How did
English
reach the special
position in which it finds itself today?
Mostly, the rise of English to its position as the world's main
international language was a result of
chance. Britain
was the world's most active colonial nation in the 19th
century,
and British explorers and colonists took their language with them
wherever
they went. English became the official language of most of Britain's
colonies.
In the 20th century, America has been the world's most powerful nation
- and Americans have brought the English language to other countries of
the world.
The importance of American
international corporations
has made sure that English has remained the international language of
business;
and Hollywood and the music industry have made sure that it has become
the principal language for the media and showbiz.
The success story of English
has been due
partly to the nature of the language, but more to the fact that
it had developed into a mature national language just when
the
countries of Europe were beginning to expand their influence and spread
their culture all over the world.
Over a thousand years ago,
when the roots
of modern Europe were being formed, western Europe was divided into
three
sections: in the East there were people who spoke Slavonic languages,
in
the middle there were people speaking Germanic languages (including
Scandinavians),
and in the south and west there were people speaking "Romance"
languages,
derived from Latin. In the far west of Europe, there were also people
speaking
Celtic languages, such as Gaelic.
In those days, England was a
Germanic country;
its people spoke a variety of Germanic languages including forms of
Danish and
Anglo
Saxon, as well as some Celtic languages.
In 1066, England was conquered
by the Normans,
from France, who brought with them their own langage - Norman French -
a Romance language.
In the years that
followed, the nobility of England spoke French and read Latin, while
the ordinary people spoke varieties of old English; but since they
existed side by side, the two languages immediately began to influence
each other. Norman French became Anglo-Norman, and Old English, picking
up lots of vocabulary from Anglo-Normans, evolved into
Middle English.
Middle English was thus rather different from other European languages.
It was
partly
Germanic (particularly the
vocabulary
of everyday life, the
grammar
and
structures),
and partly
Romance (a lot of the more litterary
vocabulary).
It was even influenced to a small degree by the Celtic
languages which remained alive in Cornwall and other parts of the
British
Isles.
Eventually, since Middle English was spoken by
far the
largest part of the population, it became the dominant language in
England; and by the 14th century, it was well on the way to becoming
the national language, not just for everyday life, but for
administration and litterature too.
Finally,
English also replaced Latin as the language of the church. The Bible
had been translated into English in the 14th century; but it was not
until the Protestant reformation of the 16th century, that
English became the language of church services. From then on,
its
position as the national language of Britain, was firmly established.
And it was just at the right moment.
English
became the established national language just at the point in history
when colonial expansion was beginning. It was the spoken and written
language of the first men and women from Britain to settle in
the
Americas; and it was a language that went round the world with
England's early traders and commercial adventurers.
By the year1700, England had become the world's leading
nation
in terms of international trade, ensuring that the English
language was taken all over the world as the principal language of
international commerce.
Understanding
English
Since English is at
the dividing
line of the two principal families of language used in Western Europe
today, most people from Spain to Scandinavia can recognise something of
their own
language
in English.
For example, if you speak a
Germanic language
(German, Dutch, or a Scandinavian language), you do not need to have
learned
much (or even any) English to understand this sentence:
The man
forgot to
water his garden last night
Anyone who speaks French or Spanish or Italian, should be able to
understand
this English sentence without too much difficulty:
Indicate
if you have
a difficult problem.
As English is half way between two different
language groups, speakers of other languages have often found it easy
to
communicate in English, even without paying attention to grammar!
Nevertheless, grammar
is
important; for without
grammar, no language can survive. Grammar is the cement with which the
bricks of language are held together. Without it, even messages in
simple
English can be quite impossible to understand.
Just look at the importance of
word order
in these simple examples, which are entirely different in
meaning:
The man the woman
saw was hungry.
The man saw the woman
was hungry.
Or look at
the radical difference in meaning
between these two sentences:
This is a story
forgotten by Charles Dickens.
This is a forgotten
story by Charles Dickens.
Modern English
In recent times, as English has become a
global
language, used in different places all over the world, it has become a
much richer language than in the past. It has picked up new words from
other cultures, other languages, such as
bungalow
(from India),
détente
(from French),
kebab
(from Turkey),
potato
(from American Indian) - plus a lot of modern slang from America.
Today, both grammar and
vocabulary are still
changing.
There is no such thing as "official English";
neither
Britain nor the USA has anything official like the "Académie
Française"
to decide what is acceptable and what is not. The most accepted sources
of reference are the famous English dictionaries - Websters for the USA
and the Oxford English Dictionary for British English. Like other
dictionaries
however, they are descriptive not prescriptive - i.e. they
describe
language
as it is used, they do not tell people what they can or should say or
should
not say.
Today's English is different
from the English
of 100 years ago; it is pronounced differently too - and no doubt, it
will
be even more different in 100 years' time.
http://linguapress.com/grammar/english.htm