O XFO RDENG L I S H

lsBN 978-0-.r
9-423397
-2

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T HE HISTOR Y OT.
T HE ENGL ISH LA N GU A GE
The time: from about5000BC to the twenty-firstcentury
and beyond.The place: a distant corner of southern
Russia,the railwaysof the Unitcd States,the Caribbcan
farms where sugar is grown' an airport in Japan, the
chat rooms of the Internet-'and almost everyplacein
the world today.The machines;the printing press,TV'
the mobile phone, the computer. The people: Celtic
travellers, Viking invaders, French landowners, kings,
businesspeople,writers, singers,and millions of people
like you or me.
Bring them all together,and you havethe history of the
English language,with its changinggrammar,spelling,
pronunciation,and vocabulary.It's a story without an
end, that involvesmillions of people.Somehelped to
shapethe languageof the past, and others are making
the English of the future. And one of those people is
vou. . .

()xt,()t( t) tr()()K w()l ( Ms l .l l tR A R \

-..

l ;tct lilas

Thc Histr)ryof thc EnglishLarrguagc

Strgc 4 ( 14(X)
herrrlwords)

FactfilesSeriesEditor: Christine Lindoo

B R IGIT VI NEY

The History of
the EnglishLanguage

O X F O R D U N I VER SITY PR ESS

-/

,t

A worLdlanguage
Il r,' l i ,rru,l i sll ,rrrqtr,rt,.'
r
i s sP ol ie'r trot l: r y in l) iu'( s( ) l I i. r n'o1't t ',
tl r, r\trt' t' i c:ts, A si rt, A l ri c' :r, Ar r st r r r lr r rNt
, 'w Zt 'r r lr r r r r l,r ur t l
ur \()nl (' ol tl tt' i sl :rrrrl sol tl rc At lr r r r t ic, lr r r lir r r r r. r r r . l I ', r t ilir '
( )t r' rl tl s.It i s sP okert ,ts,t fi t' stl r u) uur lscby i70 t o - l( X)r r r illior r
pr' ,pl r' . l t i s rrl so uscrl l rs:r s ccor r r lllr r r g, u, r gc
by: t sir r r illr r
rrrrnrl rt' r' olpcopl c, rrnclrrs rr l ir r cigr r l: r r r gr r , r gt 'l'tlr
y ur r r lr ct ls
,,1 rrri l l i ol tsrrrorc. l l rrgl i sh i s p r obr r hly r r sct lir r sonr c wr r y lr y
.rl r,rrt rt (l r.rrl rtcfof rrl l tl rc 1' rc oplcin t hc wor lcl. I lccr r r r scso
rrr.rny1.rcopl c,
i n so rrrrrnypl rrccs,spcel<( ) r usc lr nglr sh, it is
,

' w ()rl cll engLreg c'.

' l tt' tr c:rl l cclrr
W l ro uscs l rngl i sh, rrncl w l r y is it such e wiclcly spokcr r

l ,rrrurragc?
l n cor,rrrrri cs
l i kc l l ri tein r r nclt hc LlS,F- r r glislr
is t hc f ir st
l .rrrsrreuc
i n othcr wr lr cls,it is t hc f ir st lr r r r gur r gc
of trrost1-rcopl c:
l
crtrn
rts
cl
ri
l
ci
rcn
etrcl
tl rcy cor . r ur . r r r nicrin
r t cl, . nglishall
1tt' o;rl c
tl rt' ti rnc. l n othcr courrtri cs,l i kc I nclr e,l( cnyr r ,Sinur r l'r or c,
r r nr l
(i
ui
ncrr,
l );l l rr11
\gw
l rrrgcrrurlbcr s of pcol, lc r r sclt r r slish r t s
,r scc<lrrcl
langu:rge.They have thcir riwn first lrrrrguegc,but
l't'crruscEnglish is oue of thc official lancurrgcs,tl'rcyr-rscit ir.r
r'ilrrcrrtion,business,govenrmelrt,radio, :rncltclevisi<lrr.
Firrally,
irr rrrrrnycoLlntriesErrglish is teught in schools rrs rl f<rreign
..1

rlir l.iiril

il i

l ;rrruurrge,
but i t i s not an offi ci al language.

.i[

lrrrglishis also usedfor many differentkinds of intcrnrrtional

r' orrmuni cati on. P eopl e i n science,m edicine, ar r clbusir r css
,l .tcrr comrnuni cate i n E ngl i sh. English is t he lr r r r gur . r gc
of
rrrtrchof the w orl d' s pop nrusi c and f ilnr s.Thc'langr - r r r gcs'of

.lit

i rrtcnrati or-ral
seaand ai r traffi c cont r ol, lcnowr rr r s'Ser r speak'
,rrrd A i rspeak' , use E ngl i sh. Thcy usc r r snr r r ll r r unr ber of

I ' lt r I li s to rt' o l tl t,' l :tty l i s l t I.,rtrg tt, rgt'

ottcrtt' cr
l l rrglis lrwor t ls r t t t r ls c tttc n c c sto ttt:rl < r' c o ttttttttni crtti cl
i ttrtl s it t t pler ' .( lir r c x ru l rl )l c , i tr Sc l ts p c rrl <
i n s tcrrtl o1' srryi rrg

Theb e g in n in g s
o f E n gt is h

'So r r y . whllt wr ls t l rrrt? ' o r' W h rrt rl i tl y o tr s l ry ? ' yorrsl ry' S rry
rl l .l llin' . )M r r c h of tl tc w o rk l ' s rrc w s i s rc p o rtc rl i n l l ngl i sl r orr
tcl cv is i< lr rt,lr c r r r c l i o ,tl rc l rrtc rn c t, o r i n l rc w s p r l l )cl s.
'l'ltc sprcrtrlof ['lrrglishrrrourrcltlrc worlcl bcgrrrrwith thc
llritish scttlcnrcntof North Arrrcricrr,thc (lrrrilrbcrrn,Austrrrlirr,
rrncl Asil in tlre scvcntccntl'rancl cightccrrth ccrrturics. lt

( )rrr urrcl crstrrncl i rrg

of tl rc hi st or y of Fir r glishbegiut r r t t lr c

continucclirr thc rrinetcenthccrltury when thc llritish corrtrollccl

pnrts of Atrica itttcl thc South Pacific. Ihglish rrlso bcc:rtle

crtcl of thc ei gl -rtccnthccl rtury whcn Sir Willianr . f ot r cs,r t

Itrrti sh j rrcl gcw ho l i vccl i n l nclia, bcgat r t o st ucly Sanskr it .

irlprlrtrrrrt interrrationrrllylreciruscirr thc ninetecnth ccntury

l ' hi s i s rl very ol d l angui rge of hr dir r , iur cl r t t t hc t it t r c wr r s

Britaiu was tlrc most in.lportxnt incillstrirl r.rati<lrr

in the world.
Many ncw machinescanrcfrom Britain, so pcoplc had to learrr

rrscclirr Irrclian law. Likc othcrs bcfore hitrr, .fones rroticccl

betw eerrS auskr it , Lat it . t ,( ir eek, at t clot l. r er
nrrrnysi n-ri l ari ti es

Errglishirr rlrder to lcirrn how to use drcm.

l anguagcs.For exam ple:

l l rrropear.r

Irr the twentieth century, the use of English spread with

the growth in international business. Air travel developed,
ma k ing m or e int ern a ti o n a l b u s i n e s sp o s s i b l c .Fastcrw ays of
i n ter nat ional c omm u n i c a ti o n , l i k e th c tc l c p h one and more
recently the computer, became morc wiclcly usccl. Many
people wanted to do busir-resswith Aurcricrrrr cornpanies
because the US was rich, and in <>rclcrto clo this they
'When
had to speak English.
international companies and

S A N S K R IT

LA TIN

GR E E K

E N GLIS H

pitr

parer

parer

father

matar

mater

m at r

m ot her

asti

est

est i

is

trayah

tres

treis

three

sapta

septem

hepta

seven

l)cople had thought that Latin, Greek, and all European

working language. For example, English is the working

f rrnguagescame from Sanskrit, but Jones disagreed.In 1786

lrc wrote that Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin all came from a

language of the European Central Bank, although the

'common source',which had perhaps disappeared.There was

bank is in Germany. In Asia and the Pacific, r.rineout of ten

rr lot of interest in his idea and other people began to study

international organizations work only in English.

these three languages. Their work proved that Jones was

right. We now know that Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, English, and

organizations developed, English was often chosen as the

English is important

not because it has rrrore first-

language speakersthan other languages (Chinese has more)

but because it is used extremely widely. \il/ill this situation

nrany other languagesall belong to one enormous 'family' of

continue? This is an interesting question, but first let us look

Jones's 'common source' from which all these languages

cleveloped is now known as Proto-Indo-European. It is

at how English began.

languagescalled the Indo-European family.

Theheginnings
of b)nglish

Morc thirn 2 billiorr peoplc speirk nrr lrrcftr-liuropcirrr

lilrfiuirgens their first languargc.
The speakerof Hirrdi in
Itrtliir,thc speakerof Portuguese
in Brazilnarrclthe spcaker
nl lrrrglishin Australia all expressthcmselvesin Indo| ; rrro1'rclr
rr languages.
l'lrc(lclts werethe first group of Indo-Europeauspeakers
t(| nloveilcrossEurope.Towardsthe end of the fifth century
ll( i thcy lreganto leavetheir homelandnorth of rhe Alps
nr ecntral Europe. They went ro rhe Black Sea, Turkey,
Fr)utlr-westSpain and central ltaly, rhe whole of Britain,
nrrrl lreland. As they travelled,differenr dialects of their
thought that a group of peoplecalledthe Kurgansspokethis
language,or dialectsof it, and livedin what is now southern
Russiafrom sometime after 5000BC. In about 3500 BC the
Kurgans probably began to spreadwest acrossEurope and
eastacrossAsia. As groups of Kurganstravelledfurther and
further awayfrom eachother, they beganto developstronger
'With
the passingof time, these
differencesin their dialects.
dialects became different languages.When some of them
(the Greek, Anatolian, and Indo-Iranian languages)appear
in written form in about 2000 to 1000 BC they are clearly
sbparatelanguages.
Similarities between some languagesas they are spoken
today suggestthat they probably come from Proto-IndoEuropean.For example,there are similar words in European
and Indo-Iranian languagesfor peoplein the family (mother,
fatber), animals (dog, sheep,horse),parts of thebody (eye,
ear), the weather (rain, snou), and for weapons. These
similarities allow us to imagine somethingof the life of the
Kurgans: they worked on the land some of the time, made
clothesfrom wool. and usedwheels.

Inttgungedeveloped.The Celtswho settledin Turkey spoke

( iirlrrtian,those in Spain spoke Celtiberian, and those in
l;rirrlcc,Italg and norrhern Europe spoke Gaulish. The
( icltswho went to Irelandand later ScotlandspokeGoidelic
(( lrrclic)and thosewho went ro southernEnglandand Wales
rpokc Brythonic (or British).
Unfortunatelyfor the Celtsin Britain, other peoplewanted
to tirke advantageof the island's good farming land and
vrtluirt'rle
metals.In AD 43 the RomansinvadedBritain. They
rcrnrrinedthere for almost four hundred years, and almost
rrll of what is now England came under rheir control. (They
frcvcrwent very f.arinto Walesor Scotland.)They introduced
ir ncw way of life and a new language- Latin. British Celts
in thc upper classesand the towns becameused to life with
lrtws and police, roads, baths, and theatres.Some learnt to
spcnk and write Latin. However, a new language did not
dcvclop from Latin in Britain as French did in Gaul and
Spirrrish
did in Spain.
From the middle of the third century AD, the Romansgrew
wcrtker and weaker as the Germanic peoples of northern
llrrrope invaded more and more Roman lands. In AD 410

' l' lx ' I li s tttrl ,o l l l tc l ;try l i s l t I rtttN tt ttl t'

tl rc l{ or r r ir nsf ir r ir l l yl e l ' t l } ri trri rr.Wi tl ro ttt th c l { o ttrrtrri l l ' l l l y l ()

g rrl t r r lit , t lt e c ot t t t try w rts i tt c l ,tttg c rfrrl ttt o tl rcr i ttv:ttl crs.
l n A l) 449, pc op l e fro ttt.ftttl rtrrtli rt ttto c l c rttl )etttl ti trk* tl te

O t dEngt is h

.ftttcs r t r r iv c c lit t s o tttl tc rtt l l ri trri n rtttd th c Arrgl cs :tl s< t

l 'rot t t l) c t t nr ar k - c rttttcrtttc ls c ttl c c li tt c l ts tc rtl l l ri trri rl . l n 477
tl tc S r t x ot r s f, r onr w h rtt i s tr< l w(i c rn ra n y , c rrttrci ttl clscttl ccli tr
' l ' h c s c tl rrcc (i crtrtl trri c
s()r. r t hc nlanc l s ou th -c i l s tertr l l ri ta i n .

t lLl l;rrBlish
is the langtrrrgc
tlrirtwrrsspokerrfrourthc rrrirltlle
,,1 tlrt'liftlr ccrrturyto tlrc rrriclcllc
of rhe twclfth ccrrrrrryirr

pcoprlcswcre vcry cliffcrcrrt frottt thc lt<ttttrttts.Thc l{orrtatts

lracl govcrtrcclthc llritish Oelts' btrt thcy hircl rlot tlkett thcir

rr'lt,ttis ttow lrrrglrrrrcl

rrrrclsouthcnrScotlirncl.
l)trrirrg,rlris
llnr(,lllc litngulrgcchangcclrrrrclto<lkirr worclsfrorrrotlrcr

Inrrcls.Thc.f utcs, Attglcs, ltttclS:txottscill11citt litrgcr trttntbcrs

rtttclthcy scttlccl otl thc lartclslrclotrgirrgto thc l]ritish (lclts.

l r ll l p . l l i lt l c s .

S<lnrc<lf the llritish (lclts lcft ittrcl wctrt ttorth' s()llrc wcl'lt
wcst itrt<lWelcs attd (lornwirll, arrd ()thcrs wcllt over tlrc sclr
to Brittauy, iu what is trow ltortheru Frittrcc.

'WcstSirxorr
l'ltcrcwerc f<rurrririnclillcctsof OlclFlrrglish:
(tn tlrc soutlrancls<luth-wcst),
Kcntish(irr thc soutlr-errsr)
,
Al l t' r' i rttt(i rrthc ccntrc and
r' ,rrt), i ul (l N ortl runr[rri arr
(trrtl rc rrorth).Thcdi al ects

T he J ut es s t ay e di n K e trt, i n th e s o u th -c a s tof B ri ti ti l t, but

wellt south-west.
thc Arrglcs m<lved north and the Sirx<tr.rs
Thcy slowly organized themselves iuto seven kingdoms in

p.tiltlllllllt, VoCabUlary,
and

what is now England and south-eastScotland. In the seventh

centllry the kingdom of Northumbria, in the north, was very

l rt nt ttt ttci rtti or.r.

t l rrl i ke other i nvaoers,

strong and a great centre of learnirrg. Irr the eighth century

Mercia, in the centre, becatne thc ulost il'!1p()rtantkingdom,

tl rc A rrgl o-S axor-rskept

and in the ninth century'Wessex,ilt thc stluth aud south-west,

rl trl rrot l carn the l anguage

becarnethe strongest kingdont.

,,1 tl rc l l ri ti sh C el ts. They

The invaders called the British Celts wealas meaning

foreigners. Later this mealtt both Celrs and serudnts. From

rl rrl rrot take rnany C el ti c

wealas comes the Modern English word'Welsh. The British

Celts called all the invaders 'saxons' at first, bttt in the sixth

rttl rt' r; orrl y about tw enty

( r' l ti c w ords are found i n

century the word Angli was used to mcall thc whole group
of invaders. Later Angli became Engle. Ttrday we call them

t )l tl l ' l rrgl i sh.The A ngl o-

Anglo-Saxons'. From the various Germatric clialectsused by

these people, Er-rglishdeveloped.

It,ttl sttti tl l di ffcrences of

lltt'u' owt'r language and

rr' ,,r' rl si rrto thei r di al ects

\,r rorrs borrow ed some

()ll I:nslislt

'l'ltc I listory ol' tltc I;.nglisbI tutfutlgt,

(l cl tic wor c ls f or p rrrrs o f th c c o u n try s i (l c w h ich w crc ncw

ilttfnrl)tto rrrrrlic
ItFwiI llrititirr,tlriswrrstlrc lirst orgrrrrizctl

t() tl r c nl: f < r r c x lur tl ' rl e ,tl tc w o rc l s (' r.t.qi l n c l /o r ntcrttti ttg,rt

of llritrrirr(ilrristiarrs.
Arrgrrstinc
rrncltlrc rrronks
tltr grcoplc
in Olrrrtcrbrrry
in tlrc s()r,ltll-crlst
by Kirrg
n'rl'('wclc()rrrccl
(]trccrr
(.lrristirrrr.
llcrthrr,wlro wrrsrr
Actlrclbcrtof Kerrtrrrrcl

b i g h r ut c k , t ut c l , ' u n tl t f< > rt d a c l t tu l l c y .' l ' l rc

rrrttncsof

s<rttt cF . r r glis hc it ie s , I ttn d o n rtttd /,c c r/s f< l r c xrtttpl c, rrc

(l cl tic , ir nc l t he wo rc l d u b ri s , w h i c l r n l c i l n t u tdl er, bccrrrnc
I)o uc r . l) if f c r c nt ( l c l ti c w o rc l s ft> r ri u c ,r< fi tttLt!(rsurvi vc i u
thc river friu.rlcsAuttn, F.sA,irncl ()use, ltncl'l'bdmcs is lrls<l
(lcftic, rrrclning dark riucr, Howcver, thcrc rrrc very fcw
o rd i nar y Cc lt ic wo rc l s i n Ol d l i n g l i s h , i tn c l rto onc i s real l y
su rc of t he r c as or rf< rrth i s .
Old E nglis h in th e fi fth a n d s i x th c e n tu ri es di d havc
some words that werc not Germanic. Thcse were Latin
worcis, which the Anglo-Saxor'rs had borrowed fron'r the
Romans before invading Britain. But there were not mar]y

Itr tltc' followirrgcentury tlrcsc ntottks itrtclotlrcrs took

( lrristirrnityover the s()utlr()f tlrc courrtry.ln tlrc n()rtlr,
frotttthe lrislttnottkAiclrttt,
[t'oplc lcitrrttrrboutOhristirrrrity
lly thc enclof thc scvclrthccntrlry
wlto rtrrivcclthcrc irr 6.3.5.
kirrgclorrrs
wereClrristiarr.
,rllthc Arrglo-Saxou
'l'hc tnottks built churchesirr.rcl
t:rught poctry, (ircck,
As a rcsult,a rrunrberof
,trrrlLirtin as wcll as Clrristiarrity.
l.,ttiuwordscntercdOlcl English:about 450 appcirrin Old
l;rrglishliteraturc.Sonrcwereabout thc lifc of the Church:
Irrr cxrmple, munuc (monk) and scol (school).Othcrs were

Most Anglo-Saxonscould not

reador write, but thosewho could
write used runes. These were

wrrrtfsfor things in the house:fenester(wintlow) lrrd cest

(rlnst). Some verbs from Latin were spendrn (to spend),
rerltian (to dance),and tyrnan (to turn).
At first the monks wrote only in Latin, but then they
hcgitnto write in Old English.This was unusual:peoplein

letterswhich had beenusedby the

Germanicpeoplessinceabout the

ollrcr rrorthernEuropeancountriesdid not beginwriting in

tlrcir own languagesuntil much later. Learningspreadand

third century AD. They were cut

and by the eighthcentury

lkrwcredamongthe Anglo-Saxons,
llnglandwas a centreof learningin westernEurope.
()ld Englishwas usuallywritten with theseletters:

- only about fifty. Some examples are stret (street), weall

(wall), and win (wine1.

into stone or weaponsand were

often usedto saythat someonehad
madeor owned something.
The arrival of Augustine and
about forty monks in 597 brought

a, I, b, c, d, e, f, 3, h, i, l, m, [, o, p, r, s, t, pr6, u, p,y.
Most of thesewere Roman, but some were not. 'Thorn'p
lrncl'wynn'p wererunes.'Thorn'p and 'eth'6 wereusedfor

changesto Anglo-Saxon life in

Britain and to Old English.They
had come from Rome to teachthe

thc soundsl0l and /6/. Both were used for both sounds.6
wirsperhapsan Irish letter.'Wynn'p was usedinsteadof ra,

Anglo-Saxonsabout Christianity.
Although Christianity was not

rtrrcf'yogh' 3 insteadof g. The letters k and x were also used

occirsionally.There were no capital letters.

t0

l' lt c I li s to rt, o l !1 t,,!;ttg l i s l tl ,ry tl l l t! t,

()ll linglislt

Writcls trstrlrllyclrosc tlrcir.()wn spr'llirrgsol' worrls,

rtttd tlrcy triccl to show irr tlrc spcllirrglrow ir word wirs

l t ,rl l gI l hc tttl ti rt w rtrtl ' l i rr exlt t t t plc: gan ( t lr t o) lr t 'cr t t lt c

fttgllt (lo ,tqoitr), upgin (/o ,go u1t), ttd utgin (to 14rtttrrt)'
lfr,' wrrrrl blOd 1/r/oorl) [rccrttttcblodig (lfuxx,lt'), rrrrtl blind

