The first ever exhibition exploring the English language in all its national and international diversity came to an end recently at the British Library in London.
Entitled ‘Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices’, the event drew large crowds of students, scholars and spectators to the many stands featuring texts, manuscripts, dictionaries, posters, newspapers, sound recordings, and a plethora of other exhibits which traced the origins and developments of this most powerful language.
Powerful may be an understatement, for English is now spoken by 400 million people around the world as a first language, while another 1.4 billion use it as a second language.
It is the language used by international news, the media, music and pop, science and technology, and electronic communication.
English first saw the light of day over 1,600 years ago among the Germanic tribes of northern Europe. These set foot in south east England, carrying their language with them, and Old English was born, shaped by these Viking invaders as well as the constant presence of Latin.
After the Norman conquest of 1066, there was the ascendency of French, which became the language of the nobility, as well as the source of new words.
With the passage of time, the word order and many of the sounds, spellings and word endings of Old English changed, and the language developed into Middle English. By the early 15th century, it had flowered into the language of literature and government administration.
When William Shakespeare was born in 1564, English was spoken on only a small number of islands at the edge of Europe. By the time he passed away in 1616, several successful English settlements had been set up in the Americas, this being the first major step in the language becoming a global one. Its spread shot up as a result of conquest, trade, migration and the media.
Once established in the new territory, English speakers adjusted their vocabulary to reflect the new environment. Words were frequently borrowed from local languages to describe unfamiliar plants, animals and food.
Some words remained regional while others found their way into international English, which has absorbed words from 350 other languages.
New varieties of the language are created all the time, with people finding new words, developing local meanings for existing words, introducing new pronunciation, and altering grammar.
Standard ways of writing and speaking English are still evolving. The journey towards today’s written English, using the Latin or Roman alphabet of 26 letters as the agreed system for recording words and sounds, has been a long one.
Educational materials produced specifically for children help standardise language, introducing them to acceptable letter shapes, spellings and grammatical conventions.
Grammar and spelling rules can be boring for children, so innovative ways had to be found by publishers in order to introduce the material in a fresh way, such as with illustrations or coloured rhyme.
A proposal to the British government to police the then chaotic situation in English spelling was made as far back as 1712 by Jonathan Swift in his publication A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Language. Differences between spelling and pronunciation of English words have always existed, and in 1908 the English Spelling Society was set up to address this problem.
Since the 18th century, many guides to grammar, punctuation and pronunciation have been published. They meet a growing need for advice and guidance on best practice in writing and speaking.
The English used by the BBC was always regarded as a shining beacon, and with national broadcasting, an advisory committee on spoken English was set up in 1926.
Presenters were instructed and trained to use Received Pronunciation, the prestigious southern English accent heard in public schools and at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
However, the BBC no longer insists on such strict uniformity of pronunciation, as evident by the many regional accents now heard on its regional services, and accepted by the organisation.
With its natural warmth of shared expression, slang contributes a rich layer of alternative words and phrases that define a clique, group or subculture. Most people use slang of one form or another. Some slang terms eventually enter the mainstream, but most are transient, swiftly replaced by new, more fashionable terms.
The media is also a powerful tool of persuasion and mass communication. New styles of written English began appearing in the 17th century as printed English became a medium of mass communication.
In the 20th century, radio news, broadcast speeches, music and television developed into important tools of persuasion and public communication.
From epic tales to bad jokes, poetry to nursery rhymes, English has been used creatively for over 1,500 years. Humour is a very important part of the English language, and jokes, rhyme, wordplay, double meaning and puns have not been solely used to entertain, but also to capture and evoke the deepest thoughts, emotions and imaginings.
In poetry, heightened or concentrated language is harnessed, often manipulating linguistic and literary rules. Poets use rhythm patterns and wordplay, and many also use rhyme. They are also experimenting with typography and text layout.
The novel is the dominant literary genre of the modern era. The first of these fictional, prose narratives emerged in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, much later than poems or plays. In challenging and playing with convention, authors have made the novel the ultimate written expression of English.
Most of the written heritage is informal, literary, academic, religious or legal English, but personal language and conversation follow totally different rules. They embrace repetition, inconsistency, slang and cliché. English has always adapted well to different social situations, and personalised forms are very important markers of one’s identity.
In conversation and correspondence, authors seek to capture authentic, everyday English speech as they write their novels, plays and poetry. In the past, conventional English was often edited to present a moderated form of ‘real’ English.
The advent of electronic communication – e-mails, texts, blogs, chats and tweets – has promoted a more democratic, idiosyncratic and natural form of public writing not seen in English since the Middle Ages.
Millions of English language text messages are sent worldwide every day. The word limitation of these messages has inspired a wide range of abbreviations. Conventions have begun to emerge, hinting at a standardised but flexible form. Some scholars wonder whether this global texting in English will develop the language, or lead to more illiteracy.
The internet is another major agent of language change. Over half of all web pages are in English. The internet has more language than all the world’s libraries combined. It has altered the rules of language development. The English used on the internet changes the language.
The past is no longer a guide to the future. The centre of gravity of the English language has shifted from the native to the non-native speakers, who have adapted it as their official or semi-official language, or have given it a very important place.
Ongoing research carried out during the five-month duration of the exhibition (the voices of more than 10,000 English speakers from England and overseas were recorded in order to capture the sounds of spoken English from all over the world) has indicated that British English is evolving at a fast rate, innovating and changing.
This has special significance locally, for the English as a Foreign Language sector last year attracted over 70,000 people, who came here to improve their English. The local teaching package must keep abreast with these changes and upgraded continuously.
For the immediate future, the position of English as a successful global language is secure. It is spoken by two billion people, one third of the world’s population.
But for every one native speaker, there are five others who are non- native ones. Today the latter are foreign, but who knows whether in 100 years’ time, their language will be the new native English?
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