BY PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU
English is modern world language . It is used by not less than a
hundred countries for doing government work, commerce,banking,
education,scientific and technical research .
Let us study contribution of English to the world’s pool of
sublime knowledge. English is the mother togue of people of England . It was a
Germanic language and its grammar and sentence structure are
somewhat similar to German. Four centuries back English had old
archaic words and old spelling which cannot be understood now. In
those old days all government and diplomatic work,commercial and
banking work were conducted in Latin language .
Later many English writers developed English language for literary
work. The spellings were archaic. The language can be only half understood now.
Example –the works of Chaucer and Spencer.
In latter Middle Ages England was developing as a great military
and economic power. It controlled the seas. The economy greatly prospered and
schools were being established to spread knowledge to all sections of society.
From this time great efforts were made to standardize and simplify language ,to
develop standard vocavbulary and standardize spelling . During this early
period we have the great William Shakespeare the great dramatist who wrote
dramas with majestic philosophic and poetic content. He is still considered the
greatest author who wrote the most beautiful content. The dramas of
Shakespeare,Ben Johnson etc were written in good majestic English.
These writings helped inspire other English writers to aim at reforming the
language and popularizing the language
In this great movement Dr Samuel Johnson is one of the
central figures. In the London clubs,coffee houses and pubs great literary
figures often gathered. There were great essayists who followed Dr Johnson’s
example and also on their own wrote books in simple modern English. There were
all through great poets (like John Milton, William Wordsworth )who can be
counted among thw world’s best poets... Great and voluminous poetry started to
develop in the language.
in 19th and 20th centuries there
were great writers. There were great poets, philosophers and
essayists. In 18th century a new literary form,the
Novel,was born. The English novel can be called the most fertile literary form
in the world. There were dozens of great novelists
in three centuries and their output can be called one of the
gold mines of thought in human literature. The daily newspaper and novel became
respectively great vehicles of information and entertainment .
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