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INTRODUCTION
T(caps)he 19th century and after are also referred to as the late modern period, or simply the period of modern English. Again, we are going to look at some of the major influences on English language, which have been mainly on vocabulary. So far, we have seen that social factors have contributed greatly to the growth of the language. Again, both political and social factors had helped to strengthen the position of England as a world power, especially with its successive victories at wars during the 19th century (e.g., victory at Trafalgar, against France in 1805, and against Russia at Crimea 1854-56). Its political and social reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries were also important factors in establishing England as one of the world’s stable democracies. The world wars of the 20th century and their effects on society; the growth and importance of some of British colonies; their eventual independence; and the rapid growth of the United States as one of the greatest English-speaking world powers certainly have their influences on the English language of today. We shall consider in detail some of these factors in Units 17 and 18. In this Unit, we shall be considering the more influential factors as they relate to language, namely the growth of Science and Medicine, Transport, Information technology, Journalism, and Broadcasting, and the world wars. You shall also see how developments in other areas have affected English vocabulary.
Influences on the 19th Century English and After
As you can see in this study, English is one language that easily accepts change and admits foreign technical terms. And no doubt, as someone who has been studying the language, you are familiar with terms that are associated with professions or register. And it is easy to identify terms that are associated with science, medicine, or engineering. These technical terms came along with growth and development in the various disciplines during the 19th and 20th centuries. Let’s consider some of these disciplines and terms associated with them. We are able to appreciate these terms because they have become part of our everyday communication.
(i) Growth in Medicine and other Sciences:
In every field of science, there has been a growth in technical words in the 19th and 20th centuries which only the specialist in these fields understand but with time, a good number of the words became familiar and in fact turn to everyday usage. In medicine, for example, we are familiar with names of diseases like: Anaemia, Diarrhea, Appendicitis, Bronchitis, and Cardiac-arrest, and other numerous ailments. We can easily associate terms like Bacteriology, Virology, Immunology, Paediatrics, Orthodontics, with medicine and we can easily suggest what some of them mean from their names. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) which has become a household term was unknown in the 19th century. We can easily talk of clinics, anti-biotic, vaccine, or anesthetic. We have learnt names of drugs like paracetamol, aspirin, analgesics, iodine, panadol, morphine, or penicillin. Medical equipment such as stethoscope, syringe, electrocardiogram, ultrasound scan machine, or x-ray machine, is not very strange to us. We speak of hormones, enzymes; metabolism, endocrine glands, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) etc., and we know what carbohydrate, vitamins, proteins, amino-acids, or cholesterol mean. Although you may not explain them clearly but you’re familiar with them. For example, carbohydrates give energy, protein builds up body tissues and so on. We often talk about someone who usually falls ill by eating a particular food as being allergic to that food. All these words that came during the 19th and 20th centuries have become everyday language.
In physics and electricity, we can easily identify words that we know. Words like relativity, calorie, ultra-violent rays, ionization, transformer, dynamo, current, arc light, are indeed familiar though many of them we may not really explain. The development of atomic energy and nuclear weapons following the World Wars and international conflicts has given rise to words like atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb, air raid, ballistic missiles, sand missiles, radioactive, chain reaction, fallout, etc.
Chemistry has given the English lexicon, nitrogen, alkali, benzene, radium, creosote, biochemical, petrochemical etc. Aviation and space science have also contributed terms such as astronaut, cosmonauts, spacecraft, space shuttle, countdown command module blast off etc. How we know that these terms have to stay is that we often make reference to them in informal speech or writing consciously and unconsciously. Many times we fail to recognize where the words come from. You often hear people refer to inferiority complex, melancholic, or schizophrenia without realizing that they are using words from formal psychology.
