VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4], 5, 6, 7, 8 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:00:34 05/23/07 Wed
Author: Houssam Zahreddine
Subject: Re: Task 3
In reply to: Houssam Zahreddine 's message, "Task 3" on 08:57:23 05/23/07 Wed

> History of English
>
> English pronunciation and spelling is a troublesome
>matter, not only for learners of English as a second
>language, but also for native speakers. There hardly
>seems to be a one to one correspondence between the
>two, and it is not always possible to know a word¡¦s
>spelling by its pronunciation, nor how to pronounce it
>solely based on the spelling. An example of the latter
>difficulty is the vowel combination ou, which has at
>least five different pronunciations, as in the words
>although, thought, out, through, and tough. Therefore
>English is quite different in this aspect, as opposed
>to a language such as German, which has a one to one
>correspondence between its spelling and pronunciation,
>to such an extent, that its dictionaries seldom
>provide phonetic transcriptions for the words. As a
>result, the study of phonology and the ability to read
>phonetic transcriptions become indispensable tools for
>English language professionals. Nevertheless, an
>understanding of the historical processes through
>which the language has undergone can provide English
>language professionals with a much richer view of how
>the language came about, emphasizing the importance of
>etymology in explaining to students why words have the
>spelling and pronunciation they do.
>
The main language primarily spoken in Britain was
>Celtic. In 55 B.C., the Romans invaded the islands and
>Latin became the dominant language. It was the
>language of the government, and therefore, was present
>in various aspects of culture, and several communities
>in Britain as a result were bilingual. A short time
>before the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D., the
>Romans had left the islands, giving way to another
>invasion. Barbarians, such as the Angles, Saxons, and
>the Jutes settled in from mainland Europe, bringing
>with them a variety of Germanic dialects, and it is
>during this period that the first traces of English as
>a language appear, borrowing many Latin words through
>the church. Later on, settlers from Scandinavia also
>invade the isles and as a result Scandinavian
>languages (Old Norse) strongly influence the English
>dialects spoken in the north. Although not at all
>homogenous, it is at this point that the English
>language starts being formed, strongly influenced by
>Latin and Germanic dialects, of which the traces are
>very much present until today.

> The Norman invasion of 1066 A.D. is another great
>milestone in the formation of the English language. It
>is estimated that in the three-century Norman
>occupation of England, some 10,000 French words were
>adopted. This flood of French vocabulary results from
>the fact that during Norman rule, French became the
>official language of the government, the church, and
>the court. As a result, it was inevitable for French
>to permeate various aspects of everyday life and
>culture, above all, the military. It would be
>impossible to discuss military matters without words
>such as 'army, navy, peace, enemy, soldier, battle,
>and defense', among many others, which are all
>basically direct borrowings from French.
>Administration, law, ecclesiastical matter, fashion,
>food, social life, art, and medicine are also other
>fields in which French plays a very important role.
>The influence is so great, that it is estimated that
>English speakers who have never studied French already
>know 15,000 French words. Even after Norman rule,
>which ended in 1450, French and Latin borrowings
>continued to be made, although to a lesser degree,
>mainly because English was considered to be 'rude and
>barbarous', 'inexpressive and ineloquent', and
>borrowings were made to supplement deficiencies in the
>language.
>

The 16th century brought with it the Reformation and
>the Renaissance, two movements which were very
>important for consolidating English as the national
>language. In England, as in other nation states, there
>needed to be a common language on the forefront to
>make understanding between people possible, rather
>than several varieties within what was to become a
>nation. Attempts to standardize the language included
>greater study of the language, creation of
>dictionaries and grammars, compulsory teaching of
>English in schools throughout the nation with
>orthoepists to inspect the work of the teachers, the
>creation of the Royal Society as an entity to study
>and decide upon developments for the English language,
>the establishing of strong models of good English use
>(literary works, e.g. Shakespeare), and the adoption
>of new lexis and new grammatical structures to make
>English just as eloquent and complete as the Classical
>languages. Printing technology introduced by Caxton
>meant that texts no longer had to be copied by hand,
>and the excessive amount of variation and vacillations
>within the language began to disappear. English hence
>became a language of science and government, and as
>Britain grew commercially, it acquired overseas
>colonies, and with the slave trade, English creoles
>arose, which are amalgamated languages, resulting from
>close and prolonged contact between two groups
>speaking dissimilar languages. In the 18th century,
>with the industrial revolution, English became spread
>throughout the world, and, in the 20th century,
>Britain retreated from its colonies, and new
>standardized varieties of English in newly independent
>countries emerged. Today, American English is the
>dominant world variety, and English is more spoken by
>non-native than native speakers.
>
This very brief historical account of the English
>language demonstrates several of the issues and
>reasons behind the complex nature of the English
>spelling system. English was primarily a spoken
>language, and when it began to be written, many French
>spelling habits, along with Latin spelling were
>incorporated to the written language, not to mention
>the large amount of borrowings from other languages
>and dialects. Nowadays, English is somewhat standard;
>nevertheless, it is still subject to change, as it has
>been throughout its history. Etymology, which is the
>study of the history of words, is an important tool if
>one wishes to understand why words in English are
>spelled the way they are, and the history of English
>is a very rich, interesting one, which can provide us
>with a better understanding of this language which
>today is present all over the world.
>
>
>Bibliography:
>
>„X >href="http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/fallofrome/a/E
>ndofRome.htm">http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/fallof
>rome/a/EndofRome.htm
>
>„X >href="http://french.about.com/library/bl-frenchinenglis
>h.htm">http://french.about.com/library/bl-frenchinengli
>sh.htm
>
>„X >href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolutio
>n">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution >a>
>
>„X Jurcic, Dane. The Influence of French on English in
>the Early Modern Period. 2003.
>
>„X Graddol, Leith, and Swann. English: history,
>diversity and change. Routledge.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.