Changes in the English Language
Nick Humiston
Speech has been around since prehistory. It has evolved into several
different languages, and has divided cultures. The English language started with Old
English and the Anglo-Saxons [I don't think this is an 'and'
proposition]. (Paul Roberts, [just the last name
first, no comma, then the page number (Roberts 91) like that] 91). Old
English became Middle English sometime between the years 1000 and 1200 [how?] (Paul Roberts, [just the last name
first, no comma, then the page number (Roberts 91) like that] 94). Sometime
between 1400 and 1600 [insert a comma] English underwent a
change in the way it sounds [how so?] and Middle English
became Early Modern English (Paul Roberts, [just the last name
first, no comma, then the page number (Roberts 91) like that] 96). From about
1700 [insert a comma] English starts [don't
shift tense--you started in past tense, stay in past tense] to sound much like it
does today (Paul Roberts, [just the last name first, no comma, then
the page number (Roberts 91) like that] 98). American's [lose
the apostrophe] have added slang [so, all the changes in the
structure of the language are a direct result of slang alone?] since 1700 [you think slang started in 1700?] and changed the way words sound
slightly, and that is where we get our ways of speaking and writing today [how would sound shifts affect writing?]. From Old English
to our modern day speech, the English language has been distorted so that we speak much
differently today then [not then, but than, and in this case, use
'from how'] we did in the past.
Within the history of English we can interpret how much the English language has changed.
The history of our language begins a little after A.D. 600. For a thousand
years or so before the birth of Christ [insert a comma] our
linguistic ancestors were savages wandering through the forests of northern Europe.
At the time of the Roman Empire[insert a comma] say, [lose the colloquialism 'say'] from the beginning of the
Christian Era to around A.D. 400 [insert a comma] the
speakers of what was to become English were scattered along the northern coast of Europe.
They spoke a dialect of Low German, and were of several different tribes. The names given
to the tribes who got to England are Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. For convenience, we can
refer to them as Anglo-Saxons. Their first contact was with the Roman Empire on
whose borders they lived[before or after their move to England?]
. The Anglo-Saxons wandered into the Empire occasionally, and at this period
Anglo-Saxons started borrowing from Latin (Paul Roberts, [just the
last name first, no comma, then the page number (Roberts 91) like that] 89).
By 550 or so[insert a comma] the Anglo-Saxons were
firmly established in England, which is an English speaking country. The first type
of English was Old English. Old English was very different from modern
English. Letters of the alphabet were pronounced differently than[from, not than] today, and that changes
[tense-changed] the way words were written (Paul Roberts, [just
the last name first, no comma, then the page number (Roberts 91) like that]
93). Old English compared to modern English is almost a foreign language. The
second type of English was Middle English. In the year 1066, the French crossed the
Channel and made themselves masters of England. For the next several hundred years,
England was ruled by kings whose first language was French. Although French did not
take over the English language, this changed their language to Middle English [awkwardly worded, redundant with the sentences above--reword]
(Paul Roberts, [just the last name first, no comma, then the page
number (Roberts 91) like that] 94). The next type of language was Early
Modern English. Sometime between 1400 and 1600[insert a comma]
English underwent some changes in the way words sound. Changes in the way
words sounded changed the way English words were spelled. [this
is a good point, but its redundant with the point you've already made--in what way were
these changes most manifest?] Vowels were changed in sound so they were changed in
the spelling of words. [what was this shift called?] This
is how Middle English changed to Early Modern English. Middle English lasted into
the 1700's (Paul Roberts, [just the last name first, no comma, then
the page number (Roberts 91) like that] 96). Since the 1700's English has
changed to the language we speak today. [bring closure--don't end on
a subpoint--how is this idea of historical evolution important to the thesis?]
To achieve the language of today, we have added twists to the language from centuries of
pronouncing things differently and adding slang. There are different forms of
English between different cultures in America. Caucasians speak differently than [from, not than] African[insert a hyphen]
Americans [insert a comma] who speak differently from
Mexicans. Each culture has added their own influence on the language. For
instance [insert a comma] African[insert
a hyphen] American slang changes the way English traditionally sounds. The
way the words are put together does not always fit the description in English grammar
books. The method of expressing time, or tense, for example, differs in significant ways.
The verb to be is an important one in Standard English. It's [lose
the contraction] used as an auxiliary verb to indicate different tenses. But
African [insert a hyphen] American English speakers use it
quite differently. Sometimes an "inner-city Negro" says "He coming";
other times he says "He be coming." These two sentences mean different
things. "He be coming" means something like "He's always
coming," "He usually comes," or "He's been coming." [what's that 'tense' called?] (Dorothy Z. Seymour, [just the last name first, no comma, then the page number (Roberts 91)
like that] 125). These changes in the way cultures speak effects [affects] the way the English language is spoken.[bring closure by telling me why this is important to the
thesis--strengthen what you already have here]
The aims of early grammarians were these three: (a) they wanted to codify the principles
of their languages, to show that there was a system beneath the apparent chaos of usage,
(b) they wanted a means of settling disputes over usage, (c) they wanted to point out what
they felt to be common errors, in order to "improve" the language[don't subordinate your intro sentence to its supporting ideas--introduce
the idea of the paragraph first, then develop its content] . These attitudes
are still with us, and they motivate a widespread concern that linguistic standards should
be maintained. Nevertheless, there is an alternative point of view that is concerned less
with "standards" than with the facts of linguistic usage. This approach is
summarized in the statement that it is the task of the grammarian to describe, not
prescribe, to record the facts of linguistic diversity, and not to attempt the impossible
tasks of evaluating language variation or halting language change[what's
this called?--it's a good point--develop its implications regarding your thesis]
. The English language has changed much in the past and grammarians would like to
keep the language consistent (David Crystal, [just the last name
first, no comma, then the page number (Roberts 91) like that]102). With the
changes in the past [insert a comma] keeping the language
consistent may be an impossible task. [why is this idea important to
your thesis?]
The English language has changed much since it first started. English has always
changed and will always change. The way we speak today will effect [affect] the people in generations to come. Our nowadays
slang will become their everyday way of speaking. The English language has been
around for many years, and has changed a lot[this entire sentence is
redundant with the first one--are you trying to say that it is slang that dictates
linguistic change? what about the points you've already made concerning vowel shifts
and grammatical reformulations? are those derivative of slang? clarify that
within your paper, and then focus on the impact of that to this issue].
Grammarians believe that we can keep English the same if we use it as our parents
did. What Grammarians don't[lose the contraction]
take into account is the history of our language. The English language will
change again and[insert a comma] even if we try our hardest, [continued] deformation [you consider
linguistic evolution as a deformation? interesting] is inevitable.
Bibliography
Changes in the English language
[Your annotations are missing, and you've only cited three of the four sources. Moreover, your citations are incorrectly done. Go back into the instructions on the readings and you'll find the rest of the information concerning those sources, and then go into the instructions on the annotated bibliography, and you'll find the MLA citation method]
Thesis statement: From Old English to our modern day speech, the English language
has been distorted so that we speak much differently today then we did in the past.
1. Roberts, Paul. "Understanding English". 89-98.
2. Crystal, David. "The Prescriptive Tradition" 102-106.
3. Seymour, Dorothy Z. "Black Children, Black Speech" 122-128.
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