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| Sunday, January 8, 2000 |
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ENGLISH as we know and use it, is as varied as it is complex. The history of its borrowings, the patterns of vocabulary-formation and the fascinating relationship between the history of England and her language are material enough for a novel. Strange as it may sound, the original inhabitants of the country, the Celts, contributed little or nothing to the language except for a few place names like Aberdeen. In the sixth century, the invading Angles, Saxons and Jutes brought over the basic structure of English speech, its most common words; and for five hundred years it was almost wholly a Germanic language. When William, the Conqueror sailed across the channel with his horde of adventurers and the blessings of the Pope, Norman-French was superimposed on the West Germanic dialects. For many generations these two languages grew side by side, the one being spoken by the Norman overlords, the other by the Saxon vassals and serfs. The sheep, pig, calf and ox of the native Saxon’s table became the mutton, pork, veal and beef of the ruling Norman’s table. A perfect example of class distinction in language! By the 14th century, French and native English words were being melded and merged and the Latin imports were being absorbed. In the 16th century, Latin became the mark of culture; from Latin and through Latin many new words entered the language. The establishment of colonies all over the globe brought more and more inputs. |
| It sometimes becomes very difficult to
speak a sentence of English without criss-crossing the
globe several times over. To take some instances; the
furlough that a lad gets is Dutch but the army he leaves
is French. The word whisky is Irish but the alcohol in it
comes from the ancient Arabic language. Should you ask
for coffee at the end of a meal, you are in a fashion,
speaking Turkish. Should it be tea you wish, it is
Chinese. If you request a cigar you will have switched to
Spanish. Smoke a cigarette and you are now in French
territory. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages which have a somewhat common heritage and some similarities that prove a degree of mutual contact at some stage. Some well-known names are English, Dutch, German and the Scandinavian languages. A closer look at these languages reveals interesting points of similarity. For instance, the English young is junj in German, jong in Dutch and ung in Swedish. Norman-French was the variety of Old French adopted in the tenth century by the Normans, Norse settlers who gave their name to Normandy. Dialect is a general and technical term for a form of a language ; a language normally has many dialects, each with a distinctive accent, grammar, vocabulary and idiom. Tap-root Dialects in Hindi often show different developments of the same word. Thakur, for instance, originally God; is Rajput in Pahari, Raja in Central India, Brahmin cooks in Bengal, Kshatriyas in Bihar and barbers in western U.P. — Deepti |
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