This document discusses the evolution of the English language over time through influences like invasions, cultural borrowing, and social/historical forces. Key aspects that changed include pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. The document traces the development of Old English and its Germanic roots, the influence of invasions like the Celts, Vikings, and Normans. It also covers how Christianity impacted English through reintroducing Latin and fostering monastic learning environments.
2. Old English and before
Pronunciation Aspects Grammar
of
language
Spelling that Usage
change
through
Meaning time
Vocabulary
Durable
The most sensitive to the
which is why some words are
external social and
historical forces Non-durable
3. Origin of words
Cultural necessity has
forced other words
into the language by
Borrowing Derivation Creation
Which explains why some Words must have been
words can resemble one inhertied from some
another from language to common ancestor and
language graducally changed.
4. Relationship of Indo-European Languages
Indo-
European
Eastern Western
European European
Balto- Indo-
Hellenic Italic Celtic Germanic
Slavic Iranian
5. Germanic languages
Germanic
North West
East Germanic
Germanic Germanic
Dutch, Flemish,
Icelandic, Afrikaans, Low
Danish and
Gothic Norwegian and German, modest
Swedish
Faeroesean standard
German, Yiddish,
Frisian and
English
6. Invasions and their influence on the
language
Every invasion brought
changes in the
language which still
remain in the present.
Celts
Vikings
Germanic
Tribes
Normands
Romans
7. Conversion of England to Christianity
Re-introduced Latin
Created monastic
environments in which
learning and scholarship
dlourished.
8. Beowulf Cynewulfian
Old English
poetry
flowered
The Wanderer The Caedmonian
The Seafarer
9. Danish Invasions
Anglo-Saxon Created the first
chronicles public schools
Importation of Translations from
European scholars Latin to English
and books
King Alfred
‘The Great’
10. The rise of London
The most important
Standard English commercial city in
England