TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Claire Bowern: Where did English come from?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

When we talk about English, we often think of it as a single language but what do the dialects spoken in donzes of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer? And how are any of them related to the sgnrtae words in Beowulf? The answer is that like most languages, English has evolved through generations of speakers, undergoing major changes over time. By undoing these changes, we can trace the language from the pserent day back to its ancient roots. While modren English shares many similar words with Latin-derived romance languages, like French and Spanish, most of those words were not oigillnary part of it. Instead, they started coming into the language with the Norman invasion of England in 1066. When the French-speaking Normans conquered England and became its rlniug class, they brought their speech with them, adding a msisave aomnut of French and Latin vuaacblroy to the English lgnuagae previously spoken there. Today, we call that language Old English. This is the language of Beowulf. It probably doesn't look very familiar, but it might be more recognizable if you know some German. That's because Old English bnolegs to the grmneaic language famliy, first brought to the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Germanic dialects they spoke would become known as Anglo-Saxon. Viking invaders in the 8th to 11th centuries added more borrowings from Old Norse into the mix. It may be hard to see the rotos of modern English underneath all the words borrowed from fenrch, Latin, Old Norse and other languages. But comparative linguistics can help us by focusing on grammatical structure, patterns of sunod changes, and certain core vocabulary. For example, after the 6th century, German words starting with "p," systematically shifted to a "pf" sound while their Old English counterparts kept the "p" unchanged. In another split, words that have "sk" sounds in Swedish developed an "sh" sound in English. There are still some English words with "sk," like "skirt," and "skull," but they're direct borrowings from Old nsroe that came after the "sk" to "sh" shift. These eeamlpxs show us that just as the various Romance languages denecedsd from Latin, English, Swedish, German, and many other languages descended from their own common ancestor known as Proto-Germanic spoken around 500 B.C.E. Because this historical language was never written down, we can only reconstruct it by comparing its descendants, which is possible thanks to the consistency of the changes. We can even use the same process to go back one step further, and trace the oirnigs of Proto-Germanic to a language called Proto-Indo-European, spoken about 6000 years ago on the pitonc steppe in modern day Ukraine and rusisa. This is the reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European family that includes nearly all languages historically spoken in Europe, as well as large parts of Southern and Western Asia. And though it rurqiees a bit more work, we can find the same setaysitmc similarities, or correspondences, between related words in different Indo-European bnrahecs. Comparing English with Latin, we see that enislgh has "t" where Latin has "d", and "f" where laitn has "p" at the start of words. Some of English's more distant relatives include Hindi, Persian and the Celtic languages it displaced in what is now Britain. Proto-Indo-European itself descended from an even more ancient language, but unfortunately, this is as far back as historical and archeological evidence will allow us to go. Many mysteries remain just out of reach, such as whether there might be a link between Indo-European and other major language families, and the nature of the languages spoken in Europe prior to its arviral. But the amazing fact ramnies that nearly 3 biollin people around the wlrod, many of whom cannot understand each other, are nevertheless speaking the same wrdos shaped by 6000 years of history.

Open Cloze

When we talk about English, we often think of it as a single language but what do the dialects spoken in ______ of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer? And how are any of them related to the _______ words in Beowulf? The answer is that like most languages, English has evolved through generations of speakers, undergoing major changes over time. By undoing these changes, we can trace the language from the _______ day back to its ancient roots. While ______ English shares many similar words with Latin-derived romance languages, like French and Spanish, most of those words were not __________ part of it. Instead, they started coming into the language with the Norman invasion of England in 1066. When the French-speaking Normans conquered England and became its ______ class, they brought their speech with them, adding a _______ ______ of French and Latin __________ to the English ________ previously spoken there. Today, we call that language Old English. This is the language of Beowulf. It probably doesn't look very familiar, but it might be more recognizable if you know some German. That's because Old English _______ to the ________ language ______, first brought to the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Germanic dialects they spoke would become known as Anglo-Saxon. Viking invaders in the 8th to 11th centuries added more borrowings from Old Norse into the mix. It may be hard to see the _____ of modern English underneath all the words borrowed from ______, Latin, Old Norse and other languages. But comparative linguistics can help us by focusing on grammatical structure, patterns of _____ changes, and certain core vocabulary. For example, after the 6th century, German words starting with "p," systematically shifted to a "pf" sound while their Old English counterparts kept the "p" unchanged. In another split, words that have "sk" sounds in Swedish developed an "sh" sound in English. There are still some English words with "sk," like "skirt," and "skull," but they're direct borrowings from Old _____ that came after the "sk" to "sh" shift. These ________ show us that just as the various Romance languages _________ from Latin, English, Swedish, German, and many other languages descended from their own common ancestor known as Proto-Germanic spoken around 500 B.C.E. Because this historical language was never written down, we can only reconstruct it by comparing its descendants, which is possible thanks to the consistency of the changes. We can even use the same process to go back one step further, and trace the _______ of Proto-Germanic to a language called Proto-Indo-European, spoken about 6000 years ago on the ______ steppe in modern day Ukraine and ______. This is the reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European family that includes nearly all languages historically spoken in Europe, as well as large parts of Southern and Western Asia. And though it ________ a bit more work, we can find the same __________ similarities, or correspondences, between related words in different Indo-European ________. Comparing English with Latin, we see that _______ has "t" where Latin has "d", and "f" where _____ has "p" at the start of words. Some of English's more distant relatives include Hindi, Persian and the Celtic languages it displaced in what is now Britain. Proto-Indo-European itself descended from an even more ancient language, but unfortunately, this is as far back as historical and archeological evidence will allow us to go. Many mysteries remain just out of reach, such as whether there might be a link between Indo-European and other major language families, and the nature of the languages spoken in Europe prior to its _______. But the amazing fact _______ that nearly 3 _______ people around the _____, many of whom cannot understand each other, are nevertheless speaking the same _____ shaped by 6000 years of history.

