Cambridge Approaches lo Linguisdcs

General editor: Jean Aitchison. Rupert Murdach

Prafessar af lAnguage and Cammunication. University
af Oxfard

The English language:

a historical introduction

Advisory board: Edith Bavin. Jenny Cheshire.

GeofTrey Horrocks. Nigel Vincent
In the past twentyfive years. linguistlc:s - th~ syst.tm2tic stuciy
orJanguage - has expanded drarnatically. Ils findiogs are now cf
interest lO psychologists. sociologists. philosopber!, anthropologists. t.eachcrs. speech therapist.<: and numerOl.l.\i olh~rs who
have realized. tbat language is oC crucial importan..:e in their Life
and ......ork. Bul when newcomers try lo d.iscover mor~ aboUl the
subjeCl. a majar problem faces thero - tbe technical and cften
narrow natufe of much writing aoout linguistiC.i.
C.,mbrldgc Appro<1chcs lo Ungulstlcs 15 <ln altcmpt lO salve
1rus problem by prescming current findings in a lucid and nontechnical way. Its object is nvofoid. first. it hope... lo outl!ne the
'state of play' in key areas of (he subject. concentrating on wb.cll
is happening now rather than on surveying the pase Secondly.
it aims lO provide links hetween branchcs of 1i.l1guistics whit:h
are traditlonally S'.:paralc.
The series wiU give rcaders an understanding of the m~it[
faceted nalure of langu;::g~, and ts central position in hum"n
IlfT:lir:". ns wcll ns cql1lrrln~ those who wl~h (o Ond out mut't,;
about linguistics wlth a basis from which lo re3d sorne uf the
more technicaJ lerature in textbooks and journals.

CHARLES BARBER
Form~r/y f{tQd~r

in 'nglJsh language and IiCtrOlure.

School 01 English. Univtrsiy 01 LL~ds

Forthcornlng tilles Inelude

Keith Br!)wn: Synz.ax today. Stcond editiOI/

WiIliam Downes: Langua,qe and society. Sond edUion

R. A. Hudson: lnvestlgacing fanguage: ha", t.o do linguislics
Kristine C. Gjer!cw-Johnson and Loraine X. Obler. Lanquage and
he brain

~CAMBRIDGE
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UNIV[RSITY I'R[SS

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Contents

o C<lmbridge University Press 1993

Firsl published 1993
Reprinted t 994 (twice). t 995. i 997
11Jr English l"ngl/(1gf: a hiSloricallntroducllon succced"i and rcpl<lcl:s 1'11('
sl:Jry oJ /a/lgllllgl'. firsl published by Pan Books Lid in 1964. 5h rc\ ised
and rese! prinling 19 2. t:l Charles Barber 1~64. 1972
Print~

in Grl.'it I3ritain allhc Universlty Prcss. Cambridge

A Cfl[Ll/ogur rrcord Jor t/is bvok is !1vai/ablrJrom

UbrarJi o/ Congrrss cllUlJoguing

(lit

Brlls/r Librnry

n pllbli('alion dala

Barber. Charles Laurence.

Thl' En.l.lish 1.lnw <l~C ; R his[orical in 1roducUon I C1wrlcs Bn hf..
l'
1'111 H 'l1ll1brhl;:l: lIppru;ldu.:s tu 1l11~uhllnl
[lldm1l's blbllographlC<l1 rcfcrences <lnd indexo
ISBN 0521 41 20 5 fhardback). -ISBN O 521 42622 7 fpapelbackl
l. En&lish !anguage-History 2. Histortcal Linguistics
1. TIlle 11. Series
PEI07;.B165 1993
420-<c20 92-18555 al'
!SBN o 521 41 fi20 5 hardback
ISBN lJ :;21 42fi22 7 papcrbll

LiSl of figures
PreJace
1
2
)
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

What is language?
The flux of language
The Indo-European l1nguaRc~
Thc Germanic langUilgt.:s
Old English
Norsemen and Nonnans
MiddJe English
Early Modem English
F.nglish in the scientinc age
English as a world language
English today and lUrnorruw

Notes alld sU9gesliolls Jor furrher readillg

Bibliography
lndex

1'5

pa9f

LX
Xl

32
58
~l

100
127
151
175
-...' 0 0
234

-~

262
279

283
292

rile flux of [allguage

2 The flux of language

Languages sometimes die OU1. usuaUy because 01 competilion

from anolher language. For example. it is oruy during the past lew
centuries that English has become the universal language in
Cornwall. Formerly there was a Cornish language. a Celtic
language relat.ed lo Welsh and Breton. but this was grauuaJly
displaced by English. and finally died out. The last known nati..
speakers 01 Cornish were a lew old people in lhe vUlage 01
Mousehole. near Penzance. in the 1770s. A language can aJso
become dead in another way. Nobody today speaks c1assical Latin
as spoken by JuJius Caesar. or classica1 Greek as spoken by
Perieles. or lhe Old !celandic spoken by the heroes 01 the Norse
sagas. So c1assica1 Latin and classical Greek and Old !celandic are
dead languages. But. a1though dead. they ha ve not died: they have
changed into somelhing e!se. People still speak Greek as a living
language. and this language is simply a changed lorm 01 the
IlIn~llugc spokcn In lhe Athens 01 Pericles. The people who Jive \.'1
Rome today speak a language thal has developed by a proce.'S 01
continuous change out 01 the language spoken there In the time 01
Julius Caesar. though modern /tallan developed out 01 the
everyday language 01 the ancient Rornan markel-place and 01
lhe common soldiery. rather than out 01 the upper-elass lit.erary
Latin that Caesar wrot.e. And the people who Jive in lceland today
speak a language that has developed direcl1y out 01 the language
01 the greal !celandie sagas of the Middle Ages.
In lacl all living languages change. though the rate 01 change
varies from time to time and from language to language. The
modern Icelander. for example. does not find il very diffict:1t lO

33

read the medieval Icelandic sagas. because the rate 01 change in

lcelandic has a1ways been slow. ever since the country was
coloni2ed by Norwegians a thousand year.; ago and IcelancUc
history began. But the English. on the contrary. fmd an English
docuroent 01 the year 1300 very djJfcult to understand. unJess
they have special training: and an English document 01 the year
900 seems lO them to be written in a loreign langl!age. which
they may conclude (mistakeruy) to have no connection with
Modem English.

Linguistic change in English

The extent to which the English language has changed in the
past thousand year.; can be seen by looking at a few passages 01
English from dilferent periods. Since it is convenient lo see the
same material handled by dilTerent Vlriters. I have chosen a shor!
passage from the Bible. which has been translated into English al
many diJTerent times. The passage is from ehapter XV of the
Gospel according to Lllke. and is the end of the story of the
ProdigaJ Son. Here it is fir.;t in a twentieth-century translation. the
New English Bible. published in 1961:
Now the elder son was out on the fann: and on rus way back. as he
approached the house. he heard music and danclng. He called one of
tbe servants and asked what t meant. The servant tcld rum. 'Your

brother has come home, and your falher has killed 'the fatted calf
because he has him back safe and sound.' But he was angry and
refused lo go in. His father carne out and pleaded wilh him: bUl he
retorted. 'You know how I have slaved for you aJl these years: I never
once dLo;obeyed your orders: and you never gave me so much as a kid,
for a feast with rny friends. Bul now thal lhis son of yours tums up.
aft.er running through your mODey wilh rus women. you kill the fatted.
calf for him.' 'My hoy: said the falher, 'you were aJways wiili me. 2nd
everything I have is yours. How could we t:elp celebrating this happy
day? Your brOlher here was dead and has come back lo Ufe. was lost
and is fOW1d.'

