I Am Single!!! Wizkid Finally confirms break up with Long time Tania Omotayo (See)

Wizkid and Tania Omotayo are really broken up. Wizkid himself confirmed it last Thursday during a radio interview with Gbemi on the Drive Time show on Beat FM. When Gbemi questioned him about his relationship with Tania, Wizkid replied;

“My friend is fine. We’re cool. But I’m single now you know. But it’s all love. I got love for her. She’s like my best friend anyways 

Sharpe Guy!!! What your View On This???

Higher Education

Earning a post-secondary degree or credential is no longer just a pathway to opportunity for a talented few; rather, it is a prerequisite for the growing jobs of the new economy. Over this decade, employment in jobs requiring education beyond a high school diploma will grow more rapidly than employment in jobs that do not; of the 30 fastest growing occupations, more than half require postsecondary education. With the average earnings of college graduates at a level that is twice as high as that of workers with only a high school diploma, higher education is now the clearest pathway into the middle class.
In higher education, the U.S.. has been outpaced internationally. In 1990, the U.S. ranked first in the world in four-year degree attainment among 25-34 year olds; today, the U.S. ranks 12th. We also suffer from a college attainment gap, as high school graduates from the wealthiest families in our nation are almost certain to continue on to higher education, while just over half of our high school graduates in the poorest quarter of families attend college. And while more than half of college students graduate within six years, the completion rate for low-income students is around 25 percent.
Acknowledging these factors early in his Administration, President Obama challenged every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or post-secondary training. The President has also set a new goal for the country: that by 2020, America would once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.
To achieve this bold goal for college completion, ensure that America’s students and workers receive the education and training needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow, and provide greater security for the middle class, President Obama and his Administration are working to make college more accessible, affordable, and attainable for all American families.

Helping Middle Class Families Afford College

America is home to the best colleges and universities in the world — and increasing college attainment has never been more important to our economic competitiveness — yet tuition and fees have skyrocketed over the past decade, making it more difficult for American families to invest in a higher education for their future. Today’s college students borrow and rack up more debt than ever before. In 2010, graduates who took out loans left college owing an average of more than $26,000. Student loan debt has now surpassed credit card debt for the first time ever.
Our nation’s commitment to placing a good education within reach of all who are willing to work for it helped build a strong American middle class over the past several generations. In keeping this promise alive, President Obama has expanded federal support to help more students afford college, while calling for a shared responsibility in tackling rising college costs. President Obama’s efforts of reform in higher education funding have produced the largest investment in student aid since the G.I. Bill, while resulting in a more efficient, reliable, and effective system for students to help them afford college and manage debt:

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Doubling Investments in Pell Grants

Helping Students Manage Student Loan Debt

Expanding Education Tax Credits

Keeping Student Loan Interest Rates Low

Keeping Costs Down

The President is calling on Congress to advance new reforms to give more hard working students a fair shot at pursuing higher education, because education is not a luxury: it is an economic imperative that every hard working and responsible student should be able to afford. President Obama has emphasized that the federal government, states, colleges, and universities all have a role to play in making higher education more affordable, by reining in college costs, providing value for American families, and preparing students with a solid education to succeed in their careers.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama emphasized this shared responsibility of states and higher education institutions — working with the federal government — to promote access, affordability and attainment in higher education by reining in college costs, providing value for American families, and preparing students with a high quality education to succeed in their careers. It is not enough to increase federal student aid alone — state policymakers and individual colleges and universities bear a shared responsibility to take action against rising college tuition and costs.
Providing greater pathways for students to enter into and succeed in higher education is in the interest of all Americans, and is critical to developing a highly educated, highly skilled economy and workforce that will attract business and lead to lower unemployment. The Administration has taken several steps and advanced several proposals to put higher education greater within reach for more Americans:

Strengthening Community Colleges

The President has placed a strong emphasis on making America’s community colleges stronger, ensuring that they are gateways to economic prosperity and educational opportunities for millions of Americans each year. Each year, over 1,100 community colleges provide students and workers with critical skills to succeed in a 21st century economy. To help reach the President’s college attainment goal, the Obama Administration has called for an additional 5 million graduates from community colleges by 2020. Working in partnership with states and communities, community colleges are well suited to promote the dual goal of academic and on-the-job preparedness for the next generation of American workers.
Many community colleges are already working with businesses to develop programs and classes — ranging from degree-granting curricula to certified courses for retraining — that will enhance skills for workers. The President has demonstrated his commitment to deepening and expanding that work:

Improving Transparency and Accountability

President Obama has consistently strived to lead the most open, efficient and accountable government in history. Over the last two years, new initiatives have increased public participation in government, opened up new information to Americans on a variety of topics, and improved citizens' everyday lives. In the vein of transparency and accountability, the President tasked his Administration with giving students and families new tools and relevant information that will help them make sound financial decisions in pursuing their higher education goals.

