ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1. The History of English

English is not only the first language for more than 400 million native speakers, but also a
lingua franca1 for 1,5 billion speakers overall. It is the official language in almost 60 countries
around the world.
The shaping2 of the English language was a complicated process connected with the
historical and social experience of the people living on the British Isles and elsewhere. It is not
incorrect to say that the evolution of English resembles3 the evolution of the British nation as we
know it today. Through various eras and in specific situations, the social life of the British has
had an immense4 influence on the language the people spoke and speak today.
From a linguistic perspective, English is traditionally described as a West-Germanic
language. Its roots lie deep in the past before the beginning of the first millennium. “The Proto-
Germanic5 parent language gave rise6 to three branches of descendant7 languages, namely8,
eastern, northern, and western. … The eastern branch was represented by Gothic, Burgundian
and Vandal languages, all the three of them dead now. The northern branch comprises9 idioms10
spoken on the territory of today’s Denmark and Scandinavia.”11 Thus12 we have two groups of
Germanic languages in existence today: the western group (English, German, Dutch) and the
northern group (Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and some minor languages).
Traditionally, the history of English is divided into three major stages: Old English, Middle
English, and New English with Modern English as part of it. Let us discuss the individual
stages in more detail now.

1.1. Old English (5th century – 1066)

By Old English, a group of dialects spoken by the Anglo-Saxons is usually meant. They

1
Lingua franca is a language which people use to communicate with people whose language they do not master.
2
shaping – utváření
3
resemble – připomínat
4
immense – nesmírný
5
Proto-Germanic – pragermánský
6
give rise – nechat vzejít
7
descendant – nástupný
8
namely – jmenovitě
9
comprise – zahrnovat
10
idiom – jazyk
11
Kavka 2008: 123
12
thus – takto

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brought their language from the continent in the 5th century after the Roman forces had left
Britannia. They conquered13 the areas inhabited by the Celts and settled14 in Britain.
It is worth noting – and you will soon discover – that Old English does not look like modern
English at all and even to native speakers it would certainly sound and look like a foreign
language. To give you a view of what Old English looked like, it will be best to start with the
famous Lord’s Prayer15:

Old English New English translation

Fæder ūre Our Father

þū þe eart on heofonum, Which art in heaven,
sī þīn nama ȝehālgod. Hallowed be thy name.
Tōbecume þīn rīce. Thy kingdom come.
Gewurþe ðīn willa on eordan Thy will be done on earth,
swā swā on heofonum. As it is in heaven.
Ūrne ȝedæȝhwāmlīcan hlāf syle ūs tō dæȝ. Give us this day our daily bread.
And forȝyf ūs ūre ȝyltas, And forgive us our debts,
swā swā wē forȝyfad ūrum ȝyltendum. As we forgive our debtors.
And ne ȝelǣd þū ūs on costnunge, And lead us not into temptation,
ac ālȳs ūs of yfele. But deliver us from evil.
Soþlīce. Amen.16

The first feature you have probably noticed is the presence of obsolete17 letters. Old English
used two ways to write Gg: the Gg that we know even today, and Ȝȝ, called “yogh”. There were
no universal rules which should be written where. The same applied to Þþ (called “thorn18”) and
Đð (called “eth”), which are the archaic variants of the digraph19 TH. For Ww, the letter Ƿƿ
(called “wynn”) was often used. The letter S sometimes had two lower-case variants: s, used in
final position, and ſ, used elsewhere20. The only obsolete vowel is Ææ. Long vowels are marked
with macrons, however, marking lengths was not common.
As for pronunciation, it would be incorrect to say that everything in OE was pronounced “as
written”. The spelling was much more regular than in modern English, however, there were some

13
conquer – dobýt
14
settle – usadit se
15
the Lord’s Prayer – Otčenáš
16
Kavka 2008: 92. Also, please note that there were more versions of the Lord’s Prayer.
17
obsolete – zastaralý
18
thorn – osten
19
digraph – spřežka
20
The latter survived into the New English period. It is also to be found in old Czech texts. Using these obsolete
letters in transcriptions of Old English texts would make them almost unreadable, therefore modern letters are
preferred and characters such as Ƿƿ are not used even in transcriptions.

