The history of the English language, as well as its appearance, is rich in events. The territory of modern Great Britain was inhabited by different peoples, it was captured and liberated more than once, and each invader wanted to “invent” a new language for Great Britain. This is reflected in the diversity of the English language. Each period of English history has contributed to the origin and general formation of the English language as we know it. We have prepared for you a short tour of what each of the periods of its formation left in the English language.
Celtic period
Emergence and the history of the English language began in the 8th century BC. when the Celts settled in what is now Great Britain. The emergence of English is directly related to them. They communicated in the Celtic language from which the word brith came, which meant "painted". The appearance of this word is due to the fact that the Celts painted their bodies blue to intimidate the enemy. The first seizure of British territory by the Romans is associated with the same period.
The Celtic languages of later times gave modern English such well-known words as:
whiskey- whiskey (from Irish uisce beathadh "living water")Many borrowings from Latin, which remained after the Roman conquest for 44 years, have also been preserved in modern English. So, for example, the names of English settlements such as Lancaster, Leicester and Manchester were able to form, based on the Latin word castra - "camp".
slogan- slogan (from Scot. sluagh-ghairm "battle cry")
plain- plaid
street- street (from lat. via strata "paved road")
wall- wall (from lat. vallum "shaft")
Old English period
The time of the German conquests is connected with the Old English period, when the Anglo-Saxons (Germanic tribes) - the ancestors of modern Englishmen - penetrated into Britain. The Anglo-Saxon dialect quickly supplanted the Celtic language from widespread use and prevented the emergence of something new. The Germans themselves brought many Latin words that they managed to borrow from the Romans. Among these words in our short dictionary there are those that are still used today:
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wine- wine (from lat. vinum "wine")
pear- pear (from lat. pirum "pear")
pepper- pepper (from lat. piper "pepper")
butter- butter (from lat. butyrum "cow butter")
cheese- cheese (from lat. caseus "cheese")
miles- mile (from Latin milia passuum "thousands of steps")
Saturday- Saturday (from lat. Saturni dies "Saturn's day")
The Christianization of Britain and the appearance in the language of many more borrowings from Latin are also associated with the Old English period, including:
school- school (from lat. schola "school")
master- teacher (from lat. magister "teacher")
pea- peas; pea (from Latin pisum "pea")
priest- priest "(from Latin presbyter" presbyter ")
In 876 AD the Battle of Wedmore took place, as a result of which a peace treaty was concluded with the Danes, who had long ravaged British lands. This world also affected the English language, which allowed the formation of a multitude of Danish words.
auk— auk
aye- yes/always
axle- axis
sky- sky
skull- scull
skin– skin
Middle English period
The Middle English period is famous for the Norman takeover of Britain. The Normans (French-speaking Vikings) defeated the Anglo-Saxons and seized power in Britain. This is connected with the emergence of the trilingual English everyday life of that time: the language of courts, administration, the royal court and the aristocracy was French, the language of the common people continued to be Anglo-Saxon, and the language of education was Latin. This is what allowed the emergence of the so-called "New English" language. The influence of the French language is very noticeable in modern English:
pork- pork (from French porc "pig")
tennis- tennis (from French tenez "hold")
New England period
In the New English period, printing appeared. In 1474 (1475), the pioneer printer William Caxton printed the first book in the English language. He himself translated the book from French. When translating, he relied on the spelling of the handwritten tradition, which allowed the formation of the first canon - this led to a slowdown in spelling changes in the English language, because a written sample "as it should be" appeared.
The work of William Shakespeare also left a huge mark on the history of the English language.(well, who else?), who was able not only to “invent” modern English, but also to introduce many new words - where he himself took them from is not always clear. Many of the words found in Shakespeare's works can also be found in modern English.
swagger- swagger around → swag- be in style
At the end of the 18th century, the Englishman William Jones spoke of the need to study the ancient Indian language in depth in order to more competently build a science of language. In modern English there are many words related to the words of the ancient Indian language.
path- path, path (from pathin "road")
bandanna- bandana (from bandhana "bandage")
Modern English
Modern English is called mixed - many words that have a common meaning do not have a common root. This is a consequence of the trilingualism characteristic of the Middle English period.
