The English Language

1 English developed from Anglo-Saxon and is a Germanic language. Even today, words used in modern English for ordinary objects are mostly Anglo-Saxon, or Germanic, in origin¹.Germanic languages, such as Danish, German, Norwegian and Swedish have very similar words for the objects such as: shoe, clothes, sun, moon, man, wife, child, house, water, sleep, love,have, be, work.

2 However, all the invaders, particularly the Norman French, influenced the English language.English has many similarities with Romance languages whose origin is Latin. Such words as: government, judge, court, parliament, army, crown, country, people and others came to England with the French-speaking Normans. The words are associated with power: Norman-French was used as the language of parliament. Words of Latin origin are usually longer than words of Germanic origin.

3 Norman-French words did not enter English immediately. Only in the 14^th century, a new form of English was used: Middle English, which was Old English enriched by thousands of French words.

4 Two centuries later came the Renaissance²: there was a revival of interest in ancient cultures, Greek and Latin. Thousands more words of Latin origin flooded into English. This explains why modern English has pairs of words which mean almost the same thing³ such as base of Norman-French origin, and basis which came into English during the Renaissance. The Latin words were joined by hundreds of Greek words. At the same time, it became more popular throughout Europe to use the mother language, not Latin, for written documents.

5 The period from the Renaissance to the present day has seen many new ideas and inventories, especially in science and technology. As new things are invented, new words have to be created. There are now thousands of new words in English. Just think of television, microscope, thermometer and psychology. Often new words are created from existing Greek or Latin words put together in new ways⁴.

6 Some words from foreign countries have entered English as a result of trade colonial expansion. Other words were invented in the English-speaking former colonies, the USA in particular. It is because of the USA that English has become a world language: a world where over 90 per cent of scientific papers are written in English and a world where people from different countries prefer to communicate in English.

Пояснения к тексту:

¹in origin – по происхождению

2the Renaissance – эпоха Возрождения

³the same thing – одно и то же

4in new ways – по-новому, иными способами

VIII Прочтите 5-й абзац текста и письменно ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. Why do new words have to be created?

2. How are they created?

Вариант № 3

I Перепишите следующие предложения. Определите по грамматическим признакам, какой частью речи являются слова, оформленные окончанием -s(-es) и какую функцию это окончание выполняет, т.е. служит ли оно:

Дата добавления: 2015-07-25