School Research Paper

Student:

Jakoubson Julia

Grade: 9 “A”

School №9

Teacher Gorbacheva M.V.

Kolomna 2003.

Contents

                                                                                                   
Pages

Introduction…………………………………………………………….3

I. Old
English…………………………………………………………...3-17

a). Celtic
Tribes…………………………………………………………3-4

b). The
Romans…………………………………………………………4-10

c). Germanic
Tribes…………………………………………………….10-15

d). The Norman
French………………………………………………..15-16

II. Middle
English……………………………………………………....16-19

III. Mordent
English…………………………………………………...20-22

Conclusion……………………………………………………………....22-24

List of
Literature………………………………………………………..26

Supplement……………………………………………………………...27

Introduction.

Why do people all over the world learn foreign languages?  Perhaps
because the world is getting smaller, in a way:  nations are more closely
linked with each other than ever before, companies operate world-wide,
scientists of different nationalities co-operate, and tourists travel
practically everywhere.  The ability to communicate with people from other
countries is getting more and more important. And learning foreign languages
broadens your horizons, too!

Before learners of a foreign language are able to communicate, they have
to acquire many skills.  They must learn to produce unfamiliar sounds.  They
must build up a vocabulary.  They must learn grammar rules and how to use
them.  And, last but not least, they must develop listening, speaking, reading
and writing skills and learn how to react in a variety of situations.

All people like to travel. Some
travel around their own country, others travel abroad. Some like to travel into
the future, others prefer to travel into the past. While I was working out my
research paper and reading many books on English history, I had an exciting
trip into a remote past. It was a fantastical journey our Imaginary Time
Machine and a Magic Wand. The Time Machine took me into the depth of the
centuries, into the very early history of Britain. I waved the Magic Wand and
the words began to talk, they disclosed to me their mysteries, I discovered
secrets hidden in familiar things. In other words, you will be a witness of
making of English.

I.     
Old English. (450-1100)

a). Celtic tribes.

Make a first turn of the Time
Machine and you will find yourself on the British Isles in the time of the
ancient inhabitants, the Celts. The Celts were natives of the British Isles
long before the English. The Celts had their language, which is still spoken by
the people living in the part of Britain known as Wales. And though many
changes happened on the British Isles, some Celtic words are still used in the
English language.

Two
thousand years ago there was an Iron Age Celtic culture throughout the British
Isles. It seems that the Celts, who had been arriving from Europe from the
eighth century BC onwards, intermingled with the peoples who were already
there. We know that religious sites that had been built long before the arrival
of the Celts continued to be used in the Celtic period.

For people in Britain today, the chief
significance of the prehistoric period (for which no written records exist) is
its sense of mystery. This sense finds its focus most easily in the astonishing
monumental architecture of this period, the remains of which exist throughout
the country. Wiltshire, in south-western England, has two spectacular examples:
Silbury Hill, the largest burial mound in Europe, and Stonehenge. Such places
have a special importance for anyone interested in the cultural and religious
practices of prehistoric Britain. We know very little about these practices,
but there are some organizations today (for example, the Order of Bards, Ovates
and Druids – a small group of eccentric intellectuals and mystics) who base
their beliefs on them.

The Celts preserved their language in some parts of Britain, but they did
not add many words to the English vocabulary. Those, that are in use now, are
mostly place-names: names of regions, towns, rivers. The Celts had a number of
similar words to name rivers, like: Exe, Esk, Usk. All of them come from a word
meaning water (uisge). Later this word was used to name a strong
alcoholic drink made from barley or rye. It was first called “water of life”.
The word changed its from and pronunciation, and today at restaurants in the
West one can see on the menu among other spirits whisky, a Celtic word
formerly meaning water.      

b). The
Romans.

One more turn of our Time Machine and it
took me into the 1^st century of our era. At that time Romans came
into Britain, they ruled the country for 400 years. So, you can guess that many
Latin words came later into the English language through Celts, because, as you
know, Romans spoke Latin.

The Roman province of Britannia most of
present-day England and Wales. The Romans imposed their own way of life and
culture, making use of the existing Celtic aristocracy to govern and
encouraging this ruling class to adopt Roman dress and Roman language. The
Romans never went to Ireland and exerted an influence, without actually
governing there, over only the southern part of Scotland. It was during this
time that a Celtic tribe called the Scots migrated from Ireland to Scotland,
where they became allies of the Picts (another Celtic tribe) and opponents of
the Romans. This division of the Celts into those who experienced Roman rule
(the Britons in England and Wales) and those who did not (the Gaels in Ireland
and Scotland) may help to explain the development of two distinct branches of
the Celtic group of languages.

The remarkable thing about the Romans is
that, despite their long occupation of Britain, they left very little behind.
To many other parts of Europe they bequeathed a system of law and
administration which forms the basis of the modern system and a language which
developed into the modern Romance family of languages. In Britain, they left
neither. Moreover, most of their villas, baths and temples, their impressive
network of roads, and the cities they founded, including Londinium (London),
were soon destroyed or fell into disrepair. Almost the only lasting reminder of
their presence are place-names like Chester, Lancaster and Gloucester, which
include variants of the Roman word castra (a military camp).

Roman rule lasted for 4 centuries. There
are many things in Britain today to remind of the Romans: wells, roads, walls.

To defend their province the Romans stationed their
legions in Britain. Straight roads were built so that the legions might march
quickly. Whenever they were needed, to any part of the country. These roads
were made of several layers of stones, lime, mortar and gravel. They were made
so well that they lasted a long time and still exist today. Thomas Hardy
dedicated his poem to Roman roads. Here is the beginning.

