What is English Language? History and Development

We all know what our mother tongue is: It’s English. We also speak other languages like Italian, French, and Spanish but we communicate in this mother tongue (English).

What is English Language?

What makes a language an official language? It can lay down rules when words are used for specific purposes such as the combining of letters to increase sound when spelling out sounds etc. Also, there lie various techniques that help speakers “learn” or become fluent.

Old English | Medieval English | Modern English

The word “English” is an Anglocentric term, primarily used to refer to the dialects of people primarily living in England. But modern-day international usage sometimes juxtaposes it with other terms that are no longer widely recognized as part of older Englishes, such as Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse. Likewise, Scotland can be considered a major source for these variations.

Old English

Old English is an old Germanic language of Northern Europe from 300 AD to the late 9th century, which is spoken by a few actors of today. In England during its last period, people changed some words that came into use due to traders and settlers coming over with different languages.

Middle English

Middle English is the term commonly used to refer to the period between 1350 and 1550, spanning roughly 25 years. During this time old English developed into Middle English because of the rise in international trade during that time period known as the commercial revolution that occurred across Europe which brought about higher levels of literacy amongst all classes within England, demanding a standardization not possible through spoken usage alone.

Modern English

Modern English is the common term used to refer to the period between 1550 and today. It is referred to as Modern because it evolved from middle English, but was not developed into an international lingua franca by then; there were multiple other languages that acted as the primary lingua franca across Europe for this time period (though they didn’t replace each other entirely like German would overtake French at some point during the 1800s).

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Three circles of English-speaking countries

England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The English contains:

1. Grammar: <Single cases for nouns, pronouns, adjectives; plural formation in genitives>.

Inflections: All stem words are inflected by gender and number (singular/plural); only the verb changes form for a person. There is no rigid spelling or verbal endings. Irregular verbs did not regularise until about the 15th century due to the influence of Middle English grammatical structures on other dialects developed through contact. When verb forms are irregular, however, pronunciation follows the normal structures laid out in these regions.

2. Vocabulary: <Sounds borrowed from French to replace lost Latin>.

The addition of words coming through trade with France introduced new Romance vocabulary into English. English occupied roughly 58% of Europe during this time period making them a dominant international power that could influence other languages spoken within its sphere of influence. English words came from French, Latin, Britain, and Greek as bases with embellishing words of their own creation or transferred adaptations.

There are two spheres of influence referred to as the West Saxons area and the Mercian area. Within these areas, there was a sphere within each for different dialects; the “West-Saxon area” included everything west of Wessex (the southwest region because it is much less mountainous), including Northumbria (a separate kingdom) whose spoken language survived up until well into medieval times.

3. Speakers of English in the Middle Ages in England (including Wales, Ireland, and parts of Scotland, South Africa, Australia).

Foreign language

Many people say the second language) and vocabulary lists, and pronunciation (fossilized), conduct a new study on the difficulties of English-speaking students learning traditional oral methods of teaching. What we’ve discovered is both useful to teach effective communication skills in general that ESL teachers will use this type of training.

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Some FAQ

Where did English come from?

It is a common English opinion that King Alfred of Wessex who re-established the throne for his son Æthelstan, initiated many changes and brought about a new style and direction to language. Some scholars believe that the “King Alfred period” saw much more change in Anglo-Saxons than in other regions, when in fact it is likely that there was no single person who initiated these changes. Additionally, few scholars of British history would categorize the whole period as a “King Alfred” era, and this opinion is widely dismissed by those with an appreciation for wider Anglo-Saxon culture. Some linguists argue that no single figure can be held responsible for language change and that cultural emigration simply created new ways of using existing inflectional forms: there was no drastic linguistic transformation during this time.
One theory concerning why languages developed differently in different parts of the world relates to the rise and fall in states. The theory is that when people lose their state, they become able to develop spoken language more freely; furthermore, when they regain control of their state again this will lead to changes in lifestyle and ultimately impact on linguistic change.
Another argument is based upon distribution patterns: some languages (such as English) spread quickly to such an extent no one region could strictly be defined where it originated.

Which method of learning English works best?

There is no single best way to learn English as this depends on the learner and their own personality. Some people study grammar, some memorize a lot of vocabulary, some focus predominantly on getting a grasp of pronunciation and script reading. Regardless though there are common principles that link all methods: Learning an oral language involves more than just writing words down – it requires knowledge about how sounds work in different contexts so you have to acquire ‘theory’ rather than just ‘facts’ to remember vocabulary.

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What are some common mistakes in speaking and writing in English?

Often students make mistakes such as:

  1. Mispronouncing or mishearing certain parts of sounds (most common is not being able to properly distinguish between “wh” and “how” in words like a wedge, hedge, key).
  2. Taking the wrong form into a sentence structure. (“He said he would return it on Monday”), incorrectly sticking letters together when forming a word (“Dave’s new car”), biasing the verb tense in different ways from region to region (historical figures in North America tend to be described as “Captain”, whereas in British English they often use the word and rank title/s), failing to distinguish when using slang words from the educated language, etc.
  3. It is also common habitants of England to move their tongue forward when saying certain sounds such as [p] or [f]. Also, you can make chunking mistakes such as dropping the letter ‘i’ at the end if you get to a final letter e.g. “barn” instead of “bench”.
  4. It is often best for students to focus on one area at a time and not try too hard in other areas, such as speaking and writing both simultaneously when one may be better than the other: Sometimes it’s necessary to write so you can master a sentence structure and also take note of vocabulary without delivering them all in speech which helps with memory retention when writing essays.

You should learn writing skills and language proficiency.

In short, it is best to focus on one area at a time and not try too hard in other areas.
A lot of common mistakes in speaking and writing are because the student is not using correct grammar. Students should use grammatically correct speech, which means that they must know how to use “subject-verb agreement” correctly when to use “who/whom”, and when to use “that”.

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