English Language History
You can't avoid it.. Some 380 million people speak it as their first language and as much as 300 million as their second. A billion are learning it. By 2050, it is predicted half the world will be more or less proficient in it. Only surpassed by Mandarin on native speakers, English is the language of international business, politics and diplomacy. It is still number one in computers and the internet.
You will see it sticking out in Shanghai's neons, you'll hear it in pop songs in Moscow, you'll read it in official documents in Phnom Penh. Deutsche Welle broadcasts in it. Abba sang in it. French business schools teach in it. It is the medium of expression in cabinet meetings in Bolivia. Few could predict the tongue spoken back in the 1300s only by "the rabble" of England would have come a long way. It is now the global language.
But despite the fact that American, British, Australian and even Canadian English are generally mutually intelligible, there are strong enough differences to cause embarrassing misunderstandings or a complete failure to communicate.
Most importantly, these differences aren't limited to the syntax (e.g. "color" and "colour", "program" and "programme"). While some British words like "naff", "semi" or "busk" will render incomprehensible to an American citizen, many Britons will be grappling to grasp the meaning of "rutabaga", "eggplant" or even "stool pigeon". And caution should be used in the US when asking to be "knocked up": in UK it means to be awakened with a knock on the door but in the US it means to be impregnated.
Because we at Today Translations reckon that the English heard in Times Square won't always match the one spoken in Trafalgar Square, we only work with professionals who understand the culture and 'look-and-feel' of the countries where English is spoken.
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English Language History
INDO-EUROPEAN AND GERMANIC INFLUENCES
English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. This broad family includes most of the European languages spoken today. The Indo-European family includes several major branches:
- Latin and the modern Romance languages;
- The Germanic languages;
- The Indo-Iranian languages, including Hindi and Sanskrit;
- The Slavic languages;
- The Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian (but not Estonian);
- The Celtic languages;
- and Greek
The influence of the original Indo-European language, designated proto-Indo-European, can be seen today, even though no written record of it exists. The word for "father", for example, is "vater" in German, "pater" in Latin, and "pitr" in Sanskrit. These words are all cognates (similar words in different languages that share the same root).
Of these branches of the Indo-European family, two of them are of paramount importance: the Germanic and the Romance (called that because the Romance languages derive from Latin, the language of ancient Rome). English is in the Germanic group of languages. This group began as a common language in the Elbe river region about 3,000 years ago. Around the second century B.C., this Common Germanic language split into three distinct sub-groups: East Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic.
OLD ENGLISH (500-1100 A.D.)
In the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., West Germanic invaders like the Angles (whose name is the source of the words England and English), Saxons, and Jutes, began populating the British Isles. They spoke a mutually intelligible language, similar to modern Frisian - the language of north-eastern region of the Netherlands - that is called Old English. Four major dialects of Old English emerged: Northumbrian in the north of England, Mercian in the Midlands, West Saxon in the south and west, and Kentish in the Southeast.
These invaders pushed the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants out of what is now England into Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland, leaving behind a few Celtic words. These Celtic languages survive today in the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland and in Welsh. Cornish is now a dead language.
Also influencing English at this time were the Vikings. Norse invasions, beginning around 850, brought many North Germanic words into the language, particularly in the north of England. Some examples are "dream", which had meant "joy" until the Vikings borrowed its current meaning from the Scandinavian "draumr", and "skirt", which continues to live alongside its native English cognate "shirt". Words like "be", "water", and "strong", for example, also derive from Old English roots.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND MIDDLE ENGLISH (1100-1500)
William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066. New overlords spoke a dialect of Old French known as Anglo-Norman. The Normans were also of Germanic stock ("Norman" comes from "Norseman") and Anglo-Norman was a French dialect that had considerable Germanic influences in addition to the basic Latin roots.
In 1204, King John lost the province of Normandy to the King of France. This began a process where the Norman nobles of England became increasingly estranged from their French cousins. About 150 years later, the Black Death (1349-50) killed about one third of the English population. In the following years, the labouring and merchant classes grew in economic and social importance and outpaced the Anglo-Norman population. This mixture of the two languages came to be known as Middle English.
