As you can see from this first slide, about one third of the languages of the human population of the world have been proceeded from one original source, which we now called proto indo European. We don't really know very much about this photo language, because there are no written records. But we think it started between six and four and a half thousand years ago from the region of southern Russia that we now think of as the steppe region. And that's basically where much of the certainly European and Asian languages first start. William James was a lawyer Based in British India, and he was very interested in language generally, but particularly in Sanskrit. So he was able to see that there were significant connections between that language which is much older, the Latin and Greek, and the Latin and Greek have followed.

And James's law, which is a well known in linguistics, is still largely accepted today. Now, you probably know Jacob Grimm more as a writer of fairytales, because he's one of the Brothers Grimm that wrote the German fairy tales. But he shows again, how various consonants within the different European languages all relate to each other. As you can see that P in Latin corresponds to F in German. Now, 2000 years ago, English in any form did not exist. There were Celtic languages within what is now the UK.

So that's Welsh, Scottish and Irish Gaelic Breton, which is spoken in Britain in northwestern France, and Cornish, which is the language spoken in the extreme southwest of England. So these were the languages that were spoken when the Romans, For example, invaded England. When they departed in the fourth century, and the Anglo Saxons invaded, this new language made its appearance we'll call it English sc. And the Celtic languages will push to the boundaries of the British arts where they have largely state. Even the fact that the word whales today comes to the second word we lost meaning foreigner So if like me, you're from Wales, you're technically a foreigner in your country. So our interest really starts from the departure for the Romans, right up until 1476 when William Caxton set up the first English printing press.

From then on from 1476 onwards, we can pretty much recognize most of the written language in use. And we can see how it's developed to become a truly global language since, but we need to look at influences on the language that became English. from that period from the departure of the Romans, to taxes, printing press and beyond. And in order we will look at Old English, the English of the Anglo Saxons, the infinite Christianity Viking invasions. And finally the Norman Conquest which added element French to the mix. Anglo Saxon is a form of load German, it's a it's a Germanic language.

It's a highly inflected language now, in flexion. What do we mean by inflection? inflection means that where the word, the words function in the sec in the sentence is very important. If the word is the subject of the sentence, it will have a different spelling from additive pronunciation, perhaps, if it's the object of the sentence that makes German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Baltic languages such as Estonian very, very inflected languages indeed, that it modern English is not. Modern English is one of the least inflected languages on the planet. We don't change our words.

We don't have masculine feminine To we don't really change much or singular to plural, we just had an S usually. And so, in fact, English is quite an easy language. It's got lots of irregularities and spelling and so on, but it's otherwise quite an easy language. The word England actually comes from the Anglo Saxon because they, they call the country they invaded angle land and the land becomes England. The 100 most frequently used words in each day are clearly Anglo Saxon origin. St. Augustine, arrived in Britain in 18 5097 and established the early English church.

This brings in a big Latin vocabulary because most of the church language at the time was Latin but the English language didn't lose its its identity. This has throughout history has been one of the amazing features about English, how house how versatile it is, it can borrow from all over the place. And it just takes in these new words or these new expressions or these new structures, without changing into central character. So one of the first examples of texts written in Old English at this time, translations of the gospel into the vernacular of the education for the education. But before long, the Latin and Greek influence was everywhere. And so words are quoted here like Angel disciple, mass relative shrine, priest, Bishop, monk, but we have many old English words alongside them such as God, Heaven, Hell, Holy Ghost, Doomsday Vikings in did in the first invasions were in 793 ad when they sacked the monastery of Lindisfarne on the northeast coast.

And they continued to invade and fight the Saxons for nearly 100 years. So that by 8878, at the kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great was reduced to an area not much bigger than half of Somerset, and Western. This became known as the kingdom of Wessex had that fallen, then the history of English might have taken a much more Scandinavian flavor. But that year, Alfred won the battle of eth and Dune and gradually forced the Danes further and further back further Northwest along a line, not a lot of roughly diagonal line, but it's roughly a quarter To the old Roman road that we now know is walking St. Alfred the Great was the first modern to use English as a means of unifying and consolidating, consolidating his kingdom, written records of this time, well preserved today. Now, what I want you to imagine that you've got Saxons on one side of this line, which became known as the dangle and you've got Norse on the other side of this line, and there's a certain amount of communication taking place across the dangle the danger, nos people are talking Old Norse and Saxons are talking Anglo Saxon, and somehow they get to communicate one wants to buy a horse from another, let's say.

And so you get into the modern version of English we think is a hybrid of these two languages formed because of the need for Communication purely in search, so we want to keep it simple. So English is not an inflected language today. However, what we do depend on is the order of words in the sentence. And if that is correct them then we can understand what's being said. Now, the date that every British schoolboy knows more than anything else is 1066. When the Normans invaded now the Normans were French speaking, and there was the last invasion of Britain.

