The Development of English Grammar

The start… West Germanic, originated from an ancient language called Germanic,

is the starting point of the English language. Interestingly, the starting point of England itself is the arrival of West Germanic people in Britannia in the fifth century.

Germanic evolved into three separate languages (NEW): North Germanic : Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Icelandic East Germanic : Disappeared West Germanic : English, German, Dutch etc.

These West Germanics were Angles, Saxons and Jutes, all speaking the same language.

The evolution… English's West Germanic grammar has been radically changing in the

course of its sixteen hundred years.

There has been four significant stages of its progress:

First, English grammar was changed by Norse-speaking invaders in the ninth and tenth centuries.

Second, it was changed by Norman-French speaking invaders in the eleventh century.

Third, it was changed by scholars in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Fourth, English grammar is being changed in the twenty-first century by globalization, the internet, and new notions of authority.

Shared origin… Almost all the languages of Europe (and many in India)

have evolved from a language known as Proto-Indo European. Proto-Indo European was never written down, and its hundred and more descendant languages exist today in India and Europe.

The work of reconstructing Proto-Indo-European was began by Sir William Jones in Bengal in the 1780s. It was he who first recognized the links between Latin, Greek and Sanskrit.

Sir William believed Latin, Greek and Sanskrit to be among the finest of languages but, of the three, he gave the palm to Sanskrit: 'more perfect than the Greek, more copious(vast) than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either'

Definition… Grammar is a demonstration of the complexity of the

human mind; it is something that evolved as we evolved;

Not only do human use words, they also use sentences. By contrast, animals have words, but they do not have sentences. The sentence allows for complex thinking to be expressed, and the sentence is a reflection of the human brain's self-reflexive capacity.

Speakers of all human languages organize words into larger units - phrases, sentences, stories, conversations, and so forth. Grammar helps make human communication meaningful and effective.

Grammar ensures that a language never degenerates

English Grammar The first English grammars were modeled on Latin grammars.

It made English appear falling short in a number of ways.

It was an unhappy fact that not a single one of the best writers could be relied upon to write correctly.

With the publication of Dr Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, it may be said that the rules for a Standard English Grammar had been established.

By 1800, the rules of English grammar had been established with authority

English Grammar has changed its form almost every three hundred years, and it appears to be going through one of its evolutions even as we use it today.

Thank you!