Solution

ruling
originally
french
billion
requires
russia
language
modern
remains
english
germanic
pontic
dozens
norse
roots
words
examples
world
systematic
amount
branches
belongs
arrival
massive
sound
descended
strange
family
latin
present
origins
vocabulary

Original Text

When we talk about English, we often think of it as a single language but what do the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer? And how are any of them related to the strange words in Beowulf? The answer is that like most languages, English has evolved through generations of speakers, undergoing major changes over time. By undoing these changes, we can trace the language from the present day back to its ancient roots. While modern English shares many similar words with Latin-derived romance languages, like French and Spanish, most of those words were not originally part of it. Instead, they started coming into the language with the Norman invasion of England in 1066. When the French-speaking Normans conquered England and became its ruling class, they brought their speech with them, adding a massive amount of French and Latin vocabulary to the English language previously spoken there. Today, we call that language Old English. This is the language of Beowulf. It probably doesn't look very familiar, but it might be more recognizable if you know some German. That's because Old English belongs to the Germanic language family, first brought to the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Germanic dialects they spoke would become known as Anglo-Saxon. Viking invaders in the 8th to 11th centuries added more borrowings from Old Norse into the mix. It may be hard to see the roots of modern English underneath all the words borrowed from French, Latin, Old Norse and other languages. But comparative linguistics can help us by focusing on grammatical structure, patterns of sound changes, and certain core vocabulary. For example, after the 6th century, German words starting with "p," systematically shifted to a "pf" sound while their Old English counterparts kept the "p" unchanged. In another split, words that have "sk" sounds in Swedish developed an "sh" sound in English. There are still some English words with "sk," like "skirt," and "skull," but they're direct borrowings from Old Norse that came after the "sk" to "sh" shift. These examples show us that just as the various Romance languages descended from Latin, English, Swedish, German, and many other languages descended from their own common ancestor known as Proto-Germanic spoken around 500 B.C.E. Because this historical language was never written down, we can only reconstruct it by comparing its descendants, which is possible thanks to the consistency of the changes. We can even use the same process to go back one step further, and trace the origins of Proto-Germanic to a language called Proto-Indo-European, spoken about 6000 years ago on the Pontic steppe in modern day Ukraine and Russia. This is the reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European family that includes nearly all languages historically spoken in Europe, as well as large parts of Southern and Western Asia. And though it requires a bit more work, we can find the same systematic similarities, or correspondences, between related words in different Indo-European branches. Comparing English with Latin, we see that English has "t" where Latin has "d", and "f" where latin has "p" at the start of words. Some of English's more distant relatives include Hindi, Persian and the Celtic languages it displaced in what is now Britain. Proto-Indo-European itself descended from an even more ancient language, but unfortunately, this is as far back as historical and archeological evidence will allow us to go. Many mysteries remain just out of reach, such as whether there might be a link between Indo-European and other major language families, and the nature of the languages spoken in Europe prior to its arrival. But the amazing fact remains that nearly 3 billion people around the world, many of whom cannot understand each other, are nevertheless speaking the same words shaped by 6000 years of history.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
modern english	2
languages descended	2

Important Words

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adding
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