Is English really English? 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.

And I’m Georgina.

Gōdne mergen! Mé lícap pé tó métanne!

I beg your pardon, Neil? Is something stuck in your throat?!

Are you speaking a foreign language?

Ha! Well, actually Georgina, I was saying, ‘Good morning,

pleased to meet you’ in English - but not the English you and I speak.

That was Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, the earliest form of English,

spoken in the Middle Ages – so, between the 5th and 15th century.

It doesn’t sound anything like the way people talk nowadays.

No, but it’s surprising how many of the words we use today

have survived from Old English – beer, wine, drink, fish, bread, butter, eye,

ear, mouth, head, hand, foot, life, love, laughter, mother, daughter,

sister, brother, son, father – all Anglo Saxon words!

Wow, so many everyday words!

But what about the classics - Latin and Greek?

I thought a lot of English vocabulary came from there.

That’s also true, but the history of English is the history of invasions –

you know, when the army of one country fights to enter and

control another country.

Like the Roman invasion of Britain?

Right, and later invasions too, by Norse-speaking Vikings

and Germanic Saxons.

In fact, Georgina, that reminds me of my quiz question.

Go on then, but in modern English if you don’t mind…

OK. Well, the year 1066 is remembered for a famous battle

when the French-speaking Norman king, William the Conqueror,

invaded England – but what is the name of the famous battle?

Is it: a) The Battle of Waterloo?, b) The Battle of Hastings?,

or, c) The Battle of Trafalgar?

Hmm, my history’s not great, Neil, but I think it’s,

b) The Battle of Hastings.

OK, Georgina, we’ll find out ‘later’ - another Old English word there!

But it’s not just words that survive from Anglo Saxon,

it’s word endings too – the suffix, or letters added to the

end of a word to modify its meaning.

Right, like adding ‘s’ to make something plural,

as in: one bird, two birds.

Or the ‘ness’ in ‘goodness’ and ‘happiness’.

And ‘dom’, as in, ‘freedom’ and kingdom’.

Poet Michael Rosen is fascinated by Old English.

Here he is talking about word suffixes to Oxford University

professor Andy Orchard for BBC Radio 4’s programme, Word of Mouth.

Listen out for the proportion of modern English that comes

from Anglo Saxon.

‘I walked’ – that ‘walked’ the ‘et’ bit on the end.

Yeah, the ‘ed’ ending.

Most modern verbs – if we were to say, ‘I texted my daughter’,

I mean text obviously comes from Latin… ‘I tweeted’ –

we still lapse to the Anglo-Saxon.

And, generally when I’m speaking, just let’s do it in mathematical terms,

what proportion can we say is Old English?

Can we say, like, about 80% in common parlance,

sorry to use a French word there?

In speech it would be something like that –

in the written language, less.

They’re the basic building blocks of who we are and what we think.

Professor Orchard estimates that 80 percent of spoken English

in common parlance comes from Anglo Saxon.

In common parlance means the words and vocabulary that

most people use in ordinary, everyday conversation.

So Anglo Saxon words are the building blocks of English -

the basic parts that are put together to make something.

He also thinks that the languages we speak shape

the way we see the world.

Here’s Michael Rosen and Professor Andy Orchard discussing

this idea on BBC Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth:

Can we say that English speakers today, as I’m speaking to you now,

view the world through Anglo-Saxon eyes, through Anglo-Saxon words?

Can we say that?

Well, in Old English poetry it’s always raining and I suppose it’s

always raining today.

There is a retrospective element, that we’re still inhabiting that

worldview, those ideas; the same words, the same simple ideas

that they inhabited.

And what’s extraordinary if you think about the history of English is

despite the invasions by the Norse and by the Norman,

and then despite the years of empire when we’re bringing things back,

the English that we’re speaking today is still at its root

Old English word, at its heart Old English word, still very much English.

Michael Rosen asks if English speakers see the world

through Anglo Saxon eyes.

When we see something through someone’s eyes,

we see it from their perspective, their point of view.

And Professor Orchard replies by saying that despite all the

history of invasion and empire, the English we speak today is still

Old English at heart – a phrase used to say what something is really like.

Wow! So much history crammed into six minutes!

And now, time for one more history fact.

Do you mean your quiz question, Neil?

What’s the name of the famous battle of 1066?

What did you say, Georgina?

I said b) The Battle of Hastings.

Which was… the correct answer!

The Battle of Hastings in 1066 played a big part

in the Norman Conquest and mixing French words into the language.

And I also know how the English ruler, King Harold, died –

shot through the eye with an arrow!

Ouch!

OK, let’s recap the vocabulary, some of which exists

because of invasions – when one country enters and controls another.

A suffix is added to the end of a word to make a new word.

The phrase in common parlance means using ordinary, everyday words.

Building blocks are the basic parts used to make something.

To see things through someone’s eyes means, from their point of view.

And finally, at heart is used to say what something is really like.

That’s all for this programme.

Join us again soon at 6 Minute English but for now,

‘far gesund!’ – that’s Old English for ‘goodbye’!

Far gesund!