THE ROMAN ROAD

The Roman road runs straight and bare

As the pale parting line in hair

Across the health. And thoughtful men

Contrast its days of now and then,

And delve, and measure, and compare,

Visioning on the vacant air

Helmed legionaries
who proudly rear

The eagle as they pace again the Roman road…

One of the roads has a name – “KATLING
STREET”. It is a great Roman road extending east and west across
Britain. Beginning at Dover, it ran through Canterbury to London, thence
through St.Albans, Dunstable, along the boundary of Leicester and Warwick to
Wroxeter on the Severn. The origin of the name is not known and there are
several other sections of the road so called. In the late 9^th
century it became the boundary between English and Danish territory.

To guard their province against the Picts
and Scots who lived in the hills of Scotland the Romans built a high wall, a
military barrier seventy-three miles long. It was called “Hadrian’s Wall”
because it was built by command of the Emperor Hadrian. Long stretches of “HADRIAN’S
WALL” have remained to this day.

In the capital of Britain you can see the
fragments of the old London wall built by the Romans.

What really happened in AD 61? In AD 61 the
king of the Celtic tribe Iceni died. Before he died he had named Roman Emperor
Nero as his heir. He hoped that this would put his family and kingdom under the
Emperor’s protection. But the result was the exact opposite of his hopes. His
kingdom was plundered by centurions, his private property was taken away, his
widow Boadicea was flogged, his daughters were deprived of any rights, his
relatives were turned into slaves. Boadicea’s tribe rose to rebellion. Boadicea
stood at the head of a numerous army. More than 70,000 Romans were killed
during the revolt. But the Britons had little chance against an experienced,
well-armed Roman army. The rising was crushed, Boadicea took poison to avoid
capture.

Her monument on the Thames Embankment
opposite Big Ben remind people of her harsh cry: ”Liberty of death” which has
echoed down the ages.

Some of the English words relating to meals
are of Latin origin, they were borrowed from the Romans in ancient times. The
Romans in the period of their flourishing and expansion came into contact with
the Germanic tribes, or the Teutons, who later moved to Britain and formed
there the English nation. The Romans were a race with higher civilization than
the Teutons whom they considered barbarians. They taught the Teutons many
useful things and gave them very important words that the forefathers of the
English brought with them to Britain and that remained in the English language
up to now. Kitchen and table are Latin words borrowed in those
far-off days, that show a revolution in culinary arrangements; dish, kettle
and cup also became known to the Teutons at that time.

The early words of Latin origin give us a
dim picture of Roman trades traveling with their mules and asses the paved
roads or the German provinces, their chests and boxes and wine-sacks full of
goods that they profitably bargained with the primitive ancestors of the
nowadays English. Wine was one of the first items of trade between the
Romans and the Teutons. That’s how this word came into use.

The Teutons knew only one fruit – apple,
they did not grow fruit trees or cultivated gardens, but they seem to have been
eager to learn, for they borrowed pear, plum, cherry.

The Teutons were an agricultural people,
under the influence of the Romans they began to grow beet, onion.

Milk was one of the main kinds of food with
the Teutons, but the Romans taught them methods of making cheese and butter
for milk.

Among other culinary refinements that came
to the Teutons from the Romans are spices: pepper, mint.

Judging by the Latin borrowings of that
period the ancestors of English were very much impressed by Roman food, weren’t
they?

The word
“calendar” came to us from Latin. In the Latin there was a word “calendarium”.
It meant “a record-book”. Money-lenders kept a special book, in which they
recorded to whom they lent money and how much interest they will get. This book
was called “calendarium” because interest was paid on the “Calends”. By the
Calends the Romans named the first day of each month.

Time passed, the old meaning was forgotten.
“Calendar” began to mean the record of days, weeks, months within a year.

This is a story of the word “calendar”. But
the story of how a calendar was made is still more interesting indeed. We know
that a calendar provides an easy way to place a day within the week, month or
year. But it is not easy to make a calendar. The trouble is that the length of
a year is determined by the length of time the earth takes to revolve once on
its own axis. But the earth does not take an equal number of days to complete
its year. It needs 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. Obviously you
cannot divide a day of 24 hours into that. And the problem is further
complicated because the month is determined by the length of time it takes the
moon to go around the earth, which is 29 ½ days into 365 ¼ days,
minus 11 minutes and 14 seconds. The result is that most calendars were messes.

The English got their calendar from the
Romans. But at first the Romans had a very bad calendar. They had ten month of
varying length, and then they added enough days at the end to make the year
right. Besides the politicians changed the length of the months as they wished.
They could change the length of the month to keep themselves in office longer
and to leave less time for their opponents. I can’t imagine that somebody will
reduce June, July, August to two weeks each, and will take away more than half
my summer vacation? Will you like that? Of course, not.

The calendar varied so much that by the
time of Julius Caesar January came in August.

Meanwhile a very good calendar had been
worked out in Asia Minor and was in use in Egypt. Julius Caesar, a great Roman
emperor, changed it a little to fit the Roman customs and introduced it in
Rome. This calendar was called after him “the Julian Calendar”. As a matter of
fact, Caesar only gave the orders; he had the advice of a Greek astronomer
named Sosigenes. This calendar worked well for hundred years. But it provided
only for exact figure of 365 days a year and an extra day in every four years,
it did not count minutes and seconds. So, once more, the calendar year was
getting farther and farther from the year of the earth’s revolution around the
sun.

Then in 1582 another change of calendar
took place. The Roman Pope Gregory XII suppressed ten days in 1582 and started
new calendar. The English people adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. And
for a time all dates were given two ways: one for the New Style, one for the
Old Style.

Now nobody uses the Old Style any more, but
of course the calendar is not quite accurate yet. Still it will be a long time
before we have to add or subtract another day.

The year is divided into months and every
month has its own name. Now we’d like to investigate how the names of months
appeared. But first, let’s think of the word  “month” itself.

