Dr. Tra Bi of the English department at the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University in Abidjan says that education has nothing to do with age.
Making a specific reference to the English language which is considered as a global language; Dr. Tra Bi noted that the demand for English communication could not be over-emphasized.
“Please encourage your children, friends, and family members to develop the interest to learn English, because it’s one of the best languages and it’s global,” he adds.
“I am very happy today to come to Yopougon and serve as a guest speaker for a graduate program that has to do English communication, bravo for such great initiative.”
“Let me tell you that Yopougon is known for parties because this is what we see most of the time, but today the story is gradually changing.”
Dr. Tra Bi spoke at the second graduation ceremony of Gil’s English Training Program in
A brief history of English language
Well, the simple answer to that is that English is actually a conglomeration of multiple languages with influences from yet many others. This has led to the formation of a seemingly haphazard syntactic, grammatical, and phonetic medley of a language.
Anglo-Saxon Origins
So why is English so hard to learn? Well, to answer that question, we need to go back in time and take a tour through history. Although languages do not have a definable birthdate, linguists agree that English began its formation around the time that Germanic tribes known as the Angles and the Saxons invaded Britain in the early 5th century. Prior to that time, a variety of Celtic languages were spoken in Britain. However, the Western Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxon settlers overtook these languages.
Scandinavian Influences
The next stage of history we will visit is the 9th century when the Norsemen (medieval Norwegians) and their Northern Germanic language arrived in Britain. Hundreds of Norse words entered the Anglo-Saxon language including words like anger, birth, cake, dirt, gift, knife, leather, mistake, rotten, same, steak, take, though, they, until, want, wing, you, and they (to name a few). Interestingly, English words that begin with ‘SK’ are of Norse origin. These words include words such as skate, skid, skill, skin, skip, skirt, skull, and sky.
Then Came the French
The French, then known as Normans, conquered Britain in 1066 and remained the ruling class there until the 15th century. Four centuries of Norman rule in Britain led to the formation of what is referred to as Middle English.
About 10,000 Norman French words entered the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. These words are related to government, law, diplomacy, art, architecture, politics, and literature. Around a third of the current English, vocabulary derives from French.
Before English was English
Linguists estimate that by the end of the Norse and Norman invasions of Britain, over 80% of the Anglo-Saxon words that had overtaken Celtic as the language of Britain, had been replaced. Therefore, by this time, English had become a conglomerate of Anglo-Saxon West Germanic, Scandinavian Norse, and Norman French. Then, with the influence of the Renaissance in 14th–17th century Europe, many Latin and Greek words entered the English language.
Following Norman’s rule over Britain came the Middle English period, (15th to 17th century) when many changes occurred in the English language, which began to form the English we know today. The endings of Old English words were replaced by Middle English endings, such as the ‘s’ at the end of nouns to indicate plurality. Some of the changes were sound changes, which influenced pronunciation. The pronunciation of long vowels and some consonants changed, which became silent, such as the “k” in “knife”. This is one reason why the spelling of many words does not match how they sound.
English spelling once reflected the way words were pronounced! It just has not caught up with the changes that have occurred in the spoken language.
Throughout the Middle English period, English was a spoken dialect without a standard written code. Prior to this time, literature in Britain was written in Latin or French. However, in the 13th century, English literature was born. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the most famous publication of the time, which became the foundation of written Middle English – The Canterbury Tales.
In it, he included words from Old English which had fallen out of use at the time (such as ‘loving’ and ‘friendly’) and he also introduced around 2,000 new words (such as outrageous, horizon, and superstitious) which became part of the English language and are still used today. However, up until The Canterbury Tales, English did not yet have a codified written form. Therefore, there was no connection between spelling and pronunciation.
