Unit 3: Language Explorations LANGUAGE CHANGE Introductory
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Unit 3: Language Explorations LANGUAGE CHANGE Introductory Reading Pack Contents From Much Ado About English by Richard Watson Todd: 1/1 ‘How old is an earthling?’ 1/2 ‘The Welsh penguin’ 1/3 ‘Wanted: A computer, female, age 1825’ From The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, edited by David Crystal: 1/5 ‘The Sources of the Lexicon’ 1/6 ‘Etymology’ From The Language Report by Susie Dent: 1/22 ‘Brokeback or Bounceback: How New Words Come About’ 1/23 ‘Bubbling Under: The Words of the Moment’ From Words Words Words by David Crystal: 2/8 ‘Wordchanges’ From Teach Yourself Linguistics by Jean Aitchison: 2/6 ‘Language Change’ III How old is an earthling? ~ The number of new words appearing in English is so great Jl that several dictionary producers publish a whole sup plement every year. Many of these inventions fade away qUickly, but some stay around to become part of generally accepted English. Sometimes we can guess the date at which the word was introduced into English quite accurately. For example, the title Ms (as opposed to Miss or Mrs) originates in the fem inist movement following the Second World War. An edu cated guess might therefore put its first use in the 1960s. This is fairly close for its widespread adoption, although the title was first used in print in 1949. Similarly, is it possible to make an educated guess abo.ut when the 1914-18 world war was first termed the First World War? Clearly, during the actual war itself people did not know that it would be the first of two major conflicts. Indeed, it was often refer:red to as the war to end all wars, and its offi cial name was the Great War. It was only in 1931, when peo ple came to accept that there was a real chance of another global conflict, that the 1914-18 war was sadly termed the First World War. In trying to guess the original dates of first use of words, the nature of the word is important. Many of the old est words in English are linked to agriculture and nature. Indeed, for many farm animals, such as ewe, calf and ox, for traditional agricultural implements, such as plough and scythe, and for common trees, such as oak and elm, its impossible to give first dates as the words can be traced back with little change from Old English to Old German and beyond. Much Ado About English Origins The dates of first use of other words are not as pre Condom (a preventive sexual sheath) dictable. For example, we might associate acid rain with the . a Dr Condom was a physician Who lived dUring the reign growth of the environmental movement in the 1960s, but the of King Charles II and gave his name to the condom. phrase was first used in print in 1858. And perhaps we would b Condom comes from the Italian con meaning with and anticipate earthling as dating to the first science-fiction novels dometa meaning protection. at the tum of the twentieth century, but the word is first c Condom is derived from the Italian for glove, guanto. found in print in 1593 (albeit in the sense of a man of the earth). While we might expect chairman to date back as far as Jazz (a style of music) 1654, it is noteworthy that chairwoman follows relatively a As a lively musical style, jazz comes from the Creole qUickly in 1699 (especially given that it took until 1971 for word jass, meaning strenuous sexual activity. political correctness to institute chairperson). b Jazz is a corruption of chase, indicating that the musi Its not only the dates of first use that can be surprising. cians constantly have to chase each other's notes in The origins of :words can also be unexpected. Abet derives playing jazz music. from the Old French word abeter, meaning to bait or harass c Jazz is an abbreviation of chastity music, a term used with dogs. This meaning later shifted to incite, which was ironically to describe the style. then changed again to encourage and help. Diaper meaning nappy comes from the Old French for an ornamental cloth, Pedigree (a line of ancestors) diaspre, and the word can still he used for fabric with a dis a The word pedigree was originally applied to people tinctive pattern, although it wouldn't go down well in adver rather than animals, and comes from the Latin paedo tising. Geeh is a variant of the Low German geck, meaning a for child plus ad gratia, meaning with favour. fool, which in tum derives from the Scandinavian for to b A person's pedigree used to be shown in genealogical croak, the sound made by fools. trees. Someone decided that these patterns resemoled Place names can also have surprising origins. Jeans a crane's foot, and described them thus, using the were originally made with a cotton cloth that was named after Middle French pie de grue. Jannes, the French word for Genoa in Italy where the cloth c Pedigree is