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From the middle of the ninth century, a mass of Norse invaders settled in Britain. The North Germanic speech had a great influence on the English language as many words we see in our language today is borrowed from the Norsemen. For example, 'take' and 'they'. -
From the middle of the ninth century, a mass of Norse invaders settled in Britain. The North Germanic speech had a great influence on the English language as many words we see in our language today is borrowed from the Norsemen. For example, 'take' and 'they'. -
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Chaucer was known as the Father of English Literature and was a great poet. Through his various works, he established the English Language to become as acknowledged as Latin and French. He created his own standard of English "Chancery English" which shaped the foundations of Early Modern English. Chaucer's unfinished work "The Canterbury Tales" is one of his most famous works as it depicts the social classes of the 14th century through great poetic power and in an entertaining nature. -
William Caxton invented the printing press which is a device for the mass production of written text where text and images are transferred to paper with ink. This aided in standardizing English through the distribution of the English Bible. -
The bible was one of the first mediums for standardizing English. English commoners were able to understand the Bible in their own language, which led to the spread of the dialect amongst common folk. At the end of the 16th century brought the first complete translation of the Catholic Bible which played a part in the further development of English language. -
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Shakespeare was a renowned English poet and playwright. He was born in 1564 and died in 1616. He added to the English language in significant ways, expanding the English vocabulary by almost 1800 words. -
Nemesis, "Greek goddess of vengeance, personification of divine wrath," from the Greek word nemesis "just indignation, righteous anger". By 1930 the definition evolved into "anything by which it seems one must be defeated".
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The word clue was originally adopted from Greek mythology where Theseus was led by a 'clew' of thread to be guided out of a labyrinth. 'Clew' began to mean something that guides your path and later used in a broader sense.
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The First Folio is a collection of plays written by William Shakespeare. His writing has had a clear influence on modern language today. His works represent a pinnacle part of English literature. They influenced other influential writers such as Herman Melville, the writer of Moby Dick, and Virginia Woolfe, one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. Shakespeare's works were considered unsurpassable and were the standard any writer of that time tried to reach. -
Samuel Johnson is a poet and lexicographer born in England on September 18, 1709. He is one of the main authors of "A Dictionary of the English Language" known as a work that defined the English language. He had a conservative attitude towards the creation of the dictionary as detailed in his plans where he states that he wants to create a standard to preserve the purity and perfection of the English language. -
English has never really been officially standardised which is evident with the different variants due to practice and custom. However, Samuel Johnson's dictionary, published in 1755, had a massive standardising effect along with the Oxford dictionary and national newspapers like "The Times". -
The word dates back to the Polynesian 'tatau' meaning 'a mark made on skin'. The word 'tattoo' was first used in Captain James Cook's diary detailing the tradition of tattooing of the Polynesian people he met during his voyage in 1786.
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Novels originated in the 18th century after the Italian term "novella". Novels were an essential point in introducing spoken and non-standard English into written expression. This was exemplified by the works of Dickens, Scott and Twain, which are still read to this day. -
English stems from proto-Indo-European. The three main languages that arose first under the label were ancient Greek, ancient German and ancient Latin. Ancient Latin became Spanish, French and Italian. Ancient German became Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and then English. This makes English a Germanic language. Eventually in the late 18th century, English became a common language or a lingua franca (common second language) through the British Empire's conquest around the world. -
It originates from the word 'robota' in Czech meaning 'forced worker'. The word 'robot' was popularised by the translation of author Karel Capek's science fiction play "R.U.R (Rossom's Universal Robots) but was coined by his brother Josef who initially used it in a short story.
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The origin of this word is either from the Old French word 'nice' from the late 13th century or the Latin word 'nescius' from the 12th century. Either way, the established definition of 'nice' we have now is completely different to centuries ago, originally meaning foolish, ignorant, careless, clumsy etc. In 1926, the word "nice" was where the definition became the 'pleasant or pleasurable' which is the modern definition.
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Technology opened the world of English to an international level. The widespread and fast-paced nature of the internet allowed for new styles of English to develop through linguistic experimentation. This resulted in new varieties of English such as 'text speak' created through users of SMS platforms.
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