The History of the English Language

The English Language came to be around 450 A.D. Three tribes from Northern Europe –the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded the British Isles. The main island came to be known as jolly old “Angle” land (now England). The language that developed became known as Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

Top 100 Words Every one of the most frequently used words in English today comes from Old English. How many of these words can you think of?

the to In a you and that word Some of the Top 100 Words! the to In a you and that word

Old English Old English was the first form of the English language. You saw that we still use words from Old English.

Back to the History of English About A.D. 600, Old English began to change because St. Augustine came to Britain. St. Augustine brought Christianity and a lot of Latin words. Now, people started to write English, so English spelling was invented!

Invasions—of course! People started to invade, and they brought new words with them. The Vikings invaded—they brought Danish words. William the Conqueror invaded in 1066—he brought French words.

The French Influence William the Conqueror brought French words. People started adding French words to the Old English language they were already using. After a couple hundred years, Old English changed so much that the name of the language changed to Middle English.

Language Today The French language had such an impact that even today 30-40% of all English words came from French!

Time Marches On Around A.D. 1300-1600, Greek and Latin classics were rediscovered. In 1400, the printing press was invented. Both of these events brought more new words to England.

New Words!! All the new words caused English spelling to become standard. Samuel Johnson published a dictionary and Modern English began.

English Language Timeline Old A.D. 450 Middle A.D. 1200’s Modern English A.D. 1700’s

Etymology Etymology gives the origin of a word. What languages did we borrow these words from? Pizza…Italian Boomerang…Australian Aborigine Ketchup…Malay Tepee…Dakota Pharaoh…Egyptian Squirrel…Greek

Spelling Because the English language contains words from so many other languages, spelling can often be tricky! The goal of having a single correct spelling started about only about 300 years ago! For many years, nobody thought that spelling the same word different ways was a problem.

Spelling Even Shakespeare was known to spell his own last name many different ways. In fact, we still have words that can be spelled more than one way. Good-bye…goodbye Yogurt…yoghurt

We’ve Borrowed! We speak English, right?? The English language is made up of more than 140 other languages. What are some languages you either speak or have heard of?

More Languages You may not have heard of these languages. Arabic-spoken in the Middle East and Africa Arawak-spoken in Coastal Columbia and the Caribbean Aymara-people in parts of Peru and northern Chilie speak it Balti-some people in the Himalayas speak it

Even More… Basque-Spoken by people in northern Spain and parts of southwest France Farsi-Used in Iran and Afghanistan Hindi-Spoken by some people in northern India Ibo-Nigerians speak it Swahili-You’ll hear it in Kenya and Uganda Zulu-People of South Africa use it

Thanks to the French! a la’ carte-on the menu a la’ mode-in fashion (apparently ice cream with pie is in fashion) au gratin-with gratings (au gratin potatoes – with cheese grated on top) bon appetit-good appetite, enjoy the meal bon voyage-good trip

More French Words chic-stylish cul- de-sac-dead end street deja vous-already seen du jour-of the day (soup du jour) petite-short or small RSVP-please respond souvenir-a memory or keepsake

Borrowed from Spanish Adios Bronco Almanac Admiral Guitar

Borrowed from Italian solo-alone in music macaroni-pasta Pizza, ravioli, lasagna

From Latin… Stadium, pentathalon, gymnasium, rhombus, campus,biceps, et cetera (etc), non sequitur!

Even More Chinese-wok, tea, chow mein Greek-comedy, skeleton, history, atmosphere, autograph German-pretzel, poodle

Thank you! We must thank more than 140 different cultures of people who shared their languages with us so we speak English!