History of the English Language Lesson 2

Review What is language? A system of communication What is oral language? Listening and speaking What is written language? Writing and reading

Communication Oral Written Symbols Phone Speaking Radio Theater Television Letters Email Books Print Billboards Signs Sign language Gestures Pictures Facial expressions

Review What language do we use to communicate? English What is our system of written communication? English alphabet Who gave us the beginning of our alphabet? The Romans

English Romans Egyptians Greek The Sinaitic The Phoenicians Most powerful people - took their alphabet (based on Greek letters) with them everywhere they went Egyptians Used written symbols (hieroglyphics) Greek Borrowed that alphabet and changed the shape of most of the letters - added a few of their own The Sinaitic Borrowed those symbols and made an alphabet of 18 letters English The Phoenicians Borrowed that alphabet and added two more letters

Introduction to the Language Layers English Decoded by Reading Horizons

Where do you think English began? England

Europe

England

When do you think English began? About 1600 years ago, around 400 AD

400 AD - Celts The Celts were the first people to live in England and were ruled by the Roman Empire The Romans brought excellent roads and new things that made the Celt’s very simple lives better. 395 AD - The Roman Empire began to crumble, so Roman soldiers and officials withdrew and left the Celts to their fate.

450 AD - Anglo-Saxon Tribes such as the Angles and Saxons took advantage of the Roman departure and began to invade England. (The name England is derived from the word Angle.) The Anglo-Saxon were the first people to put their words on paper. The Anglo-Saxon gave us names of the days Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from their pagan Gods.

597 AD -Saint Augustine Saint Augustine was a Christian monk brought by missionaries to England to convert people to Christianity. Christians brought the Bible and other religious texts written in Latin. This gave us words such as alter, angel, candle, minister, noon, nun, purple, rule, and temple.

787 AD - The Vikings Viking invaders from Denmark, also known as Norsemen, began to arrive. The Vikings mixed with the Anglo-Saxons, marrying the Anglo-Saxon women and teaching them their Scandinavian language, called Norse. The resulting mix of Anglo-Saxon and Norse is called Old English. Old English gives is a lot of our common words, such as at, brother, but, eat, man, and sleep.

878 - Alfred the Great Alfred the Great was an Anglo-Saxon king who defeated the Vikings. As the King of England, Alfred built new towns, improved the government, and kept a record of current events called The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the best source of Anglo-Saxon history.

Modern English Language Layers Anglo-Saxon 20-25% French/Latin (Romance) 60% Greek 10-12% (Other 3-4%) Old English

Modern English Language Layers Anglo-Saxon 20-25% French/Latin (Romance) 60% Greek 10-12% (Other 3-4%) Old English 400-1100 AD 400 AD - Celts 450 AD - Anglo-Saxon 597 AD - St. Augustine 787 AD - Vikings 878 AD - Alfred the Great Words Days of the week - Tuesday Numbers - 1-1000 Colors - red, blue Family - mother, father Animals - deer, sheep Religion - deacon, angel one syllable (short words)

Review Where did English begin? England When did English begin? 400 AD

Review Who are some of the groups who influenced our language during the Old English Layer? Celts, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings What specific people influenced our language during the Old English Layer? St. Augustine and Alfred the Great

Just for Fun! Grinnell College, Spring 2014, ENG 230: English Historical Linguistics. Tim Arner, Associate Professor of English, and Emily Johnson '14 designed an assignment in which students in the course translated "Call Me Maybe" into Old English.