HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

INTRODUCTION TO UNIT IV - MAKERS OF ENGLISH WORDS

EVERY time a new word is added to the language, either by borrowing, composition, or derivation, it is due, of course, to the action, conscious or unconscious, of someone. Words do not grow out of the soil, or fall on us from heaven; they are made by individuals; and it would be extremely interesting if we could always find out who made them. But, of course, for the great majority of new words, even those created in the present day, such knowledge is unattainable. They are first, perhaps, suggested in conversation, when the speaker probably does not know that he is making a new word; but the fancy of the hearer is struck, they spread the new expression till it becomes fashionable, and if it corresponds to some real need, and gives a name to some idea or sentiment unnamed or badly named before, it has some slight chance of living. When, however, we come to learned, as opposed to popular words, the case is some-what different. These for the most part make their first appearance in writing, and some of them are deliberate formations, whose authors have left on record the date and occasion of their creation. Anyone who will make from this work a collection of modern words and note their origin, cannot help being struck by the fact that many of our most expressive and beautiful words are first found in the writings of certain men of genius, and bear every sign of being their own creations. Of course we can never know for a certainty, unless he distinctly states it, that a writer has created the new word which is found for the first time in his writings. He may have derived it from some undiscovered source, or he may have heard it in conversation; all we can know is that the word was introduced, and became current at about the time that it makes its first appearance in his work.

           CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE BIBLE TRANSLATIONS TO THE MAKING OF ENGLISH

Introduction:

(Different Versions of the Bible in English Translation – Reasons for the tremendous influence of Bible on English Language – Authorized Version’s tremendous influence on English language – Problems faced by translators: new coinages & balance between archaic and colloquialism)

The year 1611 marked the beginning of the period in which the Bible became a truly popular book and ‘the daily reading of the whole nation’. It influenced alike the peer and the peasant, the noble and the count, the divine and the layman, the scholar and the man in the street. The influence of the Authorized Version on English culture, language and literature is so powerful that the phrasing, rhythm and sentiments in the Bible have become a part of the mental make-up of every Englishmen.

The Authorized Version came as late as 1611, though the Bible has been translated into English much earlier, and quite frequently. The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language and the New Testament in Greek. In the due course of time it was translated into Latin (translated by St.Jerome). John Wycliff gave the first full-length English translation of the Bible(1382 revised in 1338) based on the Latin text. William Tyndale was the first to translate the Bible into English direct from the original Hebrew and Greek texts. His unfinished work was completed by Miles Coverdale.

The Authorized Version of the Bible(1611) was popular on two accounts – with the invention of the printing press the restriction in circulation was cleared enabling the novelties of expression contained in the Bible to enter the society. Most people expect the language of the sacred text to be archaic – a little removed from the familiar everyday usage, a little suggestive of mystery and employing a good deal of symbolizing imagery. Hence the translators of the Authorized Version wisely chose to make their English a little archaic and to replace the colloquial usages of Tyndale by more dignified parlance. A carefully chosen middle course in language which was a compromise between the archaic and colloquialism was achieved.

William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale’s Contributions:

Tyndale’s ‘Babble not much’ was a better rendering (Matt.VI,7) than the Authorized Version’s ‘Use not vain repetitions’: yet it is the latter rendering which has remained in the literary language, while the word ‘babble’ has continued in the colloquial use in which Tyndale found it.

Similarly, Tyndale’s expression ‘Forgive us our trespasses’ was replaced as ‘Forgive us our debts’ in the Authorized Version. The former version has given an altogether wider currency to the originally purely legal term ‘trespas’.

Again, the now quite ordinary word ‘scapegoat’ was Tyndale’s coinage.

The phrases ‘Prodigal son’ and ‘mess of pottage’ which are generally recognized as Biblical, came into the language in fact not through any rendering of Scripture, but through chapter-headings in pre-Authorized Version Bibles. The well-woven phrase ‘sweat of thy brow’ and its variant ‘sweat of thy face’ are all popularized by Tyndale.

It is particularly in the Old Testament that Tyndale’s gift for phrasing has passed by way of the 1611 Bible into the language. A glance at the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, in which Tyndale had excelled in finding the right rendering of the beauty and the strength of the Hebrew poetry, will show how much Tyndale was a maker of English. The now familiar phrases from the Authorized Version: ‘the burden’ and ‘the heat of the day’, ‘eat, drink and be merry’, ‘the powers that be’, ‘the glad tidings’ and ‘the fatted calf’ are all the work of Tyndale.

Contributions of the Authorized Version:

Many of the Biblical phrases which are actually literal renderings of Hebrew or Greek expressions has now come to assume the character of native English idioms and are often used without any consciousness of their origin. Among these may be mentioned: ‘to cast pearls before swine’, ‘a labour of love’, ‘a howling wilderness’, ‘the shadow of death’, ‘the eleventh hour’ and ‘to hope against hope’.

The mere habit of listening regularly, even in a sleepy mood to portions of the Bible read out in church every Sunday has the effect of causing the phraseology and rhythm of its language to become part of one’s mental makeup. It would then come up quite unsought at all kinds of occasions and one would be surprised to find himself making use of phrases from the Bible quite naturally. This accounts for the vast influence of the Bible on the prose rhythm and phrasing of English and the many images and verbal echoes which we come across in current use and which owe their origin to the Bible translation.

Both written and spoken English are riddled with phrases, and images, and new formations modeled upon these, which have come from the Authorized Version and its predecessors. When a man says that he is washing his hands of the whole business, he is unconsciously echoing the image which had come into the language of his ancestors through familiarity with Pontius Pilate’s action of washing his hands in public. Again the colloquial expression ‘gone to Kingdom come’ seems to have been suggested by the Lord’s prayer. The expressions ‘cared for none of those things’ and ‘common or unclean’ are from the Acts of the Apostles.

In the Song of Solomon(Authorized Version): “For to, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth: the time of singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land” we come across two phrases: ‘the rain is over and gone’ used by William Wordsworth in his ‘Lines Written in March’ and ‘The Voice of the Turtle’ the title of an American play, only highlights the influence of the Authorized Version on the men of letters.

