The pedigree of English

English is an Indo-European language family. Indo-European language family is the largest language family in the world, including most languages in Europe, America and Asia. The total number of Indo-European speakers is about1875 million, accounting for about half of the world's total population. As early as 1786, william jones, a British Sanskrit scholar, pointed out that most languages in Europe, India and Persia, including ancient Greek, ancient Latin and ancient Indian, belong to the same "language family".

What were the primitive Indo-Europeans like? Where do they live? What is their language contest like? For these problems, we still lack literature research today. However, after a long period of research, linguists have come to an exploratory conclusion. They found that many languages belonging to the Indo-European family have words that mean "winter", "snow" and "cold", which shows that the original Indo-European language was originally used in areas with relatively cold climate. On the other hand, some tropical animal and plant names, such as lion, elephant, rice, bamboo and palm tree, do not exist in the original Indo-European language family. However, in Indo-European languages, there are similar words for the names of plants and animals, such as poplar, oak, willow, birch, bear, wolf, sheep, eagle and bee. Through such exploration and research, many people think that when mankind entered the Neolithic Age, there were already some nomadic tribes in Central and Eastern Europe. They raise sheep, dogs, cows, horses and other livestock, and use horses and simple carriages to gallop on the endless Yuan Ye. These nomadic tribes are primitive Indo-Europeans, and the language they communicate with is primitive Indo-European. Between about 3500 BC and 2500 BC, these primitive Indo-Europeans began to immigrate. Some migrated to the west, some to the east, and some to the south, reaching today's South Asian subcontinent. The migration of these tribes led to the gradual formation of Indo-European language family. This is the historical origin of the similarity between ancient Indian and ancient European.

Indo-European language family includes: (1) Indo-language family; (2) Iranian language family; (3) Slavic, (4) Baltic, (5) Germanic, (6) Latin (also called [Romance]), (7) Celtic, (8) Greek; (9) Albanian, (10) Armenian, (1 1) Tohoku; Tokharian) (12) Hittite. Germanic language family is a relatively large language family. It is further divided into three linguistic branches: (1) East Germanic language is mainly represented by the extinct Gothic language; (2) North Germanic language, mainly represented by old Scandinavian language, including Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish and Danish today; (3) West Germanic languages include low German, Dutch, high German, English, Frisian, Flemish, etc. Therefore, we say that English belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic family of Indo-European languages.

