The Evolution of English

The Proto-Indo-European language is a reconstruction of the potential parent language to the Indo-European language family. Many features of it are contested, but some features are more widely agreed upon. These features are three series of stop consonants (voiced, voiceless, and aspirated) totaling in fifteen, two common vowels, three “laryngeal consonants”, and a fricative ‘s’. Besides these features, very little is widely agreed upon, as although descendant languages have many similarities, these may have only become rules once they separated.

Indo-European is not itself a language; instead, it is a family of languages that evolved in different periods of time. The split that occurred between Centum and Satum as Indo-European languages formed also created new, agreed upon rules for the languages and families that formed. All Indo-European Centum languages reduced the number of stop phonemes reduced from fifteen two twelve due to the merging of “plain velar” and “palatal” stops. Another commonly noted difference between Centum and Satem languages is how dorsal consonants (k and g sounds) were pronounced in the word for ‘hundred’.

Germanic Parent Language is another reconstructed language based on Germanic languages before the First Germanic Sound shift. Researchers are very curious about the conditions under which the First Germanic Sound Shift occurred, and therefore the effort to reconstruct the Germanic Parent Language has been significant. Characteristics of this language are the reduction of mora, or the length of a syllable, and Verner’s Law, or the voicing of fricatives, among many other changes.

The Proto-Germanic language is yet another comparative reconstruction based on changes from the Germanic Parent Language to the Germanic daughter languages. Hundreds of listed changes occur in this period, but the most universally accepted and significant of these changes is the set of sound laws proposed by Jacob Grimm known as “Grimm’s Law.” There are three aspects to Grimm’s Law. First: Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops became voiceless fricatives. For example, the sound ‘b’ became the sound ‘p’, and the sound ‘p’ became the sound ‘f’. Second: Proto-Indo-European voiced stops became voiceless stops. For example, the sound ‘d’ became ‘t’, and the sound ‘t’ became ‘th’. Third: Proto-Indo-European aspirated stops became voiced stops or fricatives. For example, ‘g’ became ‘k’, while the sound ‘k’ became ‘x’. Grimm’s Law is considered one of the most significant linguistic changes in English history.

The splintering of Germanic into three subgroups occurred over a period of time, but West Germanic, the parent of Old English, could have been completely separate as early as the third century. Yet again, many changes are noted, but the following are some of the most significant: lengthening of all consonants except ‘r’ before a ‘j’, lowering of long front vowels, and the creation of gerunds (-ing words).

Old English developed out of North Sea Germanic, a West Germanic language. There is significant similarity between Old English and other later West Germanic languages, especially Old Frisian, but some key differences do exist. Yet again, with over 600 years of change to work with, many differences occurred, but some are considered very significant. I-mutation is recognisable in Modern English with the pluralising of “mouse” into “mice”. Monophthongization of ‘ai’, and ‘au’, and the merging of plural forms of verbs are also significant. Old English is usually marked as ending in 1066 due to the Norman Conquest, which replaced English with Anglo-Norman (similar to French) for a period of time.

Middle English may be the time period in which the most changes occurred. Pronunciation, grammar rules, vocabulary, and even orthography, or the way things are written, changed. Intense fragmentation, improvisation, and localisation occurred. By the end of the time period, printing presses allowed for the language to become standardized. Some significant changes were loss of gemination, or the pronunciation of double consonants, loss of non-final unstressed schwas, or why “every” is pronounced more like “evry”. This is also where we saw the introduction of second and third person verb changes, such as “thou heareth” and “he speakest”. The Middle English alphabet also removed the letters ash, eth, thorn, and wynn. K, q, w, and z were added.

Early Modern English is almost universally associated with Shakespeare. The development of spelling, vocabulary, and pronunciation were still variable, but things were becoming more consistent. For example, silent consonants, like night, knot, and sword, were still pronounced at the beginning of this period. U and V were not considered distinct letters. Final syllable “ic” sounds were often written as “ick”. These are just a few examples of the many differences that occurred during this period.

Many changes occurred between Early Modern and Modern English that made the standardization complete. Uncountable changes were made, but some of the most obvious are the 26 letter alphabet, multi-word verbs, the elevation of the singular “they”, and standardized spelling regardless of dialect.