Friday, September 23, 2011

Secound draft: History of the english language


Duane Robbins
Mr. Roberts
AP English Literature
9/15/11
As time passes everything in the world changes, the way we eat, drive, and act change with the continuing development of the society that surrounds us. This is also true for the languages that every individual speaks.  English is no exception to this fact, and is a prime example of how drastically a language can change over the course of time.  From the very formal speaking Shakespeare, to the slang driven hip-hop stars of today’s society, the English language has been through massive changes from its birth to recent years.
    The Birth of the English language can be debated over, because words that are used in todays diction were taken from civilizations that thrived thousands of years ago, but the foundation of the English language wasn’t developed until later on.  Many powerful civilizations left a mark on the language by blending in words that they spoke in their language into the language we speak today.  These civilizations included the Celtics around 500 B.C and even the great Roman Empire 43- 450 A.D.  Words such as wine, belt, and even city names such as London were taken from these different languages and intertwined into English.  
    English, as we know it, was born sometime around the fifth century A.D.  Old English was developed when the Germans pushed the Celtics into the areas such as Scotland and Ireland. Their language became considered “Englist”, the term that eventually led to the words “England” and “English”.  It developed slowly over the next six hundred years until 1066 when a prince of Normandy named William defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. (BCC) William became the King of England, but he was still under the French thrones power, so once he had won, he declared that the French language would become the official language of England, which is stayed for the next 300 years. The “History Guy” (history guy.com) commented on this situation, William was the new King of England, but he was also still the Duke of Normandy in France, which put him and his successors in the awkward position”.   This is why he decided to rule England, but would change the language to French that way he could have it both ways. (Wheaton)
This led to a blending of the two languages.  The addition of French significantly transformed the grammar of the Germanic-based of the English language.  At the same time, Christian missionaries were deployed into these areas to try and convert the locals.  These missionaries spoke Latin, which is why many Latin words are included into the English language.  (BBC)
Due to the fact that William had made the relationship between England and France bitter, due to the forcefulness of French society onto English society, French rain as the main language was short lived. (Pandora)  So these relations turned into the Hundred Years War from 1337- 1450.  This really took French influence out of England, but the influence that it had on English language would remain in tact.  
Also there were two universities, Oxford and Cambridge that were founded creating a great increase in education. This created literacy for the citizens and increased the use of the English language.  Next there was the invention of the printing press, which made the production of reading material much easier.  This invention really spread the use of language, which in turn helped the English language grow.
One of the things that helped the English language develop into what is spoken today as modern English was the development of America as a nation built on the ideals of freedom and allowing individuals to bring there lifestyles with them.  The mixture of the cultures and different languages really helped transform the “formal” English language that is more commonly known as old English into the “less formal” newly more modern way of speak the English language that we speak in our lives today.
With the newly invention of the printing press a need for a solid dictionary that would contain all the words of the English language.  This is where Noah Webster came into the history of the English language.  American Noah Webster believed that in order to strengthen the American cultural, a dictionary that would contain the words of the new nation was necessary. Therefore, after twenty-two years of hard work a standardized American dictionary was published in 1828. Webster’s dictionary was considered to be an even more remarkable work than Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language.  Even in the modern age, this dictionary is considered the “go to dictionary” for the American and is re-published every few years to add new words to the ever-growing American language.
The English language has grown greatly since the language of the Anglo-Saxon tribes of the early fifth century A.D. The number of words has been increased by tens of thousands while the grammar has had a hill affect over the passing years.  With the ever-changing development of society, the English language changes as well. The meaning of words and phrases are transformed, when society is rich in culture, the language is very formal, and as society loses focus on culture, the language becomes based on slang and makes most individuals seem to be illiterate.

Bibliography

BBC. "The Great Vowel Shift." BBC. Web. 15 Sep 2011
Central Michigan University. "Samuel Johnson." libwebspace. Web. 15 Sep 2011
Oxford Dictionaries. "How many words are there in the English Language." Oxford Dictionaries.
Pandora. "The Dialects of American English." pandora.cii.wwu.edu. Web. 15 Sep 2011



           

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Bullying and Camfels

Cyber bullying is a problem in today's society that is ran my technology.  The average individual spends a great deal of there time on some sort of social network and/or program on the internet.  This opens a huge window for individuals that wish to hurt someone else without the hassle of face to face contact.  For some, they believe that since they are making fun of someone online that there is no harm in it and that there are no consequences of their actions.  There was a case a few years back, were a teenage girl was being cyber bullied over the course of a few weeks by a group of kids from school.  The problem got so bad that the girl took her own life, after a investigation had taken place the kids from school were arrested.  Cyber bullying is a major issue that should always be taken seriously.

 i enjoyed the presentation, because it presented useful information in a way to were it was fun to watch and easy to understand.  However, i do believe that they focused to much on the music and fancy stuff, because it makes the topic of bullying seem less series then what it really is.  Overall the presentation was very informative and enjoyable to watch.

Monday, September 12, 2011

On-Demand Prompt!


