History of the English Language

The history of the English language can be studied from a linguistic viewpoint--internal history, where linguistic sounds, structures, vocabulary, and other categories trace the evolution of the language. It can also be studied from the viewpoint of geographical and social spread, attitudes towards the language, features, and attempts at regulating it--this is external history. The difficulty with this classification is that there is constant overlap between the two approaches, such as when English borrows from, say, French; then, attitudes (an external factor) influence vocabulary (an internal factor).

"Internal linguistic change is often in the direction of diversity" (Bolton, 1992, p. 472). Yet, changes tend towards a certain regularity. Rhotic vs non-rhotic is an example of such overlapping and regularity. The English r is pronounced whenever it is orthographically present (read, bear, barrel, worker), i.e. rhotic pronouncing. In another set of accents, r is pronounced in syllable-initial position (red) and intervocally (barrel), but not postvocally (beer, beard, worker). In these positions, the r is vocalized and not pronounced unless another vowel follows--a non-rhotic phenomenon.

In Canada, India, Ireland, south-western England, Scotland, in the Barbados, and in the northern and western states of the U.S.A. (except for Boston and New York City), the r sound is rhotic. In Black Africa, Australia, the Caribbea

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ogically, however, Middle English and Modern English are significantly distant. It is only around 1400 that significant changes in pronunciation took place. This was the time of the Great Vowel Shift--a drift, in linguists' parlance. For example, Middle English pronounced the final e in stone, haue, love, etc--until the Great Vowel Shift. The popular notion that final mute -e makes a preceding vowel long is a myth. It is, rather, the lengthening of the vowel which has caused e to be lost. Long vowel sounds--especially long stressed monophthongs--adopted Continental languages' sounds as we still have them today. Middle English's a (as in fame) was pronounced as the a in today's father. Eventually, fame acquired a long a. Life was pronounced lyf (and thus spelled) by Chaucer, the way we pronounce leaf. Soon, however, the e sound became a long i sound. As Davis (1944) remarks: "Each shifting vowel in turn 'pushed' the next one forward. The vowel sound we make in a word like spat pushed further forward into the mouth and became like the vowel sound in speed. The sound in speed gets pushed forward into the sound we make in spate" (p. 45). Thus, Old English gradually split away from the Continental Germanic tongues because England was
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 5408
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page)

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