Popular Yoruba Actor Yemi Solade Impregnates 18 Years Old Girl! ..The Child Surfaces After Ten Years

According to Global Excellence Yemi Solade has a love child of 10 years old. The mother of the daughter, Seun Olowolusi Obafemi, we reliably gathered engaged in a romance with this popular actor at a movie location 10 years ago when she was 18 years old. When she realized that she was pregnant for the handsome actor, our source said she abandoned home to another destination for fear of her parents getting to know about the pregnancy at the initial stage. Our finding revealed that she returned home to her parents when the pregnancy reached an advanced stage. As we learnt, she had complications during delivery that she had to be operated upon before the baby came into life.

Investigation revealed that it was after she delivered the baby that she told her parents that the actor, Yemi Solade  was responsible for her pregnancy. Seun’s parents eventually located the actor, Yemi Solade whom we learnt didn’t deny the pregnancy. According to them, he promised to take up the responsibility of the child but till now Yemi has neglected the child who is now in primary 5 at a school at Ire- Akari Estate in Lagos.

They learnt that it was after this that the actor impregnated another lady and they are happily married now. It will be recalled that this is not the first time Yemi Solade would be involved in romance scandal. Few years back, a London based woman alleged that the actor planned to defraud her on the internet. According to the woman, she stated that she became Yemi Solade’s friend on facebook and before you could say jack, the actor has shown intention to date her but she let him understand that she is married.

All efforts to speak to Yemi Solade on this love child issue were futile as his number could not be reached.

What Your View On This???

Race to the Top

Race to the Top

 marks a historic moment in American education. This initiative offers bold incentives to states willing to spur systemic reform to improve teaching and learning in America’s schools. Race to the Top has ushered in significant change in our education system, particularly in raising standards and aligning policies and structures to the goal of college and career readiness. Race to the Top has helped drive states nationwide to pursue higher standards, improve teacher effectiveness, use data effectively in the classroom, and adopt new strategies to help struggling schools.
To date, President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative has dedicated over $4 billion to 19 states that have created robust plans that address the four key areas of K-12 education reform as described below. These states serve 22 million students and employ 1.5 million teachers in 42,000 schools, representing 45 percent of all K-12 students and 42 percent of all low-income students nationwide. The four key areas of reform include:

• Development of rigorous standards and better assessments
• Adoption of better data systems to provide schools, teachers, and parents with information about student progress
• Support for teachers and school leaders to become more effective
• Increased emphasis and resources for the rigorous interventions needed to turn around the lowest-performing schools

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia submitted comprehensive reform plans to compete in the Race to the Top competition. While 19 states have received funding so far, 34 states modified state education laws or policies to facilitate needed change, and 48 states worked together to create a voluntary set of rigorous college- and career-ready standards.

Race to the Top – District competition

In 2012, the Obama Administration launched a Race to the Top competition at the school district level. Known as Race to the Top – District, this program will invest nearly $400 million in 2012 in schools to create new models to personalize learning for students, so that they can engage their interests and take responsibility for their success.
Inspired by the education reform taking place in state K-12 systems nationwide, this next phase of RTT will build on the four core principles of reform at the classroom level, supplying teachers with the strategies and tools they need to help every student learn and succeed. The Race to the Top – District competition will encourage transformative change within schools, targeted toward leveraging, enhancing, and improving classroom practices and resources.

Russian-majority areas watch Moscow's post-Crimea moves

Moscow originally said it was intervening in Crimea because of concern over the ill-treatment of Russians there - they make up more than half the population. So could the same happen in other parts of the former Soviet Union?

 

 Eastern Ukraine

Ever since Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February, there have been frequent pro-Russian demonstrations in Donetsk and other cities in eastern Ukraine. At least one person has been killed.
Russia has blamed far-right pro-Western demonstrators for escalating tensions there. Russian troops have staged military exercises near the border and remain in the area. It would not be difficult for them to move across into Ukraine itself.
If Russia is considering more territorial expansion, eastern Ukraine would be high on the list.
The political costs, however, could be high: Nato and Western leaders have warned against further expansionism. Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954. Ukraine's eastern border goes back much further.

                                               Ukraine's military has now left Crimea altogether
However, once the separatist genie is out of the bottle, it is hard to put back in. There is even a mock campaign for Donetsk to become part of the UK - the city was founded by a Welsh industrialist, John Hughes, in the 19th Century.
 Moldova
Attention has also focused on Trans-Dniester, a separatist region of Moldova that has already offered itself to Moscow. It proclaimed independence in 1990, but has never been recognised internationally. Trans-Dniester is majority Russian-speaking while most Moldovans speak Romanian.

