ISBN: 1904181481 9781904181484

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines / General

Page count: 128

The language that we today call English is a mongrel tongue that has evolved, developed, grown and spread for over fifteen hundred years. Originally arriving in the south-east corner of the island of Britain with the Angle and Saxon invasions of the fifth century AD, it quickly pushed the native languages of Old Britain to the island's geographical extremes. Marrying with and borrowing from these old Celtic languages, as well as from Latin that in certain towns and in the Church remained spoken long after the Romans had departed, this new tongue was soon to become the language of a new country, England. But this political entity was not to unite until the ninth century when Alfred the Great and his descendants faced a new threat from the north. These Viking invasions brought still more diversity to the young language and this was added to in the years after 1066 and the Norman Conquest. By the Medieval Age, Middle English, the language of Spenser and Chaucer, had established itself in Britain's urban centres and in the fourteenth century this was to replace French, the language of the Normans, as the nation's official language. so vividly used by William Shakespeare. The development and expansion of Modern English was uniquely to take place at the time of huge imperial expansion with the English language becoming the British Empire's greatest legacy. The industrial, transport and communication revolutions of the nineteenth century made Britain the world's first global superpower and soon her language was to become spoken across the world. Its continuing global success in the twentieth century and beyond was further guaranteed by the rise of the USA. As a result, English finds itself the world's most important language, a communication tool used not only by native speakers in over forty countries but also by millions of other second and third language users. In essence, it has become the tool the world uses to communicate and it is, amongst other things, the international language of aviation, the internet, the UN and the world's media. up words, phrases and expressions from dozens of other languages its speakers have mixed with along the way and a myriad of other sources have breathed life into the language we now use today. However, the origins and derivations of many of these have become shrouded in mystery with the march of time and this little book is an attempt to shine some light on some of these. This list is in no way exhaustive and some entries must necessarily be no more than educated guesses. But it is hoped that BRASS MONKEYS will entertain as well as amuse and readers are encouraged to add their own comments via the book's website.