INTRODUCTION A L'HISTOIRE DE LA LANGUE ANGLAISE

J. DOR

Bibliography:
Charles BARBER, The English Language. A Historical Introduction, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, (1993 or latest edition).
3
The Internal History of the Language.......................................................................... 3
1. The Pre-English Period........................................................................................... 3
A. PREHISTORY ........................................................................................................ 4
(1) STONE AGE.......................................................................................................... 4
(2) BRONZE AGE ( 2000 - 700/500 BC)..................................................................... 4
(3) IRON AGE (c 700 until the Roman Conquest, AD 43)........................................... 4
B. CELTIC BRITAIN.................................................................................................... 4
I. Insular Celtic Group ................................................................................................. 4
a) " Gaelic languages " ............................................................................................... 4
b) " British languages "................................................................................................ 4
II. The Celtic Influence on the language...................................................................... 5
III. Culture and religion................................................................................................ 5
IV. Britons and Romans .............................................................................................. 5
C. ROMAN BRITAIN 5
I. The Roman Conquest 5
A. Military Conquest.................................................................................................... 5
B. The Roman Colony................................................................................................. 5
II. The Picts and the Scots .......................................................................................... 5
The Picts..................................................................................................................... 6
III. The Influence on the language............................................................................... 6
D. THE GERMANIC SETTLEMENTS......................................................................... 6
The Anglo-Saxon Invasion and Settlement................................................................. 6
2. OLD ENGLISH........................................................................................................ 7
1. Language of the invaders ....................................................................................... 7
2. Written OE .............................................................................................................. 7
3. The OE dialects ...................................................................................................... 7
4. Literary Standards................................................................................................... 8
5. Major Linguistic Features........................................................................................ 8
6. The Scandinavian Invasions ................................................................................... 8
Historical Survey......................................................................................................... 8
The Settlements of the Danes in England................................................................... 8
Linguistic Aspect......................................................................................................... 8
Scandinavian Loan-words........................................................................................... 9
3. MIDDLE ENGLISH.................................................................................................. 9
1. The Norman Conquest............................................................................................ 9
Historical Background ................................................................................................. 9
Other political and historical data.............................................................................. 10
French Influence on the English Language............................................................... 10
1. Main Stages:......................................................................................................... 10
2. Transformations of the English Language under French Influence....................... 11
III. Vocabulary........................................................................................................... 11
3. Resurgence of English.......................................................................................... 11
2. Latin Borrowings in ME ......................................................................................... 12
3. Rise of Standard English ...................................................................................... 12
1. Situation in the 14thC............................................................................................ 12
Short historical survey of the linguistic situation of London....................................... 12
Standardisation......................................................................................................... 12
4. EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (1500-1700) ............................................................ 13
1. The printing revolution and Standard English ....................................................... 13
2. Abundance of evidence for the history of English ................................................. 13
3. Sounds.................................................................................................................. 13
4. " The Renaissance " ............................................................................................. 13
5. Grammar............................................................................................................... 13
5. MODERN ENGLISH ............................................................................................. 14
Rise of Prescriptive grammar.................................................................................... 14
Development of education ........................................................................................ 14
Lexicon ..................................................................................................................... 14
Grammar................................................................................................................... 14
6. WORLD ENGLISH................................................................................................ 14
I. The Celtic Countries .............................................................................................. 15
1. Scotland................................................................................................................ 15
2. Ireland................................................................................................................... 15
3. Wales.................................................................................................................... 15
II. Extraterritorial Varieties......................................................................................... 15
1. North America....................................................................................................... 15
A. United States........................................................................................................ 15
B. Canada................................................................................................................. 16
2. Australia................................................................................................................ 16
3. New Zealand......................................................................................................... 16
4. South Africa .......................................................................................................... 16
5. South Asia............................................................................................................. 16
6. West, East and Southern Africa............................................................................ 16
7. South-East Asia and the South Pacific ................................................................. 16
a) South-East Asia.................................................................................................... 16
b) The South Pacific.................................................................................................. 16
English as a World Language ................................................................................... 16

The Internal History of the Language

Traditionally divided into 4 periods
(1. The Pre-English Period)
2. Old English (OE) : 450 - 700/1100 Arrival of the Anglo-Saxons ; a few scattered inscriptions
written in the runic alphabet.
First OE texts : from around 700 (glossaries ; a few inscriptions and poems).
Many manuscripts have been burnt, and very little material remains from this period. E.g.
Beowulf (a single copy preserved : made around 1000, probably 250 years after it was
composed).
Most extant OE texts were written after King Alfred's reign (849-99).
3. Middle English (ME) : 1100- 1500
The Battle of Hastings (1066) marks the beginning of a new era
4. Early Modern English (eModE) : 1500-1700
5. Modern English (ModE) : after 1700, to the present day
(6. World English)

1. The Pre-English Period

A. PREHISTORY
Stone Age
- Old Stone Age
- New Stone Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
B. CELTIC BRITAIN
C. ROMAN BRITAIN
D. THE GERMANIC SETTLEMENTS
A. PREHISTORY

(1) STONE AGE

(a) Old Stone Age : Paleolithic Until 5000 BC.Very wild life.
(b) New Stone Age : Neolithic 5000-2000 BC." Mediterranean type ".Domestic animals and
primitive form of agriculture. Buried their dead. Megaliths. Large passage graves ; burial mounds
or barrows (" long barrows ") ; henges.

(2) BRONZE AGE ( 2000 - 700/500 BC)

Emergence of first urban civilisations ; developed food-producing strategies and social systems.
Gold and, more widely, bronze ; bronzes were buried with the dead and offered to the gods.
Circular burial mounds : " round barrows ". Large monuments (huge collective tombs and
religious monuments : e.g. Avebury and Stonehenge). Until c. 1300 : moon and sun ; later :
more related to fertility (e.g. agrarian festivals).
(3) IRON AGE (c 700 until the Roman Conquest, AD 43)

Population increase. New settlements throughout the country. Emergence of extended families
and tribal entities ; increasing complexity in the social and economic systems ; quantity and
variety of artefacts in circulation. Arrival of the Celts in the British Isles : c. 700 ? c. 400 ? Several
waves. The Period from the 5th to the 1st BC is designated La Tè ne Period.