By 1362, the linguistic division between the nobility and the commoners was largely over. In that year, the Statute of Pleading was adopted, which made English the language of the courts and it began to be used in Parliament.
 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (1500-1800)
The next wave of innovation in English came with the Renaissance. The revival of classical scholarship brought many classical Latin and Greek words into the Language. Two other major factors influenced the language and served to separate Middle and Modern English. The first was the Great Vowel Shift (a change in pronunciation that began around 1400) and the second the advent of the printing press.
William Caxton brought the printing press to England in 1476. Books became cheaper and as a result, literacy became more common. Publishing for the masses became a profitable enterprise, and works in English, as opposed to Latin, became more common. Finally, the printing press brought standardisation to English. The dialect of London, where most publishing houses were located, became the standard. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the first English dictionary was published in 1604.
LATE MODERN ENGLISH (1800-Present)
The main distinction between early and late-modern English is vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has many more words. These words are the result of two historical factors. The first is the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the technological society. This fostered the creation of new words for things and ideas that had not previously existed ("oxygen", "atmosphere", "radiation", "nuclear", etc).
The second was the British Empire. At its height, Britain ruled one quarter of the earth's surface, and English adopted many foreign words and made them its own. Finally, the 20th century saw two world wars, and the military influence on the language during the latter half of this century has been considerable (e.g. the infamous "blockbuster").
Main English-speaking countries:
UK
Population: 60,270,708 (July 2004 est.)
Languages: English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)
GDP: $1.666 trillion (2003 est.)
GDP per capita: $27,700 (2003 est.)
Exports: commodities: manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco
Exports partners: US 15.7%, Germany 10.5%, France 9.5%, Netherlands 6.9%, Ireland 6.5%, Belgium 5.6%, Spain 4.4%, Italy 4.4% (2003 est.)
Imports: commodities, manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs
Imports partners: Germany 13.5%, US 10.2%, France 8.1%, Netherlands 6.3%, Belgium 4.9%, Italy 4.7% (2003 est.)
UK, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The UK is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It has a long history as a major player in international affairs and fulfils an important role in the EU, UN and NATO.
The economy - one of the largest in the world - is no longer manufacturing but services-based, with e-commerce of growing significance. The City of London is a global financial centre. The United Kingdom is home to a multicultural population, partly as the legacy of empire. There are more Asian restaurants in many towns than burger bars and a former government minister has described a popular variety of curry as "Britain's true national dish".
USA
Population: 293,027,571 (July 2004 est.)
Languages: English, Spanish (spoken by a sizable minority)
GDP: $10.99 trillion (2003 est.)
GDP per capita: $37,800 (2003 est.)
Exports: capital goods, automobiles, industrial supplies and raw materials, consumer goods, agricultural products
Exports partners: Canada 23.4%, Mexico 13.5%, Japan 7.2%, UK 4.7%, Germany 4% (2003 est.)
Imports: crude oil and refined petroleum products, machinery, automobiles, consumer goods, industrial raw materials, food and beverages
Imports partners: Canada 17.4%, China 12.5%, Mexico 10.7%, Japan 9.3%, Germany 5.3% (2003 est.)
Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions.
The two most traumatic experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65) and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's most powerful nation state.
CANADA
Population: 32,507,874 (July 2004 est.)
Languages: English 59.3% (official), French 23.2% (official), other 17.5%
GDP: $958.7 billion (2003 est.)
GDP per capita: $29,800 (2003 est.)
Exports: motor vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, aircraft, telecommunications equipment; chemicals, plastics, fertilizers; wood pulp, timber, crude petroleum, natural gas, electricity, aluminium
Exports partners: US 86.6%, Japan 2.1%, UK 1.4% (2003 est.)
Imports: machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, crude oil, chemicals, electricity, durable consumer goods
Imports partners: US 60.6%, China 5.6%, Japan 4.1% (2003 est.)