Like many other books which have been widely popular, the Bible has also given rise to several phrases and uses of words through misunderstanding. In the Authorized Version, Eve is described as “an help meet(suitable) for him(Adam)” .  ‘help-meet’ was currently used as a synonym for one’s partner in life or what Eve was to Adam. This misunderstanding was corrected and a new word ‘helpmate’ was coined.

Thus, we understand that those works which have contributed to the making of Modern English, pride of place must be given to the Bible translations beginning with those of Tyndale and Coverdale and culminating in the Authorized Version of 1611.

CONTRIBUTION OF SPENSER TO THE MAKING OF ENGLISH

The words and forms of Spenser’s poetic diction were partly drawn from the language of an older generation, partly from provincial speech and partly invented by him. Ben Jonson was in a sense correct when he remarked that ‘Spenser writ no language’ because the artificial dialect of his poetry was not a form of language actually spoken by anyone at that time. However, it was no mere affectation or fondness for the use of philogical novelties that made the poet choose a kind of pseudo-archaic language for his poetry. He chose this artificial dialect because it was the only suitable medium for expressing his peculiar tone of thought and feeling. Though a large number of words which he invented or revived have already become obsolete, the literary vocabulary of English still retains some traces of his influence. We owe to him the word ‘braggadocio’(empty boasting) which is the name of the vainglorious knight of the Faerie Queene. The phrase ‘squire of dames’ also occurs in the same work, though most users of the expression now have no idea of its source. The adjective ‘blatant’(loud and noisy) is first recorded in Spenser and as it has not been traced to any other source, is believed to be his coinage. Another word which has in all probability been invented by the poet is ‘elfin’(fairy like). The compound word ‘derring do’(daring to do),which Scott borrowed from Spenser and popularized is a favorite word of modern chivalric romance. In the making of the language of romantic English poetry the ‘Faerie Queene’ has had a considerable part. Spenser took the phrase ‘lond of Faerie’ for his own poem, embellishing the word ‘faerie’ with all kinds of new romantic connotations, so that it has become through his influence a specially productive word in later English poetry. This ‘faerie’ with so much romantic poetic suggestiveness, has become through Spenser a separate term from the ordinary word ‘fairy’(of the same origin) which exists along with it.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF MILTON TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Milton is of interest to the student of the history of English language in three different ways.  He had ideas on spelling, with which he experimented; he was a keen student of the language and a supreme practitioner in it; and he has added a number of words and phrases to the literary vocabulary if not to the spoken.

Milton was probably the last great poet who deliberately composed his verses to be read aloud, rather than merely read through. He was particularly conscious of emphasis and pronunciation when dictating his verses to be taken down for the printer. Though in no sense he was a spelling-reformer, he was keenly concerned in spelling in his later life for aesthetic reasons.                                (1) The manuscripts of the Book I of Paradise Lost prepared under his dictation shows that he tried to indicate a distinction in spelling, between the stressed and unstressed forms of the personal pronouns - me, he, she and their writing mee, hee, shee and their for the emphatic forms and me, he, she and thir for the unemphatic/weaker ones.                                                        (2)Milton took particular care to ensure that those who read his verses aloud should be able to distinguish by the spelling whether the end of weak past participles in’ –d’ was to be pronounced as a separate syllable ‘-ed’ or not. He also insisted on ending such words with a ‘-t’ rather than a ‘-d’ whenever the natural pronunciation suggested it as in ‘walkt’ for’ walked’.                                           (3) When the contemporary habits provided a choice of spelling in words that he had probably noticed as liable to mispronunciation, Milton preferred the form nearest to the actual sound as in ‘sovran’ for ‘sovereign’ and ‘artic’ for ‘arctic’, with ‘island’ without the ‘s’ as ‘iland’.                            (4) The poet showed his sensitiveness to pronunciation and interest in phonetics by distinguishing between syllabic ‘-n’ as distinct from the sound ‘-en’ by writing ‘heaven’ and ‘forbidden’ as “heav’n” and “forbidd’n” when preceded by a vowel sound. In words like forbidden, heaven etc., he left out the before the –n inserting instead an apostrophe to show the syllabic nature of the consonant.                                                                                                Though these spelling devices used by Milton to indicate accurately the pronunciation of English words have not been followed by later writers, except Robert Bridges, they are of interest to students of language in ascertaining the pronunciations of words which have been rhymed together by an exact rhymer like this poet.

Many people have objected to the language of Milton as being too Latinate. But what appears to us as the supposed Latinizing in his vocabulary was merely the deliberate use for poetic effect, of words of learned origin, which though now obsolete, were easily understood by the then educated contemporaries of the poet. In the matter of syntax too Milton was closely influenced by the models of Latin prose then familiar to all educated people. This syntax is not fully intelligible to anyone who is not conversant with the Latin constructions which he has reproduced in English. But his Latin syntax which now puzzles us would have appeared quite natural and appropriate to his contemporaries in the learned seventeenth century. What is important for us is that next to Shakespeare, Milton was the greatest master in English poetic language who contributed in great measure to the poetic making of English to suit his ‘grand style’.

In addition to being a master and a model in the making of poetic diction he has also made valuable contributions to the expressive capacity of English. He was the inventor of the word ‘pandemonium’ now familiarly used to designate any ‘hell of a row’. He was also the maker of many phrases, especially in ‘Paradise Lost’, and the twin pieces ‘L’Allegro and Il’Penseroso’, which having been taken out of their contexts have now become familiar to us in all kinds of extended uses. From ‘Paradise Lost’ we have such oft quoted phrases as ‘precious bane for gold’, ‘the secret conclave’,’the Gorgeous East’,’From noon to dewy eve’,’to prove a bitter morsel’,’confusion worse confounded’,’hide their diminished head’,’a heaven on earth’,’wild work in heaven’, ‘to save appearances’,’a pillar of state’, and ‘bad eminence’. From his other works we have memorable expressions like ‘laughter holding both his sides’,’tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new’,’where more is meant than meets the ear’,’rain influence’,’the light fantastic toe’,’the dappled dawn’,’calm of mind all passion spent’.

