The Story of the English Language in
100 Words tells the story of the words believed to be the most crucial
to the language spoken today.
Author and linguistics expert David
Crystal chose each word because it tells us something about
how the English tongue developed into what it is today.
It
reveals that words like loaf, jail and ok have helped shape the way we
live, while muggles, chillaxing and LOL help shape today's language.
However, Mr Crystal explained that it is a personal list that is likely to differ to other people's.
The English language is spoken by 375 million people as their first language.
The book details the history of both ancient and modern words, including:
Roe - The first word (fifth century)
In
the summer of 1929 archaeologists began to excavate the area of the
Roman town of Venta Icenorum, about three miles south of Norwich.
During the excavation they discovered a linguistic prize.
Among
a pile of sheep knuckle bones was an ankle bone from a roe deer. And on
one side of the bone were carved six runic letters which when turned
into the Latin alphabet produced the word RAIHAN which means 'from a
roe'.
Given the period in
which the bone originated – fifth century but it could be as early as
around 400 – the word roe has to be a candidate for the first discovered
word to be written down in the English language.
Jail - Jail or gaol? Competing words (13th century)
After
the Norman invasion of 1066 we borrowed a large number of words from
French, most of which were taken just once, but on a few occasions a
word got used twice.
Several words had different forms which is why we now have both gaol and jail.
Jazz - (20th century)
In 1913 a San Francisco commentator described jazz as a 'futurist word which has just joined the language'.
But
he wasn’t referring to the musical sense but rather jazz as a slang
term for 'pep' or 'excitement'. It also meant 'excessive talk,
nonsense'. This general sense is still known in the expression 'and all
that jazz', meaning 'and stuff like that'.
The music sense is first recorded in the Chicago press in 1915 – and it quickly took off.
LOL - Webspeak (20th century)
When
LOL first appeared on computer and mobile phone screens, it caused not a
little confusion. Some people were using it to mean 'lots of love'.
Others interpreted it as 'laughing out loud'. It was an ambiguity that
couldn’t last.
Who knows
how many budding relationships foundered because recipients took the
abbreviation in the wrong way? Today it’s settled down.
Almost everyone uses LOL in its 'laughing' sense.
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