LANGUAGE CHANGE OVER TIME EXPLAINED! | ENGLISH LANGUAGE A LEVEL REVISION | NARRATOR: BARBARA NJAU
Summary
TLDRThis video explores the evolution of the English language from its Celtic roots to modern times. It covers the impact of Roman invasion, Anglo-Saxon influences, Norman conquest, and the Renaissance on the language's development. Key events like the Great Vowel Shift and the invention of the printing press are highlighted. The video also discusses the contributions of historical figures like Shakespeare and the influence of the King James Bible. It touches on the debate between prescriptivists and descriptivists regarding language change and concludes with the ongoing impact of technology and globalization on English.
Takeaways
- đïž The early English language was influenced by Celtic tribes and Latin after the Roman invasion in 55 BC.
- đ Old English emerged between 450 AD and 1066, primarily influenced by Anglo-Saxons from North Germany.
- đ° Middle English (1066-1485) saw significant lexical expansion after the Norman Conquest, with French becoming the language of government.
- đ In 1362, English was established as the official language of the UK for law and state business, replacing French and Latin.
- đ The Great Vowel Shift (1300-1500) marked a radical change in pronunciation, distinguishing Middle English from Modern English.
- đ The Tudor period (1485-1603) experienced a revival of classic scholarship, influencing English vocabulary with Greek and Latin imports.
- đ The 17th century brought Puritan and scientific influences, simplifying English and standardizing spelling through dictionaries like Samuel Johnson's.
- đ The 18th century's Age of Reason furthered the standardization of English, with dictionaries becoming the authority on correct spelling.
- đ The 19th and 20th centuries witnessed English's global spread, influenced by Americanization, technology, and the British Empire.
- đ Language change occurs through various mechanisms like borrowing, blending, and semantic shifts, reflecting cultural and societal evolution.
Q & A
What was the primary language influence on English before the Roman invasion in 55 BC?
-Before the Roman invasion, the primary language influence on what would become English was Celtic, with languages related to what we now identify as modern Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish.
How did the Romans impact the English language after their invasion in 55 BC?
-The Romans introduced Latin, which left a mark on the English language. Latin was officially introduced after the invasion and influenced the lexicon and place names.
What significant linguistic change occurred during the period from 450 AD to 1066 AD?
-During this period, the Anglos and Saxons arrived from North Germany, leading to the emergence of Old English. The writing system transitioned from runes to a form influenced by Latin-speaking monks who used the Roman alphabet with new letters.
Why did the spelling of 'Queen' change from 'cwe en' to 'qu een' during the Middle English period?
-The spelling change was due to French scribes introducing new spelling patterns after the Norman Conquest in 1066, which replaced the Old English 'cw' with the French-derived 'qu'.
What major event in the 14th century had a significant impact on the English language?
-The Black Death from 1347 to 1352, which killed a large portion of the population, including many educated monks who knew Latin. This contributed to the gradual loss of Latin's influence on the English language.
How did the Great Vowel Shift affect the pronunciation of English words?
-The Great Vowel Shift, occurring during the 15th to 17th centuries, was a radical change in pronunciation where long vowel sounds began to be made higher and further forward in the mouth, while short vowel sounds remained largely unchanged.
What was the role of the Renaissance in the evolution of the English language during the Tudor period?
-The Renaissance led to a revival of classic scholarship and a desire for more expressive language, resulting in an influx of vocabulary from Greek and Latin, as well as the expansion of the lexicon through travel and discovery.
How did the printing press contribute to the standardization of English?
-The printing press, introduced by Caxton in 1475, enabled some standardization of spelling to begin, although there was no widespread standard form of spelling or punctuation. It provided the technical means to guarantee the standardization of spelling over time.
What factors influenced the English language during the 17th century?
-In the 17th century, influences on English included Puritanism and Catholicism, science, and the King James Version of the Bible, which had a significant impact on vocabulary and grammar.
Who was Robert Cawdrey and why is he significant in the history of the English language?
-Robert Cawdrey was an English school teacher who published the first English dictionary, 'A Table Alphabeticall,' in 1604. It contained 2,543 'hard words,' particularly those borrowed from Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French, marking an important step in the standardization of English.