The formation of English

Britain faces France across the English Channel and Dover Strait in the south, and the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway across the North Sea in the east and southeast. It is only 30 kilometers wide from the Dover Strait, the narrowest channel on the European continent. The territory of Britain mainly includes the island of Great Britain and the northeast of Ireland. The island of Great Britain consists of three regions: England occupies the south and middle, Wales occupies the western mountain peninsula, and Scotland occupies the north; Britain is the most important. Great Britain is the largest island in Europe, and its coastline is very tortuous, reaching11450km. English is formed in such a geographical environment. In order to explain the origin of English, it is necessary for us to review the prehistory of Britain before the formation of English. The investigation of cultural relics proves that the nomadic tribes of ancient Indo-Europe had moved westward before the Paleolithic people lived in the British Isles today. At that time, the British Isles were connected with the European continent. Today, there is no English Channel and Dover Channel between Britain and France, and the Rhine and Thames are still connected by its tributaries. Today, Britain still belongs to the European continent. About nine thousand years ago; Due to the changes in the earth's crust, the islands of Great Britain were separated from the European continent. So it is not surprising that prehistoric Paleolithic people were able to settle in Britain. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874? /FONT & gt； 1965), in his book A History of English-speaking People, once described the Paleolithic people living in Britain as follows: Obviously, those men and women who were naked or wearing only skins were foraging in virgin forests or playing with water in swamps and grass beaches. As for the language they speak, there is no historical data. Around 3000 BC, Iberians came from the Mediterranean to settle in Britain. They brought the Neolithic culture to Britain and conquered the Paleolithic people who lived there before. From about 500 BC, the Celts; (Celtic) invaded and occupied the British Isles from the European continent. Celts first lived in today's southern Germany. They were the first people in Europe to learn to make and use iron and gold decorations. Before conquering Britain, they conquered today's France and Spain: Portugal, Italy and other regions; After coming to Britain, some Celts settled in today's Ireland and Scotland, while others occupied the south and east of today's England. Everywhere they go, they kill Iberians in cold blood. Celts speak Celtic. Gaelic people living in the mountains of northern and western Scotland still use this language today. Before the formation of English, Celtic was the only earliest motto with historical basis that could be found on the British Island. In the summer of 55 BC, Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire came to Britain after conquering Gaul. At that time, his purpose was not necessarily to conquer Britain, but to warn the Celts not to support those Celts who lived in Gao Zhan and were enslaved by the Romans. Caesar's trip to Britain did not bring any benefits to the Roman Empire, but reduced his prestige to some extent. The following year, in the summer of 54 BC, Julius Caesar visited England for the second time. This time, he established himself in the southeast of England and had some conflicts with the local Celts. Julius Caesar won, but he didn't let the Celtics give in. Soon, he returned to Gaul; In the next hundred years, the Roman Empire did not pose a great threat to Britain. The real "Roman conquest" in British history began in 43 AD. At that time, the Roman Emperor Keraudy led 40,000 troops, and it took three years to finally conquer the central and south-central parts of the British Island. Subsequently, the whole of England was firmly controlled by Rome. With the military occupation, Roman culture and style and habits penetrated into Britain. Roman clothing, decorations, pottery and glassware spread rapidly in Britain; The beginning of social life: "Romanization" will inevitably lead to the spread of Latin in Britain. In the eyes of the Romans who claimed to be the winners, the Celts were undoubtedly "low" and naturally the Celts could not be "elegant". At that time, in Britain, official language, legal language and business language were all Latin; Latin became the second language of the upper Celtics. This is the historical reason why Celtic words rarely survive. In today's English, Celtic vocabulary elements remain only in some place names and river names. Such as Thames, Kamm, Dee, Avon, esk, Exe, Stowe, Ayr, derwent, House, Severn, Dis, Trent and Wye. Are all rivers named by Celts? In Duncombe, Winchcombe, Homs, Cumberland, Qom and other places, we can also see the composition of the word cumb(= deep valley:: deep valley) in Celtic, while in Torcross, Torrington and other places, Celtic Tol (= high rock or peak; The composition of the word "high rock or mountain top" The names of the famous British cities Dover and York are also derived from Celtic. The Romans occupied Britain for 400 years until AD 407. Due to the diplomatic difficulties within the Roman Empire, the Romans had to start to leave Britain.

Around 449 AD, three Germanic tribes living in northwest Europe invaded Britain. They are angles, saxons and Jutes. They crossed the North Sea by boat and took advantage of the decline of the Roman Empire to "invade the British Isles in one fell swoop". They were stubbornly resisted by the Celtics, and the process of conquest was delayed for a century and a half: by the end of the sixth century, the original inhabitants of the island, the Celtics, were almost extinct in Great Britain, and the survivors either fled into the mountains or became slaves. This is the "Germanic conquest" in British history, also known as the "Teutonic conquest". This foreign invasion has played a key role in the formation of English.

