Chapter 17 Part Three: Our Golden Key English Mystery

The Mystery of English english puzzle Girls' Generation, I think English is really like a mystery, I always want to know how it was formed, what is it in the beginning?Why is this language spoken by so many people around the world?White people, yellow people, black people... no matter where you are, no matter where you are, as long as you can speak English, you can find your friends.English has been the most widely disseminated, along with its culture.I once said to my friend Z that to learn English, you must first be interested in it. A person will always do well in the things he is interested in, but it is difficult to do well in the things he is not interested in.As long as you take learning English as an interesting thing instead of a heavy burden, you will make progress quickly.

I have always been interested in English. After studying for a few years, I read some books related to language history for a while. I think that since I want to learn a foreign language, I must and should know its history. Maybe this will help We understand and use this language. Flipping through the thick "History of English Language" (The History of English Language), I felt fascinated.It is written in the book that in ancient times, language was closely related to the formation of clans and tribes, and it was also inextricably linked to the invasion of foreign nations.Britain is an island country surrounded by the sea, and its own civilization develops very slowly, but the invasion of foreign nations has accelerated its progress.In the history of Britain, the Celts (Celts) immigrated first, bringing Celtic culture and language.Some place names in Britain now come from the ancient Celtic language, such as:

London (London) Dover Thames (River Thames) Avon (Avon River) Wye (Wye River) There are also some place names that come from Latin (Latin), such as: Manchester Lancaster There are port (port), mount (mountain, hill), also from Latin. There are also many words in English that were brought from the European continent by the ancient Germans who invaded Britain. These words are often used by us, and they are all derived from Latin, such as: bishop (bishop) cherry (cherry) cheese butter (butter, butter) cup (cup, trophy) dish (dish, satellite dish) kitchen (kitchen, cooking utensils)

mile (mile) pen (pen, fence) pipe (pipe, pipe) pound (pound, pound) street wall (wall) wine In ancient times, Britain was invaded by the ancient Romans many times. The famous Julius Caesar recorded his two battles against Britain in his Gallic Wars. .In addition, the ancient nations and tribes that invaded the British Isles include Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Danes, although most of these tribes are ancient Germanic peoples (Germans), but they have different historical and cultural backgrounds, and they also speak various tribal languages, or mixed dialects.The Normans who occupied Normandy, France, later invaded Britain, forcing the local British to become their subjects, and the French they spoke once became the language of the court and the nobility.Therefore, tracing the origin of English and its cultural origin can be said to come from various sources, especially vocabulary, which can almost be said to be the integration of a large number of foreign words.For example, there are many words in English that are exactly the same as modern German words. Some linguists believe that English actually originated from a branch of ancient Germanic languages.For example, the word England comes from Angle-land, which refers to the kingdom established by the ancient Angles in Britain.What's more interesting is that because many ethnic groups have left their own imprints in English, there are two or three words or more to express the same thing in English, for example:

pig, hog, sow, swine horse, mare, filly, colt, pony, steed (horse) cattle, ox, bull, cow, calf, buffalo sheep, goat, antelope (sheep) Religion has also had a huge impact on English. After the introduction of early Christianity to England, it had a huge impact on the Anglo-Saxon culture that was dominant in Britain at that time. Christianity brought a large number of church Latin words to the English language. into English, such as: candle grammatical hymn (hymn, hymn) martyr (martyr, martyr) mass (quality, mass) master (master, master, master, master) meter (meter, meter)

nun (nun, nun) Pope (Pope, Bishop) priest school (school, college, teaching) shrine (shrine, shrine, holy place) temple (temple, monastery, house of worship) verse (verse, verse, psalm) In addition, there are some words that come from the language of the Scandinavians who invaded Britain in the 9th century AD, and these are also our common words, such as: are (is, in) band (band, band) both (both, both sides) die (death, disappear, extinguish) egg (egg, egg) fellow (guy, friend) get (obtain, become) give (give, grant, donate) husband (husband) law (law, lawsuit)

root (root, root) sister (sister) sky (sky, sky) take (take, take) they (they, them) their (theirs, theirs, theirs) them (they, them, them) window (window, window) These words have had a great impact on the grammatical structure of English.Interestingly, some foreign words, including the French spoken by the Normans who later invaded Britain, did not cover the original local language, but coexisted with it and are used today.for example: ill - sick (sick, sick) nay - no (no, no) raise - rear (raise, raise) skill - craft (skill, craft) skin - hide (skin) In this group of words, the first column is a foreign language, and the latter column is a local language that already existed at that time.

