OSUN STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND CULTURE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES

IKIRE CAMPUS.

OYELEKE OLUSOLA OLAMIDE

COURSE TITLE: LEXICOLOGY AND SEMANTIC OF ENGLISH

COURSE CODE: ENG 707

TOPIC: HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

LECTURER IN CHARGE: PROF. TEMITOPEBALOGUN

1
 Today, English is one of the most common languages in the world, spoken by around 1.5
billion people globally. It is the official language of a nation, a second language, or in a mixture
with other languages (such as pidgins and creoles.) English is the (or an) official language in
England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; however, the United States has no official
language. English is also the lingua franca of international business and academia and is one of
the six official languages of the United Nations. Despite its widespread use, English is not
without its challenges. Because it has borrowed words from so many other languages, it can be
difficult to know how to spell or pronounce certain words. And, because there are so many
different dialects of English, it can be hard to understand someone from a different region. But,
overall, English is a rich and flexible language that has adapted to the needs of a rapidly
changing world. It is truly a global, dominant language – and one that shows no signs of slowing
down.

What are the origins of English? What are the key events in the evolution of the English
language that were most instrumental in shaping it into the version we speak and write today?
English, as we know it today, is very different from its original Anglo-Saxon version. To
understand how this came to be, we need to understand the evolution of the English language
and the processes by which it transformed into English as we know it today.

Its history began with the migration of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons from Germany and
Denmark to Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought many
French words into English. Greek and Latin words began to enter it in the 15th century, and
Modern English is usually dated from 1500. English easily borrows words from other languages
and has coined many new words to reflect advances in technology.

What Is the English Language, and Where Did It Come From?

The English language is a West Germanic language that originated in England. It is the third
most spoken language in the world after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. English has been
influenced by a number of other languages over the centuries, including Old Norse, Latin,
French, and Dutch.

The earliest forms of English were spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, who settled in England in the
5th century. The Anglo-Saxons were a mix of Germanic tribes from Scandinavia and Germany.
They brought with them their own language, which was called Old English.

The Different Periods of the English Language

The English language has gone through distinct periods throughout its history. Different aspects
of the language have changed throughout time, such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling, etc.

2
The Old English period (5th-11th centuries), Middle English period (11th-15th centuries), and
Modern English period (16th century to present) are the three main divisions in the history of the
English language.

The Old English period (5th-11th centuries), Middle English period (11th-15th centuries), and
Modern English period (16th century to present) are the three main divisions in the history of the
English language.

Old English Period (500-1100)

The Old English period began in 449 AD with the arrival of three Germanic tribes from
the Continent: the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. They settled in the south and east of Britain, which
was then inhabited by the Celts. The Anglo-Saxons had their own language, called Old English,
which was spoken from around the 5th century to the 11th century. Old English was a Germanic
language, and as such, it was very different from the Celtic languages spoken by the Britons. It
was also a very different language from the English we speak today. It was a highly inflected
language, meaning that words could change their form depending on how they were being used
in a sentence.

There are four known dialects of the Old English language:

Northumbrian in northern England and southeastern Scotland,

Mercian in central England,

Kentish in southeastern England,

West Saxon in southern and southwestern England.

Old English grammar also had a complex system, with five main cases (nominative, accusative,
genitive, dative, instrumental), three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and two numbers
(singular and plural).

The Anglo-Saxons also had their own alphabet, which was known as the futhorc. The
futhorc consisted of 24 letters, most of which were named after “rune symbols”. However, they
also borrowed the Roman alphabet and eventually started using that instead. The vocabulary was
also quite different, with many words being borrowed from other languages such as Latin,
French, and Old Norse. The first account of Anglo-Saxon England ever written is from 731 AD –
a document known as the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which
remains the single most valuable source from this period.
3
Another one of the most famous examples of Old English literature is the epic poem Beowulf,
which was written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. By the end of the Old English
period at the close of the 11th century, West Saxon dominated, resulting in most of the surviving
documents from this period being written in the West Saxon dialect.

The Old English period was a time of great change for Britain. In 1066, the Normans invaded
England and conquered the Anglo-Saxons. The Normans were originally Viking settlers from
Scandinavia who had settled in France in the 10th century. They spoke a form of French, which
was the language of the ruling class in England after the Norman Conquest.

The Old English period came to an end in 1066 with the Norman Conquest. However, Old
English continued to be spoken in some parts of England until the 12th century. After that, it was
replaced by Middle English.