The angles, saxons and Jutes belong to the ancient Germanic people. Sub-cities are located in Northern Europe, jutland, Danish Islands and the northwest German coast. During the Roman Empire, they were generally referred to as "barbarian tribes". They are engaged in animal husbandry and hunting, live a semi-nomadic life, and have long known about farming. Their land is the public property of the clan, and agricultural management is primitive and mobile. With the development of society, the clan commune gradually disintegrated, and clan nobles and military leaders appeared. Their wealth and power have increased dramatically in frequent looting. Military leaders are nominally elected by the people's assembly, but in fact they all come from the same family. Engels once called this clan and tribe management system military democracy; He wrote: "It is called military democracy, because war and the organization that started it have now become the normal functions of national life. The wealth of neighbors stimulated the greed of all ethnic groups. These ethnic groups regard the acquisition of wealth as one of the most important purposes in life. They are barbarians. In their view, plunder is easier and even more glorious than creative labor. Previous wars were just to retaliate against aggression, or to expand the collar that was already insufficient; In view of the fact that war is purely for plunder, war has become a conventional occupation. " These so-called barbarians played a very important role in destroying slavery in the Roman Empire at that time and promoting the birth of feudal system in Western Europe. After the conquest of Britain, the Angles mainly occupied the area north of the Humber River. The Saxons mainly occupied the area south of the Thames; Jutes are mainly entrenched in Kent and southern Hampshire); At the southeast end of England. The Isle of Wight, located in the south of England, near Portsmouth today, has formed many small countries. At the beginning of the 7th century, these small gardens merged into seven kingdoms: Saxons in the south, Wessex, Sussex and Essex; Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia, with Angles in the northeast and middle; Kent kingdom with Jutes in the southeast. Countries have been fighting for hegemony for 200 years; In British history, it was called "Anglo-Saxon Seven Powers System". Although these three Germanic tribes have their own dialects, they all belong to Low West Germanic. There are many similarities. So the three tribes are basically similar in language. They all use a language called Runic. This kind of writing is commonly used by ancient Germanic peoples. Its letters are mainly composed of straight lines, so they can be engraved on wood or stone. It is a Nordic script developed from ancient Greek and Latin. With the development of human society, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes have gradually formed a unified English nation, and their dialects have gradually merged, resulting in a new language-Anglo-Saxon. This is old English. It was formed through a series of national migration and conquest in a specific geographical and historical environment.

So how did the names Britain and England come from? It turns out that Celts used to call the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who conquered them Saxons. Early Latin scholars imitated Celtic customs and called these three Germanic tribes Saxons. And called on Britain to conquer Saxony. In the seventh century, the political and cultural influence of the kingdom of Semberia and Mercia rose sharply, but here? What's the matter with you? Are you kidding? ⊙д?S？ /FONT & gt； Li Ang and Angles refer to all three tribes and the territories they occupy in Britain. Subsequently, Li Ang and Anglia replaced Saxony and Saxony respectively in Latin works. In 700 A.D., all the people called the language spoken on the British island Englisc (the Angles always called it the language they used), and the three invading Germanic tribes were collectively called angel cynn(= the kin of the Angles, that is, the "family of the Angles"). In the year 1000, the whole country was called England. Due to the evolution of pronunciation and spelling within the language, English and England have become English and England today.

Tracing back to the historical development of English, we usually divide it into three periods: (1) Old English, from 450 years to 1 150 years; (2) Middle English, from 1 150 to1500; (3) Modern English, from 1500 to the present. For the convenience of research, we often put 1500? /FONT & gt； 1700 English is called "early modern English", and 1700 English is called "late modern English". Of course, this stage is not absolute, but it helps us to understand and study the whole process of English historical development.

On the Origin of Chinese

Fried

Zhang (1868- 1936, Taiyan) may be the first scholar who suggested that Chinese originated from direct onomatopoeia. In his book on the balance of national heritage? "The Origin of Language" advocates: "The language does not start in vain, call a horse a horse, call a cow a cow, and never call it anything" and finds many onomatopoeia words in Chinese as examples: "Why do you say' magpie'? Also called "namely foot" (according to "namely foot" as the arc tangent method to express sound); Why do you say' sparrow'? Call it' wrong'; Why did you say "crow"? Called "Ya Ya"; Why do you say' wild goose'? It is said that its sound "shore" is also ... "Now everyone agrees that there are many onomatopoeia in Chinese, and onomatopoeia is one of the theories of the origin of language, but onomatopoeia can only refer to something with sound, and its scope is limited. What do you mean by something that is not voiced?

