BETWEEN FOUR JUNCTIONS

Rosa Thorne

How did the Dubrovnik Empire impact upon the evolution of the English Language?

200 years after the collapse of the last aristocratic dynasty, linguist and historical international relations professor Katya Ivanova looks back

Language and History: an unlikely pair

ONE of the questions most commonly posed to me by students and fellow researchers alike is how I deal with a lack of evidence, particularly in the first half of the 21st century (a date which is of course significant in marking the rise of the internet). Here, many of my students query how they are expected to deal with reduced physical evidence, and almost no credible sources. My answer is usually two-fold. Firstly, issues the internet presents are also the period’s greatest blessing. Secondly, when physical sources fail you, there will always be language. It’s one of the few things we can take as guaranteed. Returning to our example of the internet, having lost many of the servers and many posts which have replaced written sources throughout the last half a century, how can you construct a clear and supported argument? Well, the loss of short vowels illustrates the increasing use of ‘text speech’ and evinces the widespread nature of internet usage. In fact, Newman argues in A Basic Timeline of the English Alphabet (2514) that, although Arabic influence did play a major role in the reduction of vowels, it was text speech that set the precedent, and without it this change could not have happened. Whilst this was somewhat polemical, Newman is completely right.

With the inseparable link between history and language in mind, I shall return to consider the most dramatic changes in several key areas of English so far this millennia, and their origins. These are:

• in English grammar – the reduced use of prepositions

• in English words – changes to spelling and the reduction of unnecessary sounds (although this can, and should, be argued to be not a new change but a continuation of already occurring changes since the beginning of Modern English)

• in written English – the loss of short vowels as unique characters, and subsequent adoption of diacritics.

Prepositions, cases and Russian instability

Each of these changes can be paired with a combination of historical events. The first traces of New Modern English (for the purposes of this article Modern English is recognised to have begun just before the 14th Century and New Modern English is recognised as beginning shortly before the 22nd century) coincides with a tumultuous moment in Russian History, the instability brought about after the death of Vladimir Putin. However, we must first understand the context to this. The rift between Putin and Razman Kadyrov began to grow unstoppably towards the end of Putin’s life as he became more dependent on those around him. This both angered Kadyrov and gave him what he perceived to be his opportunity to gain power, and although the Chechen rebellion proved ultimately unsuccessful, it both unhinged the economy and unmasked Putin’s façade of strength. This is the background required to understand the instability that followed Putin’s reign, and proves that it is not the result of an uncharacteristic lack of forward-thinking, as so many have argued.

The twenty years of governments in name only that followed did little to give an impression of order, nor to curb the subsequent years of civil unrest, and Russia’s influence and status began to crumble, giving several Middle Eastern countries a chance to become major world players (I will return to Arabic later). Eventually however, the Dubrovnik dynasty emerged, and although Nikolai Dubrovnik found power balances had shifted dramatically during this time, Russia once again, thanks to its size, quickly become a superpower. However, for the first time Russia was not just a superpower, but one that also benefited from free speech and consistent internet access. As such, Russia became influential not just in politics, but also in the day to day life of other people, and the language began to make itself present in English for the first time. Although on average English levels in Russia were high, remarkably few people were completely fluent, and as such, mistranslations, based on Russian grammatical structures, became commonplace online. This manner of speaking – referred to as ‘Soviet speech’ – temporarily became a trend used to create a specific tone (much like phonetically written Scottish, kawaii Japanese, and abbreviations such as ‘u wot m8’ had before it) and that went hand in hand with views of Russian aesthetics at this time. This was eventually reflected in one of the three major changes to English, the loss of prepositions. Although the Russian language at this time did feature a large number of prepositions, meaning was mainly conveyed through a complex 6-case system. Nowadays, it is very rare for all 6 cases to be used in Russian; however, four, including the accusative (usually indicated by the suffix /a/), dative (indicated by the suffix /e/), instrumental (indicated by the suffix /m/, or /em/ after a consonant) and genitive (indicated by the suffix /o/ or /ov/) appear in English with Slavic-inspired endings.

Spelling, sounds and linguistical subtleties

The second of the changes to English can be explained far more simply, but it is impossible to pinpoint in time. Since before the beginning of Modern English spelling, spelling and language have evolved to become more concise and phonetic, with some sounds that are unnecessarily long, or difficult to pronounce, being cut out of language. However, this process has been especially distorted throughout the last 400 years, due to two conflicting influences. On the one hand, increased standardisation has occurred, an effect which has been exacerbated by the accessibility of online dictionaries. On the other hand, growing global literacy rates and increased L2 English speakers have allowed for the development of more diverse dialects, and escalated the speed of development. The most prominent sounds to have disappeared from English over the last half a century have included /th/, /sh/,