How did the 18th century, known as the Age of Reason, affect the English language?
-The Age of Reason brought a desire to standardize spelling and grammar, with Samuel Johnson producing the 'Dictionary of the English Language' in 1755, which became the preeminent English dictionary until the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Outlines
đ Early English Language Influences
The video begins by exploring the early stages of the English language, dating back to before 450 AD when Celtic tribes dominated and the language was closely related to modern Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish. The Roman invasion in 55 BC introduced Latin, which left a lasting impact. The period from 450 to 1066 AD saw the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, leading to the emergence of Old English. During this time, runes were used, and Latin-speaking monks adapted the Roman alphabet, contributing significantly to the modern English vocabulary. The video also discusses the transition to Middle English after the Norman Conquest in 1066, which expanded the lexicon and introduced French influences.
đ The Evolution of Middle English
This section delves into the Middle English period from 1066 to 1485, highlighting the Norman Conquest's influence on language. The language of governance shifted towards medieval French, and French scribes altered spelling patterns, such as replacing 'cw' with 'qu'. The Black Death from 1347 to 1352, which killed a significant portion of the population including Latin-educated monks, contributed to the gradual loss of Latin. The video also covers the introduction of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1458 and its arrival in England in 1475, which initiated the standardization of spelling, although a widespread standard form took much longer to develop.
đ The Great Vowel Shift and Tudor English
The video discusses the Great Vowel Shift from 1300 to 1500, a period that overlaps with the Tudor era (1485-1603). This shift marked a significant change in pronunciation, with long vowel sounds moving higher and further forward in the mouth. The causes of this shift are debated, but it's suggested that the influx of loanwords from Romance languages might have played a role. The video also covers the Renaissance's impact on the English vocabulary, with a revival of classic scholarship and a desire for a more expressive language, leading to an increase in words borrowed from Greek and Latin. The period also saw the introduction of new words related to travel and discovery, and the emergence of 'inkhorn terms', which were criticized for being overly complex and obscure.
đ Standardization and the Influence of Key Figures
This segment covers the 17th century, a time when Puritanism and Catholicism, along with scientific advancements, influenced the English language. The King James Version of the Bible, published in 1611, had a significant impact on the language's development. The video also discusses the publication of the first English dictionary by Robert Cawdrey in 1604 and the linguistic contributions of William Shakespeare, who is known for coining numerous words and manipulating grammatical rules. The 18th century is marked by the Age of Reason, with Samuel Johnson's dictionary setting a standard for English language, and the 19th century sees the American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster, introducing American English variations.
đ 20th Century English and Global Influences
The final part of the video examines the 20th century and beyond, where English continues to evolve due to global influences, particularly American English. The video discusses the Americanization of the language and the impact of technology, such as computer spell checkers, on standardizing spelling. It also addresses the ongoing debate between prescriptivists, who believe in fixed language rules, and descriptivists, who accept language change as inevitable. The video concludes by outlining the various ways language changes, including borrowing, compounding, blending, conversion, abbreviation, and semantic shifts, and it touches on attitudes towards language change, emphasizing that change is a natural and continuous process.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄOld English
đĄMiddle English
đĄGreat Vowel Shift
đĄTudor Period
đĄPuritanism
đĄKing James Bible
đĄStandardization
đĄPrescriptivism
đĄGlobalization
đĄLexical Change
Highlights
English's early roots are found in Celtic tribes' languages, related to modern Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish.
The Roman invasion in 55 BC introduced Latin, influencing English lexis and place names.
Old English emerged between 450 AD and 1066, influenced by Anglo-Saxons from North Germany.
Runes were the first written form, later replaced by the Roman alphabet modified by Latin monks.
Half of modern English's common vocabulary originates from Old English.
Middle English period saw a lexis expansion post-Norman Conquest, with French influence on spelling and grammar.
English was established as the language for law and state business in 1362 under Edward II.
The Black Death (1347-1352) contributed to the loss of Latin and the rise of English.
Gutenberg's printing press standardized spelling but did not create a universal spelling system.
The Great Vowel Shift (1300-1500) marked a radical change in pronunciation, differentiating Middle English from modern English.