The English language is constantly developing, replenishing and acquiring dialects, each new concept gives people the opportunity to come up with many new words around it. Some words, on the contrary, go down in history as unnecessary.
Video about the history of the English language:
English is the language of the world
However, since the two languages coexisted, they immediately became . The following happened: Norman French became Anglo-Norman, borrowing an extensive vocabulary from the Germanic dialects, so it turned into the so-called. It differed greatly from other European languages.
It was part Germanic (vocabulary of everyday life, grammar and grammatical structures), partly Romance (extensive volumes of more literary vocabulary). He even absorbed some of the Celtic languages that were still in use in Cornwall and other parts of the British Isles. Finally, insofar as Middle English became the language of the vast majority of the population, it came to dominate England. By the 14th century, it was almost on its way to becoming a national language. Language not only for everyday communication, but also for official workflow and literature.
In the end, English supplanted Latin even from church circulation. , but it was not this that played a decisive role, but the Protestant reformation that followed in the 16th century, which coincided with the era of Shakespeare. From that moment on, the fixation of Middle English as the national language was already very firmly secured - and just in time. It was just that historical moment when the colonial expansion began.
Young and full of strength, English in its dawn became the language of the first men and women from Great Britain who settled in America. It was the same language that traveled around the world with the English ships and their yearly cycles of trade, missionary activity and commercial transactions.
At the beginning of the 18th century, England became the world's leading trade nation, making a claim that her language would become the language of international commerce.
English is close to everyone
English occupies a unique place at the junction of the two most important groups of languages in Western Europe - Germanic and Romance. This means that most people, whether they live in Spain or the Scandinavian countries, will find something from their native language in English. For example, if you speak any of the Germanic languages (German, Danish, and so on), then you need to study English a little, if at all, to understand the following sentence in English:
"The man forgot to water his garden last night."
At the same time, anyone who speaks French, Spanish or Italian will understand the English sentence without the slightest effort:
"Indicate if you have a difficult problem".
The important thing is that due to the intermediate position of English, speakers of other languages usually communicate easily in it among themselves, even if grammatical difficulties are taken into account.
But here it must be said that! Without it, no language can survive. It is, as it were, a cement that holds together the “bricks” that make up any language system. Without it, even a simple sentence in English cannot be understood. Importance in an English sentence is clear enough from the following examples of sentences in English that, while similar, have completely different meanings.
“The man the woman saw was hungry” (The man the woman saw was hungry).
"The man saw the woman was hungry" (The man saw that the woman was hungry).
Or marvel at the difference in meaning between these two seemingly similar sentences:
"This is a story forgotten by Charles Dickens" (This is a story forgotten by Charles Dickens).
"This is a forgotten story by Charles Dickens" (This is the forgotten work of Charles Dickens).
Modern English
When English became a global language and is used all over the world, it itself has become much richer than it once was. He adopted new words from other languages and cultures, for example: "bungalow" (from Indian - ed.), "detente" (from French - ed.), "kebab" (from Turkish - ed.), "potato" (Indian languages, - ed.). Many words of American slang came from Indian dialects.
The process of changing vocabulary and grammar has not stopped today. Surprisingly, there is no "official standard English". Neither the UK nor the US has anything like the French Academy (Académie Française, - ed.) at the official level, deciding what is right and wrong in the language. The most authoritative sources of the concept of the norm are the famous dictionaries: Webster in the USA and Oxford English Dictionary (OED, - ed.) in Britain.
However, they, like any other dictionaries, rather describe the current state of affairs, rather than regulate it. In other words, they dispassionately reflect the state of the language - they don't tell people what they should and shouldn't do. Today's language differs from itself a hundred years ago, in pronunciation. And there is no doubt that in a hundred years it will differ even more from its current state (about the history of the English language, - ed.).
Translated by Valentin Rakhmanov.
Design and research work Mikhailov Alexey 8 "B" class
"The History of the Origin of the English Language"
History of the English language ka
English language (eng. English, English language) - the language of the English
Table of contents
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..