A month is a measure of time. It is a very old word. It goes back to Indo-European
base. Long time ago people pro­bably-
had only three measures of time  - year, which was the four seasons; a day
which was the period from one sunrise to the next; and a month, which had the
period from one moon to the next.

So, the Indo-European
base “me-“ came into Old English, and became “mona”. The word meant "a
measure of time". Then it began to mean “moon”, since the moon
measured  time. Later suffix "-th" was added to the end of the word;
the word "monath" meant the period of time which the moon measured.
Still later the English people dropped the "a" and called it
"month”.

And
now, stories of the names of months. The Modem English names for the months of
the year all come from the Latin. But before the English people adopted the
Latin names they had their native names. And, in fact, in some cases the native
names are more interesting than the Latin ones.

The
first month of the year is January. January is the month of Janus. Janus
was a Roman God of the beginning of things. Janus had two faces: on the front
and the back of the head. He could look backwards into the past and forward to
the beginning year. January is a right name for the first month of the New
Year, isn't it? On the New Year eve we always think of what we have done in the
past year and we are planning to do better in the New Year.

Now,
the Old English  had its own name for January. It was “Wulf-Monath",
which  means “month of wolves". To-day England is thickly populated and a
very civilized country and it is hard, to imagine that their was a time when
wolves roamed the island. In the cold of the deep winter they would get so
hungry they would come into the towns to look for food, and so January was
called “the month of the wolves".

The
name of February  comes from the Latin “februa” -
"purification". It was a month when the ancient Romans had a festival
of purification.

Before
the English adopted the Latin name, they called this month “Sprate-Kale-Month”.
“Kale” is a cabbage plant, "sprote" means to sprout. So, it was “the month when cabbages sprout”

March is a month of Mar's,
the Roman God of war. March was the earliest warm time of the year when the
Romans could start a war. Before the time of Julius Caesar the Roman year began
with March which was then the first month of the year.

The Old
English name for March was "Hlyd-Monath", which means "the month
of noisy winds". March in Britain often comes with strong winds. By the
way, this explains the saying: "If March comes in like a lion, it will go
out like a lamb".

There
are a few stories about the meaning of the name “April”!  The most
spread one is a pretty story that the month was named from a Latin word
“aperire" – “to open”. It is a month when buds of trees and flowers begin
to open.

The
English before they adopted the Latin names, called April "Easter-Monath”,
the month of Easter.

“May” is named for the
Roman goddess of growth and increase, Maia. She was the Goddess of spring,
because in spring everything was growing, flourishing, increasing.

The English
name is not so poetic. They called the month "Thrimilce", which means
something like “to mi1k three times”. In May the cows give so much milk that
the farmers had to milk them three times a day.

Month
of "June" was so called after the Junius family of Rome, one
of the leading clans of ancient Rome. Besides, the Roman festival of Juno, the
Goddess of Moon, was celebrated on the first day of the month.

We
think of June as the month of brides and roses, but to the Anglo-Saxons it was
"Sere-Monath", the “dry month”.

“July” is the month of
Julius Caesar. The month began to be called that in the year when Julius Caesar
was killed.

The English called July
“Maed-Monath”, “meadow month”, because the meadows are in bloom in July.

Now,
comes “August”. This month was once called “sexillis”, as it was the
sixth month from March, with which, as you remember, the year once opened. It
was then changed into August in honour of the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar,
the nephew of Julius Caesar. This man was chosen by Julius Caesar as his heir,
he took the name Caesar, and was given the title “Augustus” by the Roman
Senate. This month was “a lucky Month” for Augustus Caesar. By the way,
Augustus re­fused to have fewer days in his month of August than there were in
the month of July. So he borrowed a day from February and added it to August;
that is why August has 31 days.

The Old
English name for August was "Wead-Monath", the month of weeds. You
know, the Old English word "weed" meant vegetation in generale.

“September”, “October”, “November”
and “December” are just  "seventh", "eighth",
"ninth" and "tenth" months of the year. You remember that
be­fore the Romans changed their calendar, March was the first month.

The
English had more descriptive names for these month. September was called
"Harfest-Monath", "the harvest month". October was
"Win-Monath", "the wine month". November was
"Bloo-Monath", because in November the English sacrificed cattle to
their gods. December was “Mid-Winter-Monath”, because this month was the middle
month of winter.

C).
Germanic tribes.

At the beginning of
the 5th century the Romans left the islands, they had tо save their own country from
barbarians. If you want to know what events followed after that, turn on the
Time Machine again. So, here we are, in the 5th century, This is the time of
the birth of the English language. Тhe Germanic tribes of Angles, Sаxоns and Jutes invaded thе misty fertile island. Some of the native Britons were
killed, mаnу others fled from the invaders
"аs from fire"
into the hillу parts of the
country. Anglеs, Saxons аnd Jutes spread all over the
fertile lаnds of the Isles.
Gradually thеу bесаmе one nation - English. They developed one language -
English. As historians write, "thе English language arrived in Britain on the point of а sword"! The реорlе оf that timе of thе history аrе called Аng1о-Sахоns, their language is оld English оr Ang1о-Saxon
as well.

Тhе next destination оf оur
Тimе Масhinе is the 7th century, when
Christiаnity was introducеd in Britain, monasteries with sсhools аnd libraries were set uр all оver thе соuntry.
Тhе English language was
considerably enriched bу
the Latin woгds.

Now, with the help of
the Тimе Масhinе we'll fly over into the 8th сеntuгу. Аt this time the ancient Scandinavians, cаlled the Vikings, began to гаid Britаin. Тhе Vikings continued thеir wars with the English until the timе the Ang1о-Saxоn king Alfred thе Great made а treaty with them аnd gave them а раrt
of the country, that was саlled
"Danelaw". Тhе Vikings settled thеrе, married Еnglish wives аnd bеgan
peaceful life on the territory of Britain. Later military conflicts resumed
again, but by the 11th century they were over. The influence of these events оn the English lаnguagе was great, indeed. А lаrge number of Scandinavian words саmе intо Еnglish from "Danes" as
thе Ang1o-Saxons called
all the Vikings.