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special features. Gg and Ȝȝ could be pronounced both |ɡ| and |j|, but never |ʤ| as today. The
digraphs SC and CG could be pronounced |ʃ| and |ʤ|, respectively. Ff was pronounced |v|. Cc
was pronounced either |k| or |ʧ|. Ææ was pronounced |æ|.
The system of grammar was much more complicated than today, as21 OE was rather a
synthetic language22. Nouns used declensions23 as there were four grammatical cases24. There
were both strong and weak nouns. As an example of strong nouns, let us mention stān (“stone”):
N stān, G stānes, D stāne, A stān. As for weak nouns, nama (“name”) is a good example: N
nama, G naman, D naman, A naman.25 Some nouns even used umlauts26: N bōc (“book”), G bēc,
D bēc, A bōc. This applied even to the plural and it is the reason why some nouns have got
“irregular” plurals (e.g. “foot” – “feet”). Adjectives were also flexive. Verbs used conjugations27
and were both weak and strong, the strong giving birth to present-day irregular verbs.
The OE vocabulary consisted of much more Germanic words than today. However, there
were strong influences of Latin and Old Norse. Words such as candle, school, master or history
have their origin in the Latin influx28 between the 7th and 11th centuries. From Old Norse, words
such as husband, wrong, sky, root or ugly became a part of the English vocabulary.
Let us close this brief overview with the opening lines to Beowulf, probably the best known
Old English poem:

Old English original Modern English translation

Hwæt we Gardena in geardagum, Hle, Slyšte zvěst o králích Gar-Danů, o tom,

þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, jakými byli válečníky,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. za časů dávných a minulých.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, Často Scyld Scefing zdrtil nepřátele,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, hodovní síně mnoha národů rozvrátil,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð jarlové se jej děsili. Pastorek bez přátel,
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, nalezencem byl. Však osud jej právem odměnil.
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, Prospíval pod nebem, přátele získal.
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra Všichni lidé, blízcí i ti vzdálení
ofer hronrade hyran scolde, od velrybích cest, mu naslouchali

21
as – jelikož
22
Synthetic languages tend to build words using suffixes and endings rather than using prepositions. Czech could
be described as a synthetic language, modern English as an analytic language. Compare “kamarádovi”
(synthetic) to “to a friend” (analytic).
23
declension – deklinace, skloňování
24
case – pád
25
You might be familiar with the concept of weak nouns from present-day German.
26
umlaut – přehláska
27
conjugation – konjugace, časování
28
influx – příliv

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gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs god cyning! a dary jej obšťastňovali. Byl to dobrý král!
Ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned, Jemu syn se narodil,
geong in geardum, þone god sende dědic jeho síní. Skrze něj seslali
folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat Bohové radost lidu,
þe hie ær drugon aldorlease který již postrádal
lange hwile. Him þæs liffrea, dědice králova. Byl obdařen,
wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf; nositel zázraků, velkou slávou.
Beowulf wæs breme (blæd wide sprang), Pověstný byl tento Beowulf, daleko letěla pověst o něm,
Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in. synu Scylda, po zemích Skanzy.

Some facts probably still need to be pointed out. Anglo-Saxon poems were not rhymed. They
rather concentrated on rhythm and repeating sounds – alliteration. The long space in the lines is
called caesura. There are also a couple of kennings, Anglo-Saxon metaphors. For example the
word “hronrade”, in modern English “whale-road”, simply refers to the sea.

1.2. Middle English (1066–1500)

The Middle English period begins with the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Led by
William the Conqueror, the conquest brought far-reaching29 changes to the English society and
culture. The language people spoke also changed drastically – even though not overnight, of
course.
It was a period of heavy French influence – the new nobility30 brought their customs and way
of life and Norman French became the official language. Latin was also important as the
language of the church. English did not disappear, but rather underwent a significant progress.
French had an immense influence on the English vocabulary. Over 10,000 words were
adopted – they were words associated with administration, fashion and social life: crown, state,
government, sir, madam, crime, judge, soldier, court, army, dress, coat, dinner, colour, tower
and thousands of others. It is often mentioned that words expressing various kinds of meat are of
French origin while the words expressing animals are of Germanic origin, e.g. beef – cow or pork
– pig.
The influence on grammar was not as radical as on vocabulary. Probably the only issue
worth mentioning here is the way adjectives were compared31 – the Romance32 way appeared,
as comparatives and superlatives were created using more and most. Also, during the period, but

