English Language - Language Change

• Angles, Saxons and Jutes

  • When they invaded they brought large quantities of their language with them, incorportating them into Old English (incl. words for family, verbs like 'go,' 'drink,' and prepositions)
• Vikings

  • Simplified grammatical system, and bought neologisms such as 'sky,' 'skull,' and 'anger'
• Normans

  • The invasion of the Normans, and subsequent domination led to French terms in the language
• The great vowel shift

  • Long vowels moved from the front of the mouth to further back, sounds become more 'diphthongs,' ('mouse' originally pronounced 'moose')
• Inkhorn Controversy

  • Concern and upset due to high numbers of 'Inkhorn' terms being imported from languages such as; Greek, Latin...
• Shakespeare

  • Introduced 400+ terms into the English language
• Samuel Johnson

  • First English dictionary in 1755, containing 40,000 words/ spellings
  • Deemed biassed
  • He admitted that attempting to control the language was like trying to "Lash the wind"
• Robert Lowth

  • 1762 Grammar book
  • Suggested multiple negation was incorrect, as it had the same effect as maths (turns positive)
• Académíe Français

  • Organisation that 'approves' words into the French language, in an attempt to keep it 'pure'
• Johnathan Swift

  • Pamphlet; "An proposal for correcting, improving and to acertain the English language"
• Industrial Revolution

  • Rise in industries created mass migration and new regional dialects developed
• Prescriptivist

  • Language should be preserved by rules
• Descriptivist

  • Linguistic change is enriching and natural
• Jean Aitchingson's metaphors - Prescriptivist views

  • Crumbling castle - English is slowly decaying, used to be beautiful
  • Damp spoon - Changed are a result of laziness and disrespect
  • Infectious disease - Change spreads like a disease, should be avoided
• Halliday's functional theory

  • Language changes as it's user's needs do, a good example is the rise of technology
• Bailey's wave model

  • Change begins in geographical centre, and ripples out, the closer you are to the centre the quicker you will adopt change
• David Crystal's tide metaphor

  • Language is like the tide, tide brings things in and washes them away; it's natural
• Technological change

  • Increases in technology has broadened communication, added more abbreviations, acronyms, emoji.....
• Humphrys

  • Text talk is ruining our language, and leading to a lowering of standards