ge.
| 2 |
'English Goes Underground' |
6 November 2003
(2003-11-06) |
| Bragg discusses how class also affected the use of
English, especially in the time of William
the Conqueror and for approximately 300 years after his reign;
during this period, only the French language
and Latin were used in state
affairs and by the aristocracy, while English remained in use with
the lower peasant classes. |
| 3 |
'The Battle for the Language of the Bible' |
13 November 2003
(2003-11-13) |
In the early to mid 14th century, English fought to
be the language of the Christian Bible through the efforts of
theologian John Wycliffe, who
opposed the church's use of a Latin scripture because it prevented
most of the population from reading the bible for themselves.
Though Wycliffe died before English became the official language of
the bible, Bragg discusses how his translation eventually led to
the transition of various Latin words into the English language,
including 'emperor,' 'justice,''profession,' 'suddenly' or
'angel.'
Eventually, Henry V of
England would use his power in order to create this English
language bible in the early 15th century. However, the difficulty
of creating a common language for all the English dialects in the
United Kingdom had to be addressed since there was such an array of
spellings and pronunciations. Bragg explains, 'The '-ing'
participle, as in 'running,' was said as '-and' in the North,
'-end' in the East Midlands, and
'-ind' in the West
Midlands. So 'running' could also be said as 'runnand,'
'runnind,' and 'runnend.'' The number of spellings was even
greater, Bragg offers sixteen different ways in which the word
meaning 'church' had been spelt at the time, including 'kerke,'
'kirc,' 'chirche,' 'cherge' and 'schyrche.'
The Chancery had the duty of creating an official spelling for each
spoken word, much of which is still used in modern English. Still,
the spelling was confusing because of the debates that went on
during this period, for example many words wound up being spelt as
to their roots like the words 'debt' and 'doubt' which came from
the French language. The word 'rhyme' was given an 'h' simply
because the word 'rhythm' already had one. Around this time the
Great Vowel
Shift also took place, which altered spoken English from the
Old English
pronunciation to a more modern sounding form.
The possession of an English bible had become illegal once more and
William Tyndale
left the country to write his translation of the bible from the
original Hebrew and Greek version,
which he published in 1526. Many of his sayings are still used
today, including, 'scapegoat,' 'the apple of mine eye,' 'eat, drink
and be merry,' and words such as 'beautiful' and 'zealous.'
Eventually, Henry VIII of
England wished for the creation of an English bible and a new
Church of
England so that he could divorce his wife Catherine of
Aragon. In time, King James I
would create an official version of the bible which had become wide
spread with various versions. This bible deliberately used words
like 'ye' and 'thou,' which were no longer in common use, to create
the sense that the words written would appear to be ancient, to
have authority. |
| 4 |
'This Earth, This Realm, This England' |
13 November 2003
(2003-11-13) |
In Queen Elizabeth
I's time, English began to expand to even greater depths.
Overseas trade brought new words from France, as well as the now
popular swearwords 'fokkinge,' (fucking) 'krappe,' (crap) and
'bugger' from Dutch, in the
16th century. Sailors also brought all kinds of produce like
apricots, bananas, limes, yams, cocoa, potatoes, port wine from
Spain and Portugal, chocolate and tomatoes from France as well
words from 50 other languages including 'coffee,' 'magazine,' and
'alcohol' from Arabic
countries.
'The decade on either side of the year 1600 saw thousands of Latin
words come into the English vocabulary of educated people, words
like 'excavate,' 'horrid,' 'radius,' 'cautionary,' 'pathetic,'
'pungent,' 'frugal' [...],' states Bragg in this episode. The
Inkhorn Controversy, a debate about the English language and where
its new words should come from, soon followed. A few scholars,
including John Cheke, wished
that the language should not use Latin or Greek words to expand the
English vocabulary, but rather Anglo-Saxon ones.
English eventually obtained its own dictionary. Eight years before
Italian and 35 years before French. However, this is a huge
difference from the Arabic dictionary, which was made 800 years
before and the Sanskrit, which was created nearly 1000 years before
the English.
Scholar Katherine Duncan-Jones informs on poet, courtier and
soldier Philip Sidney, who
also had a large impact on the English language, introducing
phrases like 'my better half,' 'far-fetched' and words such as
'conversation,' which had previously had another meaning.
William
Shakespeare's contribution to the English vocabulary is one of
the most famous. Over 2000 words used in modern English were first
recorded in his writing, words such as 'leapfrog,' 'assassination,'
'courtship' and 'indistinguishable.' Shakespeare's vocabulary
included over 21,000 words, his plays translated into 50 different
languages, and Bragg states, 'The Oxford English dictionary lists a
stunning 33,000 Shakespeare quotations.' |
| 5 |
'English in America' |
November 2003 |
Upon landing in North America, settlers encountered
Squanto, a native man
who had been captured and brought to England to learn English and
become a guide. After escaping, Squanto returned to his tribe,
which happened to live near the place that the English settlers had
created their small village. Among shockingly few other words, the
settlers adopted 'skunk' and 'squash' into their vocabulary from
the local language, making clear that they meant to impose their
own culture, rather than adopt any other.
