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  • Hello. I'm Gill from engVid,

  • and today... As you know, I usually teach an aspect of the English language,

  • but today, we're going to be looking at the English language from a different perspective, a different angle,

  • and looking at the history of the language

  • and how it has developed, because the English language hasn't always been the way it is today.

  • It's developed over hundreds and hundreds of years.

  • Now, today, hundreds of millions of people speak English all over the world, whether

  • it's their first language or their second language, or just one of the foreign languages

  • that they speak and learn at school, and so on. So, hundreds of millions of people speak

  • English and learn English. But hundreds of years ago, the English language that we know

  • today didn't really exist. It sort of got put together gradually by different historical

  • events. So we're going to go back in history now, and have a look at a timeline.

  • I don't know if you've seen a timeline before, but it is literally the time, the years going

  • from left to right, like you get on a graph if you've done graphs, and the time goes across

  • along the line. So the different developments that happened can be shown on that line. So

  • we're starting here in 55 BC, hundreds of years ago, and we're coming up to... Well, beyond.

  • We have 1066, here, but because I ran out of space on the board, the time went

  • on for such a long time, I couldn't get all the centuries in, but I will still tell you

  • about them. Okay. But these are the very interesting parts, which are on the board.

  • So, 55 BC, the Roman invasion of Britain, of the U.K., where we are at the moment.

  • So, you've heard of the Roman Empire with Julius Caesar and all the other Caesars, the Roman

  • Empire that spread in different directions, and Britain is one of the directions they

  • spread in. They came here, and stayed for a while, and built some nice buildings, and

  • they built a wall that goes across between Scotland and England, called Hadrian's Wall,

  • because the Emperor at the time was called Hadrian. So, anyway, when they came and stayed

  • for some time, they brought their language with them, the Latin language. Okay? And the

  • Latin language, it's called a dead language today, but it has influenced so many other

  • languages, especially in Southern Europe,

  • so languages like Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, they all come from Latin.

  • So, in this country, in the English language,

  • we have had the Latin influence at different times. So, the Romans brought their Latin

  • language with them. Okay? So that influenced the way people were speaking to each other

  • as time went on. And the natives of this country started learning Latin words, and it became

  • integrated into the language.

  • Okay, so let's have a look at some of the words that we use today that were influenced

  • or that came from Latin words. Right? And we have this pie chart, here, which you may

  • know if you've been studying things for IELTS and the writing task. A pie chart... So, the

  • whole circle represents 100%. So if you're thinking of all the words in the English language

  • at the moment, Latin, the Latin words that came from... Partly from the Roman invasion,

  • we have 29% of the words in the English language have come from a Latin origin, from a source,

  • Latin source. Okay. So here are just a few of very words that we use every day, really.

  • Words like: "human", "animal", "dental" to do with the teeth, "decimal" which is to do

  • with the fingers because we have 10 fingers, "decimal", and "digital", also fingers, "factory"

  • where things are made, manufacture, "library" where you read books, "libre" meaning book,

  • "library", the building where the books are kept, "manual" to do with if you do things

  • with your hand it comes from the Latin word for "hand", "manual". "Lunar" to do with the

  • moon, because the Latin word for the moon was "luna", "luna".

  • And "solar" to do with the sun, again, because the Latin word was like that, "solar".

  • "Military", anything to do with soldiers because the Latin

  • Roman Empire soldiers were... That was the word that was

  • used for "soldiers". "Melees" I think. And we also get our "mile", the distance, the

  • mile from that, because that was the distance that they would march, I think, before they

  • had a rest or something like that. So "military" is to do with soldiers. "Science" to do with

  • knowledge. "Science", and "station", the railway station, the bus station is a place where

  • you stand still before you move off, and that also comes from a Latin word to be static

  • in one place. Okay. Okay, so that's the Latin. You'll notice also that later on in history,

  • Latin kept coming back, so there and there, but that's the Latin from these three points

  • in history when we had visitors of one sort or another.

  • Okay, so let's move on then, the next major event. I've put 450 AD, but I'm going to start

  • putting century numbers now, because it's simpler. So, 5th... The 5th century, okay,

  • Germanic migration. That's people from roughly where Germany is today in the mainland Europe

  • moved across. Okay? From the Saxon, Saxon area of Germany. Saxony. So, the language

  • they brought with them was a kind of... Well, it became Anglo-Saxon, because it got merged

  • with the English we already had, the Anglo part, with the Saxon part added. It... And

  • that's another name for that is Old English, Old English, which looks totally different

  • from the English we have today. So they brought a different language with them, and that got

  • all mixed in. If you think of a big cooking pot and different ingredients being put in,

  • and it just keeps cooking and cooking over time, that's how it was developing. Okay.

  • So, Germanic. Let's have a look at how much Germanic language there is in English today.

  • So, looking at our pie chart again, we've got Germanic 26%, so just over a quarter of

  • the words in the English language today come from a Germanic source. And I've put some

  • little abbreviations here; Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, and Dutch.

  • These are all roughly sort of from the Germanic area,

  • and the Dutch words as well are all mixed in there, too,

  • because Holland isn't that far away either.

  • Okay. So, let's just see a few examples of

  • the Germanic words. They're often quite short words and words we use every day, like "above",

  • "again", "and", "apple", "bad" and "good",

  • "cake", "eat" and "drink",

  • parts of the body especially, "eye" and "feet" and "arm", "boy" and "girl",

  • these are all the Germanic type of words.