2. The purpose of the work……………………………………………………………….…………
3. Relevance of the problem…………………………………………………….………
4. From the history of the origin of the language. Borrowing of words in languages ………………
5. Research methods by studying the periods of development of the English language ...
6. Education of the English language……………………………………………………...
7. Survey results…………………………………………………………….…….
8. Your own view on the solution of the task. The language of modern England. Conclusion, conclusion.
1. Introduction. Many of us learn English and dream of visiting the UK, London. The number of attractions in London is countless: Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Madame Tussauds and other famous places. Every day, thousands of tourists come to LONDON to get acquainted with the sights of the city, most likely without even thinking at that moment about its history and the history of the origin of the English language. But all the famous sights are connected with the history of the country and language. I chose the topic of research on the origin of the English language because I study this subject, I associate my future activities with this subject, since it is more relevant than ever in our time. I have read a lot of literature, done work comparing the origin of some English words. From textbooks, our life, we, students, learn a lot of material about the importance of the English language for our development, science, communication in a foreign language, and progress throughout the world.
2. The purpose of this work is: 1. Expanding students' knowledge about the history of the origin of the English language. 2. Development of independent work skills. 3. Understanding the importance of learning a foreign language as a means of achieving mutual understanding between people, to acquaint students with the facts of origin from the history of the English language.
3. The relevance of the work : Learning English covers not only grammar study, but also country-specific information about the language. We must pay attention to the connection of other languages with the history of other languages. And this can be done by comparing the changes in the origin of lexical units of other countries and peoples.
4. From the history of the origin of the language. Borrowing words of languages . Everyone knows that English is the official language of England and in fact the whole of Great Britain, residents of the United States (the official language of thirty-one states), one of the two official languages of Ireland, Canada and Malta, the official language of Australia and New Zealand. It is used as official in some states of Asia (India, Pakistan, etc.) and Africa. English speakers are called Anglophones in linguistics; this term is especially common in Canada (including in a political context).
It belongs to the Germanic languages of the Indo-European family of languages. The number of native speakers is about 410 million, speakers (including a second language) are about 1 billion people (2007). One of the six official and working languages of the UN.The language is dominated by analytical forms of expression of grammatical meaning. Word order is mostly strict. Refers to the analytical group of languages. About 70% of words in the vocabulary are borrowed. Writing based on the Latin alphabet has existed sinceVIIcentury. In the Middle Ages, additional letters were used, but they fell out of use). In orthography, a significant place is occupied by traditional spellings.It is customary to divide the history of the English language into the following periods: Old English (450-1066), Middle English (1066-1500), New English (from 1500 to our time).
5. Research methods by studying the periods of development of the English language Old English period
The ancestors of the current British - the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes - moved to the British Isles in the middleVV. During this era, their language was close to Low German and Frisian, but in its subsequent development it moved far away from other Germanic languages. During the Old English period, the Anglo-Saxon language (as many researchers call Old English) changes little, without deviating from the line of development of the Germanic languages, except for the expansion of the vocabulary.
Celts . This contact with the Celts hardly affected either the structure of Old English or
his dictionary. No more than eighty Celtic words are preserved in the memorabilia.
Ikah of Old English.
Among them: cult-related words :
to curse - cursecromlech - cromlech (druid buildings),coronach - an ancient Scottish funerary lament; javelins - dart,pibroch - military song;animal names: hog -pig.
Some of these words have firmly established themselves in the language and are still used today, for example:
tory ‘member of the conservative party’ -(this is interesting)-in Irish it meant ‘robber’,clan - tribe,whiskey - vodka.
Some of these words have become international heritage, for example: whiskey, plaid, clan. This weak influence of Celtic on Old English can be explained by the cultural weakness of the Celts compared to the victorious Anglo-Saxons. The influence of the Romans, who owned part of the territory of Britain for 400 years, is more significant. Latin words entered Old English in several stages. Firstly, some of the Latinisms were adopted by the German-speaking population of the north of continental Europe even before the resettlement of part of the Germans to the British Isles.
Among them: street - from lat.strata via ‘straight, paved road’,wall -otlat.Vallum, wallwine - from lat.vinum 'wine';
Another part - immediately after the resettlement of the Anglo-Saxons: these areplace names , for example:
Chester , Gloucester , Lancaster - from lat.castrum ‘military camp’, orLincoln , Colches - from lat.colonia'the colony', port - Smouth , Devonport - from lat.portus 'harbor' and a number of others.