(ii) Growth in Automobile and Transport Industry:
Scientific discoveries and inventions have proved to be an important source of new words. The word automobile itself is a new term just as we have saloon (American sedan) as terms used for earlier types of vehicles. Now we have lorry (Army-truck), trailer limousine, mustang, jeep, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Volkswagen, etc. some of the cars are named after their inventors, e.g., Ford or Mercedes. We have learnt new meanings with the evolution of vehicles like carburetor, sparking plug, (American(Ame) spark plug) choke, clutch, gear lever (Ame-gear shift), gearbox, steering wheels, differential, shock absorber, chassis, automatic transmission, radial tyres, spare tyres, convertible, or station wagon etc. And a car is usually parked in a garage. We now talk of the traffic, speeding, traffic light, petrol (Ame gas), bus-stop, terminus, ticket, etc. You may supply more examples to illustrate further how these technical terms have become part of our everyday language.
(iii) Development in Broadcasting, Information Technology, and Computing.
Communication and computer technology are other aspects of science development that have contributed new words to English vocabulary especially due to the degree of impact these developments have had on people’s daily life. These additions are either entirely new words or old words being given new meanings. In communication, especially in films, broadcasting, and motion pictures most new words came in during the 20th century. The word cinema dates from 1899, while motion picture came much later. The word radio in the sense of broadcasting came from about 1925, while the term television (TV) was introduced at about 1904. Radio and TV share some common terminologies like broadcasting, newscaster, aerial, transmitter, transmission, antenna, lead-in, loudspeaker, standby, announcer, reception, microphone, camera, etc. but abbreviations like FM (frequency modulation) AM (amplitude modulation) are used only for the identification of radio broadcasting stations. But terms like cable TV, cable network, teleprompter, video tape, UHL channel, color programming, digital TV, super thin TV, VCD, DVD are peculiar to the television. Computer technology has been another significant influence on the vocabulary of English. The first digital computers were invented between 1940 and 1950, with some general terms like program, memory, language, and hardware. With new waves of development in computer technology during the 1980s, people began to own ‘PCs’ (personal computers) and learn new words from computing such as RAM (random-access memory), ROM (read-only memory), DOS (disk operating system), microprocessor, byte, gig, modem, software, mouse, keyboard etc. and with the growth of the internet, we now use terms like WWW (World Wide Web), browse, hack, download, upload, hypertext, browser, LAN (local area network, WAN (wide area network), email, Yahoo etc.
(iv) The Influence of Journalism:
Journalists do not only propagate new words, they also create theirs. Newspapers and magazines have demonstrated a great deal of creativity when it comes to saying what just have to be said even when the reporter lacks the right word. Many times they adopt colloquial and informal styles, sometimes using words out of context and often giving new meanings to familiar words. And some of such words are used metaphorically. For example quiz for question; oust for remove, probe for investigate, comb for search and maul for defeat. Lawmakers will always reach at a truce; someone spikes a rumor, or makes a business deal. We read about a cleanup, a go-between and how the price soared. The president is usually briefed or chauffeured and we expect some sought of entertainment or condomania or satzefaction. These are coinages we see in magazines and newspapers that catch our attention, sometimes used as adverts or to create sensations but indeed much of these coinages are finding their ways into formal writing.
(v) The Effect of World Wars:
As we examine how great developments leave their marks on the English language, we must not fail to mention that the First World War (1914- 1918) brought some words into English. Some of these are military terms, or words associated with warfare e.g. air raid, anti-aircraft gun, tank, nose-dive, blimp, gas mask, liaison officer, and camouflage.
‘Liaison’ and ‘camouflage’ are borrowed from French. We also have words that assume new meaning e.g. sector (specific position) barrage (protective screen of a machine gun); dud (a shell that did not explode) etc. Today we say ‘sector of the economy’ ‘barrage of corruption’, ‘dud cheque’ with new meanings. Some words already in the language were popularized by the war, e.g. dugout, machine gun, periscope, no man’s land, doughboy etc.