English began to change, not only in meaning, with 'shops' becoming
'stores,' but also with the variety of accents becoming
considerably less in number than in England. In the last 18th and
early 19th centuries, Noah Webster wrote
what was known as the American Spelling Book, or the Blue Backed
Speller, which would become one of the most influential books in
the history of the English language, Webster's Dictionary.
This dictionary created simpler spellings, eliminating the 'u' in
words like 'colour' and 'honour,' reducing 'axe' to 'ax' and
reducing double letters to single ones, like in the word
'traveller,' now spelt 'traveler' in the United States. Words with
're' endings became 'er,' and other spellings changed include
'defence,' which became 'defense.' Interestingly, some words that
England had dropped were kept in by Americans, such as 'deft,'
'scant,' 'talented,' 'likely' and 'fall' instead of the newer
'autumn.'
Two-thousand words were created in journals of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition toward the West, including 'rapids,' which
came from the adjective 'rapid.' New words to the English language,
such as 'hickory,' 'moose,' 'pecan' and 'toboggan' are derived from
Indigenous languages. 'There are hundreds of names made by
combining existing English words,' states Bragg, such as 'black
bear,' 'bullfrog,' 'blue jay' and 'rednecks,' who got their name
from the sunburned necks they got from working in the fields.
Rednecks couldn't afford steamboat fare, they travelled the water
on rafts, using paddles called riffs, and they became known as the
'riffraff.'
Alcohol also added a great deal of words to the English language,
'bootlegging' referred to hiding a flat bottle of alcohol in the
leg of a boot. 'And there were literally hundreds of terms from
drunk,' says Bragg. 'Benjamin Franklin listed 229 of them minted in
America, including... 'He's wamble-cropped,' 'He's halfway to
concord,' 'He's ate a toad and a half for breakfast,' 'He's
groatable,' 'He's globular,' [and] 'He's loose in the
hilts.''
Irish settlers brought words like 'smithereens,' 'speakeasy,' 'Yes,
indeedy' and 'No, sirree.'
Joseph McCoy had
the idea to drive his cattle to trains and sell them to the Eastern
states, creating a new meaning for the word 'cowboy,' and he made a
lot of money in the process. Because of this, travellers would
sometimes introduce themselves with his name, and in turn, he began
to introduce himself as 'the real McCoy.'
The Gullah language
is a mixture of English and other languages that is thought to be
the closest to the one that slaves, brought over from various
countries in West Africa and the
Caribbean, spoke in
the 18th and early 19th centuries. Words like 'banana,' 'zebra,'
'gorilla,' 'samba' and 'banjo' were incorporated into English from
the slaves living on plantations. The stripped-down grammar used in
variations of English, like Gullah, is common when different
languages come together. However, slave-owners took this to mean
that they had lesser intelligence, when in reality their slaves
were ultimately contributing words to the English language.
|
| 6 |
'Speaking Proper' |
November 2003 |
The Age of Reason began, and English scholars of
mathematics and science like Isaac Newton
started publishing their books in English instead of Latin.
Jonathan Swift
would attempt to save the English language from perpetual change,
followed by Samuel Johnson
who would write the
A Dictionary of the English Language, made up of 43000
words and definitions, written in seven years and published in
1755.
Though the upper and lower classes found no reason to change or
improve their grammar, the middle class used it to their advantage
in joining polite society. William Cobbett,
a son of the lower middle class and writer of Rural
Rides, advising those who wish to rise above their station that
writing and speaking properly was essential.
As English began to replace Gaelic in Scotland it took on its own
character, using 'bonnie' from the French 'bon' and 'kolf' from the
Dutch for 'club', the probable origin for 'golf'. Several other
words came from Gaelic, including 'ceilidh', 'glen', 'loch', and
'whisky'. Pronunciation became an issue all over the United
Kingdom, as some sounds could be spelt in several different ways,
while one spelling could have several articulations. Irish actor
Thomas
Sheridan wrote
British Education, a book that attempted to educate all
English speakers in the proper pronunciation of words. However,
some Scots were offended that their speech might be considered
second-class and the Scottish poet Robert Burns, son
of a poor farmer, became the hero of the Scottish language.
William
Wordsworth also became a champion of the ordinary peoples'
English, suggesting that poetry need not be written using haughty
vocabulary.
The turn of the 19th century marked a period when women were more
educated and their speech and literacy improved. Novels were
thought to be a frivolous occupation for females until Jane Austen
wrote about the capabilities of such works in her own novels; her
works were highly proper, often using words like 'agreeable',
'appropriate', 'discretion', and 'propriety'.
Then came the Industrial
Revolution and the language that came along with it. The steam
engine changed the meaning of words like 'train', 'locomotive', and
'tracks' to be associated with the new technology. Along with this
age came a change of social situation; the term 'slum' came into
use, and Cockney rhyming slang
became a new form of speech for those in the lower class.
|
| 7 |
'The Language of Empire' |
November 2003 |
| British trade and colonization spread the English
language. In India, scholar William Jones finds some English words
already present in Sanskrit. Convicts land in Australia, blending
London criminal slang and Aboriginal words into a new dialect.
Jamaicans reclaim patois. |
| 8 |
'Many Tongues Called English, One World Language' |
November 2003 |
| Today, English is a worldwide language. What is its
future? Could it end up like Latin? |