All thc lcttcrsirr lr worrl wcrc pr()n()lrrrcccl.

l)r()n()ur'rcc(|.
ltrr
'l'lrc
exrttttplctlrc lcttcr /.rirr hring (rln,q)wrrsl)rollouncccl.
pr<lnrrncilrtiorr
<lf tlrc slrrrrcworclvrrricclflroln<lrrcdialcctto
lln()tlrcrr
s<ltlrcrcwcrccliffcrcntspcllirrgs
.f thc slrnrcw<lrcl.
()lcl
Thc vocirbulrtry
o[
F)nglislrwrrsrrlrrrost
conrpletcly
(ierr.arric.Muclr <lf it - rrb.ut [1.5
pcr ccrt - lrasclisrrppcarccr
frorn Moclcrn trrglish rrnclhrrs bccrr rel.rlircccl
with words
frorn l-irtirr <lr Frcnch. Howcvcr, rrany of thc w<lrclsirr
Moclcrn English that lrc rrr<lstoftcn uscd conrc fr<lnr()ld
Errglislr.A fcw cxirmplesarc:the, dnd, cdn, arrdgcl. Othcr
wordsirr Moc'lernEnglishwhichcomefrorrrOld Englisharc
f<rrvcry basicthingsand ideas.Somccxanrplcsare: mann
(.pcrson),
cild (child),his (house),etan(aat),skpan (sleep),
Other wordswhichsurvivefrom Old Englisharenamesof
places.The Anglo-Saxonsusedford for a placewherea riuer
can be crossed,ham for uillage,ton for farm or uillage, and
wic for houseor uillage.Thesewords survivein many names,
for example,Oxford, Birmingham,Brighton,.V/arwick.
Some Modern English names for the days of the week
come from the namesof Anglo-Saxongods and goddesses.
Tuesdayis named after Tiw, Wednesdayafter Woden (both
godsof war), Thursdayafter Thunor (god of thunder),and
Friday after Frig (goddessof love).
Like other Indo-Europeanlanguages,Old English made
new words by putting two other words together.For example:
boccrrft, book-skill, meant literature; sunnandrg, srzz,s
day, meant Sunday. Poersoften did this to make beautiful
descriptions;one expressionfor body wasbone-houseand
one for the sea was the uater\ back.
Old Englishalsomadenew wordsby addinglettersbefore

ll

I' r,,,fl nc bl i ndl i ce (l i l i ndl y).

in
l ' l rc w rl rcl si rr rr scntcrrcci n ( ) lcl l, ) nglishof f cr r r r PPcr r r cd
,r ,l tl l t' rcttt ercl cr fr< l trttl r< l sci rr M <ldcr r r Fllglish. l1 M <lclcr t t
I trg,lislr,tbe girl hallrccl the boy ;lrtdthe boy helpcd thc girl
nrcal i rtgs w hi ch we ut r dcr st t nd f r ot lt t f ie wgr cl
Ir,rvr,tl i ffcrcrrt
nrrl t' r. l tt ()l d Fl ngl i shpcopl c u ndcr st <>odt hc nlcir r r it r gof r r
Er.nt('nccfr<>mthc cndings of cach word, and thcse endings
,l rarrgcdto show thc i ob that cach wor d did in t hc scnt encc'
N otttts al so changcd thci r endir r gs f t r r t hc plur al: f <r r
r,\ilflrplc, gama,(man) becamc gumen' sten (srot?c)bccame
rtitrsst and giefu (gifi) became giefa. Nout.rs lrad three
ltr'n(lcrs,and adiectivesand articles changed with thc gcnder
ll

tltc troun. However' many of the possible changes to

worrls did not happen in practice.

'l'hcrc were more personal pronouns than in Modern
frrrgfi sl r. For exampl e, there was hine ( him ) , I im ( t o him ) ,
ht (hcr) and hire (to ber). Him also meant to it and to iltem.
l'lrcrc were also the pronouns wit meaning we two and git
ntt' rttti rrgyou tw o.
Vcrlr endings changed, too. The past tense of most verbs
wrrs made by changing a vowel in the present tense' so sing
r'lrrrrrgcdto sang, for example. In Old English there were
,rlrout twice as many of these irregular verbs as there are
rotlrry.The past tense of regular verbs was made by adding
tlre crrdings -de, -ede, or -ode. For example' the past tense
rrf' libban (to liue) was liftle, the past tense of cnyssan (/o
(to loue)
ltttsh) was cnysede, and the past tense of lufian
w,rs lufode.
ln the eighth century Britain was visited by the Vikings,

| .r

I1 ,,' I lt , t , , t t ' r , l

( )l ,l I tr t lr 'l'

11, ,I. t r t ilt ' 1, Lt t t , , it t , r , , 1 , .

ot ' l),tttt's'its lll( Ar r lilo S; lx or t s t : r llt ' t l t lr r ' t t t . li r o n r l f i -

t l r t 't '

(,lnr(' in ttt.tnt snt ; r ll llr ' ( ) lr l) \ lr or r r |) t ' r r r r r ; t r ' li r u r t l N o l r r ': r t '

;tnrl sto lt'lioltl rrrr t l s ilv t ' r ' lr onr l( ) \ \ ' ns , r r r , . l . lr r r r '. 1 r r . 's( ) n l l r ( '
Irorllt to :rsl. llr 7t) . i; t r r t l 7t ) . . 1t lt t . y t lt . s lr oy t . t l l. lt t l i s l ; r l l r t . r r r r t l
lw() \/('t'y inll) ( ) r lilnl
.l: u' r'o r,r,,
irr t lrt'ttoltlt

t'rtst ol

( , lt r is t i; r r r t t . r r t r t ' s o l

lt.lrrrrirrt

lr , r r glr r r r r l.ln f i. 50 it lilr ' ll( ' V i l i i r r g

rrrtrry

Iooli l.o tttlort rttrtl ( , lut t t ' t ' lr t r ly , lr r r . l s ( ) r l \ \ ' r lr l r t 'u : r r l u v l r i c l r

(()ntinu ('(l un til liTS. lht ' r r hir r g Allt ' r ' t l ( t lr c A t r g l o - S ; r x o r r

d-rfurcm{s. -.,

r!

luflpn

ll

I rrrl ' .,r1\\t' sst' r l totrt fi Tl to S t ) t ) )\ \ '( ) ll: lll illll) ( ) ll. llll lr : t t t lt '
,,,,l trr,r,l t' ,rrl ,l !l t(' (' ttl ('wtlill l )tl l t'Viliilt t ', slo\ ( 'l) ; ll: ll( 'lr . r l1il; t r r , l
i t| ro l \\' ()P ,tt' l s. A l tt' r' tl r;l t, tl l t'll( ) l'llt ( 'lll: lll( l ( 'ilsl( 't 'lll) illl,
I rr,' 11
11,r\ tl r(' l )rttrt' l :trv,\\' rts(() t t lr . t llt 't l lt t ' t llt Vr lir r r l"s'. t r r , l
1 y Kilr g Allr t '. '1.
w i l s r' ()tttrr, ll. '.lr
rl r, rr' ,,t,,1 l r.rrp,l rrrrtl
Itt,,ttl r' t' to bri rrg brtcl i tl tt' et 't t t t 't 'sol lt 'r t t 't t ir r gt lr : r t lr ; r t l
l ..i rru A l l rt' tl .lt '. i. lt '. 1t o t t lr t l<tl.' r lg, lislr r, r ot
l ,r r n rl r' sl r' ,,\' t' r.1,
I rl rr, tl rr' l rtrtgttl tg.' ol ' t' tl ttcl tliot l; t t t t l lit ( 'l'ilt t lr ( '.So; t t t lr t '
r1,, ,rl l ortl l rt' l crtrrrt l .rl ti l l rll) ( l llcglt lr lr r lllsl: t t ir lg lr ool<s
l rrl ( )l tl l i ngl i sl r. Il t' tl cscri l rctl llis plr r r l ilr t lt t 'st 'wor t ls:

('u(ruL('llrtnl *errruchmtrrl iiip.

' l ' l rcrel i l rc i t seems bctter to m c . . . t hat wc should

;rl\r) tmnslirte ccrttin lrooks which arc nlost ncccss'.rry
l,rr :r11mcn to know int<l thc languagethat wc crn rll
urxl(rstan(1, and also arrange it . . . so that all the youth
rnen now among the English people . . . are able
'l'li'cc
l(, rclr(l English writing well.
ir lt o ( ) lcl [ lr lglislr . ( ) r r c
I rtt' r'l rt' hecl otl rcr books trrrrr slat ccl
,,1 rl rt' st'w rts l Ji sl ori t F.ccl esidst ictO cnt is Anglonnr r ( 'l'lt c
l l r,.trtrt,rtf'l hc Fngl i sb C burch ant l I 'coplc) , which hacl bccr r
\\ 1tt(' l r i tt rt[r< l ut7.]lby l r l l t()tl k ir t Nt lr t ht lllr br in cr r llccllJeclc.
Il rr., i s (l rc pr< l st i ptp()rtal tt s ot lr ce 9f ir lf <lr llr lt t iclrrl l[ r 9t t t
, .rrl r l r,rrgl i shhi story thi l t w c h r r vc.lt r t l. r ct r r r llslr - r t i<ltltrt,lc'lit r
,,rl r,' r'r' :tt' l yF.ngl i shw ri ti l tgs, w e begit l t o seet lr e wor cl Englisc
' .t rr1,,l
i sl .t)rrscclto cl cscri bcthc p eoplc ancl t hc lat lgt t age.
N rrrg A l frccl rrl sostartccla h ist or y of Englr r r r dir r English:
I /,,' l\rtg/o-SLtxonChronicle. This was writtcll lry nrorrks in
whirt haclhap;rcr-red
It clescrrbec'l
,lrllr'r't'rrtprlrts ()f the cor-rtrtry.
al so what happellcclevcr y yelr l'at
,
rr tl r(' l )i rsti rt E rrgl artclaucl
tl r. ti trtc of w ri ti rrg. l t w as the f ir st cl- r r onicleir r Et lr t lpc t hat
\\,r,,n()[ w ri ttcn i tt Lrrti rr.

Ea rl ywr it ingsf r om L i n d i s fa rn e

l\lost of thc Old F,nelish works that have stlrvived were

l'ltt I lisltry ol' tltc linglish Ldrt$ud!1t'

()ld It,nslislt

Orrcof tlrcgrciltcstwrircrs
writtcrrrrftcrKirrgAlfrccl'sclcrrth.
F{c
wirs ir tnonk fronr WcsscxcallcclAlfric (9.5.5-1010).
wr()tenl:uryChristianworks arrdrr guiclcfor youu14
urouks
crrlfccl(,'ol/rryuy.'fltiswirswritten irr l,atirrrlsil convcrsrltion

ol rhis wrrsthilt ()kl linglishbccrrrrrc

sirnpler.Mrrrryof tlrc
d iH'ererrt
worcl ettcli rrgscli sappreir
rccl.l)lurrrlcuclirrgsbecirrrrc
ritttgrlerrrsthc -s crrclingwrls r'n()rcwiclelyusccl,lrrrclnrirrry
vt'rbswlriclruscclto chirrrge
thcir v<lwclto rrrirketlrc p:rsttcrrsc

bctweerrir tcacherlncl ir student,and it is importrut for two

rcilsor'rs.
lt tclls us a lot irb()utthc daily lifc of trrorrksirncl
ordinarypcoplc,and it alsotcllsus a lot lbout Old English,

ntrw bcgrtrrto trrkctltc -dc errclingirrstctcl.

Attothcr rcsult wlrs tlrnt thous:rrrcls
of worclsfronr Olcl
(ON)
Norsc
cntcrcclOld Errglish(OE). Ilctwccnfour arrcl

becausein one copy someonelraswritten the Old English

words abovethe Latin words.
The greatestpieceof literature in Old English that has
survivedis a poem of about 3,000linescalledBeowulf.This
was probably made in the middle of the eighth century,

livc hundreclremaiu irr usc today,with hunclrcclsrnorc in

tlrc clialectsof n<>rthern
ErrglandanclScotland.We ctn see

t4

although it was not actuallywritten down until about two

hundred and fifty yearslater. It tells the story of a braveman
from ScandinaviacalledBeowulf.He fights and kills a terrible
animalcalledGrendel,and then kills Grendel'smother,who
is just as terrible.It is a poem about life and death,bravery
and defeat,war and peace.
Here is a short piece from it in which Beowulf describes
his fight with Grendel('the devil'):
. . . w&s t6 fore-mihtig
fEond on fepe. Hwrpere he his folme forlet
to lif:wrape list weardian,
earm ond eaxle . . .
. . . the deuil pulled free
with enormous force.But, in order to saue
his life, he left behind his hand,
his arm and his shoulder . . .
In the Danelaw the Vikings and the English were able to
communicatequite well, becausetheir two languages,Old
Norse and Old English, were both Germanic. One effect

The first page of Beowulf

ls

l(t

I'lrt, Ilisl0, t t , of

t lt t ' lit r uli. t lt L, t r t gt t , r y t '

tl rrrt t lr c s lr c r r l< t . ol
r ' s tl rt,trv o l rrrrl l rrrrl i t.s
l i v r,tll o g r .tl rt,r...l osr,l y,,
b c'err r r s ct lr e ( ) lt l Nr rs t' w ,rtl s rl rrrtr' rrrrrci rrt, ()l t l l l ngl i sl r rrrt.
wo l tls l. r or r rc v c , r ' y rl rry
lil'c

TheNormans
in E n g la n d

f.

w o rtl s l i rr tl rt, l ro rrs c(rl l rrri orr,),

< , A ),:l l t(lc ()n l n l ()rrv c l . bs(gt' t, trrkt,

l )r'rr t s( ) l t lr c bot ly (/r,,{ rrr,,'
tt,tu t! ) . ' l' hc r t ' r lt ' ( 'il l s () rrrrtrryw o rrl s h c g i rl ti rrg w i tl r .sA -l i l < c
s/<i rr ,- s / < ir l,r t t t c l - . 4 ' t,.()tl rc l s ,u ' c : /.,,t.q,l, i c , t' gg, l ttrsl t,rttrl
,
s(//rt( ' S
. ( ) lllc( ) k l Nrl rs c w o rrl s rc p l rrc c rl()l c l l l rrgl i sl rw orrl s;
fi rr cx r r r r r plcs y s t er(()N ) rc p l rrc c ds w e o s ro r(()l l ) fi rr sl s/r,r.Irr
s()r.r .cr clls es ,lr ot h t h c ()l c l N o rs c rrrrc Ol
l c l l ' .rrg li sl rw orcl s fi rr
th c sr r r r r cic lc r twc r c u s c tl . l -o r c x rrrn p l c ,tl rc rc w rrsrl l s/,r(()F.)

,' \t tl rc l l rrttl c of Il rtsti ngs,otr l 4 ( ) ct olr cl l0( r ( r ,l( ing I lar olr l
rr' ,rrl i ,i l l cclrtrrd l ri s i l nny w rl s clcf cr r t ccl
[ r y t lr c Nolr r r r ur s.( ) r r
( l ri stnr:rs l )ey 1066 W i l l i rrrn wr r s r r r r r clcl<ir r gioi l'. r r gilancl

;trrcltut r nt ( O N) , r r n c ls i c ' A(OE ) a rrd l // (O N ).

rrr l .orrrl orr,l rrrd ovcr tl rc ncxt f oLr r ycr r r s lr c cor r r plct ct lhis

The Olcl Norsc w()rd ,/ru,rcplaccclthc Olcl Ilnglish sindon

ancl tlrc Olcl Norsc verlr errclilrg-s frrr thc tlrircl pcrsorrsinguler

( ()n(ptcstof F)rrgl rrrcl

arrclW alcs. Tlr is cor r r lt r cstlr r t clit vcr y

i n th c pr c s c nt t c ns c b e g a n to b c u s c c l .T h c O l c l N < l rsc/D c,y,

their, .tnclthem sl<>wlyrcplaccclthc Olcl English hi, hire , rrncl

cffcct < l rtthc cl cvcl < 11-rnrof

cntt hc h) nglishllr ngulr gc.
1' ,r' r' rrt
W i l l i arrrl rrcl l i rrgc st()ncc:.rst lcs
built , f r or r rwlr ich N<lr r r r r ur
.,,l tl i erscontrol l cclthc tow ns i r nclcor . r nt r ysiclc.
Hc t ook vcr y

h e m ir r t he F < r llowi n gc c n ru n c s .

l .trgcarcasof l arrclfronr ri ch E r r glishf anr ilics r r nclgr . r vc

t hcur

The V ik ings als o l e ft th e i r rra rk o n p l a c e n a mes. More

d -ra n 1, 500 plac es i n n o rth e n r En g l a n d h a v e Scarrdi navi an

Io his Nr>rmar.rfollowcrs. Each clf thcsc ncw lanclowncrs hacl

names. Over 600 end in -&y, which means farm or town

(for exarnple, 'tf{hitby). Otl-rers end in -thorp(e) (smalL

l ,,l l ow ers, so there w as usual l y one Nor m ar - rf am ily in each

uillage), and -toft (piece of land); for cxample, Scunthorpe

and Bldcktolt. Moderr-r family names that end in -soru,like

l ' trsi ncssand control l ed the C hur ch.

lrrs own group of soldiers, and eacl-rgave lar-rdto his own

l rrrgl i sh vi l l age. N ormans w or ked ir - rt he gover nm ent and
Norman French immediately became the language of the

Johnson and Dauidson, also corne from the Vikir-rgs.

Battles between the Vikings irnd thc English conrinued in
the tenth cerlrury. Fror-n1015 to 1041 Englancl had Danish
kings, who were therr followed by an English lcirrg,Eclward.
\When Edward died in 1066, Harold, tl-re
leader of 'Wessex,
was chosen to be the next king. However, Willianr, <lne of
Eclward's consirrs, said that Edward had prornisecl that he
wo r"r ldbec om e k ing o f E n g l a n d . W i l l i a m w a s rh e l eader of
Norrnandy in northerr-rFrance. He decided to take an army
to England and figl-rrHarold.

