WARNING: This post is a bit different from my others.
A (very) brief history of the English language, as described in the Norton Anthology of English Literature:
Beginning in the first century of the
Common Era, England was a province of the Roman Empire. It was named Britannia after the Britons, the
Celtic-speaking people who lived in England at the time. Beginning around 450 A.D. (or 450 C.E., if you
prefer), the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes began their conquest of
southeastern Britain. These Germanic
invaders spoke an early form of the language we now refer to as Old English. Old English bears a much closer resemblance
to German and Dutch than does contemporary English.
The Germanic tribes and the Britons
fought for decades. The Britons were
eventually sequestered in the mountainous regions of Wales. Modern forms of the Celts’ language are still
spoken in that area to this day. (Funny
fact: When I was little, I used to think
people called her Diana, Princess of Whales.
I was utterly convinced she was a mermaid.)
In 1066, yet another invasion occurred. This time, it was the French-speaking
Normans. Because of this, French became
the official language of England until the end of the fourteenth century. Many French words worked
their way into the English language. You
could say it gave our language a certain je ne sais quoi. This is especially evident in the odd ways in
which we form superlatives in English.
Germanic languages append –er and –est to words to form superlatives,
but Latin-based languages, like French and Spanish, precede words with more and
most to form superlatives. Sometimes we
use the Germanic method (taller, tallest), and other times we use the Latin
method (more beautiful, most beautiful).
Throughout the centuries, the English
language changed even more, typically the result of other battles for power. The English language as we know it today is a
unique and odd combination of multitudes of languages from around the
world. It is no wonder, then, that
English is a language of exceptions.
Some words follow the rules of one language, and others follow the rules
of a different one. When you learn
English, you are really learning several languages.
Why does this matter?
The really cool thing about all of this,
in my opinion, is that English isn’t alone in this phenomenon. French, Spanish, Italian, German, and many
other languages have a history that is equally rich and diverse. This is why there are so many cognates (similar
words, similar meanings) across multiple languages.
What else can we learn from this? Languages never really die. Many people claim that Latin is a dead
language, but I respectfully disagree.
In my opinion, it is alive and well in the many languages that have
derived from it. We also use Latin quite
heavily in science and medicine. Because
of this, I believe Latin is far from dead.
It may be different, but it’s still there, just like the language of the
Britons. Language, just like culture, refuses to die easily. To fully understand a culture, it is very important to understand their language.
Isn’t language awesome?
So now that I’ve shared my thoughts on
the matter, what are yours? What do you
think is cool about the language(s) you speak?
