond the borders of England itself and Great Britain, over time it became possible to talk about national varieties of the English language (British or American English, etc.).

English language options. National options

The lexical, pronunciation and grammatical features of the speech of the mass of native English speakers in those countries where it has state (official) status are combined into the concept of national varieties of English. First of all, we are talking about those countries where it is native to the majority of the population. Accordingly, British, American (USA), Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English are distinguished. Within these countries (national variants), the speech of the speakers is actually also heterogeneous, subdivided into regional and local variants, dialects, territorial and social dialects, but often has general differences from the national variants of other countries.

Dialects

The English language has many dialects. Their diversity in Great Britain is much greater than in the United States, where the basis of the literary norm until the mid-20th century was the Mid-Atlantic dialect. Since the 50s of the 20th century, the dominant role in the United States has passed to the Mid-Western dialect.

The works of modern researchers note significant variability in the English language in the modern world. Braj Kachru and David Crystal identify three countries of its distribution concentrically diverging from one point in the circle. The first, internal, includes countries with a long-standing predominant number of native English speakers; in the second - the countries of the British Commonwealth, where it is one of the official languages, not being native to the majority of the population, and the third, expanding to other countries, where English becomes the language of interstate communication, including scientific. The spread of the English language to ever new territories and spheres of human activity causes a mixed reaction in the modern world.

England

Cockney is a term for a number of historical dialects of London's districts and craft guilds.
Scouse is a dialect of the people of Liverpool
Geordie (English)- dialect of the people of Northumberland, in particular Newcastle on Tyne
West Country
East England
Birmingham (Brummy, Brummie) (Birmingham)
Cumberland
Central Cumberland
Devonshire (Devonshire)
East Devonshire
Bolton Lancashire (Bolton in Lancashire)
North Lancashire
Radcliffe Lancashire
Northumberland
Norfolk
Tyneside Northumberland
Sussex (Sussex)
Westmorland
North Wiltshire
Craven Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
Sheffield Yorkshire (Sheffield)
West Yorkshire

Scotland, Wales and Ireland

Lowland Scottish (lowland Scotland) is also considered a separate language (Lowland Scots).
Edinburgh (Edinburgh) - also considered a dialect of the Lowland Scots language.
South Wales
Yola is a dead language, separated from medieval English.

North America

American English (AmE, AmEng, USEng)
- Socio-cultural dialects
  - Standard American English
- Regional dialects
  - Northeastern dialects
    - Boston dialect
    - Dialect of Maine and New Hampshire
    - New York dialect, Northern New Jersey Dialect (New York metropolitan area)
    - Dialect of Providence, Rhode Island
    - Vermont dialect
    - Philadelphia dialect
    - Pittsburgh dialect
  - Inland Northern American dialect (includes western and central New York State)
    - Northern Pennsylvanian (Scranton, Pennsylvania)
  - Mid-Atlantic dialects
    - Washington dialect
    - Baltimore dialect
    - Tidewater dialect
    - Virginia Piedmont dialect
  - Inland northern dialects (lower Michigan, northern Ohio and Indiana, suburbs of Chicago, parts of Wisconsin and New York state)
    - Chicago dialect
    - Buffalo dialect
  - North Central American dialect (mostly Minnesota, but also parts of Wisconsin, upper Michigan, and parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa)
    - - Yooper (Variety of North Central dialect, used in upper Michigan and some neighboring areas)
  - Central American English
    - North Central (thin strip from Nebraska to Ohio)
    - St. Louis dialect
    - South Central (thin strip from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania)
    - Appalachian English
  - Southern American dialects
    - Coastal Southeast (Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia)
    - Cajun (descendants of the French in Louisiana)
    - Dialect of Harkers Island (North Carolina)
    - Ozark Plateau dialect
    - Podgorny dialect
    - Southern Highland dialect
    - Florida Colonial
    - Gullah or Geechee
    - Tampa dialect
    - Yat (New Orleans)
  - Western dialects
    - Californian
    - Jutish
    - Idaho
    - Buntling
    - Hawaiian
    - Pacific Northwest
Canadian English (CanE, CanEng)
- Newfoundland
- Primorsky dialect
  - Lunenburg dialect
- Western and Central Canadian English
  - Quebec dialect
  - Ottawa twang
  - Pacific Northwest dialect