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English (public domain)

Characteristics of the Old English language

The Germanic tribes were exposed to Latin before they invaded England, so the languages they
spoke did have some Latin influence. After converting to Christianity, Latin had more influence,
as evidenced in words pertaining to the church. Celtic did not have a large impact on English, as
only a few place names are of Celtic origin, but Danish (Old Scandinavian) did contribute many
vocabulary words.

Nouns could be of three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter; but these were assigned
arbitrarily. Numbers could be either singular or plural, and there were four cases: nominative,
accusative, dative, and genitive. In all, there were seven groups of declensions for nouns.

The infinitive of verbs ended in -an. In the present tense, all verbs had markers for number and
person. The weak past tense added -de, while the strong past tense usually involved a vowel
change. Old English also had many more strong verbs than modern English.

4
Adjectives could be weak or strong. If preceded by a determiner, the weak ending was added to
the adjective. If no determiner preceded the adjective, then the strong endings were used. They
also agreed in gender, case and number with the nouns they described. The comparative was
formed by adding -ra to the adjective, while the superlative had many endings: -ost, -ist, -est, and
-m. Eventually the -ost and -m endings combined to form the word "most" which is still used
before adjectives in the superlative today.

Adverbs were formed by adding -e to the adjective, or -lic, the latter which still remains in
modern English as -like.

The syntax of Old English was much more flexible than modern English because of the
declensions of the nouns. The case endings told the function of the word in the sentence, so word
order was not very important. But as the stress began to move to the first syllable of words, the
endings were not pronounced as clearly and began to diminish from the language. So in modern
English, word order is very important because we no longer have declensions to show case
distinctions. Instead we use prepositions. The general word order was subject - verb - object, but
it did vary in a few instances:

1. When an object is a pronoun, it often precedes the verb.

2. When a sentence begins with an adverb, the subject often follows the verb.

3. The verb often comes at the end of a subordinate clause.

Pronunciation was characterized by a predictable stress pattern on the first syllable. The length of
the vowels was phonemic as there were 7 long and 7 short vowels. There were also two front
rounded vowels that are no longer used in modern English, [i:] and [ɪ:]. The i-mutation occurred
if there was a front vowel in the ending, then the root vowel became fronted. For example, fot
becomes fot+i = fet (This helps to explain why feet is the plural of foot.)

Middle English Period (1100-1500)

The second stage of the English language is known as the Middle English period, which was
spoken from around the 12th century to the late 15th century. As mentioned above, Middle
English emerged after the Norman Conquest of 1066, when the Normans conquered England.

As a result of the Norman Conquest, French became the language of the ruling class, while
English was spoken by the lower classes. This led to a number of changes in the English
language, including a reduction in the number of inflections and grammatical rules.

Middle English is often divided into two periods: Early Middle English (11th-13th centuries) and
Late Middle English (14th-15th centuries).

Early Middle English (1100-1300)

One of the most noticeable changes was in the vocabulary of law and government. Many Old
English words related to these concepts were replaced by their French equivalents. For example,
the Old English word for a king was “cyning” or” cyng” which was replaced by the Norman
word we use today, king.

The Norman Conquest also affected the grammar of Old English. The inflectional system began
to break down, and words started to lose their endings. This Scandinavian influence made the
English vocabulary simpler and more regular.

Late Middle English (1300-1500)

The Late Middle English period began in the 14th century and lasted until the 15th century.
During this time, the English language was further influenced by French.

However, the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) between England and France meant that English
was used more and more in official documents. This helped to standardize the language and
make it more uniform.

One of the most famous examples of Middle English literature is The Canterbury Tales by
Geoffrey Chaucer, which was written in the late 14th century. Chaucer was the first major writer
in English, and he e helped to standardize the language even further. For this reason, Middle
English is also frequently referred to as Chaucerian English. French influence can also be seen in
the vocabulary, with many French loanwords being introduced into English during this time.
Middle English was also influenced by the introduction of Christianity, with many religious
terms being borrowed from Latin.

Middle English was the language of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (about 1340-1400). He was
known as the greatest English poet before Shakespeare. Chaucer wrote many tales and novellas.
His most famous work is ‘Canterbury Tales’.

