A Concise History Of The English Language

by William A Lake

There are so many people in the world that can speak English, and even more learning how to speak English.

However, not so many people know the origins of the English language. This article seeks to provide a brief history of the English language.

The history of the English language starts around the 5th century AD, with the arrival of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes to Britain from what is today Denmark and Germany. The Angles came from "Englaland" and spoke "Englisc" which is where "England" and "English" comes from.

In fact, the French word for English (Anglais) also comes from this word. These invaders settled in what is now called England and pushed the native Celtic speakers west and north into Scotland, Walks and Ireland.

These Germanic tribes spoke very similar languages and these languages developed into something called Old English which was used from around 450-1100 AD. This version of English has very little similarities to what we speak today, however some commonly used words have their roots from old English. For example, one of the most commonly used verbs in the English language is 'be' and it comes from Old English.

After this time, we move into what is called Middle English, which was used from around 1100-1500 AD. William the Conqueror successfully invaded Britain in 1066 and they bought with them a form of French.

This French language divided the country and the lower classes spoke in English whereas the upper classes used French. English became more popular again around 1400 AD, but English incorporated many of the French words into the languages.

This is one of the reasons that English has two words for most animals, one being on your place and ready to eat whereas English uses another word for an animal being alive and well! For example, pig and pork, cow and beef.

Then we enter into the era of Modern English, which was used from around 1500 AD to 1800 AD. This form of English is much more similar to what we use today and is characterised by a very distinct and sudden change in vowel pronunciation.

During this time spellings became standardised due to the invention of the printing press which led to books becoming more widely available and much cheaper. It was also during this period, in 1604 that the first English dictionary was published and therefore spelling and grammar become standardised.

What we speak today is known as Late Modern English. The English language has changed considerably in the last few hundred years due to industrialisation, technological advances and the rise of the British Empire.

New words were needed for new inventions and English borrowed many words from Britain's colonies. For example, Shampoo originally derives from India and the word gigabyte is a very new word that wasn't ever heard of 100 or even 50 years ago.

The English language will continue to evolve. Words are being shortened even further and these are now making their way into the English dictionary. For example, the Oxford Concise Dictionary has added the word 'lol' that comes from the recent internet phenomenon to show people that you are 'laughing out loud' to their joke!

William is a lecturer of English and writes a blog about English as a Second Language. You can find the blog here - http://blog.about-esl.com

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Eight Multi-Sensory Reading Activities To Reinforce Alphabet Knowledge

Dyslexia Awareness Hotline (Photo credit: Scott M)

by Carol Fraser Hagen

Children and adults who are dyslexic learn differently.

That's why it's important that both parents and teachers incorporate multi-sensory reading activities, when introducing the twenty-six letter names and shapes of the alphabet.

Multi-sensory reading activities use all the senses, sent to the brain - visual, auditory, touch and body movement.

Here are eight multi-sensory reading activities that help dyslexic learners learn the alphabet:

1. Touch - Trace and cut out both the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet, out of sandpaper. After introducing a letter name and shape, have your child trace the letter's form with two fingers. The rough surface of each sandpaper letter helps children learn and retain letter shapes.

2. Touch - Pour a bag of rice, dried beans or peas into a shallow pan. Model for your child how to trace the alphabet letter they are currently learning, in the pan. The sensation of the dried food supports children's retention of letter shapes and names.

3. Visual - Mix Elmer's glue with colorful craft fabric paints. On a piece of construction paper have your child draw letters of the alphabet in different colors. The variety of colors of glue helps children hold onto each alphabet letter's name and shape.

4. Visual - Put together a collection of crayons, colored pencils, and glitter pens. Draw in pencil on either notebook paper or construction paper the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet. Instruct your child to trace over each letter. Using color helps children memorize the shapes and names of alphabet symbols.

5. Auditory - Sing the alphabet song with your child. Parents and teacher need to sing the song slowly. Children need to hear distinctly, all twenty-six-letter names, as you sing together.

6. Auditory - Read alphabet books aloud to your child. While reading parents and teachers need to take time to point out how illustrations and pictures reflects each letter name of the alphabet. Typically the storybook images are the first letter--such as "z" for zebra.

7. Body Movement - Find a large flashlight. Turn the lights down. Using big sweeping arm movements show your child how to write a letter on the wall. Have your child do the same using their arm. Tapping into arm muscles, by making big sweeping motions, helps children learn alphabet shapes.

8. Body Movement - Using a long piece of clothes-line or a jump-rope help your child make a big letter of the alphabet. Using the body muscles through movements helps children remember alphabet shapes through muscle memory.

Multi-sensory reading activities are easy to make and take just a few minutes to do. When parents and teachers take additional time to include one, every time they teach a letter name and shape, they will find dyslexic leaners who learn differently, identifying letter names and symbols much more easily. Also, these multi-sensory reading activities work equally well with adult dyslexic learners.

Carol Fraser Hagen is a former elementary Reading Specialist, now a Dyslexia Therapist in the Midwest. In addition to tutoring dyslexic learners Carol writes freelance articles on teaching reading. Carol holds a bachelors degree in Secondary Education, a Masters Degree in Special Reading and an Educational Specialist in Curriculum and Instruction.

In addition to writing about reading education Carol is a freelance writer and a published children's writer. For more tips, resources, and articles on reading education drop by Carol's website http://www.carolfraserhagen.com

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The Origin of the Alphabet: The Letters A and H

Aleph - Image via WikipediaBy Karl Merkel

The letters A and H derive from an Egyptian hieroglyph of a twisted thread. The hieroglyph is called hayt or hayte, which is cognate to the Arabic word for "thread", khayt.

