The British English was the language which had the biggest influence on current American English. Thus, it is important to introduce the features of British English. As we know from the History, the Germanic tribes, namely the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes invaded Britain and pushed away the Celtic language already spoken there. This way the Old English was developed. It is quite difficult to understand it even for the contemporary Native English speakers. Next step in the development of English was the Normand invasion in 1066 bringing the French language, spoken by royalty through the following centuries until the English language became dominant again in 14th century. This period is called Middle English. With a Great Vowel Shift, change of the pronunciation, and the invention of the printing the English spelling and grammar became fixed. This period is called Early Modern English. From the beginning of the 19th century we speak about the Late Modern English mostly affected by Industrial Revolution and the fact that British Empire took over a large part of the world what had an impact on nowadays status of English as the most widespread language. Even though the British and American English separated and had their own way of development, we can hear the influences in some American dialects from the languages of British Isles. The Mountain dialects or, in another words, Appalachian dialects serve as a very good example. This kind of the southern dialects are consider to be more guttural and in the way how it sounds it ´ought to be classified as archaic.´ [online] and as some linguists assume today´s Appalachian dialect is ´ actually a sort of Scottish-flavoured Elizabethan English.´ [online] Since the first wh... ... middle of paper ... ...e to concrete regional dialects and see their history and the way of developing through the last decades and how it is with these dialects nowadays. We can start with a statement from the book A History of English Language by Albert C. Baugh who wrote ´All the regions except eastern New England, metropolitan New York, and Southern are often spoken of as constituting General American.´ and ´in this wider sense General American covers about two thirds of the area of the United States and contains two thirds of the total population.´ (Baugh, 1957, p. 442) Therefore, we should based this chapter right on this Baugh´s quote. Surely, it is not so easy to divide all the US varieties into four categories however we should consider the complexity of this theme and unfortunately the length of the bachelor thesis does not allow us to explore all the accents into such a depth.
Finegan says this is something “living languages must do”. For me, I was raised in a military home in which we moved to a new region every couple of years. Coming from Germany, moving to Rochester, and then to Lowville, my dialect is a combination of all three speech communities. It is different than my parents, and will mostly be passed down to my children. As I age and move locations it is opted to change again as well. So it is not that I speak differently or incorrect than the rest of my family, my speech community is merely growing and changing as it is passed generation to generation. Richard Lederer stated in his article, “We are a teeming nations within a nation, a country that is like a world.” (150) He was portraying how our country, with a universal language, can be so diverted by each region’s version of the English language. I agree completely that although we all “sing” the same song of the American language, “we talk in melodies of infinite variety.” (150) The way our country was built was by different American regions doing their own work, for example, the south had plantations, where my ancestors were small town farmers who worked with manufacturing in mills and
In Robert MacNeil’s article “Do You Speak American?” MacNeil discusses how the United States English started to become more diverse through the ongoing changes in the way English is being spoken throughout the States.MacNeil includes different demographics, groups of people and dialects to depict the progress that has come about over the years. With this in mind, he wants people to view this change as a step in the right direction.He aims to persuade people who are against this shift, so they can grow to tolerate and view this growth in a more positive manner. Since this article was published after his show on PBS in USA magazine he aims to convince people who have an above average knowledge of the English language to view change as a progressive
United States of America, small in history but large in diversity continues to face new challenges with language as time continues to turn. In the documentary “Do You Speak American?” Robert MacNeil analyzes the English language and reveals many dialects that culturally defines us. Regional dialect is one of the many strongholds of all cultures and now it has reached its’ zenith and today it is slowly declining because it does not possess the human nature of advancement. Optimistically, it allows people to learn how to cooperate with each other. In order to advance and adopt a person has to change; I believe that the acceptance of cultural adaptations, diversity, and industrialization can prove that the decline of speech does not cause a decline of culture.
When looking at dialects, it is also important to be aware of the differences between Nonstandard English and Standard English dialects. According to Ross Burdette in his article, Developing Language in the Classroom, “the language spoken in schools, media outlets and the government, tends to be what is referred to as ‘Standard English’”. This referral attempts to rid both spoken and written language of regionalism and...
Analyzing dialects can be difficult due to the fact that is it hard to transcribe the pronunciation of an individual dialect because English is not spelled the same way it is pronounced. Furthermore, one person’s interpretation of spelling a dialect might not match up with another’s, so the reader might not “hear” the dialect properly. Regardless, written versions of dialects are essential to discussing dialectical differences.
