A Brief History of the English Language

English is a dynamic, living language with an interesting 1300-year history that can be likened to the formation of a pearl. There are four periods of English, Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Late Modern English. The grain of sand around which the pearl starts to form is the language of the Celts who occupied the British Isles prior to the 7th Century. Since then, English has endured six influential changes through which it has managed to persevere, morphing to circumstances that made it stronger and more useful to its speakers.

What we now know as English began when the Germanic tribes, the Angles (who spoke Englisc) the Saxons and the Jutes started to raid the English countryside for plunder. The Vikings brought the Old Norse language, and all of these plundering tribes brought their languages. The most significant plunder they acquired was not gold, land, or riches, but language itself. England had the last laugh as its language acquired many new words from the invaders; the languages of these four peoples had emerged as Old English, an identifiable language system that had grown from merely an oral tradition to a written one.

“The earliest records show considerable regional variation, but by the end of the tenth century the type that is now called Late West Saxon, though it was not completely homogenous, had come to serve as a generally accepted written language over most of England”

(The Riverside Chaucer, Larry D. Benson, Ed) 

We can see an example of this written language in the epic poem Beowulf, written sometime in the 10th century just prior to the French invasion.

The next major influence to shape English was the Norman Invasion when the French occupied England in 1066. French was to become the dominant, official language of commerce and the courts but it was not dominant enough to quash the young English language, still spoken by the peasantry. Instead, it grew stronger, adapting to the new influences and morphing into a more versatile language. Many suffixes and prefixes of English are from French.

By the 14th Century, the language entered its Middle English period. The Renaissance occurred, a period of time in which scholars began to explore the writings of the Greeks, facilitating the adaptation of Latin and Greek influences on the language.  Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was particularly influential, sparking a new interest in English as a legitimate language. The next major influence on English was in 1450 with the invention of the printing press. This new technology made the printed word much more accessible to common people and the language spread with more consistency. The expansion of British world trade caused more words from other languages to stream into English. 

During the turn of the 17th Century Shakespeare's mass appeal and enormous vocabulary brought the English language to every level of society. The term peanut gallery comes from Shakespeare, as that was the space directly in front of the stage where the peasants would assemble to view the plays. Shakespeare's popularity was unprecedented. Everybody enjoyed Shakespearean drama, and through its popularity, English continued to flourish. The universal appeal of English was further propelled by the 1611 publication of the King James Bible. By the mid-18th Century, English began to standardize as the first dictionary was published. The differences between American and British English began to manifest.

The Late Modern English period began in the 19th century, influenced by the newly emerging American literature. The English language had grown up, moved away from Britain, and occupied another land. Experiential, American writing became popular and the introduction of new words for English were adopted from the prevalent Native American and Spanish dialects. It was the same phenomena that occurred when the Anglo-Saxon presence in England began to adopt words in the 8th century.

The 19th century also brought the Industrial Revolution. Science and new technologies were emerging, and these developments created a need for more vocabulary. English was the perfect medium, as it was accustomed to borrowing words, prefixes and suffixes from Latin, French, Greek or wherever it could. English is the perfect language for emerging technologies.

Finally, Late Modern English brings us through the 20th century, and WWII. Everything about the world changed in 1945. The need for all nations to cooperate in a cohesive body became apparent. In order to manage such a body, a universal language was necessary. The United Nations was formed, and it adopted English as its official language. It may be that English was chosen because it was the language of the dominant economic force. Or perhaps, because of its versatility, it was the best language to use for a global community. English is not a sexy sounding language like Italian or French, but to technical people and scientists, it is a very sexy language because it has the ability to transmit specific knowledge faster than any other language. Just look at an instruction manual for a new technology, written in a dozen languages and you will see that the English portion uses fewer words to describe the same technical knowledge. English is not static. It is a living, dynamic organism unlike any other language. For this reason it will be in use for many, centuries to come.

AI Is Changing The Way We Use Language

AI is changing language sounds in pronunciation, word choice and delivery in an attempt to make speech frictionless and efficient. Pausing and intonation are aspects to speech that aren’t often considered, but to an experienced public speaker, these are elements that make up a polished delivery. Experienced speakers know that time is your friend, not your enemy. Inexperienced speakers get nervous during pausing and “negative space” while addressing a crowd. They perceive it as weakness or incompetence. They feel the need to fill every space with language, utterances or their vocal speed while talking. They have a perception that talking fast is the way to sound native. Often, students make pronunciations that sound close enough to native speech, but because they are taking too fast, the slight imperfections in their accent require more processing time for listeners. Simply slowing their speech eliminates this buffer load for listeners.    

Language is art. Some speak, some write. Not every good speaker can write well; not every writer can speak well. Speaking and writing are two different animals that meet somewhere in the middle when we convey meaning. Listening to an AI speaker or reading an AI post is like the difference between holding a mass produced manufactured pot, or holding a handmade pot thrown on a wheel. The beauty lies in the imperfections, what the Japanese call wabi-sabi, nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.

AI posts are the result of (and cater to) algorithms, which eliminate outliers. AI speech is for the AI machine, not for the human listener. Our speech patterns are as personally identifiable as our finger prints. We need to teach these characteristics to our students. How a learner uses language has as much to do with “correct” usage as it does with that student’s personal style. It is difficult for me as a teacher to not impose my style of speech on a student.

And now we have the imposition of AI style to contend with.

English is a Tonal Language

Proper intonation by foreign speakers is a major stumbling block for English learners. Many students pronounce every word perfectly, but their intonation is terrible and their pausing is random; often inappropriate, and it's hard to understand them. Other students don't pronounce their vocabulary well but they understand the different characteristics of natural speech in terms of reductions, linking and intonation. While they're not saying each individual word perfectly, their use within sentences is perfect. They understand the linking, they understand the pausing, they use their intonation to get the maximum impact of effectively conveyed meaning. Using correct intonation is like adding an entire book’s worth of new vocabulary words. English isn't considered a tonal language, but it's far more tonal than people realize.

Don't Let Your Classes Get in the Way of Your Education

When I was in college, I had a mantra “Don't let your classes get in the way of your education”.

 I learned more in the student clubs on campus than I did in the classes on campus. I became a member of the radio station, where I served on the executive board and produced a radio show that’s still on the air 30 years later. I became a member of the student newspaper, where I served on the executive board and wrote a weekly column. And I got involved with the student Government Association.  I learned more about everything, just with those simple interactions in those various clubs and organizations. My experiences with those clubs is what I learned in college that had the most meaningful impact. It wasn’t what I learned in the classroom. So I tell people all the time, "Don't let your classes get in the way of your education."

 Now that I'm teaching pronunciation to ESL students, I kind of have the same mantra, "Don't let your lessons get in the way of your students' education”. When I have a new student, I ask them a couple of key questions. I ask them, Where are you? Where are you from? What do you do? and How long have you been speaking English? With that information, I have a springboard to start conversations with them. I try focus on a connection with my students through popular culture, fiction, movies, hobbies or travel.  I always try to have a little bit of banter with them before we do our lessons. That's where the rubber hits the road. People can ace the practice, they can ace the reading, but when you start talking to them and you try to get them to create language, they sometimes they fail miserably. Free talk is where you can identify these issues. If they're failing miserably, then I am failing miserably.

 Whenever I interact with students online, I try to have as much free talk as possible, because that's when I can tell if they are able to speak, listen, and pronounce English well. So, don't let your lessons get in the way of your student’s education. Your students need to learn more than what the lessons provide. They need to be able to interact with you naturally, in English.