India

Indian English is one of the largest languages in the world in terms of the number of speakers. It, in turn, breaks down into dialects, the most important of which are:

Standard Indian English - used in the federal media of India, almost identical to Hinglish
Hinglish is a dialect spoken primarily by people whose mother tongue is Hindi.
Punjabi English
Assamese English
Tamil English

Others

Pseudo-dialects

Story

The ancestor of modern English - Old English - emerged from the environment in the pre-literate period of its history Germanic languages, retaining much in common with them both in vocabulary and grammatical structure. In an earlier era, the ancient Germans themselves separated from the Indo-European cultural and linguistic community, which included the ancestors of modern peoples speaking Indo-Iranian (Indian, Iranian) and European (Celtic, Romance, Germanic, Baltic and Slavic) languages. And the Germanic languages preserved ancient layers of common Indo-European vocabulary, which underwent natural (Grimm’s and Werner’s laws) historical changes in them, which continued in English after it acquired independence. Thus, the common Indo-European vocabulary traditionally includes terms of kinship and cardinal numerals.

Examples of surviving common Indo-European vocabulary [ ] :

Latin pater“father” with the transition of the sound [p] to [f] in Germanic languages corresponds to German Vater and English father; soror"sister" - Schwester - sister.
Latin unus"one" - German ein- English an/one.

Examples of common Germanic vocabulary [ ] :

German Haus"house" - English house,
German Hand"hand" - English hand.

It is customary to divide the history of the English language into the following periods: Old English (450-1066, the year of the conquest of England by the Normans), Middle English (1066-1500), New English (from 1500 to the present day). Some linguists also distinguish Early Modern English (English) Russian period (end of the 15th - mid-17th centuries).

Old English period

The ancestors of the present-day English - the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes - moved to the British Isles in the middle of the 5th century. During this era, their language was close to Low German and Frisian, but in its subsequent development it moved far away from other Germanic languages. During the Old English period, the Anglo-Saxon language (as many researchers call the Old English language) changes little, without deviating from the line of development of the Germanic languages, except for the expansion of the vocabulary.

The Anglo-Saxons who moved to Great Britain entered into a fierce struggle with the indigenous local population - the Celts. This contact with the Celts had little effect on the structure of the Old English language or its vocabulary. No more than eighty Celtic words survive in the Old English language. Among them:

words associated with the cult: cromlech - cromlech (buildings of the Druids), coronach - an ancient Scottish funeral lament;
words of a military nature: javelin - spear, pibroch - war song;
names of animals: hog - pig.

Some of these words have firmly established themselves in the language and are used today, for example: tory ‘member of the Conservative party’ - in Irish it meant ‘robber’, clan - tribe, whiskey - whiskey. Some of these words have become international property, for example: whiskey, plaid, clan. This weak influence of Celtic on Old English can be explained by the cultural weakness of the Celts compared to the conquering Anglo-Saxons. The influence of the Romans, who controlled part of Britain for 400 years, is greater. Latin words entered Old English in several stages. Firstly, some Latinisms were adopted by the German-speaking population of the north of continental Europe even before the resettlement of some Germans to the British Isles. Among them:

street - from lat. strata via ‘straight, paved road’;
wall - from lat. vallum, wall;
wine - from lat. vinum ‘wine’.

Another part - immediately after the resettlement of the Anglo-Saxons: these are the names of the places, for example:

Chester, Gloucester, Lancaster - from lat. castrum ‘military camp’, or
Lincoln, Colches - from lat. colonia 'colony',
Port-Smouth, Devonport - from lat. portus ‘harbour’ and a number of others.

