Essays on The History of English Language Text

Jonathan Friesen - Writing Coach

length: 2181 words 6.2 double spaced pages the history of the english language in this paper i will discuss where and how the english language originated and how it has spread to become one of the most spoken languages in the world. Before i started my research on my topic of choice, my original hypothesis was that the english language was started by a whole assortment of germanic tribes invading england thousands of years ago. This ultimately became the goal of my paper, to see if germanic tribes started the english language, or if it was started from some other tribes that i was not aware of. The history of the english language is of significance because english is spoken more frequently than any other language except chinese, bright, 1992. A germanic language, english is spoken by an estimated 1,500,0,0 people, and that number is ever increasing, crystal, 1992. English is the chief language of world publishing, science and technology, conferencing, and computer storage as well as the language of international air traffic control crystal, 1992.

to view the full essay now, purchase below learn by seeing a well written example history of the english language the history of the english language is very extensively. It contains parts of french, latin, german, norse and of a few less known tongues. Before texts were written in english, they were mainly written in latin and were reserved to be read only by the pious and royal. The language how it is spoken today was formed only after centuries of fierce battling, governments being overthrown, and a period of time known as the dark ages. Later it was simplified into middle english and finally refined into modern english.

In the year 449 germanic tribes angles, saxons, and jutes invaded england after the romans had already build a progressing civilization, complete with a massive road system. It is assumed that the tribes terrorized the natives and forced many of them of their homeland. Their german language blended with those celtic and welsh residents who decided to stay. Augustine and other roman missionaries came to spread christianity to the savages.

Essay Writing Contests Canada

He and the other missionaries introduced the technology of writing in all of the hierarchies. Within a century after augustine’s arrival, primitive works of history and religious poetry began to surface in a language that is now regarded as old english. His old english works provide us with a glimpse into an otherwise mysterious period known as the dark ages. There were many invasions from 787 1042 primarily by the vikings or by the danes. Due to them the english language began to be simplified along with its vocabulary.

The inflected endings common to old english were dropped off and prefixes like sc, sk, and sh were added to the melting pot. History of the english language english is an anglo frisian language brought to britain in the 5th century ad by germanic settlers from various parts of northwest germany. The original old english language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the scandinavian branch of the germanic family, who colonised parts of britain in the 8th and 9th centuries.

Help to Write a Literature Review

The second wave was of the normans in the 11th century, who spoke norman an oïl language closely related to french. The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of three germanic tribes to the british isles during the 5th century ad. Angles, saxons and jutes crossed the north sea from what is the present day denmark and northern germany. One group migrated to the brittany coast of france where their descendants still speak the celtic language of breton today. It is convenient to divide english into periods old english or anglo saxon to c.1150 , middle english to c.1500 , and modern english.

The invaders dominated the original celtic speaking inhabitants, whose languages survived largely in scotland, wales, and cornwall. Later, it was strongly influenced by the north germanic language norse, spoken by the vikings who settled mainly in the north east. The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the germanic family many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distant, including the prefixes, suffixes and inflections of many of their words. The germanic language of these old english inhabitants of britain was influenced by the contact with norse invaders, which may have been responsible for some of the morphological simplification of old english, including loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked case with the notable exception of the pronouns.

The most famous work from the old english period is the epic poem beowulf , by an unknown poet. The introduction of christianity added the first wave of latin and greek words to the language. It has been argued that the danish contribution continued into the early middle ages. The old english period ended with the norman conquest, when the language was influenced, to an even greater extent, by the norman french speaking normans. The use of anglo saxon to describe a merging of anglian and saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development. According to lois fundis, stumpers l, fri, 14 dec 2001 the first citation for the second definition of 'anglo saxon', referring to early english language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of elizabeth i, from a historian named camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well known in modern times.

Holt Geometry Homework Help Online

For the 300 years following the norman conquest in 1066, the norman kings and the high nobility spoke only a variety of french called anglo norman. While the anglo saxon chronicle continued until ad 1154, most other literature from this period was in old french or latin. A large number of norman words were assimilated into old english, with some words doubling for old english words for instance, ox/beef, sheep/mutton.

The norman influence reinforced the continual evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in what is now referred to as middle english. Among the changes was a broadening in the use of a unique aspect of english grammar, the continuous tenses, with the. Showing result 1 5 of 28 essays containing the words history of the english language. The present thesis seeks to problematize the un discourse within transitional justice.

Many scholars have pointed out that the discourse has been normalised and that is why it is in need for deconstruction. The study aims to critically analyse how justice and reconciliation are understood in the field. Read more university essay from högskolan i gävle/avdelningen för humaniora abstract.