Otázka: English language
Jazyk: Angličtina
Přidal(a): N
ENGLISH LANGUAGE – history, varietes (British vs. American), global language
HISTORY
Throughout the centuries English has developed from an originally flexible language, using conjugations and derivations like the Czech or the German languages, into an analytical language using words without inner flexion but with a fixed word order.
The Celts can be considered to be the original inhabitans, the language of whom can still be heard in Welsh, Scottish and Irish Gaelic, but later the Celts were driven out by the Romans and other nations.
The English language originates from the old Germanic languages imported into England by the Anglo-Saxons in AD (anno domini) 350, who came from Germany, Denmark and Holland, and thus founded the Old English.
The Scandinavians influenced English in the 8th century and introduced words like sky, skin, they, their, them, kilt, etc. After the battle of Hastings in 1066, won by William the Conqueror, the Normans introduced French and it began to be spoken by the upper-class (for example; army, people, crown, nation and parliament). Ordinary folks remained loyal to their Old English.
Old English influenced by French vocabulary turned into Middle English, that was used for instance Geoffrey Chaucer.
The classical influence enriched the English language with words from Latin and Greek, and the colonial influence brought words from all over world, for example alcohol and coffee from Arabic, chocolate and tomato from American languages, jungle and yoga from East Indiand etc.
Modern English, spoken since the times of Shakespeare, borrows words from many languages nowadays, like a denim from French, grafitti from Italian, yoghurt from Turkish, tycoon from Japanese, cargo from Spanish, hamburger or frankfurter from German, sputnik from Russian, goulash from Hungarian and there even two words that originate from Czech: robot and pistol.
English is important language because it is a world language and an official language of technology, politics, sports, culture, communication and several other fields.
VARIETES (British vs. American)
The American English tends to simplify grammar and spelling.
American and British language are different in vocabulary for example secondary school in british language, high school in American language, or underground and subway.
In grammar are differences too. In England they say ,, I’ve just seen her‘‘, but in America say only ,, I just saw her.‘‘ Or for example ,, I haven’t got much time.‘‘ in English language, in american language ,,I don’t have much time.‘‘.
Next differences are in spelling, for example words like colour – color, or programme – program.
And American language and English language aren’t the same in pronuncation, for instance in British language city [siti], in american language is it city [sidi].
I think, that American language is it a little bit easier, but Australian English uses a lot of shortenings too. For example breckie for a breakfest or footy for a football.
GLOBAL LANGUAGE
So English language isn’t only in England and in America, but in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and in others countries too. Nowadays, there are about 800 000 words in the English language and some 775 milion use English as their first or second language. It is the second widely spoken language after Chinese, an official language in over 70 countries and the official world language in medicine, science, music, media, technology, tourism, business etc. About 80% (percent) of English words come from other languages and the most common letter is the letter E.
To save time and as fashion, many people started to use shorter and shorter words and icons like L for expressing their mood. For example ASAP is shortcut for ,,as soon as possible’’ and XOXO means hugs and kisses.
Learning a foreign language, chiefly English, is really important as language is a means of communication and without it our lives would be very difficult. So I’m very glad that I enjoy English language.
