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Linguistics Theory, Foundations, and Modern Development

An Overview of Linguistics and Linguistic Applications

Language Change and the History of the English Language

[ < ] Linguistic Assumptions and Principles

Language Change and the History of the English Language

Languages change over time. Slowly, to be sure, but they do change. English is measured in three "cataclysmic" changes that generally coincide with historical events that had a profound effect on the language. The first appearance of English, as such, was when the Saxons invaded Britain. This form of English is called Old English and dates from approximately 449 to 1066, when the Normans conquered England, beginning the period of Middle English. It was during this time period (1066-1500) that many of the Latinate words used in English today were introduced into the language, as well as Latinate spellings. Around 1500, there was a great vowel shift which brought the language into Modern English, which is where it is today. Based on this measure (approximately 500 years per shift), we may expect major changes in the language today. The Great Vowel Shift in English changed the seven long (tense) vowels of Middle English and moved them "up" on the tongue. Fromkin and Rodman posit that the Great Vowel Shift is responsible for many of the spelling "inconsistencies" today [320-327]. Language change, however, is a highly regular process.

Any of the linguistic rules identified in Linguistics Assumptions and Principles may be changed: phonemes may be changed, added or removed, morphological rules may be added, changed, or lost, and even syntactical rules might be modified. Semantic rules and the lexicon change much more rapidly than the other three. Lexical changes (the addition, modification, or removal of words from the general lexicon) are perhaps the quickest changes in language. The semantic change of words may change broaden, narrow, or even shift in meaning.

It has been demonstrably shown that all languages are derived from some original tongues, now long dead. There is enough similarity between English and German that they can be considered distant cousins at this point. It is supposed that proto-Latin and proto-German language were once "sister" languages, making all of the descendants "cousins." Often, but not always, this relationship of languages is based on geographic areas. As Latin speakers moved north and west, they successfully integrated themselves into what was to become the Spanish and French cultures, warping the existing languages into a form of Latin. There was more resistance to Latin across the Channel, so the language did not develop from Latin, but more from the barbaric languages of the Bretons, the Angles, and the Saxons [Fromkin and Rodman, 338-347].

Sufficient research has been done to indicate that the "parent" tongue for all of these languages was a tongue now called "Indo-European," which in turn created a host of other languages as demonstrated in Figure 3-1 [from ORCHIS software package, 1994].

Of all of these, it is important to note that the parent languages were reconstructed by measuring the differences of the "daughter" languages. There are linguistic universals as well as differences.

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