1. Reflection N°1 “Language History”
Throughout the progress of thiscourse I could internalize and comprehend concepts
related to the history of languages, especially the history of the English language. After the
activity of preparing a summary now I am able to characterize different periods in the history of
the English language which is one of the objectives of the course “Análisis Léxico del Inglés”.
First of all, I learned that “Proto” is the original form of the language and is also the source
of modern languages in the Indian subcontinent as well as in Europe, the union of both, forms the
“Proto Indo-European languages”, which is called “The Great Grandmother”, and from here
derives other languages such as, Germanic, Slavic, Indian, Romance, Celtic, Greek, Baltic, etc. I also
learned that languages has a common ancestor; thereby, they have common features and
cognates which have been investigated and demonstrated through the decades, with some
evidences, as the majority principle and the most natural development principle, this concepts
show clear palpability in terms of similitude of languages. These concepts are extremely important
when study English teaching as a foreign language, since as future expert of this discipline we must
have a deep knowledge not only about the language itself, but also about its development and
historical influences.
By reading the text and preparing the main maps, now I can understand the three periods
of the English history, which have marked the world history, they are: Old English, Middle English
and Modern English, highlighting the most important events which marked those stages, the most
important milestones that have changed the world history. First the old English period which
started with the arrived of Anglo-Saxons and Jutes to England, of those who we have inherited
some terms (mann (man),wif (woman),child (child), then comes the influence of religion over
them and it gave way to the Latin, then the Viking arrived to England and with them some new
terms as give, low, etc. During Middle English occurred some important events, as the normal
conquest, which made French the language for upper classes during two hundred years, giving
way to the Norman culture. Finally, the modern English, which talks about internal changes in the
language with the development of England, they are changes in vowel sounds, disappeared
sounds, metathesis, epenthesis, prosthesis, syntactic change and lexical changes. To have known
about this topic will be very helpful in my develop not only as an English teacher, but also as an
English learner, now I could relate this contents with other courses and understand deeply the
importance of history in the development of a language.
As a conclusion it can be said that the history is really important in the development of
language, because it takes place at the same time that language, or rather, if history changes, the
language also changes, the development of the language is related directly to the context and one
hundred percent it depends on historical events and also social changes, as wars, conquest,
invasions, migrations or immigrations, everything that happens has a direct repercussion on the
variation of languages and made its change or vary, adding new terms and concepts. If we want to
know and understand the “why” about the development of English, is absolutely necessary to
know the historical context which has surrounded it, to relate the variation of language with the
events of the history.