The History of English

The History of English

 

School Research Paper

 

 

 

Student:

Jakoubson Julia

Grade: 9 “A”

School №9

Teacher Gorbacheva M.V.

 

 

 

 

Kolomna 2003.

 

 

Contents

                                                                                                    Pages

Introduction…………………………………………………………….3

I. Old English…………………………………………………………...3-17

a). Celtic Tribes…………………………………………………………3-4

b). The Romans…………………………………………………………4-10

c). Germanic Tribes…………………………………………………….10-15

d). The Norman French………………………………………………..15-16

II. Middle English……………………………………………………....16-19

III. Mordent English…………………………………………………...20-22

Conclusion……………………………………………………………....22-24

List of Literature………………………………………………………..26

Supplement……………………………………………………………...27

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction.

 

Why do people all over the world learn foreign languages?  Perhaps because the world is getting smaller, in a way:  nations are more closely linked with each other than ever before, companies operate world-wide, scientists of different nationalities co-operate, and tourists travel practically everywhere.  The ability to communicate with people from other countries is getting more and more important. And learning foreign languages broadens your horizons, too!

Before learners of a foreign language are able to communicate, they have to acquire many skills.  They must learn to produce unfamiliar sounds.  They must build up a vocabulary.  They must learn grammar rules and how to use them.  And, last but not least, they must develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and learn how to react in a variety of situations.

All people like to travel. Some travel around their own country, others travel abroad. Some like to travel into the future, others prefer to travel into the past. While I was working out my research paper and reading many books on English history, I had an exciting trip into a remote past. It was a fantastical journey our Imaginary Time Machine and a Magic Wand. The Time Machine took me into the depth of the centuries, into the very early history of Britain. I waved the Magic Wand and the words began to talk, they disclosed to me their mysteries, I discovered secrets hidden in familiar things. In other words, you will be a witness of making of English.

 

 

 

I.                Old English. (450-1100)

 

a). Celtic tribes.

Make a first turn of the Time Machine and you will find yourself on the British Isles in the time of the ancient inhabitants, the Celts. The Celts were natives of the British Isles long before the English. The Celts had their language, which is still spoken by the people living in the part of Britain known as Wales. And though many changes happened on the British Isles, some Celtic words are still used in the English language.

Two thousand years ago there was an Iron Age Celtic culture throughout the British Isles. It seems that the Celts, who had been arriving from Europe from the eighth century BC onwards, intermingled with the peoples who were already there. We know that religious sites that had been built long before the arrival of the Celts continued to be used in the Celtic period.

For people in Britain today, the chief significance of the prehistoric period (for which no written records exist) is its sense of mystery. This sense finds its focus most easily in the astonishing monumental architecture of this period, the remains of which exist throughout the country. Wiltshire, in south-western England, has two spectacular examples: Silbury Hill, the largest burial mound in Europe, and Stonehenge. Such places have a special importance for anyone interested in the cultural and religious practices of prehistoric Britain. We know very little about these practices, but there are some organizations today (for example, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids – a small group of eccentric intellectuals and mystics) who base their beliefs on them.

The Celts preserved their language in some parts of Britain, but they did not add many words to the English vocabulary. Those, that are in use now, are mostly place-names: names of regions, towns, rivers. The Celts had a number of similar words to name rivers, like: Exe, Esk, Usk. All of them come from a word meaning water (uisge). Later this word was used to name a strong alcoholic drink made from barley or rye. It was first called “water of life”. The word changed its from and pronunciation, and today at restaurants in the West one can see on the menu among other spirits whisky, a Celtic word formerly meaning water.      

b). The Romans.

One more turn of our Time Machine and it took me into the 1st century of our era. At that time Romans came into Britain, they ruled the country for 400 years. So, you can guess that many Latin words came later into the English language through Celts, because, as you know, Romans spoke Latin.