You may feel that there is a certain unevenne:i,S of manner

about that. but at any rate it is twentitth-eentury English. \\;th
nothing archaic or alfected about i1. Now lel us look at the same

34

11Ie English lnnguage

passage as it appeared in lhe famous KJng James Bible of lbe year

1611:
Now his elder sonne was In the neld. and as he carne anc.J drew n1gh lO
the house. he heard mus1cke & dauncmg. and he called ene of tbe
seruanlS, and asked woat tbese lhings meanl. And he said vnto rum,
Thy brother is come. and thy falber hato kiUed toe falled calie,
because he hath receiuE"d h.im safe and sound. And he was angry. and
wouJd nOl goe in: therefore came his father oul. and ln!rtatcd mm.
And he answertng said lO his [albero Loe. tbese many yceres doe 1
serue thee. neither transgressed 1 al any time thy cormnanderncnt. and
yet thall neuer gauest mee a kid. thar 1 might make merry wilh my

friends: bUI as soone as this thy sonne was come. whkh halh
deuoured thy liuing with harlots. thall hast killed for hirn lhe fatted
calIe......nd he sald vnto hun. SoDlle. thall art euer \,.;th me. and allthat
1haue is mine. II was meete mal we should make merry. and be gJad:
for 1bis thy brother was dead. and is aue againc: and was los1. and i5
round.

We have no great dil1kullY in understanding lhat passage. out

nevcrthclcss there are numerous ways ln which it differs froro
presenHlay Englisb. ln ils vocabulary, tbere are words which
seem to us archaic, or al least old-fasruoned: nigh 'near', meele
'fitting', !ransgres!W!d 'broke, violated', commandemenl 'comm"nds,
orders'. One \Vord looks fam;fiar, but has an unfamlliar meanlng:
Jiu/ng docs nol mean 'living' In our sense of t.h~ wOl'd, bUl rather
'income, property, possessioos'. ln grammar, \Ve nolice the use of
the personal pronoun thou and ils accusative tltee, togetoer w;th
lhe "s.~(l(iilted pronoIlM-<!C'fC'nnlncr thU: 1l1llJ uncr (hoLl lhe vcrbs
llave ,he Infiectlon -est or -st (gaues!' has!). The use of !holl in the
passage in facl shows lhe disadvantage of using translations ror
our illuslrativc material, for It does not renect nonnal English
usage in 1611. in Shakespeare's time, a falher could addreos rus
son as thou, bul the son could not, like lhe son in lhe passage, say
llwu in retum. bUl would have to say YOLl or ye: the usage in the
passage is due lo the infiuence of the original Greek. The passage
uses the relative prono un whieh ('lby sonne ... which hath
deuoured') where \Ve should use who, In word-<lrder, nOlice the
sequence Verb-Subject-Cbjecl in 'neltber transgre=d 1 , . , thy
commandemenl', and sirnUarly Verb-Subject crder In 'therefore

11Ie flux of language

35

carne rus father oul'. The perfect tense ofthe verb to come is formed
with the auxiliary be, nol have: 'Thy brother is come" 'trus Ihy
sonne was come', where we should say 'has come', 'had come', In
the noun phrases this thy sonne and this thy brother, the
detenniner tltis and lhe pronoun-detenniner thy occur together
before the noun: toda y we should say 'this son of jOurs', 'trus
brother of yours'.
The spellings of the passage are quite c10se to modem ones,
except for the use of u and v, \Vhich are not used to distinguish
vowel from consonant: vis aJways used al the beginning of a word
(Vnlo), and u is a1ways used elsewhere (serue, OU!, thou), Nolice,
however, the speiling of dauncing, which does rather suggest a
dilferent pronunciation from dancing. There is in fact plenty of
evidence 10 show that pronunciation in 161] diITered in many

ways from pronunciation today, even when lhe spellings are the
same. The vowels in particular were difTerent. as we shall see Ictter.
As our third example we can take the same passage as rendered
by John WyclilTe, the fU'St person lo trac.slate the enlire Bible ioto
English, WyclilTe died in J 384, and his lranslation probabl)' dates
from the last few years of rus lue, Like many Middle English texts,
the passage uses lwo dilTerent kinds of leller g, namely 3 and g.
The 3 (calJed 'yogh') is descended from Old English script. whereas
9 was intrcx..luced from the continent lfter the Norman Conqucst.
ln the passage, 3 usuaUy corresponds to a modero y. as in 3eeris
'years': but in neiJede 'drew rugh, approached. it correspol1ds to a
modero nh, ond wo, rrooooly rronounced Id (Iike the consonant
of Modem Gennan ich). The punctualion of the pa5<age ha, been
modemi.zed.
Porsoth his eldere sone was in (he fecld. and \",hannc he: can and
nei3ede lO the hous. he herde a syrnfonye and a crowde. And he
c1epide 000 of (he seruauntis. and axide what rhingis thes weren. And
he seide lO rum. Thi brodir is comen. and thi fadir halh slayn a fal cal!.
for he receyued him saf. Forsolh he was wroth. an wclde nnt entre.
Therfore his fadir gon cut. biga n lO preie him. And he answt:ringe to
his fadlr scidc. (.n. so manyc 3ccris 1 scruc lO Ihee. and I brak neu~re
thi commaundemenr. thou hast neuer 30uun a kyde to me. lhat 1
schulde ele largely with my frendis. BUI aftir thal this thi sone. which
deuouride hls subslaunce wilh hooris. ,amo rhclJ hasl slayn lO him a

31i

The ["ylish a"YUilye

ral calf. And he seide to him. Sane. thou ert euere wilh me. and alJe
myne thingis ben thyne. Forsothe it bibofte lo ele plenteously. and ror
to ioye: for lrus tlti brother was deed, and Iyuede a3eyn: he pery<crude,
and he is (cunden.

This is much more remole from Modem English, especially in

vocabulary, There are many worrls and phrases which, while
perfeclly eomprehensible, sound archaic or old-fashioned, like
jorsoth 'indeed' and wroth 'angry', There are also IVords which are
quile strange lo the modero reader, Iike nei3ede 'approachod' and
e/,pid, 'caUed', There are familiar-looking words with unfamiliar
meanings. tike symJonye 'musical instrument'o crowde 'fiddle',
lary,ly 'Iiberally, plenteously', thyngis 'good5, andjor 'beeause' (in
'for he receyued him saf), In granunar, lhere are noun-plural
endings in -15 (lltynyis, lOons, etc,), verb-pluraJ cndings in -en or-n
(weren, ben), verb past-tense endings in -ide (clcpide, axide, ete,),
and past participles ending in -n (comen, jOllnden) , In scllillg. nnly
1I1)('CUrs 111 the pnsslIgc, nol v, bUI In WycllfTc's time they tended tI)
be used interchangeably, and not distributed as they are in tbe
1611 passage: the use of v initially and u elsewhere was a printer's
convention, which in England lasted until about 1630, bnt
manu"icripts ofien lIse the two Ictters Indi~rlmlnnlcly. Thc
pass.1ge aJso uses 1 Instead of j (laye); the letter / was In faet
merely a decorative variant of i, and lhe modem vowel-<:onsonant
distinction in lheir use was not established until about 1630,
There are aJso numerous words wbene the spelling suggests a
pronunciation different from our own - whanne '""hen', OOTJ '(lile',
ctc, - though of course thls pieee of evldenee alone Is not suffident
for us lo determine lheir pronuneiation, The word-order of the
passage, however. is very c10se to that of pnesent-day English,
For our final example, we go back behind the Nonnan
ConqueS!, lo a manuscript of the early eleventh century, As is
customary in modern <ditions of texts from this period, l mark
long vowels by putting a maeron (sbort horizontalline) over lhem,
whUe short vowels are left Ilnmarke<l TIle symbol 1> (called
'lhorn') is equivaJent to lhe modero th: lbe symbol re (called 'asn')
Is pronouneed lUce the vowel of lbe wOrd hal In RP, 111e
puncluation Is modemlzed, As lhe English ofthls period Is difficult
for lhe modem reader. I glve only lhe openlng of lbe passage,