The Battl.eof Hastings

lf l

l'ltt' I li s lor t t ol llt t ' lt t t glis lt Lr t t t ! ur t ft '

!,()v c nr inllelr t s s c srttttl re tttrti ttc tls o l i rr tl tc ttc x t tw o l tuttrl t' ctl
yci l r s .lir c nc hr r r r dl. i l l i rr w c r' (' rrs c rl
i rr F ,()v c n l n l cnt,
thc (l hrrrch,
tl re lr r w, r r r r t l lit c r rrtrn ' c .V c l y l i ttl c w rrs w l i ttc n i n l i ngl i sh,
lr r r gfr s f rt n o rrk sc ()n ti n u e (lw ri ti rrg ' I' l )( A ny,l o-S dr()n
rtfrl r< r r r gh
Ol tx t t r it ' launt il I 1 .5 4l.rrrg l i s l rw l rs s ti l l s p o l < c tt,h ow cvcr,i rt i ts
cliffcrcrrt rcgiortrtlclirrlccts.
T lr c us c of F r c rrc h c ()n ti n u c d i rr F l n g l a n clcl uri ng thc
tw cl f t h c c nt ur y , t)rl rtl y b c c rru s c n rrrn y o f t l rc N onrrl rrr
l <i rr gslnc l lir nc lo w n c rs :rl s o h :rc l l a rrc l i rr N ornrarrcl y arrcl
o th c r plr r t s of F ' r i rn c ca n c l th e y s p c n t i l l o t o f ti rrc tl rcrc.
Frcnch wils l.rotspokcn ouly by pcoplc of Norrrirrr ()r Frcrlch
b l o o d. I t was als o s p o k c rrb y En g l i s h p e o p l c w ho w l ntcd to
b e i rnpor t ant .
Slowly, however, English becirme more widely used by the
N o rm ans . M any o f th e N o rma n s m a rri e d E n g l i sh w omen,
so they ar-rdtheir children spoke English. In 1 177, one English
writer reported that with 'free men' it was impossible to
know who was English and who was Norman.
ln 1,204 King John of Er-rglandlost Normandy to the
king of France, and during the r-rextfifty years all the great
landowning families in England had to give away their lands
in France. They became lessinvolved with France and began
to feel that England was their country.
The upper classescontinued to speak French as a second

I 'l t c N o r t t t , t tts i r t l i ttyl r ttttl

l()

l,cwcdc rncn cune F-frcnsch

non
Arnongan hondryrlvnnepison.
(' .ttttttttotttttatt knott, tto I in, nclt
Attrortgt ltrtntlrtd srtrccly ona.
( )t' tl i ttrtt' ypcoP l c cl i d rrot rrccclt o lclr r r rI ; r cnclr ,: r r r t l
Pr olr ir l'r ly
.l i rl trot w l l nt t(). l t w l rs thc l ir ngur r gcof t hc N<lr nr r r r r s,
wh<r
It,t.l tl cstroyccl rrrury l l rrgl i slr t owns ir ncl villr r gcs. Flnglish
\\,i l sthc l i rngui rgcof thc c()unt r y, : r nclpcol'llcwcr c pr oucl of
rl :rnd of thci r hi story. A poct in ar our r cl 1300 wr ot c r n his
l rftr()(fucti ()n t() thc pocm (,' zr sr t rM unt li:
pis ilk bok es translate
Into Inglis tong to rede
l'or the love of lnglis lede,
Inglis lede of Ingland,
For the commun at understand.
This book is translated
Into the English language
For the loue of tbe Englisb people,
English people of England,
And for the common people to wnderstand.
l'hc continuing bad feeling between England and France
rcstrltedin the Hundred YearsWar (1337-1453). During this

language, and it was still used in government and the law.

t ittrc national feeling grew and the English language was seen

However, French started to become less important socially

tttore and more as an important part of being English.

in England, partly because the Norman Frer.rchspoken in

lletween 1348 and 1375 England was hit severaltimes by

England was not considered 'good' by speakcrs of Parisian

thc illness known as the Black Death and almost a third of

French in France. The upper classesbegan to feel prouder of

lhc people in England died. Many churchmen, monks, and

their English than of their French.

sclrool teachers died and were replaced by less educated

Most ordinary people could not speak Frcnch at all. At the

end of the thirteenth century, or-lepoct wrote:

tttctr who spoke only English. There were fewer ordinary

working people, so they could ask for better conditions

tl

Mi ddt eEn g t is h

Itr tlre fonr ccnturicsthirt f<lllowcclthc N<lrrnrrnO<lrrqucst,

tlrc Flrrglishlangu:rgcchrngcclrlorc thnlr in nny othcr
tttttcirr its history.Thuusruclsof w<lrdsfr<>nr
Frcnchcanre
Ittto tlre larrguagc,and mrny Olcl English orreslcft it.
At thc same tirnt: tl're langungc changed granrmatically,
tttrtittlylry becorningsimpler.The Errglishusedin this time
tr crtllcdMiddle English.
()nc way the grammargrew simplerwas by losingsome
ol' tlrc differentendingsfor nouns,adjectives,
and pronouus.
lrrr cxample,by the fifteenthcenturythe plural noun ending
.(t').swas acceptedeverywherein England, although some
lrltrralswith -en survived(cbildrenis one of them). Other
from the landowners.Many left the land and went to work
for more money in the towns. As ordinary people became
more important, their language- English - becamemore
important too. It was usedmore and more in government,
as fewer and fewer people could understand French. In
1,362,English was used for the first time at the opening
of Parliament.

tttrtrrrendingswhich havesurvivedare the \ (the boy'sbook)

nnrl the s'(the boys'books). Adjectivesand nouns also lost
f hcir grammatical gender,and the becamethe only form of
tlrc clefinitearticle.
'Ihe main changeto verbswas to the past tense.
Someof
tlrc Old Englishverbsbeganto end in -ed. For example,rhe
frrfst tenseof climb was clomb, but the word climbed also

When Henry the Fourth becameking in 1399,Englandhad

its first English-speaking
king since 1066.In the following
century English took the place of Frenchin the home, in
education,and in government.It also becamethe languageof

begirnto appear in the thirteenth century.In the fourteenth

r'cntury,most of the thousandsof verbs which had entered
tlrc languagefrom Frenchalsoformed the past tensewith -ed.
Sorrretimes
the changewent the other way,so knowed became
kttttu, but usually -ed was used. There are srill about 250

written communication so that after 1450most letters were

in English,not Latin.
English had survived- but it had changed.

'irrcgular'pasttenseverbsin English,but this is only about

lrllf the numberthat therewerein Old English.
lrr Old English there were rwo main tenses:pasr and

.tl

A I t,l, l l,' I t tr',1

t.,1r

L, ut 1' . t t , r 1 ; r '
I'1,,'I l i. t t , t t t , t t l t lt t ' li. t t v , li. ' 1,

r,ll .1
ti tl rtts.' .1
l rl l tt' t' l r' tts r' s .1 ..' r,, ' l ,,li 'tt'
l )r' ( ' s ( ' ntlr. r t \ , lit lt l l t' l rrrg l i s o
l ,t',1r , 11' 1' . . s 1r , t//,,rrr.l
tt' i l l ..\l t,tl l tn ,,l tt' i l l l rt' 1 i : tttl o l rt' rrst' tll o

rl

(1
) l tl L r r l l l i sl r ( t ) l ;)
I r , r r , l t ( l i ) r n , o r t l s v t 't y o l l t'n l t'p 1 1 1 1 1 '1

('\l ) f ' ( ' s st lr t ' lr r t v r r t' I. L tt' t' :tn .l/rr' rttc t' t' l ro (ltts
r t' tll i rl tl rt' pt' t' l t' ct

. , ', r r l ', l o t t 'r , t t t t p l r '

l t t 't t l t l t ' ( l l on r tl tt'l i n 'r r tl r p cr r p l c) tr 'p l ,r .r ''l '1
l r u r l r ' ( ( ) 1 . ) . l ', r r r s o t t t t 't i r t t t 's l r o tl r tl r t' l i t'r 'tr tl t :r n tl tl r t ( ) l tl

t('n s ( ' silt lir s t , lr r rl i n tl tt' t' n tl /t,/tt' w :ts tts .' tll i rl' P t' t' l t' r' l (' trs(' \

I r r l i l r ', l r r v , , t . . l ss t r v i v t 't l , w i t l r sr r r r r l l tl i l l ct't'r r tcs r r n r ( 'i u l r r l l s:

(rrsir r / / r r ' t ,lt , t t , t ' g o rtt' ),rrr..l

/rr' w rrsu s c tl l i r tl rr ' prtssi vr'(rtsi rr

l , , r , r , r r r r l r l t ', r . s f t ( ( ) l l ) : r n t l t l t'u r L n ttl ( l i ) , r t,<,tl ,l i tn ( ( ) l r ) r r n tl

tettst' s(rts
i l t r , , t sr lot t t ) . lir ' w rts rtl s o tts e tll i rl tl rc c ()rrti rrtr()trs
i n lt c is c ot t r ir r g) .l ' l rc s r.' tc n s cwsc rc rl ()t tts c tlv ery ol l etr rtt tl ti s

( ( ) l i , ) r r n r l so l cn 'i g tt ( l i ) . So r r r e ti r r cs l i t't'n e l r
'r , n n , t , \ t '( l r ) , A i l , q
, r , r r l , . \ v t 'l 't 'r r s c r l l i r r l i l 'c 'i r r t l r c r r l r l ) t'r 'L l ;1 * * L 's,
r r tr tl ( ) l tl l .r r g l i sl r

ti rr r c ,llut lr r t c r t lr c y w c l c rrs c rln tu c l r n r()r' c .

. , r r , , l o r 'l i l t 'i n

t l t c l o w c r c l r t sscs. l i r t'cxr r n tp l c, th c w o r r l s l i r r '

pcopl
c l r,ttl
,
W lr c n t hc r lif f c rc n t tto rtttc ttrl i ttl 3 cs l i s :t1 ' rp crtl ctl

t l r , . r r r t t r r : r l si r r t h c l i c l r l s w c l c ( ) l r l Ir r r g l i sl r ( r - o r r ,.s,
s/.,r 'r '7 r ,r r r tl

t() l) ut wor ds ir r r t p rtrti c ttl ,tro rrl c r t() c x l )rc s stl l crl tti tl l l .' l ' hc
n l ()s t c ( ) nillr < lnor c l c t' th c y trs c c lw i l s s tl l )i c c t- vcr[) - tl l l i cct.
'l 'frc y als o t t s c c lp rc 1 .t< l s i ti < l rts
fo r, c x rttrrl ' rl ci tt, tt,i tl t. rtttcl/l y,

/ , r r : , , ) l r r r t t l r c w o r d s f i r r t h c nl cr l t ( ) n tl r c tr r b l c w cr c l i r cr r cl r

i n s t c lr c of
l r r or r r rcn c l i n g s ,s () rh c e x p re s s i o ttd rges and ni htes
l rcc r t t ncby dc r yt r n d l ry n i g l tt i n Mi d rl l c F .rrg l ish.
A ll t hc s c gr : t tl trrtti c rrl c h :rrrg c sw c rc 1 ' r<l ssi blbccattsc
c
fro r r r 1066 unt il th c e n c l o f th c tw c l fth c c n tury vcry l i ttl c
wlrs writtcn in lrnglish. Thc official prrpers of thc govcrlrtl.tctlt
rrrrcltlrc (lhurclr wcre writtctr in Latir.ror Frcuch. Tl.ris rlcarrt
thrrt pc()plc were frce to ntake chatrgcs to tlrcir sp<lkcn
langur.rgcvery crsily.
If English grrlnlrrlr wrts I.t.tuchsiurplcr by the encl of the
fiftecnth ccntury, its vocabtrlary was mr-rchricher. Betwcet.t
1 1 00 ar r d 1500,ab o u t tc n th o u s rrtrcFl rc u c h w o rds w cre taken
of which arc still it.ruse. French
into English, drrce-clr.rrrrtcrs
words came ir-rto every part <lf life. The words blanket,
thir-rgs
ceiling, chair, dinner, frwit,lamlt, ttncTtablc clcscril">cd
i n t he hom e. S c ie n c ca n d th e a rts w c rc e n ri c h eclby thc i deas
afrd words dance, grdmmtr) literature, mcdicinc, music,
painting, poet, squdre, and many m()re. New worcls arrived
to cicscribe the law: crime, judge, prison, .tncl punish, for
cxirnrple. And some things it-t nature rccciveclltcw ltames:
flower, forest, mowntdin, riuer, and ocedn.

t 1 , , 'rI', t t tt t I I o l l , l t t t c l l t o r k ) .
N t r v l l n g , l i s h w o r c l s w c r c ttt,tr l c l - r o tn so tttc o l - tl tc n cw

'l'ltr I lis t or t , ol ! lt t ' I it t glis lt I . t ut gt r r t ! t '

:'l

l i l crrc h wot r ls r r lnr()s il trrttrc c l i rttc l lyi .)r c x i l l l l p l c, Il tc l l rtgl i sl r

-h ,,t " . 1 - / ir / c r r c lin g sw c t' c rtd c l c c to
l I;re ttc l tw orcl s t. tttrtkc
cc ll t I.
!(tt t ht, ltt,t tt t i fi t l, ;tnel1rc,r
A t t lr c s lullc t il l l c s c v c rrl l tl t< l tts l tttrlw < trc l srtl so ctttcrccl
l i rrglis lr f r or t t [ . r t t i tt. ' l ' h c y c rttn c fro ttt 1 ' ro o ksrtl rottt l rtw ,
n rcc lic inc ,s c ic t t c c , l i tc r:rtu rc , o r (l h ri s ti rrrri ty . ' l ' hcscl ' ro< tks
o ftcr r us c c lwor c lsw h i c h c o u l c l n ()t b c tr,ttts l a tc cilrrto Fl rrgl i sh.
Orrc t r ir ns lir t or wr ( )tc :
. . . there ys many words in Latyn that we have not proprc
English accordynge thereto.
...

thcrc are mdny l.atin u,ortls thttt tt,c do not hLtLtc

Englisb words for.

Nl i, l, I I t' I rr.q/r.s/,

ls

r,ti l ot' s l rorrr l .r,rrtl orr(;rl rout eiglr r y l<ilor r r t . t r ( .rsr wir y) . 1'h( '
u,ti l ot' srtsl < t' tl
l i rr s()nl (' cggyslr r r tshc r licl r r ot kr r ow t lr is wor t l
(rn l rer rl i :rl cct(,trs w (' r(' eyren) . 1'lr ir r l<ir rt g
lr r r rt hcy nlusr l) c
rpt' ;rki rrgrr fi rrci grrl i l n!.l ,url !.:slr
, c,c t olr l t hcr r rshc'coudc spckc
rro frcnshe' (cottl drt' t sl tctk l ;n't r L'lt ) l
Whcrr 1'rco1'rle
wr()tcrthcy usccltlrc worclsrrnrll'rrorrrrrrcirrtions
,,1 tl tci r cl i rtl ects.l ' i rr exarrrpl c ,t hc sor r r r d/ x/ ir r t hc r niclcllcof
rr" rrrcfs
w rrsspcl t.gbi rr thc s()ut h r lnclc'/ .in
r t lr c n( ) r t h, s<>niglt t
(pl onouncccl/ntxt/ l l t tl rrtt ti r r r c) coulcl bc spclt r r s r r i, qhlr lr
tti tl tt. ()nc w orcl c< l rl clhavc a nur nbcr of clif f cr cntspcllir r gs.
l l tcre w crc nr()rc thi l n rw cnty wr t ys of spcllir r glt aople ( f or
cs:rrrrplc,pepylle,puple, peeple),r'n()rctl'rrurfivc hunclrcclwrrys
ol spclling througb, nrorc rl.trursixty wrys of spclling s/rc,ancl

So translators often took the Latin word atrclmade it into an

nl rul y more vi rri i rti < l ns.

S orrret inr es
a spr ellingf r or r ror r c clialcct

En glis h one. S om e w o rd s w h i c h c a me i n to Mi ddl e E ngl i sh

Itrtssurvi ved,togcther w i th th e pr onnnciat ion f r or r an( ) t her .

from Latin at this time were: admit, history, impossible,

necessary, and pictwre. One important source of Latin words

f i rr cxanrpl e, busy i s the spelling f r om one dialect , but t hc

on lbvil is from another.
lrrorrrrrrciati

was the first translation of the Bible from Latin to English

which was made by John rVycliffe and his followers between

rvcrc spelt. The Old English letter 3 was replaced by.g, and r

1380 and 1384. They followed the Latin very closely,using

lry a. Th began to be used instead of p and 6. The Normans

many Latin words. More than a thousand Latin words appear

irrtr<rducedi and z, used A more often, and used u and u for

lroth /cil and lvl. They replaced E with gh (ligbt), cw with

for the first time in English in their translation of the Bible.

The changes to the grammar and vocabulary of Middle

l)uring this time there were changes to the ways sounds

English did not happen at the same time everywhere. The

tlu (queen), and sc with sE (ship). They used ch instead of

, (c'hurch) and ou instead of u (howse).And in many words

OId English dialects continued to develop differently from

t frcy replaced the w with an o (loue, son) . This was because

each other. The main dialects in Middle English were similar

tfte letters m, n) u) and u were all written in a similar way,

to those of Old English, but they used different words, word

nrilking words with groups of these letters difficult to read.

endings, and pronunciations. Understanding people from

lrrom the thirteenth century, English was used more and

different places, even those which were quite close, was

rrrorc in official papers, and also in literature. Much more

difficult. There is a famous description by\Jfilliam Caxton'

litcrirture has survived from this time than from the earlier

who later brought the printing machine to England, of a

tirrrc of Old English. There are songs, long poems, and

conversation in Kent between a farmer's wife and some

crplanations of Christianity and the Bible. Here is parr of a

26

I ' lt c I li s l o rt,o l l l tr l t.n y l i s l It ru tl tttt l t'

Mi ,l ,l l c l: t t ylislt

sorrgfrorr rrrorrntl122.5.
lt is rrllorrttlrc crrckoo :r [rirrltlrrrt
visitsllritlrirrirr tlrccrlrlvsunlnrcr.

Il rt' pocttt i s l rborrti r gr' oul )ol'or t lir r r t r y pcoplc wlr o jor r r r r cy

Svmeris icumenin
Lhude sing cuccu!
Growep sed and blowep med
And springp pe wde nu.
Sing cuccu!
Summc'rhas crtmcin.

27

t u t l rt' l rrrgc chrrrcl rrrt Ol rntcrbt r r yt ( ) gctller , t cll ir r ger r clrot hcr
.,tot' i cs()l l tl rc w rry.' l ' hcy rrrc r r vr r r icclgr or r l'rol: clr r r r r r ct cr s,
,rrrtl( l hrrrrccrcl cscri bcstl rcrrrcolor r r f ully.'l'hcr e is t lr c Wilt
(rvorrrrrn)
of l l ath, thc Oook, th c ( llcr k ( r rst uclcntr r t ( ) xf or cl) ,
tl rt' Man of l .aw , the S hi pnrar r ,t hc M or r k, r r nclnr r r nyot hcr s.
l rr tl rci r st()ri csl rrrclconvcrsir t ior r s,( lhauccr givcs us plcr r t y
ol tl ct:ri l si tbout tl rci r l i vcs.l ' ' <lr cx: r r nplc,
hc r r r r r kcsf un oI t hc
I' r' t' ncls;l
r okcrri n Ii ngl ancl :

Loudly sing,cuckoo!
The secdgrows and thc field comcsinkt lkttucr
And the wood comesuD now.

After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe

Sing,cuckoo!

l'or Frensh of Paris was to hir unknowe.

And Frensh she spak ful faire and fetisly,

And Frencb sbc spoke extremely heautifully

The greatestwriter in Middle EnglishwasGcoffreyChaucer

(1343-1400).
Chaucer,who livedin London, was both a poet
and an important governmentofficial.He wrote in the East
Midlands dialect (spokenby people living in the OxfordLondon-Cambridge triangle) and used many words from
French.He also usedrhyme, which was usedin Frenchand
Italian poetry.His best-knownwork, The CanterbwryTales,
written in the 1390s,beginswiih thesefamouswords:

With an dccent from Stratford-at-Bow

IJecausetbe Frencb of Paris was unknown to her.
(,ltrtucer was very good at describing people and also at
writing conversation which sounded very real. He had a great
cftcct on writers in the fifteenth century and many of them
r' opi edhi m.
Another very popular poem in the fourteenth, fifteenth,
;rrrcl sixteenth centuries was Piers Plowman 6y William

Whan that Aprill, with his shouressoote,

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licuor,
Of which vertu engendredis the flour . . .
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages . . .
When April with its sueet showers
Has piercedthe drought of March to the root
And bathed eueryuein in such liqwid
From wbich strength tbe flouer is engendered. . .
Then people long to go on pilgrimdges. . .

l,:rngland (1330-1400). In this, Langland wrote about the

tlifficulties of the poor in England, the bad customs of the
( )lrurch, and also the perfect Christian life. It was a 'dream'
lx)cm, in which the writer describes what he has seen in a
.lrcirm. This kind of poem was popular in France and Italy
;tt the time, but Langland wrote it in the way Old English
l)ocms were written. He did not use rhyme; instead in each
lirre he used severalwords that begin with the same sound.
'l'his
short piece from near the beginning of the poem shows
how he did this:

' l' lt t ' I l i s l rtrt' rtf l l tt' l i tty l i s l , l .ru trttr tr('

lli

N l i , l ,l lt' li, tul

r i sl,

I wlts wery, lirrwlrrrrlrcrl,iuxl wclrt rlc to rcstc

Anrl tlrut cornyn cng,lyssltctlurt is spokcn in olrc sltyrc

Vndcr u lrro<lcllrnkc bi a lrorncs si<le.

vrrrycth fi'<xna notlrcr . . . Ccrtaylrly it is harde to pllayse

Anrl rs I lay un<llenc<lun<lkrkcrl in lrc watcrcs,

I slornllrc<lilr a slcllyng, it swcyued so mcryc.
'l-hannc gan I rnctcn a lnerucil<luscswcucne -

cvcry rnan lly causcof . . . chaungeof hngtgc.

That I was in a wil<lerncssc,wist I ncucr whcrc.

A ttrl tl tc.()tnttt()n l ttrgl isltt lt , t t is slt okt 't tit t t t t t t 't 't 'git t t t
t,ttri (,sl r()nt (ut()!l )(' t'. . . ( i'r t , r ir t lJ,il is lt t nl ! o 1t l1', 15, q'
(' t,(' t' \t
nttul l )((drrs('()l . . . ! lt t t lt , t t t gt 'it t ! lt c lr ut gt t Lt gt '.

I r t , , t s! in, t t o f' tt,,trttl c ri n !rn td t(,(trl l () r(s!

( ,rxtol r rrrrclotl rcr pri ttfcrs cl c cir lcrtl o t t sc t lt c Lr t st M ir llr r r r r ls

[ ] t r dc r , r lt x t ttl l ttttk 1 4 ,tl tc s i d c o f' ,t l tx tok,

r t l. ot t clot t , t t t t l t t sct l
,l t,tl t' ct,rrrl ri nl y bccrtttsci t w r t s slt ol<ctit

A r r d r s I lt t y tn td l c n tc d ()tt(t' ttn dl o o k c d i rttttl l tc

l t1' l l ovcnrrrcrrt ()ffi ci l l l s.' l ' hc pr int cr s r lir l n( ) t t nr ll( c t llcit '

Ittllt(r,

wr r y,but slowly st r t t t clr r r r l

,l t' t i si orrsi n rt parti cttl l trl yorgrt r r iz. cd

I fi,ll into t slcclt, it soundcd stsltlctstrnt.

