1. A Brief History of the English Language,
or Why English is Hard to Spell!

2. How did English get to England?
Prepare to fill in the spaces on your notes sheet.

3. How did English get to North America?
English immigrants to Jamestown, Plymouth, In the early 1600’s

4. English is a member of the
West Germanic group of the
Germanic subfamily of the
Indo-European family of languages.
Whew!

5. Think of it as the Family Tree of our Language!
One of the leaves is our language, English.
The branch it has come from is West Germanic, which grows out of
Germanic, which comes from the roots of
The Indo-European family of languages.

6. English is the official language of ___?__ nations.
about ?

7. English is the official language of ___?__ nations.
about 45

8. English is spoken by how many people?
more than ?

9. English is spoken by how many people?
more than
450 million

10. English is one of the two working languages of the United Nations
English is one of the two working languages of the United Nations. The other one is __?___.
French!
Francais!

11. English is the mother tongue of the British Isles.

12. English spread because of
British exploration, colonization, and empire building during the
Seventeenth
Eighteenth
And Ninteenth centuries

13. The history of the English Language
parallels the history of the English people and the British Islands.

14. In the middle of the fifth century
Tribes of Germanic invaders -- Angles, Saxons, and Jutes -- brought their languages across the English Channel to the British Isles.

15. In the sixth century
Christian missionaries arrived in England and brought Latin with them.
Other invaders from Scandinavia established settlements in Britain.

16. By the ninth century
Anglo-Saxon (a dialect spoken in Southern England) had become standard English.

17. Today,
One fifth of the English words we use derive from this Anglo-Saxon English.

18. But in the eleventh century
The Norman Conquest of Britain brought foreign rulers whose native language was
French.

19. For more than three hundred years,
French was the official language of England.
French was the language of the court.
English was spoken only by peasants.
For example, consider the words “pig” and “pork.”

20. Another half of our English vocabulary is
of French and Romance origins.
No, not that kind!

21. In the fourteenth century,
English/Wessex again became the language of the English upper class.
The new standard was a London dialect since London was now the capital city.
During the three hundred years kings of England had spoken French, the English language had changed greatly.
The French spoken by nobles became more like English. The English of the common people was now full of French words.

22. There are three periods of English:
Old English or Anglo-Saxon to c
Middle English to c
Modern English to today.
An Englishman of 1300 wouldn’t have understood the English of 500; nor would he understand the English we speak today.

23. Here’s an example of changes in English pronunciation:
The word name
In Old English was pronounced
nämä (the a as in fäther)
In Middle English was pronounced
näme (fäther) + (sofa)
In Modern English, is pronounced
nām

24. Vocabulary Sources of the English Language
Words come from all over!

25. From Anglo-Saxon English
bread, good, shower,
home, stones, fox

26. From Latin Christianity
priest, bishop, anthem, candle, epistle, hymn

27. From Scandinavian Settlers
Husband, sky, skin, club, gape, root, egg, take, give, window, leg, skin, crawl, die, sister

28. From Norman French and Vulgar Latin
Legal terms: judge, jury, tort, attorney, crime, assault
Terms of rank: prince, duke, baron, parliament, countess
Others: honor, courage, season, manner, study, castle. . .

29. From Latin and Greek during the Renaissance and after
Words for science, invention, and technology: conifer, cyclamen, helium, halogen, intravenous, isotope, metronome, polymer, telephone

30. Word Parts from Greek and Latin
Prefixes: (“Pre” from Latin means earlier or before)
“bi-” from Latin means _____
“extra” from Latin means _________
“fore” from Old English means _____
“il” from _______ means ______
“mis” from Latin means ________
“pre” and “post” mean ___________

31. Word Parts from Greek and Latin
Suffixes: ( from Latin for “to fasten beneath”)
For example: “-ment” from Latin is a word part that indicates product, means, action, or state.
We often use “-ment” to turn a verb into a noun:
Excitement is the state of being excited.
Encouragement is the action of encouraging.
Discouragement is the product of being discouraged.

32. Want to know lots more words?
One of the best ways to increase your vocabulary is to learn word parts (prefixes, suffixes, and roots) that are often used in English.
“bio” (life) + “logy” (study of) =
biology which is the study of life
What about
geology, hydrology, psychology?

33. Words from everywhere over the past three hundred years
tobacco, banana, pajamas, squash, raccoon, prairie, chowder, canyon, ranch, chop suey, kudzu, pretzel, kindergarten, bagel, pizza coleslaw, bedspread, tomato, jazz, yams

34. The origins of a word is called its Etymology
Use a good dictionary to find out where the words you use come from.

35. Part 2: The Etymology of a Few Words

36. tobacco
The word “tobacco” comes from the Arabic for “euphoria-causing herb.”
Euphoria (from the Greek) means a feeling of happiness or well-being.
Tell that to someone in the hospital with lung cancer from smoking cigarettes!
Then again, perhaps that’s why people have such a hard time quitting once they start smoking.

37. pajamas
This comes from Hindi from a Persian word for “leg or foot” combined with another for “garment.”

38. banana
This word comes through Portuguese and Spanish from a native West African name.

39. squash This comes from a Native American word.
Can you wrap your tongue around this word?
“askootasquash”

40. I looked up the Etymology of the word “like” as in “I sure like chocolate!”
I found out it comes from the Old English word “lician,” which means “to please, to be sufficient.”

41. English is hard to spell, but it is a wonderful, versatile, expanding language!

42. Expand your vocabulary!