ASSIGNMENT ON HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGISH LANGUAGE differences between old english and modern englỉsh

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY EACULTY OF ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT ON HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGISH LANGUAGE Differences between Old English and Modern Englỉsh Full name: Chu Thi Linh Class: K2

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY EACULTY OF ENGLISH

ASSIGNMENT ON HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGISH LANGUAGE

Differences between Old English

and Modern Englỉsh

Full name: Chu Thi Linh

Class: K25A12

Hanó 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale 3

2 Aim of the study 3

2 Research questions 4

PART B: LITERATURE REVIEW Chapter 1: An Overview of Modern English and Old English 1 The Old English 5

2 Modern English 6

Chapter 2 The different between Old English and Modern English 1 The different vocabulary between Old English and Modern English.8 2 spelling of Old English and Modern English 9

3 The different Words 11

4 The different Grammar between Old English and Modern English 12

CHAPTER 3: English changing and developing in the future 1. The changing of English 14

2. English in the future 14

3. The Development of English 15

PART c 9 CONCLUSION 16

REFERENCES 17

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

The stages of English language has been described in an elaborated way The history of a language is constituted up of some internal and external factors The external factors like economic, political, social, as well as geographical affect the speakers of a language internally, i.e their life style, food, habitats and their style of speech which include vocabulary, accent, and even the structure of the language

This briefly discussion will be structured around the internal history of the English language - the pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and around the conventional division of the history of English into two main periods: Old and Modern English

Today, on almost any basis, English is the nearest thing there has ever been to

a global language Many would reasonably claim that, in the fíelds of business, academics, science, computing, education, transportation, politics and entertainment, English is already established as the de facto lingua franca

English is looking to be one of the universal languages of the future Many people know that English speaking countries have some of the best economic and technological developments the world can offer It’s also usually a case that English -speaking countries often offer higher paying jobs, which means people in these countries usually have a better standard of living, in comparison to the rest of the world This is part of the reason why people believe English will be the Universal Language of the future

4 Aim of the study

Old English, Middle English, and Modern English are the classification of English language, and they exhibit some differences between them There is one significant fact that English has become the official language of so many other countries where it is not considered as the native language which made it apart from many other languages that are spoken all around the globe

As the world develops in terms of educational standards, more and more people are choosing to study English as a second language In this day and age, the opportunities that are available to you if you can read, speak, and write in English

are much more desirable than other languages The potential for jobs, to expand on your knowledge, and to generally speak with more of the world’s pop ulation will all improve when capable of communicating in English.

3 Research questions

How and why has English changed over time?

What is the difference in grammar between old English and modern English?

Why do people think English is the language of the future?

What are the factors that contributed to the growth of English language?

PART B: LITERATURE REVIEW Chapter 1: An Overview of Modern English and Old English

1 The Old English period: (450 - 1150)

languapấ cr r58i t fel;d^B iI ỈSígh s >ẩẴKnẽíÉ s

f m5ft e

( ịSW 1 ỉ&ếỉfDfí> t ễẩ n iẫl?ẵl? C P 1 ỄJS ,

í |ályd C i i fỉ> t ÁĨ Western Germany and Denmark These tribes spoke a similar language developed into Old English Old English survived until the Norman invasion in 1066 by William the Conqueror conquered England.

The Old English was a language of full inflection; linguistically a synthetic language and which had a peculiar characteristic Old English vocabulary was almost Germanic, of which 85% does not exist at present day “Much of the Old English vocabulary appropriate

to literature and learning died out and was replaced later by words borrowed from French and Latin.” OE was mostly written using the L atin alphabet, supplemented by a few Germanic runic letters to represent sounds not found in Latin.

Old English had many inflected forms of nouns, verbs, and adjectives that were very similar to those of German Nouns had gender: feminine, masculine, and neuter Adjectives agreed with the nouns they moditìed in gender and case Verbs had six forms in every tense showing person and number Old English had a somewhat freer word order than modern English Old English had a few extra letters in its alphabet and much easier to spell.

