Causes of Language Evolution.

The evolution of a language is caused by the struggle of opposites:

1) The driving force — the grouping of new forms, words etc;

2) The resisting force, that tries to avoid change and to preserve the language in a state fit for communication.

These two forces are manifestations of two principal functions of language –— its expressive and communicative function. These general forces are universal and operate in all languages at all times.

Every language is changed under the influence of some main factors.

The factors of linguistic evolution are usually divided into extra-linguistic (external) and intra-linguistic (internal) ones.

External factors comprise a variety of conditions and aspects of human life: events in the history, political and economic events, cultural development, the psychological and the physiological aspects, etc.

Internal factors of a language evolution arise from the language system. They are subdivided into general factors, which operate in all languages, and specific factors, which operate in a group of related languages or in one language.

The most general causes of language evolution are to be found in the tendencies to improve the language formal apparatuses, e.g. assimilative and simplifying phonetic changes: the consonant cluster [kn] in know and knee was simplified to [n].

Another group of general internal tendencies aims to preserve the language as a vehicle fit for communication. These tendencies resist linguistic change and account for the historical stability of many elements and features. This phenomenon is called “statics in diachrony”, e.g.: since the earliest periods English has retained many words: he, we, man, good, son (though their spelling is modified).

 

5. English and Other Languages in the World:

a) Spreading of English in Modern World.

English is one of the major languages in the world. It is spoken now on every continent. In 44 countries it is used as native, state or official language spoken by about 350 million people. About the same number of people uses it as a second language.

English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England, in all the continents of the world.

People who speak English fall into one of the three groups: those who have learned it as their native language; those who have learned it as a second language in a society that is mainly bilingual; and those who are forced to use it for a practical purpose – administrative, professional or educational. One person in seven of the world’s entire population belongs to one of these three groups. 75 % of the world’s mail and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English.

It is an international language of business and commerce, political issues and scientific conferences, the language of aviation, international sport and pop music. English is the language used for global communication in the Internet. Over 70% of the scientists of the world read English. About 90% of all information in the world’s electronic retrieval systems is stored in English.

b) Modern Germanic Languages.

According to genealogical/historical classification of languages English belongs to the Germanic group of languages of the Indo-European family of languages.

Germanic group today includes the following modern languages:

1. English

2. Danish

3. German

4. Icelandic

5. Netherlandish /Dutch

6. Norwegian

7. Swedish

8. Faroese

9. Frisian

10. Afrikaans

11. Yiddish.

It is difficult to estimate the number of people speaking Germanic languages, especially on account of English, which in many countries is one of two languages in a bilingual community, e.g. in Canada. The estimates for English range from 250 to 300 million people who have it as their mother tongue. The total number of people speaking Germanic languages approaches 440 million. To this rough estimate we could add the indefinite number of bilingual people in the countries where English is used as an official language (over 50 countries).

All the Germanic languages are related through their common origin and joint development at the early stages of history. The survey of their external history will show where and when the Germanic languages arose and acquired their common features and also how they have developed into modern independent tongues.

 

6.Roots of the English People.