29
far-reaching – dalekosáhlý
30
nobility – šlechta
31
compare – stupňovat
32
Romance – románský

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not as a direct impact of French, English lost much of its grammatical complexity –
declensions and conjugations gradually disappeared or became much more simple. Adding the
ending -s to mark plural nouns became a standard, grammatical gender disappeared.
Even though early Middle English writings may resemble33 the Old English ones, letters
typical for the older variant fell out of favour34 during the period – by 1500, Ƿƿ had been
substituted by Ww, Þþ and Đð by TH, and Ȝȝ by Gg. New digraphs occurred, namely CH and
SH. Uu and Vv were used interchangeably.
As for pronunciation, it is not difficult to read Middle English texts. Even though there was a
lack35 of spelling standards, it can be said that written characters and digraphs had more or less
only one realisation36. Gg began to be pronounced |ɡ|, |ʤ| or |ʒ| under the influence of French.
Vowels were usually pronounced “as written”. The schwa sound (|ə|) appeared in endings.
To illustrate the changes which occurred during the Middle English period, let us look at the
opening lines of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, one of the finest examples of English
mediaeval literature, written around 1400. You may not find reading and understanding the lines
difficult:

Middle English original Modern English translation (rhymed)

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote When April’s gentle rains have pierced37 the draught
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote Of March right to the root, and bathed each sprout38
And bathed every veyne in swich licour Through every vein with liquid of such power
Of which vertu engendred is the flour; It brings forth39 the engendering40 of the flower;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth When Zephyrus too with his sweet breath has blown
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth Through every field and forest, urging on 41
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne The tender shoots, and there’s a youthful sun,
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne His second half course through the Ram42 now run,
And smale foweles maken melodye And little birds are making melody
That slepen al the nyght with open ye And sleep all night, eyes open as can be
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages); (So Nature pricks them in each little heart),

33
resemble – připomínat
34
fall out of favour – ztratit oblibu
35
lack – nedostatek
36
realisation – realizace
37
pierce – proniknout
38
sprout – pupen
39
bring forth – přivodit
40
engendering – plození
41
urge on – popohánět
42
Ram – skopec

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Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, On pilgrimage43 then folks desire to start.
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, The palmers long to travel foreign strands
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; To distant shrines44 renowned in sundry45 lands,
And specially from every shires ende And specially, from every shire’s end
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende, In England, folks to Canterbury wend:
The hooly blisful martir for to seke, To seek the blissful martyr46 is their will,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke. The one who gave such help when they were ill.

1.3. New English (1500–present)

The invention of the printing press (around 1450) and the flood of printed books helped
standardise the English spelling and make English the language of the high society once again.
During the period of Humanism and Renaissance, writers such as Sir Thomas More or William
Shakespeare changed the face of their mother tongue (Shakespeare himself is said to47 have
introduced more than 2,000 words). Later, during the Classicism era (18th century), the works of
linguists and dictionary authors (e.g. Samuel Johnson) marked yet another milestone in its
history.
As the previous period was marked by the influence of French, the times of early New
English were predominantly a period of Latin and Greek influence. This comprises words such
as catastrophe, exist, debt, doubt or autumn.
In grammar, progressive (continuous) tenses began to appear and were fully accepted later
in the modern period. Questions did not require the auxiliary48 “do” (it is quite common to find
questions such as “How goes the Night?” in Shakespeare’s writings), negatives were expressed
in various ways (“I thinke not”). 3rd person singular tended49 to attach -s while the variant of -th
fell out of favour. 2nd person singular used -st until it disappeared. Pronouns were more or less
the same as we know them today. However, it is worth mentioning that the pronoun you used to
be the plural accusative, while the singular nominative was thou, singular accusative thee and the
plural nominative used to be ye.50
It is not quite clear how pronunciation worked, but there are some theories based on spelling
studies. A widely accepted theory comes up with the so called Great Vowel Shift, which

43
pilgrimage – pouť
44
shrine – posvátné místo
45
sundry – rozmanitý
46
blissful martyr – požehnaný mučedník
47
be said to – říká se, že
48
auxiliary – pomocné sloveso
49
tend – mít tendenci
50
These pronouns are sometimes used nowadays as archaisms.

