English - One Tongue, Many Voices: Summary Note

  • Title: English – One Tongue, Many Voices by Jan Svartvik and Geoffrey Leech.

  • The book tells the history of the English language from its origins as dialects spoken by illiterate tribes to its current status as a global language.

  • It examines the language's geographical spread and increasing diversity.

  • The book also addresses the problems, pressures, and uncertainties of English's future.

  • The authors argue that despite its variety, English remains a single language.

  • Includes maps, diagrams, panels, notes, references and indexes.

About the Authors

  • Jan Svartvik: Emeritus Professor at the University of Lund, Sweden and a member of various Royal Academies. He has authored/co-authored/edited approximately 35 books and 75 papers/articles on English linguistics.

  • Geoffrey Leech: Research Professor of Linguistics (retired) at Lancaster University, UK, Fellow of the British Academy, Member of Academia Europaea; has authored/co-authored/edited 25 books and 100 papers/articles on linguistics and the English language.

  • Together with Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum, Svartvik and Leech co-authored the ‘Quirk grammars’: A Grammar of Contemporary English (1972) and A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985). They also co-authored A Communicative Grammar of English.

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Copyright Information

  • © Jan Svartvik and Geoffrey Leech 2006. All rights reserved.

  • No reproduction is permitted without written permission or in accordance with copyright law.

  • Authors assert their moral rights.

  • First published in 2006 by Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Hardback ISBN: 978–1–4039–1829–1, 1–4039–1829–5

  • Paperback ISBN: 978–1–4039–1830–7, 1–4039–1830–9

  • Printed and bound in Great Britain.

Dedication

  • For Gunilla and Fanny.

Contents

  • List of Figures (xi)

  • Acknowledgements (xiii)

  • List of Abbreviations and Special Symbols (xiv)

  • Preface (xv)

Part I: English – the Working Tongue of the Global Village

  • English is spoken in circles

    • The Inner Circle: Countries where English is a first language.

    • The Outer Circle: Countries where English is a second language and often an official language.

    • The Expanding Circle: Countries where English is learned as a foreign language.

  • Do we need a world language?

    • Overcoming confusion has led to artificial language attempts, yet natural languages already have an advantage.

  • Why English?

    • Not inherently superior; pronunciation and spelling are irregular.

    • Grammar is complex, vast vocabulary.

    • Success results from

    • British colonial power

    • US economic/military scientific influence.

    • Modern technology and international communication needs boost English.

    • Neutral lingua franca, workplace vernacular.

  • Overview of the Book's Contents

    • Three parts: History of an Island Language, The Spread of English around the World, A Changing Language in Changing Times.

    • Explores English origins, its development in the British Isles, and territories conquered.

    • Details English's evolution, standard language, ongoing changes, and future prospects.

  • One or two explanations

    • The book avoids value judgements and political statements.

    • It describes linguistic realities objectively and avoids glorifying any language.

    • It acknowledges various dialects and their significance.

Part I: History of an Island Language

The First 500 Years

  • Roman Britain

    • Before Romans, Celtic tribes inhabited British Isles.

    • 2,500 years ago, Celtic languages were widespread across Europe.

    • Today Celtic languages are spoken by one million people in the world.

    • In the British Isles, the Celtic languages (Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic) are fighting a rearguard action against English.

    • Julius Caesar led expeditions to Britannia, but Emperor Claudius ordered the invasion in 43 CE.

    • Roman occupation lasted nearly 400 years.

    • Towns like Lancaster, Leicester, Chester, Manchester, and Winchester have names derived from the Roman word castra, meaning camp.

    • Roman roads still criss-cross the landscape of England.

    • Limited linguistic legacy from the Romans, as English roots lie in the Germanic invasions of the 5th century.

  • Ships are sighted with English in embryo on board

    • Germanic tribes (identified as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) migrated from beyond the North Sea to Britain.

    • They spoke Germanic dialects capable of communication.

    • The term Anglo-Saxon is vaguely applied before the Norman Conquest.

    • Settlers called natives wealas (foreigners), leading to the name Welsh.

    • Celts retreated to Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria, and the Scottish borders.

    • Genocide unlikely; Britons assimilated into the Germanic population.

    • Cornish and Manx have become extinct, but modern revivals occur.

    • Celtic languages had little impact on Old English initially but were questioned.

    • Bilingualism a recurrent theme with later Scandinavian and Normal conquests.

  • Christianity in the Isles

    • Christianity introduced to Britain in Roman times, but Germanic tribes were initially pagan.

    • In Celtic areas (Cornwall and Wales), Christian faith was maintained.

    • Irish Christianity spread to Iona, Scotland, and Northumbria.

    • Pope Gregory I sent missionaries led by Augustine to convert Anglo-Saxons.

    • Kingdom of Kent converted, Augustine became Archbishop of Canterbury.

