English is the third most commonly spoken
language in the world today. But how did the English language develop?
Early
inhabitants of Great Britain spoke a form of Celtic, but with the Roman
invasion c. 55 BC came the introduction of Latin, that caused changes in the
indigenous languages.
After the
fall of the Roman Empire the Anglo-Saxons arrived in Britain and brought
Germanic dialects from Europe. A new language began to emerge… It was the
period of Old English. The next significant contribution to Old English came
with the dramatic invasion of the Vikings. They landed in the North East
coast of England, where they destroyed the famous monastery, butchering the
monks and leaving a trail of blood and destruction. However, the Vikings
weren’t all bad. They also helped expanding Old English.
The last
successful invasion of Britain came in 1066 with the arrival of William the Conqueror and
the Normans. The Normans brought not only a whole new vocabulary, but also a
major transformation to the grammar of Old English. French became the
official language in England. So, from the 12th to the 15th
Century it was used Middle English.
Modern English developed after
William Caxton established England's first press. The invention of the printing press made books
available to more people. The books became cheaper and more people learned to
read. Printing also brought standardization to English.
By the time of Shakespeare's writings (1592-1616), the
language had become clearly recognizable as Modern English. There were three
big developments in the world at the beginning of Modern English period: the
Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the British Colonialism.
It was during the English Renaissance that most of the
words from Greek and Latin entered English.
England began the Industrial
Revolution (18th century) and this had also an effect on the development of the
language as new words had to be invented or existing ones modified to cope with
the rapid changes in technology.
Britain was an Empire for 200
years between the 18th and 20th centuries and English language continued to
change as the British Empire moved across the world - to the USA, Australia,
New Zealand, India, Asia and Africa. They sent people to settle and live in
their conquered places and as settlers interacted with natives, new words were
added to the English vocabulary.
Nowadays, English continues to
change and develop, with hundreds of new words arriving every year.
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