It can also be seen from the above description that most of the foreign words absorbed by English are relatively concise, easy to learn and remember, and are closely related to people's daily life. The absorption of these words made many complicated and cumbersome local words lose their survival The necessity, then gradually disappeared, and the popularity of simple and easy-to-learn new words must have played a considerable role in enriching the cultural life of Britain at that time. After a large number of foreign words have been absorbed by English, they have gone through a long period of evolution, and some of them have been reorganized with other nationalities' vocabulary, adding different affixes and roots, and more changes have taken place. Vocabulary has been greatly expanded.Some scholars believe that even the most comprehensive English dictionary (unabridged dictionary) cannot include all English words, because English vocabulary is too rich.

It is said that the earliest English alphabet appeared in the fifth century AD, and after two or three hundred years of development, ancient heroic epics appeared, which were passed down orally among the people, among which the famous Beowulf ("Beowulf") was handed down. O'Wulf").In fact, this story was brought by the ancient Germans from the European continent. It tells the legendary story of a national hero of the Gaut tribe in southern Sweden who subdued demons for the people.It was not until the seventh and eighth centuries AD that people recorded this story in Old English, making it the earliest classic in British history.It can be seen from this story that the development of English was really influenced by many foreign nations, so that some scholars believe that English evolved from a Teutonic language of ancient Germanic language. It really makes sense.

The development of English from Old English to Modern English is mainly due to the Renaissance.The famous English writer Jeffrey Chaucer (Jeffrey Chaucer) created the immortal work Canterbury Tales ("Canterbury Tales") in the history of English literature under the influence of Italian humanism at that time.After him, William Shakespeare (William Shakespeare) became a great literary master.Shakespeare's plays have greatly enhanced the status of English literature in the history of world literature, and their contribution to English itself is universally recognized. If the Renaissance is a rare opportunity for the development of English modernization, then another opportunity for its development is the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century.The industrial revolution not only brought economic and technological development and progress, but also stimulated social turmoil and change. New words emerged in an endless stream like new discoveries, new inventions and new ways of life, derived from the word Darwin. The words that come out are:

