Think, Thank, Thunk : History of the English Language

Think, Thank, Thunk: Origins of the English Language

by Terry Knudsen, Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute

Tri-TESOL Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015 1:30 pm Room 14-106

 

________________0_______________

B.C.                                                        A.D.

Before Christ                       Anno Domini
                      (Year of the Lord) 

                                                                                       

The history of Britain involves a series of invasions:

600 to 400 B.C. 
Celts invaded Britain,
pushing previous dwellers west and north.

 

55 B.C. 
Julius Caesar invades Britain with Roman troops.

 

Latin becomes the official language of Britain, used for law, courts, business, administration, and government.

Latin is based on Greek, an intricate system that takes time to learn and use. This developed in a warm climate, with plenty of food and shelter, with slaves, and time to play building blocks with words:        

struct (to build)

Prefixes  Word Roots  Suffixes

instruct   instruction, instructive, instructing, instructed

destruct  destruction, destructive, destructing, destructed

construct  construction, constructive, constructing, constructed

deconstruct deconstruction, deconstructive, deconstructing,-ed

Grammar Notes:
-ing was termed the present participle

 -ed was termed the past participle

These participles can be used as verbs, nouns, or adjectives:
The kids are talking. 
(present participle as Main Verb          

Talking is fun.  
(present participle used as noun, aka gerund, used as Subject of the sentence.      
The talking doll is cute.
(present participle used as an adjective to describe "doll."

 

Old English: Mid 5^th century to the mid 11^th century.

449 AD       
Invasion of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes

 

The languages of these northern tribes developed in harsh, cold lands, where survival depended on fast responses.

The vocabulary existed in mostly one-syllable, short words:
farming life               sailing                fighting       clothing

cup, fork, spoon         rope                    knife            shirt

cow                            boat                    cut                skirt

 

The following verbs were considered “regular” and also were called “strong verbs.”

              Simple Form       Simple Past         Past Participle

Angles gave us the word “Anglish” now “English.”    

 

Saxons probably contributed these conjugations:     
think            thought               thought

bring            brought               brought

 

Jutes probably contributed these conjugations:         

drink            drank                  drunk

sink              sank                    sunk

ring              rang                    rung

sing              sang                    sung

 

Filtered : Examples of conjugation applications:    

bring            brang                  brang, brung
bringed        branged               brunged

 

Literature Topics: Camelot in Southwest England              

King Arthur, Guenivere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table

This includes the idea of courtly love, and equality.

 

Middle English: Late 11^th century to late 15^th century.

1066 AD      
The Norman Conquest

 

William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings

French became the new language of the British royal court.

 

1200s : Britain and half of France          
King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine
Developed a system of law, and Courtly Love

  Two of their children became famous/notorious:

King Richard the Lionheart on the Crusades

King John, with the Legend of Robin Hood, and the Magna Carta

 

1300s          
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

 

Chaucer wrote in the King’s court. He had to decide whether to write in Latin, the scholar’s language; in French, the language popular with the royals; or English, the language of the common people, the serfs, and merchants. Chaucer decided to write in English, and this began the formal acceptance of English for life and literature.

 

1400s  
The Printing Press in Europe

 Johannes Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press offered a method for mass production of affordable books, and raised the literacy rate.

 

Early Modern English: Late 15^th century to the late 17^th century

Modern English: Late 17^th century to the present

1755            
Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language

 

A popular and imitated book, Johnson’s dictionary contributed to standardized usage and the idea of “correct” spelling.

 

References for Students and Teachers:

“History of the English Language.” Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_English_language

“Honey, I sunk the boat.”

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/01/honey-i-sunk-the-boat.html

“John Doe.” Sleepy Hollow. Television Series. Season One. 2013.

Tolkien. J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit.

        What say you?  (missing the helping, or auxillary verb “do.”)

Shafer, Robert. From Beowulf to Thomas Hardy. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1939. Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1924, 1931.

 

“Anglo-Saxon Words

After, be, bed, bid, board, body, borrow, box, break, bring, broad, business, buy, cat, cheap, clean, climb, clinch, cloth, dear, do, dog, draft, draw, earn, earth, father, fetch, fight, fireside, free, friend, full, get, give, gold, good, great, have, high, hire, hold, home, house, husband, idle, if, keep, knife, knit, lade, land, last, late, laugh, law, lay, lend, load, loan, long, look, low, mad, make, man, match, mate, might, mother, new, old, pride, put, read, rent, right, roof, sell, send, settle, sharp, shelter, ship, shop, short, silver, take, trade, waist, walk, water, way, weight, wide, wife, woman, word, work, write.

http://www.lousywriter.com/words-anglo-saxon-words.php

 

Why is it Sink, Sank, Sunk, but not Think, Thank, Thunk?

"...Strong verbs are actually some of the oldest words in any language, following ancient grammatical rules that had the stem of the word (rather than just the ending) change on the context.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070921114550AAgaDCk

 

Samples of Topic Lite research projects, for students to print or draw on 8 ½ by 11 construction paper, include about 5 sentences on the topic, and then place on a classroom timeline, either in the classroom, out in the hall, or online.

Sleepy Hollow Season One “John Doe” contains a few segments with Ichabod Crane speaking Middle English with ghosts from the vanished Roanoke Colony. (Actually, they would have been speaking Early Modern English).