The Tudor period (1485-1603) saw an influx of vocabulary from the revival of classic scholarship and travel.
The King James Bible (1611) significantly influenced English grammar and vocabulary.
Shakespeare's works contributed around 2,000 neologisms and flexible grammar usage to English.
The 18th century Age of Reason saw efforts to standardize spelling, with Samuel Johnson's dictionary.
19th-century American English developed distinct spellings due to Noah Webster's dictionary.
The 20th century brought Americanization of English and the rise of global English due to technology and media.
Language change occurs through borrowing, fixation, compounding, blending, conversion, and other mechanisms.
Prescriptivists and descriptivists have differing views on language change, with the latter seeing it as inevitable and natural.
Transcripts
hello and welcome to our video
summarizing all you need to know about
language change over time and especially
in this video we'll be looking at the
evolution of English throughout the
different millennia since its conception
so let's begin with the period when
English began technically up to 450 ad
so this is really really early on and
essentially it was a time dominated by
Celtic tribes and language really was
essentially related to what we would
today identify as modern Welsh Scottish
Gaelic and Irish and really at this time
period the only real connection that
we'll find today with modern English is
in terms of lexis and mainly place names
now in 55 BC the Romans invaded and
Latin was officially introduced after
this invasion and it really left a mark
on the English language if we moved to
the period 450 ad to 1066 the major
events that had an impact on the
evolution of language is number one the
Anglos and the Saxons who arrived from
North Germany and Old English really
emerged during this period and the only
writing from this time is runes which is
a mystical alphabet and written form of
language comes from Latin speaking monks
who used the Roman alphabet with new
letters and about half of common
vocabulary terms of modern English
really come from this period so from Old
English now transitioning into the
Middle English period which is
essentially between 1066 and 1485 there
was a general expansion of lexis after
the norman conquest this of course was
in 1066 and the language of government
became more medieval French and French
scribes started to introduce a spelling
patterns Saku replaced core which is qu
so Queen was changed from cwe en to qu e
en and there's also reversed word order
of letters for example HW - WH so from
where to where and GU was added towards
like guide guys and God and in 1362
under Edward the second English becomes
the
your language in the UK and it's
acknowledged as a language for law and
state business rather than French or
Latin
another major aventure in this period of
course is the black death which is from
1347 to 1352 killed about a quarter to a
third of the population of britain so
many monks who are educated in latin
died and this had a huge impact
contributing to the gradual loss of
latin also the first concerns about
English emerged during this period and
writers are concerned about language
change in the want to stabilize language
also in 1458 Gutenberg invented the
printing press and in 1475 Caxton
introduced the printing press to England
and the press enabled some standardizing
to begin however there was no widespread
standard form of spelling or punctuation
some publishers attempted in-house
consistency however this was far from
university accepted also for some time
after the invention of printing many
books were written by hand and printing
is at first reserved for books likely to
justify the time taking the setup type
and the printing press provided the
technical means to guarantee the
standardization of spelling but this
will still take a further 300 years now
the next period is essentially from 1300
to 1500 and this was essentially what is
termed as the great vowel shift so of
course this period overlaps the Tudor
period which lasted between 1485 and
1603 we are going to look at this period
later on and a major factor going back
to the great vowel shift separating
Middle English from modern English is
this essential period and it's a radical
change in pronunciation during the 15th
16th and 17th century as a result of
which long vowel sounds began to be made
higher and further forward in the mouth
whilst short vowel sounds were largely
unchanged and the causes of the shift
are still highly debated although an
important factor may have been the very
large intake of loanwords from the
Romance language of Europe during the
time which required a different kind of
pronunciation in Middle English for
example in the time of Chaucer then long
vowels are generally pronounced very
much like the Latin derived Romance
language of Europe it's a sheep would
have been pronounced more like shape
me as may mine as mean and flower as
floor however after the great vowel
shift the pronunciations of these
similar words would have been much more
like they are spoken today the shift
comprises a series of connected changes
with changes in one vowel pushing
another to change in order to keep its
distance although there is some dispute
as to the order of these movements and
the changes also proceeded at different
times and speeds in different parts of
the country so if you find in this
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so carrying on into the Tudor period and