The names of many types of food and clothing are also Latin in origin:

butter - Greek-Latin butyrum'oil',
cheese - lat. caseus ‘cheese’,
pall - lat. pallium ‘cloak’;

names of a number of cultivated or farmed plants:

pear - lat. pira ‘pear’,
peach - lat. persica 'peach'.

Another layer of Latin words dates back to the era of the penetration of Christianity into Britain. There are about 150 such words. These words also entered deeply into the language and became part of it along with the indigenous Germanic words. These are, first of all, terms directly related to the church:

apostle - Greek-Lat. apostolus ‘apostle’,
bishop - Greek-Lat. episcopus ‘bishop’,
cloister - lat. claustrum ‘monastery’.

The era of raids, and then the temporary conquest of Britain by the Vikings (790-1042) gives the Old English language a significant number of commonly used words of Scandinavian origin, such as: call - to call, cast - to throw, die - to die, take - to take, ugly - ugly, ill - sick. The borrowing of grammatical words is also characteristic, for example both - both, same - the same, they - they, their - theirs, etc. At the end of this period, a process of enormous importance gradually begins to manifest itself - the withering away of inflection. It is possible that the actual bilingualism of part of the English territory under Danish control played some role in this: language mixing led to the usual consequences - a simplification of grammatical structure and morphology. It is characteristic that inflection begins to disappear earlier in the north of Britain - the area of “Danish law”.

Middle English period

The next period in the development of the English language covers the time from 1066 to 1485. The invasion of the Norman feudal lords in 1066 introduced into the Old English language a powerful new lexical layer of so-called Normanisms - words dating back to the Norman-French dialect of the Old French language spoken by the conquerors. For a long time, Norman French remained in England the language of the church, government and the upper classes. But the conquerors were too few in number to impose their language unchanged on the country. Gradually, medium and small landowners, who belonged to a relatively greater extent to the indigenous population of the country - the Anglo-Saxons, became more important. Instead of the dominance of the Norman French language, a kind of “linguistic compromise” is gradually emerging, the result of which is a language approaching the one we call English. But the Norman French language of the ruling class retreated slowly: only in 1362 was English introduced into legal proceedings, in 1385 teaching in Norman French was stopped, and it was replaced by English, and from 1483 parliamentary laws began to be published in English language. Although the basis of the English language remained Germanic, it included such a huge number (see below) of Old French words that it became a mixed language. The process of penetration of Old French words continues until the end of the Middle English period, but reaches a peak between 1250 and 1400 [ ] .

As one would expect, the vast majority of words related to government go back to Old French (with the exception of the original Germanic king, queen and a few others):

reign - to reign, government - government, crown - crown, state - state, etc.;

most noble titles:

duke - duke,
peer - peer;

words related to military affairs:

army - army,
peace - peace,
battle - battle,
soldier - soldier,
general - general,
captain - captain,
enemy - enemy;

court terms:

judge - judge,
court - court,
crime - crime;

church terms:

service - service (church),
parish - parish.

It is very significant that the words related to trade and industry are of Old French origin, and the names of simple crafts are Germanic. An example of the first: commerce - trade, industry - industry, merchant - merchant. No less indicative for the history of the English language are two rows of words noted by Walter Scott in his novel Ivanhoe:

names of living animals - Germanic:

the names of the meat of these animals are borrowed from Old French:

beef (modern French le bœuf) - beef,
veal (modern French le veau) - veal,
mutton (modern French le mouton) - lamb,
pork (modern French le porc) - pork

Etc.

The grammatical structure of the language undergoes further changes during this period: nominal and verbal endings are first confused, weakened, and then, by the end of this period, almost completely disappear. In adjectives, along with simple methods of forming degrees of comparison, new analytical ones appear, by adding words to the adjective more'more' and most'most'. The end of this period (1400-1483) saw the victory of the London dialect over other English dialects in the country. This dialect arose from the merger and development of southern and central dialects. In phonetics, the so-called Great Vowel Shift occurs.

