History, what History?

1. History, what History? Is the history of Modern English relevant when teaching English? Michael Stuart Rose michael@insl.com.br

2. English is a real Tutti-Frutti – why? Look at “heard”, an awful word, It looks like “beard” but sounds like “bird”. And “dead”: it’s said like “bed”, not “bead”. For goodness’ sake, don’t call it “deed”! And watch out for “meat” and “great” and “threat”; They rhyme with “suite” and “straight” and “debt”!

3. Contents • Why, why, why?! • A brief history of Modern English • Regular and irregular verbs – why? • An evolving language • Imported words • Even laziness plays its part in evolution! • The End?

4. Why, why, why?! Have your students ever asked: • Why are there regular and irregular verbs? • Why are there so many variations in spelling? • Why are there so many variations in pronunciation? • Why are there no accents to help with pronunciation? History tells us why ....

5. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (1) • The Celts: were the original inhabitants of Britain (around the Iron Age). They spoke Celtic. Much of their language still survives in parts of Britain.

6. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (1) • The Celts: were the original inhabitants of Britain (around the Iron Age). They spoke Celtic. Much of their language still survives in parts of Britain. • Examples of Cornish (17th century) derived from Celtic: • Durdathawhye! Good day to you! • Ha soce! Hello mate. • Bethowhyelowenack! Happiness to you! • Fatlagenawhye? How are you? • Fatel era whyekeele? How are you doing? • Vedowhyecawasbadna? Do you want a drop to drink? • Vedowhyecawastabm? Do you want a bite to eat?

7. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (1) • The Celts: were the original inhabitants of Britain (around the Iron Age). They spoke Celtic. Much of their language still survives in parts of Britain. • The Romans: invaded Britain around the 1st century, displacing the Celts to Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. They introducedLatin.

8. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (1) • The Celts: were the original inhabitants of Britain (around the Iron Age). They spoke Celtic. Much of their language still survives in parts of Britain. • The Romans: invaded Britain around the 1st century, displacing the Celts to Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. They introducedLatin. • The Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles: invaded Britain around the 5th century. They introduced Jutish(an old form of German), SaxonandAnglo. The Angles came from “Englaland” and their language was called “Englisc”. The languages from these Germanic tribes developed into what we call “Old English”.

10. TheLord'sPrayer in OldEnglishMatthew 6:9-13 Fæderureþuþeeartonheofonum Si þinnamagehalgod to becumeþinrice gewurþeðinwilla oneorðanswaswaonheofonum urnegedæghwamlicanhlafsyle us todæg andforgyf us uregyltas swaswaweforgyfaðurumgyltendum andnegelædþu us oncostnunge acalys us ofyfelesoþlice

11. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (2) • The Vikings: invaded Britain in the 8th century. They introduced (apart from a good deal of rape and pillage) Norse vocabulary.

12. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (2) • The Vikings: invaded Britain in the 8th century. They introduced (apart from a good deal of rape and pillage) Norse vocabulary. • The Normans: conquered England in 1066. They broughtNormanwith them (an ancient form of French, not a man). Shortly after, it became the language of the ruling & upper classes. Around the 14th century, the middle and lower classes spoke what we now call “Middle English”.

13. Psalm 23 in Middle English • Lord my steres, not want shall me:In stede of fode there me looked he.He fed me ouer water of fode,My soul he turns in to good.He lead me ouer sties of righteousnessFor his name, as holy is.For, and if I go in mid shadow of dread,For thou with me while iuel shall I not dread;Thy yherde, and thy staff of might,They are me roned day and night.Thou graithed in my sight borde to be,Ogainesthas that droued me;Thou fatted in oil my head yhite;And my drink dronkenand while schire is ite!And filigh my shall thy mercyAll days of my life for-thyAnd that I wone in house of lord isIn length of days al with bliss

14. Origins and Influences (1)

15. Origins and Influences (2) • Celtic: loch, whisky, trousers, penguin / regular verbs • Latin: drama, animal, doctor, triangle / regular verbs • Anglo-Saxon: always, beach, drink, teach / irregular verbs • Jutish: blitz, milk, kindergarten, finger, horse / irregular verbs • French: fragrance, attraction, certain, definition / regular verbs • Norse: cake, ugly, husband, awkward, egg, give / irregular verbs

16. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (3) • Due to international trade during the 16th century, other languages such as Sanskrit, Urdu,RussianandPolishalso played a role in augmenting the vocabulary of the English language.

17. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (3) • Due to international trade during the 16th century, other languages such as Sanskrit, Urdu,RussianandPolishalso played a role in augmenting the vocabulary of the English language. • The expansion of the British Empire in the 19th century also assisted in the adoption of numerous foreignwords and phrases.

18. A BriefHistoryofModernEnglish (3) • Due to international trade during the 16th century, other languages such as Sanskrit, Urdu,RussianandPolishalso played a role in augmenting the vocabulary of the English language. • The expansion of the British Empire in the 19th century also assisted in the adoption of numerous foreignwords and phrases. • Not to mention various attempts to attack and conquer England by the French (1216, 1545), the Spanish (1588), the Dutch (1688) and the Germans (1940).

