History of the English Language at the U of S

Alexei Muzyka

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Many English words are directly borrowed from, or take influence from many other languages. Loanwords can fill lexical gaps, increase the ways people can say what they want to, and increase the precision of communication in a language. English has borrowed so many foreign words that it might seem impossible that the complex ideas of today’s world could be communicated without loans. However, doing so can show one where English receives new words from, which languages contribute heavily to certain word categories, and how loans are more helpful than harmful.

Jamie Maclean

Image: Facebook

“Hey what classes are you taking this year?”

“A course in Old English.”

“You mean like Shakespeare?”

“No, from way before that.”

Stephanie Ruiz

https://giphy.com/gifs/FUyLnYYpV38ze

While Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot Sketch” exploits the potential for humour in euphemistic language, it also signals the potential for euphemisms to blur the perception of reality. When the client attempts to return a dead parrot, the pet shop owner uses the euphemism for death “to be at rest” hoping to confuse his client or expecting he interprets it literally. Both characters and the audience know the parrot is dead, so by using euphemisms to hide the obvious, the owner reaches the limits of absurdity. Thus, it illuminates that euphemisms play an important role in the negotiation of perceived reality.

Jake Decker

While both originating from the language family of Proto-Germanic, Dutch and English have evolved in close proximity to one another for hundreds of years. A surprising amount of loan words exist in the English language originating from Dutch but most of this lexical change happened during the period of Middle-English.

The County of Flanders. Image: (cc) Wikimedia Commons.

Nathaniel Wingerak

The typical appearance of the hockey-talk speaking demographic. Image: CraveTV, “Letterkenny | One Team,” screenshot from YouTube clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJ6XU4Fyg0

While sitting on the team bus during a three-hour road trip to Wilcox, amidst the expletives and insults I hear someone yell out the ridiculous phrase “Hey sauce me my sandy!” A teammate then proceeds to hand him his sandwich. This type of chatter was everywhere in hockey; on the road, in the dressing room, on the ice, at team gatherings, this lingo was omnipresent throughout the realm of hockey. In my past experiences with hockey I’ve witnessed extensive use of this language variety that I’ll hereby refer to as “Hockey-Talk”.

Quinnton Weiman

A traditional bagel with lox. The culinary equivalent of Yiddishisms in English — sharp, bold, and to the point. Image: Sandwich America.

After spending the past few months with my nose in books about the topic, and shlepping them all over between the Murray library and student coffee klatches around town, I’ve decided to finally quit my kvetching and get this blog post written. It is no small task to sift through the storied, thousand-year-old history of the expressive mame loshn Yiddish and the (very long) short list of the languages it has influenced and been influenced by, but thankfully in regards to English specifically, there is a definite and relatively recent starting point. This period, known as the great migration, spanned roughly between 1870 and 1914. Fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe, Jews sought out greener pastures in the western, primarily English-speaking world, with as many as two million Jews emigrating to the United States during this period alone (Weinstein 133). English, seen as a pathway to a better life, was adopted with gusto by many of these emigrés, whose mordant and cynical humour, tempered by centuries of oppression in Europe, was also readily absorbed into English. This can be largely attributed to the decline of Yiddish as it was subjected to the cultural melting pot of English America. Miriam Weinstein, in her book Yiddish: a Nation of Words, also attributes this decline to a strong desire to fit in and to quickly cast away the “otherness” of Yiddish – as she describes it, “no other people would feel such ambivalence about what they had left [behind]” (142). This loss of language was hailed as tragic by many, in particular in the wake of the cultural genocide and virtual extermination of Yiddish in Europe during the Holocaust. However, little could stop the language from occupying the niche of humour, in particular among its own people as they embraced their new English lives and left the past behind. As Weinstein puts it, Yiddish had slid from being the “golden key to Jewish tradition” to being an “easy laugh at the immigrants’ expense” (and delight, mind) within a generation (143).

Delane Just

Image: (CC0) Pexels.

So, you want to use “old-fashioned” English in your fantasy or historical fiction novel? Or maybe you want to use it in your next Dungeons & Dragons campaign? Well, there is more to it than adding the letter E to everything, spelling everything wrong, and throwing in a few “thou”s and “huzzah”s every couple lines. Of course, it would be absurd to try to fully recreate Old English for your novel. With all the changes made throughout the centuries, Old English may as well be another language to Modern English speakers. Then how can you use “old-fashioned” sounding English in your novel accurately without losing your entire audience? How much archaic language is too much? Should you really spell everything wrong just because they did not have standardized spelling in the 1000-1400s? I am going to try to break down what does not work, and look at some ways to use “old-fashioned” English accurately and coherently.

April Anderson

Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the English language underwent a drastic change. It was at this time that the shift from Old English to Middle English began to occur. The Middle English period saw many new linguistic phenomena take hold around 1150, and continue to shape this new form of English until about 1500 (OED s.v. Middle English, n, sense A). However, there is evidence that the catalyst for these changes began in the years between 1066 and 1200 (Baugh and Cable 98), leading to phonological and lexical changes in the English language.

Figure 1. Bayeux Tapestry – Scene 57: the death of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

After King Harold was killed during the Battle of Hastings in 1066 (see fig. 1), much of the English nobility was replaced by the Normans. This was because a majority of King Harold’s nobles had either been killed in battle or perceived as traitors, leaving many positions of authority available for the taking (Baugh and Cable 101). These positions were inevitably filled by the Norman nobility because they remained noblemen under the new king, William. Because they gradually took over these positions of power, the Normans gained more control in areas of legislation. Despite the presence of the French in these new governments, many of the new nobility did not live in England (Liu C.39). Due to their absence, many of the English-speaking citizens would not learn French right away.

Sam  Campling

Throughout my childhood, I was a competitive figure skater, and as with most other competitive athletes, I fought to be the winner at every competition. However, there was always someone who was better than me, hence why I am not presently a competitive skater. When someone beat me, I found myself wondering; are they naturally gifted at this sport? Or, did they work tirelessly to become the best? I mostly just told myself they paid off the judges, even though that was obviously false. Many people are lucky enough to be proficient in an activity naturally. Some people are not as lucky, but at least have a work ethic strong enough to push through and become proficient in an activity of choice. Either way, these people who are proficient have what you would call a skill.

Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night (1889). One of his most popular paintings.

In the present, the term skill refers to the “capability of accomplishing something with precision and certainty; practical knowledge in combination with ability; cleverness, expertness. Also, an ability to perform a function, acquired or learned from practice”. (Oxford English Dictionary) As examples, Sidney Crosby is skilled in the sport of hockey, Vincent Van Gogh was skilled in the art of drawing and painting, and Shania Twain is skilled in the art of singing. These three mentioned excel in their respective activities.

Jordana Lalonde

Picture this: A family of four sits at a restaurant. The daughter pours over the menu and pauses at the words “yam fries”, scanning for the option to add a delicious dipping sauce. She sees no such condiments and announces, “I’m literally jumping off a bridge if this restaurant doesn’t have garlic aioli.” Her mom retorts, “literally? You’re literally going to kill yourself over aioli?” Her dad chuckles and continues reading the menu, adding, “you mean figuratively.” Her brother nods in agreement. The waitress walks up during the conversation and jokes about the “big grammar lesson going on at the dinner table!”

That girl is me. And on the inside, she is ready to jump atop the table and scream to the world that the word literally has went through a semantic change and correcting people on its usage does not mean you have a better understanding of the English language but rather a weaker one! That those who correct the figurative use of literally are ignoring the simple fact– literally does not mean “literally” anymore.