Soldiers in the breakaway enclave of Trans-Dniester clean land at a military cemetery in the city of Tiraspol

There is also the southern pocket known as Gagauzia, an autonomous region of Moldova made up of four enclaves (population 160,000). The Gagauz are Turkic-speaking Orthodox Christians. In February 2014, Gagauzia held a referendum in which 98.4% of voters backed integration with a Russia-led customs union. The Moldovan government said the referendum was illegitimate.
Nato's commander in Europe warned Trans-Dniester could be Russia's next target. It already has 1,000 troops in the region, which borders Ukraine, near the city of Odessa.

Moldova is preparing to sign an association agreement with the EU, upping the diplomatic stakes if Russia did decide to annex Trans-Dniester.
Could Trans-Dniester be the next Crimea?
Trans-Dniester plea to join Russia

Georgia In 2008, Russia fought a brief war in Georgia that ended with the breakaway of two areas, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Although Moscow's stated aim was to protect Russian speakers, most residents are native speakers of Ossetian and Abkhaz respectively. However, many hold Russian passports and they are opposed to the Georgian government in Tbilisi.

Palm Sunday in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali - neither a part of Russia nor fully independent

Abkhazia had already declared independence unilaterally in 1999.
Since then, the two enclaves have existed in a kind of grey zone - not recognised internationally, but not formally part of Russia.
Abkhazia shares a border with Russia - not far from Sochi, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Security was tightened for the Games.
South Ossetia borders the Russian Federation at North Ossetia. All goods must come in via a tunnel under the Caucasus mountain range. Prices are high. Unemployment and corruption are widespread.
Abkhazia profile
South Ossetia profile

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia Russians account for about a third of the population in both Latvia and Estonia. The Baltic republics regained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Both Latvia and Estonia require knowledge of their languages for citizenship. Some Russian speakers born in the countries are either unable or unwilling to become citizens as a result.

Some in Latvia are concerned about what might befall areas with large Russian-speaking populations

Many Russian speakers complain of discrimination, saying strict language laws make it hard to get jobs.
In Lithuania, ethnic Russians make up about 5% of the population and there is no requirement for them to pass a language test.
In mid-March, the Kremlin expressed "outrage" at the treatment of ethnic Russians in Estonia - the same reason it gave for intervening in Crimea.
However, the Baltic states are members of both the EU and Nato. Any Russian incursion would have serious consequences. Article 5 of the Nato treaty says that an attack on one member state is an attack on all.
Latvians reject Russian in vote
Poland and Baltics wary over Crimea

Northern Kazakhstan Russians account for more than half the population in northern Kazakhstan which, like Crimea, was once a part of Russia itself.
Ties between the two go back to tsarist times, when northern cities such as Pavlodar and Uralsk were founded by the Russians as military outposts.

An actor dressed as the poet Pushkin greets the Russian and Kazakh presidents on a visit to Uralsk

Like Ukraine, Kazakhstan signed an agreement on nuclear disarmament in 1994 in exchange for protection. It has no port like Sevastopol in Crimea, but it does have the Baikonur space facility.
However, Kazakhstan already has close ties with Russia - it is one of two other members (along with Belarus) of Moscow's customs union.
Kazakhstan is remaining officially neutral in the matter of Ukraine, but has called for a peaceful resolution.
Kazakhs fear 'Ukraine scenario'

The other Central Asian republics The percentage of ethnic Russians in central Asia ranges from 1.1% in Tajikistan to 12.5% in Kyrgyzstan. After independence in 1991, large numbers of Russians emigrated.
However, the Central Asian economies remain tied to Russia - both in terms of trade and remittances from migrants working there.
It seems unlikely that Moscow would seek to intervene in the region.
However, the post-Crimea turmoil could still have an effect, as the rouble falls and sanctions hit Russian businesses. Jobless migrants returning from Russia could cause trouble for the governments in Dushanbe or Bishkek.

Millions of Tajiks work in Russia as labourers, sending money home but often spending years away

Kyrgyz dilemma over Russian-led customs union
Russia reaches deal on Tajik base

Armenia and Azerbaijan Armenia has no Russian population to speak of, and Azerbaijan has just 1%. Both countries tread a geopolitical tightrope between Russia and the West.
Like Ukraine, Armenia had been preparing to sign an association agreement with the EU. But in September, it announced it would be joining the Russian-led customs union instead.
Since Armenian independence in 1991, Russia has retained a military base at Gyumri.