One reason why Roman Britannia disappeared
so quickly is probably that its influence was largely confined to the towns. In
the countryside, where most people lived, farming methods had remained
unchanged and Celtic speech continued to be dominant.

The Roman occupation had been a matter of
colonial control rather than large-scale settlement. But, during the fifth
century, a number of tribes from the north-western European mainland invaded
and settled in large numbers. Two of these tribes were the Angles and the
Saxons. These Anglo-Saxons soon had the south-east of the country in their
grasp. In the west of the country their advance was temporarily halted by an
army of Celtic Britons under the command of the legendary King Arthur.
Nevertheless, by the end of the sixth century, they and their way of life
predominated in nearly all of England and in parts of southern Scotland. The
Celtic Britons were either Saxonized or driven westwards, where their culture
and language survived in south-west Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.

The Anglo-Saxons had little use for towns
and cities. But they had a great effect on the countryside, where they
introduced new farming methods and founded the thousands of self-sufficient
villages which formed the basis of English society for the next thousand or so
years.

The Anglo-Saxons were pagan when they came
to Britain. Christianity spread throughout Britain from two different
directions during the sixth and seventh centuries. It came directly from Rome
when St Augustine arrived in 597 and established his headquarters at Canterbury
in the south-east of England. It had already been introduced into Scotland and
northern England from Ireland, which had become Christian more than 150 years
earlier. Although Roman Christianity eventually took over the whole of the
British Isles, the Celtic model persisted in Scotland and Ireland for several
hundred years. It was less centrally organized, and had less need for a strong
monarchy to support it. This partly explains why both secular and religious
power in these two countries continued to be both more locally based and less
secure than it was elsewhere in Britain throughout the medieval period.

Britain experience another wave of Germanic
invasions in the 8^th century. These invaders, known as Vikings,
Horsemen or Danes, came from Scandinavia. In the ninth century they conquered
and settled the extreme north and west of Scotland, and also some coastal
regions of Ireland. Their conquest of England was halted when they were
defeated by King Alfred of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex. This resulted in an
agreement which divided England between Wessex, in the south and west, and the
“Danelaw” in the north and east.

However, the cultural differences between
Anglo-Saxons and Danes were comparatively small. They led roughly the same way
of life and spoke two varieties of the same Germanic tongue (which combined to
form the basis of modern English). Moreover, the Danes soon converted to Christianity.
These similarities made political unification easier, and by the end of the
10th century England was one kingdom with a Germanic culture throughout.

Most of modern-day Scotland was also united
by this time, at least in name, in a Gaelic kingdom.

Paopla in Anglo-Saxon
times. Living uncomfortably close to the natural world, were wall aware that
though creation is inarticulate it is animate, and that every created thing,
every “with”, had its own personality.

The riddle
is a sophisticated and harmless for of invocation by imitation: the essence of
it is that the poet, by an act of imaginative identification assumes the
personality of some crested thing - an animal, a plant, a natural force.

The
specialists consider that they know not enough about The Exeter Book collection
of riddles. Ridding was certainly a popular pastime among the Anglo-Saxons,
especially in the monasteries, and there are extant collections (in Latin, of
course,) from the pens of Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, Tatwin, Archbishop of Canterbury
and others.

The provenance and genesis of
the collection are unknown, and from internal evidence one can only draw the
modest conclusion that the ninety-five riddles were not written by one man.

In English a student and the little black circle in the
center of the eye are both called “pupils”? And the connection between them is
a doll. Both the words came into the English language through French from the
Latin. In Latin there was a word “pupa” – “a girl”, and “pupus” – “ a boy”.
When the Latin ending “illa” was added to “pupa” or “pupus”, the word meant “ a
little girl” or “ a little boy”. Since little girls and little boys went to
school, they became “pupils”.

But “pupilla”, a little girl, also meant “a
doll”. It is easy to understand why, isn’t it? Now, if you look into the pupil
of someone’s eye when the light is just right, you can see your reflection.
Your figure, by the way, is very, very small like a tiny doll. The Romans named
the black circle in the eye “pupilla” because of the doll they could see there.
And the word came into the English as “pupil” as well. And thus, we have in the
English language two words that are spelt the same and have the same origin,
but mean different things: “pupil” – a student, and “pupil” – a black circle in
the center of your eye.     

Professor casts a quick glance at the wall
and noticed a map there. “This map is made of paper. But the word itself meant cloth
once. This word came into English from Latin, the Latin mappa was
cloth. First maps were drawn on fabrics. In Latin the combination of the
words appeared: mappa mundi – “cloth of the word”. It was the first
representation of the world as a drawing on the cloth. Later maps began to be
made of paper, but the word remained.

By another route the same word came into
English for the second time. In Late Latin this word was corrupted into nappa,
and later, through French, it entered the English language with the new
meaning of napkin.”

“When a teacher asks you a question. She
expects you will give a correct answer. Answer is a very strange word.
Its spelling makes no sense until you know its origin. This is a very old word.
In Old English the noun was andswaru and the verb – andswearing. So,
you see, it consisted of two parts: and and swear. The word and
at that time meant against; swear meant to give a solemn oath. In
the youth of the English language  andswaru was “ a solemn oath made
against an accusation”. A man had to pronounce a solemn in reply to an
accusation, to prove that it is wrong. In the course of historical development
the word lost its solemnity and it means now a reply, to reply. Any
little child answer you back today.”