Because of the multitude of Latin and occasional Greek constructions and words Milton indulged in the influence of the Bible and Shakespeare on his language has been greatly obscured. He did not coin new words except for ‘pandemonium’ and ‘anarch’(for chaos). But he had a peculiar knack of deliberately using simple words for special effects in the midst of his rhythmic Latinized diction. He was equally at home in the plainest English diction and the grand poetic style designed for the sublime theme of Paradise Lost.

In an Age of Latin scholars, in the midst of the Latin discipline of Cambridge, Milton was preoccupied with the possibilities of his native language. He proclaimed proudly that English language had potentially all the qualities needed for the highest poetic composition. He was there after engaged in studying to make himself a master of the language so that he could exploit to its utmost capacities. He showed himself as a critic of the linguistic usages of his contemporary writers ‘the late fanatasticks’. His poems as well as his prose pamphlets contain occasional critical utterances on questions of language. Though his insistence on ‘fit quantity of syllables’ in ‘The Verse’(prefixed to Paradise Lost touches the question of music in language) indicates a confusion between stress(emphasis)and quantity(duration), it shows his keen linguistic conscience.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF SHAKESPEARE TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Among the masters of literature who have contributed to the making of English the name of Shakespeare is of paramount importance. Just as this dramatist is unrivalled in the field of English literature, he is without an equal in the extent and profundity(depth) of his influence on the English language. The greatness of Shakespeare is based on the fact that he has added to the literary vocabulary innumerable words and felicitous compounds besides providing through his writing multitudes of phrases which have already entered into the texture of the diction of literature and daily conversation. Many of Shakespeare’s words and phrases have become ‘household words’ in English and the very expression takes its origin from him. Shakespeare was not merely interested in the English language, but was also very language-conscious. While criticizing and satirizing linguistic and stylistic fashions among his contemporaries, Shakespeare was himself making experiments with all kinds of linguistic innovations dialectal adaptations and archaisms.

Though Shakespeare has been unrivalled in the vastness and variety of his vocabulary we cannot be sure that all the words which are recorded for the first time in his plays are his own coinages. Some of his vivid expressions might have been taken from the spoken language of the day and some may have been borrowed from Latin which was known to most people. There are words like ‘control’(as a noun), ‘credent’, ‘home keeping’, ‘illume’, ‘lonely’, ‘orb’(in the sense of the globe) which are used by Shakespeare and have not yet been found in earlier writers. But as our knowledge of the literature of the Shakespearean Age is by no means full or exact we cannot say whether these words have been coined by Shakespeare or lifted out of colloquial speech. Other words used for the first time by him include ‘bump’, ‘castigate’ and ‘incarnadine’(flesh colour). However it is because of Shakespeare’s using them in his plays that the words have acquired wide currency in the language and in that sense they may be counted among his contributions to the making of English.

It is in multitude of phrases coined by Shakespeare and in imitations or misunderstandings of them that his language continues to live even today. Shakespeare’s greatest contribution to the language lies in these picturesque and telling words and phrases which have literally passed into ‘household words’. Many people using the expression ‘past praying for’ do not realize that it is a phrase first used by Falstaff in ‘Henry IV’. Similarly when we speak of a person that ‘nothing in his life became him like the leaving it’ we may not be aware of the fact that we are making a quotation from ‘Macbeth’. ‘Like patience on a monument’ is an expression first used by Viola in ‘Twelfth Night’ to describe a girl pined away on account of her unrevealed love.                                       The play ‘Hamlet’ is perhaps the most abounding in well used phrases of Shakespeare, which are on the lips of many who have never read a line of his writing. Among these are: ‘To the manner born’, ‘Hoist with his own petard’(caught in one’s own trap) and ‘to be or not to be.’ The play is so full of expressions, which have now become part of the machinery of literature and journalism that a collection of these includes: ‘this too solid flesh’, ‘stale, flat and unprofitable’, ‘mind’s eye’, ‘more in sorrow than in anger’, ‘the primrose path’, ‘rich, not gaudy’, ‘with all my imperfections on my head’, ‘still harping on’, ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, ‘there is the rub’, ‘this mortal coil’, ‘the observed of all observers’, ‘to hold the mirror up to nature’, ‘very like a whale’, ‘to speak daggers’, ‘a king of shreds and patches’, ‘cruel only to be kind’, ‘ministering angel’, ‘sweets to the sweets’, ‘towering passion’, ‘a very palpable hit’ when read out will sound like a recitation of clichés.                                                                                                                        Other oft repeated expressions from Shakespeare’s plays includes: “to wear one’s heat upon one’s sleeve”, “one’s pound of flesh”, “to gild refined gold”, “a tower of strength”, “full of sound and fury”, “tale told by an idiot”, “life’s fitful fever”, “too full of the milk of human kindness”, “the seeds of time”, “a Daniel come to judgment” and “yeoman’s service”.

It is in the making of new and daring compounds and in the liberties which he takes in using one part of speech for another that Shakespeare has made his most original contribution to the language.

-          (i)With the help of the French prefixes like ‘em-‘ and ‘en-’ he has coined a whole host of new words like enact, enchafed, enchased, endeared, engild, enkindle, enlink, enmesh, enrooted, ensky, entame and embattle. (ii) with the help of the prefix ‘un-‘ Shakespeare has coined: unavoided (inevitable), unvalued (precious), uncharged (acquit), unexpressive(in expressible)

-           He has made daring and poetic compounds out of two adjectives like ‘daring hardy’ and ‘happy valiant’. Adjectives like ‘happy’ and ‘safe’ have been used as verbs to convey the idea of ‘to make safe’.

-          Nouns have been converted into verbs so that spaniel’d’ is used in the sense of ‘followed like a spaniel’. ‘Childed’ and ‘fathered’ both are used in ‘King Lear’.

-          One of Shakespeare’s daring usages ‘to out Herod Herod’ has not only become current in its original form, but has also served as the model for a large number of expressions like ‘to out Milton Milton’. Shakespeare was fond of coining compound words in which ‘out’ has been used in the sense of ‘surpass’. Almost all the words that has been compounded of ‘out’ and some very like ‘outnumber’ and ‘outlive’ seem to have been coined by him or framed in imitation of his usage.