2 Modern English

Beginning in the 15th century, the transition from Middle English to Modern English began Much of the transition was due to the expansion of the British Empire throughout the world and to the development of printing The printing press and increase in publishing of books drove the standardization of the language Spelling and grammar was formalized due to the publication of various literary works and pamphlets

At the same time the seventeenth-century scientiíìc movement, heralded pre-eminently by Francis Bacon, had the effect of establishing English íìnally as an adequate medium of technical writing in place of Latin It also led to the cultivation of a plain style of writing, without the use of the devices of rhetoric Bacon, who wrote in both English and Latin, himself criticized the valuing of style above matter His followers carried the attack much further The Royal Society, according to its historian, Bishop Thomas Sprat, was to be praised for correcting stylistic excesses in writing

ENGLISH

When a native English-speaker tries to learn another European language, one

of the very first thing that person will discover is that all nouns are either masculine

or feminine, or in some cases neutral In modern English, on the other hand, a noun

is a noun

In modern English new words are added to express past or future tense The inflection occurs when we change the word itself to give us information, usually by changing the end, the middle or some other part of the word However, modern English did not get rid of all its inflections When we study English today we discover that in words such as “play,” we would have “played,” “playing.”

Chapter 2 The different between Old English and Modern English

7

Aíphabet Had no k„ v.t letters {1 he tetterỉ c, s

indứ ! both c and k, f and V, > and z

5QUfldsJ

e.g cynn 'kin', cinn 'thin*

gleCan ‘10 give\ 5P0ÍOI1 'seven' hũs'house*, bõsm 'bosom'

Hai these three letters separatety.

Had nữ teĩter q.

e,£ cwỉn 'qụpen'

The letter qenrered The Englkh

la ngụa ge through Frertth icríbei, and tontinuex.

Thí- leitet e indicated 1 he sounds of g as XVPÍI a$ y,

e.g gõd ' ẸOOC T, gẽar 'year'

These txvo leitert are diỉtiiưtly separate now.

Pronunc iation ỉhere were no 'LĨtent' letlers, A1I the IvTteiv

had a sound valưe e 6- oight The letteis gh indkaied a veíat kkdtive sound, xvhich rị now Ịost in Modern Englbh.

Ai a result oíloss oí Intỉectìonat endingỉ- Great Vovvt‘1 Shift r and other lơund changes, Modern Engiiỉh deveíoped 'silent' lettPtĩ., ĩhere lísed to be a h sound at the

begĩnnìngof a word E.g, hnecta 'neck' Modtrn Ẽnglish does not alloxv ah sotind beíore a consonant

spund xvord inidallv, vvơrd inĩEỉal k sound was pemũtted E g.

kniỉe The k letter ivas pronouoced Modein English doesnot allovu <ỉkíoưnd beíorc-ancther

C0níor>aiH soundxvord iniỉialiy.

VocabUary Some worcfc hađ a diííeient meaning E.g.

mid 'wỉthí >v7f ' womar?

Today the xvords rtĩíờ, and wi/e have dờíerent meanings.

So me xvorđs đisappeared E-g wer Sxveín 'dream'

Modern English has other words for them.

TheS&cond Person pronoun had both sỉngular and phiral form$ ỮO 'vou (ỉingb

gẽ 'you' (pỈLtral)

Modetn Enghsh has only one prpnoini you to indicate both ỉìngular and [rturat torms.

The Pirst Person and the Second Persữtì pronouns bad dual íornts Indkating two people h.g XV11 'xve twú', RÍĨ 'von txvo'.

Modern Englísh lost these dual prottèuni.

ồrammat old Engíìsh had noreílexíve prpapuns li ke

nìyselC atuselves, yourselí etc These reílexive pTOPCuns i:ame toexist ìn Engthh đuringthe Mìddle

Engli^h period.

Nouns, adjectives t and even artictes íiad

genders-Modern English lost its oiiginal genđer systein.

The tntinrtive XV 15 índĩcaied hy adđĩng a ỉụííìx -an to the verb E.g bacan 'to bake'

Englíỉh lost thi$ ỉuHìx durĩng the Middle Engli$h períod ĩtíẹlí.

Nouns, adiecdves and artkks vvere ìnílected for Case.

The case System was ỉost at the time of Middle Engliỉh.

ĩhí-re tverẹ lìO Relatĩve pronoun^ Re la ti VÉ ụEonộuns íănip tộ be

used linceihe Mĩddl? Englìỉh peiĩod.

Dữuble Ne ga ti ve wai com mon, not to ma ke

a pcniũve Ont, but only 10 reintũrce the negattve senie.