The names of many species are also Latin in origin.food and clothes :
butter - Greek-Latinbutyrum 'oil', cheese - lat.caseus 'cheese',pall - lat.pallium 'cloak';names of a number of cultivated or farmed plants: pear - lat.pira 'pear',peach - lat.persica ‘ peach’, etc. and many more. others
Another layer of Latin words refers to the era of the penetration of Christianity into Britain. There are about 150 such words. These words also deeply entered the language and became part of it along with the root Germanic words. these are, first of all, the terms directly related to the church: apostle - Greco-lat.apostolus 'apostle', bishop - Greco-lat.episcopus 'bishop', cloister - lat.claustrum'monastery'.
The era of raids, and then the temporary conquest of Britain by the Vikings (790-1042), gives Old English a significant number of commonly used words of Scandinavian origin, such as:call - call,cast - throw,die - to dietake - take,ugly - uglyill - sick. The borrowing of grammatical words is also characteristic, for exampleboth - both,the same - same,they - They,their - them and others.
At the end of this period, a process of great importance gradually begins to manifest itself - the withering away of flexion. It is possible that the actual bilingualism of the part of the English territory under Danish control played some role in this: linguistic confusion led to the usual consequences - the simplification of grammatical structure and morphology. It is characteristic that flexion begins to disappear earlier precisely atnorth of Britain - the area of \u200b\u200b"Danish law".
Middle English period
The next period in the development of the English language covers the time from 1066 to 1485. The invasion of the Norman feudal lords in 1066 introduced into Old English a new powerful lexical layer of the so-calledNormanisms - words ascendingto Norman French dialectOld French the language spoken by the conquerors.
For a long time, Norman French remained in England the language of the church, administration, and upper classes. But the conquerors were too few to impose their language unchanged on the country. Gradually, medium and small landowners, who belonged to a relatively greater extent to the indigenous population of the country -Anglo-Saxons , become more important. Let's talk about them in more detail.
Anglo-Saxons
Ancestors of the current English - Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes , - moved to the British Isles in the middle of the 5th century. During this era, their language was close to Low German and Frisian , but in its subsequent development it moved far away from other Germanic languages. During the Old English period, the Anglo-Saxon language (as many researchers call Old English) changes little, without deviating from the line of development of the Germanic languages, except for the expansion of the vocabulary.
Militant people, pressure with their might, militant, victorious force.
The Anglo-Saxons who settled in Great Britain entered into a fierce struggle with the indigenous local population - Celts . This contact with the Celts hardly affected either the structure of the Old English language or its vocabulary. No more than eighty Celtic words have been preserved in the monuments of Old English. Here we see typical images of the Anglo-Saxons, warriors of 1200-1700.
Capturing land, establishing their dominance, asserting their customs and customs, establishing a "language complex"
6. English education.
Exploring many examples, it should be clarified: economic development, legal proceedings, common trade with European countries contributed to the formation of the English language, in which Europeans were forced to communicate, replenishing the language with new words, changing their pronunciation and spelling.
A typical example of the formation of nouns in two languages: German and English. We see from these examples by comparing these nouns that have much in common in pronunciation and formation.
We see that these examples symbolize much in common with the Russian language, which proves a great connection in the comprehensive development of Russia in close connection with the European countries of this period.
Illustrative examples of research:
Litigation and the introduction of English
Merging words to form a new language English .
Shipbuilders, English workers, carpenters, carvers, mercenary serfs communicate only in their native language, involving others in communication. People lived under the motto:“To understand means to survive, to get food and housing in order to feed yourself, improve your life, help your family and loved ones.”
Let's check these examples.
1.high pipe [mast ] - tall chimney cutting boardmast ; mast - gin polarized lattice post;mast - Dreieckmast. “trihedralmast ” - translation fromRussianlanguage in German language
2. das deck- deck , die Decke -ceiling. boat deck - boat deck deck bulkheads- bulk head boatspider deck - spider desk battery deck ...
