history of language change

diachronic change

studying the historical change/ development and evolution of language.- across time.

synchronic change

studying language change at a particular moment in time.

6 pillars of language change by David Crystal:

-wars and invasions

-technology and inventions

-travel

-science and inventions

-social, cultural, and ideological change

-media

Old English (anglo-saxon)

anglos

saxons

jutes

vikings.

500-1100 ce.

-’give, take.’

-old norse: ‘freckle, root.’

French aristocracy. -’golden, govern, virtue, flower, vain.’’- considered more luxurious,

British/ old english peasants used french words to appear more sophistocated→ french & british integrated via marriage.

Middle English

1100-1500ce.

normans

french.

created 10,000 new words.

‘judge, jury’, latin used in church(religious)- although, english is still the common language.

-orthographical change- ‘egges’ to ‘eggs’.

-semanic change- ‘shyre, shire’- village.

-syllables have shortened over time. ‘forgyf’ to ‘forgive’. -phonoligcal change- pronunciation system underwent significant change, -several consonants and vowels entered language- phonemes emerged. distinciton between /f/ and /v/ sound distinguished words ,e.g. ‘grief’ vs ‘grieve’.

french introduced own spelling conventions- ou for u ‘house’. gh for h ‘night’. ch for c ‘church’.

‘ask’(english)- ‘question’(french). - ‘interrogate’(latin).

Early modern English

1500- 1700ce.

Great vowel shift, english renaissance, international trade.

-shakespeare’s 2,000 new words, such as ‘eyeball, alligator, hobnob.’

Late Modern English

1700-1900ce.

1755- Johnsons dictionary.

1857- oxford dictionary. = codification, standardisation efforts.

industrial revolution, colonialism(empire roughly 13million square miles) , scientific advances, prescriptivist grammar rules aimed at ‘preserving’ correctness- aimed at creating a ‘standard’.

-latin roots to describe science- ‘, cardiac, sternum, ‘

-foreign words(borrowing/loan):

Caribbean- ‘cannibal, barbeque.’

India- ‘yoga, bungalow, pyjama.’

Africa- ‘voodoo.’

Present day English (english today)

1900-current.

technology(globalisation), jargon/slang.

1.5 billion speak english.

-1977 first email- conversations became shorter- efficiency- ‘BTW, IMO, FYI.’

-American english- ‘racoon, squash, capitalism.’

30,000 words

the amount of words with french idenfified as part of their history in the OED.

50,000 words

the amount of words with latin as part of their history in the OED.

what does the dictionary do?

-provides definitions/ meaning→ not everyone has access to a dictionary =spelling not consistent. -didn’t take into account the new words entering the language due to writers inventing words.

-avoid ambiguity of meaning.

-provide a uniform approach to language

-provides a standardised spelling.

-reflects identity- class, wealth, power.

evaluation for dictionary

-creates division- inequality.

-doesn’t reflect diversity of the region → dialects etc.

-becomes outdated quickly→ constantly inventing new words/ neologism.

Caxton’s printing press:

created 1476.

-mass production

-’fixed’ language

-public information e.g. leaflets

-began to standardise literature.

How did prescriptivism come about?

late 1600s, people were concerned with standardising, refining, and fixing English.

johnson’s dictionary in 1755, ‘Dictionary of the english language’. - Johnson purposefully omitted words he disliked or considered vulgar, ‘bang, fuss, gambler'.’ these words have survived despite his opinions. -definitions appear deliberately jokey or politically motivated.

-since the 16C, there have been efforts to regulation and reform of what was increasingly seen as an unwieldly enlgish language. -1580 Bullokar’s new 37- letter alphabet to aid and simplify spelling. -Cheke’s 1569 proposal for the removal of all silent letters.