Week 10 Lab: Language

I did not know what to expect from this video playlist, but I found the videos fascinating. I will highlight my favorite video below.

Fav Video: How did English Evolve?

Notes:

-400 CE: Britain inhabited by Celts, ruled by Roman Empire

-After fall of Roman Empire, Germanic tribes (Anglos, Saxons, etc) invaded Britain and took over

-Anglo-Saxon "Old English" became language of Britain

-Later, the Danes took over half of Britain

-Old Norse mixed with Old English over time

-1066 - Normans (French Vikings) attacked and took over Britain

-French became the language of Britain's aristocracy

-People who wanted to move up in class had to speak French-sounding words

-The connotations of these two word groups are still around today

I never took a European history class, so all the different groups (Saxons, Celts, Gauls, etc) that migrated and fought across what is now Western Europe are a haze to me. Probably because of that, the example given in this video really surprised me, although it does make sense now that I know the explanation. When given the sentence that used Saxon words, I pictured a bunch of rowdy football fans wearing jerseys and other casual clothes cheering on their team as they returned from a victory. When given the sentence with French-derived words, I pictured a royal court, a golf tournament, and a symphony audience. When I learned that these French-derived words were used by the ruling class while Saxon words were used by peasants, I was shocked that their connotations still carry on to this day in a completely different part of the world. My understanding of language is still influenced by the French aristocracy that ruled over England centuries ago. I don't like that - I do not want to place higher sophistication on words that the ruling class clearly wanted to use to show their dominance over "peasants;" however, I do not know if there is much I can do about that. This fact of language persistence makes it even more clear to me that systemic racism in all aspects of society can persist for the not even two hundred years it has been since slavery ended and the even smaller amount of time since segregation ended. Society's racist elements influence everyone's subconscious thinking (implicit association tests, etc) and I need to be cognizant of that.

(Image Info: Crown by Heralder, no changes; Source: Wikimedia; License: here)