B. CELTIC BRITAIN

I. Insular Celtic Group

They were increasingly driven back to the western and northern peripheries. Now restricted to
border areas. The OE word Wealh 'foreigner' came to mean both 'Celt, Welshman' and 'servant,
slave'.

a) " Gaelic languages "

- Irish (Ireland). Early Ogam inscriptions (5th and 6th Cs AD) ; Irish-speaking communities are
called Gaeltacht.
- Scottish Gaelic, Scots (Northern and Western coasts of Scotland and the offshore islands).
Introduced by Irish settlers in the 5th C AD.
- Manx (Isle of Man).

b) " British languages "

- Breton (The Celtic language of Brittany ; was introduced by migrants from the SW of Britain in
the 4th-6th Cs AD)
- Cornish (Cornwall ; the language died out in the 18thC)
- Cumbrian (Northern England and Southern Scotland ; extinct)
- Welsh, Cymric (Wales).
II. The Celtic Influence on the language

The major impact has been through the names of places and rivers
Kent (from Canti) ; Devon (from Dumnonii)
- names of towns : London ; the first syllable of Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester,
Worcester, etc.
- names of rivers : Thames, Avon, Exe, Usk
- many words meaning 'hill'
- also : cumb, 'deep valley' ; torr 'high rock, peak'

III. Culture and religion

- Superb insular La Tè ne art .Often combines relief and linear ornaments (esp. tendril scrolls :
the tendrils sprout into leaves, often with bird heads). Red enamel.Weapons ; mirrors ;
household goods ; torcs.
- Great nature gods (thunder, horse, fertility, water, etc.) ; votive offerings in rivers and lakes ;
sacred groves ; cult of the human head.
- later : were identified with Roman gods (Interpretatio Romana)

IV. Britons and Romans

c. 100 BC - 409 AD
Pax Romana (Roman peace).

C. ROMAN BRITAIN

I. The Roman Conquest

A. Military Conquest

- Caesar's expeditions in 55 and 54 BC.

- Claudius invaded Britain in 43 AD.
Within a few years his military campaigns brought England under Roman rule. Stout resistance
in the North, but they reached the Solway and Tyne between 78 and 85. Construction of
Hadrian's Wall in the 120's. Construction of Antonine Wall (after 142 ; abandoned c 163).
They never penetrated far into the mountains of Wales and Scotland. Never in Ireland.
Hadrian's wall : the NW frontier to the Roman empire for 300 years.
- End of Roman rule: in 409, Britons expelled remaining Roman officials. Confused period of
alliances and wars between groups of Romano-Britons and " barbarians ". AD 410 the last
legions set sail.

B. The Roman Colony

- Towns were fundamental to Roman civilization ; often organized out of pre-existing

settlements.
Fora (public building) ; baths ; temples ; theatres ; amphitheatres ; markets ; private
houses ; town walls
- Villas (for an é lite minority) in the countryside
- Construction of " Roman roads " : Watling Street, Stanegate, Dere Street, Fosse Street.

II. The Picts and the Scots

The Picts

" The painted ones ". The main northern enemies of Roman Britain. Not a homogeneous ethnic
group (incorporated all pre-Celtic inhabitants of Scotland). Later Pictish kingdom included some
Celtic peoples. United with Scots c 843. The Scots Came from Ireland. Ruled the Western Isles
and adjacent mainland of Scotland.

III. The Influence on the language

Major influence throughout the history of the language.

Three waves of Latin influence on OE :
a) Contacts between the Romans and the Angles, Saxons and Jutes before they invaded
England in the mid 5th C
b) borrowed a few additional words from the British Celts
c) Introduction of Christianity - St Patrick converted Ireland in the early 5th C. The first Celtic
mission was that of Saint Columba (563) ; Celtic churches were established in Lowland Scotland
and Northumbia. Monastic communities ; importance of learning.
- Arrival of St Augustine and his Roman missionaries (597).
Rapid growth of monastic centres ; extensive cultural influence ; introduced literacy ; many Latin
manuscripts (especially the Bible). When the monks started writing their own vernacular, the
Latin alphabet replaced the Germanic futhark. Latin did not replace the Celtic languages as it did
in Gaul. Its use was confined to members of the upper classes and the inhabitants of towns.
Hundreds of new words were borrowed ; many derived forms (e.g. prefixes and suffixes).
A few examples :
(a) military and administrative vocabulary : camp, mile, street (Latin via strata), wall (Latin
vallum)
(b) Christian influence abbot, bishop, minster, mass, school, noon
(c) domestic life dish (Lat. discus), wine, mussel, sock, cook, kitchen
(d) place-names colonia (Lincoln) ; castra (-caster/ -chester) ; portus (-port) ; vicus (-wick/-wich)
etc.

D. THE GERMANIC SETTLEMENTS

The Anglo-Saxon Invasion and Settlement

The English language made its first appearance on the British shores when the Angles, Saxons
and Jutes, plus some Frisians, arrived there from the plains and forests of the Low Countries.
They disturbed an indigenous Celtic-speaking civilisation which, within perhaps a couple of
centuries, was ousted from all of the Lowland Zone (except for a few scattered enclaves), and
was henceforth confined to the Highland Zone, eventually splitting -on account of continued
Anglo-Saxon penetration- into three geographically separate areas: roughly present-day Devon
and Cornwall; Wales; and Cumbria (a part of SW Scotland and NW England). [NB another
branch of Celtic was being spoken in northern Scotland and throughout Ireland, see supra]
The invasion started about the year 449. For more than a hundred years bands of conquerors
and settlers migrated from their continental homes in the region of Denmark and the Low
Countries and tried to establish themselves in Britain. The traditional account of the Germanic
invasions goes back to Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (completed in 731)
and to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Bede records these tribes were the Angles, Jutes and
Saxons. When the Romans withdrew in 410 the Celts found themselves unable to keep resist
the invasions of the Picts and Scots. Since the Romans could no longer help them, Vortigern
(one of the Celtic leaders) entered into an agreement with the Jutes, whereby Hengest and
Horsa and their Jutish warbands were to assist the Celts in driving out the Picts and Scots and
to receive as their reward the Isle of Thanet. The place of origin of the Jutes was the north of the
Danish peninsula; they also had affinities with the Frisians.
But the Jutes, having recognised the advantages of living in England, arrived in large numbers.
They drove the Celts out of Kent and settled there, in the Isle of Wight and part of southern
Hampshire. Their example was soon followed by migrations of other continental tribes: the
Saxons settled in the areas which still bear their name: Sussex, Wessex, Middlesex and Essex.
Finally, in the middle of the 6th C, the Angles (from what is now Denmark) occupied the
remaining territory between the Thames and the Scottish Lowlands. These three distinctive
tribes spoke three different dialects, which accounts for the dialectal differences which later
appeared in English.