111< flux oj a"yuaye

37

SOl>lice rus yldra sunu wres on recere: and he como and pa he pam
huse geneal",hte, he gehyrde p",ne sweg and P"'I wered. p_ c1yxxle
he anne peow. and acsode rune hwret pret wrere. pa cwa:t> he. pin
bropor CQm. and pIo freder ofsloh an fren cealf. forpam pe he hine
halne onfeng.
Pan of the diffieulty of this lies in Ihe number of unfamUiar
words: pa 'when, lhen', ye"ea;hre 'approaehed', swey 'noise',
wered 'multilude, band', f><ow 'servant', ojstoh 'killcd', jorpa", pe
'because', hine 'him', oflfing 'received'; these are aU words that
ha ve died out from the language, In the later passages, some of
them are replaced by words borrowed from Frer.ch after lhe
Nonnan Conquesl (approached, servarH. received). Even words
which have survived may be used in an unramiliar seose: lhe

word axere has developed into our acre, but means 'field', and
halne has become Dur w1Jole. bUL means 'wei!. sare', Even words
unchanged in meaning appear in unfamiliar spelling, Iike yldra
SWIU 'dder son', ,lIld wcre ohvl()lI~ly prollulInn:d di{fcrcnlly from
their modero counterparts,
The passage also dillers from present-day English in the way
words change lheir endings according LO their granunatical
fUIH:t1on In lhe senll'llC'e. This ('ollld he d('monslrateci fmm rtIony
words in lhe passage bUl lhree brief cxamples wlll ~ul1kc. Thc
word for 'field' is axer, bUl after the preposition on it has lO 3dd the
ending -e (pronounced as an extra syllable), and so in Ihe "'xt we
have the expression on ",,,,re, The expression for 'the house' is p<r:t
IlUS, bul 'LO the house' is pam IlUse, and this is lhe form that
appears n the len: recere and Jwse are lhe daUve case of lhe nouns
reca and hus, The nomlaJ word for 'was' is waes, as in the first
sentenee of the passage, but there is also a fom. waere (the socalled subjunctive fonu) which has lO be used in certain
constructinns, Iike 'acsode hine hwret pret wa;re (' asked him
whal il was').

The passage also differs from present-day English in wor-order,

Translated Iiterally word for word it runs as foUows:
Indced. hls elder son was on Geld: and he came. and when he the
house approached. he heard the noise and the crowd. Then caUed he a
servant. and asked him whal il was. Then said he. Your brother carne.
and your falher kiUed a fal calf. because he him safe received.

38

The English language

There we see lhree dilTerenl types of word-order. dilTerenl

arrangements of Subjeet-Verb-Objee!. Sorne elauses h3ve lhe
normal presenl-{iay order of S-Y-O: 'he heard the "oise. 'Y0ur
falher kliled a fal ealf. But sorne have lhe order VoS-O: 'then ealled
he a servant', 'Then said he .. .'. This construction arten occurs
when lhe elause begins 'vilh an adverbial expression. espeeiaUy
adverbs like then and Ihere. Yel olher elauses have lhe order S-O-V:
'when he lhe house approaehed. 'beeause he him safe rereived'.
This word-order oceurs in subordinate elauses. opened in lhis
case by lhe eonjunetions bemuse and when. These lhreL types
of word-order are eornmon in the earliest forros of F.nglish. and
are still found in Modero German. One of lhe major synlaclie
ehanges in lhe English language sinee Anglo-Saxon times !:la.
been lhe disappearanee of lhe S-O-V and V-S-O types of wordorder. and the establishmenl al' lhe S-V-o type as oormal. The
S-o-V type disappeared in lhe early Middle Ages. and lhe V-SO type was rare afler lhe middle of lhe sevenleenlh cenlury.
V5 word-order does indeed still ex1st in Eng!jsh as ti less
COffi:-non varianl. as in sentences Uke 'Down the road carne a

whole crowd of ehildren'. bUl lhe full V-$-O type hardly L'ccurs
lod.y.
The English language. lhen. has changed enormously in lhe
last lhausand years. New words have appeared. and sorne old
ones disappeared. Words have ehanged in meaning. The
grarn'T1atieal endings 01' words have changed. and many sueh
endings have disappeared from lbe language. The membership
of 'elosed elass' word-form,. lhe grammaLlea! words. has
changed: tbe system of personal pronouns, for example. has
10Sl lhe forros thou and lhee. There have been ehanges in wordorder. lhe pennissible ways In wh1eh words can be arrangetl to
make meaningful ullerances, Pronuncl.t1on has ehangeo.
Taken ull logelher. lhese ehanges add IIp t a ffi2jor
lransformation of lhe ianguage.
11 can also be seen, even from lhe four passagcs lhal I have
quoled. lhal lhe pace of ehange has varied. Between lhe New
English Bible and lhe King James 8ible lhere i< a perlod el' jusl
lhree und a half cenlurles. but lhe diJIerenees belween lhem ore
less lhan lhose belween the King lames Bible and WycliJJe's

The .nux oIlanguage

39

version, whieh are separaled by only about two and a quaner

eenturies. The diJIerenees between the WyeliJIe and lhe PreConquest pa5'age. too, are very grea!. If we were te study a large
number of passages lo rtll in the ehronoJogieal gaps, we should find
lhal lhe twelfth eentury and lhe rteenth cenlury were periods oC
parlieulariy rapid ehange in English. This makes il eonvenieol lo
divide lhe hislory of lhe English Janguage inlo lhree broad periods.
whieh are usually ealled Old English, Middle English, and Modero
English (or New English). No exael boundaries can be drawn. bUl
Old English eovers from lhe [rsl Anglo-Saxon seltlements in
England te about 1100. Middle English from aboul !lOO lO about
1500, and Modero Eoglish from aboul 1500 lo lhe presenl day.
These periods are oflen subdivided. giving sueh sub-periods as Lale
Old English (c. 900-1100) and Early Modero English (c, 15001650).

Mechanisms of Iinguistic change

AlI living languages undergo ehanges analogous lo lho<e we
have JUSI seen exeroplified in English. Whal causes sueh ehmges?
There is no single answer to this ques!ion: changes in a language
are of various kinds. and there seem to be various reasaos for

lhem.
.
The ehanges that have eaused lhe most disagreement are lhose
in pronunciation. We ha ve various sources of ev:dence for the
pronunciations of earlier times. such as the spellings. the

tTeatmenl of words borrowed from other languages or bor:-owed

by lhem, lhe descriptiol1s of eontemporary graminarians and
spelling-reforrners. and the modem pronunciations In aU thc

langu"ges ano dialeels coneemed. From the middle of the

sixteenth eenlury, lhere "-fe in FJlg1a"d wrilers who altempt lo
describe the posilion of lhe speeeh-organs for the produeticn of
English ~honemes. and who invent what are in e!feel syslems al'
phonelie symbols. These various kinds of evidenee. combined \vith
a. knowledge of the ~echanisms of spe~-production. ca,n.ofien
glve us a very good Idea of the pronunc\atlOn of an earher age.
tbcugh absolute: certainty s never !>Oss;bic.

