The Evolution of Language
A student posted a question on my last blog… “Did the people in the Renaissance make different languages or did they use the same ones that the people before them use?”
As we spoke about on our lesson on the Romans, Latin was the foundation of the modern romance languages of French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. While the other main source of our modern languages come from the Germanic groups of the north. They brought us English, German, Polishand others. Over time the languages spread, some mixing together. English is actually a mixture of both Germanic and French roots. This stems from the fact that the British Isles were constantly being fought over by Germanic and Latin groups for much of its early history.
By the time of the Renaissance many of the modern countries of Europe were developing. French, German, Spanish, Dutch, English and Italian had all developed into their own unique languages and could be found in their own geographic areas. But the answer to your question is not as simple as that. Though the languages were called the same that they are today and can still be found in their original locations they have continued to evolve and change over the last 500+ years. For example here is a passage from Beowulf (yes, the same as the movie that recently came out) it was the very first book written in what is considered Old English…
Notice that even the letters do not resemble the letters of today. Old English was spoken in England between 500-1100 AD. It was more heavily influenced by its Germanic roots.
Old English was followed by Middle English which was spoken between 1100 and 1500 AD. After the Norman Invasions of the French by William The Conqueror in 1066 there became a class division of language in England. The upper and ruling classes spoke French while the lower classes continued to speak English. By the 1300s English was again the dominate language of England but it had forever been changed. There were many french words and influences now found in the language. While it is more similar to modern English, it is still quite different and can be seen in the following passage written by the poet Chaucer…
Notice that there are many words that are still used today. The letters are beginning to look more familiar, but it is still different.
The renaissance in England brought us Modern English, The language we use today. If you read the passage below written in the 15th century, the language has continued to change. Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published. The following is a passage from William Shakespeare (an English Renaissance writer)…
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”.
Notice that I can type it using our standard letters that our modern computers us. All of the words can be found in modern dictionaries but it does sound funny compared to how we speak today. English, and all languages continue to evolve and change. Words are added, others fall out of use. 5oo years from now people who speak English will look back at our books and think we sound funny as well, but I have no doubt that English will continue to be spoken, it just may not sound the same as it does today. Especially when you consider how different English sounds if you speak to people from different geographic areas. People in the United States don’t even sound like people from other parts of the United States. Speaking to someone in Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, India, Australia, or New Zealand can sometimes be difficult as you try to understand their accents, and very different vernacular.
I hope this helps answer your question… That was a great one!!!
Okay, I have another one. In cartoons and stuff
some people go back and “visit” the Renaissance.
I know there wrong on a lot of the stuff that
went on during the time, but were people starting
to make up wizards and sorcery during the
renaissance? Or are the people in the cartoons
making that up too?
Emily Rutherford
April 14, 2008
Hey Mr.Irvin, This has nothing to do with language but in the middle ages of Africa, when the Portugese came and took the Africans as slaves to cut sugercane, did they also make women and children that were old enough to do work, do something so dangerous?
Chloe
April 14, 2008
How did people in the Paleoithic Age fertilize their crops if they didn’t have fertilizer like we do?
Tori
Tori Young
April 14, 2008
Hello Tori. Good Question. Before I answer it though I want to address a small mistake. Druing the Paleolithic Age people did not farm. That was the early period of human history when humans were nomads and survived off what they could catch and find. After the last Ice age ended 10,000 years ago (around 8,000 BC) man began farming. This was the start of the Neolithic Age. Famers very early on figured out that adding things to the soil would help it grow. Native Americans would plant fish with their corn crops. The decomposing fish would then add nutriants to the soil helping the crops grow. As time went on Man discovered more and more ways to help crops grow. Depending on the culture archiologists have discovered many different ways and times that people began fertalizing their crops.
mrirvin
April 15, 2008
The following is a response to Chloe’s question about the Slave trade that brought the African Middle Ages and the kingdoms that developed there to an end.
When the Portugese first began gathering slaves from west Africa the would have purchased slaves for whatever task they needed. The Portugese did not start off capturing their slaves. They would have gone to a market and purchased the slaves that were required for sugar plantations. Sugar was also not the only thing that Portugese used slaves for. It was the primary drive behind the transformation of slavery into the horrible institution that Americans are more familier with where people were bought and sold for a lifetime of slavery rather than captured during battle, as had been the world tradition up to the 16th century. If the Portugese needed slaves for other tasks, such as domesic work, they would have purchased women and children as well.
mrirvin
April 15, 2008
The following comment answers Emily’s question about cartoons depiction of the Renaissance.
I believe you are talking about the cartoon show “Time Warp Trio.” I am not sure of what episode you are talking about so I cannot, with complete confidence, answer your question but I will try.
The Renaissance would not have had wizards and wiches. Tales of wizards and wiches are more likely to have been the subject of a story about the Middle Ages. Peasants and Serfs were extreemly supersitious. People had a lot of time on their hands during parts of the year and it was often filled with the telling of stories. Many of these beliefes were remenants of pegan religions of old and were condemned by the church, but they persisted. During the Renaissance, however, people became more educated and these beliefs began to wain. Remember that the Renaissance was fuled by Humanism which wanted a balance between faith and reason. It is not very reasonable to believe that human beings have special powers of magic. Many people still did believe it and around the world to this day there are still cultures that believe in magic, witches, warlocks, and sourcery. Our own culture is still, at the very least, interested or curious about magic. Just look at the success of Harry Potter. People like the idea, and our collective imagination is still sparked by the idea of magic.
mrirvin
April 15, 2008
why are the colors of the american flag red white and blue
joshua
April 17, 2008
why couldn’t some body pay the rest the government off and take over
joshua
April 17, 2008
A student recently posted a question about a candidate running in the Presidential campaign. I pride myself in being a neutral educator on the topic of history and politics. I do not want to comment on a specific person or event that is currently happening and seem bias in any way. If you have a question about specific processes or that happen today, or candidates of the past I will be more than happy to answer your question. But I do not want to comment or pass judgment on current politics.
mrirvin
April 18, 2008
Josh, Good Question! The danger of bribes used to take over the government is a real fear in many countries and has actually happened before. Our own government faced many challenges when it was first founded, one of them being corruption and bribery. Today, however, this is not likely to ever happen. The amount of money it would take to pay the number of people that are now involved in our government would be astronomical. Our national budget probably would not be enough even to buy off enough officials to take over. The bureaucracy has become too large to buy off without a whistle blower alerting the public. There have been instances in our history where people bought of portions of our government (Tammany Hall and the Teapot Dome Scandal come to mind) but they all have eventually found out and persecuted under the laws of our country.
mrirvin
April 20, 2008
how did they come up with all these diffrent languages? And what did they do to get the languages started?
emily george
June 6, 2008
Good question Emily. Experts are not sure exactly when or how language first began. Language is one of those mysterious steps that experts disagree as to how or when it began. Part of the answer depends on whether you believe in the Biblical or other religious explanation or the scientific explanation of evolution. But as I explained above as time progresses and society becomes more complex the language used by that civilization also changes and becomes more complex. As humans began to spread across the globe and then became isolated their communication methods changed. We can even see that happening today with the differences between regions that speak the same language (see above). It makes me very happy to hear from you even though it is summer and you no longer have me as a teacher. I hope to hear from you and your classmates into the future.
mrirvin
June 9, 2008