English and Its Historical Development, Part 28
(the uniformity of American English is largely a result of the improved modes of travel and communication)
All of the improved ways of traveling and communication have been, and continue to be, standardizing influences on the English language
Late-Modern English (1800-Present)
The principal distinction between early-modern and late-modern English is vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has many more words.
These words are the result of two historical factors. The first is the "Industrial Revolution," or "Evolution," and the rise of the technological society. This necessitated new words for things and ideas that had not previously existed.
The second was the British Empire. At its height, Britain ruled one quarter of the earth's surface, and English adopted many foreign words and made them its own.
The industrial and scientific revolutions created a need for neologisms (new words) to describe the new creations and discoveries. For this, English relied heavily on Latin and Greek.
Words like oxygen, protein, nuclear, and vaccine did not exist in the classical languages, but they were created from Latin and Greek roots.
Such neologisms were not exclusively created from classical roots though, English roots were used for such terms as horsepower, airplane, and typewriter.
This burst of neologisms continues today, and are perhaps most visible in the field of electronics and computers. "Byte, cyber-, bios, hard-drive", and "microchip" are good examples.
The rise of the British Empire and the growth of global trade served not only to introduce English to the world, but to introduce additional words into English.
Hindi, and the other languages of the Indian subcontinent, provided many words; such as, "pundit, shampoo, pajamas," and "juggernaut".
Virtually every language on Earth has contributed to the development of English, from Finnish (sauna) and Japanese (tycoon) to the vast contributions of French and Latin.
The British Empire was a maritime empire, and the influence of nautical terms on the English language has been great. Words and phrases like "three sheets to the wind" and "scuttlebutt" have their origins naval terminology.
Finally, the 20th century saw two world wars, and the military influence on the language during the latter half of this century has been great.
Before the "Great War", military service for English-speaking people was rare; both Britain and the United States maintained small, volunteer, military organizations.
Military slang existed, but with the exception of nautical terms, rarely influenced standard English. During the mid-20th century, however, virtually all British and American men served in the military.
Military slang entered the language like never before. "Blockbuster, nose dive, camouflage, radar, roadblock, spearhead", and "landing strip" are all military terms which made their way into standard English.
Languages that have contributed words to English include Latin, Greek, French, German, Arabic, Hindi (from India), Italian, Malay, Dutch, Farsi (from Iran and Afganistan), Nahuatl (the Aztec language), Sanskrit (from ancient India), Portuguese, Spanish, Tupi (from South America), and Ewe (from Africa).
The list of borrowed words is enormous
The vocabulary of English is said to be the largest of any language today.
Even with all these borrowings the heart of the language remains the Anglo-Saxon of Old English. Only about 5000 or so words from this period have remained unchanged, but they include the basic building blocks of the language: household words, parts of the body, common animals, natural elements, most pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs.
Grafted onto this basic stock was a wealth of contributions to produce, what many people believe, is the richest of the world’s languages.
Proceed to Part 29, Space-Age Generation.
INDEX or Table of Contents, English and its historical development.
References: sources of information.