CULTURE

APPENDIX 4 : ANGLO-SAXON CULTURE

1. THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
2. HALLOWEEN
3. GUY FAWKES' NIGHT
4. POPPY APPEAL
5. THANKSGIVING DAY
6. NEW YEAR AROUND THE WORLD
7. NATIVE AMERICANS
8. AUSTRALIA

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

According to surveys, the percentage of modern English words derived from each language group are as follows:

Latin ≈29% French ≈29% Germanic ≈26% Greek ≈6% Others ≈10%

LOANS (or borrowings):

Now try to identify what the origin of some common English words is:

CELTIC – THE STORY BEFORE ENGLISH

Two thousand years ago the people of Britain spoke Celtic. There are very few Celtic words in modern English, but the names ‘London’ and ‘Thames’ are examples.

INVASIONS

Between AD 750 and 1000 the Vikings attacked from Scandinavia. Their language was similar to Old English, but its simpler grammar meant that English became less complicated. Examples of Viking words in Modern English are ‘window’, ‘egg’, and ‘are’. Then in 1066 the Normans adoipted French as their language but the ordinary people still used English.

Have a look at the map of invasions and then complete the text:

The Celts came to Britain before 500 BC. We don’t know much about them because they didn’t have  a written language.

In (1) __________________________ the Romans invaded and occupied most of Britain. However, although they stayed in Britain for over 300 years, the language of the people remained Celtic, not Latin. The Romans left Britain in about AD 400, and over the next 600 years a number of invasions took place.

First of all, between AD 400 and 500 (2) _________________________ from Holland, Germany and (3) ______________________ occupied southern England and pushed the Celts into Wales, Scotland and Cornwall.

Then, between (4) _____________________________ and (5) __________ Vikings from Scandinavia attacked northern and eastern England. They lived in Britain for about 200 years.

The last time Britain was invaded was in (6) ___________, when the Normans came over from (7) _____________________ in northern France. Although they spoke French they were in fact the descendants of Vikings who had settled in Normandy 200 years before.

http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm

A short history of the origins and development of English

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from "Englaland" [sic] and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England" and "English" are derived.

Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century.

OLD ENGLISH  (450-1100 AD)

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English.

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots: be, strong, the, man, house, drink and water, for example, derive from Old English. Germanic languages such as Danish, German, Norwegian and Swedish have very similar words for the objects in the box (blog). Words of Germanic origin are usually short (often just one syllable) and tend to be informal in modern English.

MIDDLE ENGLISH (1100 – 1500)

Example of Middle English by the great poet Chaucer  (c 1340-1400)

In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors, the Normans, brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes.  For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. Norman-French words did not enter English immediately. When the Normans invaded in 1066, ordinary pepole still spoke Old English. Imagine a Norman: the English would look after the animals and cook the meat, still calling the animals by their Old English names. The Normans when thet saw the cooked meat arrive at the table would use the French ones. This explains why the English language has now different words  for animals and meats:

ANIMAL	MEAT
ANGLO-SAXON      MODERN  ENGLISH	FRENCH              MODERN ENGLISH
Pigga                                 pig	Porc                                pork
Scep                                  sheep	Mouton                          mutton
Cu                                     cow	Boeuf                              beef

As we have seen English has many similarities with Romance languages, whose origin is Latin. The words in the box below came to England with the french-speaking Normans. Notice that the words are associated with power: Norman-French was used as the language of government. Words of Latin origin are usually longer than words of Germanic origin and often have a more formal meaning in English than in the original Romance language:

government        parliament        judge         court        legal             military  army                   crown                 nation        state         country         power                authority            people

                              The Bayeux Tapestry shows the Normans invading England. Before they invaded,

                               the language  of England was mainly Germanic Old English.

In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

MODERN ENGLISH

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 15th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This way the language continued to grow and develop. The English explorers brought back words from different countries, like for instance ‘zero’ from Arab countries and ‘jungle’ from India.

Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines,   written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.

This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The interest for the ancient culture, Greek and Latin, explained this flood into English of thousands of new words. At the same time, it became more popular throuugout Europe to use your mother tongue, not Latin, for written documents: the Bible, in particular, began to be read in the language of the country. By the seventeenth century, it became possible something in English with words of Germanic, Latin and Greek origin. This is still true today as you can see on the following chart:

GERMANIC	LATIN	GREEK
book	library	bibliography
renew	renovate	neolithic
water	aquatic	hydraulic

The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

Late Modern English (1800-Present)

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words. The period from the Renaissance to the present days has seen many new ideas and inventions, especially in science and technology. As new things are invented, new words have to be created. Often these new words are created from existing Greek or Latin words put together in new ways: so when someone invented an instrument for speaking to another person at a distance, it was called telephone, from Greek words tele (=far) and phone (=sound). There are thousands of words like this: television, microscope, psychology, thermometer, etc.

Secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries: alcohol and algebra come from Arabic; divan and khaki from Persian; chocolate and tomato from native American languages; bungalow and cot from Gujerati; tea and tycoon from Chinese. So modern English does not consist only of English words, but from many different countries and languages.

Varieties of English

From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.

The Germanic Family of Languages

English is a member of the Germanic family of languages.
   Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.

Vocabulary comparison

English	Dutch	German	Icelandic	Swedish	Danish	Norwegian
apple	appel	Apfel	epli	äpple	æble	eple
board	bord	Brett[46]	borð	bord	bord	bord
book	boek	Buch	bók	bok	bog	bok
day	dag	Tag	dagur	dag	dag	dag
dead	dood	tot	dauður	död	død	død
finger	vinger	Finger	fingur	finger	finger	finger
give	geven	geben	gefa	ge / giva	give	gi
glass	glas	Glas	glas	glas	glas	glass
gold	goud	Gold	gull	guld / gull	guld	gull
good	goed	gut	góð(ur)	god	god	god
hand	hand	Hand	hönd	hand	hånd	hånd
house	huis	Haus	hús	hus	hus	hus
moon	maan	Mond	máni / tungl	måne	måne	måne
night	nacht	Nacht	nótt	natt	nat	natt
no (nay)	nee(n)	nee / nein / nö	nei	nej / nä	nej / næ	nei
one	een	eins	einn	en	en	en
snow	sneeuw	Schnee	snjór	snö	sne	snø
stone	steen	Stein	steinn	sten	sten	stein
two / twain	twee	zwei/zwo	tveir / tvær / tvö	två / tu	to	to
who	wie	wer	hver	vem	hvem	hvem
English	Dutch	German	Icelandic	Swedish	Danish	Norwegian (Bokmål)

HALLOWEEN

GUY  FAWKES’  NIGHT

The anniversary of the famous Gunpowder Plot

Who was Guy Fawkes?

At the beginning of 17th century, England was a protestant country. The King of England, James I, was protestant too, but a lot of English people were Catholics and they wanted a Catholic king.

In 1605 a group of Catholics decided to kill the king. One of the group was an army captain called Guy Fawkes. They chose the 5th of November, the day the king went to the House of Lords to open Parliament. But the King’s chief minister discovered the plot and sent soldiers to the House of Lords. They found Guy Fawkes in  a cellar with 36 barrels of gunpowder. He was ready to blow up the King and all the Members of Parliament.

The soldiers took Guy Fawkes to the Tower of London and the chief minister soon discovered the other men behind “The Gunpowder Plot”. The conspirators, who began plotting early in 1604, included Robert Catesby, John Wright, and Thomas Winter, the originators, Christopher Wright, Robert Winter, Robert Keyes, Guy Fawkes, etc.

They were all arrested, tortured and executed and Parliament made the 5th of November  an official holiday.

                                                     The unfortunate conspirator Fawkes appears before his intended victim

Fireworks, Bonfires in England today

Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, is no longer a holiday but it is still a very popular date. A ot of people have a firework partyin their garden, but towns and villages also organise big fireworks displays. People also make bonfires, on which effigies (guys, from the name guy Fawkes) of the conspirator are burnt. They often cook “jacket potatoes” in the bonfire.

To learn more:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/guyfawkes.html#ixzz2auAGhjZr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1DC2BAsXb4

http://www.bonfirenight.net/index.php

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/fireworks1.html

POPPY APPEAL

The remembrance poppy  has been used since 1920 to commemorate soldiers who have died in war. Inspired by the World War I poem "In Flanders Fields", they were first used by the American Legion to commemorate American soldiers who died in that war (1914–1918). They were then adopted by military veterans' groups in the Commonwealth; especially the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Today, they are mainly used in the UK and Canada to commemorate their servicemen and -women who have been killed since 1914. Small artificial poppies are often worn on clothing on Remembrance Day/ Armistice Day (11 November) and in the weeks before it. Poppy wreaths are also often laid at war memorials.

The remembrance poppy is especially prominent in the UK in the weeks leading up to Remembrance Sunday. They are sold by The Royal British Legion for its "Poppy Appeal" and it is institutionalized for public figures to wear one.