The hayt hieroglyph was a uniliteral sign that generally is believed to have been used by ancient Egyptians to represent the h-sound.

If one writes out axx in Greek lowercase letters, one can observe that it essentially forms a hayt hieroglyph written horizontally rather than vertically, as it was written by the Egyptians. The letter a forms the head or beginning of the hieroglyph while the xx portion forms the body.

Calling the letter a "the head" and the rest (the xx-ligature) "the body" is not insignificant; the Greek lowercase a actually looks like the head of a bull while the xx-ligature looks like a body with four limbs extending from it.

Given what I have just presented, there are several English words one should take a good hard look at.

The first word one should consider is axe. An axe is a tool that is sometimes used to separate the head of an animal from its body. The first two letters of the word, ax, can be seen to originate from the hayt hieroglyph and its division into three pieces (two of which are essentially identical).

Another English word that is rather interesting is the word ox. The letters ox when written together can be seen to form the Greek letter a. And, as I mentioned earlier, the Greek letter a looks a great deal like the head of a bull.

The third word one should consider carefully is the word head. The word head can be seen to derive from a variant pronunciation of hayt, where the letter d replaces the letter t. Note that the common substitution of t, d and th in words spoken by different groups of people is an extremely well documented linguistic phenomenon.

Now someone might ask how the hayt hieroglyph is symbolically connected to the letter h, since I have suggested that the symbol decomposes into an axx-ligature. The answer is that the uppercase Latin H is actually a Greek X (called chi) rotated 90 degrees.

The letters a and h actually have specific meanings associated with them. The letter a can mean "head", "first", "before" and "separation". The letter h can mean "breath", "life" or "living being". The meanings associated with the letter a derive in part from its position as the first letter in the alphabet and also from the fact that the a is essentially the separated head of the hayt hieroglyph. The letter h derives its meaning from the sound of exhaling, which it represents. Note that breath is essential to living things and that it originates in the lungs contained within the torso of an animal.

Now, to further support what I have said above, there are a few more things once should consider.

The letter h is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet. In music, the eighth note in the major musical scale is called an octave. As in the words October and octagon, the oct-prefix means "eight". Here one should note that the oc portion of oct appears to represent both a reduced form of the hayt hieroglyph and a divided form of the letter a.

Next one should consider the English word eight. The word eight can easily be seen to be a variant pronunciation of the word hayt.

Finally one should consider the shape of the numeral 8. As in the case of the oct-prefix, the shape of the numeral appears clearly to be a reduced form of the hayt hieroglyph.

What is also interesting about the shape of the numeral 8 is that, in music, it symbolizes two notes, represented by the letter o, one above the other. In ancient times, stringed instruments were common, and it was learned long ago that placing one's finger exactly in the middle of a vibrating string resulted in an octave. So what we discover is that sounds were associated with vibrating strings and that octaves, represented by the numeral 8, represent perfect harmony.

The long-a sound, in addition to being represented by the letter a, can also be represented by the letters ei, as in the word eight. If one looks at the uppercase letters EI, one can perhaps see that a ligature of EI produces a squared off version of the numeral 8 that is also remarkably similar to the Phoenician letter called heth.

One should also note that breath, when exhaled, is warm. The English word heat, like the words head and eight, also appears to be a variant pronunciation of the Egyptian word hayt. Should it then be at all surprising that the letter h can also mean "heat"?

Finally one should consider the English name for the letter h. The word is pronounced as aich, which, in Greek, is spelled ax. And what do you think the Greek name for the letter h was? The Greek name for the letter was heta, which can also be seen as a variant pronunciation of hayt.

Now the Greek name for the letter a was alpha, which in Semitic languages was aleph. Scholars have long argued that the Semitic word aleph had something to do with cattle, since they long recognized a connection between the letter a and bulls. But the word aleph actually is related to the English word aloof. The word aloof means "separate".

In Hebrew aluf (alufa being the feminine form) means "athletic champion", which is someone who distinguishes themselves (i.e., sets themselves apart) from others through physical ability.

But while those words appear to clearly provide a far more reasonable explanation for the name of the letter, my own suspicion (though I have not confirmed it yet) is that the word originally perhaps referred to stringed instruments, the vibration of strings and the first note of the musical scale.

Finally I should also point out that the shape of the Hebrew aleph, which does not look much like either a Latin a or Greek a, looks somewhat like the Taurus constellation, which, I have heard was called Aleph in the Hebrew zodiac. It also seems clear that nothing about the Taurus constellation, apart from the name, screams "bull" to me. So it seems plausible that either the shape of the Hebrew aleph inspired the naming of the constellation or the shape of the Taurus constellation inspired a redesign of the Hebrew aleph during the Babylonian exile.

Of course, much of what I am presenting herein is not yet generally accepted theory. But, in time, I think it will be shown that most if not all that I have stated herein is correct.

I also encourage those who are intrigued by what I have presented herein to visit my Olin Revelation website where one can learn more about the letters of the alphabet, the meanings associated with them, and some of the other research projects I am working on.

Karl Merkel has long been fascinated with the historical basis behind the stories related to the Bible. While doing research related to the Noah's Ark story, the author stumbled upon the discovery of a lifetime: that the letters of the alphabet each have a set of distinct meanings associated with them and that many English words appear to have been coined based on those meanings.

To learn more about what the author discovered, visit http://www.olinrevelation.org. In addition to the discoveries related to the letter meanings, the Olin Revelation website also provides interesting research related to the Merovingians, the Carolingians and King Arthur.

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