Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
Published byBriana Freeman Modified over 9 years ago
1
History of English First Britons were Celts http://www.joerg-rhiemeier.de/Conlang/celtic.html Celtic languages Scots & Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton A few Celtic words in Modern English Whiskey = uisgebaigh = water of life
2
Roman empire spoke Latin Romance languages are descendants French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian Latin used up until 19 th /20 th century: Scholars & scientists all over Europe Catholic Church services Most high schools
4
Latin influences on English Romans traded with Britain Conquered it about 100 AD Ruled it to about 500 AD Through Church, scholars, scientists Through French
5
Angles & Saxons & Danes &.. Invaded England 500 to about 1300 England is from “Angle land” Much of English is from Anglo-Saxon Related to: German, Dutch Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic
6
Vikings From Scandanavia Now Norway, Sweden, Denmark Good sailors, even reached Canada Often tall, and blond or red-headed
7
The great fears China: guys on horses, Mongol, Manchu, … Good fighters, not very civilized Great Wall to keep them out It did not work: Yuan & Qing Dynasties Europe: Vikings coming by ship Good fighters, not very civilized
8
Map
9
1066 William the Conqueror Duke of Normandy (in France) Conquered England Defeated Harold, the last Saxon king Peasants still spoke Anglo-Saxon So animals are cow, pig, sheep, deer Nobles spoke French Meat is beef, pork, mutton, venison
10
Anglo-Saxon → English Vowel changes for plural: tooth/teeth, man/men, mouse/mice, foot/feet, house/houses, … Vowel change for tense: break/broke, read/read, fight/fought, get/got, sit/sat, drink/drank,... will/would, may/might,...
11
F → V Plurals wife/wives, life/lives, wolf/wolves, thief/thieves, half/halves, knife/knives, sheaf/sheaves, loaf/loaves Noun/verb change belief/believe, life/live,...
12
'en' ending Plurals Oxen, children Verbs broken, taken, given, gotten, … Adjective drunken, shrunken
13
Two ways to say same thing Normal English, from Anglo-Saxon I broke my arm. Technical/medical, often from Latin I fractured my ulna. All the rude words are Anglo-Saxon.
14
Where does English come from? Count the words in a dictionary More than half are from Latin Count the words used in a book More than half are from Anglo-Saxon
15
English borrows everywhere Arabic: algebra, algorithm, … Czech: robot Finnish: sauna Indian languages: pyjamas, bungalow,... Chinese: typhoon, Long time no see,...
16
Latin for logic & rhetoric QED = quod erat demonstrandum = which was to be proved Reductio ad absurdum = assume x, prove an absurdity, so not x Flawed arguments: Ad hominem = “to the man” Ad populum = “to the people”
17
Latin plurals, technical English cactus/cacti*, nucleus/nuclei, focus/foci, radius/radii, … formula/formulae*, nebula/nebulae, vertebra/vertebrae,... forum/fora*, medium/media, … * = regular English 's' or 'es' also used
18
“data” is odd In Latin, it is the plural of ”datum” Can be used that way in English: That's an interesting datum These data are interesting More often, used as non-count noun That's an interesting piece of data This data is interesting
19
More... index/indices*, matrix,matrices*, appendix/appendices, … thesis/theses, axis/axes, crisis/crises, basis/bases, parenthesis/parentheses,... phenonmenon/phenomena, criterion/criteria, … (but photons, electrons,...)
20
Rare, but possible Hebrew: kibbutz/kibbutzim French: beau/beaux, bureau/bureaux, tableau/tableaux
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.