Functional universality of New English

In the process of turning into the national language English underwent certain qualitative changes. It gradually acquired functional universality, i.e. began to be used in different communicative spheres. English superseded Latin and French in religious, philosophical and scientific fields and developed genres and styles. Thus, in the 15th and mainly 16th centuries arose the problem of spreading English to all kinds of literary practice, i.e.: fiction, scientific, philosophical and didactic. In the previous centuries in these spheres predominated Latin as the international language of science in Europe of the Middle Age, and a little earlier, the French language which became the ground for creating splendid Anglo-Norman fixation after the conquest of England by Normans. In the 16th century the situation changed sharply. In contrast with the Middle English period, in this time the territorial dialects (with the exception of Scottish) disappeared from the sphere of literature and the remained documents of that epoch demonstrate a certain uniformity of literary language based on the language of London.

At that time there appeared what is called linguistic policy, i.e. the will to influence and direct the development of the language. Anyway, attempts of evaluation of the properties and qualities of the language were quite frequent. The problem of evaluation of English which was used as a literary language arose before three categories of men of letters:

1) translators from other, and first and foremost, classic languages who aimed at authenticity of their translation;

2) poets, theorists and critics of poetry who sought for new poetical forms which in a certain way imitated genres of the French and classical poetry;

3) writers working in the field of serious (scientific, didactic, philosophical) prose, i.e., of that kind of literature which up to the 16th century had been completely the domain of Latin.

4) the creators of the English Bible. The Holy Bible occupies a very special place in the spiritual life of English people. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was responsible for the two Books of Common Prayer, wrote in his preface to the 1540 Bible that “it is convenient and good the Scripture to be read of all sorts and conditions of people”.

In 1380 the famous church reformer John Wycliffe supervised the translation of the Bible which subsequently bore his name into English.

In 1526 appeared William Tyndale’s version of the New Testament. It was the first version translated from Greek (whereas the previous versions were translated from the Latin texts). Tyndale’s translation served as a ground for the Great Bible of Coverdale (1539) which according to the King’s order was used in all the churches of the realm.

In Early New English there remained phonetic and grammatical variants but in the process of the development of the literary language a kind of selection took place which resulted in the survival of one of the variants as a fixed standard form. The elements ousted from the literary use could yet survive as colloquial or slang forms.

 

EXPANSION OF ENGLISH

In 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America. Five years later, in 1497, King Henry VII engaged the Genoese John Cabot to find a northerly way to India. As a result Cabot discovered North America. At that period Britain was behind the other European countries in the colonization of the New World. Spain had conquered the Caribbean, Mexico and Peru and got up the Mississippi as far as present-day Memphis. France had got American Louisiana and reached Quebec. As for Britain her interests were concentrated in the East. In 1555 Muscovy Company was established and English ships dropped anchors at Archangel.

Only in 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh undertook the first voyage to America where he made contact with friendly Indians. This led to the establishment of the Roanoke Colony in Virginia. But the colony did not exist long: only by 1586. In 1587 John White founded a new colony which did not exist long either. And only in 1607 a group of 143 colonists established themselves at Jamestown. In two years, in 1609, the population of the colony was already over 700 people.

The early colonists who settled in America had brought the English language to their new country. It was English spoken by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

The following object of British expansion was Canada. France had conquered Canadian territories before the English colonists came to Virginia. By the early 17th century the English were competing for a stake in the valuable fur trade, and in 1670 the Hudson’s Bay Company was formed. By 1763 Britain was supreme in Canada, securing the Hudson’s Bay territories, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia by the treaty of Utrecht (1713) and Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island by the treaty of Paris (1763).

In the 17th century the British Empire took roots in India. By the end of the century England had acquired at least three important positions in India: the territory where the present-day Madras developed, Bengal which later became the city of Calcutta and Bombay obtained by Charles II as dowry of his Portuguese bride. Though the British never mixed with the Indian society, in the course of centuries the country was westernized and underwent strong influence of the English culture and the English language. Higher education was in English and English in India developed as a well perceived variant.

In the 18th century the colonization of Australia started. Originally that colony was used as a place of punishment, criminals were transported there from England. It lasted so up to 1868, when the transportation of criminals was replaced by voluntary organized emigration.

In 1839 the colonization of New Zealand began after the treaty of Waitangi between England and the chiefs of the Maori people inhabiting the island.

Africa was another part of the world which attracted the attention of England. The first British colony in Africa was Sierra Leone. Competing with France and some other states Britain established its rule Gambia, the Gold Coast and Lagos. The Cape Colony became the basis of the British Expansion in South Africa.

Centuries have passed. The British Empire gave up its place to the Commonwealth of Independent Sovereignties. But English remains the official language in many big and small countries. More than that, in the course of development in more or less isolated conditions it has acquired specific features and nowadays we can easily tell an American or an Australian speaking English from the inhabitant of the United Kingdom. It means that the English language exists today as a multitude local variants.

LECTURE 4