'l'hcn I ltcgrtn to drcttrt ,r trttrt,cllous dretm 'l'bat I tuds in t tt,ildt'rncss,I
did not kn<stutuhcrc.

tpt' l l i rrgs cl cvcl opccl .H < l w cvcr ,af t cr t lr is t ir r r c, t lr c sot t r t cls

nr nrar)y w orcl s ch:urgcclor rlisr t ppcr r r ct l.As r t t 'cst t lt ,t lr er c
t lr r r t ar c spclt ir t t hc wr t y t hr t t
,u(' rr()w th< l usancl sof w < > rcls

Al l poc nr swer c wr i ttc n t() b c rc l rc lo u t t() o th c r pc< l pl c,so thc

tl rcy w crc pronoutrcccl

rrr (,exti rrr' s ti rne. For

s<lurrcls
of the worcls wcrc vcry ir.rrportirnt.

r' \i rtl tl )l c, tl tc l cttcr ft i l r

A c iif f er entk ind o f c l e v e l o p n re nitn th e fo u rt eenth century

A rrcc, the l cttcr w tt.t

wirs the growing use <>ffantily nalrles. People began to r-reecl

t(' r(,rtu.i ur(.lrhc l ettcr / i rr

these as they moved away from their villagc or as their village

t u I d were pror.rounced
r r'<

grew larger. Sometimes dre family name had the father's

,rt thi s ti me.

narne (Johnson), as in Arrglo-Saxon times. Other nalnes

l l y tl ,e end of the

showed where a person lived (Rizers, HiLl), or his town

(Burton, Milton), his country (French,Holland), or his work

lil tccnth century English

(Cook, Fisher). A person's farnily narne could change five or

hy thousandsof peopl e.

si x t im es dur ing h i s l i fe ti me .

l n the next century i r

In the fifteenth cerrtury a machine was brought to Englarrd

\vrls startilli to be read

wrrsread by many more,

which had a gre:rt effcct on English. This was the printing

,rrrrl used by the great

ma c hine, whic h W i l l i a m C a x to n b ro u g h t to Lor-rdon i n

strrrof English literature

1 4 76. S uddenly it w a s p o s s i b l e to p ro d u c e thousands of

W i l l i am S hakespeare.

co pies of book s . B u t w h a t w o rd s a n d s p e l l i ngs shoul d be

u sed?Cax t on wr o te :

A pri nti ngpress

M r ttlrr tt Ii,nyli sb I x'gi tts

t0

6 ModernEngtish
begins
Th c s ix t ec nt lr c c n tu ry w l l s i l ti n rc o f c l rrrrrgcsi n F)trropc.
Ettrol' r c : ut bc
s g: r nt o c x p l o rc th c Arrrc ri c u s ,As i rr,arrclA fri cl r,

ltrd lcrrnitrg irr nll irrcirsflowcrccl.

ln Engllrrcl,thc Englishlirnguirgc
grew irt order tr> exprcssir lirrgc
nunrt'rer
of rrewiclcas.
At the beginningof the sixteenth
century Latin was the langr.rage
of
learningin all of Europe,and it was
seenas richerthan Englishand the
other spokenEuropeanlanguages.
However, with the growth of
education, the introduction of
printing, and the new interest in
learning, this began to change.
More and more people wanted to
read books by Roman and Greek
writers, and in England they
wanted to read them in English.
So these books were translated,
and other books about learning
were written in English.Using English meant that a writer
could reachmore people,as one sixteenth-centuryprinter
explainedto a writer who preferredLatin:
Though, sir, your book be wise and firll of learning,
yet. . . it will not be so saleable.

tl

Ffirwcvcr,tIc irccepfittrcc9f ['lrrglis[ ,ts it lrtttgttrtgc1f lcitrrtilg

W ttBn()t c< l rrrpl ctettrtti l tl rc ct t cl of t lr c scvct t t ccllt hccllt t lr y'
F,errexi rnrpl c, i n l 6fi 7 l sni rc Ncwt ot t clt osc l. it t ir l wlr cr r lr e
( ) pt it 'ks
w rotc fri s I' ri nci pi a, btrt fi ftcct r yer r r slr r t cr he wr ot c

in lirrglish.
centurics,writcrs
l)urirrg tlrc sixtcclrthirnclscvcrrtcerrth
irbout 30,000worclsfronr nlrout fifty
irr linglish l-rorrowccl
ncw thitrgsanclidc:rs'About
ntnirrlyfo clcscribc
Irtttguagcs,
lrrrlf of these words rrc still usecltodiry.This vcry largc
growth of vocirlrulitrywlrsthe miritrchangcin Englishlt this
titrrc.Thc new wordscamemainlyfrom Latin; f<rrcxanrple,
exltlain,fact. Other important sotlrces
leslterate, expensiue,
filr new words were French,Italian, Greek, Spanish,and
Itrrtuguese.Arrd as the Europeanstravelledto m<>rcand
rrroreplaces,so words came into English from America,
Africa, and Asia. For examplechocolateand tomato came
fr<rmMexic o; banana from Africa , coffeefrom Turke5 and
(drAllanfrom Persia.
Not everyone liked this borrowing of words. Some
and hard
thought that the strangewords were unnecessary
to understand.English could expresseverythingquite well
without them and the writers wereonly showinghow much
l-atin they knew.One man, Sir John Cheke'wrote in 1557:
I am of this opinion that our own tung shold be written
cleane. . . unmixt. . . with borowing of other tunges'
I think we should write our own languagewithout
borrowing words from other languagesBut the borrowing continued, and the new words which
survivedslowly lost their strangeness.
New words were also added to English in other ways'
People were adventurous with language: they used verbs

].1

I ltt' I lts t ot t , t t l t l, t ' l. t t t lt t l,

. t t r 1lt t , r y , '

N l tt r l t 'r r t I i tt g l i sl t I tt'g itt s

tl

,l ttt' i ttg l ri s l i l t' ri tttt' ntt' ;tnt t lr r r t lr is plr r ys lr r r r l r r v( 'r 'y llf r 'ill
t' l l t' ct ott l l rrgl i sh.
W l rcrr l rl i zrrl rctl r tl rc'l i i l st dic't lir r 160. 1slr c lcl't r r o clr ilt lr t . r r ,
sr, l ret' corrsi rr,K i ng.fl rrrrcs t lt c Sixt lr ol'scot lr r r r r l, becrrrr r t .
l si ng .frrrrrcstl rc I;i rst ol ' l l nglr r r r r l. I r r l( r 04 t lr c r r ew liir r g
.,r' cl eretl
rr trrrnsl rrti orrol :tl rc lliblc int o l, ) r glislr . 'l'hclc wer e
tnruty rl i ffcrent l rrrgl i sh trru r slr r t ior r sof t hc lliblc r t r r t l lr r '
w i l ntccl to l rrrvcorrc rrrri rr trt r r r slir t ion.lt wr r s nr r r r lclr y lil't yl i rttr trl utsl atorsw h< l w orl < cclt ogct lr cr ir r sr r r r r llgr or r ps,r r sir r g
okl cr rrnttsl i rti or.rs
rl s tl l ci r gu idc.
' I' hc trrrtrsl rrt< l cl
rsi clrrot follow Slr t r l<cspcr r r c's
cxlr r r r plclr nr l
tttrtkcttcw w orcl s;i nstcaclthc y r r scclolcl or r cs,cvcn ( ) ncst llr lt
w crc ()ut oF cl rrte()r w crc bcc<lr nilt gunt r sulll. I . ir r cxar nplc,

as nourls (laugha,ndinuitc), or nourls as vcrbs,or made

adjectivcsfrorn nouns (shadyfr<>rn
shade).Or thcy put two
words tollether (chairman), or they added new parts to
words; un- to comfortable,for example.
The ageof Qr-reen
Elizabeththe First (Queenof England
1558-1603)wasone of a greatflowcringof literature.There
werethe poetsSpenserand Sidney,aud the writers of plays
Marlowe,Jonson,and,of course,William Shakespeare.
(1564-1616)
Slrakespeare
is consideredthe greatestwriter
of plays.He expressedhis understandir-rg
of human nature
in extraordinarilyrich languagein his playsand poems.He
had the largestvocabularyof any Englishwriter and made
about two thousand new words, and a large number of
expressionswhich are now part of Modern English. For
example,he wrote: it'searlydays(it'stoo soonto know what
will bappen);tongwe-tied(unableto speakbecawse
you are
shy);the long and tbe short of it (all that needsto be said
about sometbing); loue is bLind. His sLrccess
and fame

tlrey r.rscdye instcacl of you lrs a sr.rbjcctpr()u()ul'I,rrnclthc

"ctb cndingf<rr verbs it.rsteacl
of -s. Thcy did rrot r.rseirs nlrlny
tliffcrent worcls as Shakespcarceither: he hacl uscd twcnty
thousand and they onl y use d eight t housand. They air ned
to make the lar-rguagesouud likc poetry when it was read
orrt and usually they succeeded.Here is a short piece from a
tcitchir-rgof Jesusas an example:
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you,
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you . . . That ye may be the children
of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh the
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
on thejust and on the unjust.
' l ' he K i ng
James B i bl e appear cclin l6ll r r ncl wr r s r cir cl ir r
churcheseverywherein Englancl,Sc<ltlrrncl,
arrclWrlcs f<rrthc
rrcxt three hundred years. It was als<lrcacl irr 1'rco1'rlc's
lronrcs
rrrrdtaught at school , and for m auy pcoplc it was t hc <lnly

M rt,lt'r t t I it tgl i sl t I t t 'git ts

t5

witsth('t'rttlirrgol thc'tlrirtlllcrsrlrrsirrgrrlrrl
in tlrc l)rcs('nt
tcttsc.lly l7(X)the -//.rwrtsrto lottgcrrrscrllrrrcl,rll vcrbstor,l<
.s;firr exittultlelotrylltwrlsrr<lw/olr,s.

Il ,

fi

,tf/

t,

Th e K ingJ am esB ib te

book that they read again and agair-r.

As a result,it had an

!l

l)rorr<lrrrrs
lrlsochangccl
rr littlc. lrr 1.5(X)
tlrc worclsvr,rrrrtl
l,()r,wcrc uscclirr tlrc slurrcwily ils /.rcrrrrclltirrt,butby l7(X)
'f,r'lrrtclclisrtppcrtrccl
.'l'bou rrrrcl/fcc wcrc ills()rrscrlinstcrrrl
ol:you to clrilclrcrr
or pc<lplcwh<lwcrc lcssinrgrortrult
thrln
yottrself,but thcscrtlsoclisrrpl'rcrrrccl
irr nr;rrryclirrlccts
irr tlrc
scvcl'rtccnth
ccntury.
Also clurirrgtlris tinrc, tlrc worrl i/s rcplrrcccl
/.risto tirll<
itbouttlrirrgswithout gcrrclcr.
Thc lcg of rrchrrirwrrsrr<lwl/s
/rg rr<rtbis lcg.
C-har-rges
it.tprotruttciiltion
werccontinuallytrrkingplrrcc.
From the middle of the fifteerrthcentllry the scven lor.rg
vowels began to change.For example,in Chaucer'stime
tfrc word for life was pronounced/li:f/ and this becarne

important effecton the Englishlanguage.Many expressions

from it becamepart of the language;for example,tbe apple
of somebody'seye (a person who is loued uery mwch by
somebody);by tbe skin of yowr teetb (yowonly just manage

llefl and then lla:d.l by the eighteenthcentury. Similar

clrangeshappenedto howse,which was /hu:s/ in Chaucer's

to do sometbing);the salt of the earth (a uerybonestperson);

the straigbtand narrow (an honestway of liuing).Its poetry
had a great effecton many Englishwriters in the centuries

Soundsin some other worclsdisirppearecl;

for example
the lkl and the lwl at the begirrningctfknee and write were
f<rst.The pronunciationof ltl in castleand the lU in would
:rlsodisappeared.
The big growth in vocabulary and the flowering of
literature happened when England was quite peaceful.

that followed.
During the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies there
weresomegrammaticalchangesto English,althoughnot as
many as thosethat had happenedto Middle English.People
beganto use do with a main verb.For example,you could
sayI know not or I do not know. You could sayI know or I
do knou. And you could sayknow you?or do yow know? In
the seventeenfh
century,peoplebeganto useI know,I do not
know, and do you know? more often. Another verb change

time. After two changes,it finally arrived at its modern

pronunciation/haus/.

However,in the middle of the seventeenthcentury this peace

was destroyed,and the changesthat followed had some
interestingeffectson the language.

l6

l l ri ttyi tty ttrt lcr ! t t lt , nglislt

A l l rl rcsc cl t,tttl l cs nrrl (lc l) c( ) l') lcwr slr t ir r or r lcr r t nt l

rcg,rrl rrri ty
i rr thci r l i ves,rrrrtlsor r r cpcoplc ir lso wlr r r t eclnr ot 'r . '
'l'lr c gr cr r tgr owt lt it t r t cw wor cls
t' r' grrl i tri tyi n thci r' l rrrrgrrrrl l c.

B ringingo rder
to EngLish

l/

l rr.tw ccrr1.5.]0rrrrcl1660 - rhc f ir st cst ir r t lr c hist or y of t lr c

l .urgrri rgc- l ri rcll cft pcopl c u r r ccr f air r .Wlr r r t wr r s hr r ppcr r ir r g
l o thc l rrrrguagc?l f s() nl rl rry f r lr cign lr r r clncwly- t r r r r clc
w<lr cls
(' ()nti nr,rccl
to c()nl c i rrt< li t, w o ulcl it r cr r r : r irlinglish?
r

(lharlcs thc First, thc s<lrrof .farrrcstlrc l"irst, wrls r'rot:l

rrr king, rrrrclin 1642wrrr bcgrrnlretweerrthosc wh<r
1'r<rprrf
wrrltcclhint to l'rekirrgirnclthoscwh<>
cliclrrot.ln 1649he was
killcd, anclErrglirrrcl,
Wrlcs,rrrrcl
Scotlarrcl
rcrrlirrcclwithout
:r kirrguntil 1660,whcu his sou Charlcsthe Scconcl
rcturlrccl
to Englarrc|.
Charlesthc Sccorrildic'din l6U5anclhis lrrothcr
But Jamesthe Secondwas so
Jamesbccarneking in 16t15.
uu-rpopular
that in 1688he left Englandand was replacedby
his daughterMary and her husbandWilliam of Orange.

S ottrc pcol ' rl c i n F} rgl arrclwar r t ccl t ( ) cr cr lt c r r r r of f icir r l

orgi ttti z.i rti ott
to corttrol thc F) r r glishlir r t gt r it gc,sir r r ilit rt o t lr c
A eci rcl crl i rrcl cl l a (l ruscn w hiclr hir cl bccr r st ilr t ccl in lt aly ir r
l,5ll2,aucl thc Acircl6nricFriruqiriscwlriclr hircl lrccrrstrrrtcclill
l i ri urcci n 1635.Orre of tl rcscpcoplc wr ls t lr c wr it cr . for r at lr ir r r
Swift, wl-r<rirr 1712 wr<>tc A Proposirl f<rr (iorrecting,
I rrrgrr<rvirrg,
arrclAsccrtairrirrgthe Euglish Tirngue' (ascartain
hcrc rneans 79x). S w i ft di s liked spelling chaugcs, ncwly
w<-rrds,
the habit of shorterrir.rgwords, and 'bad'
l'irshi<lnable
grrlrnmar. He warrted a group of people to 'fix' the lauguage
hy rnaki ng grammar rul es, making list s of wor ds dr at wer e
irtcorrect, and deciding on correct spellings.
The idea never succeeded, pirrtly becausc othcr preople
rcal i zed that change i n a l anguage was unavoiclable.But it
rnirde people think about thc rrccclf<rr cvery<lncto use the
srrnrespelling and grammar. As a result, diffcrent spelling
g,uides,dictionaries, and grammar books began to appear.
Although printing had brought some regularity into
spclling, many variations had remained in the sixteenth
ccntury, even for personal names. For example, there are
six known examples of Shakespeare'sname that he wrote
hirnself, and in each one he spelt his name differently. People
ruscdtheir own spellings, which usually showed their own
pronunciation. Other variations were introduced to show
that words came from Latin. For example, the letter o was

,rtt

'l'heI Iislory of' tlte l;,ntr1lish

Ldn!!,urttt'

put ilrto paopla, thc lcttcr /., irrto doubt, irrrcltlrc lcttcr c'
into sc'issors,
bccausctlrc l,ntirr w<lrclspopulus, dubitarc,
ntcl cisorium lrrcl tlrcsclcttcrs.And cliffererrt spcllirrgswcrc
givcttt<rworclslike sonnc (rrnralcchild) rrrrclsunnc (thc strrr
that givcslight) which sourrdcdthc slrlc lrut haclcliffcrcrrt
trrciurirrgs.
ln thc crrcl,tlris frccclclrrr
to clrirrrgcspcllirrgslccl
to c<lrrfusiorr.
Irr thc scvcntecnthcerltury,pcoplc wantcd t<l cnd this
confusiorl,and the appearance
of the firstEnglishdictionaries
skrwly ['rror"rght
about more regularity in spelling.Durir-rg
the eighteenthcentury,ways of spellingthat differedfrorn
these dictionaries were seen as incorrect and a sign of
stupidity or a bad education.Even today,many peopledo
not like making spellingmistakes,and often use the spellchecktool on their computers.
Dictionaries were not unknown before the seventeenth
century, but they were Latin-English ones. The first
English-Englishdictionary appearedin1604 and was written
by a schoolteachercalled Robert Cawdrey. It was called
A Table Alphabeticall and was a list of about 2,500 'hard
vsuall English wordes' with explanationsof their meaning
and sometimeswhich languagethey had come from - French
(fr) or Greek (gr). Here are some examplesof the words in
the Table:
(fr) accomplish, finish,or make an end of;
barbarian, a rude person;
eclipse(gr), a failing of the light of the sunneor
moone;
obsolete,olde, past date,growneout of vseor
custome;
A Table Alphabeticall became very popular and similar

dictionariesfollowed. In the eighteenthcentury dictionary

writers began explaining more ordinary words, not just
r.lifficultones.
ht 1746 a group of booksellersasked a young writer
called SamuelJohnson to prepare an English dictionary.
.fohnsonworked on this dictionary for nine years,with the
hclp of six other people.For threeyearshe readthe works of
hundredsof Englishwriters and found examplesfor words
irt the dictionary.Then he beganto write the meaningsof the
words.He chose'hard'wordsbut also many ordinary ones.
When Johnson's A Dictionary of tbe English Language
irppearedin 1755it was an immediatesuccess.
It explained
more than 42,000words, and as well as the meaningof each
word, it gavethe pronunciation and history of the word, and
sometimeshow it was used. A 'cant' word was used only
by one group; a 'low' word was informal and not suitable
frlr writing. Johnson gaveas many different meaningsof a
word as he could (thereare 66 for take).He very often gave
rtn examplefrom literature to show how the word was used.
ln fact, there are about 114,000examplesin the dictionary,

' l' lt c I l i s l o rt, o l tl tt' Ii ,n g l i s hL tu t!u tt!t'

40

rtrr r lt lr c y llr e il v c ly l l rrg ,cp l rrt o f i t. M< l s t o l tl r crrrconrc frorrr

l i tc r ilt r r r c wr it t c n b c rw c c tr 1 .5 6 0rrrrd 1 6 6 0 .
Hc r c nr e s ( ) nlce x l l n l l rl c so f w o rc l si rrrcth
l c i r nrcrrrri ngs
fronr
r ' ic
s t ion trtt:
.f<rlr r r s < r r l)
to brilrblc Tir chclt: 1lcrlr'rtworcl.
t o nab lnalt lt d, Sw c c l i s h .l T i r c a tc h u r' l c x p cucdl y;r()
sciz,cwitlrout wirnrirrg. A worcl sclcl<lrrr
usccllrut in
low lrrrrgulgc.
w6man lwifman, wimmdn, Sirxorr;wlrcnce wc ycr
pr ( ) nounc cw ()l ' n c ni n th e p l u rn l , w i m m c n.l The
f em ale < > ft h e h u rl l u ri rc e .
That man uho bcrthd tonguc is no man,
lf with his tonguc hc cannot win d wom(tn,
Shakespeare.
y6llowboy

A gold coin. A very low word.

