Have you ever wondered where the English language began? How did it evolve? When did it start? Click on the first image below and learn about this beautiful language with a neat interactive scrolling infographic.
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
History For Kids
Travel Back in time and enter ancient worlds, meet famous people and discover fascinating facts by exploring a wide selection of historical games and activities on BBC History For Kids.
Check out this History For Kids video collection below.
Check out this History For Kids video collection below.
Why is English Spelling So Weird?
My Vocational students, most of them young adults, are always complaining about the difficulties they encounter when dealing with the English pronunciation and spelling. It's not part of the vocational modules to go into the reasons why English spelling is so tricky but this video may help them to better understand the issue though it may be not enough to improve it.
Why Are There So Many French Words In English?
Click on the following link and answer the questions below:
- How many French words have entered English throughout history?
- Why so many?
- What effect did this massive loan process have on the structure of English?
- How did French influence English pronunciation?
Glastonbury Festival 26th -30th June 2013
People travel from all over the world to experience this 33-year-old event. The first festival took place on a farm in a small village called Pilton, which is near the town of Glastonbury in Somerset, UK. It was held in September of 1970 and was called Pilton Festival - approximately 2,000 people attended.
The man who created the festival, Michael Eavis, was inspired by a nearby festival he had visited. The following year, a stage shaped like a pyramid was built and 12,000 people attended. There was not another festival until 1979.
There have been festivals held on most years since 1981 and all the profits are given to charities. It is now formally known as the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and is set in 700 acres of farmland. There are around 25 different stages, fields, and tents where music, theatre, comedy, dance and lots more is all performed.
Can you find Glastonbury on the map?
The man who created the festival, Michael Eavis, was inspired by a nearby festival he had visited. The following year, a stage shaped like a pyramid was built and 12,000 people attended. There was not another festival until 1979.
There have been festivals held on most years since 1981 and all the profits are given to charities. It is now formally known as the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and is set in 700 acres of farmland. There are around 25 different stages, fields, and tents where music, theatre, comedy, dance and lots more is all performed.
Listen to this catchy song below and find out where the band Of Monsters and Men are from.
The History of English
Get the Embed Code to Add This Infographic to Your Site.
‘The History of the English Language’ courtesy of Brighton School of Business and Management.
Where did the word "wiki" come from?
Pretty interesting question, isn't it? I have to admit that I've known the answer for years but that's simply because I run 2 or 3 wikis myself. I have just come across this exceptional infographic that you can see below and thought I should share it here.
Taken from Edudemic:
Taken from Edudemic:
Where Did The Word Wiki Come From?
- A wiki is defined as a ‘web page designed so that its content can be edited by anyone’.
- Wiki is derived from proto-central-eastern-polynesian. “Witi” is hawaiian for ‘quick’.
- Honolulu International Airport uses the term wiki for their ‘quick quick’ shuttle between terminals. It is called the ‘wiki wiki shuttle’
- The first wiki project started in 1994 – wikiwikiweb, with the name derived from the airport shuttle.
- Wikipedia made its debut in 2001
The History of the English Language
The History of the English Language
In the beginning there was an island off the coast of Europe. It had no name, for the natives had no language, only a collection of grunts and gestures that roughly translated to "Hey!", "Gimme!", and "Pardon me, but would you happen to have any woad?"Then the Romans invaded it and called it Britain, because the natives were "blue, nasty, br(u->i)tish and short." This was the start of the importance of u (and its mispronunciation) to the language. After building some roads, killing off some of the nasty little blue people and walling up the rest, the Romans left, taking the language instruction manual with them.
The British were bored so they invited the barbarians to come over (under Hengist) and "Horsa" 'round a bit. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes brought slightly more refined vocal noises.