Throughout history, many languages change over time but out of them all I feel English has changed the most. I feel as we go on the way we pronounce words, use slang, rewrite words that have the same meaning but sound differently has changed drastically. I think the main influence on the evolution of the English language would be migration. We the people have moved so much going across countries and other states with English as our default or with broken English or not knowing the language at all. Most out of the United States do have broken English or simply don't know english at all but can identify which language is being heard. No two speak identically either, as they learn English their born language begins to fight with it for example
how the English language has changed in the many years from then until now. The
The next influence on the formation of Old English occurred late in the 8th century when the Vikings, specifically the Danes of Scandinavian origin, invaded Britain. By the year 865 they initiated a full-blown attack on the Anglo-Saxons which entailed many on-going battles for the control of Britain. However, as the Viking armies came very near conquering the whole of England, King Alfred the Great held the south and west of England against them and created a treaty between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings which established a boundary between their relative territories. The Scandinavian settlement and its native tongue, Old Norse, which is an early North Germanic language, left its mark on Old English, including about 1500 place-names and place-name endings; also many common, fundamental words such as skull, skin, leg, neck, scrap, skill, are, take, together, until, again etc. It is important to note that under the influence of the Danes, the Anglo-Saxon inflections began to fall away and the Old Norse prepositions such as to, with and by became more essential to make implications clear. However, this was to a lesser extent in the areas of Britain that did not have contact with the Vikings. After the Viking invasion of this era, King Alfred attempted to restore the importance of learning, law and religion. It is crucial to note that he believed in educating the people in the English language and not Latin; he himself attempted to translate important works from Latin into English and started the famous “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” which is a historically famous manuscript written in Old English that documented the history of the Anglo-Saxons. By the time of his passing, Alfred had done wonders for the English language and had raised th...
The duration of Early Modern English took place during the English Renaissance, and hence the amazing evolutions that occurred within it (Myers 166). After the Renaissance came the Age of Reason, and it is during this time that the language becomes recognizable to today (Smith 9). The most common example of Early Modern English is the fact that Shakespeare wrote in it, and it poses the most similarities to Modern day; the language moved from a synthetic one to a more analytical one, and relied less on inflectional endings and more with word order to convey information (Durkin 1). Early Modern English is the premise for the ever-evolving language that millions speak
Early Modern English Period takes place between Middle English Period and Modern English Period. Early Modern English Period begins in the 15th century and ends in the late of 17th century. Early Modern English is used by English colonies, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England. The language comes from Germanic and Anglo Frisian. In this period origins of words are Yiddish, German and Italian. William Coxton is the one of the most important man of the period because he leads in the spread of printing and making a lot of translations, he contributes communication between languages. The other important man is Shakespeare. In the 16th century reformation is occurred and in the 17th century Francis Bacon starts new science. These events have affected evolution and development of language.
To understand how English became the lingua franca for the world one must begin by understanding the colonization influence of the British Empire, beginning with the Americas in the early 1600’s. Once the language itself had been somewhat established in Great Britain, although not necessarily agreed upon, the next obvious step was to take the language and the culture to new parts of the world and colonize. The British Empire set out to the Americas in two vastly different manners, yet both had major influences on the language of what soon would become America.
The English language arose from the early Anglo Saxon inhabitants in ancient England and spread to Scotland and other European countries via the British Empire and later to the United States through colonial political and economical influences. It later dispersed to other parts of the world through these same influences to become one of the leading languages of the world. It has over the years developed by adopting different dialects to create a language, which is the standard lingual Franca in many countries. The rapid growth of the English language and its adoption by different cultures across the globe is sufficient ground to make it the global language.
Old English (450-1100 AD), which is also referred to as Anglo-Saxon, is thought historically to be the earliest form of the English language. Originating with the arrival of three West Germanic tribes, who encroached
The beginnings of English can be found in the occupation of England from the 5th century by north and west German ethnic groups who brought their 'indigenous dialects' (Seargeant, P. 2012, p. 1). The Oxford English Dictionary defines English as 'Of or related to the West Germanic language spoken in England and used in many varieties throughout the world' (Seargeant, P. 2012, p. 7). Invasion in the 9th century by Scandinavians, who settled in the north of England and the establishment of Danelaw in 886 AD defining the area governed by the Danes in the north and east, had a marked effect on the language spoken there (Beal, J. 2012, p. 59). These periods are known as Early and Later Old English (Beal, J. 2012, p. 50).
In Britain the way the speak and the way they act has something to do with their culture. They like to have a cultural emphasis of language, meaning they like to emphasize words that are adaptively important in their culture. The culture itself shows how it is different and why it is different from any other in the world. American English is much more homogenous than British English, meaning it is often harder to tell where in the USA someone is from just by hearing their accent. Linguists have identified somewhere between six and twenty-five American dialects, although the major divisions are between Northern, Midland and Southern dialects, which are roughly grouped together. In the US and in Britain we have what is known as an open communication system meaning, we can communicate with new sounds or words by combining two or more existing sounds or