40

TI" Englisl! 10nguoge

TI.. flux o[ longllage

When we study the pronuneiation of a language over any

periad of a few generations or more. we find there are always
large-scale regularities in [he changes: for example. ayer a certain
periad of time. just about all the long [a:J vowels in a lanzuage
may ehange into long [e:1 vowels. or all the (hl consonants in a
certain position (for example at the end of a \Vord) m~y change
into [pI eonsonants. Such regular changes are often eaUed sOl/lid
laws. There are no universal sound laws (even though sound laws
often reOect universal tendencies). but simply particular sound
laws fol' one gi\'en language (or dialeet) at one given periodo We
must nol think of a sound law. however. as a sudden ehange
whieh irnmediately alTeets aJllhe words concemed. lf [bJ ~hanges
to [pi in a given language. the change may ftrSt ppear in \Vords
which are frequently used. and graduaJly spread through the I'est
of the vocabulary. Indeed. lhe sound law may eease 10 operate
befare all the relevant words have becn afTccted.
Idt wlth lhe carllcr pronunciarlon.

'>0

that

<l

fe,," are

Onc cause \'I.'hich has beco suggeslcd for ch3nge~ in

prolHlfKlatlnn ls gcogrilphlc and climatic. for example lhal
people living in mountain eountry are subjeet to eertain et.anges
in pronuneiation compared 10 plainsmen. but !he ejdenee for thls
is uneonvineing. Other people have suggested biclogieaJ and racial
factors: it has been said. for exanlple. that races with thick lips
have difficulty in pradueing certain speech-sounds. Or.ee agai~. no
reaUy convincing evidence has been praduced: and jf a chlld of any
racial origins is brought up from birth in a normal EnglishsP<'oklnR fllmlly. Il wlll grow up spellklng Engltsh lust Iike a natlve.
Moreover. the theory would obviously be ntOSI useful for
explairting changes in a language when it is adopted by ol1e
people from another. But in these eircumstances the theury is
unnecessary: the nfluence of one language 00 another is quite
enough to explain sueh changes. vlithout racial characteristlcs
being invoked.
During chlldhood. we 1eam our mother tongue ver)' thoroughly. and aequire a whole set of speeeh habits which become
second nature lO USo If later we leam a foreign language. we
inevitably carry over sorne of!hese speech habits inlo tI. and so do
nol spcak it cXilctly Iike a naUve. Por example. wc have secn that

41

in most phonetic contexts the English Ipl phoneme is pronounced

vlith a foUowing aspiration. produeing a kind of [phJ sound. and
the same is in fact true of the English /tI and IkJ phonemes. But it
is not true of lhe similar phonerncs in French or Italian. where the
voiceless pi osives are pronounced without any following a:l)piration. Many English speakers of French and Italian. even eompetent
ones. carry O\:er their aspirated voiceless plosives into those
languages. and this is one of many features that make them sound
foreign to native speakers. In bilingual situations. therefore. the
second language tends to be modified. Such modifications may not
persist: an isolated Polish or Pakistani immigranl lO Bntain will
usually have grandchildren who speak English like natives.
beeause the inOuence uf the gep.eral speech environment (peergroup. school. work) is stronger than that of the home. But jf a
large and c1osely-knlt group of people adopt a ne\V language. then
the modifications lhat lhey m;ke in it rnay persisl among their
descendants. even jf the latter no longer speak the original
language that caused the changes. This can be seen in Wales.
where the inOuence of Welsh has afTccled lhe pronunciation of
English. and the very characteristic inlOnation-patterns of Welsb
English have been carried over from Welsh. even among those
who no longer speak 11. Many historical changes may have been
due to a linguistic substratum of this kind: a conquenng minorHy
that imposed its language on a conquered population must oflen
have had iL, language madiHed by Its victims.
1t is also possible that fashion plays a part in the process of
change. It cerlainly plays a parl in the spread of cha:lge: one
persoo imitates another. and people with the most prestige are
mostlikc!y to be imitated. so that a change that takes place in one
social gTOUp may be imitated (more or less accurately) by speakers
in another group. When a social group goes up ur down in the
world. its pronunciation may gain or lose prestige. It is sala tl1at.
after the Russian Revolution of 1917. the upperc1ass pronunciation of Russian. which had formerly been considered desirable.
became 00 the contrary an uodesirable kind of accellt to have. so
that people tricd to disguise il. Sorne of the changes in tcc:pleu
English pronunciation io the seventecoth aorl eighteenth
centunes have beco shown to consisl ir: the repiacement of une

42

7he EnglLsh Jallguage

style of pronuoeiation by anolber style already exisling. and il is

Ukely lhal sueh substitulions were a resull of lhe greal social
ehanges of lhe period: lhe increased power and weallh of lbe
middJe c1asses. and lheir steady inilltratioo upwards int" lhe ranks
of lhe landed gentry. probahly earried elemenlS of middle-c1ass
pronuneiation inlo upper-dass speeeh.
Besides spreadiog ehanges lhal have already laken place.
fashion may actually cause changes in pronuncjstion. The
important thing about

fashion 15 lhal Il's exclusive: as soon as

lhe fashlon has penetrated lo a less prestigius social group. it's

time to move on. This can be seeo in cIo1hes: fashionable people
mal' find il Oallering lo be imilaled. bUl as soon a, the new fashioll
has really eaughl on. lhey need lo ehange lO somelhlng el.e. lo
mark lhemselves 01T as di.ITereol. 11 ma)' be lbe same wilh
language. for social groups use eharaelerislle styles of Janguage lo
mark lhemselves 01T from olher groups. A group wilh high prestlge
mal' fmd thal ilS style of speeeh is being lmitaled by olher groups.
and lhen lIS members mal' (perhaps uneonsetously) begin lo
ehange 11. perhaps by exaggeratlng lIS dJslinguJshing ehaeaeter-

7he flux of langllage

43

[aoj. bu: we ha ve an Inbuilt meehanism lhal allows US lo interprel

lheir vowcls eorreelly. provided we hear lhem as par! of a loogee
ulleraoee. This fael makes it unUkely lhal growth of the vocal
traet leads lO changes in pronunciation.

A less specific variant of the argument is that the imitation 01'

ehUdren is imperfeel: lhey eopy lheie parenls' speeeh. b;;-c ;;........

reproduce it "aetly. This is true. bot il is also true lhat sueh
deviations from adult speech are usually corrected in later
childhood. Perhaps it is more significant that even adults show
a certain amount oC random variation in their pronunciation of a

given phoneme. even if the phonelic eomexl is kepl unLhaoged.

This. however. cannot explain chan~es in pronunciation unless it
can be shown th~H there is sorne systemmic treno in the fJilures of

imitation: if lhey are merely random deviations lhey \ViII cancel

one anolher out and lhere ,viII be no nett ehange in lhe language.
For sorne of lhese random vanations lo be seleeled al lhe expense
of others. there must be further forces at work.

One sueh force whieh is oflen invoked is lhe principie of ease. oe

istlcs.

minimization of eITort. We all try to economize eflergy iu our

actioos. it is argued. so we tend to take short cuts in the

Anolher suggested cause foe ehanges In pronuneiatlon Is lhe

fael lhal ehildeeo grow. The vocal organs of ehildeen. il is argued.
are a di.lTerenl size from lhose of adults: lbey learn 10 mirnle lhe
noises lhallheir pareots make. bUl on whalls In elTect a di.ITerenl
instrument: as lhey grow up. lbey go on moving lbeir vocal
organs in lhe same way. bul lbe sounds lhal lhey produce are
now dilTerenl. beeause lhe organs are ehanged. There are IWO
serlous obJeetlons lo lhis lheory. however. The Hesl Is lhat. if lhis
were jndeed a major cause of phonological ehange. we ,hould
lhen expeel all ehanges of pronuoelatJon lo be in lhe same
direcllon. lrrP..speclive of language or perlod. and this is certainlj
nol lhe case. The second objection ls lhal humans appear lo have
lhe eapaeity. probably innate. lo alIow for di.lTereol sizes of vocal
trael when lhey inlerprel speech: lbe voiees of a young ehild. of a
womao. and of a deep-voiced man alI have di.ITereol piteh-Ievels.
bUl lhis does nol cause problems ofuoderstanding. When lhe man
utters lhe vowel [.} he may in fael produce lhe same aeoustie
signal as lhe woman when she says [e). oe lhe ehild when 11 says