--F--;..---1[
/ixa /,.t:."., ,

AR Y

DICTION

LANGUAGD:

ENGLI SH
T | l. Wo RDs

ftd G

rF dd r d

O llClNAl' S'

. n,
i U. D I FFI T! Nt

rllut f nit4 D

uxlNtL IS
A

Ar

IiNGLISH
tt

ft
of f t

I I I SToRY

XVIL

t lc ! r t lO ^t r oNl

lVllac ll
l, ANG uAG q

G RAM M AXTO I I { 3O S

f,B

'.',

,I

To bubble and yellowboy have

both disappearedfrom English,
but to nab has survived,with this
meaning. It is still an informal
word.
The dictionary wasnot perfect:
someof Johnson'sexplanations
were harder to understand
than the words themselves,
some expressed his personal
opinions, and some words were
not listed becausehe disliked
them. Also he could not fit in
all his examples,so words at
the er-rdof the dictionary have
fewerexamplesthan thoseat the

l )ri ngi ng rt nler lt t I t nglislt

4t

lrt'girrrrirrlg.
l lowever',
it rcrnninecl
thc rrrostirnp()rtrlnt
llrrglislr
tlictiorrrrryin llritrrirrf<rrrnorctlrirrrrrccntury.
I lclp with spcllingcrrrrrcfrorrr clictionirrics;
lrclp with
'['lrcrc
grrululrar clrrnc frorrr 'grlrrlrrrrars'.
hircl bccrr ir fcw
griulllnilrboolcsin thc sixtecntlrirrrdscvclrtcclrtlr
ccr.rturics.
lrrrtirr thc sccorrcl
hrrlfof thc cightccnthccrrturya vcry lrrrgc
rrrrrrrbcr
suclclerrly
ltr'rpcarecl.
M:rny of thcnr t<>ldthe rc:rder
how to writc arrd speirk'corrcctly',which rcally mclnt
lr()w t() use larrguirgeirr the sanrewiry as in serionspieces
of literature.Tlrey were written for the rich, irnd irimeclt<l
sltow the differer-rce
betweenthe r.rpperand lower classes.
'l'hcy werewidely usedbecausepeoplewantedto show that
tlrcy wereeducated.
The writers of these grammar books consideredthat
thc grammar of much spoken languageand of regional
diirlects(especially
Scots)waswrong. They believedthat the
Brirmmarof Englishshouldbe the sameasthat of Latin. For
example,they thought that a sentence
shouldnot end with a
prepositionbecausethis did not happenin Latin. So it would
lrc correct to sayI lik-etbe town in wbicb I liue,but not I like
the town which I liue in.
The two most widely usedgrammar books were Robert
l-<rwth's Short lntroduction to English Grammar which
appearedin 1762,and Lindley Murray's English Grammar
of 1795.Thesebooks had a great effecton people'sviews
of grammar in the nineteenth and twentieth centuriesand
still have some effect today. Some people believethat there
is only one 'correct' way of saying things, and argue, for
cxample, about whether it is correct to say different to or
different from. As a result, many first-languagespeakersof
linglish think that the way they speakand write is incorrecr
rrnd are ashamedof it. The opposite view - that all ways of

+4

l' lt r I lis to rt, o f' tl tt Itttg l i s l tIru tl ttrt!,r,

firr cxittttplc,ltilot(1907)wrrsfirstrrscdto nlcillrtltc l)crson

wlto dit'cctstlrc path of slrips,iln(l (',,ssr//(,(1960)
rrsc.lfrr
tllcilr'r
rl snlillll)()x.Aborrt.5pcr ccrrrof rrewworrlshtvc c<lrnc
fr<rtttf<rrcigrr
lrrrrgtrirgcs,
likc r/isc'o(1964)tronr Frcnch,irrrcl
t).1.5)
fronr ltrrlirrrr.Arrclrr fcw worclslr,rvccorrrcfrorrr
ltizzt (l
thc ttrttrtes
<lf tlrirrgswc lruy ()r usc:f<lrcxirurplc,ttt l4oogle
(lc)99)fronr (ior.,g/(,'l'M,
tlrc popular lrrtcrrrctscrrrclrcngirrc,
lrtclpotlcut (2ffi4). This worcl,rr)ciuringir rccorcliugthrrt you
crlngct fronr thc lrrtcrnctarrclplay ol'lyortr c()lt.lputcr,
coutcs
fr<rrrr
ll'r;dG),tlrc popul:rrntusicplitycr,ttrrdbroaelcast.
Bcginningsor cnclingshirvc bccrr ecldedto Inrlkc r.lcw
words: disinfttrmation(1955)is false irrforlrr:rtion;touchyfcely (1972)describespcoplc who expresstheir feclingsto<r
openly.Sometirnes
both a beginningand an endinghavebeen
added:fnr example, unputdownable(1.947)
describesa book
which is so interestingthat you cannotstop readingit. Some
words havebeen shortened:pboto (1860)for pbotograph,
plane (1,908)for aeroplane, and TV (1948) for teleuision.

f)o one realizedat the beginningexactlyhowbig. A Scotsman

calledJamesMurray was appointedas the directorof work
()nthe dictionaryin1.879,andthe plan wasto finishthe job in

Somewords haveput togethersoundsfrom two other words:

for examplemotel (1925),a hotel for car drivers,is made
from motor and hotel. Only a very few new words havenot

tcn years.Murray organizeda verylargereadingprogramme:

hundredsof peoplesent him examplesof how words were
used.After five years,the first part of the dictionary was
completed, but it only went from A to ANT Everyone
rcalizedthat the job was going to take a lot longer than ten

beenmadefrom other words.Two examplesare nylon (1938)

to describea man-madematerial,andflip-flop (1970),atype
of shoethat makesa noiseas you walk.
The growth in vocabularyis clear when we look at the
making of the Oxford Englisb Dictionary (OED) in the
nineteenthand twentiethcenturies.This dictionarycontains
all Englishwords since 1150,eventhosethat are no longer
used.It shows,with examples,when eachword was first used
in writing and how the meaningof a word haschangedover
the centuries.
Finding all this information was a very big job, although

years;in fact, it took anotherforty-four. Sadly,Murray did

not live to seeits completion:he died in 1915,agedseventycight, while he was working on the letter U. However, he
knew that he had helpedto makea dictionary which would
givea detailedhistory of the Englishlanguage.
The first OED was completed in 1.928and explained the
with
wordsand expressions,
meaningand history of 41.4,800
cxamplesfrom literatureand other writing. The secondOED,
the meaningsof 615,100words,
completedin1989,explained

M t xl a r tt ltu gl i sh g,'o,{,.s

47

'l'lt cscilt 'ct llc

rl rc gi vcttrtsw cll it s lllit islr ot t cs.
l rrorrunci i tti t)ns
l i rst cl ri rrrgcsto Mrrrrrty' sw or k sit t cct lr c f ir st ( ) lil) r r ppcr r r ccl
i rr l 92tt.' l ' l rc w ork ()n tl ' rc thir cl ( ) lil) , bcgut t ir r 199. 1,will
probrbl y fi rri shi n 20l tl .
'l'hc ()Ijt) lrirs lrlrcl il grcrlt cffcct ott ottr knowlcdgc rrttcl
of Fl ngl i sl r.l t lr nsgivct tus it lot of iuf or t r r it t i<lt t
rrrrcl crsti rncl i ng,
itbout thc history of worcls ltttcl cxprcssiottsltttcl hrrs hclpccl
t,rsturclcrstltnclh<lw lirtrguirgcchltttl4csovcr titltc.
The wrry clictiottitries itrc tnrrclc hrrs bcett chnrrgccl lry
c()rnputcrs.There arc now cxt r ct ncly lar gc collcct iot t s of
cxnmpl cs of E rrgl i sh w orks ( ) r "rconTput cr t hir t clict iot r ar y
writers cAn use. They can look tlrrouglr drcse tor exanrples
of words and see how they are used, lnd thcy can use the
Irrternet to search for words. They can also ask readers all
over the world to send examples to a website, which mealts
that they can get words from a very wide variety of places.
J a mesMurrayand
the first OED

Information about informal words and slang, for example, is

now much easier to find becauseof the Internet. And when
lr dictionary is written, it can be kept on computer and put

although many of these- perhaps20 per cent - are no longer

used.It showshow the words were or are usedand has 2.5
million examplesfrom all kinds of books. It containssome
scientificwords and words from North America, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, the Caribbean, India, and

<ln a website.

Pakistan,but not all scientificor regionalwords in English.

The second OED went online in 2000, and every three
months new material is added to this online dictionary,
as part of the writing of the third OED. At the samerime

reach extremely large numbers of people. Television and

For about the past hur-rdred years llew words have been
able to travel fast around the English-speakir-rgworld because
of the telephone, newspapers, radio, television, films, pop
music, and the Internet. These ways of communication can
radio have also influenced pronunciation.
In the 1920sthe British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
chose an accent for all its speakersto use on the radio. This

work is continuingon the words and meaningsalreadyin

the dictionary,and changesare madeif necessary.
For some

was the accent of the educated: people in government, at

words there are more details of their history to add, or

earlieror later examples.North American and other regional

as' R ecei vedP ronunci ati on' or 'RP', or 't he King's English'.

the universities, in the army, and the Church. It was known

The use of RP on radio and later on television meant that

-le

I ' lt t 'I I is to rt' o l tl tt' Ittry ,l i s lLt ru t!u trft,

h I t , , l t ' t 't t I '.tt y.li :l t.q ,r ,,r '.(

trro rcpc opll' lr c ; r r t l i t rrrrtltl ro rrl i l rttl rrrt i t w rrstl r r' i l (' e(' rrttl rrl t
so ci r r llyit r r por t r r ntp c o p l c rrs c tl .l t w l l s n ()l l rc c cptrrIrl c' l ()
us('

lir t 't 'xlt t llplt ':

i l l so ust' gr()ul )sol l cttct' sl i rt sot t t t 't 'xpr t 'ssiot t s.
lt lt; l
/rr/ trc' ;ttts l tttgl ti try rttt! l tttt t l; / , r / t t 't t t c': t t t s14,1lr , ' 11', 11,

str()r t llr c gionlr lir c c c rrl so rt tr' l r.' v i s i o lnrrrrlrl rrl i o ,o r i rr tr' rrcl ri ng

y( ) t lcot t l. l scc ilt r t clt r t t r oot t t

. t' trtc' tlccs
fr'('
f i l fl s l tc l tttk /rtl r' r' S

rtttclg ov c r t t t nc nt . ll o w c v c t' , i rr tl re l 9 (r0 ss o c i l rlt l i ffcl cnccs i rr

( )r ( )r'rll r)tcsslrF,c
['rortrtl lt t'c:

4ll

l l ri tl rir r bc glr r rt o l' rre rrlc<l o w rr,rrn c lrc g i o rrrtll tc corts bcci urrc
l l l ()t' cr lc c el) t r r blcc v ery w h c rc . A rrc l rl s th c rrrrrrrl rcrof rrrcl i < r
i tn clt c lc v is it ) r rl) r ( ) g ri l n u n c sl .r,r' c qn l ()r' cl )c ()l )l cw i tl r cl i ffcrcrrt
rl ccc r ' r t slt , t c l t < l bc c tttp l < l y c c l .' l i l c l a yIl l ) i s n o l ongcr,rrr
(rrot
i n rp ( ) r t ilnt r lc c c nt: t ttc lttr< l sct c l rrc rrtc cplc o p rl ci rr h)ngl rrrrci

r u afryt? (A n' vort tl l ri gl tt / )

i m good thx O (/' rrr goo,l , llt alr ks)
duz nel know how 2 make carrot cake? (/)or's dtt\t()tt(
knott, l trttu l o rntkc (drr ( ) l cukc?)

Sc<l t lr ur c W
l, r lc s , o r N o rtl rc rn Irc l a rrc l )rro w s l l cal <l r l < i rrcl< l f

by
l )co1' l lrtl
c sousc si rrri l rrrl l trtgtt agcwhcr t t lr cy sct t clt t t cssr t gcs

I{l ) whic h hr r ss or lrco f th c i r rc g i o n a l rrc c c n ti n ir. l c' l cvi si orr

pl rorrc.For cxatttpl c:

h rrsr r ls ot nir c lcs < lr rrcrc g i o n l rl c l i l rl c c tsp o 1 ' ru l l rrF<

. l rexarnl ' l l c,
y()u c r llr t t ow lt c : t r p rrrtso f th c c l i a l c c tc rtl l c c l i s tuary Ii rrgl i sh,
wh i c h is f r or r r Lou c l o n rrrrc lth c s o u th -e i rs t o f E ngl urcl , i rr
rrrrny ot lr c r p: r r t s o f E n g l a rrc l .(Sc c C h rrp tc r 10 f< l r rl orc
rrl'ror"r
t cli irlects.)
The biggcst tcchnologicirl developnrelrt ilr reccnt ycars
is, of course, thc Internet. People cAn llow cornrnunicate in
writing ()n their websites,through e-mail, on messageboards,
irnd in chat rooms. The Internet has had a nlrmber of effects
ou Euglish. Firstly, new words l-ravel-reenmade to describe
the Irrterrretitself and its activities; for example, cyberspace
(1982), e-mail (1982), website (1993), and blog (1.999).Or
luew meanings have been given to <lld words; for example,
link (1951), chat (19tt5),uirtual (1987), and surf (1992).
Secorrclly,people have clevelopeda uew inf<rrmal way of
writing in chat rooms ar.rdor-rnressagebolrds. Marry users
sh o rt en a lot of wo rd s , u s i n g j u s t s i n g l e l e tte rs or numbers,
and ofterr they clo not Llsecapital lettcrs or rruch punctuatiol-r.
Many Lrsetheir owrr spellings,or spcllings tlrat are often used
i n ch at r oom s . S om e p e o p l c a l s o u s c s n ri l c y s(l i ttl e pi cturesof
taceswith differer-rtexpressions)to show how they feel. They

I lr st t '
thx 4 ur msg. H ow r u? (' l ' bm ks f it r lt sr t r nt cssr r gc.
you?)
are
im fine. c u @ work (l'm fina. Scc yott trl tuork.)
A fter l cl rni ng the rul cs < l f wr it t ct t Elt glish r r t school, t lr r t ly
breaking d-rc
1'rcopleare lrow crrioyirrgplrrying with langr-rage:
ol d rul es and maki ng new ones.

50

Itttgl i sltit t t lt r ll, \

Engtish
in th eUS

5l

' l ' l re Al- r icr t r t slr r t r l t o livc ir r t t 'r r iblc

to A tttcri ert i n l (r 19,
r' ontl i ti ons cl rrri ttgtl tc l ott13s cil v( ) yir llciit t t cl t t t r t r t yt lir l r t ot
rrrrvi ve. I' l ri s i rrl rurnxn l )usilr csswr ls ct r cleclit t lu0t t , bt r t
pcopl c w crc i l l l ()w cd to owt t sllt vcs ur t t il t lr c cr r r l of t hc
A rncri carr(l i vi l W rr i rr l ti 6.5.lly t hat t it t t c t hcr e wcr c nr ( ) r c

'Flrrglarrtl
rrrrclAnrcricrlrlrc tw() cotrntricsscprrrrrtccl
['rythc
srtttrclnngurlgc,'wrotc (icorgc llernrrrclShaw in 1942.Is
tlris truc toclrry?l)o Arrrcricrrrrs
s1'rcrrk
rr cliffcrcrrtkirrclof
Irnglishfrorrr thc llritish? lf so, wlry? Ancl why ckr thcy
spcakFirrglish
rt all?
Til rrnswcrthc l:rst(luesti()nwc r'r'rust
go l'rirckt<lthc yerrr
1607,whcrr rr gr()up of English pcoplc srrilcclircrossrhe
Atllntic irrrclrcirchecl
the eastcoirstof Arrerica. They callecl
their scttlcnrent.Jlurrest<lwr.r,
ilfter King Jrmcs the First irncl
they callcclthat part of the country Virgirria.They werenor
the firstEnglishpeoplein America:in 1585and 1587people

tl rrrn4 nri l l i orr A fri crrns l i vi rrg ir t Anr er icr t .

l )rrri ng thc scvcrrtccnthl l nclcight ccnt lrcct t t t t r icst t t <lr cllt t cl
scrrt
rrrorcpc<lplclrrrivcclirt Atttcricrr.'Ihc llritish g()vcr'r'rr'rlcrlt
pri sorrcrsto A nrcri crr l rs a pr r uislr t t t ct t t ,r t t t clot lr cr sct t lcr s
;rrrivcclfrorn Frirncc,(icrurrruy, thc (iariblrcittr, :ttrclthc nortlr
of Ircl:rrtcl.Thc pcoplc frorrt the north of Irclrtttclwcrc callccl
tlrc Scots-lrish (l'rcciruscthcir fanrilies hrrclInovcclto lrclitttcl
(1776),
By tlrc yerrrof Atrericrrrrirrclcpcncletrce
frorrrSc<rtlirncl).
i rl rout orre i n sevensettl ersi n Am er icl was Scot s- lr ish.
In the nir.reteenthceutury, lirrge r.mn.rbcrsof people left
lrcland, Germany, Italy, and other European c<-runtriesfor

had tried to settleon the islandof Roanoke,in what is now

North Carolina.They werenot the first Europeansto settle
in Americaeither:the Spanishhad livedin Floridasince1565.
But the peopleof Jamestownwerethe first successful
English
settlers,and they werefollowedby other Englishadventurers
who alsosettledin Virginia.
Then in 1620 more English settlers landed north of
Virginia, in what became Massachusetts,New England.
These were the people from the ship called the Mayflower,
who came becausethey wanted to follow a different kind
of Christianityfrom the kind in England.Others followed,
and by 1640 about 25,000 English people were living in
New England.
At this time, sailors from Englarrdand other European
countries were taking Africans to America and selling
them as slaves.The first twenty African slaveswerebrought

A map of V i rgi ni a,1612

I t r , 'l r '. 1 u
' t l l ,, l l \

,\rrrt rr,.r. Nl.rrn rrcr t lt us llor r r ( t nlr . ll . r r r t l l . r s l r . l t I u t ( ) l ) ( .

li\ l()(X) tlrt rt n ( l( ' \ lt lllr ' r r |t ' , , I lr ' lr r r nr ' , r lr , \ r r r , . r r , . r . l r r

1 , . 1 . t t t l r l ( , ( , '1 , . t r r ( l l l t , ' t , . t ttt,'. l i t,,,,kl l tt ( l t.ttt

tllr' l.ttt I l).rtl ol lltI lr r t r r ll( lll ( r ' t r lUt \ l) ( ( ) l) lt l| r , t r r , \ s r . r . r r r , l

S lt,rrrislr sl)(.lliin l', ( ( ) lu) t r r t s . r ls r , . r r lr r ' , , l, . r r r , l
l r t . ) . 0 0 0r l r u t '

, 'l i t s l ) r r l t l r

\\' (l( n r()r'( lltiln lfi O r r r illr t ) n l) ( ( ) l) l( in, \ lt r t r r . . r .

l , r t r 1 ', t t , t 1 , . ,fr, , t , r . t t t t 1 , l , ', t t ) ( ) l :tt' l l g ttt l ) ttl tl t,,

r\tttt'ti.:rrr l.rrLil is lr . l, r ' . ' 1, , 1r . ' . 1ll. r r r t lr . l, r r r 1i r r . r r l . .u. .r r ', . 1l r r

l l l 't'r r kt'l yl r ) '

I l . u l t r r r ( l l : r : r r l t 'r r r ) , . t t t , l l l t t l i t,,tr r ( l l l o r r cl <'s) .l l ( l ( l l l l l l ( l ( l \

l r t l ', r r r t t t t t l '. s .( ) tt.l sl t,r r .r l l i

1 , , , r 'r ', , r v t t lt t , , t , l ,

tl l ,

l r r r '.l r tl r stl l l tt:

l , r 'l l t i t r t ', s ( ) t l ) ( ( ) l ) l ( l tttl tt t,l l r tt

I l l l '.|t.1 ;1

t'tt! .ttt\l tl tttt( '

t lrt' st tlillt lt r)l p1 'opl1. l lr t lir s t li, r r glis lrs t l l lt . r 'sr r r r r r r t ', l i , r r t . l r

I t , , t t r l 't t 't t t l t , 1 t l , r: , r l t , l t t 5 | '.ttti sl l . l l r .' st tl l t't s .tl so l r t l '. ttl l r t

1 , . i v ts' o t t r r ' , , 1 . 1l l , , t . l , l t t u t t tt.ttti ttg s: l ,t- t r .ttttPl t /'l // Itt tl ,r r r

tlistoit't't'<l ilnin l:lls , lr ir t ls , ; r r r r l Pl: r r r t s ll) ir t w( r ' ( n ( '\ \ , 1 ( )l l ) ( 'r ) r ,

t {) f l ) ( r l f l , l l t i l '11 ' o f

,urt l u'lr.lr

rr.'t'.lt'r l n; lnlr ' s r r r I : r r ulis lr . Sor r r t ' lir r r t 's t l r t 's ( '( t l ( 'r 's

l t , t l t t 't l t t ( ) tt( '\'.:ttttl i t n 'p l :tt ctl ttttl t'S o n t t ' t ', r t 't l s l t - o t t t l l t t ' l i , t r g l i sl r o l l l r t' st'\( 'l l l ( 't l l l l t .t'l tl tttt

usctl li,n glislr u,o lc ls ( lor t ' r r r r r r Plt ' lt l, r , l< lt it t l lir ' : r l r i r t l t l r : r t

s t t t - " 'i v t 'i t t A t t t t 't 'i t r l l r l . r r g l i s l r Itttt,tt- . l l ( ) t l l s( '( l tto w i tt l i ;i ti sl r

lo,,littl

i !- ttttl Ir tl l tt, ///r /( / l l l ( 'i l l l i l ) 1 1

f i . r r g f i s f r . f i r t ' t 'r r t t t t p l r ', / , t / / r r r t'r r r rtr
, n r e t \ t , r t t t t l . q o l l r 'r r r l s t l l c l ) r lst l ) r l r ti e i Pl t o l ''g ,( 't'( :l s i tt Ytttr t'

sitrril:rr to t lr c li, r r qlis lr blr r c k lr inl) . Sor r r t 'li r r r r . s r h t . \ '

tll:l( l('r)('\\'u,o rtls

l' l' or l ot lr t ' r lt nglis lt r v or ' . 1s , l i , l 'c r r r n r p l t .

It,r,l<rlo o,ls (,t lort,s t r t , it lt f i, r t , 1t t ' olt lt ) , ; t n, , l lt lr r t 'u r , r - s .(s, r A l r r /

' l' lr r . y
()/ r,i/.s.\rritlt lilttt,- , qr ' ( ' ( ,l(
u ' , n' ( ' s ) .
r r ls o r r : r nr t . t lt l r o t r s r r r r r l s

, l i t r r r tr' l t , ts g o t t t ' t r t 'tt l t l ) .

ol.P lrrccs rrrrtl ril,cr s r r s ir r s wor t ls f lor r

irr Moclcrn

t lr c lr ur l i r r : r g c s o l 't l r r .