As a result of the migration in 1169 of part of the British to the territory of the Irish county of Wexford, the Yola language independently developed, which disappeared in the middle of the 19th century.

New England period

The period of subsequent development of the English language, to which the state of the language of modern England belongs, begins at the end of the 15th century. With the development of printing and the mass distribution of books, the normative book language is being consolidated; phonetics and spoken language continue to change, gradually moving away from dictionary norms. An important stage in the development of the English language was the formation of diaspora dialects in the British colonies.

Writing

The writing of the ancient Germans was runic; based on the Latin alphabet has existed since the 7th century (in the early Middle Ages additional letters were used, but they fell out of use). The modern English alphabet contains 26 letters.

The spelling of English is considered one of the most difficult to learn among the Indo-European languages. While reflecting relatively faithfully the English speech of the Renaissance period, it is completely inconsistent with the modern oral speech of the British, Americans, Australians and other native speakers. A large number of written words contain letters that are not pronounced when read, and, conversely, many spoken sounds do not have graphic equivalents. The so-called “reading rules” are limited by such a high percentage of exceptions that they lose all practical meaning. The student has to learn the spelling or reading of almost every new word, and therefore it is customary to indicate the transcription of each word in dictionaries. The famous linguist Max Müller called English spelling a “national disaster.”

Punctuation is one of the simplest. There are a number of differences in punctuation between British English and American English. So, for example, when using a polite form of address in a letter in the UK, a period is not placed after Mr, Mrs or Dr, unlike in the USA, where they write Mr. Jackson instead of Mr Jackson. There is also a difference in the form of quotation marks: Americans use a double apostrophe ‘‘…’’, and the British use a single apostrophe ‘…’, more active use of the serial comma in the American, etc.

The transmission of English names and titles in Russian text is determined by a rather complex system of rules, a compromise between the phonetic and spelling systems; for more details, see the article “English-Russian practical transcription”. Many names and titles, however, are passed down by tradition, archaically, in partial or complete contradiction of these rules.

Linguistic characteristics

Phonetics

If we take the so-called standard pronunciation of English in England, Commonwealth countries and the USA as a unit of comparison, without taking into account the peculiarities of modern dialects and adverbs of the USA and England, we can note:

almost complete absence of “soft”, that is, palatalized consonants;
the absence of devoicing of final voiced consonants, a phenomenon observed in the Russian language;
assimilation and dissimilation in the English language occurs much less frequently than in Russian;
strong reduction of vowels.

Morphology

In modern English there is no declension at all (with the exception of some pronouns). The number of verb forms is four or five (depending on the view of the 3rd person singular form with the ending -s: it can be considered a separate verb form or a variant of the present tense), this is compensated by an extensive system of analytical forms.

A fixed word order, which, as in other analytical languages, acquires a syntactic meaning, makes it possible, and even sometimes necessary, to eliminate formal-sound differences between parts of speech: "she prefers to name him by his name"- “she prefers to call him by his name.” In the first case "name"- the verb “to name”, and in the second "name"- a noun meaning “name”. Such a transition (the transformation of one part of speech into another without external changes) is called conversion in linguistics.

Typical conversion cases:

The noun becomes a verb: “water” - “water” and “to water” - “to water”; “wire” - “wire” and “to wire” - “telegraph”; “love” - “love” and “to love” - “to love”;
The adjective becomes a verb: “master” - “skillful, qualified, professional” and “to master” - “to master perfectly”;
The adverb becomes a verb: “down” - “down” and “to down” - “to lower”;
The interjection becomes a verb: “shush!” - “shhh!” (call for silence) and “to shush” - verb in the phrase “Simon shushed him quickly as though he had spoken too loudly in church”, “shush”;
The verb becomes a noun: “to run” - “to run” and “the run” - “jog”, “race”; “to smell” - “to smell”, “to smell” and “the smell” - “smell”;
The noun becomes an adjective: “winter” - “winter” and “winter month” - winter month;
The adverb becomes an adjective: “above” - “above” and “the above remark” - “the above remark”.

