Learners are frequently discouraged by peculiar features of the English language that they might perceive as inexplicable; for instance, they wonder why English has silent letters, or why the first-person subject pronoun “I” is always capitalised. What they do not know is that many apparent inconsistencies in English spelling, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation can be explained by taking a closer look at the history of the English language.
Students always find these explanations illuminating and the fact that there are often logical, historical reasons behind many of these puzzling aspects acts as a real eye-opener, stimulates their curiosity to learn and boosts motivation. So how can we apply this approach to language teaching?
To start with, it is useful to set the context, by giving students a general overview of the languages that contributed to shaping the variety of English they are learning (English spoken in the UK, US, India and Australia, for example) and briefly explaining what happens when two languages are in contact for extended periods of time. Secondly, we need to introduce learners to a few mechanisms of language contact and, finally, provide them with practical examples.
History of English
Most of the events that had an influence on the development of the English language as we know it today have to do with the history of English. Each variety of English will have its own historical background and will have been shaped by a variety of factors, including close contact with other peoples, their culture, their customs and their language.
Indeed, British English spoken in the UK, the variety we are going to deal with in this blog post, saw a major influence of Latin, Germanic dialects and French, but not only.
Let’s see in what ways.
Long-term influence of close contact
When people speaking different languages are in close contact for extended periods of time, the two cultures will almost inevitably intermingle and influence each other. As a consequence, new words and – with them – new sounds enter the language and old words will be pronounced differently by the non-native users. Even in modern times, just think of how many foreign words entered, and still enter, the English language. One example is “garage”, originally pronounced /ˈgær.ɑːʒ/ as in French, where it was borrowed from, which then developed additional – more anglicised – pronunciations, like /ˈgær.ɑːʤ/ or /ˈgær.ɪʤ/.
Consequences of language contact
The most relevant consequences of language contact worth mentioning are borrowings, also called loanwords, and calques.
A loanword is a word that is borrowed from another language. The words cake, egg and husband, for example, are all borrowed from Old Norse (kaka, egg and hūsbōndi, respectively).
A calque, instead, is when a language copies a grammatical construction from another language. An example of a calque from French is the future ʽto be going toʼ, which is a literal translation of the French structure that uses the verb ʽallerʼ (=go) followed by an infinitive to express futurity.
Il va pleuvoir ce soir – it is going to rain this evening
Examples of word (hi)stories
It is not necessary to be an expert in the history of English: it is sufficient to pick a few examples that can show the great potential of explaining word histories and how they can reveal intriguing information about a word. Here are some examples.
Window
Learners may be thrilled to learn that the word ʽwindowʼ comes from Old Norse, ʽvindaugaʼ, literally meaning ʽwind eyeʼ. At the time, windows were just little holes in walls and provided ventilation in addition to the possibility of looking outside.
Petty
The adjective ʽpettyʼ used in British English to mean ʽlittleʼ, comes from the French ʽpetitʼ /ˈpɛti/ (= little). The spelling was then anglicised to ʽpettyʼ, imitating the French pronunciation.
Why does “will” sometimes mean “want”?
The modal verb “will” originally derives from Germanic. In modern German “Ich will” still means “I want”, and in Old English too “will” was used as a verb of volition. However, in English, it underwent a process called “grammaticalization” over the centuries. To put it simply, grammaticalization is when lexical words (including verbs) lose their semantic content (meaningfully called “semantic bleaching”), and acquire a grammatical function.
In other words, vocabulary becomes grammar. Therefore, the original meaning of “will” was lost and it simply retained a grammatical function. Since it meant «wish» and wishes are projected in the future, it started being used to talk about the future.
However, as is often the case with bleaching, be it metaphorical or not, we can still see traces of the former “want” meaning in a handful of expressions. A few examples are:
- Have the will to do something
- If you will (= if you wish)
- My car won’t start (=refuses to, doesn’t “want” to start)
Why is cow meat called ʽbeef?
This goes back to the Norman Conquest in 1066. After the occupation of Britain, the local inhabitants continued using their Anglo-Saxon names to refer to the animals they hunted (cow, sheep, pig, calf…) but the Norman settlers used the French names (boeuf, mouton, porc, veau…) to refer to the meat which arrived on their tables. The spellings were then anglicised to ʽbeef, mutton, pork, vealʽ and the double names remained.
Silent letters
Debt /dɛt/ is derived from the Middle English French word dette /dɛt/. During the Middle Ages, scholars added ʽbʼ in writing to show the original Latin etymology (debitum). Of course, people did not change the way of pronouncing the word from one day to the next and the added letter b was never pronounced but the new spelling became established. The same mechanism was at play in words like doubt (Old French, doute), plumber (OF, plommier) and subtle (OF, sotil).
Why is ʽIʼ always written with a capital letter?
When books started being printed during the Middle English period, the first-person pronoun ʽicʼ had gradually changed to ʽiʼ.
Considering it was a single letter, it appeared rather insignificant in printing, and so, the convention of capitalising it was adopted.
Benefits
Relying on the history of English to explain specific features of the language has several advantages.
The first is that learners always find these explanations illuminating and are enthusiastic to discover that there are such fascinating stories behind specific words or pronunciations.
Secondly, if students are engaged they will be eager to learn more and more, and this will promote independent learning and knowledge development.
Finally, these little stories can be seen as fun moments that break the class routine. If students realise that learning can be fun, well, it’s worth the effort!
Want to learn more about how English has been influenced by other languages? Read this blog by Heidi Burrows.
Further reading
Fennell, B. A. (2001). A history of English: A sociolinguistic approach. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
Crystal, D. (2012). Spell it Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling. London: Profile Books.
Hogg, R. M., & Denison, D. (2006). A history of the English language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Narrog, H. & Heine, B. (Eds) (2011). The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.