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 the official language of ___?__ nations. about ?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12. 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.

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

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

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

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

17. 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.”

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

19. 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.

20. There are three periods of English: 1. Old English or Anglo-Saxon to c. 1150. 2.Middle English to c. 1500. 3.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.

21. 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 n ā m

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

23. Expand your vocabulary!