A land of vast distances and rich natural resources, Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867 while retaining ties to the British crown. Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia but its population is only about one-fifth of Russia's.
Nearly 90% of Canadians live within 200 km of the border with the United States. The relationship to its powerful neighbour is a major defining factor for Canada. The US and Canada have the world's largest trading relationship. Immigration has helped to make Canada one of the world's richest countries, and the country is largely free of racial tension.
AUSTRALIA
Population: 19,913,144 (July 2004 est.)
Languages: English, native languages
GDP: $571.4 billion (2003 est.)
GDP per capita: $29,000 (2003 est.)
Exports: coal, gold, meat, wool, aluminium, iron ore, wheat, machinery and transport equipment
Exports partners: Japan 18.1%, US 8.7%, China 8.4%, South Korea 7.4%, New Zealand 7.4%, UK 6.7%
Imports: machinery and transport equipment, computers and office machines, telecommunication equipment and parts; crude oil and petroleum products
Imports partners: US 16%, Japan 12.5%, China 11%, Germany 6.1%, UK 4.2% (2003 est.)
Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James Cook took possession in the name of Great Britain. Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country was able to take advantage of its natural resources in order to rapidly develop its agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II.
Australia is the smallest continent, but combines a wide variety of landscapes. These include deserts in its interior, hills and mountains, tropical rainforests, and heavily-populated coastal strips with long beaches and coral reefs off the shoreline. Isolated from other continents, Australia has an abundance of unique plants and animal life.
SOUTH AFRICA
Population: 42,718,530 (July 2004 est.)
Languages: 11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu
GDP: $456.7 billion (2003 est.)
GDP per capita: $10,700 (2003 est.)
Exports: gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, machinery and equipment (1998 est.)
Exports partners: UK 12.6%, US 12.4%, Japan 9.2%, Germany 8.1%, China 4.7%, Italy 4.4% (2003 est.)
Imports: machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, scientific instruments, foodstuffs (2000 est.)
Imports partners: Germany 16.8%, UK 8.6%, US 8.3%, Japan 6%, China 6%, Saudi Arabia 5.3%, France 5% (2003 est.)
After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments, but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902). The resulting Union of South Africa operated under a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to apartheid politically and ushered in black majority rule.
Diversity is a key feature of South Africa, where 11 languages are recognised as official, where community leaders include rabbis, chieftains, rugby players and returned exiles, where traditional healers trade side by side with stockbrokers and where housing ranges from mud huts to palatial homes with swimming pools.
IRELAND 
Population: 3,969,558 (July 2004 est.)
Languages: English is the language generally used, Irish (Gaelic) spoken mainly in areas located along the western seaboard
GDP: $116.2 billion (2003 est.)
GDP per capita: $29,600 (2003 est.)
Exports: machinery and equipment, computers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals; live animals, animal products
Exports partners: US 20.5%, UK 18.1%, Belgium 12.6%, Germany 8.3%, France 6.1%, Netherlands 5.1%, Italy 4.6% (2003 est.)
Imports: data processing equipment, other machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum and petroleum products, textiles, clothing
Imports partners: UK 34.9%, US 15.8%, Germany 7.9%, Netherlands 4.1% (2003 est.)
For centuries, British dominion in Ireland gave rise to unrest which erupted into violence with the Easter Rising of 1916 when independence was proclaimed. The rising was crushed and many of its leaders executed but the campaign carried on.
In the early 1920s, 26 counties of Ireland gained independence from London following negotiations which led to partition. The island's other six counties, part of the province of Ulster, remained in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Partition brought a year of civil war between those who accepted it and those who felt that the whole island should be independent.
In an unprecedented and concerted effort to resolve the situation, the Irish and UK governments worked closely together in negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement on the future of Northern Ireland in 1998. Since joining the European Community in 1973, the Republic of Ireland has accelerated its growth from a largely agricultural society into a modern, technologically-advanced Celtic Tiger economy.
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