The freedom of the individual suggested by the Renaissance had found expression in the Elizabethan and Jacobean English which is characterized by a remarkable increase of flexibility in its grammatical usages. During this period new collocations of words where nouns or adjectives could perform the function of verbs came into use. This has made some students of the literature of the period to arrive at the conclusion that the English used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries had no grammar at all. The truth is that the Elizabethans, with Shakespeare at their head, were able to interchange the functions of noun, adjective and verb in a way which was more logical than grammatical. This was quite easily done because the loss of Old English inflections had done away with the morphological differences. Shakespeare was the writer who made use of this flexibility to the utmost. Since, Shakespeare was the first great writer of the wildest interest and influence after the disappearance of the Old English inflections, his practice of varying the grammatical functions of verbs with the greatest flexibility has had its effect in encouraging the greater enfranchisement of the language during the modern period.

ENGLISH AS UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

H.G. Wells in his book ‘The World Set Free’ endows his Utopia with universal English which has been shorn of a number of grammatical peculiarities, and has its spelling systematized, besides having commenced a process of incorporating foreign nouns and verbs which speedily reached enormous proportions. Before accepting Well’s idea that English may easily become the universal language of international communication, we have to stop and consider how far it is better suited than other languages to become a universal language. We have to consider the special merits which this language has for being accepted as a world language for international communication. Further, we have to analyze the defects of English which might stand in the way of becoming a universal language acceptable to all the people of the world.

That there is an urgent need for an ‘international language’ to serve as the common medium for political, historical and scientific thought for the people of the world besides meeting the need of travel and commerce, more importantly which no one will deny. Many attempts have already been made to supply this need artificially. Artificially constructed languages have been offered for the purpose of meeting demands of trade and travel on the international level to shrink the world to that of a ‘global village’. The best examples of these are found in ‘Esperanto’ and ‘Basic English’. The latter is also an artificial language devised according to certain set principles from the vocabulary of Standard English and made to follow its own artificial rules of usage. As none of the artificial languages has been quite satisfactory as a universal language, many people all over the world may be willing to choose one of the well known and widely used languages of the world as a universal language.

So we have to compare the English language with other widely spoken languages of the world and see what chances it has for evolving as the world language in future. Considered on the basis of the number of people who speak it, it is second only to Chinese. It has that advantage of being the language of the most powerful and progressive countries in the world. As the nations speaking English enjoy the blessings of political, cultural, technological, commercial and material progress, their language is already well-suited for conveying ideas of every kind and reflects the progress they have made in every field of human activity. English has also the great advantages of being a language which is not very difficult for foreigners to master. On these accounts philologists like Zachrisson and writers like Galsworthy have favoured it as the language of international communication.

As for the possibility of English becoming ‘in a natural unforced way, the single inter-communicating tongue’ in the world, we must admit that there are two main obstacles to this. One is the vast and varied vocabulary of English, which is not easy to master in a short time by any foreigner. The other is a very unphonetic(the lack of relationship between its spelling and its pronunciation) and illogical spelling of English which is more difficult to master than its complex vocabulary. It is on account of these facts that H.G. Wells imagined English becoming the language of his Utopia after being shorn of its grammatical peculiarities and having had its spelling systematized and improved. Two fairly notable schemes have been evolved for dealing with these: ‘Basic English’ and ‘Anglic’.

Basic English:

‘Basic English’, invented by C.K.Ogden  has curtailed the noble vocabulary of English, reducing it to about 850 words in all. The author of Basic believes that these eight hundred and fifty English words together with other international words like the names of numerals, coins, measurements, days of the week and months of the year provide all the material that is needed for ordinary communication, with our fellowmen. The basic words retain the meaning which they have in natural English and compound words may be made up of any words occurring in the limited vocabulary of Basic. The limitation of vocabulary, the practical abolition of the verb(there are only 18 verbs in Basic) and the artificiality in the selection of words have imposed upon Basic English certain peculiarities of usage. For instance, instead of saying “She raised her eye-brows” Basic English can only say “She put up the arch of hair over her eyes”. Such paraphrases are naturally more diffuse than the single terms which they replace. Since the vocabulary of Basic has been so drastically cut down as to make it inadequate for proper or natural communication of ideas, the deficiency has to be supplied by making phrases like “having a thing in sight” instead of “seeing it”.

ANGLIC

‘Anglic’ is the English language in a simplified spelling devised by R.E. Zachrisson (1880–1937), a Swedish philologist, to make English easier to use as an ‘auxiliary language’ (a planned, artificial language constructed for international communication). About 40 of the most frequent words are kept in their usual spellings; the rest of the vocabulary is spelled phonetically with letters of the traditional 26-letter alphabet.

The extraordinary difficulties of English spelling for foreigners are supposed to be met by ‘Anglic’. It avoids the unnaturalness of Basic English, while concentrating its efforts on simplifying English spelling on phonetic lines without making too many revolutionary departures from tradition. Spelling-reform, in view of the fixing of English orthography by the printers has been worked at by many since the late sixteenth century; so that the aims of Anglic are not new, but perhaps pursued more scientifically than the same ends by other reformers. A ‘phonetic spelling’ becomes out of date with the changing pronunciation of the language: and a fixed traditional orthography having been so well established, it may be doubted whether the effort is worth making. Moreover, a spelling in accord with pronunciation would have to vary in the different parts of the world with the varying heterogeneous speakers.

Conclusion:

The drawback to these artificial or invented forms of speech and writing, even the best of them such as ‘Esperanto’, is that they are deliberate scientific constructions, yet intended to serve the purpose in some degree of what is fundamentally a natural and ever-changing growth.  Languages like ‘Esperanto’ are not living organisms as a real language is: for they are selectively made up out of existing speech-elements from the most familiar tongues, and tend to become quickly static.

Language is a social activity: and whether it is really desirable for English or any other language – real or invented – to become a world-medium, is a question which perhaps concerns the anthropologist and other students of the ‘social sciences’ rather than the student of the English language.

STANDARD ENGLISH

There is generally an accepted form of English that every educated person aims at, whatever social class he/she comes from or whatever be his/her regional dialect. This accepted form of English is what we mean by ‘Standard English’. It has come about mainly as a natural product of certain historical, cultural and social factors.

