The Influence of Major Historic Events on the English Language Today

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,7, University of Erfurt, language: English, abstract: This Bachelor Thesis will be analyzing the English language by investigating selected historical events which influenced the English language system and are therefore reasons for the contemporary state of Modern English (ModE).

The following question for this paper arises: "What major historic events influenced the English language and what impact did they have in a degree that is still visible in Modern English?" At first, a terminology section will be provided to explain the terms which will be used.

After that, by using diachronic facts, synchronic ModE characteristics in terms of lexicon and orthography will be analyzed. Subsequently, historical explanations will be given to underline the features and irregularities of ModE. This data will then be used to answer the question of this Bachelor Thesis.

Approximately 400 million people around the world learn English as their first language. Further studies have shown that around 1500 million people are able to speak English to some degree. This does not take into account the tremendous amount of people who learn English as their second language.

English itself was brought to England when Celtic was the main language before the German-speaking Anglo-Saxons came and influenced the existing language. It was then influenced by numerous other languages such as French which found its way into England after the Norman Conquest in 1066.

According to Ferdinand de Saussure, linguists agree that living languages which are actively used are constantly changing throughout time. English is very interesting as it was so strongly affected even though only around 1500 years have passed since English came into existence. I became exceptionally interested in where the Modern English (ModE) irregularities and features originated from and how English developed into its contemporary form.