English have had four important stages:
1)
The stage of English from
its creation by the Anglo-Saxons to shortly after the Norman Conquest is called
Old English.
2)
The stage from about 1100
to 1500 is called Middle English.
3) The third
one was the Early Modern period - 1500 to 1650 - when some of the most momentous changes to English occurred.
4) Modern English since 1650 the
main story for English has been ascent to world domination as a second and
international language, and massive diversification.
Nowadays in
all over the world is commonly spoken modern English. However, it has changed.
Here there are some causes:
a.
The movement of people
across countries and continents, for example migration and, in previous
centuries, colonization. For example, English speakers today would probably be
comfortable using the Spanish word “loco” to describe someone who is “crazy”.
b. Speakers
of one language coming into contact with those who speak a different one. No
two individuals speak identically: people from different geographical places
clearly speak differently and even within the same community there are variations
according to a speaker’s age, gender, ethnicity and social and educational
background. For
example, the word “courting” has become “dating”.
c.
New vocabulary required for
inventions such as transport, domestic appliances and industrial equipment, or
for sporting, entertainment, cultural and leisure reasons. For example, the
original late 19th-century term “wireless” has become today’s “radio”.
Every decade sees new
slang terms like
these appearing in the English language. And while some words or abbreviations
do come from internet or text conversations, others may appear as entirely new
words, a new meaning for an existing word, or a word that becomes more
generalized than its former meaning, brought about by any one of the reasons
above. Decades ago, “blimey” was a new expression of surprise, but more
recently “woah” is the word in everyday usage. Sentence structure is of course
another change to English language. Decades ago, it would have been normal to
ask “Have you a moment?” Now, you might say “D’you have a sec?” Similarly, “How
do you do?” has become “How’s it going?” Not only have the sentences been
abbreviated, but new words have been introduced to everyday questions.
In our Fact or
Fiction report,
linguist, writer and lecturer David
Crystal considers
whether “text speaks” is undermining the English language. His response to the
naysayers who claim it is damaging the English language is to point out that
abbreviations have been around for a long time. While some, such as the ones we
discussed above, are new, others, such as the use of “u” for “you” and the
number 8 as a syllable in “later”, have been around for a century or more.
Further to this, research shows that there is in fact a correlation between the
ability to use abbreviations and the ability to spell. After all, in order to abbreviate,
you have to know which letters to abbreviate.
As with everything, change isn’t necessarily a bad
thing and, as the needs of English language users continue to change, so will
the language.How will English be in the future?
English is taking an important role all over the world. It is because is considered as lingua franca. In the future English will be not only lingua franca but also, the language spoken in the whole world. There will be no distinction between nests and non- nests, they will have the same rights. The circles inner, outer and expanding will disappear because there will be just ¨one nation¨ it means that in all countries English will be spoken. The varieties of English will change, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), English as a Second Language (ESL), English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), will be replace by English as Lingua Franca (ELF) because each person in any country must speak English in order to communicate. The Government of each country will implement free programs so that everybody will learn the new language.
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