S o t t t c o f t l r c p l t t t t t t t t c i : t t i o r r o f tl r c l i r st scttl cr s r l l so sttt'r "tr r t's

A t r t c l i c r t t t l t r t g l isl r .'l 'l r cy

p r o l to tl ttcc.l

tl r c,r

irr

l\ rt orttrtc.'l'lrc Sp lr r r is lr r t r r r l lir c r r c h c or r t r ' ollc r l s( ) n r c l ) r l t 't s ( ) f

( ) l tl y l ) cg ,r l l lt( )
. q , . ( / s/-isc / . r s i l t / r 1 l / , b c c r t t t s c t hc l o r l g /tt:/ so ttr r cl
[ , c t r s c c l i r r s t c r r c l<>fl t c l i r t F - r tg l e l ttl i r r th c ci g h tccl l tl l ccl l tl 'l r y.

tlrc co urrtrv un fil thc r r it r c r c c nt h c c nt ur ) , r s ( ) s ( ) ulc p l e c c r r l r r r r c s

'I 'h i s

ilre ir()n l Iircn clt (lil< c l) c t r oit , St l. ot r is , r r nc l I llino i s ) r r n c ls o r r r c

A n r c r i c r r t t s r t l s o p r <l t r o t l l t c c th c r i l t th c cr l tl tl f w o r cl s ( f<r r

lrlorr r Sp rrrrislr (lill'c l. os Angc lc s , Sr r n Fr r r nc is c o , r r n c l S r r n t r r

c x r u r p l c c r fl ') e t t c l b c f o r c r l c( ) l l s( ) l tr l l l t ( fo r cr :l r r r p l c /r ,r l r l ) r r s

lf c). Ncw Vrrl< wrr s f ir s t Nc w Ar r r s t c r c lr r nr , unt i l t h c l r r r g l i s h

thc crrrly scttlcrs clicl.

N rr t ivc A nrcricrrrrs ; li r r c x : r r n plc , Nr lr r s s r r c ht r s c t t s , M i s s i s s ip p i ,

A rriving in America:
E ngtish settte rs

D u tc he x o to re rs

Af r ic an s l a v e s

s h o r t / l c / i s p . r r t o f A r t t c r i cr ttl p r ( ) l l tl l l ci r tti o tl to cl r ty'.M o st

Germani mmi grants

Ital ianim m igr ant s

Jewish
im m iqr ant s

56

I ' lt t I lisl o rt, o l tl tc l i ,ttg l i s l tL tu tl tttt! t'

lirr cxittttlrlc,((nlt't',tolor, lr'ttl!r,lt',,1t,/,

Sorrrcol' lris othcr
srtggcstions
wcrc n()t tirllowccl:soolt(xtttlt),ltrad (ltn,tl),
lttd ttrctlicirt
Wc[rstcr
rrlsoirrtlrrcncctl
Qtraditiuc).tirl cxrrnrl'rlc.
()f ir worcl
pltrt
Antcricrtnllrottttttcirttiott
by srtyirtg
tltrrtclrch
fntfstl)c clcrrrlypr()n()Liltcc(l:
f<rrcxrrtttplc,
sr,-r'rr,-/tl-t'lt
t|<tt
sL'-(
rc-lry .
So wltittarc thc cliffcrcnccs
bctwccrrArrrcricrrrr
lrrrclllritislr
pronunciation,
lrnglishtoclny?
As wcll rtscliffcrcnccs
in
thcrc
irrc s()r'r'rc
srrrlrllcliffcrenccs
irr grilr'r'r.nilr
irnclspclling.llut thc
tttrriucliffcrcnccis irr vocirbulrrry.
Tl-rousrrncls
of worc]sirrc
rusecl
cliffcrcrrtly.
Firstly,c'liffcrcntworclslrrc sor'r.rctirrrcs
usccl
in Amcricar.r
anclBritishErrglish
to trrlkaboutthe samething.
For cxamplc, the strect-levelfloor of a buildirrg is called
the first floor in Arrerican Errglish,and the ground flo<;rin
British English.Yru drive on the freewayir-rthe US, but on
themotorwayin Britairr.
There are also different expressionsin American and
British English.For example,the American expressions/o
drop the ball (to make d mistake),to be in the chips (to
suddenlybauea lot of money), and to go sowth(to become
lessualuable)are not usedin British English.Similarlymany
British expressions
are not part of AmericanEnglish.
SomeBritishpeopledislikethe effectof AmericanEnglish
on British English, but this has not stoppedthousandsof
American words entering British English and becoming
completelyaccepted;for example,OK (1840),supermarket
(1933),teenager(1,941),and fast food (1.951).
Although therearecleardifferencesbetweenthe American
and British varietiesof English,television,music,films, and
more recentlythe Internet havehelpedpeople on both sides
of the Atlantic to understandeach other's English more
easily.

10 A tt k i n d so f E n g L is h
I'nr gitnclrcl<l<ln
thc toorrtlrc day.(/'rrtvoirtoittlo!ott'tt
t odty. North-errstcrn
Flnglir
ncl)
l)innir farshyourscl, (l)on't upsctyourscl[.(]crrtrrrl:rrrcl
SouthcrrrScotlancl)
They work hard, isn't it? ('l'hcywork hard, don't thcy?
Wales)
I'm afterseeinghim. (1'ueiust sccnhim.lrclancl)
((:ome bcrc eucryonclSouthcrrrLjS)
Y'alf comel1r-rst,
It's a beaut!(lt's wonder,fzl/Australia)
Shesing real good. (Shesingsuery well. Jamaica)
I am not knowing.(I don't know.lndia)
Make you no min am. (Takeno noticeof himlher.
Nigeria)
All over the world, people speakingEnglish as a first or
second languageuse different vocabulary,grammar, and
accentsin a largenumberof varietiesof English.A varietyof
Englishis a type of Englishspokenby one group of people.
h-reachEnglish-speaking
country one variety of English is
usednationally.This is the 'StandardEnglish'of that counrry.
It is taught in schoolsand spokenon radio and television.
Everyonein the country usesthe samegrammar,vocabulary,
and spellingwhen they usetheir country'sStandardEnglish,
though they may speakit with different accenrs.Different
countrieshave different StandardEnglishes.For example,
Standard Australian English is different from Standard
BritishEnglish.

5tl

r\l l ki tt, lst t l lit r ylisl,

I'ltr I lis t or t , ol llt t ' I it t glis lt I t t t t lt t r t |:, '

l rr llr r glr t r r t l,r t s w c l l rts St:tn tl rtt' tll l rrtrs l r l l rrg l i sl rl l tr" rr"rtt' t'

w fri r' l rS t;tntl :rrtll i ,rrp,l i sll r;rs

r lost : lir l t 'xr r r r r plt , llt r t ; r nt l llt t , r r
l ot' t,ott si rrg,rrl ;rr.
Motl t' rrr tli: r lt . c't sr t lso r r scgr ilnunir r t hr r t is

rcg i or r r r rl t t t r ls oc ir t ltl i rtl c ' c tso l ' l rrrg l i s l r.'l ' l tc ttto st tto(i ecrtbl r.'
A w el l rl i l 'l ' r ' r ' c r r cbc
c st wc c t t tl tc ttt rtt' ctl to s eo l l ' rro ttttttci rl ti orr.

,.fi l l ' crcrrtl :rorrrS trrrrtl rrrtll l rrglish: I t lot t '! u'd, t ! , t ( ) , lir t t t r r ( l

l l ttl rc v o w c l ,l i l t w ol cl s l i l < c
l <rrowt tr lif f c r c r t c ei s tl tc s o rrttc o

< l rtrt' ltutttt!(nty (l i nn(' r),l l tcnt lt <t oks( llt ost ' / r oo/ r . s)slt
, c t t it t 't

l l s /t;t' ttl s/,rtrrcli l r thc

g ,'(/s s lr
. t t lr c s ot t t lr .q rr/s si s l )r()tl ()ttl l c c (l

, ortrc (sl tc l trsrt' l cotrrr' ).A rr clir r sor r r cclir r lcct sy( ) ung peoplc

v o w c l l t i tt w < trc l sl i l < crtp i s prottottttcccl

n o rtlr r r s/ c ; r ' ir : s / . ' l ' l rc

usc l l uri l i rtt tl rc crrclof rr sc r r t cncc.li<lrcxr r nr plc,Nor l I t 'r ll

sttrt t' tl l i ng you l l ttl , i rtni l ? ( ct n't I ?) , We r t ea, l ! o e( ) t t ou) ,

l / i rr th c rrrl rtl r. l tt s tttttcparts of thc

/,rp / in t hc s < lr r t ltr r rtc/ttp
rtttcl irl tltc
n<>rtltlttltlt} is Prtltt<lttttceclrts /hrcpr/ or /ltiu1'rc/,
is p ro tto ttttc e cllrs /n i l t/.
rr<rr t f r - c r t snigbt
t
l n F . s t ur t r yF . n g l i s l r,w h rc h l tc g a rr i tt tl rc sotttl t-cttst< l f

i nni tl (don' t tua?)

A l l cl i al cctsl rl rvcsorttcw rl rclslr nclcx1'r r cssions,
bot h olcl r r ncl
rtcw ,tl rrrt rtrc cl i ffercrrtfrorrr St r r r r clr r rl'lt
t l r glislr l,
. ir r cxlr r r r plc,

c l th c s r tttc w l l y rrsi l l
Fl rrg lit nd,s ot r t cs otttrc l sl l rc p r()l t()t.trtc ci rt
Oo ck nc y - t hc c lia l c c to f F h s t [.o ttc l o tt.T h c /t/ i rr thc rl i cl cl l c

l utty (a pi ct' t' ofl tratd tnd b ut lcr ) hr r sbccn uscr lir r t lr c r r or t h

ancl at tlrc cncl of worcls clisapl'rcars;so thc w<>rclltctter

cotttc i r.rrcccntl y t< l Oockrrcy ir r [ - onclonf r <lr r rl] cr r gali.

bec<rnrcs/bc')o/rrncltl.reworcl rubfil'tcc<tn'rcs/wn')/./0/ bec<lnles

lll

bccorncs lvl, s<t tbink

arrd i6i

of L,rrgl l nclsi rrcc fl rc rri rrctccr r t hccr r t ur y; nr lr g ( . goot / )hr r s

Outsi dc E ttgl ancl ,i n S co t lr r ncl,! f l: r lcs,Nor t hcr n lr clr r ncl,
:trrclthe R epLrbl i cof l rcl and, t her e ar e ot hcr var ict ies of

/mn v a /. T h i s c l i a l c c t has bccot.uc

lrnglish. Scots is very differcnt from StarrdardBritish English

- nore so than any other British variety. There are many

popular alrlolrgyoulrg people becausc

clifferencesin pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.Some

bccon.rcs/frr1k/lnd mother bcconrcs

o f ri rd i o a n c lte l e v i s i o n .
Ma n y

n e w Bri ti s h di al ects arc

developing.

People

C a ri b b e a n , In d i a ,

from

the

Paki stan, and

Wullie Managcd

To Mind Tho Baim,

But In Mindin' The Rc$ He Wsna

Spaifin,.

Eastern Europe have settled in the

b i g c i ti e s i n B ri ta i u . Y oung peopl c
frorn these iroupsuse sorle of their
own languageswith the local dialect,
their frier-rdscopy them, ar-rdin this
way they make a new dialect.
There
g ra mma r

are also differences irt

b e tw e en

the

di al ects.

Some of the older dialects from thc

conntryside use grammatical forms

An exampteof Scots

'l' lt c I I i s l rtrt,o l ' l l tr l tttg l i s l tl ,rtn !u rtft'

A l l ki tt,l st t l lt , r t glisl. t

Sto ts v oe: r hr r lr r ly
is rrl s orrs c tli tr rro l th c rrrl ,rrg l i sl rrl i rrl cets(l i rr

' l ' l tc thrt' r' tl l i l i rr t' (' gi ()ttrttli:

l t lt 'ct s ol'At t t t 'r it ': t lr l'lllglislr

60

cxrttr r lr f c ,lt , r ir t t lor c l ti l rl tn d /rl .r.s

l i rr' ,q i l ), b u t rr vcry l rrr.gr.
) c l i s tc c li rr o rrc [l ro l < ) l rrc rrscclorrl y
trrl rr lr c r ' ofwor c ls( 2 0 ,(XXrrl
i rt Scot s .
'l ' lr c I ' . r r glis hs po k c rr i n Wrl c s rrl s o h rrs i ts
o w rr chrrrrrctcr.
'l 'h c v oic c r is c s r r nrl frrl l si rr rr w rry
w l ri c l r i s s i rn il rrrto W cl sh,

6l

i u' c N ()r' tl rcrrr, Mi tl l rttttl , rtl t t l Sot t t lr cr lt . 'l'lt csc slr ow t hc

nr()vcntcnt0l ' scttl ct' strl tl rt' W cst . Sct t lcr sl'r ot t l Ncw llr lgl: r r r t l
t lr osel'r ot t lt lt c
i rr tl rc ttortl t-cl tsttttovcdl )i rsrt lt c ( ir cr t t l, r t l<cs;
nri cl cl l cof tl rc crl st corl st l ttovcclt hr <t t t glrt hc lr t iclt llcof t hc
c()r.urtl yirrncltl tosc i tt tl rc sottt lt wcllt it lollg t hc c<lr t stt ( ) t hc

l trtclt hc r c r lr c s ( ) nl c w rl rc l si trrc lc x p rc s s i o rrsw h i ch l rrtvcbccrr

soutl t. []ccrtuscthc Mi cl l artclclialcctis s1'r okct( )l vcrt llc lr t r gcst

[r<lrrowcclfrorn Wclsh. S<lrrrctirncs

w<lrclorclcr is chlrngcclt<r
g i vc s < r r r r c t hing
lr r o rc i n l p ()rtrl n c c ;f< l r c x rrrn p l c,Orct! l bost'
arc! ('l'hosc trc grcat!)

t his clir r lect

rrrcrt,rtncl l ry pcrl raps tw o-thir cls of t lr c 1'r co1'r lc,
i s thc bcst l cttow ttoutsi cl cA ttt cr ica, r t t r t lis s( ) luct illlcsct lllccl

In Nortlrcrrr lrcl:rrrcl, Scots hlts lrtcl a grcirr cffcct ()lt

En g l is h bc c aus c lr rrg c rru rrrb c rs< l f s c ttl c rs c l u r.l cto l rcl l ncl
fr<>rlScotlrrnclirr thc scvcntecuth ccntury. F<>rcxanrplc, l.acc
(a Scots worcl rlrcilrring little) is usccl. lrr tl-rc Rcpr-rblicof

' (i crrcral A trtcri ci tt' t' .

A fri catt-A nrcri ci ur Il ngl i sl r, <lr [ ] lack lir lglislr , wr t s bor t r
bctwccn tlrc scvctrtccrrth rrlrcl trirrctcctttl.rcctrturics, wllcll
of pcoplc fr<lrrrWcst Africa wcrc brottght to Atrrcricir
rrrilli<lrrs
rrrrdthe Caribbeirrr to work as slavesott largc farnls gr<lwing

h a d t he r nos t ef f e c t o rr E rrg l i s h . Ga c l i c i s s til l spoken i u

cotton and sugirr. Thc slave buyers alrd thc Africltt slaves
communi catcd on thc sl aveships ilt pidgin English - a sir nple

th e wes t of I r c lan d a n d th c d i a l c c ts o f En gl i sh i r-r thi s

kind of English tlrat allowcd speakersof differcnt languages

part of the courrtry show its effect more strongly than

o th er s . F or ex am p l e , p e o p l e s a y 1 s i t c o l d y o u are? (A re

to communicirtc with cach other. Wherr the Africans arrived

i n A meri ca and thc C i rri hbca r rt hey cont ir r uedt o nse pidgin

you cold?) or He's after doingthat (He's just done that).The

E ngl i sh both w i th the sl avc () wncr s and wit h each ot hcr , as

Irish English spoken on radio ar-rdtelevision is closer to

they often spoke different African languirges. Later, this

Sta ndar d B r it is h E n g l i s h .

pidgin English developed into a creole language when the

Ircl i r t r c l,G ac lic ir r rc d

l i rl e c ts fro n r th e w c s t o f E ngl anclhavc

From the seventeenthceutury onwards, regional varieties

slaves' children and grandchildren started to use it as their

of English were taken to North America, the Caribbean,

first language. African-American English probably developed

from this creole. Today African-American English has some

Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and Asia, and they can

still be heard ir-rthe varieties of English in rhese places. For
example, in some dialects of American English there are
many similarities to Irish English in pronunciation and some
in grammar. Youse which means you plural comes from

grammatical differencesfrom American English; for example,

she come (she's coming), lou crazy (you're crazy), twenty

Irish English, and so doesanymore in positive sentences(for

cent \twenty cents).

French, Dutch, Spanish, and PortugLlesecrcoles have also
had a big effect on the English of the Caribbean. (Other

example, They liue here anymore which is Tbey liue here now

influences have been local languages and Hirrdi spoken by

i rr Br it is h E nglis h) .

settlers fr6m India.) In the Caribbean today there are a

6.1

t\l l ki ttl s t t l l; t r glisl. t

I ' lt t I listo r,t,o f tl tt, l t,tty l i s ll,,tn tg n rt! t,

l rt'g . t t nt lr t ' r , l

I lr r g l i s l rr' rr' .l c s , rrsw t' l l rrsl .r' rrl vru' i t.ti csrl

Strtn rlr t r tlinglis

l
lr . [ :rc l r r' rc rl r' l rrrsrr rl i fti ' rc n t v ()crrl )ul rl ry,
l )ut
tl tci r gr r r r lr nilr r ul( l p r,rrrrre i rrri ()ni l rc s i rrri l l rr.l i.r cxrrrrrP l c,
tl rc'rcis , lc f t > rt lt t , t i rtg f< > rl l ti n g , rrn drrs fi rr,r.s ft.I l crc i s prtr.t
.f rr 1 ' r , c r rin.
r f r r r r lr i c :rrr(l rc .l c l ry l ,.tri s c l ]c rrrc t t. l t rs cl rl l ccl
'No l r l. ic k lc ' lwr r ng! ' (' N o r l .i v e rra t,i ttl c A c c c n r!' ). l rr i t. thc
p o ct c or nl' r lr r inst hr r t l rc l s o rr l ra s c o n rc b rrc l <fro nr A nrcri crr
wi tl ro t r t lr r A nr c r ic l u l rl c c c n t:

Flf you wirnt plctrschirn meck hinr tink

Yuh bring birck sonrctingncw
Yuh alwayscall him 'Pa'discvcnin'
Wcn him come scy 'P<lo'.
lf you want to pleasebim lyour
fatberl makc bim tbink
You'uebrought back somethingnew.
You alwayscall bim'l'a'; this
euewng
When be comessay 'Poo'.
The Englishof Canadais similar to both
American and British English. It usessome British words
and someAmericanones.For example,Canadiansfill their
carswith gas (AmericanEnglish)but ask for the bill (British
English).They often add eh? to rhe end of a sentence.For
example,lt's cold, eb?The pronunciationof CanadianEnglish
is very closeto that of AmericanEnglish,but one difference
is the pronunciationof laa/, which Canadianspronounceas
le<s/in somewords.So the word about soundslike aboat.
Australian English has developed from a number of
varietiesof English.Most of the 130,000prisonerssenrro
Australiabetween1788and 1840,and the'free sertlers'who
joined them, came from the south and east of England,

()t

S cotl rurtl , rtttrl l t' t' l ;ttttl . I' l rc vt , wt 'ls it r At t st lr r lir r r lllr r glislr
st,trttl si ttri l l tr to tl tost' i tt ( , ot l<r r cy ( lir r cxr t t t r plc, / or / , lt '
r t essiot t s
l t lt t t 'Ar t st t r t lir tcxpr
sol l cl s si rl i l l tr to l { l ) /o r/l r,)rr r r t st
Allt cr icr t t t
l'lr
r
glish.
rl rc I' rrl ttt l l ri ti sh, l t' i sh, rrrrtl At t r cl'iet t t t
w .,r.l s rl rc sti l t' ti tl g t9 l ' rcttsct l lll( ) r c lls lt t 'cst t lt1f At r t cl'iclr r l
Sont c w<t r clsf or pllt t t t slt t t t l
l i l urs trrrcltcl cvi si rtrtl )r()gl ' rl l t lt lt cs.
Irni ttti tl s,tttt{ rrrttttypl l tC cttl tt t t cs,hlt vccol. llcf r or r t Abt lr igit llt l
ls
l l tttgul tgcs.' l ' l rcrc rl t' c ttl l l tl y vcr y ct llt lr t t 'f t ll cx1'r r cssi<t tilt
A trstrrtfi atrI' .rrgl i sh;fot' cxrttr t l'r lct <t lt c t s f ull t s t I t t t t t l ( ! t t
l tc t,cr)tdrunk),l i rst i n,l test t lr csst 't l( t lr c lir st lt t 't t lt lc t t s dt t
xntcthing, tt,ill hat,c tn nlutntdgc), L'rtuldn't lie stnrigbt in
lrcd (to bc ucry disbonast).
N ew Zel l ancl E rrgl i sl r tn cl Sot t t h Af r icar r E, nglish havc
some sirrrilirritiesto Anstrirliau English in their pr()lll.lllciati()11
becauseall three coLltrtrieswere settleclby English speakers
irt irbout the san-retir-ne.Each variety has small prot-tuncii'tti9n
differences,thor-rgh,and its owll vocabulary.In New Zealancl
English there irre words from Maori, and in South African
E ngl i sh there are w ords f r om Af r ikaar ls ir nd Af r icar r
languages.
Other countries were also governed by the British in the
r-rineteenthand twentieth centuries; for example, India,
Singapore,Nigeria, Kenya' Papua New Guinea. Others were
governed by the US: the Philippines and Puerto Rico. In many
of these countries English is an official language, although
it is not most people's first language' In these countries' the
local languages and their regional dialects have an effect on
and use of English,
the pronunciation, grammar' vocabr.rlary,
and new varieties of English develop' These are sometimes
called 'New Englishes'. They have not been studied very
deeply, or for very long, so it is difficult to get a clear picture
of each variety. However, people are collecting information

