Evol. Inglese

Today I would like to talk to you about the evolution of the English language, spoken all over the world by millions of people, important result of substantial changes that began over 1500 years ago and which still continue even today.

450-1100 d.C

We need to go back several centuries, up to the 5th century AD, to discover that the British Isles were invaded by Germanic tribes called Angles, Jutes and Saxons, who spoke dialects of Germanic origin which slowly replaced the Celtic languages spoken in those areas, imposing the language called Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

Territori anglosassoni e insediamenti in Gran Bretagna nel 400-500 d.C.

This language forms the basis of the English we know today (words such as strong, water were introduced), but it was nevertheless a language with very strong similarities to German itself. For lovers of English literature we can remember that the epic poem "Beowulf", written in Old English, dates back to this era. In the VIIIth and IXth centuries AD. the British Isles were invaded by Viking populations from Denmark, Norway and Sweden who brought many linguistic loanwords as well as grammatical simplification. Words such as give, take, husband, after date back to this era.

1100-1500 d.C.

Una data epocale dal punto di vista linguistico è stata il 1066 con la conquista normanna dell'Inghilterra da parte di Guglielmo il Conquistatore, Duca di Normandia, che contribuì a far evolvere l'inglese antico nel Middle English (inglese medio) fortemente influenzato dal francese dell'epoca. Parole come beer, city, fruit, jury entrarono a far parte dell'inglese di quel periodo.

Il francese divenne la lingua del potere e dei sovrani, mentre l'inglese rimase la lingua del popolo. Risalgono a questo periodo "I racconti di Canterbury" di Geoffrey Chaucer.

Fu in questo periodo che il sistema ortografico venne stabilito anche se i successivi cambiamenti a livello di fonetica e pronuncia oltre all'adozione di ortografie straniere portarono a tutte le varianti ortografiche dell'inglese attuale e che, indubbiamente, rappresentano diverse difficoltà proprio perché il sistema fonetico e quello ortografico della lingua inglese non sono univoci.

100-1500 AD

An epochal date, from a linguistic point of view, was 1066 with the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, who contributed to the evolution of Old English into Middle English, strongly influenced by French language of the time. Words like beer, city, fruit, jury became part of the English of that period.

French became the language of power and sovereigns, while English remained the language of the people. Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" date back to this period.

In the 15th century, with the attempt to impose Christianity as a new religion in England, Middle English also underwent the influence of Latin which was the language of the Church at the time.

The English language underwent a substantial change in the 16th century thanks to the talent of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) who coined almost 2,000 new words and many expressions that became part of the English language. Thanks to his works and his way of using the language, English evolved into Early Modern English and words such as fashionable, gravity, laughable were introduced. With the advent of printing, English spread more and more and in 1604 the first English dictionary was created.

In the period between 1350 and the end of 1700, the so-called "Great Vowel Shift" took place which brought about a great change in the pronunciation of vowel sounds, determining a clear difference between the pronunciation and writing of words, as before this change there was greater correspondence between the sounds and the way in which they were written. English learners will probably think that all their pronunciation difficulties come precisely from this change which has undoubtedly complicated learning the language!

Later the language was enriched with new terms coming from the technological advances that were occurring in the period of the Industrial Revolution.

1800-2000 A.D.

With the colonial expansion of the British Empire, the English language underwent a further transformation, enriched with new words from languages ​​spoken locally in the colonies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and India, such as shampoo, pyjamas, airplane, radar. The Late Modern English of the time was also exported to various regions of the world and became the lingua franca which is now spoken by over one and a half billion people.

English, like all languages, is a living subject which, the moment it is used, is constantly enriched with new words without ever ceasing to evolve. Every year there are dozens of new words that are introduced into the language through linguistic loans or simply coined from scratch, such as selfie for example.

Today it is easy to see the result of many centuries of linguistic evolution. Just think for example of the many words of which in English we have two versions: one of Latin origin (legacy of the influence of Latin and French, for example the verb to remove) and one of Germanic origin (linguistic origin of English, for example the synonymous verb to take off). For us Italians the word of Latin origin is often more understandable as it is more "transparent" even if in English it would probably be used in a more formal and less familiar context.