    • North of England became a center of Christian culture and scholarship.

    • Latin was the language of the Church, and missionaries promoted translations into the native tongue.

    • Translators used or borrowed words direct from Latin to explain Christian ideas to converts.

    • Examples: godspell 'good news', Lord from hlafweard 'guardian of the loaf', and hell.

    • Old English extended wordstock to meet cultural needs.

    • Many animal, plant, and tree names entered the language through Latin.

  • The Viking Age

    • Vikings raided Lindisfarne monastery in 793.

    • Scandinavians acted as raiders, traders, and colonists.

    • Viking raids included pillaging and destruction of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

    • King Alfred of Wessex reached an agreement with Viking leader Guthrum.

    • Danes confined to the north and east of a line from London to Chester- This area became known as Danelaw, where Danish influenced customs.

    • King Alfred given the title 'Great' because he stemmed the Viking invasions, laying the ground for a re-conquest.

    • King Alfred's goal was to improve the education of people and establish a system of law.

    • Scandinavian influence on English was considerable, with about 1000 words of Old Norse origin.

    • Examples: gate, ken, lake, neb.

    • Contacts existed between Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons from 750 to 1050.

    • Normans themselves were descendants of Vikings, bringing French language into England.

    • The Carolingian king Charles the Simple gave lands in the valley of the Seine to Norwegian earl Gengu-Hrólfr.

    • Hrólfr was given the Latinate form Rollo, giving his dukedom the name Normandy.

  • What was Old English like?

    • Old English wasn't born with Angles or Saxons; instead, a collection of dialects.

    • King Alfred the Great is author of earliest record of word Englisc.

    • West Saxon variety became a standard form of Old English.

    • The Lord's Prayer is an example of Old English texts to make comparisons with Early Modern English and Modern English

    • Runic characters pressed into service for writing Old English with Latin alphabet.

  • Beowulf

    • Heroic poem with 3,182 lines with the alliteration of four accents in two parts.

    • The author is unknown.

    • The poem tells of a young Scandinavian hero called Beowulf who sails to Denmark to fight a monster called Grendel.

    • Fifty years later Beowulf, as king, fights a dragon but both are mortally wounded in Beowulf's last fight.

1066 and All That

  • In 1066 William the Conqueror defeated English king Harold, initiating 300 years of French influence on English history.

  • Norman Conquest's effects are debated; some changes not directly linked to it.

  • After the Conquest, Old Norse words appeared (egg, get, sky, sister, window); French words already entered English before Conquest (bacon, castle, prison).

  • England never became French-speaking; English remained the spoken language of common people and after a century, monastic scribes kept Old English standard language.

  • The number of French speakers was limited to 5% of England's population.

  • English King John's loss of Normandy (1204) weakened Anglo-French bonds.

  • Henry V (1413–22) boosted English and used it against the French.

  • Norman French (Anglo-Norman') lost social status by end of 13th century.

  • French loanwords entered English, some from Anglo-Norman than Central French.

  • gaol and jail have different origins, both meaning 'little cage'; today gaol is old variant found in British English.

Middle English

  • Middle English (12th to 15th century) had far-reaching changes over 400 years.

  • It was a medley of different dialects.

  • English language lost its official functions, taken by over French and Latin until later 14th century.

  • Influx of French words occurred (language, especially, strange, because, country) with grammatical endings reduced/simplified.

  • Sentences now indicated by prepositions and fixed word orders.

  • The English word stock radically changed.

  • Various lexical fields covered French borrowings.

  • It was shown in 1385 that there was much concern shown about the decline of French than about the maintenance of English.

  • In the 15th century English became most used in speaking and writing by English folk, both high and low

  • When French words were adopted, English native words were not abandoned, resulting in many doublets.

  • French word use mainly restricted to upper classes; English remained language of daily communication.

  • The English legal vocabulary came from the language of the conquerors. Although from 1362 English was established as the official language spoken in the courts of justice, a mongrel, known as Law French survived, and was officially abandoned only in 1731 by an Act of Parliament.
    English and French animal terms also show French influence chiefly when the animal is dead. As in: calf/veal/veau deer/venison/venaison ox/beef/boeuf sheep/mutton/mouton pig/pork/porc
    -Old English had a rather complicated system of case endings, much like that of modern German. The function of the nouns in the clause (subject, object, etc.) was indicated by case endings, such as nominative, accusative, and dative.
    -The function of the nouns in the clause (subject, object, etc.) was indicated by case endings, such as nominative, accusative, dative. By comparison, the Modern language of English has just one form of the definite article the, while Old English had twelve different forms such as se hund, s[o fot, 1æt cild, 1a hundas.
    Geoffrey Chaucer and William Caxton:
    -Though changes were remarkable, Middle English had no overnight transformation from Old English in 1066. But by the end of the fourteenth century English had superseded French everywhere except at the king’s court and chancery.
    -Chaucer was a bilingual and early influenced by French as well as Italian literature, but wrote all his works in English. He started writing his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales in 1380s.
    -In 1362 Edward III ordered English to be used in Parliament and courts, but the document was still written in French- In 1362 Edward III ordered that English should be used in Parliament and the courts of law, ‘because the French tongue … is much unknown’ (but, ironically, the original statute is written in French).
    -As of the beginning of 19th century the English language in general was written as standard, and then gradually the English language became employed in speech and writing by English folk, both high and low
    -Middle English printed books were distributed only around Caxton’s press, and this became the standard mark for the end of the Middle English period and the beginning of Modern English.