movements of our speeeh-organs. to replace movemenlS eal!ing

for greal aeeuraey oe eoergy by less demanding ones. lo omil
sounds if lhey are nol essenlial for underslanding. and so on. Such
ehanges inerease lhe emelency of lhe language as a eornmunieation-syslem. and are undoubtedJy a factor in Iinguistie ehange.
lhough we have lo add lhat whal seems easy or difieult 10 a
speaker wiIl depend on lhe particular language lhat has beeo
leamL Suppose we have a sequence of lhree sounds in whieh lhe
fl1'Sl and the lhird are voieed. while the middJe one is voiceless: lhe
speakee has to carry out the operalion of swilehing 01T voiee before
lhe second sound and lhen swilChing il on again befoee lhe thied.
An eeonomy of elTort could be oblained by omitting lhese two
operatioos and allowing lhe volee lo eoorinue through all three
sounds. Sueh a ehange would be seen if lhe peonunciatio of fussy
were ehanged lO fuzzy. lhe voieeless Isl being replaeed by lhe
voiced Iv between lhe two vowels. Changes of lhis kind are
eornmon in lhe history of language. bul oevertheless we eanoot
lay il down as a universal rule lhal fuzzy is easiee 10 pronounce

44

The Englisll language

The flux of language

than fussy. In Swedish. ror example. there is 00 IzI pboneme. aod

Swedes who earo English find it difficult lO say fuzzy. wbicn they
ofleo misprooouoce as fussy. For them. ~lainJy. fussy is the easier
of the

tWQ

pronunciations. because it accords bener with

lh~

souod-system or their own language.

The change from fussy lO fuzzy would be ao eXIJ1pie or
assimllation. wbieh is a very eommon kind or ehaoge.
Assimilation is the ehanglng or a sound under the inOueoce or
a oeighbouring ooe. For example. the word scanr was once
skaml. but the lmi has beeo changed to 101 uoder the influeoce
or the rollowiog ItI. Greater efl]eieoey has hereby been achie\"ed.
because 101 and ItI are artieulated io the sarne place (with the
tip or the toogue against the teetb-ridge). whereas mi is
artieulated elsewhere (with the two llps). So the place or
articulation or the n35al eonsonant has beeo ehaoged to
eoororm \Vith that or the rollowing ploslve. A more reeeol
eX'ample of [he same kind of thing ls the carnmon pronundatlon

"r foolball as foopball. Sometlmes It Is the seeond or the two

souods that is ebanged by the assimilation. This can be secn in
sorne changes that bave takeo place in English under the
inOueoee or Iw/: untU about 1700. words ke swan ane wasll
rhymed with words ke man and rasll: the ehange in the vOVJel
or s\Van and wasll has giveo tt the IIp-rounding aod the ret, aCled
lonRuc-posillon of the /w/. and so econom1zed iu eITort.

"DI

AssimiJalioo is oot the on1y way in wbieh we chaoge

pronuncianDo in arder lo ncrease efficiency. It is very cammon for
cnn!'onanls fO he losl lit the end of ti wort.!: In Mlddlc E.ngltsh.
word-fioal/-ol was orteo lost in uostressed syllables. so th.t baken
'to bake' ehanged rrom I'ba:kaol to I'ba:ka/. aoc later lo rna:k/,
Consonant-duslers are afien slmpllfled. Al op..c time there was a
Itl in words ke castle aod atristmas. and an InlIJal lkI in wcrds
like knigllt and know. Sometlmes a whole syllable is dropped out
wheo two suceessive syllables begln wlth the same coasooanl
(lIaplology): a reeeot example is tcmporary. wbieh in Britain is orteo
pronounced as ti it were tempory.
00 lhe other haod. ease or prooulleiatlon cao lead to ao extra
phooeme beiog inserted in iI woro: in Old English. our word
lllundtr was /Junor. with no d. By noona! development. punor

45

would have become 'tllunner. nol tllunder. but at soroe stage 3 ldi
has beeo inserted in the pronunciatioo. SpeUings with d are first
rouod in the rhirteeoth century. and are coroplelely noonal by the
sixteenlb. Why was a ldi in.serted in the wordl Prbably because
rhe pronuneiation tllunder aetually ealls ror Ies.< precise rnovements or the speech-organs. Tbe ldi arose from a sllgbl rnistirnlng
in lhe transition from the nasal 101 to lhe following phooeroe
(wltich was probably a syllabic Irl rather than a vowel). This
transitioo ealls ror two simultaneous roovements of the speechorgans: (1) the oasal passages are closed by the raising or lhe soft
palau:. a..'ld (2) the loogue is moved a\Vay from the u:eth lO
unblock rhe mouth-passage. U the two movemeots are oot carried
out simultaneously. but the oasa! passages are c10sed before the
roogue rooves. a ldi will be heard between lhe Inl aud lbe
rollowing phooeme. as the stop is released. Similar rnistimlngs
produced the Ibl in the middJe or lhe words thimble and bramble
(Old Engllsh pymel. brlmen. Somellmes. loo. ease or proouociatlon
appareotly leads os lO reverse the order or two phonemes in a
word (metatllesis): tbis has happeoed in lhe words wasp a..'ld bum.
which by regular developmeot would have been waps a..'ld brin or
bren.

The changes produced in pursuil or emcieocy can olteo be

tolerated. because a language always provides more signals than
the absolute minlmum necessary for the transrnl"-Sion oC the

message. lO give a margin or sarety: like all good commwticationsystems. human language has built in to it a considerable amounl

or reduodancy. !lut lhere Is a llmil to lhls toleratloo: the oecessltles

of cornmunication. lhe urgent needs oC humans as users of
language. provide a r.ounterforce lo the principIe ol" m.i.nimum
errort. Ir. through excessive econorny oC eITort. an uUerance 15 001

understood. or is misuodersrood. the speaker is obllged tu "epeat It

or recast it. making more effori.. The necessities oC corrununkatlon.
rooreove" may be responsible ror the selection or soroe 01' the
random variatioos or a phoneme rather than olhers. so that a
change in pronunciation occurs in a certain direction. Th1s
direetioo may be choseo because it makes the souad inhereotly
more audible: for example. open oasal vowels seeOl 10 ", roore
distiactive in quality than c10se ones. and in laoguages which

46

71le flux oJ anguage

711< English anguage

have sueh vowels it is not uneommon for a nasal [e] to develop

into a nasal [al.
In eonsidering sueh ehanges. however. we eannot look at the
isolaled phoneme: we have to consider lhe sound-system of the
language as a whole. The 'safeness' or olherwise of a phoneme for
communicative purposes does nol depend solely on its own
inherenl dislineliveness: il depends also on the other phonemes in
the language with whieh it can be eontrasted. and lhe likelihood
lhat it may be eonfused with them. Let us imagine thal in the
vowel-syslem of a language there is a shoct [ej. as in bet (see for
example the vowel-diagram in Figure 4. p. 14 above): in one
direetion from it lhere is a shoct ["'J (as in bal). and in anolher
direetion a shor! [a] (as in the f1rst syUable of abou/): but in the
upward (c1oser) direetion there is no shor! vowel. no kind al
shor! [t I for example. Suppose now tbat randoro variatins oceur
in speaker,;' pronuncialions of lhese lbree vowels. When the
variations of[eJ go too far in the direelio:! of ["'1 or [a]. lhe speaker
will be (oreed lo correct them. lo avold misunderstandinf.t. BOl
when the variations are In the dlrcctlon of

IIj.

there Is no such

lIecesslty for eheeking or eorreetion. The resull wiI! be a shift in lhe

centre of gravity of the [ej. whieh wiU drif, up lowards [IJ.
Moreover. the movement of[e] lowards [.J willleave more scope for
varialions in ["'l. whieh may tend lo drifl up towards [el. In this
way. a whole ehain of vowel-changes may take place.
In this example 1 have assumed lhal the eonirasl between the
three vowels ls important enough in the funetioning of the
language for speakers to resist any ehanges which lhreaten lhis
eontrast. This will be the case if large num"'r,; of words are
distinguished from one another by these vowcls. In otller words

if lhe eontrast hetween them docs a lot of work in the language.