During the Anglo-Saxon period, the dialect of Wessex emerged as the literary dialect of the times. This was chiefly due to the efforts of King Alfred the Great who patronized the Wessex dialect and was himself both an author and a translator.

In the Middle English period, Chaucer and many of his contemporaries gave the East Midland dialect a literary prestige and the fact that William Caxton used the same dialect for his early printed works established it more firmly still. The invention of printing was one of the influential factors for the emergence of Standard English, as it helped in the stabilization of spelling, grammar, syntax and vocabulary. The East Midland dialect was also popular because it was spoken by the people in London and soon became the ‘national’ language as it was patronized by the Tudor monarchy.

The influence of the Authorised Version of the Bible (1611) also was a contributing factor for the standardization of English.

Dr.Johnson’s ‘Dictionary’(1755) titled ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ in two folio volumes is hailed as another great achievement in the evolution of Standard English. His Dictionary helped the standardization in two ways: (i) it reduced a rather chaotic spelling system to orderliness and virtually ‘fixed’ English spelling from that time onwards. (ii) by distinguishing between reputable and ‘low’ words it established an idea of what was ‘good English’ and what was not.

Among the other influences must be counted the increased social contact which modern methods of travel have brought in their train and the spread of reading and of education among all classes, with a consequent elevation of Standard English at the expense of regional varieties. Professor H.C.Wyld in his ‘Short History of English’ defined Standard English as that which was “spoken within certain social boundaries, with an extraordinary degree of uniformity, all over the country” and it is true that, in all probability, the distinction between those who spoke Standard English and those who did not was originally a social one. Hence we realize that even today, Standard English carries with it and confers on its speaker a certain social prestige.

Prof. Daniel Jones defined Standard English as the English spoken by the cultured and educated class of Southern England. The reason for its preeminence is that it was the language of the government trade and commerce, foreign travel etc.  

The movement towards a ‘purer’ English is seen most markedly in Tennyson, the representative poet of the Age. Eschewing words of foreign origin as far as he could, he attempted to give currency to some of the ‘good old English words’, like boon, spate, deem, thrall etc. The standardization in pronunciation came towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Of recent years in the twentieth century, there has been a reaction against the idea of the Standard English. Modern philologists have developed what is called the ‘Basic English’ to serve as an International language.

Language is always in a state of flux. Hence, Standard English, like other living languages is likely to undergo change and development and cannot be expected to remain as it is as present.

Received Pronunciation:

A pronunciation of British English, originally based on the speech of the upper class of southeastern England and characteristic of the English spoken at the public schools and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Until recently it was the standard form of English used in British broadcasting.

Broadly speaking, it may be said there are three types of spoken English in England: Received Standard, Regional Dialects and Modified Standard. ‘Received Standard English’ is the good English spoken by the educated classes without self-consciousness. ‘Regional Dialects’ are those of localized use in rural areas where a fairly uniform and immobile community still predominates, such as those of Cumberland or South Devon. ‘Modified Standard’, an expression used by Prof.H.C.Wyld is the speech of that large number of people who have been bred in a regional or occupational dialect, have ‘corrected’ thus its sounds and usages in the light of the Received Standard.  However, they have not succeeded in achieving anything more than a compromise between their original speech and the Standard English aimed at. Which is why, we observe that this Modified Standard has innumerable shades and varieties and its speakers far outnumber those who use the R.P. A distinction between Received Standard and Modified Standard is made often, but though this may be justified on purely academic grounds, for practical purposes there seems no point in doing so.

The Role of BBC:

Though English has spread to the various parts of the world, the coming of the cheap newspaper press, and universal schooling have helped to standardize written English to such an extent that a speaker of Canadian, Australian or Indian English uses the same written form of the language, their speech differs from one another much in pronunciation, rhythm and intonation. “The pronunciation is the actual living form or forms of a word, that is, ‘the word itself’, of which the current spelling is only a symbolization.” – The Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. Whatever conventions of spelling may seem to be fixed, the spoken word must, by the very nature of language, continue to change. Inspite of the standardization of the written form, English is still so variously pronounced in different parts of the world and spoken with such heterogeneousness of form that the native idioms of English, in many places, have become so intertwined with many local elements as to be in danger of disintegration and fragmentation.

Among the standardizing agencies which counterbalance the tendency of disintegration, perhaps the most important is broadcasting. The setting up of the official center of the B.B.C. in London has been very helpful in the conversation of Standard English. Side by side with printing, the radio must now be recognized as a second means of making the language universally accessible. The influence of trained and officially directed announcers is very great in acting as an effective obstacle to the disintegration of spoken English. The broadcasting house and its offshoots including the Advisory Committee of experts on pronunciation who guide and counsel the announcers cannot, however, influence the standardizing of the spoken form of the language to the same extent as printing has influenced the standardizing of the written form. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the constant hearing of a correct and conventionalized form of speech is likely to serve as a conserving influence, especially in those parts of the world where English is spoken as a second language.

To the large majority of people who listen to the radio, the B.B.C. announcer represents the voice of authority in matters of pronunciation and right usage. But even the B.B.C. has been quite realistic in recognizing by its regional division of programs that there is more than one form of ‘good English’ as spoken at present in different areas.

An indirect influence of the radio on English is seen in the recent developments in the approach to English, and in a growing interest in the nature of speech and in the need for clear and pleasing utterance as well as the ability to express one’s thoughts in effective words. These have led to the formation of societies for the training of speech, the study of speech therapy and an increased interest in phonetic and the teaching of good habits of speech to children and adults alike. On the whole, it may be said that broadcasting now serves as the most universally accessible and effective means by which speakers of English all over the world are helped and encouraged to conform to the ‘Received Standard of English’.

Concept of correctness and social acceptability:

A ‘Standard’ variety of a language is that which is generally used by educated speakers and for which reference works like dictionaries and grammars are available. It has to be noted that ‘standard’ variety refers to social acceptability and to the prestige accorded to a variety.(then R.P.English, now its US English).

