The Nuances that Shaped Modern English

 by Thinukshan Kodithuwakku

English is most certainly an intriguing case of language. From humble Anglo-saxon beginnings to the world’s most spoken language, it is easy to see what English has gone through to become this. It is a lingua franca in many parts of the world, meaning it is used as a language of aid between two distinct languages. Around 3/16 of the world consider themselves as proud anglo-phones, which is a lot considering there are about 7,000 languages in the world. 

English originates from Proto-indo european (P.I.E), which is also where languages such as Greek and Hindi stem from. It comes from the Germanic side of the branch, consisting of German, Dutch and Afrikaans. English has undergone 3 major periods of transition: Old english (anglo-saxon), middle english, and modern english. Old English was spoken about 450 CE to 1150 AD. The Bible, the famous poem Beowulf, religious manuscripts and hymns were written in this language, alongside latin. You might recognise “þ” (thorn). This special character was written during Old English, which was swapped for “th”. At this time, English, like French and German, was gendered. There were 3 different words for the: þa, þæt and Se. English is closer to German and Dutch than French, contrary to popular belief. In fact, there is the Anglish community, a group of people striving to promote Anglish, a new English stripped of foreign words and adheres to its Germanic origin. 

When William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the famous battle of 1066, he had brought over an influx of french vocabulary with him. Words under the branches of government, the arts and chivalry all come from French, as well as those words themselves.. We speak a lot more French in our day-to-day lives than we realise. French upholds a lot of English, showing the bond between the languages. This is why English has so many French and Latin loan words . Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in Middle english. It would be quite the struggle for modern English speakers to read, but those who understand French might be able to identify a few corresponding words. It was here that English dropped the need for gender based articles and nouns. Namely, the masculine, feminine and neuter cases seen across many European languages. However, there is still one word today that applies differently for a male or female, and that is the word blonde. We usually knock  an “e” at the end when used in conjunction with a feminine noun. If you translate a word into French, a lot of the time you will find a direct cognate which will give you a synonym in English, and is also why a french word may seem like an english word, but is a completely different word entirely. For example, the french “bénévole” means to volunteer, but is also where we get the word benevolent from. A nice way to consider this is where the word for an animal comes from old English, the language spoken by the peasants at the time who dealt with the animals, the meat that comes from it has French roots, as it was the elite french nobles that consumed the meat. Namely; Old English: Pig, Cow, Chicken, Sheep, and the French: Pork, Beef, Poultry and Mutton.

The Great Vowel Shift - 15th century England

During the 15th century, the great vowel shift heavily altered the structure and sounds of words. This important convention helped to discern English spelling from any other languages. Notably the swapping of vowels. For example, “oo” into “oh”, and “ee” to “i-e”. It was quite common for the pronunciation of the word to have changed, yet the spelling of the word stays the same. This can be seen with “Knife”, which used to be pronounced “kneef” , or “doubt” with its silent b. This is also where we get silent letters from as well, one of the reasons why english is so hard to learn.

The invention of the printing press and colloquial nuances contributed to what helped English become what we know it as today. The standardisation of spelling and grammar came thanks to the printing press ascending English to a global scale, which is also why it became a formal language in so many parts of the world. The British Empire also played a major role in terms of vocabulary extension and foreign terms. Words such as pyjama and hurricane come from remote countries that the empire had conquered. 

In Conclusion, English has seen an immense refinement leading up to its current position as the international language. Even in today’s words, you will still find oddities that link back to the language’s past. As you are reading this, millions of new words are being coined, as well as removed from the Oxford English dictionary, reflecting constant change as well as vernacular. Many dialects and accents can be seen across different countries, such as the USA and Australia as well as different regions, like London’s cockney dialect. There are also various pidgin and creole languages spoken in some surprising places, like the Jamaican patois and singlish. Just know that with every word you speak, it has come a long way to make it into your sentence, whatever you’re trying to convey. It will only be a matter of time before the very English we speak will become fossilised in response to a vast continuum of rapid change and lexical shifting.