Double negative iỉ no longer used J

Chapter 2 The different between Old English and Modern English

8

Questions tould be íomied vvithOLit 'do'.

E.g Know yau lùm ?

Modein Ẹngliỉh íỉoes not alloxv such túnỉtructkHlỉ

The period of Old English with its main phases: from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, via the constant invasions of the Vikings up to a detailed account of what happend in 1066 Thus, this video is more or less socio-culturally oriented, rather than linguistic It is meant as a general overview of the most important facts and figures of the Old English era : Old English Words and Modern

A lot of words and grammar were absorbed from Old Norse The Danes had conquered and ruled much of northern/eastern England, and their language assimilated with the local variant of English We get a lot of our most common words, including many pronouns, from Norse

So, practically speaking, old English was a completely different language from modern English, and the differences between these two are not coníìned to only spelling, but extend to grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, and meanings the language is highly inílected; not only verbs but also nouns, adjectives and pronouns are inflected there is grammatical gender with nouns and adjectives

Old English and Modern English are not two different entities Old English kept

on changing until it became what today we call Modern English So, Modem English

is merely a continuation of Old English, and Old English was the precursor of Modern English

1 The different between vocabulary

In terms of written example, let me use ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ as example

Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us Lead us not into the test but deliver us from evil Amen

Now, in Old English:

F^der ure ^u ^e eart on heofonum; Si ^in nama gehalgod to becume ^in rice gewur^e ỗin willa on eorỗan swa swa on heofonum Urne ged^hwamlican hlaf syle

us todéeg and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfaỗ urum gyltendum and ne gehed ^u us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele so^lice

We denotes its tense, number, or part of speech A plural is an inflectional ending (one apple, two apples; one child, many children) and so is a possessive (a

Kaoma—s o a dofdW sndinn?f&inoteltionfii3gs%h5®’ipsldmnlìh

was a direct or indirect object A lot of vocabulary was absorbed from French French was the language of court, law, and much official business, and remained so until the 1300s.

Then there’s vocabulary Old English has a vocabulary that was presumably big enough for the people who spoke it to describe everything they cared about Modern English, though, has scavenged words from pretty much every other language in the world, and has an enormous and flexible vocabulary with multiple words for all sorts

of things and concepts and actions

Another feature of Old English was the verb system, which was more complex than that of modern English In modern English, regular verbs are conjugated in the same form for all subject pronouns or persons, with only one exception, namely the present tense indicative, third person singular (he/she/it steals), Old English had different endings for different persons

The changes in nouns and adjectives (the end of declensions, especially following prepositions), the establishment of pronouns familiar to the modern speaker (with conservaủon still of thy, thine and ye), further reduction in the classes

of strong verbs, increase in use of progressive verb forms, and growth in vocabulary

from various sources as foreign loanwords encountered in trade and exploration enter into and enrich the language

Regarding the vocabulary of Old English, it was also different from that of modern English Old English vocabulary was still based on the Germanic peoples' dialects that had moved down from Scandinavia and spread over Central Europe in successive waves

2 Spelling of Old and Modern English

Mộd Ẹngh>h

ỉunne

õlhl

hMCCt

keỹ lojf

<toy

Many of the Old English words also came from iníluence of the Romans and Greeks These words were borrowed by the Germanic conquerors and incorporated into Old English For example, the following words were adapted from the Romans, Greeks and from Latin While the spelling is different, the meanings all follow the original words and correspond to the modern meanings

Spelling changed Much of the writing was being done by French trained sbribes, who didn’t like the look of some traditional OE spellings English completely lost ỗ (eth) and b (thorn) which were used for the TH sound but unloved

by„theNQrmanscribes ThPrẲetter in (ash) went away too Pronunciation4s also rVerYi verydiiỉerentrrModern dayEngnsnpTonunciauanisa Dy-product oftheGreat vowel Shift that obbured It’s the reason why house is pronounbed as ‘hows’ rather than the spelling pronunbiation of ‘hose/haws’

All these words underwent several different types of changes, resulting in the modern forms That said, it should not be presumed that the old English letters like

‘g’ were pronounbed like modern English ‘g’ It indibated several sounds So was the base with old English ‘b’

The phonology has undergone some bhanges (for example, the “zh” sound as in

“genre” is now part of Modern English The spelling and pronunciation has changed