It may be that Liang Qichao (1873- 1929) was the first to illustrate the phenomenon that Chinese words' sound is close to meaning'. 192 1 He wrote "Looking at the Source of China Characters from Pronunciation" ('Di' Liang Qichao's Collection of Drinking Rooms, No.36, page 37 1936), which listed many examples to illustrate "sound is close to meaning", such as "sound is"1936. "The 83 words mentioned above are all pronounced with the word' m', and their meanings can be summarized into two principles: first, objectively, it is difficult or impossible to see the subtle darkness of an object or material state; Second, there is a subjective observation state that is unknown in physiology or psychology. " Today, these are all examples of indirect onomatopoeic words (phonological synesthesia).

Chen Li (18 10 ~ 1882) was probably the first to put forward the idea of sound and image. He is studying as a secretary in Shu Dong? Elementary School (see Chen Li, Shu Dong Reading Secretary of Sanlian Bookstore, 1998) said: "If you build an image of the world, you will see it with intention, and you will have a voice if you want to achieve it. Meaning, like things and structures; People who speak are like people who announce their meaning. For example, the word' big' is big, the word' small' is small, the word' long' is long and the word' short' is short. For example, the word' sour' is like eating sour, the word' bitter' is like suffering, the word' pungent' is like suffering, the word' sweet' is like eating sweet, and the word' salty' is like eating salty. Obviously, these examples are far-fetched, somewhat similar to the hypothetical example of the origin theory of' Ding Dong' language in the West18th century: "Bye-bye is a gesture of waving goodbye with your lips and tongue respectively" (see Crystal, D. 1997, Cambridge Encyclopedia of Languages, P.29 1, Cambridge University Press, the second.

Zhao Weisen put forward that pictophonetic expression is the basic law of Chinese generation: "If pictographic expression is used as the basic generation mechanism of Chinese characters, then pictophonetic expression is used as the basic generation mechanism of Chinese." "Chinese onomatopoeic words can be divided into direct onomatopoeic words and indirect onomatopoeic words." There are three kinds of meanings expressed by direct onomatopoeic words: 1 "Language refers to various sound phenomena in nature and personnel circles", that is, "taking sound as sound", has produced a large number of onomatopoeic words. 2. "Language reference of human interjections". 3. "Language reference to things with sound attributes", "For example, the pronunciation of' fire' is like the sound of wildfire whistling" and "the pronunciation of gold is like the sound of knocking on metal". There are two kinds of indirect pictophonetic characters: 1. "Generally, the motion state of things is simulated by a specific mouth shape or the different motion modes of airflow in the mouth when pronouncing, so as to realize the reference to things." For example, "hitting" refers to a powerful action, so the pronunciation is harder and louder; The result of the action of' killing' is the separation of corpses, and the upper and lower teeth are separated from each other when pronouncing, and the mouth shape changes from small to large; The movement result of' ju' is from divergence to convergence, so it is symbolized by the pronunciation of the mouth ... "2. "Because pronunciation will cause changes in the movement of the mouth and facial muscles, the specific pronunciation methods are often accompanied by corresponding expressions; And the pronunciation is different, and the tone style is also very different. It is through the combination of specific pronunciation, expression and tone style that some abstract attributes and some immaterial phenomena of things are grasped and named by the expression method of pictophonetic characters. This is the most wonderful way to express meaning with pictophonetic characters in Chinese. If "sadness" is hidden in the depths of the soul, people with sadness will have a dull expression and frown. The sad voice comes from the depths of the larynx, and the expression is like a sad state when pronouncing. " "Le" means joy, its pronunciation is relaxed, and it shows a happy expression ... "(See Zhao Weisen's Basic Law of China Generations, Humanities, 200 1 1, No.94, Hongkong) The direct phonology is clear, and Saussure, the originator of arbitrariness, can't deny that the focus of China generation research should be. As the author said, "the most beautiful music is wonderful", this article provides an example for indirect iconology, which can be used as an artistic description (western linguists usually classify such symbols as rhetoric), but there are too many imaginative factors for the scientific exploration of the origin of language. For example, when the word "hatred" is pronounced, there is a sad state, so what should we do to explain the word "hatred"? There is hatred? How can the same pronunciation have different states?

