I have just uploaded two new modules of the New That's English course onto my site: MODULE 7 & MODULE 8.
You can't miss it!!! It is a great opportunity, specially for our advanced students preparing for the B2.
And some other material found (check here: site):
- ANGLO-SAXON: The history of English (History of Language 1943) subtitled version
- BBC History of English Language: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
- The true history of English food , A People's History Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner 1 - Documentary , A People's History Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner 2 - Documentary , Food Paradise Spain: Full Documentary [1]
- History of Britisth literature
The History of English
ResponderEliminarWhy did English spread all over the world, so that now-a-days half a billion people on the Earth understand it?
English started as a dialect spoken by a hundred and fifty thousand people, having arrived in England with the Germanic tribes the Angles and Saxons. It is quite amazing that this local dialect should be the main language of communication of the world today. Organisations such as NATO, the World Bank and OPEC use English as the official language. It is used to communicate in aviation and In the European Union.
What makes it harder to understand is English has such a complicated spelling system. Most linguists recognise that the reason why English has spread over so much territory is because it constantly incorporates new words into its vocabulary.
It started by stealing words from the Romans, the Vikings and the Normans. Then great writers such as Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English, and Shakespeare invented many new words and phrases.
Many more words were added to English with the expansion of the British Empire coming from Indian, Caribbean and African languages; because Britain was trading all over the world, Spanish, French, German and Dutch words became English words. The discovery of new lands with new fauna and flora meant new words need to be invented such as “Boomerang” and “Koala” from Aboriginal languages and “Racoon” and “Squash” from the Native American languages
English has kept on growing, needing new words to describe the discoveries, inventions and ideas of the new scientific knowledge, Industrial Revolution and telecommunication explosion.
Almost 70% of material of the WWW is in English. Will it ever stop expanding?
Some people say that the more English spreads, the more it diversifies, and so it will become fragmented and maybe even disappeared. This is what happened to Latin which is now a dead language but I don´t think that this will happen to English because of the internet.
Alberto el comentario de arriba es mio Julia Ruiz de 3B
ResponderEliminar