Changes in the modern English language

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It’s an open secret that a language can’t remain unchangeable. These changes take place in its grammar, vocabulary, phonetics etc. In this topic we will examine changes in the modern English and describe them. So the first aspect of our examination is vocabulary. English has been enormously extended by each wave of invaders coming to Britain. Thus, for example, Viking and Norman invasions hugely enriched the basic Anglo-Saxon word stock. Scolarship then introduced many words of classical origin at the time of Renaissance. Moreover, English speakers’ contact with the world as, for example, explorers, pirates, imperialists, convicts or fortune-seekers have all had linguistic consequences. Of course there are different ways of enriching vocabulary of a language. One of them is borrowings. English has borrowed words from most of the other languages with which it has contact. As we have already mentioned it has taken many expressions from the ancient languages, Latin and Greek, and these borrowings often have academic and literary associations. From French, English has taken lots of words to do with cooking, the arts, and a more sophisticated lifestyle in general. From Italian come words connected with music and the plastic art. German expressions in English have been coined either by tourists bringing back words for new things they saw or by philosophers or historians describing German concepts or experiences. Words borrowed from other languages often relate to things which English speakers experienced from the firsst time abroad, e.g. from Japanese origami, bonsai, tycoon; from Arabic mattress, carafe, algebra; from Turkish yoghurt, kiosk, caftan etc. Another way to enrich vocabulary is to create your own new words and English is not an exception. New expressions and words are always created, sometimes just for fun or usually because something new

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