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Dravidians The origin of the Dravidian people and the foundations of their languages have sparked many debates. Anthropologists also have different theories. Some aver that the Dravidians lived in India before the Indo-Aryans arrived here. We learnt in school that the Indus Valley civilization was of Dravidian origin. This was the theory of Western scholars during the British Raj, according to which Aryans entered India between 2000 BCE and 1000 BCE,   displacing the population of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Historians have included hunting-gathering tribes of ancient India among the Dravidians as well. Rural farming communities started forming in India 9000 years ago. As surplus crops were produced, they required to be stored. People needed to stay close to granaries thereby ushering in urbanisation. That’s how the Indus Valley Civilisation may have emerged. Over the centuries, they learned advanced town planning. Their towns had great plumbing with drains. The heydays ...

  Part 2 Why did Britain start colonising the world? Economically exploiting its colonies was a smug way for England to amass wealth. The British realised that buying abundant raw material at low costs from their colonies would save them from purchasing the same at higher costs from other countries. The same colonies would be buyers for manufactured goods made with their resources that were shipped to England. The finished products would be priced high while being sold to the colonies. This would steepen Britain’s profit margin. Profit-seeking merchants collaborated to establish the Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock company. King James I extended his support to this firm that added fuel to fire to the acceleration of colonialism. Rich people were encouraged to invest finances to fund ship-building and sea voyages. The public was wooed to buy shares and lottery tickets of this company. The Industrial Revolution started in 1760. New words related to science and techno...

  Why did Britain start colonising the world? During the 16 th century CE, the need for woollen clothes in Europe steeply rose. Multiple laws facilitated British landowners to barricade their farmland. They fenced great tracts of land as pastures for sheep. Manufacturers wove wool into garments. These clothes were sold in European countries. Landowners and those in the apparel industry grew wealthier. Many of them craved to grow even richer. Investing in colonies was a lucrative means to do so. The unequal distribution of wealth created a socio-economic divide. Some hardly had any money to invest. Humble farmers who down the generations had grazed their flocks on tiny land plots they had rented from rich landowners, lost their livelihood when fenced territories were created to raise sheep. Poor families were compelled to leave the countryside to look for employment opportunities in urban locales. Finding a job wasn’t easy. Many took to begging and crimes to survive. Reloca...

  These are 13 ways in which I think the English language will change in the future. 1.     We will speak faster. 2.     We will use shorter sentences. 3.     We will use smaller and simpler words. 4.     More colloquialisms and slangs will be used. 5.     British English will be mixed more with American English while writing especially when using technology. 6.       New words in science and technology will enter the English dictionary. 7.     New terminologies, upgraded terms and more politically correct words aiming to promote inclusiveness will enter feminism and the disability rights movement. 8.     The dictionary will be upgraded with new business and financial words. 9.     New words will be coined in fashion. 10. We will use fewer adjectives. 11. We will cut down on adverbs. 12. Texting lingo and abbreviations w...

  How are British and American English different? Many countries speak English in 2021. The language has imbibed the local flavours and quirks of the various nations that they are spoken in. This has given birth to myriad hybrids of the English language. The two main demarcations of the language are British and American English. British English American English British English is centuries older than American English. The British arrived at the New World in 1607 CE. Their foremost permanent residential colony was at Jamestown.   British like to retain more letters than Americans do while spelling words. ‘Colour’, ‘aeroplane’, ‘programme’, ‘behaviour’ and ‘humour’ are British spellings. Americans omit letters while spelling certain words. ‘Color’, ‘airplane’, ‘program’, ‘behavior’ and ‘humor’ are American spellings.   These are some British English spellings: ‘tyre’, ‘grey’, ‘...

  Modern English (with a focus on British English) At the culmination of the 1400 CE century, Chaucer died. His demise marked the transition from Middle to early Modern English. As the era of Middle English was waning, there was an unexpected and clear change in pronunciation described as the ‘the great vowel shift’. The vowels were pronounced more briefly as the years flew past. Striking features of 15 th century CE England were the growing popularity of London English, the invention of the printing press and the propagation of the advanced knowledge of the Renaissance. In 1476 CE, the world’s first English printing press was set up by William Caxton. As more books became available to the public, they became less expensive. That made it easier for more to learn reading. As printing standardised the English language, grammar and spelling rules came into being. London was the hub of most publishing houses. The city’s dialect became the correct style for entire England. In 1604...

Middle English The Normans from Normandy in northern France invaded England in 1066 CE. They took over the reign of Britain. They spoke French which became a language for the elite in England. They introduced new words like ‘cash’, ‘reward’, ‘age’, ‘damage’, ‘jury’, ‘justice’, ‘parliament’,  ‘prison’,  marriage’, etc to the English language.   The transition was gradually made to Middle English. Over time, the ruling Normans ceased to speak authentic French. Rather, their language became a Middle English and French hybrid.   The common folk of England however continued to converse in Old English for a while.   Though modern English and Middle English are similar to the human ear, the latter language may seem quite incomprehensible to us now. Many works from this era have been preserved today, the most renowned of which is ‘ The Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer, authored 600 years ago.     This literary text is a poetry collecti...

  The timeline of the English language TIME FRAME NAME 450 CE to 1099 CE Old English 1100 CE to approximately 1500 CE Middle English 1501 CE to …. Modern English   These dates may vary on different sources. #English, #language, #linguistics, #philology, #time, #history, #culture, #society, #OldEnglish, #MiddleEnglish, #ModernEnglish, #timeline, #England, #Britain, #dates https://pixabay.com/illustrations/vintage-book-illustration-literature-1721952/ : Picture courtesy: Image by  Prawny  from  Pixabay : This is an illustration from William Shakespeare’s play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. It was written in early Modern English.

  Old English 1500 years ago, in the 5 th century CE, a Germanic tribe, the Angles, traversed the North Sea to invade Britain. The earliest of these attacks was in 449 CE. Later, the Saxons and Jutes did the same. These tribes lived in what we now know as northern Germany and Denmark. The Germanic dialects of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes were the languages that gave birth to a new language in Britain, the English language. This language is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon. The erstwhile home of the Angles was called ‘ Englaland’. Their language was known as ‘Englisc’. The words ‘England’ and ‘English’ were formed from these old words. These invading tribes fought with the Celtic inhabitants of the country. Most of them were slaughtered or enslaved. Some were fortunate to have fled to the safety of Wales, Ireland and Scotland. In 2021, a speaker of English may find it almost impossible to comprehend Old English. Around 50% of the predominantly used words in contemporary English po...

  Pre-English Before we study the origin and evolution of the English language, let’s delve into the languages spoken in ancient Britain. Our focus needs to be on the years before 449 C.E., preceding the onslaught of the Germanic invaders. It was in 55 B.C.E that the Romans led by Julius Caesar marched into Britain. The mother tongue of the local inhabitants of the country was then Celtic. They were living there since 600 B.C.E. Roman rule officially began in the nation in 43 C.E. In 436 C.E., the Romans withdrew from Britain. The English language retains some Celtic words. E.g.: ‘Corgi’ that means ‘tiny dog’. The Latin influence on English is comparatively greater. Many English words have been derived from this classical language. #English, #language, #philology, #linguistics, #history, #culture, #society, #Germanic, #Britain, # JuliusCaesar, #Romans, #mothertongue, #Celtic, #Latin, #corgi, #dog, #classical, #ancient, #British https://pixabay.com/photos/spartan-army-su...