2. OLD ENGLISH

Britain in the early days is a geographical notion, not a politically unified kingdom or nation-state.
Seven independent kingdoms : Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Kent and East
Anglia. Continual conflicts with the surviving Celtic peoples but also between the English
kingdoms themselves. Northumbria was dominant in the 7th C, Mercia in the 8th, Wessex from
the early 9th until the Norman Conquest (1066). The distribution of surviving records (including
cultural, and linguistic evidence) partly reflects these patterns of dominance.

1. Language of the invaders

The invaders spoke a Germanic language. It was a West Germanic (WG) dialect related to
others (Old Frisian, Old Saxon and Old High German). The West Germanic dialects were part of
a larger Germanic family, which included the Scandinavian dialects (Swedish, Norwegian,
Danish and Icelandic) and Gothic. The Germanic family itself is part of one of the great families
of languages, known as Indo European (IE). The seven kingdoms were partly linguistic entities
(used different dialects).
2. Written OE

The earliest Anglo-Saxons were not literate, apart from their use of a very ancient form of
angular script, common to the Germanic peoples and known as runes : they were carved on
stone, wood, and iron, and were used for magical purposes. They continued to be used well into
Christian times, as, e.g. on Ruthwell Cross and the Franks Casket.
A rival mode of writing was introduced into England by Irish missionaries. They converted the
Anglo-Saxons to Christianity and taught them the Roman alphabet. In most cases they borrowed
a Latin letter to represent each sound; some of the sounds did not exist in Latin, so they used
two old runes, thorn (voiced and unvoiced) and wynn ; they also took Irish Latin eth and put a
stroke through it to express th-sounds as well; they also adopted the Latin digraph ae, called it
ash and gave it its specific OE value.
Most of the OE corpus is written in the West Saxon (WS) dialect, reflecting the cultural and
political importance of this area in the 10th C.

3. The OE dialects

Our earliest evidence for OE as a distinct WG dialect comes from the new form of the OE runic
alphabet, together with eighth- and ninth- century manuscripts from various areas of England,
especially, at this early period, from Northumbria and Mercia.
1) Anglian, with two main varieties:
(a) Northumbrian (North of the Humber). Political supremacy in the late 7th C ; the north became
a cultural centre with several monasteries (notably Jarrow and Wearmouth ; the work of Bede) ;
(b) Mercian (in the Midlands, between the Thames and the Humber). Leadership in the early 8th;
Offa's Dyke (roughly, along the Welsh border) [King Offa: died in 796] ; the Vikings (see under)
have destroyed almost all the linguistics documents ;
2) Kentish (mainly in SW England). The dialect spoken in the area of Jutish settlement, i.e.
mainly Kent and the Isle of Wight ; very little extant material ;
3) West Saxon (roughly: South of the Thames, ; the area became known as Wessex). The only
dialect in which there is an extensive collection of texts ; however, modern Standard English
does not derive from West Saxon, but from Mercian - the dialect spoken around London when
the city became powerful, see under.
4. Literary Standards

1) In the later Anglo-Saxon period (9th), prominence of King Alfred's Wessex [King Alfred: 871-
901]. King Alfred wanted to create a vernacular culture and gathered an international team of
scholars; with their help he made and circulated English translations of important Latin works
(e.g. Gregory the Great's Cura pastoralis, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy). West Saxon
became a literary standard into which writings in other dialects tended to be translated for
official or literary purposes (e.g. Beowulf, which had originally been composed in Anglian
dialects; it was translated into WS in about the year 1000).
2) The Benedictine Revival of the late 10th century was led by Winchester churchmen; it inspired
many vernacular liturgical and devotional writings. There was a deliberate attempt to establish
standards for spelling and vocabulary. As a result of their literary activities (especially Aelfric : his
writings reflect his classical tastes), a new series of Latin loan-words was introduced).

5. Major Linguistic Features

Major differences between OE and Modern English

1. Spelling
2. Pronunciation
3. Syntax. While Modern English statements have a fixed order (SVO), OE could have : SVO,
OSV, OVS,
and S...V, and VS.
4. OE relied mainly on inflections to indicate relationships expressed in ModE by word order and
prepositions. Articles, nouns, pronouns and adjectives were declined (4 cases : nominative,
genitive, accusative, dative). Strong and weak verbs.
5. Vocabulary : mostly native Germanic. Did not borrow many loan-words : relied on a process of
lexical construction using native elements : lots morphologically related words. Also many loan
translations (e.g. anhorn for unicornis, foresetnys for praepositio).
6. The Scandinavian Invasions