Li Haixia: "Audio-visual is a new concept we use. Refers to the symbolic function of sound to meaning or the symbolic meaning of cloud sound. In a language, which sound (including phoneme, phoneme combination, monosyllabic and disyllabic) represents which meaning, often has some fixed collocation relations, which is sound and image. The sound and image come from the original words. When a word-maker combines a sound he thinks is "appropriate" with a meaning, the first sound image appears. But this time is personal and accidental. When the second person imitates this word to create a new word with relevant meaning, a conventional sound image is born. People consciously or unconsciously put relevant meanings under this sound or symbols similar to this sound. " Later, she did two naming experiments and made logical reasoning. "Since we admit that the pregnant word comes from the imitation of the mother word, can we admit that the original word also comes from some imitation?" People's understanding of objective things follows the path from known to unknown, except for creating original words: any combination of sound and meaning is meaningless. "(Li See Xia Hai, Study on Animal Nomenclature in China, p. 237, Bashu Publishing House, 2002).

Zhu Wenjun described in detail (without specifying the source and time) in his book "Thematic Studies in Anthropology": "Richard paget found a large number of so-called gesture symbols in Chinese, Polynesian and Semitic", "He thought these words reflected the ability of vocal organs to imitate the dynamics and contours of the outside world. Moreover, communication itself seems to originate from a system, in which the posture of the whole human body reflects the basic movements of primitive life, and the muscles of the vocal organs only miniaturize these postures. In other words, the pronunciation caused by muscle movement produces idealized words, such as' card' indicating that the contraction of the root of the tongue in the throat hinders the object "(see Zhu Wenjun's Research on Human Linguistics, page 39, Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2000). He went on to write: "Everyone has a desire to express, and the vocal organs of the human body, such as tongue, lips, teeth, palate, vocal cords and so on. , plays a key role in expression. Under the control of multi-sensory comprehensive sensory factors, they often imitate the shapes, features or sounds of natural things intentionally or unintentionally, and the sounds generated in this reproduction behavior will naturally have some connection with the imitated objects, which has certain symbolic significance. This sound is no longer arbitrary, just like writing symbols, it is stipulated by human beings. Nature, the sound associated with ideas, is a link in the human expression chain (natural objects-senses-comprehensive feelings-vocal organs-simulated sounds-natural object reproduction). " "About the symbolic meaning of Chinese vowels and consonants, please give an example: 1. When the volume is pronounced, those with backward tongue position, big mouth, strong airflow or sometimes accompanied by nasal * * * sounds, such as [a][o][u] vowels and their combinations "; "But if the tongue is in front, the mouth is narrow, the airflow is slender, and the body is small, such as [e][i] vowels and their combinations (according to the principle, [e] symbolizes that the volume is greater than [i])." "2. The naming of men and women depends not only on the word meaning, but also on the sound quality. If a man wants to be dignified, resolute and brave, he must choose a loud, vigorous and imposing voice, such as [a][o][u] and its combination sound, occasionally with a nasal sound "; "Daughter's home is exquisite, supple and pure. Therefore, it should be crisp, sweet and soft, with a small mouth when pronounced. [i][e] is mainly combined with other vowels or unvoiced consonants. " "3. Dynamic A. When erupting, the airflow is blocked by lips, tongue, teeth, gums and other organs, thus rushing out of the mouth. The resulting sound often symbolizes the sudden behavior of people related to air or liquid or the rapid movement of nature. ""B. When making a fricative sound, the outward airflow is blocked by the movement of the tongue and lip muscles, and it is squeezed or rubbed out from the narrow oral gap, so the generated fricative sound often symbolizes the movement of the squeezed object or the various situations in which the moving object (or human body) contacts the surface ". "C. Opening and closing ... Generally, the sound with a big mouth symbolizes expansion and the sound with a small mouth symbolizes contraction." "There are other types, such as tongue retraction, closed lips, blocked airflow, and nasal cavity being squeezed out, so the sound made is described as sulking." 4. Form A. The tongue roots of the hollow body gather together, the lips are closed first, the mouth is hollow, and the airflow is ejected from the nasal cavity and the mouth successively, so that the sound formed symbolizes some containers "; There are also some sounds produced by the tip of the tongue and the upper gums blocking the airflow and expelling it from the nasal cavity and mouth ... they also have the same symbolic meaning. "B. Up and down positions Some sounds symbolize the position of an object through the convergence and divergence of the tip of the tongue, the surface of the tongue or the root of the tongue". (For details, see Zhu Wenjun's Anthropological Linguistics Research, page 40, Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2000). The above two theories have similar meanings: the vocal organs imitate the shapes, features or sounds of natural things intentionally or unintentionally. The sound produced by imitation has some connection with the imitated object, and this connection is symbolic.

