The Evolution of the English Language: A Historical Overview - Prof. Ciancitto, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Lingua Inglese

Scarica The Evolution of the English Language: A Historical Overview - Prof. Ciancitto e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! The HicloWy ct Eaglichi ii Ti minati. Chapter One: Anglo-Saxon or whatever happened to The Jutes? The English Language begins with the phrase 'Up yours, Caesar', as the Romans leave Britain, and a lot of Germanic tribes start flooding in. Tribes such as the Angles and the Saxons, who together gave us the term Anglo-Saxon and the Jutes who didn't. The Romans left some very straight roads behind, but not much of their Latin language. The Anglo-Saxon vocab was much more useful, as it was mainly words for simple everyday things, like 'house' ‘woman' 'loaf' and 'werewolf'. Four of our days of the week were named in honor of Anglo-Saxon gods, they didn't bother with ‘Saturday' 'Sunday' and 'Monday' as they'd all gone off for a long weekend. While they were away, Christian missionaries stole in, bringing with them leaflets about jumble sales and more Latin. Christianity was a hit with the locals and made them much happy to take on funky new words from Latin like 'martyr' 'Bishop' and "font' along came the Vikings with their action-man words like 'drag' 'ransack' 'fast' and 'die'. They may have raped and pillaged, but they were also into give and take, two of around 2000 words they gave English, as well as the phrase “watch out for that man with the enormous axe.” Chapter Two: The Norman Conquest or excuse my English. 1066, true to his, name William the Conqueror invades England bringing new concepts from across the channel like the French language, the Doomsday Book and the duty-free Gauloise multi-pack. French was de rigueur for all official business, with words like '‘judge' 'jury' 'evidence' and 'justice', coming in and giving John Grisham's career a kick start. Latin was still used at nauseam in church, but the common man spoke English, able to communicate only by speaking more slowly and loudly until the others understood him. Words like 'cow' ‘sheep' and 'swine' come from the English-speaking farmers, while the a la carte versions, 'beef' 'mutton' and 'pork' come from the French-speaking tops, beginning a long-running trend for restaurants having completely indecipherable menus. All in all, the English absorbed about 10,000 new words from the Normans, though they still couldn't grasp the rules of cheek kissing. The Boname all ended when the English nation took their new war-like lingo of 'armies' 'navies' and 'soldiers' and began the Hundred Years War against France. It actually lasted 116 years but by that point no one could count any higher in French and English took over as the language of power. Chapter Three: Shakespeare or a plaque on both his houses. As the dictionary tells us, about 2,000 new words and phrases were invented by William Shakespeare, he gave us handy words like 'eyeball' ‘puppy dog' and 'anchovy', and more show-offy words like ‘dauntless''besmirch' and lacklustre. He came up with the word 'alligator' soon after he ran out of things to rhyme with 'crocodile'. And a nation of tea drinkers finally took him to their hearts, when he invented the hobnob. Shakespeare knew the power of catchphrases as well as biscuits, without him we would never eat our flesh and blood out of house and home. We'd have to say good riddance to the green-eyed monster and breaking the ice will be as dead as a door nail. If you try to get your money's worth, you'd be given short shrift and anyone who laid it on with a trial could be pushed with his own petard. Of course, it's possible other people use these words first, but the dictionary writers liked looking them up in Shakespeare, because there was more cross- dressing and people taking each other's eyes out. Shakespeare's poetry showed the world that English was a rich, vibrant lang uage with limitless expressive and emotional power, and he still had time to open all those tea rooms in Stratford. Chapter Four: The King James Bible or let there be light reading. In 1611, the powers that be turned the world upside down with a labour of love, a new translation of the Bible. A team of scribes with the wisdom of Sullivan went the extra mile to make King James translation all things to all men. Whether from their heart's desire, to fight the good fight, or just for the filthy lucre. This sexy new Bible went from strength to strength getting to the root of the matter in a language even the salt of the earth could understand. The writing wasn't on the wall, it was in handy little books with fire and brimstone preachers reading it in every church. Its words and phrases took root to the ends ofthe earth, well at least the ends of Britain. The King James Bible is the book that taught us that a leopard can't change its spots, that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, that a wolf in sheep's clothing is harder to spot than you would imagine, and how annoying it is to have a fly in your ointment. In fact, just as Jonathan begat Maribel and Maribel begat Myka, the King James Bible begat a whole glossary of metaphor and morality that still shapes the way English is spoken today. Amen. Chapter Five: The English of Science or how to speak with gravity. Before the 17!” Century scientists weren't really recognised, possibly because lab coats had yet to catch on. But suddenly Britain was full of physicists, there was Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, and even some people not called Robert, like Isaac Newton. The Royal Society was formed out of the invisible college after they put it down somewhere and couldn't find it again. At first they worked in Latin after sitting through Newton's story about the 'Pomum' falling to the ‘Terra' from the 'Arbor' for the umpteenth time, the bright sparks realised they all spoke English and they could transform our understanding of the universe much quicker, by talking in their own language. But science was discovering things faster than they could name them, words like 'acid' 'gravity' 'electricity' and 'pendulum' had to be invented just to stop their meetings turning into an endless game of charades. Like teenage boys, the scientists suddenly became aware of the human body, coining new words like ‘cardiac' and 'tonsil' 'ovary' and 'sternum' and the invention of ‘penis' and 'vagina' made sex education classes a bit easier to follow. Though clitoris was still a source of confusion. Chapter Six: English and Empire or the Sun never sets on the English language. With English making its name as the language of science, the bible and Shakespeare, Britain decided to take it on tour, asking only for land, wealth, natural resources, total obedience to the crown and a few local words in return.