What is English?(延伸閱讀)----免費學英文－金學堂英語的部落格

有一點長，不過非常容易閱讀與理解，

看完你就知道"英文"的轉變，

原來真的是個非常多元的語言呢！

Old
English (450-1100 AD)

The
invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed
into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like
English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty
understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used
words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water,
for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

Middle
English (1100-1500)

In
1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France),
invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought
with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and
the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic
class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes
spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but
with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was
the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be
difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Modern English

Early
Modern English (1500-1800)

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.

Late
Modern English (1800-Present)

The
main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is
vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal
factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for
new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of
the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many
countries.

Varieties
of English

From
around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation
of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and
words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American
English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is.
Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact
original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for
a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of
lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into
Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on
American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon,
ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered
English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through
Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced
American English (and so, to an extent, British English).

Today,
American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of
cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the
Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world,
including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian
English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.