By : Farhana Ayuni Afiqah Fatin Syahirah

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English.

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

Angels, Saxons and Jutes who first invaded England settled in different parts of the island. Old English dialects sprang up: -Northumbrian in the north (north of the Humber River) -Mercian in the Midlands -Kentish in the southeast -West Saxon in the southwest Wessex was the seat of powerful King Alfred- its dialect, West Saxon, achieved a certain status and forms the basis of most surviving Old English literature and of the study of Old English today.
The

 Highly

inflected language (elaborate system of inflectional suffixes on nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and even determiners) From sixth to eighth century, there was an extended period during which these AngloSaxons were converted to Christianity and a number of terms from Latin (the language of the religion) came into English at that time. From eighth century through the ninth and tenth century, another group of northern Europeans came first to plunder and then to settle in parts of the coastal regions of Britain. They were Vikings and from their language, Old Norse, that the original forms of give, law, leg, skin, sky, take and they.

An example of Middle English by Chaucer.

In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Arrival of the Norman French in England, following their victory at Hastings under William the Conqueror in 1066. These French-speaking invaders became the ruling class, so that the language of the nobility, the government, the law and civilized life in England for the next 200 years was French. For example : army, court, defense, faith, prison and tax The language of the peasant remained English: work on the land and reared sheeps, cows and swine (words from Old English) while upper class talked about mutton, beef and pork (French origin) After 1200, situation began to change. In 1204 King John lost Normandy to King Philip of France and on both sides of the Channel decreed were issued commanding that no one could own land on both England and France.

Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

 The

main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

15th century Middle English developed many of the principal synthetic patterns we know today. By the time of Shakespeare third-person plural pronouns with th- instead of h- (they, their, them) Chaucer and the Mandeville translator had used they, but both still used the elder the older possessive form her (their) and objective from hem (them) Word order had become more fixed, essentially as it is in Modern English. Late 1400s most ways Modern English Between 1450-1650, dramatic shifting of English vowels took place All long vowels markedly changed their quality Modern spelling of English vowels had essentially been established by the time of William Caxton, who founded his printing press in the vicinity of Westminster Abbey in 1476, before the shift had progressed very far. Caxtons spellings disguise the fundamental alteration that has occurred in the system of English vowels.

The relatively uniform dialect used by African American in the inner cities of most large urban and in the rural south, when speaking casually. AAE shares many of the characteristics of Southern and working-class dialects. But not all African Americans speak the dialect. Among the speakers, a difference exists in the amount of dialectal features used by different individuals. Individual differences may be related to age, geographic location, income, occupation, and education. (Terrell & Terrell, 1993) Many AAE structural rules reflect recognition of the redundant nature of many SAE constructions. Speakers of AAE may have difficulty with reading and spelling in SAE.

The largest ethnic population in US is Hispanic. Not all with Spanish surnames speak Spanish. The form of English spoken depends on the amount and type Spanish spoken. The 2 largest Hispanic groups in US are of Puerto Rican-Caribbean and Mexico-Central American Origin. Although both speak Spanish, their Spanish dialectal differences influence their comprehension and production of American English. We refer their dialect as Latino English.

Although we shall use the term Asian English (AE), it is clearly a misnomer* because no such entity exists. It is just a term that enables us to discuss the various dialects of Asian Americans as a group. Most widely used languages: Mandarin Chinese. Cantonese Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, and Vietnamese. Mandarin Chinese has had the most pervasive* influence on the evolution of the others. Indian and colonial European cultures and others have also influenced these languages. Each language has various dialects and features that distinguish it from the others. Therefore, there is, in reality no Asian English as a cohesive unit.

*a name that does not suit what it refers to, or the use of such a name * Present or noticeable in every part of a thing or place

 During

the period between the end of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 and the later years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at the start of 21st century, the number of speakers of english increased from 5 to 7 million to somewhere between one and a half and two billion. Before this, english was spoken only by a relatively small group of mother-tongue speakers born and bred within the shores of the British Isle. Now, majority speakers being those for whom it is not a first language.

 Approximately

75 territories use english as first language / as an official second language in fields such as government, law and education.

eg : Malaysia 375,000 - english as first language.

5,984,000 second language.
(based on 1995 research)

Involving the migration of around 25,000 people from south and east of England primarily to America and Australia, resulted in new mother-tongue varieties of English.

Involving the colonisation of Asia and Africa led, on the other hand, to the development of a number of secondlanguage varieties, often known as new englishes.

 First

dispersal Large scale migrations of mother-tongue english speakers from England, Scotland and Ireland predominantly to North America, Australia and New Zealand. The english dialects which travelled with them gradually developed into American and Antipodean Englishes we know today.

 Second

dispersal
East Africa

Kenya Uganda Tanzania Malawi Zambia Zimbabwe

English in west Africa is linked to the slave trade and the development of pidgin and creole languages.

-Extensively settled by British colonists from the 1850s. - These six countries became British protectorates or colonies at various points between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with english playing an important role in the major institution such as government, education and law. -Early 1960s, one by one achieved independence. -English remains the official language in all the countries.

 Second

half of the 18th century English was introduced to the sub-continent of South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan).

in the late 18th century as a result of the seafaring (travelling by sea) expeditions of James Cook and others. The main territories involved were Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Philipines. Papua New Guinea was also, for a short time a British protectorate (1884-1920), and provides one of the worlds best example of an England-based pidgin, Tok Pisin.
Began

 Stamford

Raffles ( administrator of British East-India company) is the name most closely associated with British colonialism in South-East Asia. He played an important role in the founding of Singapore as part of the British colonial empire in 1819. Other major British centres were founded around the same time in Malaysia (Penang and Malacca) and Hong Kong was added in 1842. After the Spanish-American war at the end of 19th century, the US was granted sovereignty over the Philippines which, although going independence in 1946, have retained a strong American-England influences.

recent years, the use of english has increased in Singapore and a local variety has begun to emerge. The use of english declined in Malaysia as a result of a adoption of the local Bahasa Melayu, as the national language and medium of education when Malaysia gained independence in 1957.
In

 While

still obligatory as a subject of study at school, english was regarded as useful only for international communication. There has recently been a change of policy, with english-medium education being reintroduced from 2003. Before this development, radio stations using english and bahasa together for a local audiences, which is quite complex. Nowadays, english is also learnt in other countries in neighbouring areas most notably Taiwan. Japan and Korea having recently begun to consider the possibility of making english official second language.

 Both

versions of English are based on a shared blend of linguistic history As a result, we share the same grammatical structure We share many more words in common than different words. We also share the fact that English of both types, standard and British, have a great deal of diversity within them, due to regional differences

 Vocabulary
BRITISH ENGLISH plain postman rates draughts bonnet underground AMERICAN ENGLISH homely mailman taxes Checkers hood subway

 Syntactic

tones British have is being used as full verb eg: Havent you have any? American do is being used as full verb eg: Dont you have any?

*Claim has been made that American speech is more exuberant and vital than British speech but it actually depends on the slangs.

 Pronounciation

1. FLOUR
BRITISH ENGLISH fla r AMERICAN ENGLISH fla

2. FORGIVE
BRITISH ENGLISH f g v AMERICAN ENGLISH f g v

 WORLD

ENGLISHES A resourse book for students by Jennifer Jenkins. (2003) E, F. (2008). Language: Its Structure and Use (5th ed). Boston: Thomson. http://www.englishclub.com/englishlanguage-history.htm