Last September, Armenia's President Serzh Sarkisian (right, pink tie) jettisoned closer ties with the EU in favour of the customs union led by Russia and President Vladimir Putin (left)

Azerbaijan exports oil and natural gas to the EU and is less economically dependent. A pipeline that ends in Turkey allows it to skirt Russian territory.
Russia would like to keep both countries in its sphere of influence, but it is likely to use economic, rather than military, measures.
Armenia rift fuels EU-Russia tension
Belarus

Belarus is already closely aligned with Moscow. Although about 8.3% of the population identify as Russian, more than 70% speak the language.
There is no reason why Russia would seek to intervene: the two governments could not be any closer. Belarus is in an economic union with Russia, and Russian is an official language.

Despite the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarus and other former countries of the USSR continue to mark Defence of the Fatherland Day on 23 February each year.

Obama meets Pope Francis during Rome visit

The BBC's Alan Johnston describes the relaxed atmosphere at the meeting

US President Barack Obama says it was a "great honour" to meet Pope Francis for the first time during a European tour dominated by the crisis in Ukraine.

He flew into Rome after three days of talks with world leaders in the Netherlands and Brussels.
Tensions are high following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
On Wednesday Mr Obama said the US and the EU were considering deeper sanctions against Moscow if there were any further incursions.
Pro-Russian forces seized Crimea - which has a Russian-speaking majority - this month.

“Start Quote

The US president seemed to be preparing his audiences for a long struggle with Russia”

Gavin Hewitt Europe editor

Moscow annexed the peninsula after it declared independence following a referendum that Ukraine and its Western allies consider illegal.

In other Ukraine developments:

• Six Ukrainian military officers detained by Russian troops in Crimea have been released, but five remain in custody. Those released include Col Yuli Mamchur, the commander of Belbek base, which fell on Saturday
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it has agreed a loan deal with Ukraine worth $14bn to $18bn
• Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk says the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas will increase by 79% from 1 April

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A 90-secnd look-back at the Argentine Pope's first year in charge

'Brute force' In a newspaper interview published before their meeting, Mr Obama described the Pope as a man who "lived the Christian Gospel".
US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said President Obama has been inspired by Pope Francis' messages of inclusion and equality.
He said Mr Obama planned to express his appreciation for his leadership.

President Obama has praised the Pope for his compassion and his emphasis on helping the poor

The BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says the two men have very different views on subjects such as abortion, contraception and gay marriage, but at this meeting they are likely to emphasise what they share.
After meeting the Pope, Mr Obama is due to meet both Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
President Obama is accompanied in Italy by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

On Wednesday, Mr Obama held talks with EU leaders in Brussels. Washington and the EU have already imposed targeted sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian individuals over the annexation of Crimea.
Later he said Russians would "recognise that they cannot achieve security, prosperity and status... through brute force".
"That's why, throughout this crisis, we will combine our substantial pressure on Russia with an open door for diplomacy," President Obama said.
Pro-Russian forces began seizing key sites in Crimea days after Ukraine's Moscow-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted.
He left power following months of bloody protests over his decision to seek greater ties with Moscow rather than the EU.
President Obama flew to Brussels following a nuclear security summit in the Netherlands.

Super Eagles manager Stephen Keshi has said the fallout of his side’s participation at the forthcoming Fifa World Cup in Brazil will decide his future.

 It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.www.doyinna.blogspot.com

The employer of the former Nigerian defender, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), appears cold towards opening discussion on contract extension for Keshi whose subsisting contract is expected to elapse shortly after the quadrennial global football showpiece.
Keshi said he has options open to him once he is done with the World Cup, insisting that he will not

hesitate to switch over to the best that suits him as a core professional.
“I’ve plan A as well as plan B. Both plans are well spelt out in my mind and after the World Cup if the condition on ground is conducive and favourable l’ll stay and if it’s not comfortable I’ll behave naturally as a core professional,” said the former Eagles of Mali coach.
Keshi said he has set a personal target for himself at the World Cup which will be clearer as his wards march strongly at the Mundial.
“Of course, I’ve a personal target for myself at the World Cup which will be a bit clearer as we progress with each match,” Keshi said.
The former Nigerian captain was emphatic that none of the players angling for attention is guaranteed of a spot in the impending World Cup list.
“None, not even one player is certain at the moment for a shirt in the World Cup squad,” said the former Togo coach.
Keshi, however, said he is comfortable with players coming to the Mundial with their respective spouses.
“I won’t frown at players coming to the World Cup with their legitimate wives but I can’t give the same commitment to girlfriends,” Keshi said in a media parley put together by the national team’s official candy, Tom Tom, in Lagos on Tuesday.
The 2013 Afcon champions will campaign in Group F at the World Cup in Brazil with Iran, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Argentina.
Meanwhile, Keshi says that the technical crew of the Super Eagles are intent on keeping an eye on their 2014 World Cup opponents ahead of the tournament which kicks-off in June in Brazil.
Nigeria have been paired in Group F alongside Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovania and Iran, in what many see as a fair draw that offers the African champions an opportunity to advance into the next round.
“That’s the first thing any coach would do – to have someone monitor your oppositions,” Keshi said.
“Too much information might get you confused about everything. But we do have such plan.
“I’ll be at the last two games each of the countries will play, and my video analyst will bring some DVD for us from South Africa about the teams. We’ll study these and see what we can do.”
Nigeria will commence their campaign against Iran on June 16, before facing Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 21.
They will then face Argentina in their final group game on June 25.