AMERICAN ENGLISH

The English language was brought to America by colonists from England who settled along the Atlantic coast in the seventeenth century. The earliest people arrived in 1607 and it culminated in the exodus of the British Puritans called Pilgrim Fathers who fearing persecution, fled Britain and arrived in America in 1620. The colonial settlement of the thirteen colonies extended across New England, Middle Atlantic states and South Atlantic states.

Originally, it was the British language and literature of Shakespeare, Milton etc. that was imitated in America. So the early English language in America was imitative in nature. Gradually they developed a unique and distinct style of the English language, which was, in many ways divergent from British English.

Features of American English:

(i)                 There was uniformity of American English spoken across all the American states. The American English became a unifying factor and increased American pride and nationalism.

(ii)               The second quality often attributed to American English is archaism, the preservation of old features of the language which have gone out of use in the standard speech of England. It has qualities that were characteristic of English speech in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In many ways, standard American English is reminiscent of an older period of the language.

-          Americans pronounce ‘either’ and ‘neither’ as in the archaic British pronunciation of        /          / and /           / whereas, the present day British diphthonize it as /         / and /       /.

-          Americans use ‘gotten’ as the past participle of ‘got’. Whereas present day Britishers use ‘got’.

-          Americans use the word ‘mad’ in the sense of ‘angry’ as Shakespeare and his contemporaries did. For the Britishers, the word is used in the sense of insane.

-          Americans still speak of ‘rare’ meat, whereas the English now say ‘underdone’.

-          Americans use ‘fall’ as the natural word for the season, English use the term ‘autumn’

-          ‘wilt’ – Americans use this word so naturally for drooping flowers and also use it figuratively as in the sentence : “A person wilts under a cross-examination”. This word has gone out of use in Standard English of the mother country.

-          The American “I guess”, so often ridiculed in English is as old as Chaucer and was popular till the seventeenth century.

In general, we can say that American English has preserved certain older features of the language which have disappeared from Standard English in England. But it has also introduced innovations in the English language.

Vocabulary:

When colonists settle in a new country, they find the resources in their language inadequate, because of the constant succession of new experiences which they undergo. Accordingly, in a colonial language, changes of vocabulary take place almost from the moment the first settlers arrive.

-          New words connected with the American environment and geography : Foothill, notch, gap, divide, watershed

-          Flora and Fauna: tree names such as hickory, live oak, huckleberry, moose, raccoon, skunk, opossum, chipmunk, porgy, terrapin, mud hen, garter snake, bullfrog, potato bug, ground hog, reed bird-----vegetables and nuts like sweet potato, egg plant, squash, persimmon, pecan, tapioca, pone.

-          Words from the Red Indian way of life: wigwam, tomahawk, canoe, toboggan, mackinaw, moccasin, wampum, squaw, papoose

-          Words connected with politics and administration: congress, presidential, congressman, caucus, mass meeting, selectman, statehouse, land office

-          Things associated with the new mode of life: back country, squatter, prairie, log cabin, clapboard, popcorn, hoe cake, cold snap, snow plow, sleigh

-          Introduction of French words from the French colonists: caribou, bureau, cache

-          From Dutch words like cookie, stoop, boss

-          From German : noodle

-          Separate coinages for American and British things: (a) The English ‘robin’ was given to American red-breasted thrush, (b)  The word ‘turkey’ used for a distinctive American bird, (c) English ‘petrol’ becomes American ‘gasoline’, (d) English ‘toilet’ becomes American ‘restroom’, (e) English ‘lift’ becomes American ‘elevator’.

We find the colonists shifting and adapting the British English to the new conditions. It is in this way that America began her contributions to the English language and also the differentiation between American English and British English arose.

The Americans are adept at inventing simple homely words like apple butter, side walk, lightning rod, spelling bee, bow down, know nothing, to fly off the handle, go on the war patch, saw wood, etc.

Spelling:

It is a matter of common observation that American spelling often differs in small ways from the British.

-          Absence of ‘u’ in words like honor, color

-          Employs only one consonant where the English write two : traveler for traveler and wagon for wagon

-          Use ‘er’ instead of ‘re’ : fiber , center, theater

-          Use ‘s’ instead of ‘c’ – defense, offense

-          Simplification method – ax, plow, program, tire story, jail for the British axe, plough, programme, tyre, storey, gaol

Pronunciation:

-          Instead of / iː / they use / æ / as in the words like fast, path, grass, dance, can’t, half

-          Another noticeable difference between British and American pronunciation is in the treatment of the ‘r’. In the Received Pronunciation of England, this sound has disappeared except before vowels. It is not heard when it occurs before another consonant or at the end of a word unless the next word begins with a vowel. But in American English, most often they do not pronounce the ‘r’

-          In British English ‘been’ has the same sound as in ‘bean’, but in America it is like ‘bin’

-          Leisure in American English is pronounced as /li: ʒ ə / but in British English it rhymes with ‘pleasure’.

-          Pronunciation of ‘either’ and ‘neither’

-          A more important difference is the greater clearness with which we pronounce unaccented syllables. The Britishers speak more slowly and with less variety of tone and is not nasalized.

From the time that differences in the vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation came about, evolved the distinct American English conspicuous because of its simplification. Noah Webster compiled ‘An American Dictionary of the English Language’(1828) in two volumes. American English enjoys an important place in the literatures of the world.

ENGLISH SURNAMES

Historical Background: Primitive personal names doubtless originated soon after the invention of spoken language, in the unrecorded ages long preceding modern history. For thousands of years First/Given Names, were the only designations that men and women bore; and at the dawn of recorded historic times, when the world was less crowded than it is today and every man knew his neighbours, one title of address was sufficient. Only gradually, with the passing centuries and the increasing complexity of civilized society, did a need arise for more specific designations. While the roots of our system of family names may be traced back to early civilised times, actually the hereditary surnames, as we know them today, dates from scarcely more than nine hundred years ago.