When explaining that pictophonetic characters "have both sound and image meanings, and are the etymology of pictophonetic characters", Jiang wrote: "The movement of human pronunciation robot officials is closely related to thoughts. Probably when the vocal organs move, there are at least two senses: one is touch, such as lip-to-lip contact, tongue-to-tooth contact and so on. The second is the sense of movement, such as the up and down of the tongue and the opening and closing of the mouth. The contact parts are wide and narrow, and the degree is wide and tight, so different tactile sensations are produced, and each tactile sensation is accompanied by a subtle emotion; Every sense of movement is accompanied by a subtle emotion. Both emotions express meaning directly. Because human beings imitate meaning with their mouths, pronunciation appears. The establishment of pronunciation, on the one hand, is conceptual, on the other hand, it deliberately uses the oral potential. When the concept words appeared, the accumulated experience and habits based on the construction of their working life made the quasi-potential movements of the tongue make appropriate gestures according to the type of labor to which the concept words belong. What concepts to express and what gestures to make; What sound will be made when there is any mouth gesture? The concept is close to the mouth and the sound is close to the mouth, so the sound is close to the meaning. Etymology or root is formed in the process of oral potential imitation. For example, when the lips cover their mouths, the qi will say something obscure and vague from the mouth potential of the nose, the mouth potential of the lips will say something touching and cooperating, the mouth potential of the lips will say something separating, the mouth potential of the tongue will say that if it strikes forward, the tongue will be squeezed up, and the mouth potential of the friction airflow will say something small and scattered, and the tongue will be pressed up and the qi will be close to the mouth potential of the nose. Then he analyzed the 83 words cited by Liang Qichao, and all of them took the pronunciation of the word' m' as an example (see Jiang's Composition and Nature of Chinese Characters, page 258, Cultural Reform Press, 1960).

Jiang (1898 ~ 1986) once served as the teaching assistant of Liang Qichao, the tutor of Tsinghua University Research Institute, and inherited and developed Liang Qichao's theoretical research on "sound approaching meaning". The composition and nature of Chinese characters was written in 1956, which may be the first person to clearly put forward that pronunciation originates from oral potential. Because his research focuses on philology and uses "oral onomatopoeia" to explain why sound roots are related to sound and meaning, he may not care about the discussion of indirect onomatopoeia in linguistics, nor can he be further related to the origin of language. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, I was fascinated by the "text reform", consulted and copied a lot of philology materials, and noticed this part. In recent years, many articles about the origin of language and the motivation of words have been published. The job that Mr. Jiang didn't seem to mention. I hereby recommend it.