history of english lesson

Lesson 11/9 - History of the English Language

1. Brief Overview:
Discuss Indo-European, and classify English as West Germanic
*Not* a Romance Language
Russian is a Slavic language
Dutch, Frisian, Old German...

2. Anglo-Saxon and Old English
Rome Governed Britain from 43 to 410, mostly they spoke Celtic languages - some of which are still alive in Ireland and Scotland to this day
Latin didn't dominate
Instead here comes Anglos and Saxons, who spoke their Germanic dialects
Became new political elite, Old English quickly took over the island
400 to 600
Old English was very complex, with 5 cases - Nominative Dative Genitive Instrumental and Accusative
Written with the Futhorc runes - descended from Viking runes!
Replaced by Latin in the 8th century by monks travelling to the island
Small influences from celtic, mostly the weird things that English does (progressive tense and the "do" auxiliary verb)

Beowulf - first literary masterpiece!
Nobody knows who wrote it
sometimes around the year 1000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH-_GwoO4xI

2. Norman Invasion
Ever wonder why so many English words and French words are the same?
1066-15th Century - Normal Conquest
William the Conquerer lead the Normans, a group of Early French kingdoms, to invade England
French became the language of the upper class, which is why most "sophisticated" words in English are french
About 10,000 French words filtered into English through this whole debacle, French remains a prestige language until around 1400
The dreaded articles appear around 1200, with "the" being first recorded around that time
English went from synthetic to analytic
Early 1300's London begins to become more powerful, centralizing English - government documents start to be in English and not french

Boom!  Great Vowel Shift!

3. Early Modern - the language of Shakespeare
Language of the government, of big cities, can be standardized
Printing press lets the language spread
First Dictionary in 1604

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeW1eV7Oc5A

4. Modern English and its spread
British Empire - at one point the biggest empire in the world
"The sun never sets on the Union Jack."
US colonies Began in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia
Involvement in India for trade, the East India Company 1600
Australian penal colonies 1788
United States media and culture, the internet, big business
English gets associated with many things: success, oppurtunity, wealth, etc.

Possible side-topic: the history of other "international languages" that didn't quite work out, and some that did...