A surname is a name added to a baptismal or given name for the purposes of making it more specific and of indicating family relationship or descent. Classified according to origin, most surnames fall into four general groups:
 (1) Surnames formed from the given name of the father
One of these classes comprises surnames derived from the given name of their father. Such names were formed by adding a prefix or suffix denoting either "son of" or a diminutive. English names terminating in "son" (or the contraction "s"), "ing", and "kin" are of this type, as are also the innumerable names prefixed with the Gaelic "Mac", the Norman "Fitz", The Irish "0", and the Welsh "ap".
Thus the sons of John became Johnsons; the sons of William, Williamsons or Wilsons; the sons of Richard, Richardsons or Richards; the sons of Neill, MacNeills; the sons of Herbert, FitzHerberts; the sons of Reilly O'Reillys; and the sons of Thomas, ap Thomases (ap has been dropped from many names of which it was formerly a part).
(2) Surnames arising from bodily or personal characteristics
Another class of surnames, those arising from some bodily or personal characteristic of their first bearer, apparently grew out of what were in the first instance nicknames. Thus Peter the strong became Peter Strong, Roger of small stature became Roger Little or Roger Small, and black-haired William or blond Alfred became William Black or Alfred White. A few examples of names of this type are Long, Short, Hardy, Wise, Good, Gladman, Lover, and Youngman.
(3) Surnames derived from locality or place of residence
A third class of family names, and perhaps the largest of all, is that comprising local surnames -names derived from and originally designating the place of residence of the bearer. Such names were employed in France at an early date (such as La Porte "at the entrance to") and were introduced into England by the Normans, many of whom were known by the titles of their estates.
The surnames adopted by the nobility were chiefly of this type, being used with the particles "de", "de la" or "del" (meaning "of" or "of the"). The Saxon equivalent was the word "atte" ("at the"), found in such names as John atte Brook, Edmund atte Lane, Godwin atte Brigg, and William Atwood, John Atwell and Atwater; in other cases The Norman "de" was substituted; and in still others, such as Wood, Briggs, and Lane, the particle was dropped. The surnames of some of the Pilgrim Fathers illustrate place designations. Winthrop, for instance, means "of the friendly village"; Endicott. "an end cottage"; and Bradford, "a broad for". The suffixes "ford", "ham", "ley", and "ton", denoting locality, are of frequent occurrence in such English names as Ashford, Bingham, Burley, and Norton.
(4) Surnames derived from occupation
Commencing about the time of Edward the Confessor a fourth class of surnames arose, i.e. names derived from occupation. The earliest of these seem to have been official names, such as Bishop, Mayor, Alderman, Reeve, Sheriff, Chamberlain, Chancellor, Chaplain, Deacon, Latimer (interpreter), Marshall, Sumner (summoner), and Parker (parkkeeper). Trade and craft names, although of the same general type, were slightly later development. Currier was a dresser of skins, Webster a weaver, Wainwright a wagon builder, and Baxter a baker. Such names as Smith, Taylor, Barber, Shepherd, Carter, Mason, and Miller are self-explanatory. In France similarly we have La Farr (iron worker); in Germany there was Winegar (vine dresser) and Müller (Miller).
Surnames Today
Some surnames of today which seem to defy classification or explanation are corruptions of ancient forms that have become disguised almost beyond recognition. For instance, Troublefield was originally Tuberville; Wrinch was Renshaw; Diggles was Douglas; Sinnocks and Snooks were Sevenoaks; Barrowcliff and Berrycloth were Barraclough; and Strawbridge was Stourbridge; Such corruptions of family names, resulting from ignorance of spelling, variations in pronunciation, or merely from the preference of the bearer, tend to baffle both the genealogist and the etymologist. Shakespeare's name is found in some twenty-seven different forms, and the majority of English and Anglo-American surnames have, in their history, appeared in four to a dozen or more variant spellings. For example the German family Winegar that came to North America in the Palatine Migration of 1709 has their name listed in various lists as Winegar, Wenniger, Winneger, Weyniger, Wyniger, Weneger, Winiger and Wienneger.
Those who possess old and honored names - who trace their surnames back to sturdy immigrant ancestors, or beyond, across the seas and into the mists of antiquity - may be rightfully proud of their heritage. While the name, in its origin, may seem ingenious, humble, surprising, or matter-of-fact, its significance today lies not in a literal interpretation of its initial meaning but in the many things that have happened to it since it first came into use. In the beginning it was only a label to distinguish one John from his neighbor John who lived across the field. But soon it established itself as part of the bearer's individuality; and as it passed to his children, his children's children, and their children, it became the symbol not of one man but of a family and all that that family stood for. Handed down from generation to generation, the surname grew inseparably associated with the achievement, the tradition, and the prestige of the family. Like the coat of arms - that vivid symbolization of the name which warrior ancestors bore in battle - the name itself has become a badge of family honor. It has become the "good name" to be proud of and to protect as one's most treasured possession.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DICTIONARIES

First and the Second Stages in the History of Dictionaries – glosses for hard words and foreign derivations:

In the ancient classical world and in the Middle Ages there were collections of ‘hard words’ and foreign words with their meanings – a kind of crude and incomplete dictionaries of the sixteenth century. These are termed glossaries, or collections of glosses(from Latin of the Greeek ‘glossa’ meaning ‘rare word needing special explanation). Until the Renaissance such glossaries were only selected groups of explanations and in no sense aimed at the completeness we associate with a dictionary. The glossaries were the first stage in the history of dictionaries followed by the merely selective dictionary which dealt only with hard words or those of foreign derivation. Thomas Cooper’s ‘Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae’(1565), Robert Cawdrey’s ‘A Table of Alphabeticall English Wordes’(1604) and Edward Philips’s ‘New World of English Words’(1658) belongs to the category of glosses.

Third stage in the History of Dictionaries – Etymology:

The third stage in the history of dictionaries witnessed the addition of etymologies to the meaning of words: for to know the history of a word before it entered the language is of value for the understanding of its exact shade of meaning. Stephen Skinner’s ‘Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae’(1667) and Francis Junius’s ‘Etymologicon Anglicanum’(1677) belongs to the category of etymological dictionary with usage.

The Fourth and the Fifth Stages in the History of Dictionaries – for literary language and illustrations :

After these preliminary attempts in lexicography we find that the first dictionary in the usual sense was published in 1708 by John Kersey. It was entitled ‘Dictionarium Anglo Britannicum or A General English Dictionary’. In this dictionary, we find the fourth stage in lexicography being marked by the author’s attempt to set out the whole of the literary language. In 1730, Nathan Bailey’s more scholarly work “Dictionarium Britannicum or A More Complete Universal English Dictionary’ was produced. It was the most advanced Dictionary in the language at the time. Here we have the fifth feature introduced into the Dictionary in the form of illustrations of definitions and meanings by quotations from the best contemporary works. The reader was thus helped in understanding the exact shades of meanings given to English words by seeing them used in the given examples.