of course this is 1485 to 1603 this is
also known as the Renaissance and this
is when there was the next wave of
innovation in English vocabulary which
came with the revival of classic
scholarship who known as the Renaissance
and those arising nationalism which was
linked to a desire for more expressive
language however Latin was perceived by
many to be a superior language at this
time and there's a flowering of
literature and experimentation in style
and this is in line of the preference
for elevated diction and vocabulary was
enlarged by imports from Greek and Latin
so ideas sleeped
into maths and science words from Latin
or Greek often by Latin were also
imported whole soldier in this period
either intact for example genius species
militia radius specimen critter and
squalor
apparatus but also commonly some of
these words were altered so for example
horrid pathetic pungent illicit frugal
anonymous and so on have roots in Latin
or Greek but as we know them today they
have been altered somewhat also a whole
category of words ending with Greek
based suffixes eyes and ism were also
introduced at this time and lexis
expanded by travel to the new world so
English settlers who went to colonies in
North America essentially expanded lexis
and trade and discovery brought about
rapid change especially in the lexicon
while some such thing down or spelling
may appear at this stage is still far
from being standardized
furthermore another huge issue emerged
because some scholars adopted Latin
terms so excessively and awkwardly that
a derogatory term called in corn was
coined to describe pedantic writers he
borrowed the classics but essentially
created very obscure and opulent flowery
terms many of which have not survived
the examples of these terms include
revoluta ng ancient devil gate attempt
eight obstinate and so on and Sydney
Smith was one writer of this period with
a particular penchant for such in corn
terms including for Javaris and perma
Goris the in corn controversy was the
first of several such ongoing arguments
over languages which began to erupt in
the salons of England and later on
America and among those strongly in
favor of the use of such foreign terms
were English men Thomas Eliot George PT
but also just as strongly opposed to
such opulent and obscure terms were
Thomas Wilson and John check also
spelling known as orthography
essentially was interesting to the
capture in this period because those no
generally accepted system in the
sixteenth century and most writers wrote
very phonetically so according to the
accent that is what would determine how
they spelt and other common features of
language during this period were the use
of interpret interrogative form without
an auxilary for example thank you I am
handsome instead of do you think also
double negatives were used excessively
and many scholars who revered Latin and
ancient Greek became spelling reformers
and tried to remodel English spelling on
classical patterns so H was inserted
into words like throne and author
because it was recognized that they came
from Greek by a Latin in other words
that receipt in direct and rain and
Parliament also had letters added to
give them a Latin look and by the end of
the sixteenth century
Latin was still used but hundreds of
Latin words had fallen out of use now
shifting into the 17th century the
influences of Puritanism and catholicism
as well as science had a huge impact on
english now Puritan ideas of clarity and
simplicity really influenced writing and
what you essentially see is almost a
reversal from previously the very
verbose very flowery language of the
tudor / renaissance period - now the
Puritan concepts of making language far
more simple as simple also English was
preferred to Dutch as the official
language of the new world so this is of
course in North America as well as the
Caribbean and the Bible had a huge
influence on English so although the
first English translation of the Bible
was produced as early as 13 84 by John
Wycliffe and in 1549 there was the Book
of Common Prayer that was created really
the major biblical translation that was
created at this time and that still is
very influential today is the King James
Version of the Bible which was written
in 1611 and it was the combination of
more than two centuries of efforts to
produce a Bible in the native language
of the people of England so the King
James Bible was compiled by a committee
of 54 scholars and clerics and published
in 1611 in an attempt to standardize the
plethora of new Bibles that had sprung
up over the preceding four 70 years and
it appears to be deliberately
conservative both in its vocabulary and
its grandma and it presents many forms
of which have already largely fallen out
of use or at least in the process of
dying out so for example you find
spellings of digg'd
instead of dug gapped instead of gotten
bare forbore speak for spoke and so on
also the F ending is used throughout for
third-person singular verbs
even though s was becoming much more
common in the early 17th century and ye
is used for the second person plural
pronoun rather than the more common view
the first english dictionary which is
called a table alphabetical was also
published during this time but English
school teacher Robert Corddry in 1604 so
this was of course eight years before
the first italian dictionary and 35
years before the first french dictionary
however do bear in mind that the English
dictionary wasn't the first
comprehensive and concise dictionary of
