The Rise of English as a National Language

The English language has been used for thousands of years, and today is the preferred language of many countries. But the language itself was not always held in such high regard. During the medieval era, the language went through a period of severe neglect, and in the fourteenth century, English was seen as the language of peasants. French and Latin were the languages used by the elite, the educated, and the clergy, whereas English was the barbarous language of plowmen. There are many historic people and points in history that contributed to the rise of the English language, but it was during the Elizabethan Age that any hesitancy about the merits of the English dialect diminished. What was once considered a barbarous tongue, the English vernacular has struggled through hundreds of years to become the language preferred by the majority of the literate world.

The conquest of England by the Normans in 1066 led to the suppression of English in public life. French, or more accurately, the form of Anglo-French that arose after the Norman's conquest, dominated public discourse- particularly government departments and the courts. The English upper classes spoke Anglo-French as a matter of principle, to distinguish themselves from the lower classes, which spoke Middle English. English was most affected by the clergy, who in 1407 made a political decision to ban the English language altogether from every aspect of English church life, therefore eliminating English from one of the most important aspects of all English lifestyles. It was during this time in history that the English language underwent its most brutal demise from the customary lives of the English people.

Throughout Western Europe, the French court was se...

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...onger did the English feel they had to be apologetic when using their own language.

Time and culture have brought to the English language many troubles, and at one point in history, they almost destroyed the use of the language altogether. English was once seen as a barbarous language only fit for the farmers, the uneducated, and the poor. It was seen as a language incapable of conveying the subtle undertones necessary for diplomacy and literature. French was the language of choice for the elite to distinguish themselves from the lower classes and the uneducated. It would take the works and decisions of kings and queens to change the perspective held for the language and to unify a country to feel proud of their mother tongue. English has survived through hundreds of years of scorn and ridicule to ascend to the chosen language of today's modern world.