This document provides questions and answers about the English language. It covers topics like dialects, accents, Standard English, the history of English from Old English to Middle English to modern English. It discusses how different groups have influenced English, including the Celts, Romans, Angles Saxons, Jutes, and Vikings. It also addresses why English has become a global language and how pidgins and creoles develop.

2. Meanings
History of
English
Regional
Variations
Making of
English
A World
Language
10 10 10 10 10
20 20 20 20 20
30 30 30 30 30
40 40 40 40 40
50 50 50 50 50

3. Question 1 - 10
• A particular form of a language peculiar to a
specific region or social group.

4. Answer 1 – 10
• What is a dialect?

5. Question 1 - 20
• A distinctive way of pronouncing a language,
especially one associated with a particular
country, area, or social class.

6. Answer 1 – 20
• What is an accent?

7. Question 1 - 30
• This English is the variety that is understood
by writers and speakers worldwide.

8. Answer 1 – 30
• What is Standard English?

9. Question 1 - 40
• The language or dialect spoken by the
ordinary people of a country or region.

10. Answer 1 – 40
• What is vernacular?

11. Question 1 - 50
• An indirect, less offensive way of saying
something that is considered unpleasant or
that people have trouble talking about openly.

12. Answer 1 – 50
• What is a euphemism?

13. Question 2 - 10
• It was in this year that Caxton introduced the
printing press to England.

14. Answer 2 – 10
• What is 1476?

15. Question 2 - 20
• The Great Vowel Shift occurred during this
period.

16. Answer 2 – 20
• What is Early Modern English?

17. Question 2 - 30
• This year began with Edward the Confessor on
the throne and ended with William the
Conqueror as King of England after he
defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.

18. Answer 2 – 30
• What is 1066?

19. Question 2 - 40
• The period in time from 1050-1450AD.

20. Answer 2 – 40
• What is Middle English?

21. Question 2 - 50
• Linguists have given this name to the period
500-1050AD.

22. Answer 2 – 50
• What is Old English?

23. Question 3 - 10
• This helps you identify where the speaker
comes from.

24. Answer 3 – 10
• What is an accent?

25. Question 3 - 20
• This example of language variety is apparent
when she says buttercup yellow, he says
yellow, she says mint green and he says green.

26. Answer 3 – 20
• What is gender difference in language
variation?

27. Question 3 - 30
• This example of language variety is influenced
by background.

28. Answer 3 – 30
• What is an ethnic group?

29. Question 3 - 40
• “You are welcome.” vs “Youse are welcome.”
and
• “We did everything required.” vs “We done
it.” explains another cause of language
variation.

30. Answer 3 – 40
• What is social class?

31. Question 3 - 50
• Language change can be broken into three
main schools of thought.

32. Answer 3 – 50
• What is The Damp Spoon, The Crumbling
Castle, and The Infectious Disease?

33. Question 4 - 10
• This tribe arrived in England about 600BC.

34. Answer 4 – 10
• What are the Celts?

35. Question 4 - 20
• The first invasion of Britain occurred around
43AD.

36. Answer 4 – 20
• What are the Romans?

37. Question 4 - 30
• Sailing across the North Sea to Britain, first
invited in 420AD later invading in 460AD.

38. Answer 4 – 30
• Who are the Angles, Saxons and Jutes?

39. Question 4 - 40
• This tribe, sailing from Denmark, invaded
Britain several times from 789AD to 878AD.

40. Answer 4 – 40
• Who are the Vikings?

41. Question 4 - 50
• During this period the English language
underwent some major shifts. The heavy
reliance of inflectional endings on words
disappeared to be replaced by the word order
we still .use today

42. Answer 4 – 50
• What is Middle English?

43. Question 5 - 10
• English has achieved this status as it has a
special role recognised in every country.

44. Answer 5 – 10
• What is a global language?

45. Question 5 - 20
• The settling of America and the enslaving of
black people from Africa to be transported to
Southern America and the Caribbean islands.

46. Answer 5 – 20
• What is one reason English became a global
language?

47. Question 5 - 30
• Britain led the Industrial Revolution and
English was the language used for new
inventions, trade and commerce. Adopters of
the new technology also adopted the new
terminology.

48. Answer 5 – 30
• What is a reason for English becoming a global
language?

49. Question 5 - 40
• There were a large number of languages with
each language often having a small number of
speakers, no written record of the words of
each of these languages and with colonisation
English became the one language used for
communication across Australia.

50. Answer 5 – 40
• What are the reasons for the loss of Aboriginal
languages?

51. Question 5 - 50
• Pidgin:
– is a mixture of local words,
borrowed words and words
from the colonising language,
– has a limited vocabulary,
– has a reduced grammatical
structure,
– uses repetitions like good-good
and talk-talk, and
– has a narrow range of functions
(why it came into being), e.g.:
able to communicate between
groups with different languages
• Creole:
– evolves from pidgin,
– expands at a greater rate,
– develops a complete
grammatical structure,
– is used in bilingual
education and literature,
and
– becomes the first /
mother language of the
children whose parents
spoke pidgin

52. Answer 5 – 50
• What are differences between pidgin and
creole?