()'l

(r5

I ltt' I 1 it 1, , ,r , r t l t lt t l; t t y lis lt ! . r t t t r r t r t t " t ,

i rl )()utt lt t ' s t ' t t c ' wv ilr i (' ti c srrn tls trrtl y i rr!ltl l c n l , s o i rr l ' ul rl ' t.w t.
wi l l l < r r ownl( ) r e il[ ) ()u tt l l c n l .
Itr t lt e r t c wc s t v r u ' i c ti c so f l l rrg l i s h , w o l tl s l r( )nt rl l l ()tl l cr

rut

J arg o na n ds la n g

l i trl l i uilgc ir r c v er y o l ' tc rr trs c rl w i th l i rrg l i s h o rrcs.' l ' l rcsc

vi l ri ct ic s lr r c of t c r r l 3 i v c rr:rrrru s i n lrrrrrl
-g c s . l i l r cxrrrrrl tl c,i rr
tl rc I iS s ont c S pr r r r i s lsr p c rrl < c l s p c rrk ' s p rrrrg l i sh'w hi cl r rrscs
l i rrg ,l is hr t t t c lS pr r r ri s hw o rc l s i rr th c s i l l n c s c n tc rrcc.l ,} rgl i sl r

.frtrgott rrrrdsl rtrrgrtrc l < i rrc lsof l: t r glislr t lt ilt ilr c n( ) t l) r lr t ( ) l:

S trrrrcl rrrcl
H ngl i sh..frrrgorri s t hc clif f ict r ltor st r r r r r llclr r r r gr r r r l. r , c

wo rcl sr t r c bot ' r owc c lrrrrcgl i v c n Sp l rrri s l sr o u n c l sl r nclspcl l i ng,

rrsccll ry i l gr()ul ) < l f pcopl c t o clcscr ibct hir r gs t lr r r t t hc r cst

srrcl rir s pt t r quin ( pt r k i n g ). Otl rc r c x a rrrl ' rl cosf th csc vrl ri cti cs

of tts cl o n()t kn()w rrl ' rotrt.lir r cxr r nr ple,cloct r lr s,lr r wycr s,

a re 'S inglis lr ' ir r S in g rrp o rc ,' H i n g l i s l r' i rr l rrc l i a (H i ncl i ancl

tttri vcrsi tytcl rchcrs,arrclbus ir r cssnlilnr lgcr slt ll r r scwor clslr r r cl

l 'i n g l i s h) , : r r r c l ' - hgl i s h ' i rr th c l )h i l i p p i rrc s (Tagal og ancl

cxprcssi onsthi rt thc rcst of us clo r r ot ur r clcr st r r ncl.

In brrsi ncss,sorrrc of tl ris jr r r g<lnc( ) nr csf r or r r t lr e wor lcl

F}rg l is h) .
All drcsc virrictics<lf Errglish,frorrr courrtricswhcrc Englislr

< l f thc Il rtcrtrct. F< l r cxi rrl l 'r lc, if you r r r c in a big r r r cct ir r g

is nscclcithcr as rr first langulgc ()r rs ir scconcllrrrrguirge,rrc

w i th sor.ncorre
arrclthcy sug gcst cliscussir r gsol. nct lr ingwit h

usccltr<lrc aucl rnorc by writers arrclfiln.r-nrakers.lrr this wiry,

yoLt oftline, d.rey ntealt thcy want to talk to y()u privatcly

lrrter. Othcr lrlarlagement jargor.ris n<lt fronr tlrc w<lrlci of

ma n y us c r s o[ E ngl i s h a re a b l e to h c a r a n d rc a d more tharr

their own varicty ar.rclwords alld expressionscan cross from
o n e v ar iet y t o anot h e r.

c()11-rputers.
For exarnple, a manager could ask you: 'Wh:rt
coul d you bri ng to the tab lc if you got t his job? Cir r r you
tl ri nk outsi de the box?' Thi s m eans, ''Whatcould you giue t o
owr team? Can yow think in unusual wdys to find answers to
ltroblems?'
There is also a lot of jargon ir.r sports that is only
understood by people who do these sports. For example,
if you are not a mountain biker, you will prohably not
know what a bwnny hop is. (It is a jump that mounrain bikers
make when they come off the ground with both wheels.
Bunny is an informal word for rabbit, a small animal that
jumps a lot.) People use jargon becausethey need to describe
very detailed things or ideas and the rest of us have to rry
and understand it.

A si g nin ' S pangt is h'

Slang is an extremely informal kind of language - much

more informal than jargon. It is usually only spoken; jargon

I r tt l t t tl ,l l l r l

sl r l tty

fl

l9(X)s;
irr 1920il lrre,rrrrt
tiRltt(ol'clothcs)rrntlin rlrt,1970sir
lllcrlnt,t ltil rtrtlt'.
'l'ltc slrrrrp,
ttscrl[ry Al'licrrrr-Arrrclicrrrr
rrrrrsicirrrrs
lrrrslrlrrl
ir lllcrlt cffcctorr llritish slrrrrgsincctlrc SccorrtlWorlrl Wrr.
'l'lriscffccthirsgrowrrlcccntlyrrsArrreric'lrrrrlrp rnrrsicwith
its frrstspol<crr
rhyurcshrrsl'tccorrre
populrrrrrrounrltlrc worlcl.
Worclsfrorrrthc LIScrrnnow rcrtclrllrirairrirr wcckstlrrorrgh
f lrc Itrtcrttctarrdtclcvision.l.or cxltnrplc,Ltttt(s()nt(1
tt,icketl,
',tncl
bad (rtrcaning
t'xt'cllent)hrrvcbccnwiclclyrrsccll'ryyoulrll

is oftcn writterrirswcll as spoken.Slangusually['relongs

to
a groLlpof peoplewho use it to show thartthey belong to
thirt group - anclthat othersdo not. Sometimesthey neecl
lernguage
that otherswill not understand.For example,youni
people
people,
in prison,and peoplein the army all havetheir
own kindsof slar-rg.
Slangis colourful,funny,and oftencruel.
It givesus rlew words for things we already have words for
(for example,rock up for arriue).Jargon,on the other hand,
often givesus new words for new things or ideas.
Most slangchangesquite quickly,becausethe peoplewho
useit needto makenew words to keepconfusingoutsiders.
But some slang lasts longer: pig for policeman has been
used since1800.Other words becomepart of the informal
language.For example, row, meaning noisy argument,
was slang in Britain in the eighteenthcentury.Some slang
words becomepart of StandardEnglish.For example,joke,
meaningsomethingtbatsomeonesaysto makepeoplelawgh,
was a slangword at the end of the seventeenth
century Other
slangwords changetheir meaningovertime. For example,in
AnrericanEnglishpreuiousmeant arriuing too soon in the

in Ilritrrin lrut tlrcy wcrc first uscclin tlrc tlS.

1-rcoplc
Mrrty slrrtrg
worclsshowdrrrtyou likc or clislil<c
s()lllcthing.
F<rrexrrtnplc,irr Britisl-r
slarrg/zsb nlelursloucly,Ikxtm!nlcilns
the uery ltast, trnclminging nrciulsbad. ln Britnirr a stupi.l
personis calleda diu,it'rthe US 'adummy, irr Ar-rstralia
a dil/
or a boofhead.A pretty bLrtstupid girl is a bimbo in Brit:rin
and the US,a boring persollis a dweebin the US,a lazy rnan
is a bludgerin Australia.A good-lookingpersonis spunkyin
Australiaor bwffin thc US and Britain.
The basicthingsiu life rrreoften giveuslangworcls:f<roci
is
grubin Britain and tl-rcLIS(a worclthat hirsbccrruseclsince
the seventeenth
century) ancltuckcr in Austrrrlilr;nroncy is
uonga or doughin Britain,graenor m<tolabin thc US.Tl-rere
arealsomanywordsfor havingno money,beingdrurrk,being
sick, crimesand criminals,the police,and differentparts o[
the body.
Australiansarevery proud of their slangand often useit. It
hasmany shortenedwords:for example,aruo for afternoon,
Aussie for Australian, brekkie for breahfast,and swnniesfor
sunglasses.The Cockneys of East London are also proud
of their 'rhyming slang' which is now widely ursed.In this
slang,part of the slangexpressionrhymeswith the word in
StandardEnglish. For example:gardenplant meansAunt,

(rt l

12 Thefut u r eo f E n g t is h
'lt's go<lcltlrat cvcrything'sgonc,cxccpttlrcir lirrrguirgc,
which is cvcrytlring.'
(l)crck Wrlcott, 'North rrrclSouth', l9ll2)
'. . . wc no longcr control Englishin any mcirningfulwiry.
It is no longerour ship,but the sc:r.'
(AnclrcwMarr, l99fi)
Thc Jamaiciurpoct DcrckWalcottknowsthat Euglishis still
usedin cor.rntries
that weregovernecllry Britairr;the British
journalistAndrew Marr recogrrizcs
that Englishdoes t.rot
jr.rst
belong
t<>the British or Amcricarrs,but to the whole
world. English cor.rtir-rucs
to be used l'ry speakersof other
languagesall over tlre worlcl, rrrrclto bc changedby drose
languages.
But how will this siturrtionchrngcin the future?
plates of meat means feet, bread and honey means money . lt
can become more difficult to understand when the rhyming
word is not used. For exampl e, I need some bread means
I need some money. Today most new rhyming slang uses
famous names. For example, Britney Spears means beers.
Rhyming slang is also used in Australia and the US.
New slang words are always appearing and disappearing.
Some words are used only by the small groups that made
them, others become part of national or international
slang, and others cross into ordinary spoken language.
lrr this way, slang is an important source of new words in
Sta ndar d E nglis h.

Irr Britail.r,the US, Carrrrcla,

Anstrrrlirr,
rrrrc{
New Zeilancl,
Englishwill remainthe first languageof most people,but
will continueto change.New slar-rg
and dialectswill develop,
often from groups of people who speak other languages,
for example,Spanishir-rthe US and South Asiar-rlanguages
in Britain. In countrieswhere English is used as a second
language,it is possiblethat new languages
will developwhich
useEnglishar-rd
locallanguages.
An exampleof thisis Sheng,
a new Kenyan languagewhich uscs w<>rdsfrom English,
Swahili,and other African larrgu:lgcs.
One guessis that the numbcr of pcoplc who can use
Englishwell will continueto grow - to ()vcrhalf the people

7t l

'l'ltaI Iistoryof' tlta I;,nglishLttnt!,urtSt'

itr thc worlclby 2050,sorrrcbclicvc- irrrclthirt lirrglishwill

rcrlrlrinrt worlcl llrngu:rgcfor rrrirnyycrrrs.In this vicw, tlrc
tlS will rculnintlrc riclrcstcountry irr thc worlcl,Anrcricln
populitrntusicitttclfilrrrswill cor.rtilruc
to bc firshiona[rlc,
nrrcl
Flrrglish
will still lrctlrc Inngu:rge
oFscicrrcc,
conttttutricrrtions
tcchnology,i utcrnrtiolrirl lrnsiucss,cclncirti<ln:rt un ivcrsitics,
nrrcltclcvisi<)r'l
ncws.linglishwill coutirruct<lchirngc,but it
in drc world.
will rrot krscits inrtr'rortrr.rcc
Howcver,other people think that the future of English
is not so certair"r.
ns tr world lernguage
Mandarin Chinese,
Spanish,arrdArabicmay becomeother world languirges,
as
dre numbersclf pe<lplewlro speaktheselarrguages
continue
to gro% and the countrieswhere they are spokenbecome
richer. Although international businessmay groq some
of it may be with countriesir-rthe sanrepart of the world,
and other sharedlanguagesmay be usedinsteadof English.
There are now more usersof the Internet who do not speak
Englishas a first languagethan thosewho do, so businesses
and organizationshaveto provideinformation and services
in differentlanguagesfor theseInternetusers.In education,
internationalstudentsmay go to countriesthat are nearby:
for example,more Asian studentsmay go to China. English
may alsoloseits importanceand popularity in the world of
films and music.
If English remainsa world language,somegovernments
may try to stop its usein their own countries.They may fear
that the use of English will endangertheir own languages
and customs.Somecountrieshavealreadytried to stop the
borrowing of Englishwords by passinglaws againstthe use
of foreign words in some situations (for example, France
in 1977 and 1.994,and Polandin 1997).In other countries,
India, for example,thereis much discussionabout teaching

childrenin Englishin schools.Someconsiderit harmful ftrr

the children'slearniug,and alsofor the survivalof their own
for the
Others,however,think that it is necessary
languages.
country'sfuture survivalin the world.
If Englishdoesremainaworld language,how will it change?
Willit breakup into a numberof differentlanguages,asLatin
Romanian,and
developedinto French,Spanish,Portuguese,
Italian?Or will the differentvarietiesdisappearand only one
kind of Englishsurvive?
It seemsprobablethat as English is usedinternationally
more and more, the need for a standard grammar and
vocabulary,standard spelling rules, and some standard
pronunciationwill remain. Perhapsa new simpler kind of
'World Standard English' will develop from the regional
varieties,one which all userscan easilyuseand understand.
If a sound is hard for people to make, and words can be
understoodwithout it, then it could disappear.For example
rD is difficult for many speakers,and does not have to be
pronouncedas l0l or 16l,so this soundcould change.

72

I ' lt t ' llis l t,r.t'rtf tl tr l i try l i s l tl ,ru te u rter'

( ; t , o s s A l {Y

()r r t lr t ' ot lr t ' r ' lrrrrrtl i, t s t' t' rrstl rrrl tl rc n u n rl rt' r' ol rt' gi orr;rl
v:tt' it ' lir ' sol' llr t glis h i s p ,r' o w i rrp ,:rrt.l
w i l l c ()n l i nu(' l () l l r' ()w .
'l 'l tc ' s c ' v ill' ic t i( 'ln:l
s y l x ' c ()n r(' n l ()r' (' ,rn r'rll ro tr' tl i ffcrr' rrtfronr
tl re W or lt l S t r ur r lr trrll < i rrrlo l ' l rrrg l i s h ,rtl th o rrg l rtl rcy rrrrryrrot

' l , l tl ttr
i r r l i c c t i v c , t w t , r . l t l t r t l t l t 's c l i I r csi l l ) cr s( ttlo t tl ti ttl i t',1 1t,tl
r r r t i c l e t fr c w , , t t l s , t , t t , t ,, t t t ( l l l .t(

b cco nt c s el) : r t ' r r t cl rtn l i u rtg c s[rc c rtrts ctl rc y w i l l l tl tvc l t l ot ol

lliblc

c()n t r lc t wit lr s t r t n tl rrrrlk i rrrl s o l ' l ' l rg l i s l r tl rro rr p,htcl cvi si orr,

c hl r t

rl rclio,r r r r ctllr c lr r t c rrre t.

As t lr c t t r r t t r bc ro f s c c o rrc l :rn
- c ll trl rc i g rr-l rrr rgrrrrgc
s1' rcrrl < crs
o f I' } r glis h gr ( ) ws l rrrg c r rh rrrrtl rc n rrrrrb c ro f f i rst-l rrrrguegc
()tlrcr lrlnl-lurrgcs
s1'lcrtl<crs,
will hllvc :t l-lrciltercffcct on F.rrglish.
I'l xtr c r r r c lyllr r gcr r t rn rl rc rs< l f w o rc l sfr< l rno tl rc r l r rrrgrregcs
will
p ro b alr ly c ( ) nt inuc t() c r()s si rrto h )rrg l i s htl t g rc t rt s1' rcccl .
-fhc r t c x t s t c p it t th c h i s to ry < > fth c B rrg l i s hl a ngurrgci s hrrrcl
to sc e c lc ar ly lr c c a u s ci t c l c p c n c l s()n n rl l n y th i rrg s:chl rrrgcsi rr
['l u s it t c s ss, c ic r . r c ctc
, c l .rtro l o g yrrn
, d n u tl b c rs o f pcopl c. \i i /i l l
th c s pc ak c r sof t n g l i s h rrt tl .rcc n c l o f th i s c c r rtury spcak a
vcry c lif f c r c ut E ng l i s h fro rn th e o n e w e u s c n ow ? W ho w i l l
ruscit, rrr.rcl
how? Thesc rrrc intc'rc'stingclr.restiorrs
for all r-rsers
o f E nglis h.

r l r e l r o l y l r o o l <o l t l r t '( i l r r i sti r ttt r t'l i p ,i o r r

l t pl ,tc e

r 00r r r

( ) l l tl l c

l l l tc fl l c t

w l l c rc

y ()L l (i l l l

L ()l l l l l l t l l l i L i l t ('

w i t l t r t t l t t 'r P e o p l c
O h r i s t i a n i t y t l r c r c l i g i o r r b r r s cr ltttt tl tc tcr tch i r tg so f .fcsr r s( .l r l i st;
( l h l i s t i r r n ( r r c \ , r r f ) c ( ) r l r l cctc( w
l i tl r th i s r cl i g i o r l
c l : r s s ( h c r c ) r r g r o t t p o l t p e o p l c t,I tl tc sr ttttcso ci r tll e vcl
c o n l r 'n u n i c i t t c t o c x c h : t t t g ci t t f<tr tttl tti o tt,i cl cr tsctc w i tl t so tttco ttc;
(l) cornnrunicirtion
c o n q u c s t t h c a c t r l f t r r l <i r r gc ( )l l tr ( ) lo f ,t co tttttr y b y fi r r ee
c o n s o n : r n t , t t t y l c t t c r o f t h c a lp h l b ct cxccp t ,r , t', i , tt, <tt'tr
creolc a lrtttgrtrrgctlrtt is a tttixtttrc of rr littropcrtrr lrlllgttrtgcarrcl
a locrrl larrgulrgc,arrclthrrt is spol<cttrts a first litrlgtrrrgc
dialect ir virricty of rr lrrngtragcspokcrt itt ottc rrrcirwlricl-t
cliffcrs frorn tl-rcstanclnrcllltrgtu'tgc itt grarntrtlr, w<trcls,rrttcl
pronnr-rciation
education a pr()ccssof lcarning artcltclching to illtprovc
knowlcclgc; educated (adj) having hacl rr high stanclrrrclof
cducatior"r
express (u) to show yollr fcclilUis or opitriotrs throttgh worcls
flower (r)

to clcvclop ancl becomc succcssful

gender (irr sot.nclanguagcs) a way of pLltting worcls irrto gr()tlPs

- rnasculinc, fcrninit-tc,and ncutcr
govern

to hirvc lcgrl corrtrol of a cotttrtry; (rl) government

grammar

tl.rcrulcs in a latrgtt:rgcfor charrging thc fortn of worcls

ancl joining thcm togethcr it.tto sctrtctrccs;(arll) granrmatical

immigrant a pcrs()r')who has c()lt1ct() livc pcrtrtatrctltly ill rl
colilrtry that is not thcir owr-r
of goocls irr frlctorics
conrrectedwith thc proclr-rctiotr

industrial

itsk thim!ls

influence a pcrson or thing that irffccts thc way thitrgs happcll or

dcvclop
informal

(of langulgc) relaxed, ttot seri()tls ()r c()rrcct

74

( )l tts s try

Olosstry

75

tn tcr nc t t hc ir r t c r r r l tti rl ttl t| l tc tw rl rk tl fc rl ttrp tttc rsthi 1t| ctsy()usci cnce

secitrf<rrnrntiorr
frorrr:rll <lvcrthc worlcl
invade to clttcr rrc()untryby frlrcein ordcr to takecorrtrolof it
kingdom n c()untryeontr()llcdlly l kirrgor quccll
literature picccsof writing, cspcciallyrrovcls,plirys,irnclpocl'lls
messageboard a ;llacc <lna wcbsitc wlrcrc y<lr,r
crrrrrcircl<lr write
mossages
monk a ntan who works f<rrthc churcha1d who livcswith gthcr
m<lnksirr a spccialbuilding
noun a word that rcfcrst<la pcrson,placc,thing, or qualiry (c.g.
mother,street,box, bolte)
obiect the part <lf a sentenccthat showsthc personor thing
affected by the verb
officiaf (n &. adi) a person irr a positior.rof authority; chosenor
agreedby such a person
online connectedto the Internet
ordinary not unusualor different
organization a group of people who work together to do
something
Parliament the group of peoplechosento make and changethe
laws of a country
personalpronoun the words l, me, yott, be, him etc.
plural the form of a noun or verb that refersto more than one
thing
poem a pieceof writing wherewords are chosenfor their sound
and arrangedin lines,expressingsomethingimaginatively;
poet a person who writes poems;poetry poems in general
print to put words onto paper using a machinein order to make
books
pronounce to make the sound of a word or letter in a particular
way; (n) pronunciation
region one part of a country
replace to take the place of
rhyme the useof words that end with the samesound in a poem

with seicrrcc
scttlc t() nlilkc il plrrccin it llcw cotltltry yrlttrlronte
singular tlrc fornr <lf I rttlutrtlr vcrb thrtt rcfcrst() ollc thillg
pcrs()tt,rrrclhrtsto work
to irtr<lthcr
slave a pcrs()nwlro l'rcl<lrrgs
f<rrthctn for tro ttt<lt'tcy
sourcc a placcwhercsonrcthingbcginsor c<lmcsfrottr
spread(u (y n) to bc uscdby morc and morc pc<lplc;t() lll()vct()
morc and morc places
standard (of languagc)believcdto bc correctarrduscdlry rnost
pe<lplc
to build arrdmakc
technology the uscof scientificknowlcdg,c
(adj)
technological
things;
tense a verb form that showsthe time of somcthirlghappcnirrg,
either in the past, present,or future
translate to expressthe meaningof somethingin a different
language;(r) translation
verb a word that expressesan action or state (e.g.walk, be)
vocabulary all the words in a language
vowel the lettersd, e, i, o, and u, and the soundsthat they
represent
website a place on the Internet whereyou can find out
information about something

76

77

A(]TIVITIII,S

ACTIVITI

BeforeReading

I.]S

While Reading

How muchdo you know aboutdre languageof English?Fill

in theblankswith theseitems.

with the correct

ReadChapter1, thencompletethesesentences
words.

rrn,b, e, femininc,from, -ful, full stop,gct, i, -ing, masculinc,

communication,international,quarter,settled,simple,sltread,
traffic, widely

question mdrk, s, the, turn, with

vowels:

a rti c l e s :

cotlsonants: _,
prepositionsi -r

verbs:

punctuationi _t

of all the
Enelishis sookenverv
. About a
peoplein the world useEnglishin someway.
Airspeak'is a form of Englishusedin

endings: _,
genders: _,

internationalair control.
Englishstartedto aroundthe world aboutthree
in
hundredyearsago,when many British people-

How much do you know about the history of the language?