Riot policeman rapes four-year-old girl in Plateau.

A riot police men attached to the Special Task Force in Jos, Plateau State was on Wednesday arrested for raping a four-year-old girl.
The girl, simply identified as Helen, was allegedly raped by the policeman said to be a 32-year-old corporal, serving with the STF at Rapum in Kassa area of Barakin Ladi Local Government area.
Our correspondent gathered that the little girl was first treated for bleeding at the Barakin Ladi General Hospital and discharged, but by the following morning, the bleeding became so severe that she was rushed back to the hospital.
It was gathered that the policeman, who was recently posted to his duty post, was known as Dogo by the locals. He was said to have covered his name and rank with his cardigan to hide his identity.
The parents were said to have reported the case to the Sector Commander in Barakin Ladi. The policeman was promptly arrested.
Doctors are currently battling to save the girl’s life. The suspect is said to have been detained at the command’s detention facility and would soon be transferred to the STF headquarters for interrogation.
STF Media Officer, Capt. Salisu Mustapah, confirmed the story. He said the suspect will be tried according to the law.
He said, “This is an isolated case and I must tell you that we don’t condone this kind of attitude. The suspect is now under our custody and if at the end of the day he is found guilty, I assure you that he will not go scot free.”

History of English Language

Historical Background

Archaeological digs reveal that the British Isles were occupied during the Bronze Age, between 2000 and 1500 BC. But history as we know it began with the Celts, those warring tribes that had invaded eastern Europe between the fifth century BC and the beginning of the Roman conquests.

The First Celtic Occupants

It was at the beginning of the Iron Age, between the eighth and sixth centuries BC, that Celts began to occupy the British Isles. They settled not only in Ireland, but throughout Great Britain. These Celtic tribes were numerous (listed here by their Latin designations): Caledones, Damnonii, Novantae, Selgovae, Votadini, Carvetii, Brigantes, Parisi, Deceangli, Ordovices, Silures, Demetae, Cornovii, Corieltauvi, Dobunni, Durotriges, Dumnonii, Iceni, Catuvellauni, Trinovantes, Cantiaci, Atrebates, Belgae, and Regni.
Each of these peoples (themselves divided into many tribes) spoke its own Celtic language (Indo-European family). Intercomprehension must have been relatively straightforward from one person to the next, but more difficult the further one tribe lived from the other. For example, Caledonians, who lived in the north, probably had trouble understanding southern Celts such as the Dumnonii, Durotriges, Belgae, Regni, Cantiaci, etc. We know that the Celts of Britain could understand certain Celts of Gaul, such as the Caletes, Osismii, Veneti, Carnutes, etc., who lived on the other side of the English Channel. Julius Caesar's remarks in his Gallic Wars (Book I), although about the continental Gauls rather than the Celts of Britannia, are a fitting summary of the Celtic languages in general:

All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilization and refinement of [our] Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valour, as they contend with the Germans in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhone; it is bounded by the river Garonne, the ocean, and the territories of the Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the river Rhine, and stretches toward the north. The Belgae rise from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the river Rhine; and look toward the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from the river Garonne to the Pyrenaean mountains and to that part of the ocean which is near Spain: it looks between the setting of the sun, and the north star.

Aujourd'hui, les langues celtiques sont en net déclin: seuls le breton en France (l'ancienne Armorique), le gallois au pays de Galles, l'irlandais et l'écossais ont survécu:

Group	Languages
Gaulish	Gaulish†, Celtiberian†
Brythonic	breton, gallois, cornique†
Gaelic	Irish, Scottish, Manx†

It should be noted that numerous immigrants arriving in Canada during the 18th and 19th centuries still spoke Gaelic, Irish, or Scottish.

