Here's to making it all possible.
Today is the 939th unofficial birthday of the English language. It was on September 28th, 1066 that William the Conqueror invaded the British Isles. He would soon defeat the local king and begin the blend of Norse-Saxon and French languages that have bred our beloved tongue.
"The English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all." - Walt Whitman
Source: The Writer's Alamanac
"The English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all." - Walt Whitman
Source: The Writer's Alamanac
posted by Erin 8:27 AM
4 Comments:
Hmmm. I'm all for linguistic shoutouts, but I wonder why the Writer's Almanac chose 1066. A pivotal moment of history, certainly a beginning of some things, but the beginning of the English language? Maybe the beginning of Middle English was around that time. It's kind of fascinating that now English is so clearly a distinct language, but the inception of it amid the flow of people, languages and cultures in the British Isles is imperceptible. Still, I would argue that English "began" 500 or 600 years before 1066 when a boatload of Germans crossed the North Sea.
Good input, it is a pretty fluid beginning. 1066 was the last successful invasion of the British Isles. Perhaps they consider it the final crucially-shaping foreign influence on British English? That would make it something like the last phoenetic cross-breeding, but-as always-there is no such thing as standardization when it comes to how people use language.
Erin, where do you find this information? :)
Heather- The public radio station down here airs a program called "The Writer's Almanac" that highlights literary milestones for each day of the year. I usually listen at work, and once in a while I pass an interesting bit along.
Or were you asking about the British invasion bit from my last comment? I just remember that from my History of English class in college. Of course, that class didn't keep me from misleading you all a bit about the "birthday" in my post. Nancy is right, and Beowulf stands as sufficient evidence alone.
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