The Roman province of Britannia most of present-day England and Wales. The Romans imposed their own way of life and culture, making use of the existing Celtic aristocracy to govern and encouraging this ruling class to adopt Roman dress and Roman language. The Romans never went to Ireland and exerted an influence, without actually governing there, over only the southern part of Scotland. It was during this time that a Celtic tribe called the Scots migrated from Ireland to Scotland, where they became allies of the Picts (another Celtic tribe) and opponents of the Romans. This division of the Celts into those who experienced Roman rule (the Britons in England and Wales) and those who did not (the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland) may help to explain the development of two distinct branches of the Celtic group of languages.

The remarkable thing about the Romans is that, despite their long occupation of Britain, they left very little behind. To many other parts of Europe they bequeathed a system of law and administration which forms the basis of the modern system and a language which developed into the modern Romance family of languages. In Britain, they left neither. Moreover, most of their villas, baths and temples, their impressive network of roads, and the cities they founded, including Londinium (London), were soon destroyed or fell into disrepair. Almost the only lasting reminder of their presence are place-names like Chester, Lancaster and Gloucester, which include variants of the Roman word castra (a military camp).

Roman rule lasted for 4 centuries. There are many things in Britain today to remind of the Romans: wells, roads, walls.

To defend their province the Romans stationed their legions in Britain. Straight roads were built so that the legions might march quickly. Whenever they were needed, to any part of the country. These roads were made of several layers of stones, lime, mortar and gravel. They were made so well that they lasted a long time and still exist today. Thomas Hardy dedicated his poem to Roman roads. Here is the beginning.

 

 

 

THE ROMAN ROAD

The Roman road runs straight and bare

As the pale parting line in hair

Across the health. And thoughtful men

Contrast its days of now and then,

And delve, and measure, and compare,

Visioning on the vacant air

Helmed legionaries who proudly rear

The eagle as they pace again the Roman road…

One of the roads has a name – “KATLING STREET”. It is a great Roman road extending east and west across Britain. Beginning at Dover, it ran through Canterbury to London, thence through St.Albans, Dunstable, along the boundary of Leicester and Warwick to Wroxeter on the Severn. The origin of the name is not known and there are several other sections of the road so called. In the late 9th century it became the boundary between English and Danish territory.

To guard their province against the Picts and Scots who lived in the hills of Scotland the Romans built a high wall, a military barrier seventy-three miles long. It was called “Hadrian’s Wall” because it was built by command of the Emperor Hadrian. Long stretches of “HADRIAN’S WALL” have remained to this day.

In the capital of Britain you can see the fragments of the old London wall built by the Romans.

What really happened in AD 61? In AD 61 the king of the Celtic tribe Iceni died. Before he died he had named Roman Emperor Nero as his heir. He hoped that this would put his family and kingdom under the Emperor’s protection. But the result was the exact opposite of his hopes. His kingdom was plundered by centurions, his private property was taken away, his widow Boadicea was flogged, his daughters were deprived of any rights, his relatives were turned into slaves. Boadicea’s tribe rose to rebellion. Boadicea stood at the head of a numerous army. More than 70,000 Romans were killed during the revolt. But the Britons had little chance against an experienced, well-armed Roman army. The rising was crushed, Boadicea took poison to avoid capture.

Her monument on the Thames Embankment opposite Big Ben remind people of her harsh cry: ”Liberty of death” which has echoed down the ages.

Some of the English words relating to meals are of Latin origin, they were borrowed from the Romans in ancient times. The Romans in the period of their flourishing and expansion came into contact with the Germanic tribes, or the Teutons, who later moved to Britain and formed there the English nation. The Romans were a race with higher civilization than the Teutons whom they considered barbarians. They taught the Teutons many useful things and gave them very important words that the forefathers of the English brought with them to Britain and that remained in the English language up to now. Kitchen and table are Latin words borrowed in those far-off days, that show a revolution in culinary arrangements; dish, kettle and cup also became known to the Teutons at that time.

The early words of Latin origin give us a dim picture of Roman trades traveling with their mules and asses the paved roads or the German provinces, their chests and boxes and wine-sacks full of goods that they profitably bargained with the primitive ancestors of the nowadays English. Wine was one of the first items of trade between the Romans and the Teutons. That’s how this word came into use.

