ENGLISH - INTRODUCTION

ENGLISH  LANGUAGE

         English is the language of the imperialists namely England.

         Actually English is not the mother tongue of the English. It was the mother tongue of the Anglo-Saxons who ruled England. The natural language of the English was Celtic.

Every year                                           900 words are taken from other languages.

Teutonic tribes                                    Angles,  Jutes,   Saxons

Ole English                                         450 – 1150 AD

Middle English                                   1150 – 1500 AD

Modern English                                  1500 – onwards                       

1Q   English is an easy language.

It is easy, because, the verb of English does not give importance to the gender of the subject. It gives priority to the Number of the subject. In Indian languages, the gender has to be mentioned to speak.

         Eg.,               My friend has come. [is the friend “male”  or “female”]

                              In Telugu “naa snehitudu vacchadu”       [“du” indicates that it is male]

         This will be so with all the Indian languages.

         Hindi and Urdu  are still dangerous. These languages give gender to neuter gender also. So remembering male and female forms of neutral items is very difficult. So they are little difficult.

         Eg.,               panka chal raha/rahi hai.    [whether raha or rahi it is very difficult know. Raha indicates “male” and “rahi” denotes “female”.

        

         In English  this confusion won’t be there.

        

         I                                                  am

        

        

         He               

         She

         It                                                is          [all singular nouns whether male, female or neuter “is”.

         Rama

         Laxmi

 

         We

         You

         They                                           are       [ all plurals nouns whether male, female or neuter “are”

         Raju & Gopal

         People

        

2Q   English is a hard language.

         English is hard because

1.For one word there will be hundreds of words. The user will be in a confusion, which word is to be used.

         Eg.,               lady, madam, dame, damsel, brunette, blonde, xanthippe, beauty, figure, matriarch…..

2. Selection of a word to the context requires lot of knowledge.

3Q   English is a confusing language.

         1] “-s”  confusion

                              People-peoples,  water-waters,  have-haves, 

2] If intonation changes, meaning changes.

Eg.,            contract  [contraact]                      contract [caantract]

Similarly    wind, object,

3] one word many meanings.

Eg.,            post = 1] vacancy   2] after   3] enter   4] place   5] a small pillar

4] Capital and small confusion.

Eg.,            China – china        Earth – earth

4Q   English is an ever green language.

         It is evergreen because every year at least 900 words are taken into English. This adoption enriches the vocabulary. Language is nothing but vocabulary

        

5 Q  English is a language of Science and Technology.

         If we take other languages of the world, most of them are stopped at literature.

         English is the only language which entered science and technology.

         Whatever new inventions and discoveries are taking place, are all taking place in the west. That too in English.