Verb

Every English verb has four basic word forms:

infinitive form, infinitive: to go= “go, walk, go”;
form of the past indefinite tense, past indefinite: went= “went”;
past participle form, past participle - performs the functions of a passive participle or participle of a perfect verb: gone= "gone";
form of the present participle, present participle/gerund - performs the functions of a real participle, gerund or verbal noun (gerund): going= “going”, “walking”, “going”, “walking”.

English verbs are weakly inflected, most of them only take an ending -s in the third person singular.

Although most verbs form the past tense in the correct way - with the help of a suffix -ed (work: worked; worked), there are a significant number of irregular verbs using suppletives ( go: went; gone).

The system of verb tense conjugation is compiled in an analytical way: one of these four forms of the main verb is joined by the corresponding forms of two auxiliary verbs to be(“to be”) and to have("have").

Based on its analyticity, there are a total of 12 grammatical tenses or tense forms in the English language. The three main tenses, as in the Russian language, are the present (present), the past (past) and the future (future; sometimes the form of the future in the conditional mood, used when coordinating tenses in complex sentences, is also considered separately - the so-called “ future in the past", future in the past). Each of these times can have four types:

simple, or indefinite (simple, indefinite),
long, or continuous (continuous, progressive),
perfect
perfect continuous ( perfect continuous/perfect progressive).

When combined, these grammatical categories form such aspectual-temporal forms as, for example, the simple present (present simple) or the future perfect progressive (future perfect progressive).

Syntax

The word order in a sentence is generally strict (in simple declarative sentences it is “subject - predicate - object”). Violation of this order, the so-called inversion, occurs in English (except for interrogative phrases, which are common) less often than in related Germanic languages. If, for example, in German an inverted sentence only changes the logical stress in it, then in English inversion gives the sentence a more emotional sound.

For declarative sentence(both affirmative and negative) is characterized by the Direct Order of Words:
(adverbial of time) - subject - predicate - direct object (without preposition) - indirect object (with preposition) - circumstances - adverbial of time, place or manner of action.
For general interrogative sentence(General Questions) is characterized by the inverted (The Inverted Order of Words) word order:

verb (usually auxiliary) - subject - semantic verb - secondary members of the sentence.

The exception is interrogative sentences for narrative sentences with to be (to be) and modal verbs (can - be able, be able to, may - be possible or permitted, dare - dare). In such cases, when questioning, this verb, being semantic, is simply placed before the subject: Is she a student? Can he drive?

For interrogative sentence with a special question(Special Questions) is characterized by the fact that the question word always comes first (for example, who, whom, what, whose, which, where, when, why, how). Moreover, if the question is addressed to the subject or its definition, then further in the sentence the word order is direct. If the question is addressed to any other member of the sentence other than the subject or its definition, then the word order in the sentence is reversed.

Vocabulary

In the vocabulary, according to its origin, the most ancient Indo-European layer is distinguished, then the common Germanic vocabulary that appeared after the separation of the Germanic tribes from the rest of the Indo-Europeans, the actual English vocabulary of subsequent periods and borrowings that penetrated the language in several waves (Grecisms and Latinisms in the scientific and religious (Christianity) spheres, borrowings from Old French from the Norman Conquest).

The English language has enormous lexical richness: Webster's Complete Dictionary contains about 425,000 words. This lexical wealth according to its etymology is distributed approximately as follows: words of Germanic origin - 30%, words of Latin-French origin - 55%, words of ancient Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, etc. origin - 15%. The situation is different if you turn from the words contained in the dictionary to a living dictionary. Regarding the oral dictionary, one can only make assumptions, but for the dictionary of written speech, such work has already been carried out in relation to some writers.

Average word length

One of the most characteristic features of the English language is the short word.

