English Language

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a member of the Teutonic family of languages, which form three groups: (1) Low German. (2) Scandinavian, and (3) High German. The English language belongs to the first of these groups. The Teutonic languages themselves form a subdivision of the European division of that great family of languages called Indo-European. The English language is closely related to dialects still spoken on the N. shores and lowlands of Germany. The original inhabitants of England were Celts, and but few words of their language survive. The language introduced by the Teutonic invaders was an inflected language, and free from admixture of foreign elements. But the English of the present day, which is a direct development of the Anglo-Saxon, has lost its inflections, and has adopted words freely from other tongues. First it adopted many words from the Roman missionaries, by whom the island was converted to Christianity in A. D. 596. Secondly, a large number were adopted from the Northmen (the Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes). These words are numerous in old Northern English literature, and in Northern provincial dialects. A few still survive. But the event which exercised the greatest influence on the English language was the Norman invasion in 1066. After this, French became the language of the court, of the nobility, the clergy, and of literature, and continued to be so for nearly 300 years. In 1349 Latin ceased to be taught in schools through the medium of French, and in 1362, the plead ings in the law courts were directed by act of Parliament to be for the future conducted in English. But the English of the end of the 14th century had become, through the influence of the Norman-French, analytic; that is to say, prepositions and auxiliaries were used instead of inflections to express the various modifications of the idea to be conveyed. The English language may be divided into five periods: 1. First Period A. D. 450-1100. 2. Second Period A. D. 1100-1250. 3. Third Period A. D. 1250-1350. 4. Fourth Period A. D. 1350-1460. 5. Fifth Period A. D. 1460-the present day. In the first period (called also Anglo- Saxon or Old English), the language was inflectional; in the second it began to show a tendency to become analytic, the tendency increasing till in the fourth period inflections had virtually disappeared. Before the Norman conquests there were two dialects in English, a Southern and a Northern, the former of which was the literary language. After the Conquest dialects became much more marked, so that we can distinguish three great varieties, the Northern, the Midland, and the Southern, distinguished from each other by various grammatical differences. The Midland dialect was that most widely spread, and it ultimately became the standard language, a result principally due to the influence of Chaucer, and in a less degree of Wyclif, Gower, and others.