Professor History remarks, “ I see that
some of you write with a ballpoint pen, others with a pencil, and there are
some who write with a fountain pen. So, you can’t do without ink, after all. A
simple three-letter word ink comes from a nine-letter ancestor that
meant a branding iron. And now a few steps away from the skill of
writing towards
the skill of healing wounds. When we have a wound we cauterize it, we burn it
with heat or with a chemical in order to close it and prevent it from becoming
infected. The ancient Greeks used to cauterize a wound as we do, and the
grandparent word of cauterize is kauterion, a branding iron. The
Greek not only sealed wounds with heat, but they used much the same process in
art for sealing fast the colours of their painting. It was customary then to
use wax colours fixed with heat or, as they expressed it, encauston, burned
in. In Latin this word changed to encaustum, and it became the name
for a kind of purple ink that the emperors used when they signed their
official documents. In Old French encaustum became enque. English
adopted the word as enke or inke, that is how today we have our ink,
coloured liquid used for writing or printing.”

“The start of spoken language is buried in
mystery and in a tangle of theories,” Professor History begins his lecture.
“The history of written language also disappears in the jungles, in the deserts
and far fields of unrecorded time. But at least the words that have to do with
writing tell us much about the early beginning of the art and the objects that
were used to record the written symbols.

The word write was spelled writan
in Old English. It first meant to scratch, and it is exactly what the
primitives did on their birch-bark or shingles with sharp stones and others
pointed instruments. In the more sophisticated lands that surrounded the
Mediterranean the papyrus plant was used instead of the bark of the trees; as you
already know, that gave us the word paper.

Pen with which we write now, in its Latin form penna,
meant a feather and in some ancient collections you can still see quill pens.
And pencil that we hold inherits its name from the Latin penicillum,
meaning a little tail, and this refers to the time when writing was done
with a tiny brush that looked indeed like a little tail.

The term letter designating a
written symbol, a letter of the alphabet is thought to be relative to the Latin
word linere, to smear, to leave a dirty mark on some surface. Isn’t it a
good description of some of the early writing?

But what is written should be read. In read
we have an odd little word, from the Old English raedan, which meant
first to guess, to discern. And again it is just what you had to do to
interpret what was scratched on wooden shingles. Anything that had to be
interpreted was called a raedels. Later on people began to think that
the word raedels was a plural because of the “s” on the end. A new
singular, raedel was formed and here is the ancestor of our word riddle.
Finally the word read took on its modern meaning: if you can read, you
have the ability to look at and understand what is written.

Of course the basis of all writing is language.
But it is first of all, a spoken activity, and hence this noun is derived from
a word referring to the organ of speech primarily involved. In this case it is
the French word language, which goes back to the Latin lingua,
tongue. The English, though, retained their native word to name that soft
movable part inside your mouth whish you see for tasting and licking and for
speaking”, a tongue. Sometimes you may hear the word tongue used in the
meaning of language, but it is an old-fashioned and literary use.

If you want to read what is written in a
foreign language, you need a dictionary. The term dictionary comes from
the Latin word dictio, from dico, say or speak. A dictionary is
really a record of what people say, of the pronunciation, spellings, and
meanings that they give to words.”

In Old English there was a different word
with which the Englishmen called bread, it was half. But then as a
result of the Vikings invasion and Scandinavian influence on the English
language a new word of the same meaning entered the English vocabulary from
Scandinavian: cake. Since the English had already their own word (half),
they started to use the word cake for a special type of bread. First
it referred to a small loaf of bread of flat and round shape. From the 15^th
century it began to mean sweet food, as it does now.

To the Scandinavians, living in Britain,
called their bread by the word brauth. The English had a similar word – bread
meaning a lump, a piece of bread. Under the influence of the
Scandinavian language the word bread widened its meaning and began to
mean bread in general, while the word loaf (from Old English half)
narrowed its meaning, now it is a large lump of bread which we slice before
eating.

The Great Englishman Caxton, who introduced
printing in Britain in 1476, wrote in a preface to one of the books about a
funny episode with egg. The thing is that in Old English the word egg
had a different form which spelled as ey in Middle English; its plural
form was eyren. And again the Scandinavians brought with them to Britain
their word egg. It first spread in the northern English dialects, the
southerners did not know it and used their native word.

Caxton tells the readers that once English
merchants from the northern regions were sailing down the Thames, bound for the
Netherlands. There was no wind and they landed at a small southern village. The
merchants decided to buy some food. They came to a house and one of them asked
a woman if she could sell them eggs. The woman answered that she did not
understand him because she did not know French. The merchant became very angry
and said that he did not speak French either. Then another merchant helped. He
said they wanted eyren, the woman understood him and brought them eggs.

For rather a long period of time two words
existed in Britain: a native English word eyren was used in the South,
and the Scandinavian borrow eggs in the North. The Scandinavian word has
won after, as you can see.

D). The
Norman French.

I made another
excursion into the past. The Time Масhinе
has саrried me into the
11th century, into the year of 1066. An аwful picture ореns before my eyes: а great battle at Hastings, the English king Наrold is killed, the English are
defeated, the Norman invaders have won а victory. Тhe Normans саmе
frоm across the British Сhannеl, from the part of France
called Normandy. Тhеу conquered the English under the
head of their leader, Duke William, who later got the name of William the
Conqueror. Тhе Normans brought into Britain
not оn1у their king, but their French
language as well. So it еxplаins why there are so many French
words in the English vocabulary.

The successful Norman
invasion of England in 1066 brought Britain into the mainstream of western
European culture. Previously most links had been with Scandinavia. Only in
Scotland did this link survive; the western isles (until the thirteenth
century) and the northern islands (until the fifteenth century) remaining under
the control of Scandinavian kings. Throughout this period the English kings
also ruled over areas of land on the continent were often at war with the
French kings in disputes over ownership.