The result of counting the number of monosyllabic words in passages:

Author	Total number of words		Monosyllabic words		V %%
Macaulay	150	102	112,5	54	75	53
dickens	174	123	126	76	72,5	61,8
Shelley	136	102	103	68	76	66,8
Tennyson	248	162	199	113	82,4	70

The first vertical rows are the result of counting all words, the second are the result of counting, in which repeated words are counted as one.

Already from this table it is clear that the short word predominates in the English language, but there are also long words, for example, individualization and even antiestablishmentarianism (the longest word in the English language is considered

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! Today we will get acquainted with the history of the origin of the English language and look at some of its varieties.

We all, one way or another, come across English words and expressions in our lives. However, not everyone knows that the British language has been modified and improved throughout the history of its existence.

Briefly about the history of the origin and development of the English language

The history of the English language is divided by many philologists and linguists into three periods: Old English, Middle English and New English. However, this division is conditional, because the language existed among the tribes that inhabited the British Isles long before the conquest of Britain by Caesar or the spread of Christianity throughout the country.

Celtic Britain

55 -54 G. BC.uh. Two campaigns to Britain by Guy Julius Caesar. The British Celts - the Britons - first came into contact with the Romans. The word "Britain" itself supposedly comes from the Celtic root "brith" "colored".

44 G. n. uh. A century after Caesar, Britain, after a personal visit by Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), was declared a province of the Roman Empire. In addition to Claudius, among the Roman emperors, Hadrian visited Britain (120 AD), and Septimius Severus died (211) while in York (lat. Eboracum). Constantius Chlorus (306), the father of Saint Constantine the Great, Equal-to-the-Apostles, also died in York.
B 410 G. n.uh by order of Emperor Honorius, Britain ceased to be a Roman province; from now on the Britons are left to their own devices. What remained from the Romans were Christian churches, roads, and fortified settlements on the sites of military camps.

The Latin word for camp is castra. The elements “-caster”, “-chester”, “-cester” in the names of English settlements go back to this Latin word. For example: "Lancaster", "Manchester", "Leicester". The element "-coln" goes back to the Latin word "colonia" - "settlement". For example: "Lincoln".

Among the common nouns in their language, the English owe the presence of the Romans in Britain such common words as “street” and “wall” - “wall”: the first - from the Latin expression “via strata” - “paved road”, the second - from “vallum” - “shaft”.

Old English period (450-1066)

The Germanic tribes of the Saxons, Jutes, Angles and Frisians entered Britain in 449. Since these tribes were much larger in number than the Celtic ones, gradually the Anglo-Saxon dialect completely replaced the Celtic dialect from use.

In modern English, some names of places and bodies of water go back to the language of the Britons. For example, London and Avon (“avon” means “river” in Celtic).

The Germans brought with them several words of Latin origin, which they borrowed from the Romans on the mainland - the so-called “common Germanic borrowings” from Latin. Of these, in modern English there are words such as “wine” - “wine” - from Latin. "vinum" - "wine"; “pear” - “pear” - from lat. "pirum" - "pear"; “pepper” - “pepper” - from lat. "piper" - "pepper". The words “butter”, “pound”, “cheese”, “alum”, “silk”, “inch”, “mile”, “mint” are also “common Germanic borrowings” from Latin.

In 878, the conquest of Anglo-Saxon lands by the Danes began. For many years, the Danes lived on the lands of Britain and intermarried with representatives of the Anglo-Saxons. As a result, a number of borrowings from Scandinavian languages appeared in English. For example, “amiss” - “something is wrong”, “anger” - “anger”, “auk” - “auk”, “awe” - “awe”, “axle” - “axis”, “aye” - “always” .

The letter combination “sk-” or “sc-” at the beginning of a word in modern English is also very often an indicator that the word is a Scandinavian loanword. For example, “sky” - “sky” (from the original English “heaven”), “skin” - “skin” (from the original English “hide” - “skin”), “skull” - “skull” (from the original English “ shell" - "shell"; "shell").