6
An example of Middle English by Chaucer (public

Characteristics of Middle English

The writing system changed dramatically in Middle English:

þ and ð were replaced by th (and sometimes y, as in ye meaning the)

c before i or e became ch

sc became sh

an internal h was added after g

hw became wh

cw became qu

the new symbols v and u were added; v was used word initially, and u was used everywhere else

k was used much more often (cyning became king)

new values were given to old symbols too; g before i or e was pronounced ǰ; ʒ became j, and c
before i and e became s in some cases

a historical h (usually not pronounced) was added to some words (it was assumed that these
words had once begun with an h): honor, heir, honest, herb, habit sometimes words were written
with o but pronounced as [ʊ] but later were pronounced [ʌ]: son, come, ton, some, from, money,
honey, front, won, one, wonder, of. Because of the stress shift to the beginning of the word,
Middle English lost the case suffixes at the ends of nouns. Phonological erosion also occurred
because of this, and some consonants dropped off while some vowels became əand dropped off
too. The generalized plural marker became -s, but it still competed with -n.

7
Verb infinitives dropped the -an ending, and used "to" before the verb to signify the infinitival
form. The third person singular and plural was marked with -(e)th; but the singular also
competed with -(e)s from the Northern dialect. More strong (irregular) verbs became weak
(regular) as well.

Adjectives lost agreement with the noun, but the weak ending -e still remained. The comparative
form became -er and the superlative became -est. Vowels tended to be long in the adjective form,
but short in the comparative form (late - latter). The demonstratives these and those were added
during this period. And the adverb ending -lič became -ly; however, some "flat" adverbs did not
add the -ly: fast, late, hard.

The dual number disappeared in the pronouns, and the dative and accusative became the object
forms of the pronouns. The third person plural pronouns replaced the old pronouns with th-
words (they, them, their) borrowed from Scandinavian. She started being used for the feminine
singular subject pronoun and you (plural form) was used in the singular as a status marker for the
formal.

Syntax was stricter and more prepositions were used. New compound tenses were used, such as
the perfect tenses, and there was more use of the progressive and passive voice. The use of
double negation also increased as did impersonal constructions. The use of the verbs will and
shall for the future tense were first used too. Formerly, will meant want and shall meant obliged
to.

Pronunciation changes:

Loss of initial h in a cluster (hleapan - to leap; hnutu - hut)

[w] lost between consonant and back vowel (w is silent in two, sword, answer)

[č] lost in unstressed syllable (ič - I)

[v] lost in middle of words (heofod - head; hæfde - had)

Loss of final -n in possessive pronouns (min fæder - mi fæder) and the addition of -n to some
words beginning with a vowel (a napron - an apron, a nuncle - an uncle)

Voiced fricatives became phonemic with their voiceless counterparts

[ž] phoneme was borrowed from French as the voiced counterpart for [š]

Front rounded vowels merged with their unrounded counterparts

8
Vowel length became predictable (lost phonemic status); an open syllable with no consonant
following it contained a long vowel, while a closed syllable with at least one consonant
following it contained a short vowel

In addition, there were dialectal differences in the north and south. The north used -(e)s for the
plural marker as well as for the third person singular; and the third person plural pronouns began
with th- (borrowed from Scandinavian). The south used -(e)n for the plural, -(e)th for the third
person singular, and h- for the third person plural pronouns. The north used [a] and [k] while the
south used [o] and [č] for certain words. Eventually, the northern dialect would become the
standard for modern English regarding the grammatical endings, but the southern pronunciation
of [o] and [č] would also remain.

Modern English

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great
Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century
the British had contact with many peoples from around the world.

This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered
the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in
print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought
standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London,
where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary
was published.

Lines from Hamlet, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare (public domain)

Late Modern English (1800-Present)

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary.
Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the
Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire

9
at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign
words from many countries.

Characteristics of Early Modern English

Adjectives lost all endings except for in the comparative and superlative forms. The neuter
pronoun it was first used as well as who as a relative pronoun. The class distinctions between
formal and informal you were decreasing, so that today there is no difference between them.
More strong verbs became weak and the third person singular form became -(e)s instead of -
(e)th. There was a more limited use of the progressive and auxiliary verbs than there is now,
however. Negatives followed the verb and multiple negatives were still used.

The Great Vowel Shift (1400-1600) changed the pronunciation of all the vowels. The tongue was
placed higher in the mouth, and all the verbs moved up. Vowels that were already high ([i] and
[u]) added the dipthongs [aj] and [aw] to the vowels of English.