Choose the best words to complete these sentences.
1 English developedfrom the languagesspoken by invaders

othercountries.
4 In the twentieth century, air travel made more

businesspossible.Telephonesand computersalso made

possible.
faster-

from northern Europe I China.

2 The English words for some of the days of the week come
from the names of kings and queens I gods and goddesses.
3 A place with a name ending in -ford is usually near a riuer I
a mountain.
4 For more than three hundred years after 1066, all the kings
of England spoke German I Frencb.
5 Six hundred yearsago, the letter A in knee was pronownced
I not pronounced.
Can you name some words that have come into your language
from English? Who usesthem? How do you feel about the
arrival of English words in your language?Why do you feel
this?

ReadChapter2,then put theseeventsin the correctorder.

I The Romansleft Britain.
2 'Wessex
becamethe strongestkingdom in England.
-) The Kurganpeoplebeganto travelacrossEuropeand Asia.
4 Jutes,Angles,and Saxonsfrom northern Europesettledin
a

Britain.
SomeBritish peoplelearnt to speakand write Latin.
6 The Celtssettledin Britain.
7 The peopleof Englandand south-eastScotlandorganized
themselves
into sevenkingdoms.
8 The RomansinvadedBritain.
9 The Celtsbeganto leavetheir homelandin centralEurope.

7t1

Ac'll\/rl rt,r,\:
Whilt ld',nling

A(:t tvt t ttt.si

l(ItiIr llrulinp,

RcaclOhrrptcr.3,tlrcn rcwritc tlrcsc untnrc scntcnceswith thc

c()rrcct inf<lrrnatiorr.

with tlre
llcad Ohrrptcrs(r rurtl7, drclr cttnrpletethc $cl'ltcnces
c()rrcct nilnlcs.

I 'l'he uirnrc l)oycr c()nlcsfnrnt tl'rc(ieltic worcl for

KinyOlnrles lln l;irst I King/uttrt'stlr Setnd I Stmud .lttltnxrn

I .ltmtlhtn ,\tuif'l
I !srt,rt'NatulottI Willium Sbakasln'dra

mountLltn.
2 'fhc Arrglo-Saxorrsborrowcclthc worclsf<trstraet ;rnclu.,rtll
fronr tlre (lclts.
.l Thc w<>rcl
school canrc frorrr (icruran. which was uscd rr lot
by nronks.
of wirr.
4 Friday was nirmcd aftcr thc Atrgkl-Saxorrg<ldclcss
5 Ki r r g A lf r c d won a r1i m p o rta n t b a td c a g a i n s tthc R omans.
6 King Alfrcd dccidcd to makc Greek thc languagcof
educatiol.rand literature.
7 Most towrrs with names endirrgin -thorpe are in the west
o f E ngland.
Before you read Chapter 4, can you guessthe answers to these
questions?
1 lfhen Villiam and his army come to fight Harold's army
in England, who will win the battle - Harold or William?
2 \What effect will there be on the English language?

| Z -lrncl

w r()te n book i rr Lr t t it t ,bt r t l: t t cr chosel'lnglislr '

of any lirrglish writcr.
tlrc litrgcstvocirl'rttlirry

3 A ftcr

wr t swir lr ot t t it kir r g f or
w rrski l l ccl,H, r t glancl

clcvctrycirrs.
that hc haclto lcrrvcF)ttgllttcl'
so urtl-lo1-rulrrr
4 -wils
arrdl ri s daughtcr hcci rm cqt lccn.
wirtrtcd to fix thc English hnguagc bccirttschc
.5 di cl n' t l i kc thc cottti ntl alchanges.
6 -

wrotc a dictionary which was a grcit stlcccss.

Read Chapter 8. When were these words introduced?

airport, bronchitis, disco, e-mail, google, nylon, photo' TV

t8l4: 19'19:
1948:

1850:1938:-

1982:

1,999:
-

t954:

Read Chapters 4 and 5, then answer these questions.

true (T) or false(F)?

ReadChapter9. Are thesesentences

1 \Whatdid the king have built after the Battle of Hastings?

werethe first
1 The Englishpeoplewho settledin Jamestowl'r
to visit America.
Europeans
thereweremillionsof Irish slavesin America.
2 By 1,865
3 SomeEnglishpeopleweresentto Americaasa punishment.

2 Vhich English king lost Normandy to the French?

3 Why did almost a third of the people in England die
between 1348 and1375?
4 Vhich languages were used for official government papers
for two hundred years after 1066?
5 Vhat did John lVycliffe do between 1380 and 1384?
5 Vhat is Geoffrey Chaucer's best-known work?
7 lWhat did William Caxton bring to England in 1.476?

4 The nameMisslssippi comesfrom Spanish.

5 Before1564.New York wascalledNew Amsterdam.
6 In AmericanEnglish,fall meanswinter.
whichis alsousedin
7 Fastfood is an Americanexpression
BritishEnslish.

tJ0

8I

A(ir t vt't't t',siWhile Redding

ReadChapters10and 11,thenmatchthesehalvesof sentences.

1 Theean<lthou arc uscdirr somcBritishdialccts,but . . .
2 Gaclicis an old Celticlanguagc
which. . .
3 The Englishof Canadais similarto . . .

AETI V ITI F,S

After Reading

4 'Spanglish'
is a varietyof Englishwhich. . .
5 Jargonis the speciallanguage.. .
6 Somepeopleuseslang. . .

Who'swho in the book?Match eachpersonto threeof the

notes,and join the informationtogetherto makefivcshort
paragraphs,
one abouteachperson.

7 Jokeusedto be a slangword, but . . .

8 Grub andtucker are . . .

King Alfred I GeoffreyChaucerI lamesMurray I

Noah WebsterI William the Conqueror

a slangwords for food.

b usesEnglishand Spanishwords together.
c it's now part of StandardBritishEnglish.

official/ livedin London

1 both a poet and a government
/ workedon the first Oxford English
2 a Scotsman

d both Americanand BritishEnglish.

e is still spokenin the westof lreland.
f usedby peoplewho havethe samejob or hobby.
g they arenot usedin StandardBritish English.
h to showthat they belongto a group.
ReadChapter12,then fill in the gapswith thesewords.
borrowing,fasbionable,foreign,half, barmful, laws,popular,
riche st,suruiue,worried
Somepeoplethink that overthe peoplein the world
will be ableto speakEnglishby 2050.They think that the US
will remainthe country in the world, and American
musicand films will continueto be -.
But
in somecountriespeoplethink that it is _
to teach
childrenEnglish,becausethey are
that their own
languagesmight not
Somegovernmentswant to stop
the of Englishwords, and they havepassed
against the use of -

words in some situations.

Dictionary
3 an Americanteacher/ proud of AmericanEnglish
4 leaderof Normandy/ defeatedHarold in 1066/ became
king of England
5 a king of Wessex/ an important battle againstthe Vikings
6 plannedto finish in ten yearsI afterfiveyearshad only
reachedthe word 'ant'
7 wantedto bring back the centresof learning/ destroyedby
the Vikings
8 wrote a book on spelling/ extremelysuccessful
9 wrote in the EastMidlands dialect/ usedwords from
French
10 took land from rich EnglishfamiliesI gaveitto his followers
11 spokeFrench/ Frenchbecamethe languageof government
and businessin England
t2 died in 1915/ workingon the letterU
t3 good at describingpeopleI manyother writers copiedhim
T4 suggestednew spellings/ now acceptedAmericanspellings
15 decidedto makeEnglishthe languageof education/ learnt
Latin lcould translateimportantbooksinto English

fi2

/\(:ttv tt tt ,\i Af' l (r l k ' ,td i u g

Mrrtch thc worclsorr thc lcft with tlrc tytrresof larrguirgcon tl tc

ri g h t , W hat do t hc w o rd s rrrc a n ?

Al l r r lla't,I itt1t,
A(ir tv I t tt,.,\i

It.]

How du you think tlrc rrscof llnglish will ehrrngcin the futtrrc?
Writc rr rc[r()rtrrbout linglish in your c(tuntry in 2(]50.Llse
thescqucsti onsto hcl p you,

I f rccwrry

rt An g l o -Sa x o rrc li rrl cct

2 ur r ; lt r t t lowr r:rb l c

b Ol c l l .)n g l i s h

.1 srtyitgirirr

c tto rtl rc rrrh i n g l i shcl i rrl ect

4 bumy

cl Sc<lts

.5 y r u[ - f l?

c Mo d c rrr F )rrg l i sh

6 l:rss

7 wcalrrs

g A n rc ri c rrrrE n g li sh

tl cliv

h Sc a s p c a k

9 ckrmb

B ri ti s h s l a n g

I Evcryoncshoulcllcarn m<lrethirtr otrc langtritgc.

l 0 y ous c

tcxt messagc

2 Lcarrringto speakis morc importlut th:rrrlcrrrtritrgto writc.

Iri s h F )n g l i s h

- W i l l nrorc or fcw cr 1' rc<t 1'r

spcr
? y?
le r klr , ng, lislrWlr
- W i l l l i rrgl i shbc ti trrghti rr sclt ools?
- W i l l hl ngl i shl rc 1' ropul r twit
r h I nt cr r t ctt t scr s?
- W i l l othcr l attgurrgcs
bc t r r or cit t r por t llt ltt lr xt l lt r r glish?
- W hi ch l arrguagcsw i l l pcoplc usc f or l'r t r sit t css?
Do you agreeor disagreewith thesesentenccs?Wlry?

3 Peoplcwho livc in thc samc coulltry sh<ltrlclspcltk tlrc s:rttrc

l anguage.
Use the words below to complete this paragraph about changes
in the English language.
borrowed, centuries, complain, continwally, controlled,
deueloped,expressions,inuaders,made, putting, quarter,
room, settled, technology, uocabulary
The English language
fifteen

from the dialectsspoken by

from northern Europe who in Britain

ago. Since then, the language has changed

Englishpeoplehavefrom other languages,and have

words (Iikecoffee)
new words (like

4 lf a languageis used by very few peoplc, it's iutportant t<-r

keep it alive.
Working on your own or in a group, make a list of the English
words and expressionsthat you hear or read in a typical day.
Write notes about each word or expression:
1 Vhat kind of languageis it? Do you think it is slang or
standard English?
2 Where has it come from? The US or Britain? The Internet,
TV or music?

old words together. Developments

fingerprint) by in have brought new -,
too, Iike website

3 Is there an equivalentword or expressionin your language?

and chat

Explore these websites. Seeif you can find help with spelling
and pronunciation; information about English idioms; and
games,tests and quizzes.

and -.

. People often about new words

But the English languageis used by a

of the world's people. It can't be _!

www.askoxford.com
htm
www.britishcouncil.orgllcarrrcnglish.
www.usingenglish.com

u4

8.5

OXF ORD BOOK\Ofl OR MS

LIB R A R Y
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brigit Vincy livcs in thc cast of England iu tlrc univcrsitycity of
Ca mbr idgc .S hc has l i v c d rn a i rrl yi n B ri ta i n , b u t h as al so spcnr
a fcw ycars in thc Middlc East, in Syria and Egypt, which shc
thoroughlycnjoycd.
Shc has worked in English LanguageTcachingfor morc than
twenty-fiveyears,first as a teacherin Egypt, and thcrras an editor
and writcr, Shehas written grammarpracticematerials,rcaders,a
coursebook for children, and teacher'sresourccboclks.
Shelovestravellingto differentcountries,exploringnew cities,
eating new food and trying to learn a little of the language.
Sometimesthe sounds are just too hard to pronounce, however
(Czechhas somedifficult ones!).
Brigit likes cycling round Cambridge, visiting old housesand
other historical places,and walking in the counrry.Shelikes meals
out with friends, trips to the cinema, and art exhibitions. She
likes many kinds of art, old and modern, and enjoysdrawing and
painting, especiallylandscapes.

(i/rrs.slcs
, Orinrc(t Mysttrl . I;dttlilts. lidt,lds!,Ct'Ilrtrntr
llumun lnlcrest, l'ltyscripts,'l'hriller tt Adwnlttre
'l'rue Stories, l(orld Storits
-l'hcoxtotruu(x)r(w()rrMs
proviclcs
t,tutr.rtuv
with
cnjoyublcrcirdirrgin ll.rrglish,
plrrys,
of
nrocle
rn
fiction,
non-fiction,
lt
ittcluclcs
ir wiclcrirrrgc clirssicrncl
rrrrrl
origirrirllrrd rrcilr1'rtccl
strrgcs,wlriclr
tcxts irr scvcrrcnrcfullygrirclccllrrrrgurrgc
givcnon thc
lc:rrrrcrs
l'rcgirrncl
lcvcl.
An
ovcrvicw
is
trrkc
fr<lrrr
to irclvancccl
ncxt Ptrgcs.
All StagcI titlcs arc rrvrrila[rlc
irs irucliorccorclings,
irs wcll ls ovcr cighty
otlrcr titlcs frour Strrrtcrto Stagc6. All Strrrtcrsrrrrclnriurytitlcs rrtStlgcs I
for youtrgcrlcirrrrcrs.
t() 4 rrc spccinllyrccorrrmcnclccl
Flvcryll<lokw<lrmis
illustrated,and Stlrtcrs lrrd Frrctfiles
lrrrvcfull-colourillustrirtions.
Thc oxr.orrnr(x)l(wor{Ms
LnnAr{yalsooffcrscxtcrrsivcsupport.Flaclrb<xrk
contairrsan introductiorlto thc story, l'lotcslbout tlrc rruthor,ir glossary,
and activities.Additional resourcesincluclctcsts ilnd workshccts,and
answersfor theseand for the activities irr tl'rc books. Thcrc is advice on
runninga classlibrary,usiugaudio recordings,
lnd the mirnywaysof using
Oxford Bookworms ir-r readir-rgprogrammes. Resourcc materials are
availableon the website<www.oup.com/bookworms>.
'fhe Oxford Bookworms Collection is a sericsfor advarrcedlearners.It
consistsof volumesof short storiesby well-known authors,hoth classicand
modern.Texts arenot abridgedor adaptcdin ar-ryway, but carefullyselected
to be accessibleto the advancedstudent.

You can find details and a full list of titles inthe Oxford Bookworms Library
Catalogue and Oxford English Language Teaching Catalogues,and on the
website<www.ouD.com/bookworms>.

t17

tf6

l'H l,:'o xl,'otrl) t]ooK woRMs

t.t tit { A t { y
( ; ltAl) tN ( ; A N l) sA M trl.l,l l.lxTR A CT s

s' l ' A (; l ,: J . ro oo llliA l) wolt l) s

pcrfeclcontitrrrorrsurt'l l(, prtstpcrlctt
.., sltoull,rrr(ry- l)t'cscr'rt
- ci rrrsi rti vc- rcl i rti vc cl ;rrrs c s- i ntl i l c ' tt s ti tt(' ntc i l l s ,..

s ' r ' A r t l ' t,:l t o 2 5 0 H l i At)w o l r. l )s

- prcscnt
sirtrplc
- inrPcrlrrivc
c()ntinu()us
l')rcscnt
gcruncls
&tnlcdnnol
...
, musl- goingto (futurc)- sinrl'rlc
Hcr phor r c is r ing i n g - b u t w h c rc i s i t?

()f coursc,it wirs rrrostirrrportirrrt

scc
thirt n() ()nc slr0rrlcl
(lllirr
O<llirr,
Mirry,or l)ick<lrr
crrtcrittgthc sccrctgitrclctt.
S<l
girvcorclcrsto thc girrclcncrsthrrt thcy rnust nll kccll nway
Garden
fr<rnrthat prlrt of tlrc glrclcn in futurc. TlteSecret

Sa lly gc t s out o f b e d a n d l o o k s i n h c r [ra g . N o phone.

She looks undcr the bcd. No phorrc. Then she looks bchind
th e door . T her e is h e r p h o n c . Sa l l y p i c k s u p h er phone and
answers tt. Sally'sPhone
S T A G E Ir{ o o H ts AD \VOR D S
... pastsimplc- coordination
withand,but,or subordination
with before,after,when,because,
so . ..
I knew him in Persia. He was a famous builder and I
worked with him there. For a time I was his friend, but
'When
not for long.
he came to Paris, I came after him I wanted to watch him. He was a very clever, very dangerous
man, Tbe Pbantom of the Opera
s T A cE2 o /o o H EA D W OR D S
. .. presentperfect- will (future)- (don't)haueto, mustnot, could- simplelf clauses
- pastcontinuous
comparison
of adiectives
*
*
quesrions
rag
askltell infinitive...
\7hile I was writing

these words in my diary, I decided

what to do. I must try to escape. I shall try to get down the
wall outside. The window

is high above the ground, but

I have to try. I shall take some of the gold with me - if I

escape, perhaps it will be helpful later. Dracula

STAGE

4'

l4oo

H L ,AD tfYOR D S

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I was glad. Now Hyde could not slrow his frcc to the world
again.lf he did, every honest man in l,orrclottwould be proud
to report him to the police. DrJekyll and Mr Hyde
S TA GE 5' t8oo
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If he had spokenEstella'sname, I wor.rldhavchit him. I was so
angry with him, and so depressedabout my future, that I could
not eat the breakfast.Instead I went straight to the old house.
Great Expectations
S TA GE 6.?-5O O HEADWO RDS
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I stepped up to the piano, I was confident. It was as if I

knew that the prodigy sideof me really did exist.And when I

startedto play,I was so caughtup in how lovelyI looked that
I didn't worry how I would sound. TheJoyLuckClub

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GreatCrimes
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Sontc
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of thc robbcrsarc dcrd, arrclonly onc - llontric lliggs - is still in
;rrison.But thcrc is still orrc thing that thc policc would likc t<r
krrow: what happcrrcdto the rest of thc motreythat was takcrr?
Two rnillion poulrdshas ncvcr bcerrf<rund.Perhapssonrc<lf thc
robbcrswould likc t<lknow thc answerto this qucstiol.lto() . . .
Many grcatcrimcscrrdin a question.Vho reallykilled Presiderrt
knows the truth about
to Shcrgar?.Who
\flhat happerred
Kerrncdy?
Azaria Chamberlain?Not all the answersare known. Join the
world's detectivesand discoverthe love, hate, dcath, money,and
mysteryheld in the storiesof thesegreatcrimes.

I]OOK WORM S

FACTFILES

STAGE

NelsonMandela
R O \(E N A A KIN YE M I
In 1918 in the peaceful province of tanskei, South Africa, the
Mandela family gave their new baby son the name Rolihlahla
- 'troublemaker'. But the young boy's early years were happy
ones, and he grew up to be a good student and an enthusiastic
sportsman.
Vho could imagine then what was waiting for Nelson Mandela
- the tirelessstruggle for human rights, the long years in prison,
the happinessand sadnessof family life, and one day the title of
Presidentof South Africa? This is the story of an extraordinary
man, recognizedtoday as one of the world's great leaders,whose
long walk to freedom brought new hope to a troubled nation.