19. If Hitler hadwonthewar.... • Cheers mate!  Danke mate! • Whatthe f*#% !  Donner andBlitzen!

20. 15th century: The Great Vowel Shift (1)

21. 15th century: The Great Vowel Shift (1) • The Great Vowel Shift refers to the change in pronunciation of long vowels that occurred in England. After the Great Vowel Shift, vowel pronunciation changed dramatically, generally getting shorter. For example, the long “i” sound in Middle English had a long “e” sound, as in the word “sweet”. After the Great Vowel Shift, it was pronounced as in the word “life”.

22. 15th century: The Great Vowel Shift (1) • The Great Vowel Shift refers to the change in pronunciation of long vowels that occurred in England. After the Great Vowel Shift, vowel pronunciation changed dramatically, generally getting shorter. For example, the long “i” sound in Middle English had a long “e” sound, as in the word “sweet”. After the Great Vowel Shift, it was pronounced as in the word “life”. • Example: “fine” (from French) Middle English: pronounced feen Modern English: pronounced fahyn

23. 15th century: The Great Vowel Shift (1) • The Great Vowel Shift refers to the change in pronunciation of long vowels that occurred in England. After the Great Vowel Shift, vowel pronunciation changed dramatically, generally getting shorter. For example, the long “i” sound in Middle English had a long “e” sound, as in the word “sweet”. After the Great Vowel Shift, it was pronounced as in the word “life”. • Example: “fine” (from French) Middle English: pronounced feen Modern English: pronounced fahyn • Note that words like “bit” and “sit” came from a Germanic language and already had a short vowel sound.

24. 15th century: The Great Vowel Shift (2) The Great Vowel Shift occurred over a long period, which may account for the many different and creative spellings and pronunciations which now exist in English. For example, compare the pronunciation of these letters of the alphabet: A/B/C/D/G/J/K vs. F/L/M/N/S.

25. 15th century: The Great Vowel Shift (3) • Some linguists think that the Great Vowel Shift occurred due to the disenchantment of French rule. To distance themselves from French occupation, the English may have deliberately changed pronunciation and removed accent marks in writing, to reflect that theirs was a language different from French.

26. 15th century: The Great Vowel Shift (3) • Some linguists think that the Great Vowel Shift occurred due to the disenchantment of French rule. To distance themselves from French occupation, the English may have deliberately changed pronunciation and removed accent marks in writing, to reflect that theirs was a language different from French. • After the Great Vowel Shift the English spoke “Early Modern English” (Shakespeare’s day).

27. Shakespeare: Sonnet XVIII Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thouart more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest, Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

28. Regular Verbs These came from Celtic, Latin and French. The general rule was: add “ed” The origin of this is believed to be: “did” Example: “paint did”  “painted”

29. Irregular Verbs These came from Scandinavian and European (mostly Germanic) languages. The rule was: replace one vowel with another: drink/drank blow/blew keep/kept sink/sank know/knew sleep/slept shrink/shrank grow/grew weep/wept stink/stank throw/threw sing/sang ring/rang drive/drove spring/sprang dive/dove • swim/swam write/wrote sit/sat

30. So, why not....? • If “sink–sank”, why not “wink–wank” or “think–thank”? • If “speak–spoke”, why not “seek–soke” or “leak–loke”? • If “steal–stole”, why not “kneel–knole” or “feel–fole”? • If “freeze–froze”, why not “sneeze–snoze” or “squeeze–squoze”? • If “sit–sat”, why not “hit–hat” or “fit–fat”? But of course the origin of a word dictates its being regular/irregular.

31. A Special Case:Why “went” as the past of “go”?(Donner and Blitzen!)

32. A Special Case:Why “went” as the past of “go”? The words “go” and “went” stemmed from two different verbs in Middle English (prior to 1200): go (to advance) / gode / goden wend (to proceed or turn) / wente / went and, for some unknown reason, around 1200 the past of “go” (gode) was replaced with the past of “wend” (wente), perhaps through common usage. Later on, the “e” was dropped. Today, “wend” still exists but is a regular verb.

33. An Evolving LanguageThrough common usage, some irregular verbsare becoming regular: • dream • burn • learn • tread • strive • dwell • rend • slay • smite • wend

34. An Evolving LanguageThrough common usage, some irregular verbsare becoming regular: • dream-dreamt ( dreamed) • burn-burnt (burned) • learn-learnt (learned) • tread-trod ( treaded) • strive-strove ( strived) • dwell-dwelt ( dwelled) • rend-rent (rended) • slay-slew (slayed) • smite-smote (smited) • wend-wente(wended) P.S. Wouldn’t it be easy if they all changed ?!

