Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil. And I’m Georgina. Gōdne mergen! Mé lícap pé tó métanne! I beg your pardon, Neil? Is something stuck in your throat?! Are you speaking a foreign language? Ha! Well, actually Georgina, I was saying, ‘Good morning, pleased to meet you’ in English - but not the English you and I speak. That was Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, the earliest form of English, spoken in the Middle Ages – so, between the 5th and 15th century. It doesn’t sound anything like the way people talk nowadays. No, but it’s surprising how many of the words we use today have survived from Old English – beer, wine, drink, fish, bread, butter, eye, ear, mouth, head, hand, foot, life, love, laughter, mother, daughter, sister, brother, son, father – all Anglo-Saxon words! Wow, so many everyday words! But what about the classics - Latin and Greek? I thought a lot of English vocabulary came from there. That’s also true, but the history of English is the history of invasions – you know, when the army of one country fights to enter and control another country. Like the Roman invasion of Britain? Right, and later invasions too, by Norse- speaking Vikings and Germanic Saxons. In fact, Georgina, that reminds me of my quiz question. Go on then, but in modern English if you don’t mind… OK. Well, the year 1066 is remembered for a famous battle when the French-speaking Norman king, William the Conqueror, invaded England – but what is the name of the famous battle? Is it: a) The Battle of Waterloo?, b) The Battle of Hastings?, or, c) The Battle of Trafalgar? Hmm, my history’s not great, Neil, but I think it’s b) The Battle of Hastings. OK, Georgina, we’ll find out ‘later’ - another Old English word there! But it’s not just words that survive from Anglo-Saxon, it’s word endings too – the suffix, or letters added to the end of a word to modify its meaning. Right, like adding ‘s’ to make something plural, as in: one bird, two birds. Or the ‘ness’ in ‘goodness’ and ‘happiness’. And ‘dom’, as in, ‘freedom’ and kingdom’. Poet Michael Rosen is fascinated by Old English. Here he is talking about word suffixes to Oxford University professor Andy Orchard for BBC Radio 4’s programme, Word of Mouth. Listen out for the proportion of modern English that comes from Anglo-Saxon. ‘I walked’ – that ‘walked’, the ‘et’ bit on the end. Yeah, the ‘ed’ ending. Most modern verbs – if we were to say, you know, ‘I texted my daughter’, I mean text is, obviously - comes from Latin … 'I tweeted' - we still lapse to the Anglo-Saxon. And, generally, when I’m speaking, just let’s do it in mathematical terms, what proportion can we say is Old English? Can we say, like, about 80% in common parlance, sorry to use a French word there? In speech it would be something like that – in the written language, less. They’re the basic building blocks of who we are and what we think. Professor Orchard estimates that 80 percent of spoken English in common parlance comes from Anglo-Saxon. 'In common parlance' means the words and vocabulary that most people use in ordinary, everyday conversation. So Anglo-Saxon words are the building blocks of English - the basic parts that are put together to make something. He also thinks that the languages we speak shape the way we see the world. Here’s Michael Rosen and Professor Andy Orchard discussing this idea on BBC Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth: Can we say that English speakers today, as I’m speaking to you now, view the world through Anglo-Saxon eyes, through Anglo-Saxon words? Can we say that? Well, in Old English poetry it's always raining and I suppose it’s always raining today. There is a retrospective element, that we’re still inhabiting that worldview, those ideas; the same words, the same simple ideas that they inhabited. And what’s extraordinary if you think about the history of English is despite the invasions by the Norse and by the Norman, and then despite the years of empire when we’re bringing things back, the English that we’re speaking today is still at its root, Old English word, at its heart, Old English word, still very much English. Michael Rosen asks if English speakers see the world through Anglo-Saxon eyes. When we see something through someone’s eyes, we see it from their perspective, their point of view. And Professor Orchard replies by saying that despite all the history of invasion and empire, the English we speak today is still Old English 'at heart' – a phrase used to say what something is really like. Wow! So much history crammed into six minutes! And now, time for one more history fact. Do you mean your quiz question, Neil? What’s the name of the famous battle of 1066? What did you say, Georgina? I said b) The Battle of Hastings. Which was… the correct answer! The Battle of Hastings in 1066 played a big part in the Norman Conquest and mixing French words into the language. And I also know how the English ruler, King Harold, died – shot through the eye with an arrow! Ouch! OK, let’s recap the vocabulary, some of which exists because of 'invasions' – when one country enters and controls another. A suffix is added to the end of a word to make a new word. The phrase 'in common parlance' means using ordinary, everyday words. 