Harold, the Saxon King was defeated the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror William the first becomes the first Norman King of England. And for 300 years, no, King spoke English. He spoke French There was a French huge French influence on the language. But very interesting. The English language didn't disappear. It didn't become overwhelmed by French.

And today we consider there are three reasons why over those 300 years, the French language did not dominate. First of all, English was extremely well established and flexible. We'd already had a fusion with Norse without walls. The conquered English people learn little French, and they only use Latin in the church. They might not even know what they were saying. Now the Normans were very, very successful militarily, but they were not that many.

They were just very powerful. They had the weapons and they had the the organization so it was not a massive invasion and military one. So they began to intermarry with the conquered peoples. So they might have been the military victors but the actual language winners were the original English people. And if you go on from 1066 through 212 vote for King john, whose nickname was often became lackland. Because he lacked land he lost control of Normandy.

And many of the Norman barons or Knights or wealthy Normans anyway returned home to secure those estates. But those who chose to stay in England were already well integrated. And they had already begun to think of themselves as as English. So that's really why French did not become dominant. So now we've got these three languages having an effect on English we've got the Saxon we've got the Latin and we've got the Saxon Norse. We've got the Latin then we've got the Norman French and this has had an incredible effect on English.

English vocabulary far away exceeds a number of words any other known language. And one reason for this is the wealth of synonyms, different meanings that the three language culture managed to absorb into the mother tongue. by example, there is there's an old English adjective kingly to be like a king, but from French and Latin being a royal regal sovereign. And so English soon had the capacity to differentiate between three or four different levels of meaning, where only one had existed before. And as proof of the power of the Normans, in terms of organization and bureaucracy, 10 and 12 between 10 and 12,000 words to describe government law administration, are French in origin and papers. They're emerged directly from this period.

Now between 3037 and 50 1454 is the period we know of, we regard as the Hundred Years War, and this is war between England and France. Normandy had now been absorbed into France, France was becoming a country within its own right. And there was terrific rivalry, cross channel rivalry between the English and the French, and that became translated into war. And that really ended any dominance of French, because the ruling class really didn't like the French and anything, all things French. And by the time you get into 1381, the peasants revolt, affairs of state law and church Well, we're now again now conducted almost entirely in English. Now this is this period we call Middle English and it's the time of Chaucer and langland to poets Now most native speakers can read a great deal of Middle English today but have difficulty hearing or pronouncing it I've got two examples for you.

Now I'm not going to read these as they should be pronounced or as we think they should be pronounced I'm going to read them although they're written in the way they were I'm going to read them in with a as it were modern accent so have a quick look at the first one is when not April with his showers soaked the drought of March and pierced to the rose, bathed every vein with such liquor of which virtue was injected in the flower. In zephyrus, equity sweet breath inspired and every Holton Heath, the tender crops of the young son in the RAM is half course run. Now this is the opening of the Canterbury Tales, shortens Canterbury Tales, but I think we can we can make a first stab at understanding what he's saying. He's saying when in April who April has sweet shot And the drought of the winds of March have have blasted have pierced right down to the root of flowers.

But now this rain for this April rain is is bathing is washing every part every vein with such liquid. This is how life is engendered or born. So we can have flowers. zephyrus is the west wind. He has gentle sweet breath, and he breathes into every tree and every heathland, young crops that are growing, and the young spring sun is in the time of Aries, the ram in the Zodiac here. It's about halfway through his month.

And I think that that that makes a bit of sense. Now the second one is from one of Caxton earliest printing examples. And again, I'll read this in sort of modern English in so much that in my days happened at certain merchants were in a ship in Thames River Thames, for to have sailed over the sea into Zealand and for lack of winds, they tarry they waited and fallen, and went to land to 40 refresh them. And one of them then Sheffield and Mercer came into an house and asked for meat, especially he asked off to eggs. and The Good Wife answered that she could speak in French. And the merchant was angry for he also could speak no French, but he would have had eggs.

She understood the knot. And then at last another said that he would have Aaron then the good wife said that she understood him well know what should a man in these days now right eggs. Oh, Aaron, certainly it is hard to please every man by cause of diversity and change of language. Now that's an interesting one. Aaron would be much more likely to be an original Saxon, of form of plural, we still have those e n forms of plural think of childhood children or oxen, oxen, or man and men, women and women. These are how we make plurals in the Saxon way, but the, the modern English way was to add an extra plural, so egg, eggs, you know, house houses and so on.

So we can see that even in this time, and this is latter part of the 14th century, that there is still some confusion about what the language should be doing. So, they're telling you these are the open lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. And we can see that in the second example, there's some very strange spelling spelling has been one of the biggest problems for learners of English. Over the years it still is today. And of course one of the reasons for that these words come in from different times, and the different uses of different pronunciations and they don't become established until much later and then the spelling is dates back from much before. What is the most important thing to remember about spelling in English, by the way is that English people spell by sight.