Historical Survey

In the late 8th century there was a new wave of Northern invasions (the first wave had been the
Angles, Jutes and Saxons): the Vikings. Their invasion continued for some 200 years. After a
number of plundering attacks upon towns and monasteries near the coast (they sacked the
wealthy abbeys of the north , notably Lindisfarne and Jarrow), they wanted to conquer the
country and to settle there. They overcame Northumbria, then Mercia and East Anglia. (e.g. York
became a Viking city in 867). Then they threatened Wessex; but in 878 English victory at
Ethandun (Edington, Wiltshire) under King Alfred ; the Danes recognised Alfred's sovereignty
over Wessex (Treaty of Wedmore). The country was divided into two parts: Scandinavian
colonisation of all the English territories lying north and east of Watling Street (leading from
London to Chester). The area is known as Danelaw, because it was subject to Danish law).
From 878 to 1042, political adjustment and assimilation. King Alfred's successors gradually won
back most of the Danelaw. Brilliant victory of the English in the battle of Brunanburh (937), but
followed by a new wave of violent invasions. In 991, Battle of Maldon (Essex coast): the English
were defeated. The English king was forced into exile, the Danes seized the throne and England
was ruled by Danish kings for the next 25 years. Cnut (Canute) was king not only of England,
but also of Danemark and of Norway. The Danish royal line expired in 1042, and the throne
passed back to the English. Edward the Confessor became king, but died without issue in 1066.
A problem of succession rose, and William Duke of Normandy (also called William the
Conqueror, and William the Bastard) was eventually crowned king (Battle of Hastings in 1066 ;
coronation on Christmas Day of the same year).

The Settlements of the Danes in England

Settlement of large numbers of Scandinavians in England. Most of the new inhabitants were
Danes and settled in the Danelaw, but there was also a large presence of Norwegians in the
NW. The Danes did not drive out local population, but settled in the midst of it. Many farmers
intermarried with the English, and the amalgamation of the two peoples was greatly facilitated by
their close kinship. Many " Danish towns " (e.g. York, Lincoln, Derby) were populated by
Englishmen as well : mixed population.
Linguistic Aspect

In fact, both groups spoke a language derived from PG (Scandinavian, from North-Germanic;
English, from WG).
The two languages were fairly similar and, frequently, must have been mutually intelligible
especially between Anglian and Old Danish). Large extent of bilingualism. There was an
extensive interaction of the two languages upon each other, and a very high number of
Scandinavian elements were introduced into English.
It is often difficult to identify words borrowed from Old Norse. However, there are a few
distinctive features:
a) PG sk
While ON had preserved the PG value of sk, OE had palatalised it to sh : hence skirt, sky vs.
shirt, ship
b) PG k
While ON had preserved the PG value, OE had palatalised it to : hence dike vs. ditch
c) PG g
While ON had preserved the PG value, OE had palatalised it to y : hence get, give vs. yield
d) PG ai
Became ei in ON, vs. long a in OE : hence ME hail vs. hale
e) PG z
While ON had preserved z, West Germanic had r : raise vs. rear.

Scandinavian Loan-words

Extensive borrowings ; some of the commonest words came into the language at that time. In
most cases they are not recorded until the early 12th C.
1. Place-names
A very large number of settlements with Danish names appeared in England, especially in the
Danelaw. Over 600 places end in -by (the Scandinavian word for 'farm') : Derby, Grimsby,
Rugby. Many contain the elements -thorp ('village'), -thwaite ('clearing') and -toft ('homestead').
2. Personal names
The Scandinavian influence in the north and east is very clear, especially in Yorkshire and north
Lincolnshire. Notably all the family names in -son (Johnson, Henderson.
3. grammatical words
Normally such words are resistant (cf " scale of adoptability " : the most borrowable words are
nouns and adjectives)
- personal pronouns : they, them, their have replaced OE hie, hiera, hem.
- in the verb to be, the OE form sindon has been replaced by are.
- spread of the ending in -s in the present tense.
- replacement of the ending of the present participle (-end or -ind) by -and (now replaced by -
ing).
4. Nouns, adjective, verbs
A large number of duplicate words arose. Four major subsequent developments :
a) the native word was ousted by the Old Norse (ON) synonym (often after a long period of
coexistence and " rivalry ") : egg, sister, silver, to die, to take, to cut ;
b) the native word stayed : path, sorrow, few, bench ;
c) in several cases both words have been retained : each of them developed a distinctive
meaning (= doublets) :
dike/ ditch, hale/ whole, raise/ rear, skirt/ shirt, scatter/ shatter. Sometimes one form has become
standard, and the other regional : kirk/ church ;
d) sometimes the English word adopted the ON meaning : with (in OE with meant 'against'
5. Grammar and syntax
In many words OE and ON differed chiefly in their inflectional endings and in their syntax : they
led to confusion.
In trying to understand each other, the two peoples were hindered by the endings ; hence they
tended to discard or merge them.
- acceleration of the process of inflectional decay (the English language was set to develop from
a synthetic language to an analytical language) ;
- development of the ending in -s in the present tense ;
- replacement of the ending of the present participle (-end or -ind) by -and (now replaced by -
ing).
3. MIDDLE ENGLISH

Of course the division between OE and ME is arbitrary; the dates are approximate. One of the
major criteria applied to the division between Old, Middle and Modern English is morphology [OE
is the period of full inflections (nama, caru),ME of levelled inflections (naame, caare), and ModE
of lost inflections (naam, caar)], conventionally, the beginning of ME can be set between 1100
and 1150, while that of ModE is generally connected with the introduction of printing in England
in the late 1470s.

