Portfolio Entry # 3 - How did English Evolve?

How did English Evolve? by Kate Gardoqui

In this video, Kate Gardoqui examines the evolution of English language from the Roman invasion in 400 CE to the present time. She highlights the contribution of Germanic tribes (the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians) to the formation of Old English. Then, Gardoqui shows that a new blend emerged from the mixture of Old English and Old Norse that would be later enriched with the incorporation of French and Latin words during the Norman rule in the 11th century CE. As French was the official language of aristocracy and government and Latin was the language of religious services, it was –and it still is- believed (consciously or unconsciously) that those were more sophisticated languages than Old English, spoken by peasants and ordinary people. Finally, she observes that even though modern speakers ignore the evolution of English language, the connotation of words of different origins persists in our daily speech, because “history lives in the words we speak and hear”.


Resource:

• Gardoqui, Kate.[Ted-Ed]. (2012, November 27). How did English Evolve? (Video) Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIzFz9T5rhI