Material Detail

Submitter : Philip Roys

?The Origin and History of the English Language? is the ideal website to explain how the English language has evolved. The web site tracks English back to the isles of Britain during 5th Century A.D. using text, lists and diagrams. These show readers how travelers from Engle to Britain brought the English language, then known as Englisc to the Celtic population. Many languages merging together developed English. This web site clarifies the reasons certain words were merged with English. Words were borrowed for specific reasons. For example, the English terms for domestic animals spread to the Normans because many of the cooks for the Normans were the English underclass. Other concepts such as how the French contributed pluralizing words by adding ?s? at the end show the diversity in English. While many words have survived, this site explains how English has become a collection of many languages.
With all the languages used to create Modern English, this site lists these to show the diversity in how our language has evolved. These contributing languages include:

Latin
Greek
French
German
Arabic
Hindi
Italian
Malay
Dutch
Farsi (from Iran and Afghanistan)
Nahuatl (the Aztec language)
Sanskrit (from ancient India)
Portuguese
Spanish
Tupi (from South America
Ewe (from Africa)

This list shows the readers how the English language has benefited from merging languages. This has caused English to be the second most spoken language in the world. Only Mandarin (Chinese) which is not nearly as widespread as English has a larger speaking population. By accepting words from other languages, English has developed the largest vocabulary in the world. This wed site does a good job of showing the reader how English has evolved to where it is today. It also shows how our language has influenced other populations to adopt English as their native language. These include:

Antigua
Australia
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
Canada (with French)
Dominica
Grenada
Guyana
Ireland (with Irish Gaelic)
Jamaica
New Zealand
St Christopher and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent
South Africa (with Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu)
Trinidad and Tobago
United Kingdom and its dependencies
United States of America and its dependencies

This site is a good reference site for anyone who studies the origins of the English language. The language used on the web site is appropriate for all readers of different levels. The site is mostly text with few diagrams and photos, making it easy to load for computer users. Novice computer users should have little trouble navigating through the site. Easily accessible links are found at the bottom of the page. These include links to borrowed words, grammar, and the origins of names and places.

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- Humanities / English / Language / General