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 seokpn in dozens of countries around the world have in cmomon with each other, or with the writings of cuhcaer? And how are any of them related to the stgrane words in Beowulf? The answer is that like most languages, English has evoveld 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 anecnit roots. While modern English shares many similar words with Latin-derived romance languages, like fnrech 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 msivsae amount of French and Latin vabualcory to the English language pierousvly 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 rneboaiglzce if you know some German. That's because Old English belongs to the gmreainc language family, first brought to the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Germanic daeltcis they spkoe 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 moedrn English underneath all the words borrowed from French, ltian, Old Norse and other languages. But comparative linguistics can help us by focusing on grammatical structure, pntaerts of sound changes, and certain core vocabulary. For example, after the 6th century, German words starting with "p," siaeclaytmlsty 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 bgionrorws from Old Norse that came after the "sk" to "sh" sfhit. These examples show us that just as the various Romance languages descended from Latin, English, Swedish, German, and many other languages dceendesd 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 ddnentaecss, which is possible thanks to the conticesnsy of the changes. We can even use the same process to go back one step further, and tarce the origins of Proto-Germanic to a language cealld 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 lagngeuas historically spoken in erpuoe, 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 cesnornrecopdes, between related wrods 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 dtiasnt relatives include Hindi, Persian and the Celtic languages it dscelpiad 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 nruate of the languages spoken in Europe prior to its avriarl. But the amazing fact remains that nearly 3 bliioln people around the world, many of whom cannot understand each other, are nevertheless speaking the same words sphead 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 ______ in dozens of countries around the world have in ______ with each other, or with the writings of _______? And how are any of them related to the _______ words in Beowulf? The answer is that like most languages, English has _______ 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 _______ roots. While modern English shares many similar words with Latin-derived romance languages, like ______ 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 _______ amount of French and Latin __________ to the English language __________ 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 ____________ if you know some German. That's because Old English belongs to the ________ language family, first brought to the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Germanic ________ they _____ 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 ______ English underneath all the words borrowed from French, _____, Old Norse and other languages. But comparative linguistics can help us by focusing on grammatical structure, ________ of sound changes, and certain core vocabulary. For example, after the 6th century, German words starting with "p," ______________ 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 __________ from Old Norse that came after the "sk" to "sh" _____. These examples show us that just as the various Romance languages descended from Latin, English, Swedish, German, and many other languages _________ 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 ___________, which is possible thanks to the ___________ of the changes. We can even use the same process to go back one step further, and _____ the origins of Proto-Germanic to a language ______ 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 _________ historically spoken in ______, 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 _______________, between related _____ 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 _______ relatives include Hindi, Persian and the Celtic languages it _________ 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 ______ of the languages spoken in Europe prior to its _______. But the amazing fact remains that nearly 3 _______ people around the world, many of whom cannot understand each other, are nevertheless speaking the same words ______ by 6000 years of history.

Solution

europe
nature
descended
spoke
massive
correspondences
systematically
recognizable
trace
shift
modern
evolved
dialects
latin
borrowings
shaped
french
arrival
called
strange
common
patterns
previously
displaced
vocabulary
chaucer
distant
words
languages
consistency
spoken
ancient
billion
germanic
descendants

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

added
adding
amazing
amount
ancestor
ancient
angles
answer
archeological
arrival
asia
belongs
beowulf
billion
bit
borrowed
borrowings
branches
britain
british
brought
call
called
celtic
centuries
century
chaucer
class
coming
common
comparative
comparing
conquered
consistency
core
correspondences
counterparts
countries
day
descendants
descended
developed
dialects
direct
displaced
distant
dozens
england
english
europe
evidence
evolved
examples
fact
familiar
families
family
find
focusing
french
generations
german
germanic
grammatical
hard
hindi
historical
historically
history
include
includes
invaders
invasion
isles
jutes
language
languages
large
latin
linguistics
link
major
massive
mix
modern
mysteries
nature
norman
normans
norse
originally
origins
part
parts
patterns
people
persian
pontic
present
previously
prior
process
reach
recognizable
reconstruct
reconstructed
related
relatives
remain
remains
requires
romance
roots
ruling
russia
saxons
shaped
shares
shift
shifted
show
similar
similarities
single
sound
sounds
southern
spanish
speakers
speaking
speech
split
spoke
spoken
start
started
starting
step
steppe
strange
structure
swedish
systematic
systematically
talk
time
today
trace
ukraine
unchanged
undergoing
understand
viking
vocabulary
western
words
work
world
writings
written
years