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.