World War II wasn’t as productive as the World War I in terms of introducing new words. However, it contributed certain new words and new meanings about new methods of warfare. Examples are alert, block-buster, dive-bombing, nuclear bombing, evacuate, parachutist, landing strip, crash landing, wad block, fox hole, bulldozer, task force. Some expressions like spearhead, to mop up and to appease are new verbs or old one with a military sense. The word commando already existed before 1940’s, acquired a new meaning. Others that either acquired new meaning or given great currency during the war are backlog, stockpile, priority, bottleneck, ceiling (limit) etc. The war also contributed expressions like traveler, iron curtain, cold war, fellow etc. to English vocabulary. Most of these words and expressions have since been absorbed into everyday civilian language.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
1. List 5 words that the growth of science introduced into English.
2. List 10 words that are associated with Broadcasting, computing.
3.2 Vocabulary and New Developments
Vocabulary has its way of expressing and highlighting developments. You have seen so far, in this Unit and the previous ones that, a new development leaves a significant linguistic mark on the language, so that one can easily give a history of either a scientific or social development by simply identifying some linguistic evidences that go along with it. Take for example the World War II, new words came with new methods of warfare including air combat, so we have air raid. And we trace the history of certain words by simply studying the events and developments that brought them. Language also reflects how current people are with new developments and culture because when new words enter into a language people quickly learn them as a way of updating their knowledge and experience. These are what we have tried to prove in the history of English. In this sub-section, we shall consider a few developments that impacted on the English language.
At about 1839, the words photograph or photography appeared signaling other related words such as camera, film, enlargement, focus, aperture, shutter, lenses, negative etc. and in the latter part of the 19th century words like telephone, typewriter, apartment house, blueprint, oilfield, motorcycle, feminist, fundamentalist, marathon etc. appeared. These words were said to be the outcome of the revival of the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.
The 20th century has witnessed a rapid growth of vocabulary. Between 1906 and 1908, new words like questionnaire, suffragette, raincoat, thermos, free verse, came into English. This was also the period when many words in aviation and aeronautics were introduced e.g. aircraft, airplane, hydroplane, dirigible etc. 1910 came with terms like futurist, post-expressionist (art), Freudian (psychology) intelligentsia (superior culture) and profiteer. At about 1933 came deep-freezer, air-conditioned, nylon, and transistor. Expressions like credit card, ecosystem, and existentialism came around 1972.
We must mention here that a good number of words must have come out of individual’s deliberate creation or coinage, borne out of ingenuity or imitation. A few of them like Kodak, (a trade mark), Frigidaire, Kleenex, Xerox, or Zipper, often treated as common nouns, are coinages that represent trade names. Some of these coinages are actually acronyms - words formed by joining few letters of two or more words. E.g. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome); Radar (radio detecting and ranging) etc. Some are blend words or portmanteau words like Interpol (international + police) travelogue (travel + dialogue); while some are simple clipped words e.g. fax (facsimile) phone (telephone), lab (laboratory). In many cases, the blend or clipped words gain more popularity and patronage than the original word. As new developments keep taking place, we expect new words to express them.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
1. Explain the relationship between new developments and old vocabulary.
2. Can you identify some recent words in the vocabulary of Nigerian English?
4.0 CONCLUSION
Scientific and social developments are major factors in the enrichment of English vocabulary. As new things take place, the need naturally arises for the appropriate words to express them. Words that already exist in the language are not usually sufficient to represent new experiences. So as society grows, all its aspects grow, so language, especially vocabulary grows. And we expect more stock of words in English as we witness new inventions and more technological breakthroughs.
5.0 SUMMARY
The rapid growth of English vocabulary from the 19 th century upwards has been sequel to the growth and development of science and medicine, communication and broadcasting, information technology, computing, journalism, and the world wars within the same period. We have also observed that the development of vocabulary is an ongoing process because as the world witnesses new developments, new words and expressions are bound to evolve as part of those development processes. And people must learn those new terms to update their knowledge and express their experience, as well as benefit maximally from the emerging developments and technologies.
In summary, the evolution of the English language since the 19th century has been deeply intertwined with societal changes, scientific advancements, technological innovations, and global conflicts. Each of these factors has contributed to the expansion and enrichment of English vocabulary, reflecting the dynamic nature of language and its adaptation to the evolving needs of society. As we continue to experience new developments and breakthroughs, we can expect the English language to continue evolving, with new words and expressions emerging to capture and articulate the ever-changing landscape of human experience.
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