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1、English Development and Linguistic Imperialism A Historic Perspective【Abstract】Contact and assimilation of English with other languages play a very important role for English development and contribute much to its present status as an international language. Seen form a historic perspective， the dev
2、elopment history helps to result in linguistic imperialism of English and the potential loss of linguistic identity for many people in other cultures. 【Key words】language development； linguistic imperialism； linguistic identity 1. History of English languages development The history of English langu
3、age can be traced back to the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD. Angles， Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the present-day Denmark and northern Germany. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language that was quickly disp
4、laced. Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales， Cornwall and Scotland. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today. The Angles were named from Engle， their land of origin. Their language was called Englisc from
5、 which the word， English， derives. During the 7th and 8th Centuries， Northumbrias culture and language dominated Britain. The Viking invasions of the 9th Century brought this domination to an end （along with the destruction of Mercia）. By the 10th Century， the West Saxon dialect became the official
6、language of Britain. Written Old English is mainly known from this period. It was written in an alphabet called Runic， derived from the Scandinavian languages. The Latin Alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries. This has remained the writing system of English. In 1066 the Nor
7、mans conquered Britain. French became the language of the Norman aristocracy and added more vocabulary to English. More pairs of similar words between English and French arose. It wasnt till the 14th Century that English became dominant in Britain again. By the end of the 14th Century， the dialect o
8、f London had emerged as the standard dialect of what we now call Middle English. Modern English began around the 16th Century. Since the 16th Century， because of the contact that the British had with many peoples from around the world， and the Renaissance of Classical learning， many words have enter
9、ed the language either directly or indirectly. New words were created at an increasing rate. This process has grown exponentially in the modern era. Languages that have contributed words to English include Latin， Greek， French， German， Arabic， Hindi （from India） ， Italian， Malay， Dutch， Farsi （from
10、Iran and Afganistan） ， Nahuatl （the Aztec language） ， Sanskrit （from ancient India） ， Portuguese， Spanish， Tupi （from South America） and Ewe （from Africa）. The vocabulary of English becomes the largest of any language. Grafted onto this basic stock was a lot of contributions to produce English vocab
11、ulary. 2. English languages spread Language spread is a metaphor for the adoption of a given language by individuals. It can be defined as an increase， over time， in the proportion of a communication network that adopts a given language or language variety for a given communicative function. （Cooper
12、， 2012：6） A considerable number of factors are involved in any language spread situation. Lewis groups them into four sets （1982：215）： （1） Language attitudes， for example the strength of efforts to maintain a threatened language or to restrict the functions of an indigenous language； （2） The nature
13、of the between-group interaction， e.g. geographical contiguity， ease of communication， conquest， colonization， the nature of the relationship between the colonizing Centre and the Periphery； （3） Modernization， including the intensity of economic development， the degree of external exploitation of in
14、digenous resources， urbanization， demographical features such as the degree of education of mobile and stable population groups； （4） The political theories and religious and cultural characteristics associated with a language， especially the distance between the spreading language and other language
15、s in contact with it with respect to these theories and characteristics. Whereas in earlier historical periods， compared with other languages， the spread of English is unique， both in terms of its geographical reach and as regards the depth of its penetration. The contributing factors for its wide s
16、pread should be the contact of the English language speakers with other language speakers. During the process of establishing its own characteristics， English demonstrated great flexibilities to absorb new vocabulary from other languages during Britain colonization all over the world. British and American promotion of the English language， especially the promotion of the English language teaching worldwide also had contributed a lot to its wide spread. The spre
