A very concise history of the English language - Part I

The history of the English language is long and involved. Here are some of the more interesting moments in its evolution.

Crazy English spelling
There are millions of people learning and using English as a second language around the world. The fact that English spelling often has no resemblance to the way the language is pronounced is probably a source of irritation to many of them. But why do spellings such as 'bought', 'two' and 'rhyme' seem so illogical?

Looking back at a few key events in the history of English will help us unravel the mystery.

Vowel please...
Throughout the turbulent 1,500-year history of the English language, there have been many outside influences. One of the earliest was from the Romans. Complications with spelling arose when they tried to impose their 23-letter alphabet upon a language with 14 vowels and 26 consonants, not to mention six diphthongs.

Spell it how you like
The few who could write English were scattered across the British Isles in often remote and isolated locations. With limited communications, different spellings for the same words inevitably developed. The word 'church' was spelled churche, church, chirch, chyrch, charge, chorche, chrch, churiche, or even schyrch, schurch, or sscherche. The word 'people' could be found with over twenty spellings, including pepul, pepyll and pople. These spellings reflected regional dialects, and for a short period of time, written English actually reflected the variety of the spoken language.

A standard written language for the masses
The introduction of William Caxton's printing press in 1476 - not to mention the huge popularity of his best-selling author, Chaucer - created standardized English spelling for the first time. Being based in Westminster, London, the language rolling off Caxton's press reflected the speech and dialect of the London area.

Evolving pronunciation - static spelling
By the time the first English dictionary (Robert Cawdry's A Table Alphabeticall) appeared in 1604, English pronunciation had changed a great deal. However, the standardized spelling set by Caxton in the 15th century had left its mark. Without the printing press, words would have continued to be written to reflect the ever-changing spoken tongue. But thanks to the press, spellings in the 17th century had changed very little since Caxton's day. And with very few spelling reforms over the years, it's more or less the same story today.

Not so simple
So, the main reason English spelling seems illogical at times is because the written word has not evolved together with the spoken word. And unfortunately, many unusually spelled English words are also the most used. Try reading aloud the rhyme below and experience some of these words yourself.

I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead - it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for pear and bear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose
Just look them up - and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Man alive,
I'd mastered it when I was five!*

*This poem appears on many web pages, often with no author attribution. Tracking its source has proved tricky. It appears with the simple attribution "TSW", and also with George Bernard Shaw. If you have more information, please contact us.