The Teutons knew only one fruit – apple, they did not grow fruit trees or cultivated gardens, but they seem to have been eager to learn, for they borrowed pear, plum, cherry.

The Teutons were an agricultural people, under the influence of the Romans they began to grow beet, onion.

Milk was one of the main kinds of food with the Teutons, but the Romans taught them methods of making cheese and butter for milk.

Among other culinary refinements that came to the Teutons from the Romans are spices: pepper, mint.

Judging by the Latin borrowings of that period the ancestors of English were very much impressed by Roman food, weren’t they?

The word “calendar” came to us from Latin. In the Latin there was a word “calendarium”. It meant “a record-book”. Money-lenders kept a special book, in which they recorded to whom they lent money and how much interest they will get. This book was called “calendarium” because interest was paid on the “Calends”. By the Calends the Romans named the first day of each month.

Time passed, the old meaning was forgotten. “Calendar” began to mean the record of days, weeks, months within a year.

This is a story of the word “calendar”. But the story of how a calendar was made is still more interesting indeed. We know that a calendar provides an easy way to place a day within the week, month or year. But it is not easy to make a calendar. The trouble is that the length of a year is determined by the length of time the earth takes to revolve once on its own axis. But the earth does not take an equal number of days to complete its year. It needs 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. Obviously you cannot divide a day of 24 hours into that. And the problem is further complicated because the month is determined by the length of time it takes the moon to go around the earth, which is 29 ½ days into 365 ¼ days, minus 11 minutes and 14 seconds. The result is that most calendars were messes.

The English got their calendar from the Romans. But at first the Romans had a very bad calendar. They had ten month of varying length, and then they added enough days at the end to make the year right. Besides the politicians changed the length of the months as they wished. They could change the length of the month to keep themselves in office longer and to leave less time for their opponents. I can’t imagine that somebody will reduce June, July, August to two weeks each, and will take away more than half my summer vacation? Will you like that? Of course, not.

The calendar varied so much that by the time of Julius Caesar January came in August.

Meanwhile a very good calendar had been worked out in Asia Minor and was in use in Egypt. Julius Caesar, a great Roman emperor, changed it a little to fit the Roman customs and introduced it in Rome. This calendar was called after him “the Julian Calendar”. As a matter of fact, Caesar only gave the orders; he had the advice of a Greek astronomer named Sosigenes. This calendar worked well for hundred years. But it provided only for exact figure of 365 days a year and an extra day in every four years, it did not count minutes and seconds. So, once more, the calendar year was getting farther and farther from the year of the earth’s revolution around the sun.

Then in 1582 another change of calendar took place. The Roman Pope Gregory XII suppressed ten days in 1582 and started new calendar. The English people adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. And for a time all dates were given two ways: one for the New Style, one for the Old Style.

Now nobody uses the Old Style any more, but of course the calendar is not quite accurate yet. Still it will be a long time before we have to add or subtract another day.

The year is divided into months and every month has its own name. Now we’d like to investigate how the names of months appeared. But first, let’s think of the word  “month” itself.

A month is a measure of time. It is a very old word. It goes back to Indo-European base. Long time ago people pro­bably- had only three measures of time  - year, which was the four seasons; a day which was the period from one sunrise to the next; and a month, which had the period from one moon to the next.

So, the Indo-European base “me-“ came into Old English, and became “mona”. The word meant "a measure of time". Then it began to mean “moon”, since the moon measured  time. Later suffix "-th" was added to the end of the word; the word "monath" meant the period of time which the moon measured. Still later the English people dropped the "a" and called it "month”.

And now, stories of the names of months. The Modem English names for the months of the year all come from the Latin. But before the English people adopted the Latin names they had their native names. And, in fact, in some cases the native names are more interesting than the Latin ones.

