11. English and English speaking countries - P

MIDDLE ENGLISH (1100 - 1500)

In 1066 William the Conqueror (from Normandy) invaded and conquered England. Normans brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. The lower classes spoke English and the higher classes spoke French. The Latin was in use by the Church. Poor ordinary people who prepared norman feasts spoke English -> so they called animals in English (pig, cow). On the other hand the nobility who spoke French named already prepared meat on the table (boeuf (fr.) -> beef; porc (fr.) ->pork) In 14th century the English became dominant language again, but with many French words added. It was a language of the great poet Geofrey Chaucer = runner of Modern English). Since 1362 the English became the official language in E. Parliament.

Two trends appeared in English:

1)decay of the Viking influence

2)expansion of French and Latin

MODERN ENGLISH

EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (1500 - 1800) A change in pronunciation started with the Great Vowel Shift, when the vowels were pronunced shorter and shorter. The Renaissance of Classical learning and more contact with people from other parts of the world meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brounght the standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published. The King James Bible is the most influential book connected with English. Standarts of modern English are written here.

LATE MODERN ENGLISH (1800 - present) The main difference between Early M.E. and Late M.E. is vocabulary. Late M.E. has many more words because of two principal factors: the Industrial Revolution and technology and the British Empire (it covered one quarter of the earth´s surface.

4) SE, dialects, accents

Standart English (SE) is considered the "correct" spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. SE is often called the "Queen´s English" or "BBC English". Dialects are varieties of language that differ in pronuncation, vocabuary and grammar from each other and from SE. Accents describe only pronuncation, so an Englishman may speak SE, but with regional accent. The Cocney Rhyming Slang is a coded rhyming language invented by Cocneys in 19th century in order to they could speak in front of the Police without being understand. It uses phrases that rhymes with a certain word which you want to say.

Example: I fell down apples and pears (= stairs) That pen and inks (= stinks)

For Scotish accent is characteristic its rolling "r".

The Welsh famous for singing , speak with a "lilting sing - song quality".

Irishman is easy to detect by a American - sounding accent and pronunciation of "th" as "t". Australian and New Zealand use words from their indigenous populations.