In the age of text speak or, indeed, txt spk, it is important to celebrate the English language in its proper form so as not to lose the heritage and gift that the English gave to the world. It is thought that around 2 billion people communicate using the English language and a museum will be opened to celebrate this fact and it will be called The English Project.
The English Project – Tracing The Birth Of English
The English Project will aim to heighten our knowledge and understanding of the rich tapestry that is the English language and, in doing so, make us realise the importance of upholding its heritage. Many jobs rely indomitably on English, most notably creative jobs such as copywriting, and those in the industry will be delighted to see something being done to preserve it. The museum will aim to pinpoint the progression of the language from the mixed tongue of three tribes – the Saxons, Jutes and Angles – to the global argot of today.
The Vastness Of The English Language
Christopher Mulvey, an English language expect, speaking to the Times, goes a long way to explaining just how layered the English language is and how many cultures and nation's are known to have influenced it, "The English language is said to contain over one million words, vastly more than any person can use or even know, and the average Briton is said to use 40,000 words and know another 20,000. Even after 1500, the English language never lost the habit of borrowing from French and by then they had picked up the habit of mass borrowing from Latin and Greek for medical and scientific purposes".
English Language – How It All Started
Charting the path of the English language isn't an utterly exact science but an abridged version of its emergence would look something like this:
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Around the 5th Century, the languages of the invading Jutes, Angles and Saxons starting to mesh together
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French and other continental sources became increasingly influential on the English language around the same time as William I conquest of Britain
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Publication of the first English Dictionary, formulated by Dr Johnson, demonstrated the efforts to standardise the English language in the early Modern period in the mid-1700's
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The peak of the British Empire around 1900 in conjunction with the emergence of American commerce meant that English became the language of world politics and business, cementing its importance.