Darwinian (of Darwin) Darwinism Darwinist (evolutionist, Darwinist, Darwinian) Neo-Darwinism (New Darwinism) Colonial expansion and two world wars turned the glorious "sun never sets" empire from prosperity to decline, but English has expanded to the whole world.However, it is no longer the empire on which the sun never sets, but America on the other side of the Atlantic, which is the "big mac" of this language.With the rapid development of the new technological revolution after the war, especially the popularization and rapid development of computers and the Internet since the end of the last century, English has deservedly become the language of the world.Some linguists say that there are about 1.5 billion people in the world who use English, which does not include the hundreds of millions of teenagers and adults who are learning English in China. Simply learning a piece of English history, it is not difficult to see that the formation and development of the language has its profound cultural and historical background, therefore, the language is deeply imprinted by the culture and the contemporary.I have always believed that in order to really learn a language well, we must deeply understand it from the cultural and historical background of the language, get familiar with it, and lay a foundation for the final use of it.On the cultural level, language is the symbol of culture.Language can give a glimpse of a nation’s cultural heritage and its historical origins, and it can also be used to figure out a nation’s cultural endowments, such as ways of thinking, philosophical concepts, and the cultural literacy of the public.English is a language formed under the influence of foreign cultures. It absorbs many advantages of foreign languages ​​and cultures and continuously refines them in its own development. Therefore, it has become one of the excellent languages ​​in the world. For example, compared with English and German, English nouns have no gender distinction, while German nouns have masculine, neuter and feminine distinctions; also, the changes of English nouns in singular and plural are relatively simple, and a large part The plural endings of German nouns have to be memorized separately; there are no case inflections in English, which saves the complicated conjugations and declensions of verbs and adjectives.For another example, English personal titles do not have honorific titles or modest titles. You can be translated as you or you; the listener judges whether it is a title of respect according to the context, the occasion of the speech, and the tone of the speaker, while in German there is Du (you) and Sie (you).The English subject, predicate and object are simple in structure and clear in meaning, making the language concise and clear. Many expressions are similar to Chinese, or have similar styles, such as: Brevity is the soul of wit. Simplicity is the soul of wisdom. What you see is what you get. What you see is what you get. Rest is a good thing, but boredom is its brother. Rest is a good thing, but boredom is its brother. On earth there is nothing great but man; in the man there is nothing great but mind. The only great thing on earth is man, and the only great thing in man is his mind. Every man is a poet when he is in love. Everyone in love is a poet. I am learning all the time, the tombstone will be my diploma. I have been studying all my life, and the tombstone is my diploma. The eclectic nature of English also makes it easy to create new vocabulary to adapt to the new era.In today's Internet age, there are so many new words and phrases in English that it is dizzying.for example: biometric card Karoshi (Karoshi) mouse potato (referring to a person who sits in front of a computer for a long time) OED Online (Oxford English Dictionary Online Online Oxford English Dictionary) Shopaholic Tellyholic (TV fan) For example, I recently saw from the Internet that the latest OED has included the following new words: The new words added to the OED Online come from all areas of the English language. Home cinema, homeshopping, and homeshopper have been added…High street as an adjective meaning “popular, mainstream” has also made it into the OED Online. Feeding frenzy , herbal medicine, haircare, and vital force are all included in the latest update. Comper, a person who habitually enters competitions in order to win as many prizes as possible and comping, the practice of entering numerous competitions in order to win as many prizes As possible, there are two other new entries. From the above passage, I found that new English words are emerging in an endless stream, and they are always closely related to people's daily life. For example, home cinema (home theater) is no longer a luxury, and homeshopping (shopping at home) is also very common, high street looks like a phrase, but here it becomes an adjective, meaning "popular, mainstream". Feeding frenzy is an online game that can be played by two or eight players, where you feed hungry dwarfs desperately or they will starve to death.There are also herbal medicine (herbal medicine), haircare (hair care), vital force (vital force)... However, this is the first time I have seen the word comper, it refers to those who especially like to participate in competitions and competitions, and hang up medals People with chests, I think they should be called race fans. Speaking of contest fans, I am reminded of the suffix -holic, which can form many new words: HOLIC is a fun suffix, because you can make up examples for yourself; if you drink lots of coffee, you could call yourself a Coffeeholic; if you see too many films, then Movieholic; ; and so on. See if you can think of some more to describe yourself and your friends. When learning English, I pay attention to the suffixes of some words. Familiarity with commonly used suffixes can effectively expand the vocabulary. holic is a very useful suffix. For example, a person who likes to drink a lot of coffee can be called a coffee worm; a person who must go to the theater every time a new movie is released is a movie fan; if someone is buried in reading all day, he is a bookworm, etc. .Sometimes when I see people whose hair is dyed blonde, fiery red, bright green, or blue, I really want to call them a fashionaholic. Many new words are closely related to people's daily life, or in other words, new words invented by people in real life will soon appear in the latest dictionaries and become popular words. With the spread of English, for example, there is a article said, It's thought that people like to get out of their formal work clothes, and so an American concept that is becoming popular in Britain is that of dress down Fridays or casual Fridays when employees are supposed to go to work in informal clothes! Nowadays, some people don't like to wear a neat suit or professional attire after get off work. They like to dress casually, like looser casual clothes, so as to relax their tense nerves and restore their physical strength.But what would it be like if everyone wore casual clothes to work on a Friday?I can't imagine it.But a dress concept in the United States is also popular in the UK now, Friday without a suit, or casual Friday.Ah, leisure office, and leisure... what... Perhaps the word that typifies many people's attitude to business is fat cats — people who run companies and who earn enormous amounts of money. If fat cats lose their jobs, they often get even larger amounts of money in compensation, which they puserocket or tro; this is sometimes called a golden farewell, to distinguish it from the golden handshake they probably got when they were offered the job in the first place. The word "fat cats" doesn't sound very nice, at least it's indecent. When it appeared in English as a new word, it refers to people who run companies and earn a lot of money.The difference between them and ordinary employees is that when ordinary employees are fired, they can only get a dismissal notice, but when fat cats are fired, they often get a large sum of money as compensation, stuffing their pockets bulging , Because they are hired with high salaries, they have to be fired with a lot of money. In this way, it is also very vivid to call them fat cats. Almost all new Internet terms in Chinese come from English, and there are many English new words that appeared in Europe and the United States not long ago, and soon entered our lives and became part of our language.Our life is changing, our language is also changing, life changes language, language leads the trend of life, and at the same time changes us.English vocabulary has greatly enriched the Chinese lexicon. With these, we will not be stunned and at a loss in this world where new things appear every day. English is like a big ship, full of rich vocabulary, sailing on the blue sea of ​​the world, through which people spread knowledge and friendship, as well as peace and hope...