languages to be produced because it
admittedly came 800 years after the
first Arabic dictionary in nearly 1,000
years after the first sanskrit
dictionary so Corey's little book
contained 2543 of what he called hard
words
especially those borrowed from Hebrew
Greek Latin and French although it's not
actually a very reliable resource
another really key individual during
this time is Shakespeare and he had
essentially single-handedly a massive
influence in the English language so
Shakespeare took advantage of the
relative freedom and flexibility as well
as the protean nature of English at the
time and he played with the reliable
grammatical rules for example his use of
nouns as verbs adverbs adjectives and
substantive and an early instance of
this verb the fication of nouns is
phrases such as he pageants us it outs
her at harrods Herod dogged them at the
hills the good Brutus ghosted and so on
and Shakespeare had a vast vocabulary so
thirty-four thousand words by some
counts in the personally coined an
estimated two thousand neologisms some
of his neologisms include the words
leapfrog monumental castigate majestic
obscene frugal aerial brittle radiance
and so on and by some counts almost one
in ten of the words used by Shakespeare
was his own invention however not all of
these words were necessarily personally
invented by Shakespeare himself they
merely appear for the first time in many
of his published works now shifting into
the 18th century this is the period
known as the age of reason as ideas of
order and priority prevailed and
language acquired a great deal of
prestige and there was a great desire to
standardize spelling and from this time
on dictionaries came to regarded as the
arbiters of correct spelling and so
Samuel Johnson produced the dictionary
of the english language which was
published in 1755 150 years after Cory's
own dictionary and it was seen as an
impressive academic achievement on its
own white with 43,000 words and it
remained the preeminent English
dictionary until the much more
comprehensive off oxford english
dictionary was created over 150 years
later
shifting to the 19th century they grew
and renewed interest in the past and a
keen interest in the use of archaic
words and no Webster published American
Dictionary of the English language in
1828 and differences from Johnson's are
relatively few but
still notorious the most familiar of
variants on the affixes our and our e so
Webster has aw
or for example color labor theater
Center which is spelt different
differently of course we know this to be
the American spelling and there's a huge
lexical growth in this period as a
result of the British Empire's expansion
so English really travels to other
countries but equally it imports many
loanwords from these different countries
and James Murray begins to compile the
new English dictionary in 1875 however
he takes five years to reach completion
now looking at the 20th century and
beyond so English is still evolving and
it still continued to evolve so this is
due to influence from overseas so for
example the US and international English
became very dominant English also
becomes by this stage a global language
for example and computing communications
and entertainment computer technology
provides a powerful means for the
encouragement of standard written forms
with spell checking and grammar checking
and spellings today and now generally
fixed and very highly resistant to
change and even even still you'll still
sometimes find a great degree of
uncertainty and minor disagreement on
how to spell some words and most
susceptible and release resistance to
change is pronunciation which is far
more flexible however there's also
greater tolerance of regional accent in
areas where it would earlier have been a
social stigma language is also still
constantly changing but this is deplored
will rather criticized for
prescriptivists who tried to prevent
these changes however descriptivists
like david crystal and Junaid concerned
argue language change isn't really a bad
thing and crystal and his own word says
there's a widely held belief that change
must mean deterioration and decay and
standards have fallen however he
believes that change in language and
more specifically in English is
inevitable also what we're seeing in the
20th century is an American ization of
English language which is really
prevalent so for examples expression
likes 24/7 collateral damage and war
links in the UK around 3% of the
population speak in RP which is called
received pronunciation and we'll look at
this in another video where we look at
accents and dialects
now going into the reasons for language
change so that as you've seen in the
previous slides there's several reasons
which you can summarize contribute to
the evolution of English over millennia
so of course firstly it's down to
individuals such as Geoffrey Chaucer and
middle English and shakes in the 17th
century technology and the internet
which has brought a lot of neologisms
societies of course cultural changes and
shifts and attitudes requiring new lexus
for example political correctness
foreign influence so lots of loanwords
lots of words being imported but of
course also America has been hugely
influential and Hollywood specifically
through film science and new inventions
have caused new Lexus to come into
language travel trade and colonization
has brought in more new Lexus and of
course globalization and English
becoming the official language of trade
