From Olde to New: The Evolution of English

I recently came across an Internet meme showing how English has changed over the last thousand years through the prism of a Bible verse:

30 seconds’ research enabled me to establish that – as often with Internet memes – it is not entirely accurate; the King James Bible verse provided here is apparently from the 1769 version and not from 1611, which explains why it is much closer to modern English. The blogger who debunks this meme, Don Lowe, also points out that some of the changes may not reflect changes in spoken English (just change in spelling) while others might simply be due to stylistic choices made by the translator. However, the scope of change between old English and modern English is still quite striking, and I am fairly sure that Lowe is not claiming otherwise.

Over the last millennium, the transformation from Old English to Modern English has involved the simplification of grammatical structures, changes in word forms and syntax, and the adoption of new words. Below I have underlined a few words from this Bible passage that nicely illustrate some of these evolutions:

In the first line of the verse, "drihten" (meaning "God") is a loan word from Old Frisian, which was spoken by the Angles (where the “Anglo” in Anglo-Saxon comes from), who invaded Britain in the fifth century CE. From the Middle Ages onward, the English started using word "lord," a contraction of hlāford (another loan word from Old English) which evolved from hlāfweard, meaning literally “the one who guards the bread.” This change — probably in part due to the linguistic and cultural influence of Viking and Norman invasions — shows how certain words can fall out of fashion due to the effect of social and political change.

There are also two other examples that more straightforwardly reflect the linguistic impact of the Norman Conquest in 1066. The Normans became the ruling class in England, and their language greatly influenced English, especially in legal, administrative, and ecclesiastical contexts, which explains the shift from “raet” (“guides” or “advises”) to “gouerneth” (which can be recognised as being an earlier form of “govern”) and “feohland” to “pastur” and then “pasture” — both later words were borrowed directly from old French.

Successive waves of invasions and immigration have greatly enriched our language with, in some cases, English retaining both the Anglo-Saxon and Latin forms of words. A good example of this is the word “moon,” which is of Anglo-Saxon/Germanic origin but whose adjectival form is “lunar” from the old French “lunaire.”

The words “godes” (goods) and “wan” (want), on the other hand, have changed very little in terms of meaning and spelling, confirming Churchill’s belief that shorter words are “usually the more ancient [and] their meaning is more ingrained in the national character.”

From the 15th century onward, the endings of third person singular present tense verbs changed with “-s” gradually replacing “-eth”, as seen in words like “maketh” and “leadeth.” This shift, where a southern practice was usurped by a northern practice, was part of a broader process of grammatical simplification, during which many verb inflections disappeared. Shakespeare, originally from Stratford-upon-Avon in the Midlands, actually used both forms, reflecting the transitional nature of the language at that time. The introduction of the printing press and dictionaries helped to consolidate this change, although the process of standardisation likely took a long time to complete.

The aforementioned King James Bible, first published in 1611, also had a lasting impact on the language. The replacement of  “gouerneth” with the metaphorical circumlocution "is my shepherd" reflects a typical stylistic choice made by King James's translators. Still today, its distinctive prose embodies what many people would consider a lofty oratory style, inspiring great speakers like Martin Luther King, and there are hundreds of expressions from this translation that have entered the popular vernacular.

In the last few centuries, English has continued to evolve due to the influence of science, technology, globalisation, and cultural exchanges. This has led to Modern English in its current form having a vastly expanded vocabulary compared to its earlier forms.

More recently, neologisms like “to hoover” or “to google” have emerged from the technological revolution, and this seems only to be accelerating thanks to social media, internet culture and more widespread international communication.

While “dunno” (don’t know) and “wanna” (want to) are currently seen as informal contractions, their widespread use and acceptance in spoken language suggest that they could eventually become part of an official “contemporary” English. The process would involve gradual acceptance, first in semi-formal contexts, and eventually, they might be recognised in formal writing and speech.

These types of changes, as well as the continued influence of globalisation and semantic shifts would probably mean that an English-speaking time traveller from 2500 would be very hard for us to understand.

Can you think of any other changes based on current trends in spoken English or slang that you expect to establish themselves in the coming years?