1. The Norman Conquest

Historical Background

In the middle of the 9th C, just as the Danes were coming to Britain, other Scandinavian Vikings
invaded continental Europe. They settled in the north of France, especially in the area around
Rouen in Normandy. There are striking historical parallels between England and France. Both
were originally Celtic countries that were Romanised. Both were invaded by WG tribes (in
France: the Franks), and later by Scandinavian pirates. But there is a fundamental difference in
the matter of language and customs. The Franks (blood-brothers of the Anglo-Saxons) not only
merged with the earlier peoples, but gave up their Germanic tongue in favour of the vulgar Latin
used by these inhabitants, while the Northmen who turned into Normans did the same when
their turn came. At the same time, they accepted French customs and ways of life, and so they
had become different from the Danes that had invaded Britain. The year 1066 marks the
beginning of a new social and linguistic era in Britain, but it was a long time before the bilingual
situation worked its way into the English language. Meanwhile, OE continued to be used. At a
political level, the Norman Conquest had catastrophic consequences for the native society. All
the British landowners were killed or ousted by Norman barons and their retinues. In the Church
too the highest positions (archbishoprics, bishoprics and abbacies) were taken over by
Continental prelates. Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and governing leaders were superseded by the
Norman invaders.
Large numbers of French merchants and craftsmen crossed the Channel and took advantage of
the commercial opportunities provided by the new regime. Several towns in the south of the
country show early influence of French settlement (e.g. French street in Southampton was one
of the two most important streets). This led to the birth of Anglo-Norman, i.e. the dialect of
French spoken in England. It became the literary language and the language of prestige, until
well into the 14th C, the time when English re-emerged as the sole official language.
Bilingualism flourished among those who crossed the social divide ; while many English people
had to learn French, baronial staff needed English for their daily contacts with local communities.
There developed a mixed middle class. English squires tried to marry into the middle and lower
strata of Norman society ; less-priviledged Normans (e.g. servants) married English natives. But
none of those who held the important positions used English.
Most of the Anglo-Norman kings, for instance, were unable to communicate at all in English.
Although during the 12th C English became more widely used among the upper classes (some
children of the nobility had to be taught French in school), the court remained monolingual
(French-speaking) until the late 14th C. French continued to be used in Parliament (English was
used for the first time at its opening in 1362), the courts, and public proceedings.
But, French was eventually replaced by English at almost all social levels.
A considerable body of French literature was produced in England : Marie de France, Wace,
manuscripts of the Song of Roland, and of the romance of Tristan but we should not forget that
during these centuries literature never ceased to be written in English; at the same time, Latin
continued to be the official language of the Church's liturgy and of many legal documents.

Other political and historical data

- Upon the accession of Henry II, English possessions in France were still further enlarged.
Henry, as Count of Anjou, inherited from his father the districts of Anjou and Maine. By his
marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine he came into possession of vast estates in the south
of France, so that when he became King of England he controlled about two-thirds of
France.
- in 1204, loss of Normandy (by King John, subsequently called " John-Lack-Land). The
English nobility lost many estates in France. A strong antagonism developed between the
two countries ; it ultimately led to the Hundred Years War (1337-1453).
 - Birth of English nationalism. Episode of the Provisions of Oxford (confirmation of Magna
Carta, with a proclamation in Latin, French and English). It culminated in the Barons' War
(1264-5) : the English barons reacted against Henry III's French favourites.
- Tense social climate in the 14th C : the Black Death (1348-9) led to the rise in importance of
the labouring class and of the lower middle class. The Peasants' Revolt (1381).
- In 1362 English was used at the opening of Parliament.
- In the late 14th C, poetry of Chaucer and of Gower at the royal Court.
- English begins to be used in the Universities
- English translations of the Bible and other religious texts by Wycliff and his followers
- By the time of Henry V (1413) English is the official language at the royal Court.

French Influence on the English Language

1. Main Stages:

a) from Hastings to the accession of Henry II to the throne (1154-1189):

Mainly Norman variety of French.
Major dialectal features:
- k vs. tch before a: carpenter, carry, cauldron; cattle (later chattel, catch (later chase)
- initial w instead of g: war (=guerre); wasp (guê pe); wardrobe (garde-robe); wage (gage);
warden (vs guardian).
- also Norman French punish, nourish, anguish, cushion, as against [s] in Central French
- g vs. [d3]: garden / joy, jest
The lexical borrowings generally reflected the Norman military and political ascendancy:
government, law, church,
fashionable clothing, furniture, cookery.e.g. chapel, tur, curt, castel, poure, rich, barun, mantel...
Sometimes there was redundancy: remember calf/veal; sheep/mutton; ox/beef; pig, swine/pork;
game/venison ('the meat of a deer') (see Ivanhoe); sociolinguistic approach to language.
b) Upon the accession of Henry II : Mostly Parisian French, but also French from Poitou.
Norman French is regarded as bad French (remember Chaucer's Prioress: she speaks French
after the school of Stratford-atte-Bow, because Paris French is unknown to her).
More cultural loans: terms for finance, property, and business, for building and for the equipment
of homes, for law and social organisation, religion, arts, clothing and food, entertainment,
hunting, medicine, etc. Appearance of doublets (cattle, chattel; warden, guardian; wile, guile;
gaol ('jail'-cf Walloon- and jail -the former spelling represents the Norman type, the latter the
Central.
The main differences between the English words of French origin and their French counterparts
can be explained by :
a) this is first of all due to subsequent developments which have taken place in the two
languages:
- OF feste passed into ME as feste, whence feast, but in French the s disappeared in that
position (but is still apparent in the spelling), hence fê te; also: forest/forê t, hostel/hô tel,
beast/bê te...
- The English words judge and chant preserve their early Fr pronunciation of j and ch, which was
later softened in French.
b) But also, as we have seen, to the difference between the AN or AFr dialect spoken in England
and the language of Paris (Central French) k, w, etc.
c) sometimes both languages develop differently:
the OF diphthong ui was originally stressed on the 1st element (u). This was retained in AN,
where the i disappeared, leaving a simple u [y]. In Central French, on the other hand, the stress
was shifted from u to i ; e.g. fruit.

2. Transformations of the English Language under French Influence

I. Inflexional changes
1) Gradual loss of case-distinction and simplification of the patterns. Vowels of final syllables
began to merge into an indefinite -e.
2) Ultimate triumph of the -s plural over the -n plural (stones vs. oxen).
3) In accordance with the phonetic trends described above, loss of weak and strong adjective
declensions .
4) A single definite article form, i.e. the.
5) Many strong verbs became weak; new verbs were all weak.
II. Spelling and Sounds
1) the most immediate result of the Norman Conquest was a break in the written tradition.
Late tenth-century England had been basically West-Saxon (remember the influence of
Winchester churchmen) and WS orthographic norms were widely imitated. Such norms
continued to be observed throughout the following century and a half.
2) with the Conquest, weakening of the native administrative and educational structures: Latin is
used. This means that most literate people had to learn Latin orthography.
3) but at the same time French is more systematically taught; hence influence of French
orthography on English practices: in fact they combined Franco-Latin usages with OE ones:
e.g.- ch for [tch], replacing OE palatal c (cild)
- Of the four OE letters, only " thorn " continued to be much used throughout ME ; it was
eventually replaced by th.
- they used ou for u (as in house)
- short [u] is often spelt o, especially to avoid visual confusion due to the succession of minim-
letters (i, u, n, m) : come,
love.
- cw is replaced by qu.

