Old English Words and Modern Meanings

Examination of Old English words along with their modern meanings can give you a glimpse of how languages develop through time. The first form of English as a language is termed Old English and came into being during the 5th century. 

Modern Meanings of Old English Words

Many common words and verbs can be found in Old English that hold the same meaning today. For example, the following words all show roots in Old English:

• Strong
• Water
• Be
• Beam

By reviewing literature written in the period that Old English was used you can see the many Old English words that are very similar to words found in modern English. For example:

• Eald - means old
• Brodor - means brother
• Hus - means house
• Nett - means net
• Riht - means right

It can be difficult to determine the modern meaning of some Old English words because there are often multiple words which have similar meanings. For example, three descriptions of females are:

• Widuwe - stands for widow
• Wif - means wife
• Wifmann - the term for woman

Influence of Other Languages on Old English

Examination of Old English and modern English seems to indicate that many of the words we use today find their roots in the vocabulary of Old English. Some estimates claim that about half of the words used today have their roots in Old English. This should not be that surprising since English has its roots in the Germanic languages.

Many of the Old English words also came from influence of the Romans and Greeks. These words were borrowed by the Germanic conquerors and incorporated into Old English. For example, the following words were adapted from the Romans, Greeks and from Latin:

• Apostle - came from apostol
• Chalk - came from cealc
• Wine - came from win
• Monk - came from munuc

While the spelling is different, the meanings all follow the original words and correspond to the modern meanings.

Making Up New Words

As the need arose for new words for things that the Germanic conquerors were unfamiliar with, they would make up words rather than take Germanic words as descriptors.

Two examples of this are the words for astronomy and arithmetic. The invaders made up the words based on the root word "craeft" which meant an art or science.

• Astronomy became star-craft or tungolcraeft
• Arithmetic became number craft or rimcraeft

Now you know some old English words, their meanings and have a better understanding of the sources of our language.

Three Periods of English Language

English is often broken into three separate and distinct periods:

• Old English
• Middle English
• Modern English

Old English

Prior to the beginnings of English, the inhabitants of Great Britain spoke primarily Celtic languages. During the later part of the 5th century, three tribes invaded England from Western Germany and Denmark. These tribes spoke a similar language that, over the years, developed into Old English. Old English survived until the Norman invasion in 1066 by William the Conqueror. Following the invasion and conquest, the English language entered the period of Middle English.

Middle English

The invaders from the northern regions of France brought a form of French with them. The new language became the official language of the government, trade and the ruling class.

The division of the classes began to include linguistics, with the upper or noble classes speaking French, while the lower classes spoke Middle English. This continued until the 14th century when English once more became the common language.

Middle English changed considerably over the centuries to include a number of French words in the vocabulary.

Modern English

Beginning in the 15th century, the transition from Middle English to Modern English began. Much of the transition was due to the expansion of the British Empire throughout the world and to the development of printing.

The printing press and increase in publishing of books drove the standardization of the language. Spelling and grammar was formalized due to the publication of various literary works and pamphlets. Source

History of the English Language

A short history of the origins and development of English

English is a member of the Germanic family of languages.
Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from "Englaland" [sic] and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England" and "English" are derived.

Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century.

Old English (450-1100 AD)

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English.

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be,strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

Middle English (1100-1500)

An example of Middle English by Chaucer.

In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines,
written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world

This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. 

Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

Modern English (1800-Present)

A cover from Charles Dickens' 
Oliver Twist in 1837. Source

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

Varieties of English

From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English).

Sometimes American and British English users spell things differently.

Some words for the same things are different in British and American English. Source

Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English. Source

The figure above shows the timeline of the history of the English language.

Which one do you use "-er" or "more"??

Source: YUniversity

So what is the difference between "lately" and "recently" ?

source: YUNinversity

Let's know better about alates (laron)

Entomologists refer to winged ants and termites as alates. The alate is simply the adult,  sexually mature stage in the ant or termite life cycle. Alates develop in the colony from immature stages prior to the flight season. When the alates receive the proper cues (warm temperatures, bright sunlight, low winds, for example) they will leave the colony and fly away to start their own colonies. 

The exodus of alates from a colony, known as a dispersal or nuptial flight, is commonly referred to as swarming; so alates are often referred to as swarmers. Male and female termites shed their wings and will pair up when a suitable mate is found. Then they will search for a suitably damp piece of wood or soil where they will start their new colony. 

Swarming in ants is different. Male and female alates leave the nest and after the female is inseminated, the male dies. The newly fertilized female then searches for a suitable nesting site - the choice of where to nest depends on the species. source

Alates swarming from underneath concrete step.Alat

Verbal Insanity

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes, 

but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes. 

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, 

yet the plural of moose should never be meese. 

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,

yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men, 
why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen? 
If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? 
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth? 

Then one may be that, and three would be those,

yet hat in the plural would never be hose, 

and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

but though we say mother, we never say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim. 

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. 
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; 
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.
We take English for granted. 
But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that 
quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, 
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? 

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not 

one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get

rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? 

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? 
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? 
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. 

In what other language do people recite at a play and 

play at a recital? We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.

We have noses that run and feet that smell.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

 

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language

in which your house can burn up as it burns down, 

in which you fill in a form by filling it out, 

and in which an alarm goes off by going on. 

So if Dad is Pop, how come Mom isn’t Mop?

And I’ve often wondered: How come we park in a driveway and drive on 
a parkway? Makes no sense!

What is meme??

Defintion of meme

meme/mēm/

An element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation. An image, video, etc. that is passed electronically from one Internet user to another. The fundamental unit of information, analogous to the in emerging of culture - meme pool (n.) : all memes of a culture or individual - memetic (adj.) : relating to memes - memetics (n.) : the study of memes  Example of meme This is the writing of the actual text in an SMS, but culturally it shows how Chinese accent sound. And it sounds funny. Here are some meme of our own Department. Check these out.. Hope you enjoy it. See you at next posting.

See how tough are you??

How tough are you?

Hi,

Nice to see you again today. Today I will give you a challenge. The following link provides the executable program for you. It called, Grammar Endurance Quiz. In the quiz, you will have to answer 60 items with very limited time, 15 minutes. So, how tough are you to deal with grammar? Download and give it a try...

Introduction to Linguistic Additional Reference

Here is the additional Introduction to Linguistic reference. 

To download, just click the link.

Download

English as The Official Language of The World

Here is a good example of why English is become international language. Please. do study English in your best effort to study it. 

Source