The Roman Occupation

In 55 BC, Julius Caesar landed to the south of the island of Great Britain, then still called "Britain" or Britannia (in Latin). But his two invasions (55 and 54 BC) seem to have had little effect on the history of Roman Britain, for they resulted in neither annexation nor colonial settlement. Then in 43 AD, the Emperor Claudius invaded Britain with four Roman legions (roughly 40,000 men). Occupation went no further north than Hadian's Wall (95 km long), which today separates England from Scotland; at the time, Britannia did not include Scotland (Caledonia) or Ireland (Hibernia).
The Romans believed that the Celtic "natives" were less developed and civilized than they were, and that it was their duty to make them conform to their lifestyle and cultural values. Thus they formed cities and created a vast network of roads covering the entire country, while a hierarchy of civil servants managed the country and the army ensured that order reigned.
Latin was the common language for both Romans and local inhabitants. However, Romanizing the island's inhabitants—whom the Romans called Brittones (or "Britons")—was done rather superficially, and old-time Celtic persisted, at least in the countryside. In other words, "Britons" continued to speak a variety of Celtic languages, with the exception of the local élites, who were generally bilingual, and for whom Romanization was clearly successful.
Rural populations were not assimilated by the Roman occupants. Latin was no more than a foreign language, no doubt necessary to maintaining harmonious relations with the Romans. The Latinization of cities was more successful, but not to the extent that inhabitants had to change languages.
Then in the third century came the first Viking incursions on the island of Britannia. In the fourth century, following the great reforms of the Emperor Diocletian (284–305), the province of Britannia was divided into Britannia Superior to the west and Britannia Inferior to the east (see map above). Subsequent increases in Germanic attacks also contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire in Britain. Roman legions withdrew from the island permanently in 407.

The Arrival of Germanic Tribes

Beginning in 450, the Angles, a Germanic people from what is today Schleswig-Holstein (south of Denmark), settled on the southern coasts of Britannia and drove back the Celts to Cornwall and Wales. Once settled in England, the Germanic tribes borrowed a number of terms from the Celtic vocabulary; all that remain today are bin (Old English binn, manger), brock (O.E. brocc, badger), and dun (O.E. dunn, dull brown). The legend of King Arthur has preserved the memory of the fierce resistance of "Britons" (synonym for "English").
Although all of these Germanic invaders—Angles, Saxons, Friesians, Jutes (from Jutland in Denmark), even Francs—came from different places (albeit from the same civilization), they identified themselves either as Angles or Saxons, whence the name Anglo-Saxon. To the north was the Scotti kingdom, which gave its name to the country, Scotland.
In seventh century England there were seven major Germanic kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex (East), Wessex (West), Sussex (South), and Kent. At this time, Germanic tribes still spoke their original languages (Old Norse, Frankisch, Friesian, Saxon, Anglian, etc.), all of them stemming from common or proto-Germanic. Thus, although English did not yet exist, the peoples who had settled there would become the ancestors of a language whose evolution was just beginning.
Between the mid-fifth century and the beginning of the seventh century, Celts from Britannia (essentially Cornwall and Wales) were chased from the island by the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. Crossing the Channel, they sought refuge in Armorica (today's French Brittany), where they introduced the Breton language. Eventually, the Britons in turn pushed the Gallo-Romans east of Armorica (which meanwhile had become Brittany) and then came up against the Francs, who nevertheless left them much to themselves. Ties between Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland remained close, and conferred a strong enough sense of identity to fend off the Francs.
The Germanic invasions in Britannia caused placenames to change in relatively short order. Thus, insular Britain (Britannia) became England, the "land of the Angles." At first, Roman Armorica was called by its Latinized Gaulish name of Letavia—a name the Welsh preserved in their word for Brittany, Llydaw—then became Britannia Minor ("Little Britain"), as opposed to Britannia Major ("Great Britain"). Over time, the Latin form of Britannia evolved in France into Bretanie (whence the English Brittany), then Bretaigne, and finally Bretagne. Bretons gave the Quimper region the name Cornouailles (the furthermost southwestern region of Great Britain called Cornwall). Gaul eventually became France (from the name Francs).

Old English (or Anglo-Saxon): 700 to 1100

The Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) period extended from about 700 to the 11th century. Other Germanic nations joined the Anglo-Saxons already settled in Britain, such as the Jutes of Jutland (Denmark) and a number of Friesians. The Jutes took over the southern part of the island as well as the Isle of Wight off the south shore, while the Angles settled in the north of England and the Saxons in the southwest after confining the Celts to the west (Wales and Cornwall).
War led the numerous Germanic kingdoms to merge, obliterating the traces of Roman organization and changing Britannia to the land of the Angles and Saxons. Following the Christianization of the Welsh and Irish in the fifth century and Scots in the sixth, the Saxon kingdoms were evangelized under Pope Gregory the Great (590–604).
While the ancient Celtic nations were being driven back in the west of Britain (see map of Britannia above), the Vikings returned in the eighth ninth 9th centuries to vanquish all the Saxon kingdoms except Wessex. As they spoke Old Norse, the Vikings brought with them new northern words, roughly thirty of them, including call (Old English ceallian: "cry"), fellow (feolaga: "partner"), husband (O.E. husbonda: "head of the house"), law (O.E. lagu: "establish"), wrong (O.E. wrangr: "crooked," "unjust"), etc. Thus England remained dominated by Wessex. In time, the Danes settled in the east of England and formed a kingdom called Danelaw (Danalagu: "region where Danish law holds sway").

