Language

• External history of English

  Factors influencing its development: economic, political, social, cultural
• Internal history of English

  Development of forms and structures: phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic
• Language is the most remarkable tool invented and it makes other inventions/things possible
• Language distinguishes humankind from the rest of the animal world
• Language is the great machine tool which makes human culture possible
• Humans are tool-making animals
• Do you think animals have a language system?
• Written language is secondary and derivative
• There are communities that have speech without writing
• Which came first: Written language, or Spoken language?
• 7,139 living languages
• 4,065 have developed writing systems
• 3,074 are likely unwritten
• Examples of languages


  • Kawi/Kavi, Javanese, LCI (Laguna Copperplate Inscriptions), Surat Mangyan, Bamboo carvings, Baybayin evolution
• Languages sometimes die out due to competition from another language
• Example of a language that died out: Norn (a Germanic language related to Old Norse)
• Languages can be revived after dying out
• Example of a revived language: Cornish language (now recognized as an official language of the UK)
• People still speak dead languages in their changed/developed forms
• Examples of languages that changed from dead to modern forms

  • Classical Latin to Modern Italian, Classical Greek to Modern Greek, Old Icelandic to Modern Icelandic
• All living languages change, though the rate of change varies
• Linguistic Change in English


  Extent of change in English language through different periods
• Passage from the gospel according to Luke, comparing 20th Century Translation (New English Bible, 1961) and King James Bible (1611)
• King James Bible (1611): 'Now his elder sonne was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musicke & dauncing, and he called one of the seruants, and asked what these things meant. And he said vnto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calfe, because he hath receiued him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not goe in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, Loe, these many yeeres doe I serue thee neither transgressed I at any time thy commandement, and yet thou neuer gauest mee a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: but as soone as this thy sonne was come, which hath deuoured thy liuing with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calfe. And he said vnto him, Sonne, thou art euer with me, and all that I haue is thine. It was meete that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is aliue againe: and was lost, and is found.'
• liuing


  income, property, possessions
• Grammar examples


  • noun-plural endings in -is: thyngis, hooris
  • verb-plural endings in -en or -n: weren, ben
  • verb past-tense endings in -ide: clepide, axide
  • past participles ending in -n: comen, founden
• Spelling and Pronunciation


  • ʒ - pronounced as [y] or the modern gh or [ç]
  • u and v are used interchangeably
  • i instead of j: ioye instead of joy
  • Spelling is different with the pronunciation: whanne - 'when', oon - 'one'
• Grammar examples


  • æcer - 'field' to on æcere
  • þæt hūs - 'the house' to þām hūse - 'to the house'
• Word Order


  • V–S–O: 'then called he a servant'; 'Then said he...'
  • S-O-V: 'when he the house approached'; 'because he him safe received'
• References used are from Charles Barber's book "The English Language: A Historical Introduction", de los Santos' research on Philippine Indigenous Writing Systems, and Ethnologue's information on unwritten languages
• Prepared by: Chessa Pae N. Faustino
• Speakers of Proto-Germanic formed a relatively homogeneous cultural and linguistic set of groups in the north of Europe


  Beginning of the Christian era
• The people who spoke Proto-Germanic languages are called Germani by Roman authors
• Tacitus described the Germani in a text called Germania in AD 98
• Early Germanic Society


  • The Germani lived in scattered settlements in the woody and marshy country of north-western Europe
  • No cities, far apart wooden houses, agriculture (flocks, grains crops), no horticulture, changing ploughlands yearly, distribution of land to cultivators (rank system)
• Social Organization


  • Greater relatives have greater influence, kings are chosen for birth, chiefs are chosen for valor, major affairs are consulted in the community, chiefs are attended by companions, dislike for peace (war=rewards)
• Social Life


  • Warriors idle at home (eating, drinking, gambling), house and fieldwork left to women, weaklings, and slaves, hospitable to strangers and acquaintances, love for drinking leads to quarrels, monogamous with women valued
• Appearances


  • Blue eyes, reddish hair, huge bodies, short cloak/animal skin, linen undergarments for women, few breastplates/helmets due to little iron
• Religion


  • Worship of gods with human or animal sacrifices, gods like Woden, Thunor, and Tiw glossed as Mercury, Hercules, and Mars, casting store by auspices and casting of lots
• Only form of recorded history is their ancient songs telling of the earth-born god Tuisto and his son Mannus, ancestor of the whole Germanic race; various sons of Mannus are ancestors of different Germanic tribes