Page 64 - Exercise 1A

Page 64 - Exercise 1A

The English language

The story of the English language began in the 5th century when tribes from north-western Europe invaded Britain. We call these people the Anglo-Saxons. They spoke a language that was similar to modern German. A lot of common English words, like good, man and break, come from the Anglo-Saxon language. Over the next thousand years, however, this language changed, because other groups of people came to live in Britain.

The first change started in about 800 AD, when England was invaded by the Vikings from Norway and Denmark. They brought words like sky, get and husband into English. The ‘th’ sounds in words like these, thing and father also come from the Viking languages.

In 1 066, the Normans from northern France conquered England. The Normans spoke French. For the next 300 years, there were two languages in England. The ordinary people spoke English, but the aristocracy spoke French. The two groups didn’t understand each other very well, so the grammar that they used became much simpler. A lot of French words, like parliament, language and beef, came into English, too. Slowly the modern language of English was born.

From the 1 7th century, English spread to many other parts of the world. Most of the early European settlers in North America came from Britain, so English became the language of the United States and Canada. Later, the British Empire took English to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and several other countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Today, over 400 million people speak English as their first language, and billions of people use it as a second language.

English has become the international language of business, entertainment, music, sport, science, transport and the Internet.

Languages change all the time, so English isn’t the same all over the world. Here are some differences between British and American English.

lift, elevator

pavement, sidewalk

holiday, vacation

football, soccer

petrol, gas or gasoline