SATIRICON: janeiro 2010

Fernando Caetano

History of English Language

A language related to modern English has been spoken in Britain since the early fifth century. According to Bede, a monk from Jarrow writing in the late eighth century , they belonged to three tribes, Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The people are now generally referred to as Anglo-Saxons, but their language has always been called English. Eventually they conquered the whole of what is now England, and English replaced the Celtic Language, which was until then spoken by the mass of the population.

At the time of King Alfred, only the land south and west of this line remained in Anglo-Saxon hands. The Danish invasion and subsequent settlement had a considerable influence on the English language, and many words were borrowed into English, especially into the dialects of the north.

After the Norman conquest in 1066, French became he spoken language of the aristocracy in England , while latin was adopted as the main written language. English was still spoken by lower orders of society, but the old written tradition eventually collapsed, and few English written records survive for 200 years after about 1150. French remained in use for some 300 years, untill it was gradually replaced by English after the middle of the fourteenth century. The French influence can be seen in the language of Chaucer, who died in 1400.

Caxton introduced printing n England in the 1470s, and written texts became much more widely available than before. Printing was the catalyst for the major upheavals of the sixteenth century which were linked in various ways to the renaissance and the reformation.It is from about this time that scholars began to write in English instead of latin words were borrowed into English. English literature flourished at the end of the sixteenth century, the time of Shakespeare (1564-1616). The authorized version of the English Bible was published in 1611.

Modern Standard English can be traced to about the time of Chaucer, but was for along time variable in spelling, in the use of words, and in the details of English grammar.after the restoration of Charles II in 1660, there was considerable interest in fixing the language, and in 1712 Jonathan Swift proposed the setting up of an Academy to do this. By default, however, it was left to decide on what should be included in Standard English. Johnson`s dictionary of 1755 did much to standardize among the more influential being Lowth`s gammar of 1762.From the 1760s there was increasing interest in fixing a standard of English pronunciation, which resulted in a tradition of pronouncing dictionaries , of which the most influential was Walker´s dictionary of 1791. It was not untill the present century that a standard pronunciation was described in detail. This is Daniel Jones`s Received pronunciation, which was adopted by the BBC in the 1920s as a standard for broadcasting.

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree.

Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance languages (Latin based languages). This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility, resulting in an enormous and varied vocabulary.
The languages of Germanic tribes gave rise to the English language (the Angles, Saxons, Frisians, Jutes and perhaps even the Franks), who traded and fought with the Latin-speaking Roman Empire in the centuries-long process of the Germanic peoples' expansion into Western Europe. Many Latin words for common objects entered the vocabulary of these Germanic peoples before any of their tribes reached Britain; examples include camp, cheese, cook, fork, inch, kettle, kitchen, linen, mile, mill, mint (coin), noon, pillow, pin, pound, punt (boat), street and wall. The Romans also gave the English language words which they had themselves borrowed from other languages: anchor, butter, chest, devil, dish, sack and wine.

The original Celtic languages remained in parts of Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. The dialects spoken by the Anglo-Saxons formed what is now called Old English. Later, it was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Norse, spoken by the Vikings who invaded and settled mainly in the north-east of England (see Jórvík and Danelaw). The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distinct, including the prefix, suffix and inflection patterns for many words. The Germanic language of these Old English-speaking inhabitants was influenced by contact with Norse invaders, which might have been responsible for some of the morphological simplification of Old English, including the loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked case (with the notable exception of the pronouns). The most famous surviving work from the Old English period is a fragment of the epic poem "Beowulf" composed by an unknown poet; it is thought to have been substantially modified, probably by Christian clerics long after its composition.

The period when England was ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings, with the assistance of their clergy, was an era in which the Old English language was not only alive, but thriving. Since it was used for legal, political, religious and other intellectual purposes, Old English is thought to have coined new words from native Anglo-Saxon roots, rather than to have "borrowed" foreign words. (This point is made in a standard text, The History of the English Language, by Baugh).

The introduction of Christianity added another wave of Latin and some Greek words. The Old English period formally ended with the Norman conquest, when the language was influenced to an even greater extent by the Norman-speaking Normans. The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development. According to Lois Fundis [2], "The first citation for the second definition of 'Anglo-Saxon', referring to early English language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of Elizabeth I, from a historian named Camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well-known in modern times".

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

For about 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and their high nobility spoke only one of the langues d'oïl called Anglo-Norman, which was a variety of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period and originating from a northern dialect of Old French, whilst English continued to be the language of the common people. Middle English was heavily influenced by both Anglo-Norman and, later, Anglo-French (see Anglo-Norman language, Characteristics). Even after the decline of Norman, French retained the status of a formal or prestige language and had (with Norman) a significant influence on the language, which is visible in Modern English today (see English language, Word Origins and List of English words of French origin). A tendency for Norman-derived words to have more formal connotations has continued to the present day; most modern English speakers would consider a "cordial reception" (from French) to be more formal than a "hearty welcome" (Germanic). Another example is the very unusual construction of the words for animals being separate from the words for their food products e.g. beef and pork (from the Norman bœuf and porc) being the products of the Germanically named animals 'cow' and 'pig'.

While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continued until 1154, most other literature from this period was in Old Norman or Latin. A large number of Norman words were taken into Old English, with many doubling for Old English words. The Norman influence is the hallmark of the linguistic shifts in English over the period of time following the invasion, producing what is now referred to as Middle English. English was also influenced by the Celtic languages it was displacing, most notably with the introduction of the continuous aspect, a feature found in many modern languages, but developed earlier and more thoroughly in English.[3][4] English spelling was also influenced by Norman in this period, with the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds being spelled th rather than with the Old English letters þ (thorn) and ð (eth), which did not exist in Norman. The most famous writer from the Middle English period was Geoffrey Chaucer and of his works, The Canterbury Tales is the best known.

