After we communicate English, we’d say we’re communicateing the language of Samuel Johnson, the person who wrote its first dictionary. Or lets say we’re communicateing the language of Shakespeare, who coined extra English phrases than any other individual in history. It might make simply as a lot sense to explain ourselves as communicateing the language of the King James Bible, the mass printing of which did a lot to standardize English, steamrolling flat most of the dependmuch less native variations that existed within the early seventeenth century. However as many an Englishman (and various Americans) could be loath to confess, after we communicate English, we’re, a lot of the time, actually communicateing French.
“In 1066, the Normans flip up and seize the English throne from the Anglo-Saxons says YouTuber Robphrases in the brand new video above, describing the single most important occasion in the complete history of the English language, which he recounts in simply 22 minutes. “William the Conqueror turns into king, and Norman French turns into the language of England’s élite.”
Beneath its new ruler, the counattempt’s earls, thanes, and athelings could be known as barons, dukes, and princes. “The now-subdued Anglo-Saxons wanted to study French phrases if they needed to get by, so English absorbs an entire host of French phrases associated with power, justice, artwork, government, regulation, and culture — resembling power, justice, artwork, government, regulation, and culture,” to call just some.
This thoroughgoing Frenchification gave rise to what we now name Middle English, as distinct from the Outdated English spoken earlier than. As noted by RobPhrases, about 85 percent of Outdated English vocabulary is not in use at this time, but we’re nonetheless “utilizing Outdated English in each sentence that we utter,” not least after we escape such irregular-seeming plurals as mice, oxen, and wolves. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday make reference to “the Anglo-Saxons’ pre-Christian gods.” And even within the fast-changing, slang-ridden, internet-influenced, and — for guesster or for worse — excessively “globalized” English we communicate at this time, we are able to nonetheless hear dim echoes of the traditional ancestor linguists name Professionalto-Indo-European. Perhaps that’s why, regardless of being so largely spoken, English continues to be so difficult to study: after we communicate it, we’re communicateing not only a language, however many languages all of sudden.
Related content:
The History of the English Language in Ten Animated Minutes
The place Did the English Language Come From?: An Animated Introduction
The Tree of Languages Illustrated in a Massive, Beautiful Datagraphic
The Alphaguess Defined: The Origin of Each Letter
Based mostly in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His tasks embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the ebook The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by means of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social internetwork formerly referred to as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
