© Boardworks Ltd 20131 of 10 © Boardworks Ltd 20131 of 10

Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page

Accompanying worksheet

Flash activity. These activities are not editable.

Web addressesExtension activities

Icons key: For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation

Changes in EnglishYear 9: Language Variation

Sound

© Boardworks Ltd 20132 of 10

Learning objectives

© Boardworks Ltd 20092 of 10

Learn about the history of the English language and the other languages which have influenced it

Practise recognizing words and phrases from different times in English history

Think about how English continues to change

© Boardworks Ltd 20133 of 10

Early English

© Boardworks Ltd 20134 of 10

Anglo-Saxon origins

Beowulf was composed around the 8th century and tells the story of a hero who slays the fearsome monster Grendel before being killed by a dragon.

If you know modern German, you will notice that many of the words and grammatical structures of Anglo-Saxon are similar. This is because the original speakers of Anglo-Saxon were Germanic tribes who invaded England in the 5th century.

Modern German and modern English evolved from common roots and were actually the same

language 2,000 years ago.© Boardworks Ltd 20094 of 10

© Boardworks Ltd 20135 of 10

Middle English

© Boardworks Ltd 20136 of 10

The Squire’s Tale

© Boardworks Ltd 20137 of 10

Early Modern English

Early Modern English was spoken from around 1400 to 1650. The invention of the printing press and the spread of literacy helped to standardize the language. As a result, Early Modern English can be easily understood by most British people today.

The other major linguistic development during this period was the Great Vowel Shift, during which the distinctive sounds of Standard English came into being. The changes occurred at different rates, and some spellings had already been standardized to fit with earlier pronunciations. This is why we spell (for example) ‘beat’ differently from ‘feet’, even though they share the same sound.

© Boardworks Ltd 20097 of 10

© Boardworks Ltd 20138 of 10

Shakespearean English

This extract is from Romeo and Juliet. It is over 400 years old. How many of these words

do you recognize?

Perhaps the most famous writer to use Early Modern English was William Shakespeare. Others include Francis Bacon, John Donne, Christopher Marlow, Andrew Marvell, Edmund Spencer, Philip Sydney, and Lady Mary Wroth.

Romeo:But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with griefThat thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.

© Boardworks Ltd 20139 of 10

The English language is still changing.

Do you know of any recent additions to the dictionary?

Evolving English

Grammar changes too: for instance, in the last hundred years the practice of placing a preposition at the end of a sentence has become acceptable in

all but the most formal situations.

Old words take on new meanings (e.g. ‘wicked’), and every year brand new words are added to the dictionary as slang words, new coinages, specialist jargon, and foreign loanwords make it into the mainstream.

© Boardworks Ltd 201310 of 10

Activities

Choose one of the following activities:

Choose any modern English text. Go through it and highlight all the words you think come from Anglo-Saxon and, in a different colour, all those that come from French. (You can check your findings by looking up the words in the dictionary). What do you notice about the words in the two groups?

Choose a brief extract (no more than 500 words) froma text in either Anglo-Saxon, Middle English or Early Modern English, and paraphrase it in modern English.

Design a handout on the history of the English language for students studying this subject next year.