3. chamber, lock, sluice, gole, dyke lock
GatewayGateway. German language . ... nzh.- German. sluse,Wed.- n.- German. slyse < lat. exclusA « Gateway , dam»
The displacement of French by English
Instead of the dominance of the Norman French language, a kind of "linguistic compromise" is gradually taking shape, the result of which is a language approaching the one that we call English . But the Norman-French language of the ruling class receded slowly: only in 1362 was English introduced into legal proceedings, in 1385 teaching in Norman-French was discontinued and English was introduced, and from 1483 parliamentary laws began to be published in English. Although the basis of the English language remained Germanic, it included such a huge number of Old French words in its composition that it becomes a mixed language. The process of penetration of Old French words continues from about 1200 until the end of the Middle English period, but reaches a peak between 1250-1400.
As expected, they go back to Old French (with the exception of native Germanic):
king - king,queen - queen and a few others) the vast majority of words related togovernment :
reign - to reigngovernment - government,crown - crown,state - state, etc.;most noble titles:duck - duke,peer - peer.
Military words: army - army,peace - worldbattle - battle,soldier - soldier,general - general,captain - captain,enemy - enemy;court terms : judge - judge,service court - court, crime crime;
church terms : service (church),Parish - arrival.
It is very significant that the words related to trade and industry are of Old French origin, and the names of simple crafts areGermanic. First example:commerce - trade,industry - industry,merchant - merchant. No less significant for the history of the English language are two rows of words noted by Walter Scott in his novel Ivanhoe: names of living animals - Germanic: ox - bull, cow - cow, calf - calf, sheep - sheep, pig - pig;
the meat of these animals bears old French names: beef - beef, veal - veal, mutton- mutton, pork - pork, etc.
The grammatical structure of the language undergoes further changes during this period: nominal and verbal endings are first mixed, weakened, and then, by the end of this period, almost completely disappear.
In adjectives, along with simple ways of forming degrees of comparison, new ones appear by adding words to the adjectivemore‘more’ andmost'most'. By the end of this period (1400-1483) in the country is the victory over other English dialects of the London dialect. This dialect arose from the merger and development of the southern and central dialects. In phonetics, the so-called Great Vowel Shift is taking place.
New England period
The period of development of the English language, to which the language of modern England belongs, begins at the endXVcentury. With developmentprinting and mass distribution of books there is a consolidation of the normative book language, phonetics and spoken language continue to change, gradually moving away from vocabulary norms.
An important stage in the development of the English language was the formation of diaspora dialects in the British colonies. The ancestors of the current British - the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes - moved to the British Isles in the middle of the 5th century. The Anglo-Saxons who settled in Great Britain entered into a fierce struggle with the indigenous local population - the Celts. This contact with the Celts hardly affected either the structure of the Old English language or its vocabulary.
Poll results
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Anglo-Saxons - Ancestors of the current English
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There are several periods of language formation
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As a result, English became. common language in Europe?
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English is the language of international communication
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began to take shape, with the development of printing and the mass distribution of books at the end of the 15th century. An important stage in the development of the English language was the formation of diaspora dialects in the British colonies. Lpeople of the same nationality (using diaspora dialects) living outside their country of origin, outside their historical homeland. And today there are millions of them who communicate in different dialects of the English language, but find a common understanding in communication.
After doing research work on the origin of the English language, I summed up: as a result of the evolutionary development of European countries, the conquest of new lands by Europeans, trade, industries and shipbuilding in England, France, Russia, and other countries, people were forced to communicate in a language of understanding, which, thanks to this from ancient languages was formedEnglish language . The language has changed, developed, as well as people who communicate in this language. And today we communicate in modern English, the language of mutual understanding, the language of modern technologies and innovations. tolerance.
"Do you speak English" - a phrase familiar to us from school. A set of words that we once did not attach much importance to. But how sad it sounds now, when, while on vacation abroad, we suddenly got lost. They try to help us by explaining something in English. And we just don't understand because we don't speak the language! Or in business negotiations, we cannot conduct a dialogue with a foreign partner. It is so bitter, so doomed to have to answer the same question “No”.
English is the language of international communication. It is spoken by our politicians and presidents. And all the doors of the world are open to him who owns it perfectly. Traveling, communicating with foreign friends on the Internet, business negotiations in English, education in the most prestigious universities not only in Russia, but also in the world! You will be sure that you will understand and will understand you. For you there will be no such problem as a language barrier. Learn English, communicate in English, the language of world significance and communication, understanding!