'Building blocks' are the basic parts used to make something. 'To see things through someone’s eyes' means, from their point of view. And finally, 'at heart' is used to say what something is really like. That’s all for this programme. Join us again soon at 6 Minute English but for now, ‘far gesund!’ – that’s Old English for ‘goodbye’! Far gesund! Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil. And I’m Rob. Bonjour, Rob! Kon’nichi’wa! Excuse me? ¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? Oh, OK, I think Neil’s saying ‘hello’ in different languages – French, was it? And then.. Japanese? And… Spanish? Is that right? ¡Si, muy bien! The English are famously slow to learn other languages. But it seems that Rob and I - and of course you - our global audience here at 6 Minute English - are good examples of polyglots – people who speak more than one language, sometimes known as 'superlinguists'. People who speak multiple languages benefit from many advantages, as we’ll be hearing in this programme. That word 'polyglot' sounds familiar, Neil. Doesn't the prefix 'poly' mean ‘many’? That’s right, like 'polygon' – a shape with many sides. Or 'polymath' – someone who knows many things. And speaking of knowing things, it’s time for my quiz question. The word 'polyglot' comes from Greek and is made up of two parts: 'poly', which as Rob says, means ‘many’, and ‘glot’. But what does ‘glot’ mean? What is the meaning of the word 'polyglot'? Is it: a) many words, b) many sounds or c) many tongues? Well, there’s three syllables in ‘polyglot’, Neil, so I reckon it’s b), many sounds. OK, Rob, we’ll find out if that’s right at the end of the programme. But leaving aside the origins of the word, what exactly does being a polyglot involve? British-born polyglot, Richard Simcot speaks eleven languages. Listen to his definition as he speaks to BBC World Service programme, The Documentary: A polyglot for me can be anyone who identifies with that term – it’s somebody who learns languages that they don’t necessarily need for their lives, but just out of sheer enjoyment, pleasure or fascination with another language or culture. For Richard, being a polyglot simply means identifying with the idea - feeling that you are similar or closely connected to it. He says polyglots learn languages not because they have to, but for the sheer enjoyment, which means, ‘nothing except’ enjoyment. Richard uses the word sheer to emphasise how strong and pure this enjoyment is. As well as the pleasure of speaking other languages, polyglots are also better at communicating with others. My favourite quote by South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, is: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." How inspiring, Rob – I’m lost for words! Here’s another: ‘To have another language is to possess a second soul’. So, language learning is good for the head, heart and soul – a person’s spirit or the part of them which is believed to continue existing after death. Yes – and what’s more, language learning is good for the brain too. That’s according to Harvard neuroscientist, Eve Fedorenko. She’s researched the effects of speaking multiple languages on the brains of growing children. Eve predicted that multilingual children would have hyperactive language brains. But what she actually found surprised her, as she explains here to BBC World Service’s The Documentary: What we found – this is now people who already have proficiency in multiple languages - what we found is that their language regions appear to be smaller, and that was surprising… and as people get better and better, more automatic at performing the task, the activations shrink, so to speak, over time, so they become... it becomes so that you don’t have to use as much brain tissue to do the task as well, so you become more efficient. Eve was testing children who already have language proficiency – the skill and ability to do something, such as speak a language. Her surprising discovery was that the language regions of these children’s brains were shrinking