Dear, News Democrat
Many people believe that making-voting mandatory would be a good thing; however I believe that this would be a decision that could lead to disaster.  Voting is a process that decides the outcome of our nation and I believe the decision on voting should be left to the people to avoid trouble.  First off anyone who is not informed about the current election would make an uneducated decision and vote blindly, voting is also a constitutional right that is given to every American.  One of the biggest questions you have to ask yourself is what was wrong with voting in the first place. 
According to polls, only 60% of all registered voters in America actually vote.  This means there are 40% of people that do not put their input into the election.  Researchers have even discovered that over half of the individuals that do not cast their vote, don’t even know who is running for office.  If the government decides on compulsory voting, then America will have 40% of blind votes.  This will drastically change the outcome of elections.  Instead of a president being picked for his views and what he is willing to do, you will have a president being picked just because he is a certain color, or his name sounds cool.  America has a hard enough time with leaders, don’t make the polls less educated then they already are.
The 15th Amendment Americans are given the right to vote as they please.  We have the freedom to vote or not to.  America was built on the foundation of freedom and the government tries to take away our freedoms by forcing citizens to do as they please.  Forcing citizens into doing something against their will is just as bad as telling them they can’t do it.  It is only constitutionally right to leave the decision on voting to the people, because in a democracy (like America) the people are the once that control the government.
What was wrong with the way voting was being done in the first place?  This is a question that keeps popping up.  There was a stable system of democracy, where legal citizens over the age of 18 would enter their vote and those individuals that did not care about the election would stay out of it.  This system gave the power to the citizens, but did not force it upon them.  The outcome was a fair election that gave this nation a stable leader for four years.  There has not been any issue with this process except from government officials that believe that more individuals should vote.  The ironic fact is that the select few citizens that voted probably voted many of these officials into office, and if more individuals did vote there is a chance that they might not be in office right now.
There is an old saying, “if it is not broke, don’t fix it”.  The election process of the United States has given this countries citizens the power to choose their own leaders.  Throughout history, America has chosen bright individuals that led this country out of some dark times.  The government also has to realize that citizens want freedom and power, but they do not want it forced upon them.  Forcing power upon someone is the same thing as not giving him or her any power at all.  Elections are on of the most important items in America.  It elects the men and women that run this country.  The government has to trust the individual citizen to do what is right to lead this country in the right direction.  If an individual does not vote, then that might be in the best interest of the country.  People always say mama knows best, so I say lets listen to mama and, “if it is not broke, then don’t fix it”.
                                                                            Sincerely, concerned citizen
                                            Duane Robbins



Thursday, September 8, 2011

Thematic Statement - Greene

Humans natural behavior is sometimes affected by their surroundings.  Destruction and violence will often lead to rebellious and aggressive behavior.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Reflection

I agree with the comments people left on my letter.  To add strength to my arguement and to the content, i should have added a third example of why wiki is a good site.  This would have added more evidence to back my claim and give the reader something more to base their beliefs on.
Despite the fact that i only had two support paragraphs i believe that my letter was formatted well and delivered a point that would convince most readers.  Even though i agree with the fact that i could have added another support paragraph i believe that i touched one some of the KEY problems that circle the Wiki debate and that is why my letter was convincing.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Wikipedia



Dear CCHS SBDM members,
            Over the years there has been a lot of talk over the credibility of the Internet encyclopedia known as Wikipedia.  The argument is that Wikipedia is not a credible source because any member can go onto a page and change the information located on that page to anything they desire.  However, my class has compiled data from a recent experiment and the results show that Wikipedia can be considered a very reliable source.
            My classes experiment shows that Wiki does a very substantial job at fixing an data that isn't true.  Our experiment consisted of having every student go onto a page of his or her choice and change the information found on that page to something completely different.  We then monitored the pages and wrote down how long it took for Wiki to fix the different problems.  The data shows that 54% of the classes’ changes had been changed within a 4-hour time frame and 89% of the classes’ changes had been fix within a 24-hour time frame.  Within a 2-day frame all the changes had been changed back to normal.  This data shows that even though Wiki can allow incorrect data to be entered into it’s site, there are individuals monitoring changes to these pages and are quick to change the incorrect data.
Despite the fact that Wiki is quick to change their data, society has to understand that every online resource has its flaws.  In the article, Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica, there is a study conducted that compares Wikipedia to another online encyclopedia.   The results show that the Britannica had just as many mistakes as Wikipedia had on average.  To expect that a resource, which has been open to an entire world of people, to not have any imperfections, is not possible.  It is the responsibility of the individual retrieving the data to compare his findings to another resource to compare their findings.
Overall, Wikipedia can be considered a creditable resource that delivers data that is considerably correct.  Wikipedia scans its articles and finds data that isn’t factual and does it’s best to change any data that isn’t correct into a true statement.  It is not any worse then any other online source in the sense of mistakes and gives many students a single site that can give them information over a wide variety of information.
           


Sincerely, Duane Robbins