Communicating in English is modern, it's great, it's worthy!
Literature for research.
Dictionaries: English-Russian Dictionary. 3rd edition. 1933. V.K. Muller.S.K.Bojanus. English grammar. 1999 Mozhaisk, st. Mira, 91. School dictionary. A.Yu. Moskvin. 1990 Dictionary of foreign words. Moscow. "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1964. English textbooks. O.V. Afanasiev. I.V.Mikheeva.9-11. Classes. English language. M.Z. Biboletova.N.N. Trubaneva. Textbooks. 9-11. classes. 2013-2013. G.
The design and research work was carried out by - Mikhailov Alexey 8 "B" class Curator - Fedotova M.I. MBOU "Education Center No. 11", Cherkessk. April 2017
English has long been the language of international communication. It spread all over the world, became the main language of the Internet and united all continents. Why this became possible can partly be answered by the history of the emergence of the English language, in which fascinating events took place.
Many students know that English belongs to the Germanic group of languages, but if you compare it with German, you will see huge discrepancies. Of course, you will find words that sound similar. And yet, an Englishman who has not studied German will never understand a native German.
At the same time, according to the majority of Europeans, and even residents of other continents, English is the easiest language to remember and reproduce. In many countries, this language is introduced into the school curriculum, and is studied as one of the main subjects.
In linguistic universities, the history of the emergence of the English language cannot be explained briefly, so it is singled out as a separate subject for study. We will note the main periods of history and elements of influence on the development of the English language.
How it all began
In the 5th century AD, the tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes settled in the British Isles (mainly the territory of modern Great Britain). The Celts, who inhabited these lands at that time, could not offer worthy resistance - and went deep into the island.
Assimilation with the Celts was weak, and therefore they had little effect on the English language (which became dominant). The first result of the change in the vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxons was the conquest of the island by the Vikings, who "left" on the island such words as sky - sky, window - window and others.
The beginning of the rapid development of English - the English language and culture - falls on the reign of King Alfred the Great, who marked the birth of the English state and strengthened its influence.
Period of great change
In the 11th century, Britain was occupied by the Normans, led by William the Conqueror. They themselves were descendants of the German tribes (Normans - northern people), who, having captured part of the territory of France, assimilated with the locals and adopted the French language as a means of communication.
The dominion of the Franks lasted for about two centuries, and they had a huge impact on the development of English. As a result, an almost new language was formed, in which the main cases disappeared, and more than 50 percent of lexical units were replaced by French words.
Interestingly, the London nobility, most of which were Franks, retained that part of the vocabulary that was close to them. For example, they did not keep livestock, but ate meat products. Therefore, the names of animals and basic life-supporting things were preserved by the Anglo-Saxons - peasants: cow - cow, sheep - sheep, horse - horse, swine - pig, bread - bread, house - house. The Franks, on the other hand, used everything indicated as food, luxurious living and entertainment, so they left such words as: pork - pork, beef - beef, veal - veal, palace - palace, etc.
Shakespeare, Catholics and Modernity
The history of the development of the English language did not end there, and there were several more significant changes. The era of Shakespeare (years of life 1564-1616), the rapid development of theater and other arts had a significant effect on its change. The heroes of the great poet gained immortality, and the English language was enriched with new phraseological turns: “the wild-goose chase” - “chasing the impossible” and much more.
By the way, several advents of Latin took place, since already at the end of the 5th century the Catholic Church began to actively take root in Great Britain. Services in temples were held in the language of the ancient Romans, which was no longer used in worldly life, but many words and expressions were borrowed.
Thus, English became a conglomeration of the main European languages, changing the basic principles of word formation and syntax. From synthetic (the language of cases and endings), it has become an analytical means of communication, where the context (the place of the word in the sentence and in the text) has taken the leading role.
In order to make the history of the development of the English language more understandable, the Lim English website presents a presentation of its main periods. The evolution of English is most amazing and has never stopped. It continues to this day - as evidenced by the gradual deletion of the auxiliary verb shall, when describing events in the future.
