The History Of The English Language
English has become the most famous language, used globally. How did we get here?
THE BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH
In the fifth and sixth centuries, the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons migrated from Germany and Denmark to Britain, marking the beginning of British history. There are numerous French words in English thanks to the Norman Conquest in 1066. Words from Greek and Latin started to appear in it in the fifteenth century, and modern English is typically traced back around 1500. English has a large vocabulary that it easily borrows from other languages and creates new words to reflect technological advancements.
This is how we got here!!
The Evolution Of The English Language: There were three distinct periods in the evolution of the English language: the Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, and Modern English phases. Different influences and consequent modifications to the vocabulary, syntax, grammar, and pronunciation of the language define each phase. Firstly, the Anglo-Saxon phase: In the middle of the fifth century CE, Germanic peoples from what is now Northern Germany, known as the Angles and Saxons, started to migrate to and conquer the Roman province of Britannia. They even gave the new nation—Angle-land, or England—its name. Different invading tribes made their home in various parts of what is now England, giving each area of the nation its own distinct linguistic mark. This phase gave rise to the Old English used by early missionaries and the Vikings and the Scandinavian Influence. Secondly the Middle English Phase: Began roughly when Norman king William I invaded England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, overthrowing the Anglo-Saxon ruling class in the process. Originally from Normandy in northern France, the Normans were descended from Vikings. Unlike the earlier Saxon and Viking invasions, there was no large-scale migration during the Norman Conquest. For decades following the Norman Conquest, the language of the ruling class in England was Norman French rather than English; no English king spoke English as their first language after 1066 until Henry IV's coronation in 1399. This phase gave rise to the Medieval Developments where English had reestablished itself as a language of law and governance by the middle of the fourteenth century. Lastly the Modern English phase: The sixteenth century and the present are included in the Modern English phase. During this phase, there was a major shift in English phonology that culminated in the Great Vowel Shift, which occurred approximately between 1400 and 1600 CE. This gave rise to the grammar police which is the creation of a central authority to develop guidelines and control language use. Through its colonies and geopolitical domination, the British Empire had disseminated English by the late 1700s. Formal education, science and technology, art, diplomacy, and commerce all had a part in making English the first language that was actually spoken everywhere. English also made international communication easier on a global scale.
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In conclusion English became the most used language in the world due to a variety of reasons such as the 3 phase of evolution it went through namely the Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, and Modern English phases and also due formal education, science and technology, art, diplomacy, and commerce. Regardless of how it became the most used language it has worked to our benefit as communication is effortless throughout the world.