Middle English period (1066-1500)

In the middle of the 11th century, the inhabitants of northern France conquered Britain. William the Conqueror, a Norman by origin, becomes king. From this time on, the era of three languages began in the history of the people. French became the language of the aristocracy and courts, Latin remained the language of science, and the common people continued to speak Anglo-Saxon. It was the mixture of these three languages that gave rise to the formation of modern English.

The Norman French language of the ruling class retreated slowly: only in 1362 was English introduced into legal proceedings, in 1385 teaching in Norman French was stopped and English was introduced, and from 1483 parliamentary laws began to be published in English.

Although the basis of the English language remained Germanic, it included such a huge number of Old French words that it becomes a mixed language. The process of penetration of Old French words continued until the very end of the Middle English period, but reached its peak between 1250 and 1400.

Early Modern English period (1500-1800)

William Caxton is considered the first printer in Britain, who printed the first book in English in 1474. It was a translation of Raoul Lefebvre's "Collected Stories of Troy."

During his life, Caxton published more than 100 books, many of which were his own translations. It should be noted that thanks to his activities, many English words finally found their finished form.

As for grammatical rules, Caxton often invented his own rules, which, after publication, became publicly available and were considered the only correct ones.

Late Modern English period (1800-present)

The great William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is rightfully considered the founder of the English literary language. He is credited with originating many idiomatic expressions that are still used in modern English. In addition, Shakespeare invented many new words that have taken root in the language.

For example, the word "swagger" - "swaggering gait" or "swagger" - is found for the first time in the history of the English language in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Varieties of English

English is spoken by more than 500 million people. In terms of the number of speakers, it is second only to Chinese and Hindi. The widespread use of English and its prominence throughout the world is due to the extensive colonization of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the political influence and economic dominance of the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present day.

The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into 3 general categories. These are the dialects:

British Isles (UK)
North America (USA and Canada)
Australasia (India, Australia and New Zealand).

Dialects can be associated not only with place, but also with certain social groups. In England alone there are more than 20 English dialects .

Timeline of the development of the English language

800 BC	Representatives of the Indo-Europeans, the Celts, moved to Britain from the mainland.
55 - 54 BC e.	The Romans arrived in Britain. Guy Julius Caesar made two trips here.
44 BC e.	Britain was declared a province of the Roman Empire. The island was visited by the emperors Claudius, Hadrian, and Septimius Severus.
	The Romans finally leave Britain
	The Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians penetrated into the territory of Britain. The Anglo-Saxon dialect began to displace the Celtic language from everyday use.
	William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, conquers England
	The first English literature appeared
	The first government documents in English were issued
	This is the first time that English is used in Parliament.
	Chaucer begins writing The Canterbury Tales
	William Caxton opens the first English printing press
	Birth of William Shakespeare
	The first English dictionary called Table Alphabeticall was published. The dictionary was created by Robert Caudrey
	The first English settlement in the New World was founded (Jamestown)
	Death of William Shakespeare
	The first collection of Shakespeare's plays published
	London publishes its first daily newspaper, The Daily Courant.
	The first “Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language” was published
	Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence
	Britain gives up its colonies in North America
	Webster publishes the American English Dictionary
	The Oxford English Dictionary has been published.

Conclusion

Now you have read a brief excursion into the history of the English language. And now you can show off your knowledge in the company of friends who, like you, care about this beautiful and universal language.

Go ahead and let"em know some history there! Just not too much!