Modern English in the Making

  • Modern English = Early Modern English + Elizabethan Period + Renaissance.
    Renaissance: Period of rediscovery and revitalization of classical learning + expansion of knowledge, Period of growing confidence in modern vernacular languages.
    -Reformation: Access to God through the vernacular Bible. English had to become written to match Latin.
    Puritans behead King Charles -> Anglican Church and monarchy returned
    Early Modern English great pride and confidence in the English Language.
    -Dominant cultural development in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries referred to a Renaissance.
    -During the Renaissance periods there were no less than 20,00 titles by William Caxton printed in English.
    -Missionaries promotes missionary and promotes translations from Latin into native tongue.
    -English and Latin
    English language had become accustomed to importing words in other language.
    -It is difficult to separate word stock from those that come directly into English.
    -Elizabethan Period
    It was during the reigns of Elizabeth I English took its firs steps toward becoming an international language.
    She was also appointed was one of Queens favorite subjects.
    -Shakespeare's Shakespeare
    Shakespeare was in 564 six the old before the queen it come to the throne.
    During the period some point years roughly one 592019 produced 2 on problems 1 hundred and 54 sonnets and Shakespeare
    Most of the English, there are many great work in the original work and spelling and function were very different from prison.
    The King James Bible
    The Christian ideas needed to be explained in simple terms to the new converts, and Old English native words were also applied to new concepts including the Greek evangelion was rendered as godspell.
    -Restoration and Reaction
    With the French as the prestige language to and with the French as well to two thousand years it not until the 15th century and early that early King of England came the language employee to speech and writing high and low.
    King Edwards the used English in Parliament and course and there a no the French much.
    The English Language of Science
    -The English-language the English language the language of education and reading reading to be. We're in 1864 and well it's now the best means to an 19222 million words on in writing to a and greater part in laws and to write our mother time.
    -Dictionary Johnson
    For English the legal vocabulary can use as an adjective following the noun such as attorney general and Court martial
    -The End of History
    First words of the book you were 7520 to what it looks and sounds like today is fundamentally to the to is to the Germanic and nations,
    -Recent centuries have brought their own short of the growing in international dispersion of English but this story could feel like building on more attention on ancient foundations.
    -The need would not to lay much store by such as traditional attitude. it is worse while reminding the the speakers in the world will speak us to one that non native so this discussion and turn to our last chapter.

Part II: The Spread of English around the World

English Goes to the New World

  • The most important historical factor was surely the coming of the English language to America, following by a prophecy relating to the links to military, political, economic, scientific and linguistic dominance of the United States.

  • English followed to achieve the most in the coming to dominate the American economy.

  • About 400 years after Shakespeare there was evidence that people could express the idea that English to become the best part.

  • Late in the 16th century English has just entered its mode. Most of the English there was a new need for expansive expansions overseas.

  • It was here in the Elizabethan era that Elizabeth's project was named 'Virginia', while the first permanent English settlement from 1607 was named 'Jamestown'.

  • People settling for London's Virginia Company of London found that there are other loyalties will be further to growing colonies along the American coast.

  • As well as the Roman Catholics were denied entry to universities employment to be in the public eye.

  • After the 1620, but a ship called ' The Mayflower' finally then has reached the Massachusetts with English Puritans along with England.

  • These 1620 leaders have been to create a society for for to the right to declare or take the first steps in the U.S. and The constitution.

  • There had been there one first the to be created society for what is to and the had known to this New settlers.
    After and with the native of the, what has it to known

English Transplanted

  • Australian began to start has his or her for, I have you at all just like in as all of the for is all the world and not you to. And the 1:30 minute or so in those has a for on in from just take from and do his good is he says all of that 2.

  • English no longer an English English now rose from many roots and in electronically that you into a huge globe for those so far you had a few that 322 million in from Europe of the world's to to out I mean of communication to the world's.

  • The main part is what that the as has a you that a for from the long the of now and in for.

  • 1333 with what has his if in you that that and and all all know more more more to you with you a but and for for a, and the of 1936 all by 1 million.
    a, B come the way here from and when will. Is to her there are were some of them all them, and a or the when has has with a from.