  • "House", "hand", "bread", so parts of the body. "Food", all of that kind of thing.

  • Okay, so that's that one.

  • So moving on, in the 6th century, before this, we had been what you call a Pagan country,

  • sort of pre-Christianity. In the 6th century, Saint Augustine came and started converting

  • people to Christianity. Okay. And that meant bringing languages with him, like the Bible

  • that was written in these different languages, other books, books of learning. So, again,

  • Latin came in. And Greek as well came in, and Hebrew all came with the Christianity,

  • which spread around the whole country. So we've covered Latin already. Let's just have

  • a look at Greek in our pie chart to see how much influence that has had on the language

  • today. So looking at Greek, it's actually quite small, just 6%.

  • But they're very sort of... They're kind of words that are used in a sort of academic life,

  • and the word "academic" itself is one of them; "academic" is a Greek word.

  • And "Android", if you have an Android

  • mobile phone, you wouldn't believe that it had come from an old Greek word, but it has.

  • "Android". Okay? A word like "basic", "cinema" even, "climate", "democracy", "economy", "geography",

  • "history", "idea" because philosophy, thinking, ideas is very important

  • and had a big... Greece had a big influence on that.

  • "Politics" and "technology" all come from Greek.

  • Okay, Hebrew, we don't have unless it's included under other one of the other influences which

  • is another 6%.

  • Okay, so moving on to a period when we had some more invasions and it wasn't

  • the Romans this time, it was people called the Vikings who came from Scandinavian countries,

  • so that's Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and they came across the sea and invaded. And it wasn't

  • just one invasion; it happened over three centuries, from the 8th to the 11th century.

  • So the Viking invasions, and they brought their Scandinavian languages with them.

  • And Old Norse is one of them. And as I said earlier, from this Germanic migration, this was another

  • sort of input into the Germanic types of languages that we have. That's why we've got 26% because

  • there was such a lot coming in, a lot of words, there. Okay. Right.

  • So, moving on again to the... This is 11th century as well, 1066, which is a big date

  • in English history. The Norman invasion. And if you know the area called Normandy in Northern France,

  • there's a connection, there. So, the Normans were French, and they invaded... They

  • came across the channel, they had a big battle near the south coast of Britain, and they

  • won so they took over. So the Norman invasion, that brought French for the first time and

  • some more Latin again, because anyway, French developed from Latin, so it was a mixture

  • of that. But French for the first time, their French that had developed from Latin,

  • as well as Latin itself.

  • So, let's have a look at some of the words we use in English today that came from French sources.

  • Okay. So, food, French people love food and a lot of words for food came in.

  • So: "beef", "pork" and "veal" all come from French words. Okay?

  • But then some other interesting words that maybe were Latin originally,

  • but they became French, and then these French

  • words came into English and they're still with us today,

  • words like: "continue", "liberty",

  • "justice", so a lot of legal language, words to do with the law come from French.

  • So "liberty", "justice". "Journey", if you go on a trip, a journey comes from a French word.

  • "People" comes from a French word for people. And even the little word "very".

  • When you say: "Oh, that's very nice", "very" just is the French word for true,

  • so it means "truly", "truly nice". That is truly nice, that is very nice.

  • So, a little word like "very" comes from the French word for "true". Okay.

  • Right, so we've covered Latin, French, Germanic, and Greek. And we've come up to 1066, but

  • of course, the English language didn't stop developing then. As I said, I ran out of space.

  • But other things happened, for example, in the 15th century, 16th century, people started

  • exploring the world, going off in ships and finding other countries, finding places like

  • America that they didn't know was there before; Christopher Columbus. Also going the other

  • way, and at the Portuguese, for example, found India and China. So, people explored. So,

  • from the English point of view, we had explorers who went off and found things, and came back,

  • and that also influenced the language because, for example, we got tobacco and potatoes from

  • America, so the words for those things were new. Okay.

  • And then 18th, 19th century, colonialism, British Empire, Britain became involved politically

  • in other countries, then eventually the British Empire ended and we now have the Commonwealth

  • instead. And now in the 20th, 21st century, the language is still developing. We've got

  • the internet, the speed of travel. It's very easy to get on a plane and travel thousands

  • of miles and go to another country, so words keep coming back from other countries, for example.

  • So looking at from the British Empire onwards, a lot of Asian words, words from

  • the Middle East and the far east, like "balcony" and "bangle", a bangle that you wear around your

  • wrist, "bangle". A "bungalow", that's a house which is only one storey,

  • a bungalow. We have quite a lot of those in this country.

  • A "guru" from India, someone who you go to for advice

  • and help, "guru". A "kiosk", "pajamas" that you wear in bed at night to sleep in, "pajamas"

  • are from an empire country. "Sandals" that you wear on your feet, sandals with spaces

  • in between for hot weather. And even "shampoo" that you wash your hair with, "shampoo" is

  • a foreign word from one of the empire countries.

  • And finally... So, we were talking about the internet and technology. If you're doing the

  • housework and hoovering the carpet, we also say vacuuming the carpet because you use a

  • vacuum cleaner, but one of the major brands of vacuum cleaner is the Hoover, and that

  • was the name of the maker, the Hoover. So, but that word has now become a verb "to hoover",

  • and "hoovering". Okay? So, names count for about 4% in the English language, so Hoover,