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General introduction
General introduction
Philip Seargeant
The English language had been around for about four hundred years
before it began to be called English. It first emerged sometime during
the fifth century AD, when a number of Germanic tribes from the
north of Europe – whom we now refer to collectively as the AngloSaxons – arrived in Britain, bringing with them their several indigenous
dialects. Over the next few hundred years, as these tribes established
roots and began spreading out across the country, the language slowly
developed. Yet it was not until the ninth century that the term ‘English’
began to be regularly used to refer to the language (Crystal, 2005, p. 27).
English did not become ‘English’ until at least four centuries into its
existence.
During this early period of its history, English was just one of many
languages spoken on the British mainland. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles –
the earliest history of Britain written in English – begin their account of
the country by explaining that:
The island of Britain is eight hundred miles long and two hundred
broad. There are five languages, English, Brito-Welsh, Scottish,
Pictish and Latin. The first inhabitants of this land were the
Britons.
(The Peterborough Chronicle, c.1150, translated in Freeborn, 2006, p. 13)
So in the beginning, English was just one language among several; it
was a language without a particularly strong identity and with no special
status. For the first few centuries of its life, it was very much a local
language, spoken by one section of the population of an island off the
western coast of continental Europe.
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English in the World
Figure 1 The opening lines of the Peterborough Chronicle in the original
Old English
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General introduction
Fast-forward one a half millennia and English is now spread extensively
across the globe. Today, it is used, in one form or another, by more
people, in more areas, and for a wider set of purposes, than any other
language. That unnamed language which began life as a parochial dialect
spoken by one faction of a group of invading tribes from northern
Europe now has a status unmatched by any other language on earth.
The question this raises – and one of the questions we’ll be addressing
in this book – is how and why this dramatic shift took place. What
happened to transform English from that small parochial language into
the pre-eminent medium of international communication in the modern
world? Why has this particular language, from all the other countless
systems of speech that the human race has developed throughout its
history, risen to such a position of prominence?
The emergence of English as a global language is not the end of the story,
though. The fact that English is now established as an important linguistic
force in countless communities around the world does not mean that
there is little more to say about it. Nor does it mean that those same
processes of change and development that brought the language to this
position are not still happening. In fact, in the opinion of some scholars
the present moment is a critical juncture in the history of the language. In
their opinion, English is now going through a transformation almost on a
par with what happened when those Germanic tribes first arrived in
Britain 1500 years ago. Now, as then, both the form and status of English
are in a state of dynamic change – and this is producing a great deal of
debate about the nature of English itself.
The focus and structure of the book
This book takes as its starting point the global existence of the English
language and looks at both how and why it came to occupy this
position, and what the consequences of its global spread are for the way
it is used and perceived around the world. In the first half of the book,
we will examine the history of the language, beginning with its arrival in
Britain in the fifth century and moving up to the present day and its
status as a language with a truly global reach. The first four chapters
cover the historical story, with Chapter 1 opening up the questions that
the book as a whole will address, and Chapters 2, 3 and 4 then tracking
the history of the language, first within England and the British Isles,
then to various territories overseas in the wake of colonial expansion,
and finally to its current existence as a language which has a presence in
diverse contexts all across the globe.
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English in the World
The second half of the book then considers the forms that the language
takes around the world, how it is used as a means of expression, and
how it relates to issues of both personal and cultural identity. Building
on the historical context established in the first half, Chapters 5, 6 and
7 examine, in turn, contemporary varieties of English, how English is
used alongside other languages, and how English itself continues to vary
and change. An important point that recurs across these chapters is the
role that English plays in people’s lives. For although the subject of the
book is nominally the English language, language would not exist
without the people who speak it, and for this reason our examination
situates English firmly within the social, cultural and political contexts in
which it is used.
Finally, throughout our exploration, we will reflect on the way that
English is and has been studied, and on how we know what we know
about the language. In other words, we shall look at the methods and
approaches linguists use to explore its history and to investigate the
processes of variation and change. For not only does an understanding
of these methods offer us an insight into the working practices of
language studies as an academic area, it can also contribute to our
overall understanding of the language itself, and of the ever-evolving
role that English plays in the lives of millions of people around the
globe.
Note to readers
In addition to features such as readings, activities, boxes and key terms
that are described in the series preface, the book also includes two
appendices. These comprise a timeline indicating key dates in the history
of the English language (Appendix 1) and a note on conventions for
describing the language (Appendix 2). We point you to these at various
stages during the course of the book, but you may also like to use them
for general reference purposes as you are reading through the chapters.
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