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Chapter one: Anglo-Saxon
-The romans left some very straight roads behind, but not much of their latin language.
-The Anglo-Saxon vocabulary was much useful. As it was mainly words for simple everyday things. -
The Norman Conquest
-The conqueror invades England bringing new concepts from across the channel.
-French was derigueur for all official business, words like "judge","jury", "evidence" and "justice" coming in.
-Latin was still used at nauseam in church.
-English absorbed about 10,000 new words from the romans. -
Shakespeare English
-As the dictionary tells us, about 2,000 new words and phrases were invented by William Shakespeare.
-Shakespeare poetry showed the world that English was rich, vibrant language with limitless expressive and emotional power. -
The king James Bible
-A new translation of the bible
-King James bible began a whole glossary of metaphor and morality that still shapes the way English is spoken today. -
The English science
-At first scientist worked in latin.
-English could transform our understaning of the universe much quicker. -
English and empire
-All in all, between toppling Napoleon and the first word war, the British empire gobble up around ten million square miles, four hundred million people, and nearly a hundred thousand gin and tonics. leaving new English to develop all over the globe. -
The Age of the Dictionary
-It eventually paid in 1928 and it's continued to be revised ever since, proving the whole idea you can stop people making up words. -
-American spread a new language of capitalism, getting everyone worried about the break-even bottom line.
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Internet English
-The first email was sent, soon the internet arrived.
-Before the internet, English changed through people speaking it, but the net brought typing back into fashion.
-Conversation staring getting shorter thanks to abbreviation. -
Global English
-The language has got so little to do with England these days it may well be time to stop calling things.