The first month of the year is January. January is the month of Janus. Janus was a Roman God of the beginning of things. Janus had two faces: on the front and the back of the head. He could look backwards into the past and forward to the beginning year. January is a right name for the first month of the New Year, isn't it? On the New Year eve we always think of what we have done in the past year and we are planning to do better in the New Year.

Now, the Old English  had its own name for January. It was “Wulf-Monath", which  means “month of wolves". To-day England is thickly populated and a very civilized country and it is hard, to imagine that their was a time when wolves roamed the island. In the cold of the deep winter they would get so hungry they would come into the towns to look for food, and so January was called “the month of the wolves".

The name of February  comes from the Latin “februa” - "purification". It was a month when the ancient Romans had a festival of purification.

Before the English adopted the Latin name, they called this month “Sprate-Kale-Month”. “Kale” is a cabbage plant, "sprote" means to sprout. So, it was “the month when cabbages sprout”

March is a month of Mar's, the Roman God of war. March was the earliest warm time of the year when the Romans could start a war. Before the time of Julius Caesar the Roman year began with March which was then the first month of the year.

The Old English name for March was "Hlyd-Monath", which means "the month of noisy winds". March in Britain often comes with strong winds. By the way, this explains the saying: "If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb".

There are a few stories about the meaning of the name “April”!  The most spread one is a pretty story that the month was named from a Latin word “aperire" – “to open”. It is a month when buds of trees and flowers begin to open.

The English before they adopted the Latin names, called April "Easter-Monath”, the month of Easter.

“May” is named for the Roman goddess of growth and increase, Maia. She was the Goddess of spring, because in spring everything was growing, flourishing, increasing.

The English name is not so poetic. They called the month "Thrimilce", which means something like “to mi1k three times”. In May the cows give so much milk that the farmers had to milk them three times a day.

Month of "June" was so called after the Junius family of Rome, one of the leading clans of ancient Rome. Besides, the Roman festival of Juno, the Goddess of Moon, was celebrated on the first day of the month.

We think of June as the month of brides and roses, but to the Anglo-Saxons it was "Sere-Monath", the “dry month”.

“July” is the month of Julius Caesar. The month began to be called that in the year when Julius Caesar was killed.

The English called July “Maed-Monath”, “meadow month”, because the meadows are in bloom in July.

Now, comes “August”. This month was once called “sexillis”, as it was the sixth month from March, with which, as you remember, the year once opened. It was then changed into August in honour of the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar, the nephew of Julius Caesar. This man was chosen by Julius Caesar as his heir, he took the name Caesar, and was given the title “Augustus” by the Roman Senate. This month was “a lucky Month” for Augustus Caesar. By the way, Augustus re­fused to have fewer days in his month of August than there were in the month of July. So he borrowed a day from February and added it to August; that is why August has 31 days.

The Old English name for August was "Wead-Monath", the month of weeds. You know, the Old English word "weed" meant vegetation in generale.

“September”, “October”, “November” and “December” are just  "seventh", "eighth", "ninth" and "tenth" months of the year. You remember that be­fore the Romans changed their calendar, March was the first month.

The English had more descriptive names for these month. September was called "Harfest-Monath", "the harvest month". October was "Win-Monath", "the wine month". November was "Bloo-Monath", because in November the English sacrificed cattle to their gods. December was “Mid-Winter-Monath”, because this month was the middle month of winter.

C). Germanic tribes.

At the beginning of the 5th century the Romans left the islands, they had tо save their own country from barbarians. If you want to know what events followed after that, turn on the Time Machine again. So, here we are, in the 5th century, This is the time of the birth of the English language. Тhe Germanic tribes of Angles, Sаxоns and Jutes invaded thе misty fertile island. Some of the native Britons were killed, mаnу others fled from the invaders "аs from fire" into the hillу parts of the country. Anglеs, Saxons аnd Jutes spread all over the fertile lаnds of the Isles. Gradually thеу bесаmе one nation - English. They developed one language - English. As historians write, "thе English language arrived in Britain on the point of а sword"! The реорlе оf that timе of thе history аrе called Аng1о-Sахоns, their language is оld English оr Ang1о-Saxon as well.

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