History of English

This fun little youtube video helps to show how the English language has developed over a long period of time and how standardisation has come into play.

410 AD - Goodbye Romans and hello Anglos and Saxons = Anglosaxon
Not much Latin is left but Anglosaxon simple everyday words like "house", "women" and "loaf". Plus 4 days of the week are named after their Gods.

591 AD - Christian missionaries
Big influence that kept the use Latin words alive e.g "martyr", "bishop" and "font"

C. 800 - Vikings
e.g "drag", "ransack", "die", "give" and "take" = overall 2000 words

1066 - Norman conquest
Brought french language = language of official business like "clerk", "judge", "evidence" and "justice".
Latin was still used in churches
Normal people used English such as "cow", "sheep" and "swine" where as the for the French it would be "beef", "mutton" and "pork".
Overall, 10,000 new words.
The 100 years war against France, lead to language of power like "military" and "navy".

Shakespear 1564 - 1616
2,000 new wrods like "bible", "puppy dog", "anchovy", "dauntless", "alligator" and "hob-nob". Plus lost of good catchphrases that we still use today.
They may have been said by other people first by Shakespeare wrote them down. It showed that the English Language as a vibrant language that is full of expression and emotional power.

The King James Bible - 1611
The new translation meant the bible was finally able to be read by normal people, which has a whole new glossary of metaphor and morality that still shapes how how is spoken today.

17th century = Science
First used Latin but then changed it to English, which made it easier to understand.
They discovered things faster than they could name them like "acid", "gravity", "electricity", "pendulum", "tonsil", "ovary" ans "sternum".

The Great British Empire 1853 - 1914
Showed the world it had a language of science, the bible and Shakespeare.
But words started coming from other places:
Caribbean - "barbecue". "canoe" and "cannibal"
India - "yoga", "stairs" and "bungalow"
Africa - "vodo"
Australia - "nugget" and "boomerang"
New varieties of English begin to develop all over the world.

Dictionary's and Lexicographers
e.g Dr Johnson's Dictionary - 1746 - 55 = 42,773 words
Meant people could research what words meant for the first time and know the standard spelling but new words kept being invented.
1857 - 1928 - Oxford English Dictionary and gets edited allot.

American English - 1607
When the British first arrived in America , they needed new words for names of plants and animals, which they borrowed from the Native Americans like "raccoon", "squash" and "moose".
1709 - Dutsch arrived with words like "coleslaw" and "cookies"
Germans - "pretzels" and "delicatessens"
Italians - "pizza" and "pasta"
It spread a new language of capitalism such as "break even" and "bottom line".
1865 - commenter language needed to be developed such as "free ways" and "subways".
Words from America did start to come back to Britain such as "cool" and "groovy jazz" but some stayed in America as the old English word like "fall" and "Autumn"

Internet English
1991 - Internet arrives =  free global space to share information and words like "download", "toolbar" and "firewall" start appearing as new words or words with different meanings.
1972 - first email ever sent! = conversations are shortening, which introduce the use of abbreviations like "BTW" meaning "by the way" and words like "blog" and "poke" start appearing.
It starts to converge into spoken language too like "FYI" and "FAQ".

Global English
Since the Romans, English has absorbed, evolved, invaded and stolen words. It started with foreigners, then language all of it's own and then travelling via seas and Internet.
350 language = global institution of 1.5 billion English speakers but how much is actually English now?