Big and friendly EnglishDom family

The history of the English language began in the 5th century, when Britain, then inhabited by Celts and partly by Romans, was invaded by three Germanic tribes. The German influence turned out to be so strong that soon almost nothing remained of the Celtic and Latin languages in almost the entire country. Only in remote and inaccessible areas of Britain that remained unoccupied by the Germans (Cornwall, Wells, Ireland, Highland Scotland) were the local Welsh and Gaulish languages preserved. These languages survive today: they are called Celtic languages, in contrast to Germanic English. Then the Vikings came to Britain from Scandinavia with their Old Icelandic language. Then in 1066 England was captured by the French. Because of this, French was the language of the English aristocracy for two centuries, and Old English was used by the common people. This historical fact had a very significant impact on the English language: many new words appeared in it, the vocabulary almost doubled. Therefore, it is in the vocabulary that the split into two variants of English - high and low, respectively of French and German origin - can be quite clearly felt today.

Thanks to the doubling of the vocabulary, the English language today still has many words of the same meaning - synonyms that arose as a result of the simultaneous use of two different languages, which came from the Saxon peasants and from the Norman masters. A clear example of this social division is the difference in the name of livestock, which comes from Germanic roots:

cow - cow

calf - calf

sheep - sheep

swine - pig

while the names of the cooked meats are of French origin:

beef - beef

veal - veal

mutton - lamb

pork - pork

Despite all external influences, the core of the language remained Anglo-Saxon. Already in the 14th century, English became a literary language, as well as the language of law and school. And when mass emigration from Britain to America began, the language brought there by the settlers continued to change in new directions, often maintaining its roots in British English, and sometimes changing quite significantly.

The beginning of the globalization of English

By the beginning of the 20th century, English was increasingly becoming the language of international communication. The English language, along with other languages of international communication, was used at international conferences, in the League of Nations, and for negotiations. Even then, the need to improve its teaching and develop objective criteria that would allow learning the language more effectively became obvious. This need stimulated the search and research of linguists from different countries, which has not dried up to this day.

It is clear that one of the most important components of learning any foreign language is the accumulation of vocabulary. Only after acquiring some vocabulary can you begin to study the relationships between words - grammar, stylistics, etc. But what words should you learn first? And how many words should you know? There are a lot of words in the English language. According to linguists, the complete vocabulary of the English language contains at least one million words. The record holders among the famous dictionaries of the English language are the second edition of the 20-volume Oxford dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989 by Oxford University Press, and Webster's 1934 dictionary Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd Edition, which includes a description of 600 thousand words. Of course, not a single person knows such a number of words, and it is very difficult to use such huge dictionaries.

The “average” Englishman or American, even those with a higher education, hardly uses more than 1500-2000 words in his everyday speech, although he passively owns an incomparably large stock of words that he hears on TV or encounters in newspapers and books. And only the most educated, intelligent part of society is able to actively use more than 2000 words: individual writers, journalists, editors and other “masters of words” use the most extensive vocabulary, reaching 10 thousand words or more in some especially gifted individuals. The only problem is that each person who has a rich vocabulary has a vocabulary as individual as handwriting or fingerprints. Therefore, if the vocabulary base of 2000 words is approximately the same for everyone, then the “plumage” is quite different for everyone.

However, conventional bilingual dictionaries and explanatory dictionaries, which provide definitions of words in one language, strive to describe as many words as possible in order to increase the likelihood that the reader will find most of the words he is looking for. Therefore, the larger the regular dictionary, the better. It is not uncommon for dictionaries to contain descriptions of tens or hundreds of thousands of words in one volume.

In addition to ordinary dictionaries, there are dictionaries that do not contain the largest possible number of words, but rather a minimal list of them. Dictionaries of the required minimum vocabulary describe words that are used most often and have the greatest semantic value. Because words are used with different frequencies, some words are much more common than all other words. In 1973, it was found that a minimum dictionary of the 1,000 most common words in the English language describes 80.5% of all word usage in average texts, a 2,000-word dictionary describes approximately 86% of word usage, and a 3,000-word dictionary describes about 90% of word usage.

It is clear that minimum lexical dictionaries are intended for language learning by students, and not at all for translators. With the help of a minimum dictionary it is impossible to learn natural language in its entirety, but you can quickly and effectively learn that part of it that is of greatest value for the practical needs of communication.