The study of the history of words:

How meaning develops

Dr. L. CastaldoGreen

The Indo-European Language: English Spanish Icelandic Romanian Hindi Bengali Persian

Began over 7,000 years ago in the Indus Valley and spread as people migrated throughout the world

Vowels changed; consonants didn’t change much

Indo-European didn’t have a writing system Pictographic forms of representation were

used Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed writing

around 3,000 B.C.E. Created a logographic system

Cuneiform Context is key to understanding meaning

Syllabic system developed in Sumeria simultaneous to Egyptian, Phoenician and Greek systems All three of these use similar characters

The first alphabetic system developed in Greece

The first technologic invention

English has not changed much over the last several hundred years

Prior to that, however, “English” would be progressively difficult to understand

Greek and Latin roots Most English vocabulary comes from Classical

Greek or Latin words/roots Prefixes and Suffixes are used to form thousands

of words Connecting vowels are used to join morphemes

Influence began over 2,000 years ago “Vini, vidi, vici”

Germanic Influence (by invasion) Anglo-Saxon develops All of the 100 most frequently used

words in English come from Old English (e.g. the, is, on, in, for, go, run, I , we, me, he, she)

Inflection conveyed meaning A.D. 597 – Augustine arrives

Church Latin spread

Norsemen arrive – Scandinavian influence

The Norman French arrive (1066) French “Latin” words pass onto English – leads

to finer conceptual distinctions (e.g. swine vs. pork, sheep vs. mutton)

Phrases are condensed (e.g. break the fast = breakfast)

Latter 14th Century – Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is published

Finest expression of Middle English

Printing Press – 1475 in England London dialect became “standard” dialect

Hundreds of thousands of words Spread of English through British Empire from

the 17th century onward Spread of American English since WWII Native American terms entered language Contact with new cultures expanded language Greek and Latin roots used to create new

scientific terms 1755 – Dictionary of English Language

published 1828 – American Dictionary of English

Language

Fundamentally the same – provide labels and the keys to understanding

Context will change idiomatic meanings Digital Literacy will cause continual

evolution of words and word usage “The long reign of black-and-white textual truth

has ended” (Lanham, 1993).

Approach vocabulary instruction with the goal of providing students with the keys to understanding words