They spell by what the word looks like they do not spell by sound. It is not a phonetic language. So the richness of Middle English, it's got so much versatility because of the infusion of Norman French and Latin. And its willingness to its adaptability was finally propelled into what we'll call the modern era by the boldness and inventiveness of the Elizabethans of jacobin. And for this, there is only one person that we can really thank no accident that he has had such an influence on the language and that Shakespeare, Shakespeare plays with language like no other writer before us. He is so inventive he is so experimental with language.

And the next example I think will show you just how versatile he Bernard Levin some years ago created this text and it's, it's basically showing you all the words that are in italics are first used by Shakespeare. So let's have a quick look at this. If you cannot understand my argument and declare, it's all Greek to me, you're quoting Shakespeare. If you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you're quoting Shakespeare. If you record yourself Some days you're quoting Shakespeare. If you act more in sorrow than anger if your wishes father to the thought if your last property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare.

If you have ever refused a budget inch or suffer john green eyed jealousy if you have played fast and loose, if you've been tempted to terror, strengthen hoodwinked or in a pickle. If you've slept not one wink stood on ceremony danced attendance on your Lord and Master. laughed yourself into stitches had short shrift, code comfortable too much of a good thing if you've seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise. Why Be that as it made them more for you for it is a foregone conclusion that you are as good luck with habit protein shakes. If you think it is early days and clear out back in baggage if you believe that the game is up and the truth will out, even if it involves your own flesh and blood if you lie low to the crack of doom because you suspect foul play. If you have set your teeth on edge at one fell swoop without rhyme or reason.

Then to give the devil his due even if the truth were known for surely you have a time in your head. you're quoting Shakespeare. Even if you bid me good Britons and send me packing if you wish I was dead as a doornail. If you think I'm an ISO and idiot, the devil incarnate a stony hearted villain, bloody Majid or a blinking idiot, then By Jove Oh Lord, tuck tuck, for goodness sake, what the dickens but me now, but it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare. Sometimes people say to me, surely what the difference refers to Charles Dickens, but it doesn't. It refers in fact to an expression at the time with dekins met with a shortened form of what the devils can, the children of the devil, that's all Shakespearean.

Idioms and imagery. So imagine now that English is crossing the Atlantic to the new world as settlements are being Established in American Canada we've already seen how Middle English differs widely from the English of Shakespeare and the years of development across the Atlantic or any other parts of the globe where English is being taken show us that the hybridization continues and is alignment. We can see that the history of English of the Anglo Saxons to the present day is one of continuous absorption and regeneration. It adopts changes to a suited changing world, whether the changes are due to culture technology or simply to borrow words from other languages and make them their own. I give you one example is the tomato is a fruit found originally in the new world? Now, the tomato the word tomato is a Native American word.

And we English hear that word. Ask a Native American What is this and he says tomato or something very similar to tomato and we take that Word into English. Other languages now, in French, it's a pomodoro Italian pomodoro golden apple. But we just say well, they call it a tomato, we'll call it about it. And we have words from all over the planet like this from India we get words like pajamas, bungalow. From even the Arab countries we get words like Sahara and gizelle.

I spent some years in recently in Malaysia, and I've always amazing my students by saying that the word camp on which is a Malaysian word for a village is in the English dictionary. So English thrives on borrowings and so it grows all the time. When you think in the 20th and 21st century, you get technology words like Internet Television and Radio and online and selfie, these are words that So, the language keeps growing all the time and from all sorts of sources. So, we can say that English has maintained a high degree of homogeneity, which means that people from widely different cultures and backgrounds which share initially the mother tongue, usually managed to understand one another. However, there are differences between us. In America there are expressions that are not really fully understood in in in London or in the UK, but with the growth of movies in the internet that that barrier is breaking down.

But I love the George Bernard Shaw comment once made about Britain and America, they're viewed as two countries separated by a common language. So now just to finish this off, I'd like you to have a look at the three questions below. And they're worth pursuing. If you have a real interest in the history of English and would like to go a bit deeper. I'll be more than happy to receive your written answers. If you'd like to email them to me.

We'll then go through them and give you appropriate feedback. You can also contact me on that, that's my email address there. And you can also find me on my website which is given at the end. So look at these three questions. Which of the following historical events do you consider to be the most important in the development of the English language? A the Norman Conquest be the colonization of America see global television.

If you've got any reasons for the answer, I'd like to I'd like you to share them with me. And then why have the words of Shakespeare contributed so much richness to everyday English? Why is it that idioms such as those employed by Shakespeare are sources of confusion for foreign students and lastly, the most common type of English taught by T Sol experts today and T Sol is teaching English to speakers of other languages. It's American English and British English. Why do you think this is given that American English is such a relative newcomer. With that, thank you very much for your kind attention.

I hope you have enjoyed this introductory video.