THANKSGIVING DAY

Almost every culture in the world has held celebrations of thanks for a plentiful harvest. The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn, a new food for the colonists. They showed them other crops to grow in the new land and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn.

In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsdzjdT_LkY

NATIVE AMERICANS

Work in pairs. Can you answer these questions?

1.   Where did Native Americans originally come from?

a)   Asia                        b) Europe                  c) Greenland

2.   Who gave name ‘Indians’ to Native Americans?

a)   Vespucci               b) Washington         c) Columbus

3.   What was the Native Americans’ principal source of food?

a)   coyote                   b) buffalo                  c) potatoes

4.   Which American general was defeated at the Battle of Little Big Horn?

a)   Custer                             b) Lee                          c) Grant

2. Now read the text and check your answers.

Native Americans

A Native Americans travelled from Asia to North America about 25,000 years ago. They crossed the Bering Straits, a narrow strip of water which connects the two continents. In the winter, the water freezes and people can walk across the ice and snow.	C War between the Native Americans and Europeans settlers was inevitable. The settlers moved west, claiming land for farms and killing millions of buffalo, Native American’s main source of food. The Native Americans wanted to preserve their traditional way of life and keep their hunting grounds.
B Many people used to call Native Americans ‘Indians’ or ‘Red Indians’, but they don’t like that name. They were called ‘Indians’ because when Columbus came to America in 1492, he thought that he had travelled round the world and had landed in India.	D The Native Americans had their greatest victory in 1876 when they defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn. But 1890 saw the end of their resistance. At the Battle of Wounded Knee, the last brave Native American warriors were brutally massacred.

3. Match the headings (1-4) with the paragraphs (A-D) in the text.

1 The final battles

2 The origin of Native Americans

3 We are not ‘Indians’!

4 Unavoidable conflict

4. Listen to a Native American girl. Are the sentences true or false? Correct the false sentences.

Example: The girl’s name is Ellen Riverwater.

                  False. Her name is Ellen Rainwater

1 She lives in Chicago.

2 Her ancestors were members of the Cheyenne tribe.

3 Her parengts came from Arizona.

4 Most of her family live in large cities.

5 Her ambition in life is to teach the world about Native Americans.

FROM ASIA TO NORTH AMERICA

COLUMBUS GOING THE WRONG WAY

INDIANS FIGHTING THE EUROPEAN INVADERS AND SETTLERS

THE BIG BATTLES

LITTLE BIG HORN			WOUNDED KNEE

AUSTRALIA

1.      

      1. TEST YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT AUSTRALIA? CHOOSE THE RIGHT ANSWER.

1 WHEN DID THE ABORIGINES FIRST COME TO AUSTRALIA? ·         45,00 YEARS AGO ·         15,000 YEARS AGO ·         2,000 YEARS AGO	3 WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE DID THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT SEND THERE FIRST? ·         SCIENTITS ·         CHILDREN ·         PRISONERS	5 WHAT ORGANISATION IS AUSTRALIA MEMBER OF? ·         UN ·         EU ·         COMMONWEALTH
2 WHEN DID THE BRITISH ESTABLISH THE FIRST COLONY IN AUSTRALIA? ·         ABOUT 400 YEARS AGO ·         ABOUT 200 YEARS AGO ·         ABOUT 100 YEARS AGO	4 WHEN DID AUSTRALIA BECOME AN INDEPENDENT NATION? ·         1860 ·         1901 ·         1949	6 WHAT IS THE PRESENT POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA? ·         16 MILLION ·         4 MILLION ·         46 MILLION

2. NOW READ THE TEXT AND CHECK YOUR ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ

The first inhabitants of Australia were the Aborigines, who have  lived there for about 45,000 years. Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch explorers first reached Australia about 400 years ago, but none of them stayed because they thought it was too dry. Then in 1770, the British explorer, James Cook, established the first colony in the south-west of Australia. He called it New South Wales.

At that time, gaols in Britain were very overcrowded, so the British government decided to send prisoners to work in the new colony. Not long after, gold was discovered and the population rapidly increased. Conflict with the Aborigines soon began – they naturally resented the Europeans taking their land. Many aborigines were killed.

In 1901, Australia gained its independence from Britain, though it remains a member of the British Commonwealth.  Since the beginning of the 20th century, the population has increased from about 4 million to over 21 million at the beginning of the 21st century. Over the past 50 years, immigrants have come from all over the world and Australia is now a country with a wide variety of races and cultures.

  

A short story of Australia in cartoons:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhY9PBceqYY