Anglo-Saxon

In the ninth century, thanks in part to the influence of Alfred the Great (Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex from 871 to 878), the western Saxon kings became the first sovereigns of all England and West Saxon,the dominant language of prose literature. Meanwhile, the Catholic church had continued to christianize the region and had brought back Latin. The resulting English was then further mixed with Latin, Saxon, and Old Norse words. Named after these German and Danish warriors, the Germanic language Anglo-Saxon represents the first period of English, or Old English. The Anglo-Saxon language of these peoples remained, however, fragmented into dialects.
Linguistically, the Germanic kingdoms gave birth to the three major dialectical groups found in Old English:

• West Saxon (Wessex), as well as East Saxon and South Saxon
• Kentish (Kent)
• Anglian, including Mercian and Northumbrian

The region occupied by the Anglians (Angli in Latin) was called Anglia and the language Englisc (whence English). The Jutes arrived from Denmark and settled mainly in Kent, while the Saxons remained in the region that still bears their name (Sussex: Southern Saxons; Wessex: Western Saxons; Essex: Eastern Saxons). Meanwhile, the Angles took over the area from the shores of the Thames to the Scottish Lowlands. This geographic dispersion explains in part the diversity of Old English dialects: West Saxon, South Saxon, East Saxon, Kentish, Mercian, and Northumbrian, the last two making up Anglian. The alphabet then in use is called the Runic Alphabet

Loan Words

By comparison with modern English, the Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) vocabulary appears rather limited today, with approximately 24,000 lexical units to at least 500,000 in contemporary English, if not more than one million. Old English was influenced by Old Norse, Celtic, Latin, and certain Scandinavian languages.

Old Norse

Much of the vocabulary of Old English and Old Norse was identical, though intercomprehension between the two languages was not a given . Today's English has roughly one million words that can be traced to ancient Scandinavian origins through Old Norse: bag, birth, bread, cake, to die, egg, happy, husband, law, to lift, root, same, to seem, sky, etc.

Celtic Languages

Borrowings from certain Celtic root words gave rise to some doublets in standard English: whole/hale, no/nay, shirt/skirt, screak/screech, edge/egg. Old English also borrowed some proper nouns from Celtic languages (Belfast, Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow, Avon, etc.) as well as many common nouns, such as bannock, cart, down, and mattock. Most modern English words with Celtic origins—from Welsh, Scots Gaelic, or Irish—are fairly recent loan words.

Latin

Already at the time, words with Latin origins were numerous —there were roughly 150 of them . M any actually derived from Greek: altar, mass, priest, psalm, pear, etc. Most of these words—often religious terms— were introduced through the spread of Christianity. At this time, members of the clergy and scholars used Latin, and scientists readily used Greek. This Latinization of English enriched the language with many words and gave a " Mediterranean flavour" to the " Nordic language," or a "Latin flavour" to the " G ermanic language."

Scandinavian Languages

There were also about forty words of Scandinavian origin introduced by the Vikings during their many invasions of Britain: are, take, cut, both, ill, ugly, etc. Of course the writing underwent numerous changes, but one can still recognize certain words: deor (deer), scort (short), disc (dish), môna (moon), sunne (sun). Although some Old English words are unrecognizable due to their Celtic appearance: eorðe (earth), cniht (knight), cyning (king), wicu (week), gærs (grass), costung (temptation), many survived and remain almost intact today: feet, geese, teeth, men, women, lice, mice, etc.
In the early 11 th century, Old English was a language that, despite its Celtic and Greco-Latin influences, remained firmly Germanic. Linguistic transformations of t he next period, however, would produce an Anglo-Saxon unrecognizable in relation to the preceding one.

Middle English : 1100 to 1500

The 11th century saw the beginning of the "second period" of English, called Middle English, with the conquest of the country by William II of Normandy. At the death of Edward of England in 1066, his cousin, the Duke of Normandy—then called "William the Bastard," the illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy, Robert I (Robert le Diable) and Arlette, a tanner's daughter—landed in England with the Pope's blessing in order to lay claim to the English throne. With an army of 6,000 to 7,000 men and some 1,400 ships, William landed in Sussex on September 29th and headed for Hastings, where he confronted King Harold II.
At the Battle of Hastings (October 14, 1066), which lasted only one day, William vanquished and killed Harold II. Thus "William the Bastard" became William the Conqueror and, on Christmas day, was crowned king in Westminster Abbey and became William I of England.