III. Vocabulary

Transformation of the vocabulary: addition of thousands of Romance words:

(a) loss of many native English words and their replacement by French equivalents. French loan-
words had become fashionable and, correspondingly, many OE terms were discarded, because
Gallicicized sensibilities found them uncouth.
(b) creation of many synonyms (e.g. in the Book of Common Prayer: acknowledge/confess,
assemble/meet, pray/beseech, power/might; quite a number of translating word-pairs in English).
This accounts for the two levels of English vocabulary: the native words belong to a less formal
register.
(c) but these floods of borrowings concern mainly the fashionable literature of the 14th and 15th
centuries, not the everyday language of any period whatsoever. The immediate post-Conquest
period saw only a modest proportion of such loan-words, and a comparison between texts
belonging to the same period (e.g. Ormulum and Ancrene Wisse)
suggests that it was partly a social or stylistic matter.
3. Resurgence of English

From the 13th to the 15th century, there was a slow recovery of official and literary respectability.
In spite of the extensive modification of the English language after the Norman Conquest the
language was still English: its predominant features were still those inherited from the Germanic
tribes that settled in England in the 5thC:
- The language had undergone many simplifications of the inflectional system, but its grammar
was still English
- It had absorbed many French words and had lost many native words as well as many native
habits of word-formation, but the basic vocabulary was still English (to sleep, eat, drink, bread,
butter, milk, cheese, eyes, legs, father, mother...)

2. Latin Borrowings in ME

- There was a new wave of Latin influence during the 14th and 15th centuries, especially
under the influence of Wycliff and his followers. Most of the words they imported into
English were introduced because they were needed for translations of the Bible. The
words have been preserved and have passed into common use.
Most of them are abstract terms, very often with endings such as -able, -ible, -ent, -al, -ous, -
ive. The simultaneous borrowing of French and Latin words led to a highly distinctive feature
English vocabulary .
- In the 15th C, introduction of "aureate terms", i.e. highly-ornamented. The use of unusual
words from Latin became a stylistic device. Most of such terms have not survived.
All this accounts for the extraordinary lexical wealth of the English language. Sets of three
items all expressing the same fundamental notion but differing slightly in meaning or style:
roughly: popular=English, literary=French and learned=Latin, with, often, only a slight
difference in tone between French and English; the Latin word is always more bookish (
kingly/ royal/ regal ; rise/ mount/ ascend).
3. Rise of Standard English

1. Situation in the 14thC

When English re-emerged in the 14th C, it did so as a collection of local dialects that partly
coincided with the previous OE dialects.
There were four main groups:
- Northern (extending to the Humber river)
- East Midland (between Humber and Thames)
- West Midland (between Humber and Thames)
- Southern (the district south of the Thames, together with Gloucestershire and parts of the
counties of Worcestershire and Herefordshire: i.e. the WS and Kentish districts of OE).
This jigsaw puzzle of dialects was further complicated by a dissociation between written and
spoken usages (a continuation of the previous situation). Standardisation at first mainly affected
the written language, and even there was not fully achieved until the mid seventeenth century.
Roughly speaking, the basis of the standard language was the East-Midland dialect (privileged
position: halfway between north and south; Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk were the country's
richest and most densely populated districts; presence of the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge; influence of Chaucer). In fact, because of a shift of the population, that dialect came
to replace the original dialect of London : the East-Midland dialect replaced the East-Saxon
dialect that we would have expected there.

Short historical survey of the linguistic situation of London

a) in Anglo-Saxon times London had been the capital of Essex, but never of the English
kingdom.
b) after the Norman Conquest, England was only "the Channel State". Its centre of gravity
shifted to the Thames estuary: London proper (i.e. the City, with trading and commercial
interests) and Westminster (an ecclesiastical centre with important scriptorial resources) became
the basis for national administration.
c) in the middle of the 14th C there was a large influx of highly prosperous people from the East
Midlands, who obtained very influential positions in City affairs. After several waves of
immigrations from various parts of the Midlands, London had become a melting-pot of dialectal
types.
Standardisation

1. during the late 14th C, several groups of dialects seemed to impose themselves as the written
norm:
- Standard I: Central Midlands; this was the standard adopted by Lollard preachers and scholars.
It remained in use until c.1430, but, in spite of its strength and geographical spread, it could not
compete with the official standard of the capital.
In fact, it is the only standard from outside London, since standards II, III and IV are all
connected with the capital.
- Standard II: can be found in mid-fourteenth-century material from the London area. It had many
East-Anglian features (especially from Essex that were brought to the capital by the immigrants
from that part of the country
- Standard III: from the middle of the 14thC. It had a strongly Midland character and Central-
Midlands influences (due to a new demographic shift: this time from Bedfordshire and
Northamptonshire). This was Chaucer's language. Chaucer contributed to the choice of the
dialect of the region, but it was not his particular variety that triumphed. Since he was a court
poet, his dialect was slightly more conservative than the language of the documents of standard
IV; it also showed a greater number of Southern features.
- Standard IV: this was characteristic of the permanent establishment of the 'Chancery' at
Westminster in the middle of the 14thC. This institution grew out of the little office where the
Court chaplains wrote the king's letters. The 'Chancery Standard' soon designated the language
used in official records, and in letters and documents written by businessmen.
This kind of English is differs from the earlier standards by the presence of features of more
central Midland origin.

2. Spread of the 'Chancery Standard'

At first the royal Chancery consisted of a small number of scribes who travelled with the king and
prepared his documents. During the 13th C they became permanently located in Westminster. In
the latter part of the 15thC the Chancery Standard had been accepted in most parts of the
country. Mak (the sheep-stealer in the Towneley Plays) tries to impress and influence the
Yorkshire shepherds by affecting a "Southern tooth". Because of its prestige, Chancery
Standard soon affected informal, private styles and local records. See, for instance, the Pastons
letters: correspondence of a family of Norfolk gentry. The letters provide a remarkable instance
of the educational and social pressures of the time: the young men of the family - especially
those who had studied at university or at Inns of Court - replaced the Norfolk forms by those of
the London standard.