Tlle funetlonal load eamed by a eonlrast \s'a maJor factor when
s[J<'nker,; decide (unronsclously) whether to let a ehange take
place or noL There may be rorces in the system ml'lkln~ fuI' llll"
amalgamation of twn phnnc,m:s. lInd Ir thcre ure very few worJs
111 ti," IUlIgUilgc whlch wlll be confused witb one another a. a
result then there will not be mueh resistance lo the ehange; bUl
jf serious confusion wiU be eaused by the amnlgamaUon It wlll he
reslstrd more strongly. and perhaps be prevente<!.

47

This does not mean. on lhe other hand. that a phoneme lvith a
smaU functionaJ load will necessarily be thrown oul of the syslem.
either by being lost or by being amalgamated with another
phoneme. lt also depends on the degree of elTor! required lo retain
the phoneme. whieh may be quite smaU. For example. the
eontrast in English between the voieed 101 and the voieeless 191
phonemes carries a very smaJl load: lhere are a few pair,; of ','Vords
lhat are distinguished from one another solely by this dillerenee.
Iike \Vrealhe and \VreaIIJ. and mou1J (verb) and moulh (noun): but
in practice the distincIion between the lWO phonemes is of very
smaU imponance. and il would cause no greal :nconverJence if
they were amalgamated. for example by both evolving into sorne
lhird. dilTerenl. phoneme. On lhe olher hand. it lakes very little
elTor! to retain lhe distinction between lhem. They belong to a
\Vhole series of voieed and voiceless fricatives (11'1 and 1fI. IzJ and
15/. 131 and IJI). and so fall into a familiar paem: ar:d jf we
abolished lhe distincUon beIween them \Ve <)hould nol econornize
in the numbcr of lyprs of contrilsl lhal we madc: \Ve should sfiU
have to distinguish fricatives from other lypeS of eonsonant. and
between voiced and voiceless mcaIives,
The stability of 101 and 191 thus results from lhe fael that they
are. in Andr Martinet's tenninology. 'weU integrated' in the
consonant system of English. An even beller integrated group cf
consonanlS In present-day English is the follo\Ving:

Voiceless plosives Ipl ItI /kl

Voiced plosives
Ibl Idl 191
Nasals
Iml Inl IQI

E"I(.:h of these hree series uses lIJe :,alllc pJu,;cs uf artic.:uli.ltion: the
two Iips pressed togelher for Ip/. Ib/. Im/: the tip of the tongue
pre,sed againsl lhe teethridge for It/. Id/. In/: the back of the
longue pressed up againSllhe 50ft palale for Ik/. Ig/./D/. So. using
only Ihrn' :Irlirlllnlllry po.. llillll:'. ;IIHllhrc(' di..lilu'lIvl' llrlh'lIlnlory
features (ploslveness. nasallly. vuice). wc get no lewcr lhan Illne
distinct phoneroes. This group is very stable. beeause lhe loss oC
any one of the nine would produce negligible economy in the
system: ir. sayo IDI \Vere to disappear. \Ve should still ha ve to be
able 10 produce nasality fcr Iml and In/. and we should still have

48

The English language

to be able to articulate with the back of the :ongue against the soft
palate for /9/ and /kI. So even if IDI camed a very smaU load in
the language we should stUI be unlikely to get rid of it. For the
same reason. if thcre were a hole in the panem. it would stand a
good chance in time of gening filled. if lhere were no la/ In
prescnt-day Fnglish. ~ut thcrc was some other COIlSOllanl which

was not very well integrated in any sub-system. tnen any

variations in this consonant lhat moved it in the direction of [ul
would tend to be accepted. because lhey Vlould represent an
'easier' pronunciation - easier. that is. ip terms of the economy

(and lherefore efficiency) of the system as whole.

Changes in morphology. syntax. vocabular'J. and word-meaning,
whUe lbey Olll be compUcat.ed enough, are less puzzling :.han
changes in pronunciation. Many oftbe same causes can Le secn al
work. The inJIuence of olher languages. for example. is very
obvious: nations with hlgh commercial, political, and cultural
prestige tend to innuence their neighbours: for centuries. French
innuenced aU the languages of Europe, while today the infiuence
of the English language :s penetrating all over lhe worlo. largely
because of the power and prestige of the United States. This
inJIuence is strongest in the field of vocabulary, but one lnguage
can also innuence lhe grarnmar and syntax of another. Such

The flux oj anguag,

49

meaning in words that refer lo values or to complexes of attitudes:

for example, in Shakespeare's day the adjective g"nUe meant a

good deal more than '!<ind. sweetnatured. mild. not violent'. for it
referred to high binh as well as to moral qualities. and had a
wholc soci,11 thcory bchind H.
As in pronunciation. so at the other le veis of languagc, we see
the constant coomet between the principie of minimum eITort and
the demands (lf communication. Minim.ization of eITort is seen in

the way words are often shorrened. as when pub/ie house becomes
pub. or television becomes telly. and also in the laconic and elliptical
expressions that \Ve orten use in coUoquial and intima te discourse.

But if economy of this kind goes too far. sorne kind of

compensating action may be taken. as when in Ea.!'ly Middle
Engllsh the word ea was replaced by the French loan-word riv<r,
and in the seventeenth century the bird calied the pie was
expanded to the magple. in such ways. the redundancy which has
been removed from the language by shortenings may be reinserted
by lengthenings.
There is also interplay between the needs of the us~rs and the
inherent tendencies of the language~systern tseU', One way in

which the language-system promotes change. es>ecially in

grammar. is through the operation of anaJogy. which also tends

influence may occur ir languages in a giveo arca are in intimate

to produce economy. Analogy is seeo at work when chUdren are

contacl over an extended periodo and aIso when a rellgion spreads

and ils sacred books are translated: in lhe Old Engllsh period there
were many translations from the Latin, and lhere is some evidence
that Latin syntax innuenced the struclure of Old English.
in the realm of vocabulary and meaning, the infiuence of
general social and cultural change is obvious. As society changes.
there are new things lhat need new names: physical CJjecls.
institutions. seis of attitudes, values, concepls: and new words are
produced lO handJe Ihem (or exisling words are given new
meanings). Sentirnentallty. c1assicism, wave mechanics. parliamenls. post-[mpressionism, privatization - lbese are human
inventioos just as much as steam engines or aircraft or nylon'
and people inevitably invented nomes for them. Morcover.
beClIUSC the world Is constantly changing, many words Insensibly
change lhelr meanings. lt is particularly easy to overlook shi!\.; of

leaming their language. A chUd ieams pairs like dogldogs. bcd/beds,

bag/bags. and SO on. Then it leams a new wocd. say plllg. and quite
correctly fcrros the plural plugs from it. on analogy with these
other pairs. Analogy, then, is the process of inventing a new

element in conforroity with some par! of the language system that

you already know. The way in which analogy can lead to change
is seen when the chUd ieams words like man and mOllSe, and fcrros
the analogical plurals mans and mOllses. Ultimately sueh chUdish
errors are usually corrected. but analogical forroations also take
place in adult speech. and quite often persist and become accepted.
In Old Engllsh there were many diJTerent ways of putting a noun
into the plural: for example, slan 'stone', stanas 'stones'; word
'word', \\lord 'words': scip 'ship'. scipu 'ships': synn 'sin', sY",,/Q
'sins': !Unge 'tongue', tungan 'tongues': beo 'bee', beon 'bees'; blle
'book', bee 'books: 1amb Iamb. lambrll Iambs'. The fonn sliinJIS

50

117e Engli,h language

has developed quile regularly into our plural stones. but. somelime
during lhe past lhousand years. aU the other.; have changed lheir
plural ending lo lhe -(e)s type. by analogy with lhe many nouos
Uke slone. The rarer a word is. the more Uke!y il is lo be alfected by
analogy. The unusual noun-plural forms in prese"t-day English.
whlch .are the ones that have managed lo resist lhe analogy of the
plural m -relso are mostJy very cornmon words. Uke men. feel. and
chlldren. or al any rate are words which were very carnrnon a few
centunes ago. like geese and oren.