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describes how long vowels became closed and how closed vowels broke into diphthongs51 (e.g.
“roof” |ro:f| > |ru:f|, “time” |ti:m| > |teɪm| > |taɪm|).52 Many other changes occurred, some of them
spontaneous. In the 18th century, the final -r was no longer pronounced in standard British
English.
Spelling was quite similar to modern English. The final -e was still used in many instances. It
is not difficult to read texts in early New English, even though pronunciation is slightly different.
See the most famous monologue from Hamlet:

Early New English original Czech translation (E. A. Saudek)

To be, or not to be, that is the Queſtion: Žít, nebo nežít – to je, oč tu běží:
Whether 'tis nobler in the minde to ſuffer zda je to ducha důstojnější snášet
The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune, střely a šípy rozkacené sudby,
Or to take Armes againſt a Sea of troubles, či proti moři běd se chopit zbraně
And by oppoſing end them: to dye, to ſleepe a skoncovat je vzpourou. Zemřít – spát –
No more; and by a ſleepe, to ſay we end nic víc – a vědět, že tím spánkem skončí
The Heart-ake, and the thouſand Naturall ſhockes to srdcebolení, ta sterá strast,
That Flesh is heyre too? 'Tis a conſummation jež patří k tělu, to by byla meta
Deuoutly to be wish’d. To dye to ſleepe, žádoucí nade všechno. Zemřít – spát –
To ſleepe, perchance to Dreame; I, there’s the rub, Spát! Snad i snít? Á, v tom je právě háček!
For in what ſleep of death, what dreames may come, To, jaké sny by se nám mohly zdát
When we haue ſhufflel’d off this mortall coile, v tom spánku smrti, až se těla zbudem,
Muſt giue vs pawſe. There’s the reſpect to, to nás zaráží. To je ten ohled,
That makes Calamity of ſo long life: … jenž bídě s nouzí dává sto let žít. …

There have been some proposals to simplify the English spelling, however, none of them has
had any significant impact. The reason is obvious – they have more disadvantages than benefits.
Nevertheless, a slight decline53 in the use of the apostrophe may be observed – especially in
business names (Barclays, Harrods, Lloyds Bank). It is not unlikely that the use the character54
might not be required55 in the future.
As for the vocabulary and pronunciation, since English is not only spoken by its native
speakers, it changes rapidly from day to day. Communities both in English speaking countries

51
diphthong – dvojhláska
52
This law not only shows us how pronunciation changes probably worked, but also what the future variants of
English might sound like.
53
decline – pokles
54
character – znak
55
require – vyžadovat

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and around the world have got their own ways of speaking it, often mixing it with other
languages.

1.3.1. The Varieties of Modern English as opposed to British English

The Cockney dialect is spoken in parts of London. Vowel shifts are very progressive – “lady”
|laɪdi|, “night” |noɪt|, H is not pronounced, frequent glottal stops.56
In the Northern dialects, namely the Yorkshire dialect, there is a tendency to prefer the |ʊ|
and |o| sounds – “cut” |kʊt|, “dance” |dons|.
Scottish English (not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic) is typical for its use of trilled R
and not diphthongisating long vowels – “lady” |le:di|, “soap” |so:p|. Vocabulary can be specific.
Irish English is a rhotic accent (-r in final position and after a long vowel is usually
pronounced), it avoids using diphthongs – “day” |de:|, and uses sounds not heard in standard
English – “clock” |xlax|. The voiced57 TH is pronounced more like |dh|.
American English is the most spoken national variety with many sub-varieties, Midwest
American English being the approximate standard. It began to separate from British English
during the colonisation era. It is a rhotic accent, T is sometimes pronounced as |d|, for example
“city” |sɪdi|, O tends to be pronounced |ɑ| – “hot” |hɑt|, |æ| is more common – “can’t”. Vocabulary
is specific to a certain degree58 (see below). Spelling might differ as there has been a tendency to
simplify the American language (“color” instead of “colour”, “traveling” instead of “travelling”
etc.). Also, the way the Americans write dates is different: 12/02/2015 means December the 2nd
in America, not February the 12th. The last letter of the alphabet is called “zee”, not “zed”.
Thanks to America’s dominant position in culture and economy, elements from the variety
penetrate other varieties.
Canadian English is similar to American English. Australian English is similar to British
English. New Zealand English is also similar to British, pronouncing e as |ɪ| being probably its
most distinctive feature – “seven” |sɪvn|.
The following chart contains some expressions that differ in British, American and Australian
English.
TASK: Fill in the gaps.