The history of the English language began in the 5th century, when three Germanic tribes invaded Britain, then inhabited by the Celts and partly Romans. The Germanic influence turned out to be so strong that soon there was almost nothing left of the Celtic and Latin languages on the territory of almost the entire country. Only in remote and hard-to-reach areas of Britain, which remained not captured by the Germans (Cornwall, Wells, Ireland, Highland Scotland), did the local Welsh and Gaulish languages survive. These languages have survived today: they are called Celtic languages, in contrast to Germanic English. Then the Vikings came to Britain from Scandinavia with their Old Norse language. Then in 1066 the French took over England. Because of this, French was the language of the English aristocracy for two centuries, and old English was used by the common people. This historical fact had a very significant impact on the English language: many new words appeared in it, the vocabulary almost doubled. Therefore, it is in the vocabulary that the splitting into two variants of English - high and low, respectively, of French and German origin - can be quite clearly felt today.
Thanks to the doubling of the vocabulary, the English language today has many words of the same meaning - synonyms that arose as a result of the simultaneous use of two different languages, which came from the Saxon peasants and from the Norman masters. A striking example of such social division is the difference in the name of livestock, which comes from Germanic roots:
cow - cow
calf - calf
sheep - sheep
swine - pig
whereas the names of cooked meats are of French origin:
beef - beef
veal - veal
mutton - lamb
pork - pork
Despite all external influences, the core of the language remained Anglo-Saxon. Already in the XIV century, English becomes a literary language, as well as the language of law and school. And when the mass emigration from Britain to America began, the language brought there by the settlers continued to change in a new direction, often retaining its roots in British English, and sometimes changing quite significantly.
The beginning of the globalization of English
By the beginning of the 20th century, English is increasingly becoming the language of international communication. English, along with other languages of international communication, was used at international conferences, in the League of Nations, for negotiations. Even then, the need to improve its teaching and develop objective criteria for learning the language more effectively became obvious. This need stimulated the search and research of linguists from different countries, which have not dried up to this day.
It is clear that one of the most important components of learning any foreign language is the accumulation of vocabulary. Only by acquiring a certain vocabulary can one begin to study the relationships of words - grammar, style, etc. But which words should be learned first? And how many words do you need to know? There are a lot of words in the English language. According to linguists, the complete vocabulary of the English language contains at least one million words. Record holders among well-known English dictionaries are the second edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, The Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989 by Oxford University Press, and Webster's 1934 Dictionary Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd Edition, which includes a description of 600 thousand words. Of course, not a single person knows such a number of words, and it is very difficult to use such huge dictionaries.
The "average" Englishman or American, even with a higher education, hardly uses more than 1500-2000 words in his everyday speech, although he passively owns an incomparably large vocabulary that he hears on TV or meets in newspapers and books. And only the most educated, intelligent part of society is able to actively use more than 2000 words: individual writers, journalists, editors and other "masters of the word" use the most extensive vocabulary, reaching 10 thousand words or more in some especially gifted people. The only problem is that for every person with a rich vocabulary, the dictionary is as individual as handwriting or fingerprints. Therefore, if the vocabulary of 2000 words is approximately the same for everyone, then the “plumage” is quite different for everyone.
However, conventional bilingual dictionaries and explanatory dictionaries, in which the interpretation of the meanings of words is given in one language, tend to describe the maximum possible number of words in order to increase the likelihood that the reader will find in them the majority of the search words he encounters. Therefore, the larger the regular dictionary, the better. It is not uncommon for dictionaries containing descriptions of tens and hundreds of thousands of words in one volume.
In addition to ordinary dictionaries, there are dictionaries that do not contain the maximum number of words, but rather their minimum list. Dictionaries of the necessary minimum vocabulary describe the words that are used most often and represent the greatest semantic value. Since words are used with different frequencies, some words are much more common than all other words. In 1973, it was found that a minimum dictionary of the 1000 most common words in the English language describes 80.5% of all word usage in average texts, a dictionary of 2000 words - about 86% of word usage, and a dictionary of 3000 words - about 90% of word usage.
It is clear that lexical minimum dictionaries are intended for language learning by students, and not at all for translators. With the help of a minimum dictionary, it is impossible to learn a natural language in its entirety, but you can quickly and efficiently learn that part of it that has the greatest value for the practical needs of communication.
