The History of Old English
Factors Bringing about Language
Changes
Language Changes
Presentation prepared by Dr. Mario O. Castillo Rangel
History and Development of the English Language
(ENGL 413) - Jan/09
“No language as depending on
arbitrary use and custom can
ever be permanently the same;
and what is deem‟d polite and
elegant in one age, may be
accounted uncouth and
barabarous in another.”
Benjamin Martin, Lexicographer
Perception of Language Changes
ANALOGY WITH THE OBSERVATIONS OF STARS
“All living languages change with
time. It is fortunate that they do
so rather slowly compared to the
human life span. It would be
inconvenient to have to relearn
our native language every twenty
years.”
Changes: Stars and Languages
“Stargazers find a
similar situation.
Because of the
movement of
individual stars, the
constellations are
continually
changing their
shape.”
Fifty thousand years from now we
would hardly recognize Orion…
…or the Big Dipper
(The seven brightest
stars of the
constellation Ursa
Major, the Great
Bear, … recognized
as a distinct grouping
in many cultures from
time immemorial.)
The Big Dipper
(in the constellation of Ursa Major)
“Linguistic change is also slow in
human – if not astronomical –
terms. As years pass we hardly
notice any change.”
A Message in English from the Future
“If we were to turn on the radio and
miraculously receive a broadcast in our
„native language‟ from the year 3000, we
would probably think we had tuned in a
foreign language station.”
A Message in English from Past
OLD ENGLISH scarcely recognizable
as ENGLISH (Audio-text)
Cædmon’s Hymn (735)
Many language
changes are revealed
in written records. We
know a great deal of
the history of English
because it has been
written for about
1000 years.
Perspectives in Language Changes
Language Forms vs. Functions
Material vs. Non Material Culture
Diachronic vs Synchronic Perspectives
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Factors
Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Views
Perspectives in Language Changes
Cultures in Contact
Ethnic encounters
Cultural and religious encounters
Migrations
Cultural Development
Development of material culture
Development of nonmaterial culture
Language and Culture - Interaction
Culture Tools
Material
Nonmaterial Culture Language
Culture Tools
Material
Nonmaterial Culture Language
Factors shaping language
Qualitative Factors
Economic, social and political forces
Cultural development
Diversity and encounters of cultures
Quantitative Factors
Numbers of Speakers
Increase in numbers of Readers
Growth of Media
Forces at Play
in the Development of Language
“In understates matters to say that
political, economic and social forces
influence a language. These forces shape
the language in every aspect, most
obviously in the numbers and spread of its
speakers, and what is called “the sociology
of language,”… (Baugh 1)
THE EARLY MODERN
PERIOD
“Renaissance”
1500-1700
CHANGING CONDITIONS
FACTORS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO
LANGUAGE IN MODERN TIMES
Changing Conditions in the
Development of English
1. Printing Press
2. Rapid spread of popular Education
3. Commerce, transportation and rapid means of
communication
4. Growth of specialized knowledge
5. Emergence of various forms of self-
consciouness about language (Baugh 200)
CHANGING CONDITIONS
FACTORS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO
LANGUAGE IN MODERN TIMES
Changing Conditions in the
Development of English
1. Printing Press
2. Rapid spread of popular Education
3. Commerce, transportation and rapid means of
communication
4. Growth of specialized knowledge
5. Emergence of various forms of self-
consciouness about language (Baugh 200)
Factor 1:
THE PRINTING PRESS
Printing introduced
into England about 1476
The printer's device of William Caxton, 1478.
Invention of printing
from movable type
exercised a far-
reaching influence in
the vernacular
languages of Europe.
Printing Press
Printed Books
Some Data
35000 Books
(majority in Latin)
printed in Europe
before 1500
Over 20000 Titles in
England by 1640
The Printing Press
William Caxton (c. 1415~1422 – c.1492)
English merchant, diplomat,
writer and
First English person to work as
a printer
First person to introduce a
printing press into England.
First English retailer of books
(his London contemporaries
were all Dutch, German or
French).
Printing Press
Effects on the English Language
Standardisation of the English language (that is,
homogenising regional dialects).
Expansion of English vocabulary.
Development of inflection and syntax
Ever-widening gap between the spoken and the
written word.
Printing Press, Popular Education
and Literacy
DURING THE CENTURY and a half of the
English Renaissance, the printing press
became the indispensable disseminator of
the written word and its use was
accompanied by a corresponding spread
of popular education and literacy.
Factor 2:
RAPID SPREAD OF POPULAR
EDUCATION
Rapid Spread of Popular Education:
In the Later Middle Ages a surprising number of
people could read and write
A valentine letter from
Norfolk-based Margery
Brews to her lover John
Paston III about their
forthcoming marriage
(1477)
Rapid Spread of Popular Education
In Shakespeare‟s London probably half of the
people could at least read
Rapid Spread of Popular Education:
17th and 18th
Prosperous trade class with means to obtain
education
Increase in the number of schools
Journalistic output of Defoe
Rapid rise of the novel
Factor 3:
COMMERCE, TRANSPORTATION AND
COMMUNICATION
Exchange of commodities and exchange of ideas
are stimulating to language.
Extension of trade enlarged vocabulary.
Diversification results from transportation
Unification results from ease of travel and
communication.
People in contact – Diversification
and Unification
Intermingling of language and lessening
of altered local idiosyncracies
Factor 4:
GROWTH OF SPECIALIZED
KNOWLEDGE
New knowledge requires new vocabulary
Latin less the vehicle for learning
Factor 5:
SELF-CONSCIOUNESS ABOUT
LANGUAGE
INDIVIDUAL: Adopting language standards to
improve social level (similar to conformity to
fashions).
PUBLIC: e.g. 16th C. debates about orthography
17th and 18th C. proposals for an academy
20th language planning in former colonies
LANGUAGE SYSTEM
Levels Units & Rules
Syntactic Grammatical Rules
Lexical Content Words
Morphological Form Words – Affixes
Phonological Sounds and Letters
THE END
WORKS CITED
Nist, John. A Structural History of English.
New York: St. Martin‟s Press, 1966.
Burnley, David. The History of the English
Language. 2nd ed. London: Pearson
Education, 2000.