56
For a brilliant demonstration, read Pygmalion by G. B. Shaw or see My Fair Lady.
57
voiced – znělý
58
to a certain degree – do jisté míry

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 pavement, field glasses, faucet, commercial, parking lot, grocery store, crisps, service station (servo), pacifier,
automobile, lollies, gasoline, capsicum, trunk, cookie, diaper, cart, cell phone, line, chips, hood, lorry

American English British English Australian English

car car
bell pepper red/green pepper
binoculars binoculars
candies sweets
trolley trolley
mobile phone mobile phone
advertisement advertisement
biscuit biscuit
nappy nappy
tap tap
fries chips
gas station petrol station
petrol petrol
supermarket supermarket
bonnet bonnet
chips chips
queue queue
dummy dummy
car park car park
sidewalk footpath
truck truck
boot boot

2. Studying the English Language

Studying the English Language from the linguistic point of view takes place on a number of
levels.
Phonetics and phonology study the language from the perspective of sounds and
phonemes59, respectively. Sound is the smallest unit a person is able to produce in language.
Phoneme is the smallest unit that can change the meaning – e.g. |p| and |ph| in “spine” and “pen”
are the same phoneme.
Grammar is divided into morphology and syntax. Morphology examines the language on

59
phoneme – hláska

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the level of how morphological units such as roots, prefixes or suffixes influence each other to
produce the correct message. Syntax deals with how bigger units are connected into sentences.
Lexicology deals with vocabulary and how it is enriched. Stylistics examines the appropriate
use of language techniques. Semantics deals with the relation between words and their
meanings. Pragmatics or pragmalinguistics is one of the newest fields, it describes how people
use the language to reach their goals.60 Sociolinguistics studies how various social groups use
the language. Historical linguistics deals with the process of changes in the language through
time.

Questions and tasks

1. Write the idiom the following extracts are written in.

Þa gelamp hit, æt sumum sæle, swa swa gyt for oft deþ, þæt Englisce
cypmenn brohton heora ware to Romana-byrig, and Gregorius eode be
þære stræt to þam Engliscum mannum, heora þing sceawigende.
Where think’st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk?
Đa geopenode Noe þæs arces hrof, and beheold ut and geseah þæt þære
eorþan bradnis wæs adruwod.
Seþthe þet Babyl was ybult men spekeþ dyvers tonges, so þat dyvers men
buþ straunge to oþer and knoweþ noȝt of here speche.
This carpenter hadde wedded newe wyf,
Which that he lovede moore than his lyf;
Of eighteene yeer she was of age.
Jalous he was, and heeld hire narwe in cage;
For she was wylde and yong, and he was old…
Ic þe wolde giet reccan sume swiðe rihte race, ac ic wat ðæt þis folc his
nele gelyfan: ðæt is, ðæt ða bioð gesæligran þe mon witnað, þonne þa bion
þe hi witniað.
2. Characterise each period of the English language from the point of view of grammar,
vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation.
3. Talk about how varieties of English differ from the standard.
4. Give a brief survey of the fields of linguistics.

Literature and sources

Hladký, Josef. An Old English, Middle English, and Early-New English Reader. Brno:
Masarykova univerzita, 1992.

60
E.g. why we prefer saying “Could you please open the window?” to “Open the window!”.

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Kavka, Stanislav J. Past and Present of the English Language. Ostrava: Repronis, 2008.
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/beowulf.html
http://english.fsu.edu/canterbury/general.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_Latin_alphabet
http://www.fionalake.com.au/other-info/other-references/rural-words/australian-american-words
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Bad_quarto%2C_good_quarto%2C_first_
folio.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuRrp83jCuQ

Updated: 17th May 2015

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