Study Guide G11 ~ English First Additional Language: Language
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow. BRAIN TEASER If someone were to walk up to you and ask, “Hwaet waes paet sweg?” what would your reaction be? If it were to happen today, you would probably assume the person was a foreigner and direct him to the nearest Information Centre! But if you were living in the England of the year AD 1000, you would have pointed to the closest tree and answered politely that the ‘sweg’ (noise) was made by the ‘fugelas’ (birds).
Look at the opening lines of the Lord’s Prayer below: “Faeder ure thu/pu the/pe eart on heofonum Si thin nama gehalgod.” “Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” “Our Father in heaven, May your name be held holy.” Can you explain the changes?
Do you think similar changes might occur in future? Motivate your answer.
A brief history of the English language Language is a living thing that changes constantly and throughout the ages English too has changed considerably: - words have changed their meanings, for example, “naughty” which means wicked or to annoy somebody, originally meant to injure or harm; - pronunciation has also changed: today neither the “k” nor the “gh” in “knight” are pronounced, but in earlier centuries these sounds were pronounced and the word sounded like “knicht” (the Afrikaans word, “kneg” comes from the same origin); - some words became obsolete (old-fashioned, no longer used) and disappeared from the language, while many others were borrowed from foreign languages e.g. • • • • •
Italian: pizza, Madonna, spaghetti, solo, operetta, sonata French: omelette, restaurant, boutique, menu, chauffeur Arabic: sultan, sherbet, coffee, sorbet Spanish: potato, mosquito, sombrero, chilli Afrikaans: veld, spoor, trek, padkos 11
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