The Linguistic Background 2: The History of English, Language Variety and Change PED 3115 University of Ottawa: Douglas Fleming

Why look at this history? Volatile trends in the field Many contradictory claims Importance of understanding language change Importance of pedagogical context Importance of social and political contexts Need to establish your own professional autonomy as a teacher

History of English Indo-European family of languages (derived from Sanskrit). West Germanic language originating from Saxon (N. German), Jute (Jutland), and Angle (Friesian) invaders of Eastern England in the fifth century and coalescing into Anglo-Saxon. Displacement of Celtic languages (Irish, Welsh and Scots).

Examples of the shift from Sanskrit to English: Sanskrit Greek Latin Gothic English pita pater pater fadar father bhratar phrater frater brothar brother padam poda pedem fotu foot

Note the close relationship between empire building and philology (comparative linguistics: the forerunner of modern linguistics and applied linguistics). William Jones’ (1786) observation that English was related to Sanskrit was extensively used to make racist claims that the former was an ‘evolutionary’ improvement over older languages.

The Danelaw Source: Crystal, D. (2004) The Stories of English Penguin Source for maps in this ppt Crystal, D. (1997). Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English language Cambridge U. Press

invasions: NORMANS SAXONS JUTES ANGLES5 th Century 1066 Scandinavian Raiders Various ROMANS 55 B.C

Celtic place names glen - a narrow valley pen - a hill tor a hill Latin place names: portus (-port) a harbour strata (Strat-, -street) a Roman Road Anglo-Saxon place names: ham - a homestead well - a well, spring Norse place names: gil - a ravine thorpe - farm

The Great Vowel Shift

Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote, And bathed euery veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in euery holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe course yronne, And smale fowles maken melodye, That slepen al the nit with open ye— So priketh hem Nature in hir corages— Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages…. Geoffrey Chaucer 1390 Audio clip from the prologue of the Canterbury Tales

When April with its sweet showers has pierced the drought of March to the root, and bathed every vein in such liquor from whose power the flower is engendered; when Zephyr [the west wind] also, with his sweet breath has blown [into life] in every wood and heath the tender crops, and the young sun has run his half-course in the sign of the Ram [Aries], and small fowls make melody, who sleep all night with open eye - so Nature stimulates them in their hearts - THEN people long to go on pilgrimages…

Great Vowel Shift (from 1200 to 1600) Caxton introduces printing press (1473) Great Plague (1665–1666) Standardization of English spelling between the 15 th and 16 th centuries Adoption of English by Norman-based aristocracy in early 15 th century

Today, words of Old and Middle English origin account for only 25% of the total lexis. Words of French origin make up about 30%. Latin makes up another 30%. Greek origins can be traced to about 5%. The remaining 10% derive from other languages, proper names or can not be traced.

Language Varieties: Saussure (1906) noted that languages vary between time (diachronic) and place (synchronic). Pidgins are simplified varieties made up of elements of two or more languages, usually used as a communication tool to facilitate commerce (e.g. Chinook). Creoles are varieties that are the first language of a group of people but which arose originally as a mixture of other languages. Often pidgins evolve into creoles. (e.g. Patois). A Lingua Franca is a non-modified dominant language form which is used habitually by people whose mother tongues are different.

Dialects are considered nonstandard sub-varieties of languages. They can be based on either geography or class. Dialects are not “deformed” languages. They are fully functioning languages with complete rules of grammar and usage. Some can be distinguished on the basis of verbal accent alone (such as varieties of American and British English). However, others are distinct in terms of vocabulary or even structure. Weinreich (1945) made the point that a language is simply a dialect with an army and navy.

Spread of English: an Integral Part of Empire Building American English Canadian English International Varieties Inner Circle and Outer Circle Language Maintenance and Death