Language families
The process of change in a language oflen leacls 10 dJvergent
developmenl. Imagine a language which is spoken only by the
population of lwO small adjacenl villages. In each village. lhe
language will slowly change. bUI lhe changes "/iII nol be idenlical
in lhe two villaRcs, hcclusc ('ondilions ilre sllghtly dlfTcrclll. ! Iellce
lhe speech used in one of the viIIages mal' gradually diverge from
that used in lhe other. If there is rivalry between the villages. they
mal' even pride lhemselves on such divergences. as a mork of local
palriotism. Witbin the single viIIage. speech wi.1I remaln rairly

uniformo because the speakers are in constant enntact, and so

innuence one another. The rat.e at which the speech ur one viliage
diverges from lhat or the other ,,1U depend panly on the degree of
diITerence between thei' ways of Iire. and partly on lhe intensity of
cOlnmunicution belween them. If the vUlages are c10se logether
and have a good deal or inter-viIIage comaol. so thal manv
members or nne village are conslantly talking with membe" or th~
other. then divergence wilJ be kept smaU. because the speech 0f
one commonity will be constantly infiuencing lhe speech or lhe
olher. BUl if communications are bad. and members of one village
seldom meel anyb<xly from the other. lhen lhe rate or diverge~ce
mal' weU be high. When a language has diverged inlO two rorros
Uke tbis. we sal' lhat it has two dlalects.
Suppose now that the lnhabitants of one of the viUages pack up
lheir belongings and migrate en masse. They go oIT 10 a distanl
country and /ive under conditions quite different from the;" old

117e flux oflanguage

.s 1

horne, and completely lose contact with the other viIIage. The rate
at which lhe two diaJects diverge wiIJ now increase. partly
Decause of the difference of environment and way of Ufe. partly
because they no longer influence one another. After a fey
hundred years. lhe two dialects mal' have gol so different that
lbey are no longer rnutuaUy inteWgible. We should now sal' lhat
lhey were two different languages. 80th ha ve grown by a pr"""ss
of continuous change out of the single original language. but
because of divergent development lhere are now two languages
Instead of one. When two languages have evolved in tltis way
rrom some earlier single language. we sal' lhal lhey are re/a red. The
development of related languages from an ear/ier parenl-Ianguage
can be represented diagrarnmaticaUy as a family tree. thus:
Parent language
_ _ _ _ _1

Daughter languagc A

-,

Oaughler language B

As we shaU see later. litis kind of diagram is in sorne ways

Inadequate. and we musl certai.nJy avoid thinking or languages as
if they were people. BUl as long as we bear lhis in mind. we shall
lind that family trees are a convenienl way of depicting lhe
relation$bips between languages.

Languages descended from Latln

There are numerous examples in history of divergent development leadiog 10 the forroalion of relaled languages. For example.
when the Romans conquered a large pan of Europe. North Aiea.
and the Near fAst. their language. Latin. becarne spoken over wide
areas as the standard language or administralion and govemment.
especiaUy in tJ1e westem part or lhe Empire. Then. in the fourth
century uf our era. the Empire began lo disintegrate. ando !TI lhe
centuIies which foUowed. was overrun by barbarjan invasions Huns. Slavs. Germans - and graduaUy broke up. In the new
countries that evenluaUy emerged from lho ruins of lhe VJestem

52

11Ie English language

11" flux ollanguage

Empire. various languages were spoken. In some places, both

Latin and lhe local languages had been swepl away and replaced
by the language 01 an invader - in England. by Angl'J-Saxoa. in
North Nrica. by Arabic. Bul in other places LatL'l was firmly
enough rooled to survive as the language of the new nation. as in
France. Italy. and Spaio. BU1. beca use there was no longer a single
unilying cenlre lo hold lhe language logelher. divergent
developmenl look place. and Latin evolved into a number DI
dilTerenl new languages. In general. lhe lurthcr a place wa, from
Rome. lhe more the new language diverged lrom the original
LatL'l.
In the early Middle Ages there was a whole welter 01 local
dialects developed [rom Latin: each regian. with its 0wn leudal
coun. wauld have its own local dialect. Bulo as the modem nation
states developed. lhese dialects became consolidated inlo a lew
great nationallanguages. Today there are five nalonal Itm~lIilges
d('s('('nc!td from I.nlll1: Ilullan. Spllfllsh. I'ortllglll'sc. Fn.:nc!l. lfId

'l'hac are.: also olher languages derived from Latin

which have nol become aational languages. but which are spoken
by some large group with a cornmon culture: such are Romansh
(spoken in parts 01 Switurland and 01 Italy). Proven,al (spoken In
southem France). Catalan (spokeo in Catalonia and the Balearie
Isles). and Sardinian (spoken in southern Sardinia). Languages
descended from Latin are ealled Romana lallgl.lages. We can dro",
a family tree of lhe Romance lnnguagcs. thus:
i{oll1illliilll.

Latin

__--.---._1_ -_'1-- - - 1
I
Portuguese Spanish

ItaUan

Provenc;al

French

Each 01 !he Romance languages has developed its oIVn morphology

and syntax. bUI lbey all bear signs 01 lheir COmIDon origin in
Latin. The moS! obvlous resemblanees are lo vocabuhil"Y: eaeh
language has undergone considerable changes In pronunciation,
but the Latln orlgin 01 large numbers 01 words 1.< quite evident. For

53

example. the Lalin word lor 'good' is bonus: lhis has become Halian
buono. Spanish bueno. French bono Portuguese bom. and Romanian
bun. The Latin hamo 'man' has beeome Italian uomo. Spanish
hombre. Prench homme. Portuguese hornem. and Romanian om.
The members 'of such a reIated group 01 words are said lo be
cognate.

