History of English (resume)

The origin of English

Like the rest of the world, the English civilization starting from ancient times. The English native including of Mesopotamia race, that has characterized black hair and long arms. The beginning of English civilization be marked while the Celtic tribes came to England in the bronze age, their language is celt language and it is derived from Indo - European language. A Celtic tribe consists of two divisions. Namely, Goidelic branch and Britannic branch, and the word Britain probably derived from it..

And then at 55 BC, Julius Caesar did for the invasion of Britain, which was known as the Roman Empire. However, the raid did not quite succeed, they are only able to control the southeast of Britain. In A.D 43, the Roman empire came to fight for the second time under the command of Claudius, with the knowledge of previous experience of Julius Caesar, they carried out the attack by bringing 40,000 soldiers and within 3 years they managed to control Britain. The Celtic tribes were forced by Roman, driven to The Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

For more than three hundred years of roman empire occupied Britain, there are many cultural assimilation occurs, such as tradition, house style, and language. Latin is the official language of the Roman became dominant in Britain, especially in commerce, law, and the nobility. Over 410 years later, the big problems occur  in the center of Roman government, so the Roman troops in Britain withdrawn. It was used by the Teutonic tribes, and in 449 AD they tried to invade Britain and successfully to take over it.

The old Period

A. External change

The Teutonic tribes which conquered England were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Their language is Germanic, and then there were language assimilation between them. The word “England” probably is derived from the name of  the angles tribe, the Angles or Anglia (the land of Anglia) and the angles language is Engliscs (Become English now).

In the 9th and 10th centuries, there was an attack from Scandinavia carried out by the Viking, almost all regions of Britain brought under control, only the kingdom of  Wessex (one of Angles tribe 's kingdom) which still survives. During the Viking England occurs mixing mastering the language with their language. They use language that is often called a Norse or old Norse

After a time, the kingdom of Wessex that led by King Alfred succeed to defeat and expel the Vikings from England.

B. Internal change

Based on the work developed in this period, such as Beowulf, it is known that the writing in this period using the roman alphabet and Runic alphabet written on wood and stone carving.

The other old Characterized in the period are written is not spelled Separately and Great Vowel Shift not taken place yet, and using a lot of inflectional to indicate grammatical function.

The old English period used four dialects, those are Northumbrian, Mercian, West - sexon, and Kentis.

The Middle Period

A. External change

This period was marked by the death of  Edward de Confessor, he is the  kings of Wessex, Because the king Edward didn't have a descent, so the substitute of  the king is determined by a council called the Witan. And then the council appointed Harold son of Godwin as the next king. But it is opposed by Haral Hadrada (the king of Norway) and William Conquere (Duke of Normandy), they feel entitled because they still have a cognation.

Then came the attacks of Haral hadrada, but they were repelled by British troops, and the name of this battle is the battle of Stamford bridge. And then in 1066 AD was a war between king William and King Harold (Battle of Hastings), King William succeeded to take over the England

King William Conquere, an indigenous people of Normandy, so many government officials chosen from the Normandy people. It makes the French language became dominant in Britain, the result is the French language used as the language of the upper classes and English as the language of the lower classes. At the end of the 14th century English popular again but with nearly half of it, are the addition of the French language

B. Internal Change

This period is characterized by the invasion of Normandy, the results are a lot of changes in the structure of the English language. The change of this period is affected English in both its grammar and its vocabulary The English grammar reduced from a high inflected language to an extremely analytic one, and in English vocabulary involve the loss of a large part of the old English word - stock and the addition of thousand of words from France and Latin. At the beginning of this period, English is a language the which must be learned like a foreign tongue.

Several texts in middle English date from before 1300, and most middle English texts is available as manuscripts; they are written on vellum before paper available sometime in the 12^th century. The other trend in middle English is consonant deletion, as in the case of [g], [h], [w], and [l], and vowel shifting like looking at Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

The Early Modern English

A. External Change

Early Modern English occurred between a 15^th and 17^th century, marked by the Rennaisance era where there is freedom of thought, fostered scientific, and humanistic world view, and in language that means freedom in creating and borrowing words.

In 1476 Caxton managed to find a printing press, and at that time the spelling, grammar and dialect repaired. At that time also printed a few books, so many works and developing leaders in this period, like Shakespeare and Elizabeth.

B. Internal Change

In early modern English, capital Letter are used more frequently than in middle English, where they only occur at the beginning of the line, if at all. Shakespeare does capitalize noun and sometimes adjectives. On  the other sides, GVS (Great Vowel Shift) began introducing in this period.

The Early Modern English period is one of great freedom, not only from grammatical constraints, but also when it comes to the creation of words

The Late Modern English

A. External change

This period starts from the 17th century, and is marked by several important events such as the civil war in 1642, the republican proclaimed in 1649, and the monarchy is restored in 1660. While the Renaissance was Characterized by freedom, this period is characterized by the search for stability, correctness, and standardization.

In the 18th century, England is famous as the Enlightenment era that Characterized by reliance on science and reasons, and concern for humanity. In the 19th century, the Romanticism era emerging, it was characterized by literature genre are nature, mysticism, dreams, and emotion. In the 20^th century is characterized by revolution in art (become moresurrelism, expressionism, minimalism, and performance art), two world wars, and many technological and medical advances.

B. Internal change

In around 1700 English becomes more recognizable for speakers of modern English. The spelling is relatively stable and changes such as the GVS are nearing completion in many varieties. And then the corrected pronunciation also becomes a major concern in the modern English period. 

The main differences between early modern English and late modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors:

1.      Industrial evolution revolution and technology created a need for new words.

2.      The British empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth’s surface (65% non-European countries is British), and English adopted foreign words from many countries.