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Evolution and history of the English language - Coggle Diagram
Evolution and history of the English language
Nature of English
Evolution through generations of speakers
Beowulf
Notable changes over time
Not a single language
Many dialects
Historical phases and influences
Old English
Germanic language
Beowulf
Origins (V-VI century)
Brought by Angles, Saxons and Jutes
Dialects known as Anglo-Saxon
Influences
Francese
Normans
Latin
Old Norse
Viking invasions
Modern English
Many Latin words
Other additions (after 1066)
Norman rulers
Added French and Latin lexicon
Norman Invasion (1066)
Comparative linguistics
Analysis focus
Sound variation patterns
Basic vocabularies
Grammatical structure
Examples of phonetic variation
German 'p' -> 'pf'; Old English retains 'p' (after the 6th century)
English 't' where Latin has 'd' (initial word)
English 'f' where Latin has 'p' (initial word)
Swedish 'sk' -> English 'sh'
Prehistoric Roots
Limitations of the Reconstruction
PIE and the last traceable historical/archaeological record
PIE descends from an older language
Mysteries: PIE's connection to other families, pre-PIE languages in Europe
Proto-Indo-European (PIE)
Spoken approximately 6,000 years ago
Location: Pontic-Caspian Steppe (Ukraine/Russia)
Ancestor of Proto-Germanic
Indo-European family
Includes much of South and West Asia
Distant relatives: Hindi, Persian, Celtic languages
Includes almost all European languages
Proto-Germanic
Reconstructed by comparing descendants (never written)
Spoken around 500 AD
Common ancestor of English, Swedish, and German
Conclusions
Nearly 3 billion people speak words shaped by 6,000 years of history