3. Introduction of printing (1476)

London became the centre of book publishing in England. Caxton, the first English printer,
contributed to the adoption of the standard. Before printing, manuscripts were easily translated
from one dialect to another; now books were circulated in hundreds of identical copies.

4. EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (1500-1700)

1. The printing revolution and Standard English

In 1476 William Caxton set up his press in Westminster. London became the centre of book
publishing in England.
Spread of a single norm over most of the country.
Caxton complained about the difficulty of choosing words in order to please a wide readership :
foreign/native words, choice of a dialect, choice of a literary style, spelling ? etc.).

The language of London and of the Home Counties (the counties around London) will become
the standard language (cf George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, 1589, the " best "
English is that of the Court, of London and of the shires within sixty miles of London).

2. Abundance of evidence for the history of English

c. 20,000 books appeared within the 150 following years.

- informal and formal letters
- literary texts
- " scholars of the language " :
a) grammarians,
b) orthographers : the English writing system was widely perceived as a mess ; several
reformers and spelling guides
c) orthoepists : i.e. writers on pronunciation. Detailed accounts of contemporary pronunciation.
d) " the Inkhorn Controversy " : about inkhorn terms, i.e. words that smelled of the inkhorn
(learned compositions or
foreign loans).
e) dictionaries : mostly compilations of " hard words ", i.e. words which might be difficult to
understand
- the Age of Bibles : Tyndale (translation of the New Testament, 1525), the King James Bible,
also known as The Authorized Version (1611)

3. Sounds

The 15th C had marked a watershed in the history of the English language. In Chaucer's
pronunciation the long vowels still had their Continental value.
The Great Vowel Shift : massive transformation of the English long vowel system of the
language was fundamentally affected. It started in the 15th C and reached completion in the late
16th or early 17th. Each long vowel phoneme moved to the position of its neighbour. The vowels
that could not be raised became diphthongs. Short vowels were not affected. However, around
1600, short a was raised (cat), and there was a split of the [ou] sound (but vs. pull or wool).

4. " The Renaissance "

- The time between Caxton and 1650. Included the Reformation, the discoveries of Copernicus,
the European exploration of Africa and the Americas.
- Influx of foreign vocabulary : Latin (also in word-formation, e.g. derivational suffixes) and
Greek, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese
- Some writers (e.g. Spenser) attempted to revive obsolete English words. Conservative style,
grammar, and often vocabulary of King James.
- Major influence of Shakespeare on the lexicon.

5. Grammar

- Most of the formative process underlying Modern English grammar took place during the ME
period : spread of the -s plural to almost all nouns, and generalisation of SVO syntax.
- thou/ you
In OE, thou (and its declined forms) was a sg, and you (and its declined forms) a plural.
During the ME period, you came to be used as a polite sg form alongside thou.
During eModE, you became the norm in all grammatical functions and social situations. By the
end of the 16th C ye was restricted to archaic, religious or literary contexts. By 1700 the thou
forms were also largely restricted in this way.
Crucial issue, esp. in drama : reflects the emotions of the characters and their varying attitudes.
- Emergence of who/ which as relative pronouns with the modern distinction between personal
and non-personal reference
- Verbal endings in -es (3rd pers. sg present tense) began to displace the -eth ending.
- Final abandonment of double negation in the standard language.
- do
The normal ME method of asking questions was simple inversion of subject and verb. This is still
common in Shakespeare, and with model verbs it is still the only permissible form today.
But Shakespeare already often introduces questions by do, and this interrogative use must have
started in the late 14th C.
From the same time occurs the occasional use of do in negative constructions ; the
phenomenon became more and more frequent in the 17th C.
The emphatic use of do (" do drive carefully ") can sometimes be found in early ME.
" dummy " do : frequent in later ME and Tudor periods (probably mostly for metrical reasons).
[N.B. In PDE :
(a) auxiliary vb in questions
(b) auxiliary vb in negative constructions
and, but less often :
(c) full lexical vb
(d) substitute vb
(e) for emphasis]

5. MODERN ENGLISH

Comparative stability : pronunciation changed less quickly, spelling and grammar were virtually
settled down.
Rise of Prescriptive grammar

- In the middle of the 18th C culmination of the first major efforts to impose order in the language
: Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755). Dryden, Defoe, Addison, Swift
and Johnson had two main interests : to correct, improve and ascertain English, and to found an
Academy.
- numbers of works on grammar and rhetoric.

Development of education

- In the 19th C, great expansion of primary education.

The earliest national schools were sponsored by religious bodies. From the 1830s the
Government gave financial support. In 1870, the Elementary Education Act
- Foundation of university institutions in the 1870s and 80s.

Lexicon

- In the 19th C spectacular growth of English scientific and technical vocabulary (cf the Industrial
Revolution and scientific exploration). Development of a language of science. Influence of
American English.
- The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) : the first fascicle appeared in 1888 (the last in 1928).

Grammar

- pronouns :
Who/ Which : The Spectator : " The humble petition of WHO and WHICH ", in which they
complained about the recent spread of 'the Jacksprat THAT'.
- auxiliaries :grammarians insisted on a distinction for shall/ will ; have gradually replaced be in
the past tense.

