The History of the English Language by Sammy Stein

The topic of this article is the history of the English language and the audience can be for English learners, native speakers, young adults, etc. The purpose of this is to inform and know more about the English language and it is a formal and academic tone. A question that is always asks when we arrived to England, Canada, and America is “Do you speak English?” but why we never asked the “Do you speak French, Italian, Latin or Spanish?” and I think this question can be answer simply, because English is a global language and almost everyone now it and help us to communicate in several places but maybe they know certainly words of the language. English language is changing and we can prove it in dictionaries if we take one of 25 years back and the reason why this is occurring is because in England has been coveted by many civilizations and invaded many too, and the first change was with the Vikings that conquered England. Then the Romans came and make another change in the language bringing other set of words and were derived from Latin and it was the main language from scholars and educated people, And then French was spoken in parliament and other offices. The rulers from Spain came and Spanish words were introduced to the English language. Many others want to create a language with its roots, but English has become the language of business and an example of a way it also expands is in India that English became the language of the upper classes and taught to children as a main second language. But it is interesting that in places like United States who spoke English wants to make their own stamp on words in spelling or usage.

I enjoy this article because it gave me very good examples and interesting things I did not know like the words house, ocean and boat came from the Vikings and gives me the impression that this person did a good research. English is a mish mash of other languages and will continue changing through times as happened for centuries because as a global language everyone adapt it to their country or native language. The history of English I found it quite interesting and I really want to know how this language will change in words in a couple of years.

The History of the English Language by Risa

The Topic of this article is the History of English and is for all kind of audience English learners, native speakers, teenagers etc. The purpose of this article is to inform us how the English arrived to Britain and the how it expands and it has a formal tone because of the way it is write and academic. English has become the dominant world language, although it is not that old.  The English starts in England during the fifth century and that language was spoken by the Angels and the Saxons and called it “englisc”. English is family of the West-Germanic sub-family of the Germanic family of the Indo-European languages. Another language of that sub-family that still remain is Frisian and it is a relative of the Old English of the Angels and Saxons, and the only placed were that language remain it’s in “Anglia”. Latin was the language in common in the South and East, Celtic with West and Northwest; Pictish to the North and the East, and then “englisc” arrived. It passed until the tenth century to become English the language on common of England, and this occur when Athlestan, Alfred the Great grandson conquered all the kingdoms south of the Firth of Forth. And in the documents it records distinct of Old English but almost all the documents that survived in Old English are in the West Saxon dialect. The center of the English Speaking was constantly changing, in the early centuries was York in Northumbria but Alfred changed to the couth and center on Winchester. And then after a lot of movements the languages of power centered on London and have remained there and that had a profound effect in the language we use today. Words had change trough times and over time the part of a word we stress moves from back to the front of the word.  They say that all this changes may come from the 15^th and 16^th century known as the “great vowel shift”.

This article is really interesting because it explains your more since the first ones who speak it and how they used it. Another way that helped me how to understand how words or the languages had been changing through times like how folk’s was pronounced flocES  and examples help a lot in a reading most in this kind of things; I like the way she writes because make you keep reading and also understand it.  It is to interesting how the English language has change too much from times but like she says at the end only dead languages do not change so this means that this language will continue to change and also to be a world dominant language. 

The History of the English Language by Lucy Rucker

The Topic of this article is the History of the English and the audience can be English learners, native speaks, teachers or everyone who is interest. The purpose of this article is to make ourselves known to all English history and the tone can be formal because it shows us the history and academic because it help to us as English learners. English seems to come from a Germanic Tribe in the fifth century who arrived to Britain. English is divided in 3 Old, Middle and Modern English. The Old was a reflection from the Anglo-Norman-French, but the Old English almost got lost although in some places is still spoken in other forms because that language form is too difficult so it has change for good.  Then is the Middle English that born somewhere between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. Here the language had an evolution and words change in spelling and grammar and in some cases the word disappear. And then is the Modern English that is the one we use and enjoy the most because it has the final changes and improves. Although Modern English is the easiest one the problem is that words may have a different meaning in different countries. English came directly from Britain and since then the language has change a lot and it will continue changing through times.

This article is interesting maybe not for the information because maybe we need to have more information about the changes of the language and the different types of English but in opinion it’s perfect. And she is absolutely right in the fact that although you know the English maybe another one who speaks too in another country won’t understand exactly what you said because it changes with the place and that also makes to learn the English difficult as a second language. Something that caught my attention too was that if the English is changing too much right now what will occur in a future, because that will means that the language will be too different and some words will simply disappear.

All I had read is really true simply because when I go to United States like McAllen or Laredo, I understand almost everything but when you enter more to U.S.A. it is really difficult to me to understand sometimes and all of this is because of the change of the words in different zones. But on the other side this change it is not only for bad, also for good because before in the old English words were too different and that would make to some people that want to learn it as a second language difficult so in conclusion the change is not that bad.

What should we learn, English as lingua franca or “formal” English?

English is a dominant or official language in most of the parts of the world and speaking it is basic. But when the question is what we should learn I think both are important. It depends in what we are going to do, The English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a form that has become essential for communicating with other’s whose first language is not English, and the fact is that now with this, English is changing because people speak it the way they find it easier so the real dialect gradually disappeared. So it is the easiest way but not the correct one, that’s why as a conclusion the better way to learn is the formal English that way we can sometimes make use of the ELF words although we know the right way to write it.