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English and its history All through history, people from many different countries and cultures have lived together in Britain. The English language is made up of the grammar and vocabulary these people brought to Britain. That is why English has so many difficult rules that confuse people. Old English Old English is very different from the English we speak nowadays. In fact, we would not be able to understand it if we heard it today. Before the middle of the 5th century, people in Britain all spoke a language called Celtic. Then two Germanic groups from the European mainland—the Angles and the Saxons— occupied Britain. Old English consisted of a mixture of their languages. (Both the English language and the English people are named after the Angles; the word Angle was spelt Engle in Old English.) Aside from place names such as London, very few Celtic words became part of Old English. At the end of the 9th century, the Vikings, people from Northern European countries such as Denmark and Norway, began to move to Britain. They brought with them their languages, which also mixed with Old English. By the 10th century, Old English had become the official language of England. When we speak English today, we sometimes feel puzzled about which words or phrases to use. This is because English has many words and phrases from different languages, but with similar meanings. For example, the word sick came from a word once used by the Angles and the Saxons, while ill came from a word once used by the Norwegians. Middle English Middle English is the name given to the English used from around the 12th to the 15th centuries. Many things played a part in the development of this new type of English. The most important contribution was from the Normans, a French-speaking people who defeated England and took control of the country in 1066. However, the Norman Conquest did not affect English as much as the Angles and the Saxons’ victory about 600 years earlier, which led to Old English replacing Celtic. Even though the Normans spoke French for the entire 250 years they ruled England, French did not replace English as the first language. On the other hand, the English language did borrow many words from French. This resulted in even more words with similar meanings, such as answer (from Old English) and reply (from Old French). It is interesting to learn how the words for animals and meat developed. After the Norman Conquest, many English people worked as servants who raised animals. Therefore, the words we use for most animals raised for food, such as cow, sheep and pig, came from Old English. However, the words for the meat of these animals, which was served to the Normans, came from Old French: beef, mutton, pork and bacon. Old French made other contributions to Middle English as well. In Old English, the Germanic way of making words plural was used. For example, they said housen instead of houses, and shoen instead of shoes. After the Normans took control, they began using the French way of making plurals, adding an -s to house and shoe. Only a few words kept their Germanic plural forms, such as man/men and child/children. After the Norman Conquest, high-class people spoke French while common people spoke English. However, by the latter half of the 14th century, English had come into widespread use among all classes in England. In 1399, Henry IV became King of England. His mother tongue was English, and he used English for all official events. Modern English Modern English appeared during the Renaissance in the 16th century. Because of this, Modern English includes many Latin and Greek words. Pronunciation also went through huge changes during this period. Of course, this was not the end of the changes in the English language. The question of whether English will keep on changing in the future is easy to answer. It is certain that this process will continue, and people will keep inventing new words and new ways of saying things. 英语及其历史 有史以来，在不列颠共同生活着来自许爹不同国家和文化背景的人们。英语就是由这些人带来的语法和词汇构成的。那就是为何英语有这么多使人困惑的不解规则。 古英语 古英语和现今我们说的英语完全不同。事实上，如果现在听到古英语，我们会听不懂。公元5世纪中叶前，生活在不列颠的人都说一种叫凯尔特语的语言。然后，来自欧洲大陆的两个日耳曼部族——盎格鲁人和撒克逊人——占领了不列颠。古英语是他们的语言混合而成的。（英语及英国人都是从盎格鲁这个词而来的；Angle这个词在古英语里拼作Engle。）除了像伦敦这样的地名外，极少数的凯尔特单词成了古英语的一部分。在9世纪末，来自北欧诸国（如丹麦和挪威）的维京人开始向不列颠移居。他们带来了他们的语言，这些语言也与古英语交汇在了一起。到了十世纪，古英语已是英格兰的官方语言。 现在当我们讲英语时，我们有时会对用哪些单词或短语而感到困惑。这是因为英语有着许多来自不同语言的单词和短语，这些单词和短语有着相似的意思。比如，sick-词就是来自由盎格鲁和撒克逊人曾经用过的一个词，而ill则来自曾经被挪威人用过的一个词。 中古英语 中古英语是给大约12世纪到15世纪期间使用过的英语起的名字。在这一新型英语的发展中，许多东西起了作用。最大的贡献来自于讲法语的诺曼人，他们于1066年击败英格兰并控制了这个国家。然而，诺曼征服对英语的影响并不及约600年前盎格鲁人和撒克逊人的胜利对英语产生的影响，那场胜利导致古英语替代了凯尔特语。尽管诺曼人在统治英格兰的整整250年间一直讲法语，但是法语并没有取代英语成为第一语言。但另一方面，英语也确实借用了许多法语单词，因此产生了更多意思相近的单词，比如answer（来自于古英语）和reply（来自于古法语）。了解有关动物和肉的词汇是怎么演变而来的，是件挺有趣的事。诺曼人征服英格兰之后，许多英国人以仆人的身份从事饲养动物的工作。因此，我们现在所用的大多数表示专为肉食而饲养的动物的单词，比如cow（母牛）、sheep（羊）和pig（猪），来自于古英语。然而，由于这些动物的肉是供应给话曼人的，所以指代这些动物的肉的词来自于古法语，如beef（牛肉）、mutton（羊肉）、pork（猪肉）和bacon（熏猪肉，成猪肉）。 古法语也为中古英语做出了其他贡献。在古英语中，单词变复数采用了日耳曼语中单词变复数的方法。比如说，他们说housen而不是houses，说shosen而不是shoes。当诺曼人控制英格兰之后，他们开始使用法语的复数构成形式，在house和shoe后面加s。只有很少的单词保留了日耳曼语的复数形式，如man/men和child/children。 诺曼征服之后，上层社会的人讲法语，而普通人则讲英语。但是到了14世纪后半叶时，英语已被英格兰所有社会阶层广泛使用。1399年，亨利四世成了英格兰国王。他的母语是英语，他在所有正式场合都使用英语。 现代英语 现代英语是在16世纪的文艺复兴时期出现的。由于这个原因，现代英语中含有许多拉丁语及希腊语单词。在此期间，英语发音也经历了巨大的变化。当然．这并不是英语语言变化的终结。英语在未来是否会继续变化，这一问题是很容易问答的。可以肯定的是，这一变化过程将会继续，人们将会不断地发明新的单词和新的表达方式。 |