English literature started to reappear around 1200, when a changing political climate and the decline in Anglo-Norman made it more respectable. The Provisions of Oxford, released in 1258, were the first English government document to be published in the English language since the Conquest.[5] Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in English when he did so in 1362.[6] By the end of that century, even the royal court had switched to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it had ceased to be a living language.

By the time of William Shakespeare (mid-late 16th century), the language had become clearly recognizable as Modern English. English has continuously adopted foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek, since the Renaissance. (In the 17th century, Latin words were often used with the original inflections, but these eventually disappeared). As there are many words from different languages and English spelling is variable, the risk of mispronunciation is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, most notably in the West Country.

The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published. In 1755, Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary, his Dictionary of the English Language.

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

The History of Portuguese language

Following the Roman conquest of the peninsula in 218 BC, Latin was adopted as the primary language. From then until the ninth century, all spoke either Latin or "Romance", an intermediate linguistic stage between vulgar or common Latin and the modern Latin (Romance) languages.

Arriving on the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC, the ancient Romans brought with them Latin, from which all Romance languages descend. The language was spread by arriving Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants, who built Roman cities mostly near the settlements of previous civilizations. Later, the inhabitants of the cities of Lusitania and rest of Romanized Iberia were recognized as citizens of Rome.

Between 409 A.D. and 711, as the Roman Empire was collapsing, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by peoples of Germanic origin, known by the Romans as Barbarians. The Barbarians (mainly Suevi and Visigoths) largely absorbed the Roman culture and language of the peninsula; however, since the Roman schools and administration were closed and Europe entered the Dark Ages, the Latin Vulgar language was left free to evolve on its own and the uniformity of the Peninsula was soon disrupted. As a result of Germanic invasions, the language adopted many new words such as roubar (to steal), guerrear (to war) and branco (white).

Vulgar Latin gained some local characteristics and in that region the Suevi settled, leading to the formation of the "Lusitanian Romance Language". The Germanic languages influenced Portuguese in words linked to the military, such as guerra ("war") or laverca (lark).

Arabic became the official language when the Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula in about 711 the Moorish invasion of the Peninsula, Arabic was adopted as the administrative language in the conquered regions. However, the population continued to speak their Romance dialects, known collectively as Mozarabic; so that when the Moors were overthrown, the influence that they had exerted on the language was small. Its main effect was in the lexicon: modern Portuguese still has a large number of words of Arabic origin, about 900, especially relating to food, agriculture and crafts, which have

The period between the 9th and 11th centuries, when Portuguese first appeared in written documents, was a period of linguistic transition. A few Portuguese words appear in local Latin texts, but Galician-Portuguese (the forerunner of modern Portuguese) was only spoken in Lusitania.

Between the 14th and 16th centuries, as Portugal established overseas colonies, the Portuguese language extended to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Under regional influences, it adopted such words as jangada (raft) [Malay] and chá (tea) [Chinese].
Portuguese entered its modern phase in the 16th century when printed grammar books first defined Portuguese morphology and syntax. When Luis de Camões wrote Os Lusíadas in 1572, the language was already nearing its current structure. Since then, linguistic changes have been relatively minor.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Portuguese absorbed new words of Greco-Latin origin reflecting technological advances including such words as automóvel (automobile), rádio (radio) and televisão (television). This was followed by technical English words such as checkup and software.

Bibliographical references
KNOWLES,Gerry. A Cultural history of the English Language. Arnold,London, 1997.

O artista costa-riquenho Habacuc Guillermo Vargas, antes anônimo para a comunidade internacional, virou manchetes em jornais pelo mundo. O motivo foi sua forma questionável de se expressar. Em agosto de 2007, na "Exposição nº1" em Manágua, na Nicarágua, Habacuc amarrou um cão faminto e doente como personagem principal de sua obra, o animal acabou morrendo de inanição.

Segundo Habacuc a ideia era fazer uma homenagem a Natividad Canda, um nicaraguense que morreu depois de ter sido atacado por um rotweiller. Mas confessou depois que o que queria mesmo era prostestar contra a hipocrisia humana. "O importante para mim é constatar a hipocrisia alheia: um animal torna-se o centro das atenções quando o ponho num local onde toda a gente espera ver arte, mas deixa de o ser quando está na rua" justicou o suposto artista incompreendido a um jornal local de seu país.

Defensores dos direitos dos animais querem a cabeça de Habacuc e se juntaram numa petição online (http://www.petitiononline.com/13031953/petition.html) para que o mesmo fosse excluído da Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008, exatamente 2755438 assinaturas foram coletadas repudiando o trabalho de Vargas.

As supostas obras de Habacuc tem causado uma certa inquietação mesmo para quem aprecia sua suposta arte.Em setembro de 2009 em Milão na Itália, ele preparou secretamente comida com suor de imigrantes e depois serviu o banquete as pessoas presentes, depois da refeição, revelou a seus convidados como fez a comida, mostrando este video:

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Outros artistas também tem causado polêmicas com ideias nada convencionais de arte, Gregor Schneider um artista plástico alemão que o diga, ele está procurando um paciente terminal para participar de uma instalação na qual o doente morreria na galeria de arte. O doente passaria suas últimas horas de vida em uma galeria, no centro de uma instalação aberta ao público em um espaço fechado com acesso controlado.