History of English; The Media and English
INTRODUCTION
There are various ways of studying language: a linear route which covers historical development through time, known as diachronic, and a synchronic route which aims to study the complexities involved in how languages actually work (Shetter, 2002, Page 1). This synchronic route can be studied in two ways: written language and language that is relayed in the form of speech, known as phonology, the latter being one area affected during language change. Orthography also alters over time and there is also a pronounced effect on lexis, semantics, and orthography. Evolving language has its roots in various factors, notwithstanding both internal and external history (Leith, 1996). Linguistics, grammar and vocabulary are directly attributable to the effects of internal history whilst it could be possible to ascribe the socio-linguistic aspects of language to the external exigencies of history.
It is important to note that English was not a unified language initially, but the result of the Germanic influence from various Teutonic dialects. The original language spoken on the British Islands was Brittonic and there are differing opinions as to whether Brittonic became incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon language or not (Collingwood and Myers, 1936, Page 318) with research continuing to be divided as to the reason for this. The language spoken by the indigenous Britons at the time the Anglo-Saxons first arrived in Britain was a form of Celtic, known as Brittonic.
This essay traces the development of English along a diachronic route whilst investigating the effects of the media synchronically. It begins with a discussion on Old English then investigates lexical diffusion and the Great Vowel Change, both the results of developments in society as towns begin to develop. The essay then focuses on contemporary English and the effect the media has had on its development, clearly showing in the process that, rather than having a detrimental effect on English, it has ultimately provided the tool for its survival and ultimately for its development as a lingua franca.
DISCUSSION
Development of Old English
“…the breakdown of inflections owes as much to processes of contact between speakers of different languages as it does to pressures of a purely internal kind” (Leith, 1996, Page 120).
As the inflectional change became integrated into contemporary usage, switch referenced utterances evolved into articles, prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns, with no set order to a sentence, i.e. any word could occupy any position without altering the context of the utterance prior to the general acceptance of grammatical devices (Coates, 2004).
It has been suggested that from about AD 597 Christian missionaries arrived in Britain and contributed their Latin to the evolving English language, providing around 450 words into common usage (Crystal, 2003), whilst some parts of Britain were subject to Danelaw until around the early part of the 11th Century with many Danish words passing into northern English dialects especially, and providing an influence for many diectics, such as they, them, and their, together with the verb ‘to be’ correlating with ‘are’. Additional influences were associated with the arrival of the French in 1066 and became absorbed into the English language over the next few hundred years and continued to evolve through trade with other nations from the 16th Century onwards, incorporating innumerable new words from countries such as Africa, India, Australia and the Americas through the development of the Commonwealth.