Several consonants were no longer pronounced, but the spelling system was in place before the
consonant loss, so they are still written in English today. The consonants lost include:

Voiceless velar fricative lost in night; pronounced as f in laugh

[b] in final -mb cluster (dumb, comb)

[l] between a or o and consonant (half, walk, talk, folk)

[r] sometimes before s (Worcestershire)

initial clusters beginning with k and g (knee, knight, gnat)

[g] in -ing endings (more commonly pronounced [ɪn])

Finally, assibilation occurred when the alveolars [s], [d], [t], and [z] preceded the palatal glide
[j], producing the palatal consonants: [š], [ǰ], [č], [ž]

English around the World

Although the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have English as an
official language, the United States does not have an official language. This is how it's possible
to become a US citizen without speaking English. Canada also has French as an official
language, though it is mostly spoken in the province of Quebec. Because many of the English
speakers who originally inhabited Canada came from the US, there is little difference in the
American and Canadian dialects of English. Similarly, Australian and New Zealand English have
few differences, except Australia was originally settled as a penal colony and New Zealand was
10
not. New Zealanders were more attached to the Received Pronunciation of the upper class in
England, so their dialect is considered closer to British English.

Cockney (and its Ryhming Slang) is an interesting dialect of English spoken in London's east
end. The initial h of words is dropped, glottal stops are used frequently and labiodentals are used
in place of interdentals. The Rhyming Slang refers to a word by referring to two things, the last
of which rhymes with what is being referred to. For examples, money is "bees and honey,"
gloves is "turtle doves," suit is "whistle and flute" and trouble is "Barney Rubble." Even more
confusing, sometimes the second word (which rhymes with the word being referred to) is
omitted, so that money is called just "bees."

British colonialism has spread English all over the world, and it still holds prestige in South
Africa, India, and Singapore, among other nations. In South Africa, English became an official
language, along with Afrikaans and 9 African languages, in the 1996 constitution. However, only
9.6% of the country's 51 million people are native English speakers (2011 census). Twenty
percent are descendants of Dutch farmers who speak Afrikaans, and the rest are native Africans.
Although the British won the Boer Wars of 1899-1901 against the Dutch farmers (the Boers),
Britain still promised the Boers self-government under the Union of South Africa. By 1948,
these Afrikaners won state elections and remained in power through the 1990's. Apartheid
(which segregated the Afrikaners and Africans) officially ended under Nelson Mandela's reign,
and although Afrikaans was the language used more often, the Africans wanted English as the
official language. Hence the compromise of 11 official languages.

India became an independent from Britian in 1947, and the English language was supposed to be
phased out by 1965. However, today English and Hindi are the official languages. Indian English
is characterized by treating mass nouns as count nouns, frequent use of the "isn't it?" tag, use of
more compounds, and a different use of prepositions. In Singapore, Chinese, Malay and Indian
languages have an impact on the form of English spoken. Everyone is taught English in the
school system, but there are a few differences from British English as well. Mass nouns are
treated as count nouns, "use to" means usually, and no articles are used before occupations.

Creoles of English can be found on the coast of West Africa, China, and on islands of the Pacific
and Caribbean (especially the West Indies.) Originally, these creoles were pidgins so that
English-speaking traders could conduct business. Over time, they became the native languages of
the children and evolved into creoles.

English has become the language of science, air traffic control, and the world of computers and
especially of the Internet. It spread throughout the world and became the official language of
many countries and the most important transmitter of knowledge in the modern era.

The History of English Language - Key takeaways

11
The English language belongs to the Indo-European language family and originated as a West-
Germanic dialect.

Old English (5th-11th century) was brought to Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in 5AD Britain and
was very different to what we know today.

The Middle English period (11th-15th century) began when the Normans invaded Britain in
1066 bringing Anglo-Norman French. During this period there was a push for standardisation
and the printing press was established.

The Early Modern English period (15th-18th century) saw the Great Vowel Shift and was the
time of William Shakespeare.

The Late Modern English period (18th-Present) saw the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the
British Empire. There has also been the influence of American culture and English has become
one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

A short timeline of the History of the English Language

Period Events

450-1100 Old English period, Anglo-Saxon invasion and settlement

1066 Norman Conquest, beginning of Middle English period

1350-1475 Middle English period, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

1475-1700 Early Modern English period, Renaissance and scientific revolution

1600-1700 Shakespeare's plays, King James Bible

1700-1900 Late Modern English period, Industrial Revolution and global expansion of
English

1775 Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

1922 Publication of James Joyce's Ulysses, which uses innovative language and style

1950s-1960s The emergence of American English as a dominant form of English, the influence
of mass media

2010s Rapid development of digital communication and online language, such as emoji and
slang

12