Unlike the Germanic
invasions, the Norman invasion was small-scale. There was no such thing as a
Norman area of settlement. Instead, the Norman soldiers who had been a part of
the invading army were given the ownership of land – and of the people living
on it. A strict feudal system was imposed. Great nobles, or barons, were
responsible directly to the king; lesser lords, each owing a village, were directly
responsible to a baron. Under them were the peasants, tied by a strict system
of mutual duties and obligations to the local lord, and forbidden to travel
without his permission. The peasants were the English-speaking Saxons. The
lords and the barons were the French-speaking Normans. This was the beginning
of the English class system.

The existence of two
words for the larger farm animals in modern English is a result of the class
divisions established by the Norman conquest. There are the words for the
living animals (e.g. cow, pig, sheep), which have their origins in
Anglo-Saxon, and the words for the meat from the animals (e.g. beef, pork,
mutton.), which have their origins in the French language that the Normans
brought to England. Only the Normans normally ate meat; the poor Anglo-Saxon
peasants did not!

The strong system of
government which the Normans introduced meant that the Anglo-Norman kingdom was
easily the most powerful political force in British Isles. Not surprisingly
therefore, the authority of the English monarch gradually extended to other
parts of these islands in the next 250 years. But the end of the thirteenth
century, a large part of eastern Ireland was controlled by Anglo-Norman lords
in the name of the English king and the while of Wales was under his direct
rule (at which time the custom of naming the monarch’s eldest son the “Prince
of Wales” began). Scotland managed to remain politically independent in the
medieval period, but was obliged to fight occasional wars to do so.

II.
Middle English. (1100-1500)

The English which was
used from about 1100 to about 1500 is called Middle English. The cultural story
of this period is different. Two hundred and fifty years after the Norman
Conquest, it was a Germanic language (Middle English) and not the Norman
(French) language which had become the dominant one in all classes of society
of England. Furthermore, it was the Anglo-Saxon concept of common law, and not
Roman law, which formed the basis of the legal system.

Despite English rule,
northern and central Wales was never settled in great numbers by Saxon or
Norman. As a result the (Celtic) Welsh language and culture remained strong.
Eisteddfods, national festivals of Welsh song and poetry, continued throughout
the medieval period and still take place today. The Anglo-Norman lords of
eastern Ireland remained loyal to the English king but, despite laws to the
contrary, mostly adopted the Gaelic language and customs.

The political
independence of Scotland did not prevent a gradual switch to the English
language and customs in the lowland (southern) part of the country. First, the
Anglo-Saxon element here was strengthened by the arrival of many Saxon
aristocrats fleeing the Norman conquest of England. Second, the Celtic kings
saw that the adoption of an Anglo-Norman style of government would strengthen
royal power. By the end of this period a cultural split had developed between
the lowlands, where the way of life and language was similar to that in
England, and the highlands, where (Celtic) Gaelic culture and language
prevailed – and where, because of the mountainous landscape, the authority of
the king was hard to enforce.

It was in this period
that Parliament began its gradual evolution into the democratic body which is
it today. The word “parliament”, which comes from the French word parler
(to speak), was first used in England in the thirteenth century to describe an
assembly of nobles called together by the king. In 1295, the Model Parliament
set the pattern for the future by including elected representatives from urban
and rural areas.

Many food names in
English are French borrowings. After the Norman Conquest under William the
Conqueror (1066) French words began to enter the English language increasing in
number for more than tree centuries. Among them were different names of dishes.
The Norman barons brought to Britain their professional cooks who showed to
English their skill.

Learners of the
English language notice that there is one name for a live beast grazing in the
field and another for the same beast when it is killed and coked. The matter is
that English peasants preserved Anglo-Saxon names for the animals they used to
bring to Norman castles to sell. But the dishes made of the meat got French
names. That is why now we have native English names of animals: ox, cow,
calf, sheep, swine, and French names of meals from whose meat they are
cooked: beef, veal, mutton, pork. (By the way “lamb” is an exception, it
is a native Anglo-Saxon word). A historian writes that an English peasant who
had spent a hard day tending his oxen, calves, sheep and swine probably saw
little enough of the beef, veal, mutton and pork, which were gobbled at night
by his Norman masters.

The French enriched
English vocabulary with such food words as bacon, sausage, gravy; then:
toast, biscuit, cream, sugar. They taught the English to have for dessert
such fruits as: fig, grape, orange, lemon, pomegranate, peach and the
names of these fruits became known to the English due the French. The English
learned from them how to make pastry, tart, jelly, treacle. From the
French the English came to know about mustard and vinegard. The
English borrowed from the French verbs to describe various culinary processes: to
boil, to roast, to stew, to fry.

One famous English
linguist exclaimed: “It is melancholy to think what the English dinner would
have been like, had there been no Norman Conquest!”

The period of Middle
English is the time of the fast development of English literature. The greatest
poet of the 14^th century was Geoffrey Chaucer. He is often called
the father of English poetry, although, as we know, there were many English
poets before him. As we should expect, the language had changed a great deal in
the seven hundred years since the time Beowulf and it is much easier to
read Chaucer than to read anything written in Old English. Here are the opening
lines of The Canterbury Tales (about 1387), his greatest work:

Whan that Aprille with his shoures swote

The droghte of Marche
hath perced to the rote

When April with
his sweet showers has stuck to the roots the

dryness of March…

There are
five main beats in each line, and the reader will notice that rhyme has taken
the place of Old English alliteration. Chaucer was a well-educated man who read
Latin, and studied French and Italian poetry; but he was not interested only in
books. He traveled and made good use of his eyes; and the people whom he
describes are just like living people.