35. Words taken from other languages • Arabic: alcohol • Celtic: penguin, maggot • Czech: robot • Dutch: lottery • French: ambulance, diplomat, parachute • Jutish: blitz, quartz • Hebrew: kosher • Hindi: jungle, shampoo • Japanese: judo, karate, tycoon • Latin: data, maximum, uniform • Mandarin: kung fu, typhoon • Norse: fjord, ski • Portuguese: massage, pickaninny, piranha, savvy, embarrass, cashew • Russian: vodka, cosmonaut • Spanish: orange, negro • Swahili: dengue • Thai: siamese • Turkish: caviar, kebab, tulip, yoghurt (source: http://www.krysstal.com/borrow.html)

36. An Example Oranges were originally imported from a Spanish speaking country and were called “naranjas”. However, through a misunderstanding, a change occurred: a naranja an aranja an orange

37. Even Laziness Creates Changes

38. Even Laziness Creates Changes • Letters changed through mispronunciation. For example, in some words “f” changed to “v” due to laziness (e.g. ofer over). This is because it’s easier to use a sequence of sounds which are “voiced-voiced-voiced” (as in “o-v-er”) than “voiced-unvoiced-voiced” (as in “o-f-er”).

39. Even Laziness Creates Changes • Letters changed through mispronunciation. For example, in some words “f” changed to “v” due to laziness (e.g. ofer over). This is because it’s easier to use a sequence of sounds which are “voiced-voiced-voiced” (as in “o-v-er”) than “voiced-unvoiced-voiced” (as in “o-f-er”). • Other examples: knifes  knives, lifes lives, etc. (therefore introducing some irregular plurals to the language)

40. Even Laziness Creates Changes • Letters changed through mispronunciation. For example, in some words “f” changed to “v” due to laziness (e.g. ofer over). This is because it’s easier to use a sequence of sounds which are “voiced-voiced-voiced” (as in “o-v-er”) than “voiced-unvoiced-voiced” (as in “o-f-er”). • Other examples: knifes  knives, lifes lives, etc. (therefore introducing some irregular plurals to the language) • Remember that some English words have two pronunciations. For example: I have a chicken for dinner (pronounced ‘hav’) I have to kill the chicken for dinner (pronounced ‘haf’)

41. Is this the end? • Absolutely not! • Languages constantly evolve:

42. Is this the end? • Absolutely not! • Languages constantly evolve: • New vocabulary through new technology (e.g. laptop, twitter, tweet, cloud, thumbo, vook)

43. Is this the end? • Absolutely not! • Languages constantly evolve: • New vocabulary through new technology (e.g. laptop, twitter, tweet, cloud, thumbo, vook) • New vocabulary through common or new usage Examples: gay = happy (prior to 1960/70) / homosexual (since 1960/70) mad = crazy (Old English) / angry (Modern English) to be like = deleb =

44. Is this the end? • Absolutely not! • Languages constantly evolve: • New vocabulary through new technology (e.g. laptop, twitter, tweet, cloud, thumbo, vook) • New vocabulary through common or new usage Examples: gay = happy (prior to 1960/70) / homosexual (since 1960/70) mad = crazy (Old English) / angry (Modern English) to be like = to say (I was like “You didn’t!”, he was like “I did!”) deleb =

45. Is this the end? • Absolutely not! • Languages constantly evolve: • New vocabulary through new technology (e.g. laptop, twitter, tweet, cloud, thumbo, vook) • New vocabulary through common or new usage Examples: gay = happy (prior to 1960/70) / homosexual (since 1960/70) mad = crazy (Old English) / angry (Modern English) to be like = to say (I was like “You didn’t!”, he was like “I did!”) deleb = dead celeb(rity)

46. Is this the end? • Absolutely not! • Languages constantly evolve: • New vocabulary through new technology (e.g. laptop, twitter, tweet, cloud, thumbo, vook) • New vocabulary through common or new usage Examples: gay = happy (prior to 1960/70) / homosexual (since 1960/70) mad = crazy (Old English) / angry (Modern English) to be like = to say (I was like “You didn’t!”, he was like “I did!”) deleb = dead celeb(rity) • New vocabulary through laziness (e.g. gonna, wanna, lotta, gotta)

47. Who says History is not Relevant? So, if one of your students should ever ask: “Teacher, why is English so different / crazy / inconsistent / etc.?” at least you can offer some explanations!

48. “Vai com Deus” God be wi ye* (1600)  Godbwye (1800) Goodbye ** (1900) * Means “God be with you” (“Deus esteja com você”) ** “God” changed to “Good” possibly due to the existence and influence of “Good day” and Goodnight”

49. Bibliography • “The Language Instinct” by Steven Pinker • Childrens’ Stories (various books) by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker • www.krysstal.com/borrow.html • http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm • http://www.angelfire.com/la2/timeline/ • http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2010/04/07/new-tech-words-vocabulary/

50. Thankyou! michael@insl.com.br www.insl.com.br/cna/history_of_english.pptx