Sorne language families

This proeess 01 divergent development leading lo the lormation
of new languages has occurred many times in human history.
which is why there are now around six thousand dilTerenl
Ianguages in the world. An examination of these languages shows
that many 01 lhem belong to some group 01 related languages. and
sorne of lhcse ~rollps are vcry lar~c. constit\ltin~ what we can r.all
languagc famUies. A liJllguage whic.:h has ariscn by the lJrocess of
divergenl development mal' itself give rise lo lurther languages by
() continuation of the same process. until there is a whole c'lIlJit:A
lamily 01 languages with various branehes. so me more neady and
sorne more dislantly related to one another.
An example 01 such a lamily is lhe Semitie group 01 languages.
Al lhe time 01 lhe earUesl wrilten reeords lhis was already a family
\v:ith many memhers: in Mesopolamia were the East Semitic
languages. Babylonlan and Assyrltlo. whlle roulld Ihe custem
shores 01 lhe Medilerranean were the West Semi tic languages.
sueh as Moabite. Phoenieian. Aramaic. and Hebrew. The East
Semitic languages have died out. and lhe most sueee"ful
surviving Semitie language is undoubtedly Arabie. a Soulh
Semitie language whieh. with some dialeclal variations. is spoken
along lhe whole northem eoasl 01 Nriea and in a large part ollhe
Near East. Also surviving are Syriac. Elhiopian, and Hebrew. lhe
lasl 01 which is a remarkable example 01 a language being revived
lor everyday use afler a long period in whieh a had only been used
for religious purposes.
But lhe Semitie languages are themselves reIaled to another
lamily. lhe Hamitic languages. and al some time in lhe remote
pasl (eertainly long belore 3000 Be) lhere muS! have been a single

54

The English language

The flux af languaye

Hamilo-Semitie language whieh was lhe cornmon aneeslor of aD

Semitie and Hamitie languages. The language of alleienl EgypI
belonged to lhe Hamitie group: today. of course. lhe language al
Egypl is a form of Arabie. but a descendant of the aneienl Hamitic
language of Egypl. Coptie. survived until aboul lhe fifleeolh
eentury. and is still used as tbe Iiturgieal language of the Coptic
Chureh. Surviving Hamitie languages are 'POken across a laI1\e
pan of North Afriea. and inelude Somall and lhe many daleelS 01
Berber.
Anolher large language family is lhe Ural-"Jtaie. This has lwo
main branehes. tbe Finno-Ugrian and lhe Altaie (thougn sorne
authorities deny lhat these branehes are in fael related) The
Finno-Ugrian group ineludes Hungarian. Finnish. Estonian. and
L.app. while lhe Allaie ineludes Turldsh and Mongol. If you have
ever visited FinJand or Hungary. or seeu newspapers fr.)m those
eountries. you may have been struek by lhe eomplele unfamiIiarity of lhe language. whereas in mosl European eountries there
are many words lhat can be guessed. or whieh al any ra:e do nol
seem to be dffieult lo remember when once learot. For example.
tbe English numerals one. two. thru are quile like German eins,
zwei, dre; and Swedisb en. tvd. treo and evcn French un. dcux. trois:
but tbe Finnish words are yksi. kaksi. ka/me. and tbe Hl.!Dgarian
egy. kew;. harom. which are quite strange to us. The rea",,, Is. of
eourse. hat Engllsh and mosl olber European languages belollg lo
a famUy quite unrelated to tbe Ural-Allaie.
A famUy with an enormous number of speaken; Is lhe Sino
Tibelen. whirh includes Thal. Burmese. Tibetan. and lhe various
dialeels of Chioese (no! aU of whieh are m;,luaUy imelligible).
japanese is nol relaled to lhis group (lhough it has been deeply
innueneed hy Chinese). bul may posslbly be relate<! lO Kon,an. In
Southem India and Sri Lanka can be found Dravidan language;,
whieh inelude Tamil and Telegu. In Malaya and lhe Paeille
slands is the Malayo-Polynesian famUy. Includng Malayan.

Melanesian. and Polynesian. In ALJica. there are

llumerOl':S

language famUies. ineluding tbe Nilo-Sabaran. lhe Niger-C.ongo.

and the Chadie. Of lhe better-known Afriean languagcs. Yoruba
and Igbo oolh belong lo tbe Kwa braneh oi tbe Niger-Congo
family. and Swabill and Zulu lo lis Bantu braneh. while Hallsa

55

belongs to the Chade family. whieh is perhaps relaled lo

Hamitie.
These are aU families with large numbers of speakers. hut lhere
are many smaUer ones. like lhe EskJmo languages. various familles
of languages among the American Indans. the Papuan languages
of Australia and New Guinea. and lhe Caueasian languages by the
Caspian Sea. ineluding Georglan. In addilion. lhere are i.;olaled
languages which ha ve no known family eonneelions. sueh as
Basque. spoken by nearly a million people in lhe Freneh and
Spanish Pyrenees.
Allempts have been made 10 demonstrale relatedness belween
various reeognized language-families. and lhus 10 amalgamale
them inlO superfamiUes. 11 would nol be surprising if many of lhe
world's languages. or indeed all of lhem. wen! baek ullLmalely to
sorne cornmon ancestor. To prove such related.ness. however. is
quite another malter. after thousands of years of divergent
development. and lhe proposed superfamilies must. at any rate for
the present. be regarded as speeulalive.

Convergent developmenl
The process of divergent development. then. has produced an
enonnous number of languages out of a smaUer number of carlier
ones (possibly oul of one original one). There are. however. lorces
thal work Ihe other way. thal may even reduce a language family
or branch ro a <ingle langulge again. For example. Latin was only
one of a number of relaled languages. daleels 01' Italie. which were
spoken in the eity-states of anclent ltaly. Al one time. sorne of
these other Italic languages. such as Umbrian arid Osean. ma)'
ha ve beco al least as widespread and important as Lc'1tin. But as
lhe Romans eonquered Italy. Iheir language eonq'Jered lOO. and
eventually lhe olher llalie languages ded oul. So we have the
differenti.:nion of a language into a numher of variants. and (hen.

for political reasaos. one of these variants becomes d0minant and

lhe olhers disappear. Sornething similar has happened Wilh the
Semilie languages: many of these have ded oul. and one formo
Arabie. has beeorne Ihe dominant one. beeause il was lhe
language of lhe expansionist annies of Islam.

56

'n,e flux of anguage

11Ie English [anguage

The same centrallzing tendeocy can oflen be seen al work even

when there is no question of conquest. \Vilhin a single political
unit. Iike a modem national sta te. there is usually one form of the
lan~ua~e which has higher prestlge thun the others. "nd whieh
acts as a brake on lhe divergent lendendes in the langu2ge. Th~
prestige-dialeet may be the language of lhe ruling class. or it may
simply be the edueaed speech of the capital. which IS often Ihe
culturaJ as well as the administrative centre. and so eXE':rts great
innuence on lhe rest of the counlry. sually. sueh a preslige
dialecl underlies lhe slandard literary form of lhe language. wh,eh
innuences lhe whole country through l>oks and education. The
exislence of a standard language discourages further divergenee.
because many people try lO make their usage more Iike the
standard. especially if they wish te> make their way in
administration and govemment. or if they are social c1imocrs. !t
may also lead to the actual dying out of olher dialeets. In Old
English lhere were many dialects. but Modem English is very
largely descended from ust one of them. a dialect of he Easl
MldlanJ region: sorne features from the other dialeclS have
survived. but most of them ha ve disappeared.
A standard Iiterary language may continue to be influenlial
e\'en after the political decline of the group lhat made it important.
AI1 example of this is he Greek koine. lhe standard literar)'
Illn~lIaKc of lhe cllslcrn Mcdl:crrnncun from lhe time of Alcxinder
,he Greal in the fourth century Be. This language was a modified
form of the Attic diaJect of Athens. which b<'ealfle the lilerary
sl,lnc!nrn fnr Ihe r.rrck~renklng wnrld In lhe

nnh

cClltury

Be,

wilel1 Athens was pohtically and cullurally the domillonl city of

Greece. Athellian political dominance asted less tha;, a ccntllry,
l1ut thl' prcstigc uf J\thenlan l1lerature and of Athenian speech
remained. and from it developed he koin;;. This word means
',hared. common. popular'. and i was indeed lhe common
languuge of u large =a for something Iike a thousand ye=. 11 is.
for example. he language in which the New Teslament was
wtillen. In the fourtl eentury of our era. the sons of Constantine
divided lhe Roman Empire. he younger son taking the easlem
part and the elder son !he westero parto and thls division beeame
permanent. The adminlstrative language of the Westem Enlpire.

57

culed fram Rome. was Lalin; but the administrative language of

Ihe Easlem Empire. !Uled fram Conslantinople. was the Greek
koin;;.