The Canterbury Tales total altogether
about 17,000 lines – about half of Chaucer’s literary production. A party of
pilgrims agree to tell stories to pass the time on their journey from London to
Canterbury with its great church and the grave of Thomas a Becket. There are
more than twenty of these stories, mostly in verse, and in the stories we get
to know the pilgrims themselves. Most of them, like the merchant, the lawyer,
the cook, the sailor, the ploughman, and the miller, are ordinary people, but
each of them can be recognized as a real person with his or her own character.
One of the most enjoyable characters, for example, is the Wife of Bath. By the
time she tells her story we know her as a woman of very strong opinions who
believes firmly in marriage (she has had five husbands, one after the other)
and equally firmly in the need to manage husbands strictly. In her story one of
King Arthur’s knights must give within a year the correct answer to the
question “What do women love most?” in order to save his life. An ugly old
which knows the answer (“to rule”) and agrees to tell him if he marries her. At
last he agrees, and at the marriage she becomes young again and beautiful.

A good deal of Middle English prose is
religious. The Ancren Riwle teaches proper rules of life for anchoresses
(religious women) how they ought to dress, what work they may do, when they
ought not to speak, and so on. It was probably written in the thirteenth
century. Another work, The Form of Perfect Living, was written by richard rolle with the same sort of aim.
His prose style has been highly praised, and his work is important in the
history of our prose.

john
wycliffe, a priest, attacked
many of the religious ideas of his time. He was at Oxford, but had to leave
because his attacks on the Church could no longer be borne. One of his beliefs
was that anyone who wanted to read the Bible ought to be allowed to do so;

but how could this be done by uneducated
people when the Bible was in Latin? Some parts had indeed been put into Old
English long ago, but Wycliffe arranged the production of the whole Bible in
English. He himself translated part of it. There were two trans­lations ! 1382
and 1388), of which the second is the better.

It is surprising that Wycliffe was not
burnt alive for his attacks on religious practices. After he was dead and
buried, his bones were dug up again and thrown into a stream which flows into
the River Avon (which itself flows into the River Severn):

The Avon to the Severn runs,

The Severn to the sea,

And Wycliffe's dust shall spread abroad,

Wide as the waters be.

An important Middle English prose work, Morte
D'Arthur [= Arthur's Death], was written by sir
thomas malory. Even for the violent years just before and during the
Wars of the Roses, Malory was a violent character. He was several times in
prison, and it has been suggested that he wrote at least part of Morte
D'Arthur there to pass the time.

Malory wrote eight separate tales of King
Arthur and his knights but when Caxton printed the book in 1485 (after Malory's
death) he joined them into one long story. Caxton's was the only copy of
Malory's work that we had until, quite recently f1933-4;. a hand­written copy
of it was found in Winchester College.

The stories of Arthur and his knights have
attracted many British and other writers. Arthur is a shadowy figure of the
past. but probably really lived. Many tales gathered round him and his knights.
One of the main subjects was the search for the cup used by Christ at the East
Supper. (This cup is known as The Holy Grail. Another subject was Arthur's
battles against his enemies, including the Romans. Malory's fine prose can tell
a direct story well, but can also express deep feelings in musical sentences.
Here is part of the book in modern form. King Arthur is badly wounded:

Then Sir Bedivere took the king on his back and so
went with him to the water's edge. And when they were there. close by the bank,
there came a little ship with many beautiful ladies in it; and among them all
there was a queen. And they all had black head-dresses, and all wept and cried
when they saw King Arthur.

III.
Modern English (1500-to the present day)

By the beginning of 20^th
century, Britain was no longer the world's richest country. Perhaps this caused
Victorian confidence in gradual reform to weaken. Whatever the reason, the
first twenty years of the century were a period of extremism in Britain. The
Suffragettes, women demanding the right to vote, were prepared both to damage
property and to die for their beliefs; the problem of Ulster in the north of
Ireland led to a situation in which some sections of the army appeared ready to
disobey the government; and the government's introduction of new types and
levels of taxation was opposed so absolutely by the House of Lords that even
Parliament, the founda­tion of the political system, seemed to have an
uncertain future in its traditional form. But by the end of the First World
War, two of these issues had been resolved to most people's satisfaction (the
Irish problem remained) and the rather un-British climate of extremism died
out.

The significant changes that have taken
place in this century are dealt with elsewhere in this book. Just one thing
should be noted here. It was from the beginning of this century that the urban
working class (the majority of the population) finally began to make its voice
heard. In Parliament, the Labour party gradually replaced the Liberals (the
'descendants' of the Whigs) as the main opposition to the Conservatives (the
'descendants' of the Tories). In addition, trade unions managed to organize
themselves. In 1926, they were powerful enough to hold a General Strike, and
from the 1930s until the 1980s the Trades Union Congress (see chapter 14) was
probably the single most powerful political force outside the institutions of
government and Parliament.

From about 1600,
explorers, adventurers, settlers and soldiers went out from Britain to found
settlements and colonies overseas. They took the English language with them. 
At the height of their power, during the 19th century, the British could claim
that the sun never set on their Empire.  Today almost all the countries of the
old Empire have become independent.  However, most of them are now members of
the Commonwealth of Nations, and English continues to be an important language
for them.

After the Second
World War the United States became what Britain had been in the 19th century: 
politically and economically one of the most powerful nations in the world. As
its power spread, so the English language spread.

Five hundred years ago they didn't speak
English in North America. The American Indians had their own languages. So did
the Inuit (often called 'Eskimos') and Aleuts in Canada. So did the Aborigines
in Australia, and the Maoris in New Zealand.

The English arrived and set up their
colonies. And then other people came from all over the world, bringing many
different languages and cultures.

The USA has the biggest mixture of all: it
is often called a 'melting pot' of cultures. In 1619 a small ship arrived in
Jamestown, Virginia, with twenty slaves from Africa. For over two hundred
years, the Americans imported, bought and sold African slaves. Today there are
over 29 million black Americans living in the USA.