a cross-linguistic combination of the was produced; and the first denim came from Nimes in Scottish word pet for tamed animal and the French France, so the fabric is 'de Nimes'. Laconic refers to a person phrase a gre, meaning favourable. from the region of Lakonia or Sparta in ancient Greece, whose inhabitants were renowned for the brevity of their speech. In fact, condom may be derived from the Italian word guanto; jazz comes from the Creole word jass; and pedigree originates Can you guess which of the following suggested derivations in the Middle French term pie de grue. is the correct one? Much Ado About English Origins Seemingly unconnected words can have a single origin. For ~ is derived variously from the Scottish och aye, the instance, angle as a verb (meaning to fish), angle as a noun Finnish oikea and the Latin omnia correcta. (meaning a corner) and ankle are an ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European word ank, meaning to bend (Proto Of an of these, the first is probably the real derivation, a con Indo-European was a language thought to have been spoken clusion supported by no less an authority than the British in southeastern Europe around 5,000 to 10,000 years ago). In Privy Council. Nearly 100 years after its first recorded use, the case of ankle, the derivation from Proto-Indo-European OK was still causing problems. In 1935, the word became the came through the Old English word andeow to give its cur focus of a Privy Council court case that revolved around a rice rent meaning. The noun angle is derived from the Latin word merchants intentions in writing OK with his initials on for corner, angulum. For the verb angle, the Proto-Indo invoices. Their lordships launched an investigation of the European word for to bend became the root of the Old meaning of OK (British judges are notorious for being at least English word for fish hook, angel, which in turn led to the 100 years behind the times concerning popular culture and verb for to fish. language), and concluded that 'the letters hail from the U.S.A. While there is a general consensus about the origins of and represent a spelling, humorous or uneducated, of the the words above, for other words the derivation is a source of words All Correct'. much controversy A major bone of contention concerns OK, which has been adopted by more languages than any other word. First recorded in 1839, its suggested origins include that it: ~ stands for 011 korrect, a misspelling of all correct, often * attributed to President Andrew Jackson. ~ stands for Old Kinderhook, the nickname of President Martin van Buren. ~ comes from the French Aux Cayes, a port in Haiti. ~ . is a corruption of the Choctaw word oheh, meaning it is so. ~ comes from the initials of Obadiah Kelly; a shipping Clerk responsible for initialling numerous bills of lading. ~ stands for Orrin Kendall crackers, popular during the American Civil War. Origins '/2 The Welsh penguin By the sixteenth century and Shakespeare, Modem English was emerging and most of the language looks familiar to us ~ nowadays, even if not every word is immediately clear: ~e earliest recognisable version of the English language II is Old English, a Germanic tongue spoken in the north It is Othello~ pleasure, our noble and valiant general, that, of Germany and introduced into Britain through the Anglo upon certain tidings now arrived, importing the mere perdi Saxon invasions. The poem Beowulf (probably created around tion of the Turkish fleet, every man put himself into 700 CE and written down around 1000 CE) is the best-known triumph. example of Old English. A quote from the poem shows how much English has Since Shakespeare's time, of course, English has continued changed: changing and other languages have had a vast influence. Even though the ultimate source of our language is Germanic Old Da wres on burgum Beowulf Scyldinga, leaf lead(:yning, lange prage English, only about half the words we use in English are foleum gefnege (freder ellor hwearf, aldor of earde), apl,1ret him eft Germanic; the rest come from a variety of languages, with onwoc heah Healfdene French and Latin predominating. One reason for the richness This seemingly foreign language apparently means: of English is its incessant borrowing of words from other lan guages. Indeed, Booker T. Washington has described this Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings, leader constant acquisition of new words from other languages as beloved, and long he ruled in fame with all folk (since his more than borrOwing: father had gone away from the world), till awoke an heir, haughty Healfdene We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pur sued other languages down alleyways to beat them uncon Over the years and especially with the Norman invasion, scious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.