English used to look like this!
The English language has a very long and confusing history. Before English was spoken in England, there were many different languages of the people living there. Eventually, around 450 A.D., Germanic people came to England and the language of Old English was created. Old English is very different from English today- American and British people can't read it! Look at this example:
This is from a famous poem called Beowulf, which was written around 900 A.D. The time of Old English ended around 1066 A.D., when the Normans came to England. The Normans were a French speaking people, and there is an area of France called Normandy where they are from. This is what started Middle English, which started to add many French and Latin words, and the grammar became simpler. Here's an example of Middle English:
Hwæt! Wē Gār-Dena in geārdagum, þēodcyninga, þrym gefrūnon, hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scēfing sceaþena þrēatum, monegum mǣgþum, meodosetla oftēah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ǣrest wearð fēasceaft funden, hē þæs frōfre gebād, wēox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þāh, oðþæt him ǣghwylc þāra ymbsittendra ofer hronrāde hȳran scolde, gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs gōd cyning!
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open yë
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
That is from The Canterbury Tales, written in the 1300s, A.D., by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is a very famous book. I can understand most of it, but the spelling is very different. Some of the words are very close to German and Dutch words, too. Middle English ended in the 1400s, when Modern English was created. Printing and adding lots of words from other languages helped create Modern English. Shakespeare was one of the first famous writers of Modern English, and English speakers today can understand his work.
Even though English got many of its words from Germanic languages, French, and Latin, it has also received many words from Arabic. The Arab world has a long history with Europe, so many words were shared. Look at this list of Arabic words that came to English:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arabic_loanwords_in_English
Notice that some of the sounds or spellings seem different. This happens a lot when words are shared between languages.
Choose 3 words from the list that are interesting to you, and tell me why you think they are interesting. Then, make a new English word using an Arabic word, and give the definition. Be creative!