In 1848 the population of the United States
was still very small. Then two important things happened: they discovered gold
in California and a new law, the Homestead Act, gave free land to farmers.
Suddenly millions of immigrants came to America, 'The Land of Opportunity'.

At first they were English, Irish, German
and Scandinavian. Then Italians, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, Russians and Poles
came. Most immigrants came because economic conditions at home were bad. But
there were also other problems in Europe. About three million Jews came to the
USA between 1880 and 1910 because of religious persecution in Russia and other
countries.

Today the USA is still much richer than
most of its neighbors. Its most recent new citizens are many Spanish-speaking
people from Puerto Rico, Mexico and South America.

The population of
Britain is only about 58 million. But throughout the world English is spoken by
over 700 million people.

About 350 million
people speak English as their first language in 12 countries such as Britain,
the USA. Canada Australia. New Zealand. South Africa.

About 300 million use
English as a second or official language in over 60 countries, for example, in
India. They usually use it when doing business, or when completing official
documents and forms.

It is estimated that
at least 100 million people throughout the world use English fluently as a
foreign language.

There are over 3.000
languages in the world.  So why has English become so widely spoken?

Today the English language is almost the
same all over the world. You can tell a person's nationality from their accent
- Australian, Scottish, Canadian and so on. But the words are more or less
international.

It's strange that the differences in
Britain itself are greater than those between Britain and other
English-speaking countries. For a Londoner, it's easy to understand an
American, but quite difficult to understand the dialect of Newcastle in the North
of England!

But not many people speak dialects in
Britain these days. A hundred years ago (before radio and television) all
ordinary working people did. In Emily Bronte's book Wuthering Heights
the old man Joseph speaks Yorkshire dialect:

“Take these in tuh t'maister, lad. Un' bide
theare. Aw's gang up tuh my awn rahm.” (Take these in to the master, boy. And
stay there. I'm going up to my own room.)

Don't worry. Joseph doesn't say very much
in the book - the rest is in normal English!

In a country
like New Zealand, English is the first language. In fact it’s the only language
for most people. About 100,000 Maoris have their own language, but they also
speak English. Most of this book is about countries where English is the first
language – Canada, Ireland, the USA and so on.

But in more than sixty other countries
English is a second language. The government, business and universities use it.
Some of the people, but not all, speak it well and use it for certain parts of
their lives.

IV.
Conclusion.

I
enjoy learning English, it is really great' I like to learn new words, to look
up in the dictionary their meanings. English grammar is difficult, but I try
hard to understand it, to learn the rules, to put them into practice.

I think it
is very interesting to read English books, newspapers, magazines. I came to
know a lot of exciting facts and new things. It is like a new world where you
can enter if you know the language.

English folklore is
very rich.  I believe, it is good to know English proverbs and tongue-twisters,
English rhymes and limericks. English sayings and songs.

When you  learn 
tongue-twisters,  it  helps  you  to improve your phonetics.

I know quite a number
of them. Here is a good one:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper:

A peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked:

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper

Where's the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked!

This one is my favorite:

A thatcher of Thatchwood went to Thatchet a-thatching

Did a thatcher of Thatchwood go to Thatchet a-thatching?

If a thatchcr of Thatchwood went to Thatchet a-thatching

Where's the thatching the thatcher of Thatchwood has thatched?

While writing my research paper report I had to
read a lot of books on English History I came to know a lot of English folk
songs, they are simple and nice. Some of them help me to learn words.  Solomon
Grundy is a folk song it helps you to remember the days of the week. It is a
sad song/ but 1 the same it’s funny too.

Solomon Grundy

Born on Monday

Christened on Tuesday

Married on Wednesday

Ill on Thursday

Worse on Friday

Died on Saturday

Buried on Sunday

This is the end

Of poor old Solomon
Grundy.

English proverbs are
useful in many situations. Here are a few examples. When there's a will,
there's a way. Or: All’s well that ends well. No
sweet without sweat.  Lend money and lose a friend.  East or West, home
is best.

English jokes are very funny.
They often laugh at nationalities of the British Isles.  Here is a typical
one.  “An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman were alone on a desert
island.”  One day the Englishman found an old bottle.  He broke it and out came
a genie. The genie said: “I'll give you  and your friends three wishes.  But
choose  well, because you may have only one wish each” “My wish is  quite  simple”,
- said the  Englishman, - “I wish to be taken home”.  “Your wish is my
command”, - said the genie, and the Englishman disappeared.  “Yes, I'd like the
same”, - said the Scotsman.  And in a minute he was at home as well. Then the
genie turned to the Irishman.  “And  what  about  you? What's your wish?” The
Irishman thought a little and then said:  “I'm very lonely without my friends.
I wish they were back here with me.”

English literature
has very rich traditions.  English poetry is well known in the world best
Russian poets translated English poetry into Russian. But of course, when you
study English it's a pleasure to learn English poems in the original.  My
favorite poem is “If by R. Kipling. I think, he gives very good advice for the
young people in this poem.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are loosing theirs and blaming it on you*

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your
master:

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same.

You can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginning

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the will which says to them; “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue

Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, out non much;

If you can *ill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Yes, to learn English is such a fun, indeed!!!   

List of
Literature

1.  
Speak Out 3/2001 – pages 2-4 Издательство «ГЛОССА».

2.  
Борисов
В.С., Борисова Л.М. «Английский не для всех»

3.   Mark Farrell «The
World Of English» England Longman 1995.

4.   James O’Driscoll
«Britain» Oxford University England Press 1995.

5.   «Treasures Of
Historical English» Борисова Л.М.

6.   «History And Mystery
Of The English Words» Борисова Л.М.

7.   G.C. Thorney «An
Outline Of English Literature» England Longman 1984.

Supplement