6. WORLD ENGLISH

- In England, development of modern regional dialects (with phonetic -vs. RP- phonological,
grammatical and lexical variations) alongside the " Standard ".
- In the Celtic parts of the British Isles, development of varieties of English, also with regional
variations.
- The exportation of English in the 17th-19th centuries created a host of new varieties. Three
main types of " Extraterritorial Englishes " (ETEs) :
(a) mother-tongue ETEs
normal development of transported Mainland varieties
e.g. North American, South African, Australian English
(b) foreign-language ETEs
varieties arising where English is not the mother-tongue, but for some reason (often as a colonial
legacy) it is used as an administrative, trade or educational language. Marked degree of
interference from other languages e.g. Indian, Singaporean, West African English.
(c) Creolized ETEs
varieties developed from the adaptation and elaboration of English-based pidgins that arose in
colonial or semi-colonial contact situation e.g. Jamaican Creole
[N.B. a pidgin is an auxiliary language used to communicate for limited purposes (e.g. trade)
between groups that have no common language. It is based on a dominant language, with much
reduced and simplified structure. A Creole is a pidgin that is adopted by a community as a native
tongue (children learn it as a first language). It is losing typical pidgin features and acquiring
those of a full language].
In the reign of Elizabeth I English had c 5-7 million mother-tongue speakers.
In 1985
- the first-language speakers are over 316 million
- countries where English has some official status (education, government etc.) : 1.400,000,000
(Australia 14 m ; Canada 17 m ; UK 56 m ; Irish Republic 3.3 m ; New Zealand 3 m ; South
Africa 2 m ; USA 215 m)
- Also large numbers of second-language speakers in Canada, USA and Australia.

I. The Celtic Countries

1. Scotland

By the end of the 13th century, the English of Scotland and that of England had markedly
diverged ; the term Scottis replaced Inglis in the late 15th C.
- Late 14th C - early 17th C : flowering of literature in Scots
- In 1603 the crowns of Scotland and of England were united ; King James of Scotland became
King James I of England. The English standard was adopted by the upper classes.
Scots, also called the Scots language or the Scottish language.
A complex phenomenon :
- for some people : a dialect of Standard English with a Scottish accent
- at the other extreme : a highly distinctive variety, with specific vocabulary, pronunciation and
grammar (often influenced by Gaelic)
- in between : Scots features coloured by regional variations within Scotland

2. Ireland

In a way, the first of the overseas English-speaking colonies.

- in 1169, the country was invaded by Anglo-Norman knights, and English rule was imposed by
Henry II in the south.
- in 1366 Edward III attempted to impose English on the Irish living in English settlement areas
(The Statutes of Kilkenny), but failed.
- in the 14th and 15th centuries, English receded, except for " The Pale " (strip along the east
coast).
- during the Tudor and Stuart reigns, first attempts to deal with 'the Irish problem' : renewed -
eventually successful - efforts to Anglicise the country.
- in 1803, the Act of Union made Ireland part of the United Kingdom - a situation which remained
until the 1920s, when there was partition between north (Northern Ireland, or Ulster) and south
(the Republic of Ireland).
Steady growth of English and decline of the use of Gaelic
The variety of English is called Hiberno-English (also Irish English or Anglo-Irish). By no means
homogeneous : wide range of dialects..

3. Wales

Although Wales is yet another colony on Celtic territory, the results are different. The ancestor
language was displaced when the Anglo-Saxon invaders first arrived : their native language has
survived (Welsh), but English spread rapidly throughout Wales. In 1535, The Statutes of Wales
imposed English as the official language. In the late 19th C, strong Anglocentric policy.
Rise of a Welsh nationalist movement, and new cultural and linguistic vitality.
The distinctiveness of the Welsh variety of English (Welsh English) is most noticeable in areas
where Welsh is strong (NW).
[N.B. Britain/ Great Britain : Scotland + England + Wales.
The UK/ The United Kingdom : Northern Ireland + Britain.
The British Isles : all the islands of Britain and Ireland considered as a group].

II. Extraterritorial Varieties

1. North America

A. United States

- first expedition : 1584 (Walter Raleigh)

- first settlement : in Virginia (1607)
- second settlement : in present-day New England (1620), the Pilgrim Fathers
- in the 18th C vast wave of Irish and Scots-Irish immigrants
- Declaration of Independence in 1776 ; end of colonial times a few years later
- massive exodus in the 19th and 20eth centuries ; cosmopolitan nature of the population
(numbers of Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Scandinavian and Italian, etc. immigrants ; forced
immigration of Africans : slave trade).
- Growth of the Black English vernacular (Creole English came to be used throughout the
southern plantations, in coastal towns and islands) : nowadays, more a social than a linguistic
reality : Black English is now spoken by a large section of non-middle class African Americans.

B. Canada

- John Cabot reached Newfoundlands in 1497

- the English migration did not develop until a century later. Conflicts with the French (Jacques
Cartier's explorations in the 1520's)
- Modern Canadian English has a great deal in common with the English spoken in the rest of
North America.

2. Australia

- Britain established its first penal colony at Sydney : about 130,000 prisoners were transported
between 1788 and 1838 (many convicts came from London and Ireland). Also 'free' settlers.
- In recent years, noticeable influence of American English.

3. New Zealand

- European whalers and traders began to settle there in the 1790s

- the official colony was not established until 1840.

4. South Africa

- Dutch colonists arrived in Cape Town in 1652. Afrikaans will become the first language of the
majority of whites and of most of the coloured population
- British involvement started in 1795 (Napoleonic Wars)
- very complex linguistic situation.

5. South Asia

- 1600 : formation of the British East India Company

- settlements in West Indies began in the 17th C
- British sovereignty from 1765 until independence (1947). English became the medium of
administration and education throughout the subcontinent
- in India, English is now recognised as an 'associate' official language, with Hindi the official
language ; in Pakistan also an associate official language ; no official status in the other
countries, but is universally used as the medium of international communication.

6. West, East and Southern Africa

- competition between colonial powers

- British rule was established in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe

7. South-East Asia and the South Pacific

a) South-East Asia

- the East India Company established centres, and founded Singapore (1819)
- Hong Hong was ceded to Britain in 1842 ; in 1898, the New Territories were leased from China
for 99 years
b) The South Pacific

- The main American presence emerged after the Spanish-American War of 1898. American
form of English in the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

English as a World Language

- Because of the legacy of British and American imperialism, the countries' main institutions
carry out their proceedings in English (governing body, civil service, law courts, schools, higher
educational institutions, etc.).
- Neutral means of communication between different ethnic groups : intra-national function.
- The USA's dominant economic position
- Prestige of its culture ; chief language of international business and academic conferences ;
the language of international air traffic ; etc.