Historical Evolution of the English Language
Language History and Change
Using the majority principle, we can suggest that the older forms will most likely be based on language 2 or language 3. If this is correct, then the consonant changes must have been [p] → [b], [t] → [d], and [k] → [ɡ] in order to produce the later forms in language 1. There is a pattern in these changes that follows one part of the “most natural development principle,” i.e. voiceless sounds become voiced between vowels. So, the words in languages 2 and 3 must be older forms than those in language 1.
The History of English
The older letters þ (called “thorn”) and ð (“eth”) were both replaced by “th” (as in þu→thou, eorðan→earth), and æ (“ash”) simply became “a” (as in to dæg → today). To see how one language has undergone substantial changes through time, we can take a brief look at the history of English, which is traditionally divided into four periods:
- Old English: before 1100
- Middle English: 1100 to 1500
- Early Modern English: 1500 to 1700
- Modern English: after 1700
Old English
We have the term Anglo-Saxons to describe these people, and from the name of the first tribe, we get the word for their language Englisc and their new home Engla-land.
From this early version of Englisc, now called Old English, we have many of the most basic terms in the language: mann (“man”), wı ¯f (“woman”), cild (“child”), hu ¯s (“house”), mete (“food”), etan (“eat”), drincan (“drink”) and feohtan (“fight”).
They were the Vikings and it is from their language, Old Norse, that the original forms of give, law, leg, skin, sky, take, and they were adopted. It is from their winter festival jo ´l that we have Yule as a term for the Christmas season.
Middle English
The language of the peasants remained English. The peasants worked on the land and reared sheep, cows, and swine (words from Old English) while the upper classes talked about mutton, beef, and pork (words of French origin). Hence the different terms in modern English to refer to these creatures “on the hoof” as opposed to “on the plate.”
Throughout this period, French (or, more accurately, an English version of French) was the prestige language and Chaucer tells us that one of his Canterbury pilgrims could speak it:
“He was cleped Madame Eglentyne Ful wel she song the service dyvyne, Entuned in her nose ful semely, And Frenche she spak ful faire and fetisly.”
Most significantly, the vowel sounds of Chaucer’s time were very different from those we hear in similar words today. Chaucer lived in what would have sounded like a “hoos,” with his “weef,” and “hay” might drink a bottle of “weena” with “heer” by the light of the “mona.”
The effects of this general raising of long vowel sounds (such as [oː] moving up to [uː], as in mo ¯na→moon) made the pronunciation of Early Modern English, beginning around 1500, significantly different from earlier periods.
Sound Changes
- Sound loss: A sound change in which a particular sound is no longer used in a language (e.g. the velar fricative [x], in Scottish loch, but not in Modern English).
The initial [h] of many Old English words was lost, as in hlud → loud and hlaford → lord. Some words lost sounds, but kept the spelling, resulting in the “silent letters” of contemporary written English.
Another example is a velar fricative [x] that was used in the older pronunciation of nicht as [nɪxt] (closer to the Modern German pronunciation of Nacht), but is absent in the contemporary form night, as [naɪt].
Metathesis
The sound change known as metathesis involves a reversal in position of two sounds in a word. This type of reversal is illustrated in the changed versions of these words from their earlier forms:
- acsian → ask
- frist → first
- brinnan → beornan (burn)
- bridd → bird
- hros → horse
- wæps → wasp
The reversal of position in metathesis can sometimes occur between non-adjoining sounds. The Spanish word palabra is derived from the Latin parabola through the reversal of the [l] and [r] sounds.
Epenthesis
Another type of sound change, known as epenthesis, involves the addition of a sound to the middle of a word:
- æmtig → empty
- spinel → spindle
- timr → timber
The addition of a [p] sound after the nasal [m], as in empty, can also be heard in some speakers’ pronunciation of something as “sumpthing.”