Evolution Of English As A Modern Day Language (Essay Sample)

EVOLUTION OF ENGLISH AS A MODERN
DAY LANGUAGE
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Evolution of English as a Modern
Day Language
Introduction
The evolution of English as a separate language has been divided into three periods. These periods are the old English Period, Middle English Period and the early modern period. The study of thee periods provides information about the evolution of English as a language. The old English period begins with the inhabitation of the Germanics in England in the 5th century. The Germanic tribes came to England as soldiers as they formed allies with England to fight Scots and settled. The Middle period of evolution involves the conquest of England by the Normans. In the battle of Hastings in 1066, Normans conquered England and their dialect spread in England. The early modern era of evolution includes expansion of vocabulary which begins in 16th century. The modern era witnessed the borrowings from the old English and regularisation of English grammar (Singh 2005).
Evolution of Old English
The Germanic soldiers, who helped England to defeat the Scots, belonged to the nations basically known as the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. These nations were located in the northern coasts of Europe. As England was unable to defeat the Scots, these soldiers along with the English succeeded in defeating the Scots. These soldiers belonged to a race known for their bravery. Throughout the century, they formed alliance with the Scots and started to invade territories of England. Though they were employees, they broke with the employers to form their own nation in the soil of England. The conquest was very slow moving and they took around a century to rule England.
Their language has an influence on the dialects of native England. It has been noted that English has been spoken as a dialect in England from 5th century. Under the different divisions of the Old English dialects, more remarkable dialects are Anglican dialect in the middle, West Saxon dialect in the south and Northumbrian dialect in the north. Towards the 9th century, these dialects developed into a form which was considered as Standard English because this language had a written form. West Saxon was prevalent in monasteries situated in certain parts of England (The Anglo-Saxons and Their Language n.d).
The Major Dialects Used in Old English
Towards 5th century, there were major three tribes known as the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. The Angles belonged to the region known as Anglia, it is believed to be today’s Holstein, the Saxons belonged to the area the central Saxony and the Jutes belonged to the Jutland which is believed to be today’s west Denmark today. In the old English period, the Saxons played an important role as they participated in the politics of England. Therefore, the West Saxon dialect played an important role in copying the manuscripts.
After that came influence of the Vikings period which is mostly divided into West Saxon and the Scandinavian influence. Towards the seventh and eighth century, the Anglo Saxon authors started writing in Latin. It is believed that the Anglo Saxons wrote in their own language and the piece of literature such as “Beowulf” belonged to eighth century Anglo Saxon period. Many biblical translations, classic poems such as Beowulf, The Seafarer, The Dream of the Road and The Battle of Malden were believed to be translated into English from this West Germanic dialect of Anglo Saxons (Hickey n.d).
Evolution of Middle English
After the Norman Conquest took place in 1066, the king Williams had the opportunity to spread a new culture and dialect in England. If King William had not conquered England, Germanic dialects would have been used till modern days. Normandy is located in northern coast of France and Rollo was acknowledged as the first Duke of the Normans as the French king approved him. It is believed that legal system and the jury system prevailing in England is one of the major contributions of Normans to Europe. Normans started to adopt Christianity and used French as their official language. As they took French as their official language, the Scandinavian dialect started to disappear. They built Cathedrals which are considered as marvelous architecture in the modern era too. In 1066, when Edward the confessor died childless, Harold, the son of an influential advisor was elected as the king. King William was the second cousin to Edward and Edward pledged William about William’s succession on throne after his death. The Norman settlement took place in England when the king William’s coronation in England occurred. This influenced the old English. Although William conquered the battle of Hastings, he had not attained the crown due to many revolutions arousing against him. After he burnt the southeast of England, people of London forbade their resistance and on Christmas Day in 1066, William was made the king of England. As he belonged to Normandy, he brought many Norman influences with him. In course of time, the Germanic influences were wiped out (Tabari n.d).
The Normans settled themselves as the upper class in society and they preferred to use their own language which was French. For 200 years after Norman settlement, French remained as the medium of interaction among the upper class in England. They did not know English but through intermarriages between the actual English upper class and the Norman upper class, the Normans started to learn English. The language of the common men in England remained English. The use of French as a medium of communication among the upper class Normans continued till thirteenth century. In between the tenth century and thirteenth century, England witnessed the diffusion of two culture and two peoples. Due to marriages and dwelling together were the major reasons that French and English diffused towards twelfth century (The Norman Conquest and the Subjection of English n.d).
By the end of twelfth century, French spread among the middle class of England. This middle class was basically the Knightly class. Among the merchant class also French spread and in the medieval England there persisted three languages Latin, English and French. Latin and French were basically found in government interactions where English was common among Peasants. There the influence of French was felt in English language. Many words were borrowed from French. Words such as “Career” and “coronation” have a French origin (Roth 2010).
The Dialects of Middle English
Though throughout the evolution of Middle English, French influence was felt, up to fourteenth century, mostly Middle English dialects were found in the manuscripts. The major dialects of Middle England are Kentish, Southern, Northern, East Midland and West Midland. The influence of these dialects was found in the pronunciation of “Canterbury Tales” created by Geoffrey Chaucer (Periods in the development of English n.d).
The Great Vowel Shift in Middle English
The “great vowel shift” occurred in Middle English which changed the way English was spoken and pronounced. The influence of the dialects was wiped out with the use of long vowels and diphthongs which have some origin with French language. The shift was believed to take place in one or two centuries and now too it is continuing. The cause of the shifting is believed to take place due to borrowings from Latin and French. Chaucer’s small vowels were changed to long vowels.
Early Modern English
The Modern English language witnessed many shifts in its lexical stresses. The phonology also changed from that of Middle English. The location of stressed syllable, the usage of vowels and differentiation between short and long vowel all are the major characteristics of early modern English. The use of long vowels started to take place from sixteenth century and the evolution of this language continues with the addition of many words till now (Early Modern English n.d). With William Shakespeare, early modern English saw its peak as many new usages of words evolved (Nevalainen 2017). The renaissance saw the use of new languages in the works of Shakespeare and King James. These works were marked as milestones in the evolution of early Modern English (En.wikipedia.org n.d). The usage of grammar and orthographical conventions in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries set a standard for the modern English. The literary works of 16th and 17th century poets are much closer to the modern English. The lexicons, the grammar and the phonology used in the sixteenth century were quite similar to the modern day Englis...