Thursday, October 8, 2015
English history stems from the British island approximately 1,500 years ago. English belongs to the West Germanic language family originating from the dialects of the Anglo-Frisian.
English was brought to the island of Britain by Germanic immigrants from some parts of the northwest of what is now the Netherlands and Germany.
At first, the Old English language is a dialect that reflects a group of diverse origins kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. One of these dialects eventually came to dominate the West Saxon. Then the original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion.
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HOW HISTORY OF ENGLISH?
The first wave of the invasion is the invasion of the speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the German family. They conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th century and the 9th wave of the invasion this is Norman tribes in the 11th century that said a dialect of the French language.
The second invasion resulted in the English language "mixed" to some degree (although it never became a mixed language literally). Living together with members of ethnic Scandinavian eventually create grammar simplification and enrichment of the Anglo-British nucleus of the English language.
HOW CAN BE ENGLISH LANGUAGE INTERNATIONAL?
A language becomes an international language is usually caused by the extent of the colony a nation. From the history of the world seem international status is related to the role of these countries in the military arena, politics, and economics.
When the Roman Empire as a political and military control of Europe and Africa, Latin was once the international language. The French language has ever become the international language because many countries outside of Europe are becoming colonies and use the language. So also the Greek, the international language in the Middle East 2,000 years ago.
According to Crystal, a language can become an international language because (a) geographical-historical and (b) socio-cultural. I want to develop two of these criteria into five factors: (1) the structure and internal weight; (2) the number of users; (3) the geographical spread; (4) domination of power, politics, and economics; and (5) a vehicle of communication in science and diplomacy. As a result of these five factors appear (6) the effect of social and cultural life.
Based on structural and internal weighting, English experienced process in the structure of language. Form accusative, dative, genitive, and others may say no more. In addition, gender requires natural division into masculine, feminine, and neuter is no more.
Large numbers of users, both native and non-native language, of course also plays an important role. English, for example, that at the end of the 16th century only to have 5 million to 7 million native speakers now have 370 million native speakers, 240 million speakers of the first language and second language speakers of as many as 220 million people (GÖrlach 2002). Crystal (1997) states, the number of users of English estimated 1,680 million people.
English has become the international language because of the spread around the world since 1584 when Walter Raleigh of England landed in North Carolina. Spread to Canada occurred in 1497 and to Australia in the 18th century.
Distribution to New Zealand occurred in 1770 when James Cook discovered the islands. On the African continent, Bing has long spread. South Africa became a British colony in 1806. In India, the contact with the English language began in 1612. Southeast Asia is an exciting field of colonization since 1786. Thus it can be said, English is the language of the vast geographical spread.
There are still following factors that cause international English language used. I will explain in the next article. I suggest you not only to know the history of English but also soon learn it.