All of the vocal sounds of this primitive language were onomatopoeic, being derived from the sounds of battle. Consonants were derived from the sounds of weapons striking a foe. "Sss" and "th" for example are the sounds of a draw cut, "k" is the sound of a solidly landed axe blow, "b", "d", are the sounds of a head dropping onto rock and sod respectively, and "gl" is the sound of a body splashing into a bog. Vowels (which were either gargles in the back of the throat or sharp exhalations) were derived from the sounds the foe himself made when struck.
The barbarians had so much fun that they decided to stay for post-revel. The British, finding that they had lost future use of the site, moved into the hills to the west and called themselves Welsh.
The Irish, having heard about language from Patrick, came over to investigate. When they saw the shiny vowels, they pried them loose and took them home. They then raided Wales and stole both their cattle and their vowels, so the poor Welsh had to make do with sheep and consonants. ("Old Ap Ivor hadde a farm, L Y L Y W! And on that farm he hadde somme gees. With a dd dd here and a dd dd there...")
To prevent future raids, the Welsh started calling themselves "Cymry" and gave even longer names to their villages. They figured if no one could pronounce the name of their people or the names of their towns, then no one would visit them. (The success of the tactic is demonstrated still today. How many travel agents have YOU heard suggest a visit to scenic Llyddumlmunnyddthllywddu?)
Meantime, the Irish brought all the shiny new vowels home to Erin. But of course they didn't know that there was once an instruction manual for them, so they scattered the vowels throughout the language purely as ornaments. Most of the new vowels were not pronounced, and those that were, were pronounced differently depending on which kind of consonant they were either preceding or following.
The Danes came over and saw the pretty vowels bedecking all the Irish words. "Ooooh!" they said. They raided Ireland and brought the vowels back home with them. But the Vikings couldn't keep track of all the Irish rules so they simply pronounced all the vowels "oouuoo."
In the meantime, the French had invaded Britain, which was populated by descendants of the Germanic Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. After a generation or two, the people were speaking German with a French accent and calling it English. Then the Danes invaded again, crying "Oouuoo! Oouuoo!," burning abbeys, and trading with the townspeople.
The Britons that the Romans hadn't killed intermarried with visiting Irish and became Scots. Against the advice of their travel agents, they decided to visit Wales. (The Scots couldn't read the signposts that said, "This way to LLyddyllwwyddymmllwylldd," but they could smell sheep a league away.) The Scots took the sheep home with them and made some of them into haggis. What they made with the others we won't say, but Scots are known to this day for having hairy legs.
The former Welsh, being totally bereft, moved down out of the hills and into London. Because they were the only people in the Islands who played flutes instead of bagpipes, they were called Tooters. This made them very popular. In short order, Henry Tooter got elected King and begin popularizing ornate, unflattering clothing.
Soon, everybody was wearing ornate, unflattering clothing, playing the flute, speaking German with a French accent, pronouncing all their vowels "oouuoo" (which was fairly easy given the French accent), and making lots of money in the wool trade. Because they were rich, people smiled more (remember, at this time, "Beowulf" and "Canterbury Tales" were the only tabloids, and gave generally favorable reviews even to Danes). And since it is next to impossible to keep your vowels in the back of your throat (even if you do speak German with a French accent) while smiling and saying "oouuoo" (try it, you'll see what I mean), the Great Vowel Shift came about and transformed the English language.
The very richest had their vowels shifted right out in front of their teeth. They settled in Manchester and later in Boston.
There were a few poor souls who, cut off from the economic prosperity of the wool trade, continued to swallow their vowels. They wandered the countryside in misery and despair until they came to the docks of London, where their dialect devolved into the incomprehensible language known as Cockney. Later, it was taken overseas and further brutalized by merging it with Dutch and Italian to create Brooklynese.
That's what happened, you can check for yourself. But I advise you to just take our word for it.
Copyright (c) 1994 Corrie Bergeron and Ben Tucker all rights reserved.
Permissions: This may be reproduced in SCA newsletters for non- commercial purposes only. (i.e., If you make any money off of it, send us a cut.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
