The first section...
After giving my introduction towards my project within my essay, my first focus is towards the evolution and development of the English Language.
From all of the interesting facts that I discovered during my primary research, there are several facts that stood out for me and to give an idea of the impact of the English language on the rest of the world, I am going to summaries them into a TOP TEN for my first section ,..
1. When Germanic groups invaded the British Isles (the Anglos, Saxons and Jutes) they introduced the Anglo Saxon language which, when combined with Celtic and Latin, created Old English. This was the backbone to our modern language with an impressive 4,500 words still in use today.
2. The English language was forced underground as through Viking invasion and the original Old English (Celtic speaking) inhabitants were pushed out of England and into Scotland, Wales and Ireland, leading to declines in many minority dialects and Cornish (now a dead language since the last speaker died in 1977).
3. Another threat to the English language was brought on the arrival of William Duke of Normandy. Old French was brought to the shores; Latin flourished and the French controlled the English language with 10,000 French words. Combining together over time, Old English and French infused together to bring about Middle English
2. The English language was forced underground as through Viking invasion and the original Old English (Celtic speaking) inhabitants were pushed out of England and into Scotland, Wales and Ireland, leading to declines in many minority dialects and Cornish (now a dead language since the last speaker died in 1977).
3. Another threat to the English language was brought on the arrival of William Duke of Normandy. Old French was brought to the shores; Latin flourished and the French controlled the English language with 10,000 French words. Combining together over time, Old English and French infused together to bring about Middle English
4. Although English ceased to be a written language within this time period, natives kept English breathing, communicating privately only in their mother tongue. When Henry the 4th declared English the royal language once again, the country had regained its true identity.
5. Years later, William Shakespeare introduced a colourful vocabulary of 2000 new words to English which have survived over 400 years with street slang of the period becoming popular as it was echoed within the Globe theatre in 1599.
6. Now a stable nation, the climb of the British Empire began. Stepping onto American soil, English was proclaimed to be this lands language (even though there were already native American tribes there with dozens of original tongues that will never be known). The English, with a feeling of superiority would only communicate in their native tongue and today, the American English that we hear today, as it was treated with such importance (without dialects) is closer to Old English than what our own language is today.
7. English was influenced in many ways. Technology (Isaac Newton) reintroduced more Latin and Greek when providing explanations and giving the idea of simplicity. Other writers, although it was frowned upon, wrote with their own dialects and used their own expressions for example, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns and Louis Carroll - "a word can only mean what the speaker intends it to mean".
8. India became colonised for a short period of time, although it was much disliked. Gandhi remarked of the negative impact of the English language- “to give knowledge of the English language is to enslave them... Is it not a sad commentary that we should have to speak of home rule in a foreign tongue”?
9. Another place that was colonised in 1624, was the Caribbean, where (with English arrogance) pick and chose which words we liked. Words we didn't like were pushed aside. We didn't accept the Australian vocabulary as respectable until 1926. Upon moving into Australia, we forced over 200 aboriginal languages to disappear over time. Another example was the colonisation in Tristan da Cunha; when the natives refused to speak English , they were punished. We even tried to crush and hold dominance over local languages such as Welsh.
5. Years later, William Shakespeare introduced a colourful vocabulary of 2000 new words to English which have survived over 400 years with street slang of the period becoming popular as it was echoed within the Globe theatre in 1599.
6. Now a stable nation, the climb of the British Empire began. Stepping onto American soil, English was proclaimed to be this lands language (even though there were already native American tribes there with dozens of original tongues that will never be known). The English, with a feeling of superiority would only communicate in their native tongue and today, the American English that we hear today, as it was treated with such importance (without dialects) is closer to Old English than what our own language is today.
7. English was influenced in many ways. Technology (Isaac Newton) reintroduced more Latin and Greek when providing explanations and giving the idea of simplicity. Other writers, although it was frowned upon, wrote with their own dialects and used their own expressions for example, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns and Louis Carroll - "a word can only mean what the speaker intends it to mean".
8. India became colonised for a short period of time, although it was much disliked. Gandhi remarked of the negative impact of the English language- “to give knowledge of the English language is to enslave them... Is it not a sad commentary that we should have to speak of home rule in a foreign tongue”?
9. Another place that was colonised in 1624, was the Caribbean, where (with English arrogance) pick and chose which words we liked. Words we didn't like were pushed aside. We didn't accept the Australian vocabulary as respectable until 1926. Upon moving into Australia, we forced over 200 aboriginal languages to disappear over time. Another example was the colonisation in Tristan da Cunha; when the natives refused to speak English , they were punished. We even tried to crush and hold dominance over local languages such as Welsh.
10. English, is by far one of the most individual and interestingly influenced languages! A third of the world has knowledge of English.
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