BY: Adebanjo Oluwafeyisayo.

The English Language is undoubtedly the lingua franca in many countries. It has emerged as the most used language in politics, communication, commerce, science and technology, the internet and so on. As at 2022, there are over 20% speakers of English with 400 million native speakers and 1.5 to 2 billion non-native speakers across the globe. In an attempt for the language to fit into the regional functions of its users, especially non-native speakers, many varieties of English have arisen leading to over 100 Englishes. Some of these varieties are British English, American English, Nigerian English, Kenyan English, Konglish (Korean English), and Chinglish (Chinese English) to mention a few. As the most employed language, there is a need to explore its history in terms of origin, influences and development over time.

Language is dynamic, constantly evolving and adapting to changes. The English Language is beyond only the grammar; it encompasses the history influenced by invasions and everyday activities. The English Language can be traced back to the 5th century during what time the Celtic people live in Britain; they spoke the Celtic language. The Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, invaded the weak Celtic people and influenced their language. The single language at that moment was called “Englisc” from which “England” and “English” are derived, and it laid the foundation for Old English. The period was one of full inflection. It involved adding suffixes, and prefixes or changing the root of a word to indicate its role in a sentence and its relationship with other words.

The Middle English spanned between 1100-1500. This period witnessed the Norman Conquest. The Norman invaders brought with them the French language which became the language of the Royal Court and the Nobles. This caused a kind of linguistic class division because the lower class spoke English. However, in the 14th century, the English language became dominant again with French words added to it. The inflectional system of English underwent a process of simplification of grammatical complexity compared to Old English.

Modern English is slightly divided into two which are Early Modern English(1500-1800) and Late Modern English (1800-present). Towards the end of Middle English, there began to occur changes in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift). The English vowels began to be pronounced shorter. During the 16th century, there was more classic learning which meant that new words were loaned into the language. The invention of the printing press and colonization also brought more words into print. Spellings and Grammar became more fixed, and in 1604, the first English dictionary was published. From 1800 till present, the Late Modern English period, many words keep developing through the adoption of foreign languages and the invention of science and technology.

As a living entity, the English language has been influenced by other languages at some point in time. It belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Invasions, contact with other cultures, inventions, music, fashion etc are factors which have helped enrich the language. A great number of words found in the English language are borrowed from several languages. Among these languages are Latin, French, Scandinavian, Italian, and Hindi to mention a few. These words are either borrowed in loan words that are without translation into English language such as “piano” and “pasta” from Italian, “kindergarten” and “angst” from German, “crepe” and “café” from French, “et cetera and “id est” from Latin etc. While some are calques, they are translated, word for word, some of these are “en order a”(French) to “in order” (English), “bier garten” (German) to “the beer garden” (English) etc.

The English language grammar has experienced radical changes over time. It has been influenced by Norse-speaking invaders, Norman-French invaders, scholars, the globalisation and internet of the 21st century. The first English grammars were modeled on Latin grammar. Rules in these regard are these: it is not possible to end a sentence with a preposition in Latin; double negatives are not used in Latin; double comparatives are impossible in Latin; infinitives cannot be split in Latin. However, many grammarians have developed different theories contributing to the English language and bringing it to its present state. Among these are “Prescriptive Grammar” by Robert Lowth and Lindley Murray; “Descriptive Grammar” by Noam Chomsky and Ferdinand de Saussure; “Transformational Generative Grammar” by Noam Chomsky; “Structural Grammar” by Leonard Bloomfield and Zellig Harris; “Functional Grammar” by Michael Halliday and Christian Matthiessen; “Cognitive Grammar” by Ronald Langacker and George Lakoff; “Dependency Grammar” by Lucien Tesnière and Igor Mel’čuk.

The English language is a living language which has outlived periods, ages and different locations; it has been established as a global language that will into the future.