Hey guys!!
Sometimes, to understand a
language, you have to know about its history and how it was created and
developed throughout time and here we have a brief story about it. And off we
go!!
More than 500 years ago,
English wasn’t spoken in North America. American Indians had their own
language, such as the Inuit (Eskimo), the Aleuts in Canada, and the Aborigines
in Australia and the Maoris en New Zealand.
The English people arrived
and established their settlement, right after that, other peoples came with their
habits, their idioms and their different cultures.
The United States of
America has the biggest mixture of cultures in the world, it’s called “Melting
Pot”, a well-known American expression.
At the beginning of the
colonization there were English, Irish, French, German and Scandinavian. Afterwards,
Italian, Jew, Chinese, Japanese and Russian arrived.
The reasons which brought the newcomers to North America were: hard economic condition in their origin countries, the Gold Rush and later, Religious Persecution, what is the case of the Jew people who left Russia and other countries between 1880 and 1910.
And the most recent American citizens are from
Spanish language, they come from México and other countries from Central and
South America.
The Modern English language
results from a great mixture of these peoples. Check out, for instance, where
some words below come from:
Exit, Circus, Video - Latin
Psychology, Telephone, Cinema - Greek
Biscuit, Garage, Restaurant – French
Piano, Concerto, Spaghetti – Italian
Hamburger, Kindergarten - German
Guitar, Tango, Banana - Spanish
Tomato, Potato, Tabacco – American Native Language