Popular Lexicographers:

With Samuel Johnson’s ‘Dictionary of the English Language’ published in 1755 we find the most unprecedented progress being made in lexicography. This great work soon became accepted as the arbiter of English usage and the standard for English spelling. Johnson has made fuller use of illustrative quotations than Bailey. His definitions, on the whole, are clear, concise, effective and scholarly, though some of them are characterized by his personal prejudices and individual vagaries. His definition of oats as the food for horses in England and for men in Scotland, as well as that of the cigar as a roll of tobacco with a spark at one end and a fool at the other are often quoted. Future Lexicographers have benefitted greatly by the pioneering work of Johnson, and his dictionary set the model for a whole century of lexicography. It first set the habit of treating a dictionary as a final and uncontestable authority. This habit is not altogether good, since dictionaries are always inevitably somewhat out of date, in view of the constantly changing nature of language.

The next stage in the development of dictionaries in English is marked by Charles Richardson’s ‘A New Dictionary of English Language’ published in 1836. In addition to widening the scope of illustrative quotations, Richardson also attempted to indicate the historical use of words or the meanings which they had in older stages of the language besides their contemporary sense.

The Philological Society founded in 1842 with the professed object of investigating the structure, affinities, and history of language has been responsible for the compilation of a dictionary which is now universally recognized as the highest authority of on the use of English language called ‘A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles’ published by the Clarendon Press of Oxford. This, the work of a number of editors and thousands of helpers all over the world, is the greatest scientific achievement in lexicography so far completed. It adds to the foregoing developments, the complete setting forth of the whole history and semantic development of every word known to have been used since the twelfth century. This it does by means of a series of definitions for each word, with a past history of its several different meanings which show its exact development; and these are each illustrated chronologically by appropriate quotations from various periods. In addition, every known spelling of the word may have had at any time in its history is recorded, together with a full indication of the current British pronunciation in a phonetic script. It is thus, for the scholar, the most complete record of the whole of the English language. It occupies ten large volumes or twenty half-volumes; but for ordinary working purposes its material is summarized in two volumes in ‘The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary’ and still further reduced and adapted to speedier consultation in ‘The Oxford Concise English Dictionary’.

In America, Noah Webster was the pioneer with his ‘Compendious English Dictionary’ of 1806, which follows well on the great work of Johnson: and in 1828 was published his ‘American Dictionary’, which was the foundation of the great Webster’s ‘International Dictionary’, which is the universal working tool in America after successive revisions. ‘The Century Dictionary’(1889-91) is the great American example of a scholarly compendious English dictionary, in six volumes, which is largely an encyclopedia as well. A ‘Dictionary of American English’ on the same lines as ‘The New English Dictionary’ embodying all of the English language that is recorded in America from the days of the earliest settlements treated historically, has lately been published.

The history of English dictionaries can be divided into five periods:

1.      the first period: from the Middle Ages to the end of the16th century

This is a period of glossary-looking. We had Latin-English glossaries in the Middle English period, such as Thomas Cooper’s Thesaurus Linguae Romanae of Britannicae (1565)

2.      the second period: the beginning of the 17^th century

This is a period of the glossary dealing with hard words, such as Robert Cawdrey’s A Tale of Alphabetical English Words (1604).

3.      the third period: the middle of the 17^th century to the end of the century

This is a period when etymology of words is added to the meaning. Stephen Skinner’s Etymological Linguae Anglicanae (1667) is a representative work of this period.

4.      the fourth period: the whole 18^th century

In this period, dictionaries had established the standards of spelling, meaning and usage of English words. Henry Cockeram’s English Dictionary (The English Dictionary, or An Interpreter of Hard English Words, 1623) first used the word “dictionary” in the sense in which we now understand it. An excellent example of this period is Samule Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language of 1755.

5.      the fifth period: the 19^th century to the 20^th century

This is a period when English dictionaries saw much improvement and reached maturity. The representative works of this period are:

Charles Richardson’s A New Dictionary of the English Language (1836)

The Oxford English Dictionary (1928)

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (1911)

Noah Webster’s The American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language (1961)

FOREIGN CONTRIBUTION TO ENGLISH LEXIS

LATIN

Latin words in English fall under six main heads, according to the time and the manner in which they were introduced.

(1)   Those which came in as a result of the Roman invasion of Britain in 55 B.C. and the occupation of Britain upto 410 A.D. During this time, a large number of Latin words had entered the English language. Eg. Win (wine), weall (wall) from vallum. Place names ending in ‘–caster’ and ‘–chester’.

(2)   Latin terms which came in with the invading Angles and Saxons. Eg. Anglo-Saxon ‘deofol’(devil) from ‘diabolus’,’niht’(night)

(3)   Words introduced direct from Latin during the Anglo-Saxon period, through the early Christian missionaries. These were mostly terms connected with religion. Eg. Cruc (cross), from the Latin crux, candel(candle), creda  (creed), idol (idol), sanct(saint), cleric (clergyman)

(4)   In the Middle English Period, the words introduced were mainly in religion, law, medicine and alchemy.

(5)   The great period of the Latin influx was at the time of Renaissance, especially during the period 1550-1600. The rebirth of classical scholarship led to the enrichment of the English language also. Many of the important religious and philosophical treatises of the time, were first published in Latin. Some of the words acquired during this period are genius, miser, medium, senior, junior, area, exit, animal, circus, terminus, specimen, omen, pauper, interim, axis, premium, ceasus, series, species, apparatus, curriculum.

(6)   Latin terms or expressions which never really became part of current English proper but used for academic and technical purposes: radius, dictum, quantum, vacuum, prima facie, vice versa, ipso facto, habeas corpus, recipe, manicure, impromptu, extempore, locomotive, tractor, motor, Dictaphone, tandem, publican, omnibus.