Report

the significance of studying english history

Report

Theme: “The significance of studying history of English language and its connection with the other disciplines”

Effectuated by : Rotaru Cristina, group 402 B

Chisinau, 2012

English Present and Future
The History of English language as a cultural subject
It was observed by the remarkable twelve-century chronicler Henry of Huntingon that an interest in the past was one of the distinguished characteristics of humans as compared with the other animals. The medium by which speakers of s language communicate their thoughts and feelings to others, the tool with which conduct their business or the government of millions of people, the vehicle by which has been transmitted the science, the philosophy, the poetry of the culture is surely worthy of study. It is not to be expected that everyone should be a philologist or should master the technicalities of linguistic science. But it is reasonable to assume that a liberally educated person should know smth of the structure of his or her own language, its position in the world and its relation to the other tongues, the wealth of its vocabulary together with the sources from which that vocabulary has been and is being enriched, and the complex relationships among the many different varieties of speech that are gathered under the single name of the English language. The diversity of cultures that find expression in it is a reminder that the history of English is a story of cultures in contact during the past 1,500 years. It understates matters to say that political ,economic, and social forces influence a language. These forces shape the language in every aspect, most obviously in the number and spread of its speakers, and in what is called “the sociology of language”, but also in the meaning of words, in the accents of the spoken language, and even in the structures of the grammar. The history of a language is intimately bound up with the history of the peoples who speak it. The purpose of this work is to treat the history of English not only as being of interest to the specialized student but also as a cultural subject within the view of all educated people, while including enough references to technical matters to make clear the scientific principles involved in linguistic evolution.
Influences at work on language
The English language of today reflects many centuries of development. The political and social events that have in course of English history so profoundly affected the English people in their national life have generally had a recognizable effect on their language. The Roman Christianizing of Britain in 597 brought England into contact with latin civilization and made significant additions to our vocabulary. The Scandinavian invasions resulted in a considerable mixture of the two peoples and their languages. The Norman Conquest made English for two centuries the language mainly of the lower classes while the nobles and those associated with them used French on almost all occasions. And when English once more regained supremacy as the language of all elements of the population, it was an English greatly changed in both form and vocabulary from what it had been in 1066. in a similar way, the Hundred Year war , the rise od an important middle class, the renaissance, the development of England as a maritime power, the expansion f British empire and the growth of commerce and industry, of science and literature, have, each in their way , contributed to the development of the language.
Moreover, English, like all other languages, is subject to that constant growth and decay that characterize all forms of life. It is a convenient figure of speech to speak of languages as living as dead. When a language ceases to change, we call it a dead language. Classical Latin is a dead language because it has not changed for nearly 2,000 years. The change that is constantly going on in a living language can be most easily seen in the vocabulary. Old words die out, new ones are added, and existing words change their meaning. Much of the vocabulary of Old English has been lost, and the development of new words to meet new conditions is one of the most familiar phenomena of our language.
The importance of language
It is natural for people to view their own first language as having intrinsic advantages over languages that are foreign to them. However , a scientific approach to linguistic study combined with a consideration of history reminds us that no language acquires importance because of what are assumed to be purely internal advantages. Languages become important because of events that shape the balance of power among nations. These political, economic, and military events may or may not reflect favorably, in a moral sense, on the peoples and states that are the participants; and certainly different parties to the events will have different interpretations of what is admirable or not. It is clear that the language of a powerful nation will acquire importance as a direct reflection of political, economic technological and military strength; so also will the arts and science expressed in that languages have advantages, including the opportunities for propagation. The spread of arts and sciences through the medium of a particular language in turn reinforces the prestige of that language. It is normal for a language to acquire through various means, including borrowing from other language, the words that it needs. English, French, german and Spanish are important languages because of the history and influence of their populations in modern times. For this reason they are widely studied outside the country of their use. Sometimes the cultural importance of a nation has at some former time been so great that its language remains important long after it has ceased to represent political, economic, or commercial greatness.

The importance of English in numbers of speakers as well as in its uses for international communication and in other less quantifiable measures, English is one of the most important languages in the world. Spoken by more than 380 mln people it is the largest of the western languages. A language may be important as a lingua franca in a country or region whose diverse populations would otherwise be unable to communicate. This is specially tur in the former colonies of England and france whose colonial languages have remained indispensable even after independence and often in spite of outright hostility to the political and cultural values that the European languages represent. French and English are both languages of wider communication, and yet the changing position of the two languages in international affairs during the past century illustrate the extent to which the status of a language depends on extralinguistic factors. It has been that English is recurringly associated with practical and powerful pursuits. Globally, perhaps one third of the world’s population is regularly exposed to English. Some estimates have about 1 billion people using it every day. These numbers are huge, and so unsurprising that English is fast becoming the standard language of communications and technology. A number of items suggesting the importance of English in the world are listed below. • English is the principal language of international telephone communication. • Perhaps as much as 75 % of mail around the world are written in English. • About half of the world’s newspapers are published in English. • 28% of books are annually published in English. • The majority of academic journals with international readership are in English. • The majority of the international scientists write in English. • 90% of internet hosts were based in English speaking countries. • The most influential software company , Microsoft , is based in an English speaking country. • Most of the largest advertising agencies are based in the USA • The official international language for both aviation and maritime use is English. • The most influencial music and movies are born in English speaking countries.
It is often said that English is becoming the world language. Whether or not one is quite ready to accept this , there does seem to be a need for some sort of international language. Business , science , and academia are now global in nature. English clearly serves the role of a lingua franca in a wide variety of cases, but is it fair to label it the world language?
One can ask how English achieved its prominent place. English rose to prominence on the back of its speakers’ military, industrial, financial, and cultural strength. One of its principal assets must be its large and varied vocabulary. The free borrowing of loans has been a prominent feature of English ever since anglo – saxon times.
All living languages change. The ones do not, are no longer spoken. The same external factors that affect the prestige of a language may also affect its structure. English has gone through a great deal of change in its 1,500 year lifetime. Historians traditionally describe the history of English language in terms of four main periods: Old English, Middle English, Early modern English, and Modern English. Linguistic change is slow and of course old English did not magically become middle English. Rather these events are connected with important events in the life of the English nation that had a major impact on its language. They are boundaries of convenience splitting a continually evolving language into parts small enough to analyze. Old English began with the invasion of anglo Saxons and other Germanic tribes. Their language was first written in the latin alphabet and it developed under various influences, including those from settlers speaking a Scandinavian language, until the Norman conquest. Middle English period was absorbed by the French vocabulary. The early modern English period enriched the vocabulary of language. The modern English period began about 1700 and was characterized by a combination of language consciousness and confidence that culminated in the production of the first great dictionaries; the establishment of American independence foreshadowed the rise of national varieties of English.