and business has contributed to this
language change so the different ways in
which language changes it's interesting
to look at how Lexus changes and we're
going to look at some definitions and
really clarify how these contribute to
English change so of course
borrowing which means loans taken from
foreign languages for example judges
come from French and opera from Latin
this of course changes English a
fixation which means adding in effects
either prefix or suffix to an existing
word for example racism and sexism
compounding as this is when two words
are combined in the entirety to make a
new word for example laptop happy hour
when it comes to social media Facebook
blending means when two words am older
together to form a new word usually by
adding the start of one word and the end
of another for example smoke mixing
smoke and fog and motel motor and hotel
conversion which means the change of
avoid class sufferings on port and
mountain a verb so for example text used
to be a noun and now it's a verb to text
when you're texting somebody on your
phone shortening or abbreviation which
means clip in part of a word for
instance omnibus has gone down to bus
and public houses being shortened to pub
acronyms which means taking initial
letters of words and making them into a
combination of pronounceable words such
as nato
NASA aides wag initialisms some words
abbreviated to initial letters for
example BBC FBI USA words also from
proper names so which words which have
been derived from names or places
synonymous with the product for example
denim which is what we identify as jeans
actually comes from the name of a place
in France and sandwich which has been
named after the Earl of Sandwich
semantic change has also been one way
that language has changed and different
things kind of contribute to semantic
change some broadening or generalization
which means the meaning of a word has
broadened so it retains its old meaning
but it takes on new meaning so for
example a mouse historically was really
referring to a tiny little animal also
frequently knows and is a pest but of
course today it's broadened to mean
computer equipment narrowing the
specialization is another term that you
need to be aware of and this is of
course the opposite of broadening so it
implies when a word becomes more
specific in its meaning but it can also
retain its original meaning for example
meat historically used to mean or food
but today it specifically means the
flesh of animals also the term girl in
the Middle Ages meant all young people
but today it refers specifically to
younger women this means the term has
been narrowed in its meaning
amelioration is another way language has
changed semantically so the word has
taken on a more pleasant or positive
meaning that then it originally held so
for example pretty in the Middle Ages
meant sly or cunning but today it means
beautiful or attractive Federations of
course the opposite of amelioration so
this is when a word takes on a negative
meaning so for instance awful means not
worthy of all meant actually worthy of
all but of course today means
exceedingly bad another term that
underwent federation gay historically
used to mean happy but now depending of
course in the cultural context you are
to the word it means homosexual and in
some cultures is the same very
negatively metaphor so this is another
way words change semantically and of
course words take on new meanings when
they began to be used metaphorically so
for example the word cow it
metaphorically means
a woman okatee means a mean-spirited
comment idioms which are words formed
from existing words but they assume a
new meaning in the specific context used
it can only be properly interpreted by
learning the context so for example in
the dog house means being in trouble and
over the moon means being overjoyed
euphemisms are also important and this
means a polite way of describing
something unpleasant embarrassing or
socially undesirable in a more
politically correct way so for example
when you say somebody's not the sharpest
tool in the box it refers to someone
who's unintelligent or the ladies room
refers to the toilet and this term is
especially used by women so now going
into attitudes towards language change
so as was mentioned before language has
evolved over millennia
however there people throughout the ages
who have expressed either as support for
this language change or who've expressed
fears that this language change has
somehow diminished the power of English
and is somehow corrupting English so
let's first start with the
prescriptivists view and now essentially
the general take of a prescriptivists is
that there are rules in language that
define how language should be used and
that mistakes result when those rules
are broken
you might hear this idea of prescriptive
the slang linguists described as
normative which means that the rules are
based on normal usage and they determine
the way things are so spelling grammar
etc and how they ought to be on the
other hand descriptivism since she
refers to the idea behind descriptive
linguists that a language is defined but
what people do with it
so descriptivists describe how language
is used systematically recording and
analyzing the endlessly change in ways
that people speak and write and they
accept that language change is
inevitable and they also accept that
it's going to change that's all if you
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[Music]
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