Brief History of the English Language
Contributed by @anisettecar
Many of us love to use and learn English but little that we know about its origin. Nobody really cares about it. If you were to ask me years ago, English ‘mestilah datang kat Malaysia masa British jajah Tanah Melayu dulu. Tapi zaman sekarang tengok orang Amerika pulak cakap English dalam American English movies’ and that totally makes me confused. So, where does English come from? Is it started with Queen Vitoria’s era, or Shakespeare’s perhaps? Well, it has been long before that period. Let me tell you a brief history of English. (latar tempat bolehla imagine macam dalam cerita Harry Porter or Downtown Abbey.)
Old English (450-1100 AD)
It all started with the arrival of 3 Germanic tribes: the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes during 5th Century AD. Germanic? Yes. Bukan America, bukan Great Britain. These tribes invaded Britain during the 5th century AD by crossing the North Sea (today’s Denmark and northern Germany). These tribes were martial; they pushed out most of the original inhabitants who spoke Celtic from England into Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today.
Bahasa pada ketika itu dipanggil “old English” where it does not really sound like today’s English. Even native speakers pun tak faham Old English ni. Tapi, hamper separuh daripada most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.
Middle English (1100-circa 1500 AD)
Middle English ni pulak bermula pada 1066, when William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. Pada waktu tu, there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. Sampai sekarang pun Bahasa Perancis digunakan dalam bahasa Inggeris, more to kelas atasan yang sophisticated lah kiranya. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400). Tapi Middle English ni pun sebenarnya susah nak difahami oleh orang sekarang even native speakers. Tak percaya, nah, baca Chaucer pnya work here. (Chaucer is still one of my fav poet tho)
Modern English (since 1500)
Early Modern English
Haaaa. Tadi ada sebut konon English bermula masa zaman Shakespeare. Maklumlah dulu form 1 belajar Life’s Brief Candle yang Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow tu. Rupanya Shakespeare’s era marks the beginning of Modern English. Modern English? Apa English zaman sekarang tak cukup moden ke? Okay towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift- ni kalau nak tahu kena baca banyak lagi) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many people from around the world. Dari sinila mulanya the Renaissance of Classical Learning. Banyak perkataan dan frasa baru masuk ke dalam bahasa Inggeris. Yang paling penting, masa zaman ni, berlaku sesuatu yang sangat penting dalam English history iaitu the invention of printing by William Caxton. Apa gunanya ‘printer’ ni? Pada waktu tu printer manual la, bukan macam zaman sekarang. Ianya cukup bermakna sebab bila dah boleh print, banyak lah buku yang boleh dicetak. Automatically, buku jadi murah dan ramai orang boleh belajar membaca dan menulis. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.
Late Modern English
Now let’s move on to Late Modern English. Apa bezanya? Dah sampai ke zaman Twitter ni ke? Belum lagi, sadly. The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English ada lagi banyak perkataan disebabkan oleh dua factor. Firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth’s surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. Orang putih pun ada jajah Malaysia, india semua, so dari situ dorang berkembang jugak. Jangan ingat bahasa kita je dipengaruhi bahasa Inggeris ;)
Since then, bahasa Inggeris berkembang pesat. Sekarang kita dalam zaman internet English. Atuk nenek kita confirm tak faham bahasa and internet slangs yang kita pakai. We are also a part of the people who contribute to the expansion and growth of the language. Bila kita pakai sesuatu perkataan, and it becomes popular dan digunakan oleh ramai gila orang, then the word becomes acceptable. Lama-lama masuk lah dalam dictionary. Okay that’s all. Harap-harap korang faham la ya. Kalau tak faham jugak or malas baca, you can go to this link and tengok video ‘History of English in 10 Minutes.’