A Norman King for England (and Vassal of the King of France)

The new king ousted the Anglo-Saxon nobles, who had not supported him, and promoted his Norman barons. He began by appropriating the lands of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy: over 1,000 "thegns" (aristocratic landowners or rich merchants) lost their lands to some 600 barons (mostly Normans but also Lorraines, Flemish, and Bretons). William I also did away with Anglo-Saxon prelates and ecclesiastical dignitaries by handing over the archdioceses to Norman dignitaries. It is thought that roughly 20,000 Normans settled in England following the Conquest. Thereafter, William I of England (1066–1087) ruled over his feudal lords with authority and became the richest and most powerful king in the West. As the kingdom's principal landowner, three-fifths of the land fell under his direct control. After twenty years of rule, the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy had vanished completely and a Norman elite had replaced it. There was not a single Englishman at the head of a bishopric or an abbey. The English language had begun to decline while Franco-Norman thrived
However, as the Duke of Normandy, the King of England remained a vassal of the King of France (until 1204), which only succeeded in provoking antagonism. After the death of William I in 1087, his heirs fought over the English throne, and rivalries with Normandy intensified. William II ("William the Red") assumed the English throne to the displeasure of his brother, Robert Courteheuse, the eldest son of William I and heir to the Duchy of Normandy. Tensions and conflicts between the two brothers lasted twenty years, as each tried to seize the other's lands, which served only to further the claims of the King of France.

The Franco-Norman Language

During the reign of William I of England, members of the court spoke a kind of French known today as Franco-Norman (or A nglo-Norman), a French tinged with northern words brought by the Vikings who had conquered northern France a century earlier. By that time, the word Norman had lost its etymology of "man of the North" in favour of "inhabitant of the Duchy of Normandy." As conqueror, William declared Franco-Norman the official language of England. While inhabitants of the countryside and most common townspeople spoke Anglo-Saxon, the local nobility, the conquering aristocracy, and those connected with the church and the courts spoke Franco-Norman . Clergy, clerks, scientists, and scholars wrote in Latin. Thus, three languages shared the same language arena without any real competition: Franco-Norman, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin.
French, the language of the King of France, had not yet become established in high society, but this changed by the close of the 13th century. More prestigious than Franco-Norman, French was finally adopted by aristocrats and high dignitaries of the Church of England. The French language became widespread in cultural and artistic life. T he Norman nobility had always forced its children to learn French, either in France itself or in specialized schools. Robert of Gloucester, one of the kingdom's leading figures, wrote in his Chronicle in 1298:

Vor bote a man conne frenss me telþ of him lute.
Ac lowe men holdeþ to engliss and to hor owe speche ßute.

For unless a man knows French, men think little of him .
But low men hold to English and to their own speech yet.

In short, commoners and country dwellers were barely influenced by French. They continued to use their Anglo-Saxon dialects while also borrowing (without knowing it) words from Franco-Norman or French.

Quadrilingualism

Until the 14th century, four languages were spoken in the country, but did not seriously compete with one another. Franco-Norman (also called "Anglo-Norman") was the language of local administration and was taught in schools from the elementary level. The Church even preached to its congregations in Franco-Norman, although it used Latin for its own internal administration. French was the language of the aristocracy, legislation, and the courts; many rich and/or noble families sent their children to study in French cities. Meanwhile, the Anglo-Saxon people continued to speak an Anglo-Saxon (fragmented into five linguistic varieties) infused with Latin, Franco-Norman, and French words. Certain Anglo-Saxon words were created: town, home, house, and hall. This is how English acquired numerous lexical doublets, one of Germanic origin, the other of Romance origin: house/ home, bookstore/ library, kitchen/ cuisine, sheep/ mutton, stream / river, coming/ arrival, tank/ reservoir, tongue/ language, town/ city, mansion/ manor, etc.
Other words came into English through Franco-Norman: accustom (acostumer > accoutumer), afraid (afrayé > effrayé), butler (buteler > bouteiller), candle (candeile), crown (coronne > couronne), eagle (egle > aigle), garden (gardin > jardin), jacket (jacquet), mayor (maire), money (moneie), oil (oile > huile), school (escole > école), soldier (soudier > soldat), tailor (taillour > tailleur), war (werre > guerre), etc. Old Norse (of Scandinavian origin) gave Middle English the very important word law.
The English nobility had borrowed its titles from French ( prince, duke, peer, marquis, viscount, and baron), but had created others in Middle English: king, queen, lord, lady, and earl. There was also an administrative vocabulary with French origins, such as county, city, village, justice, palace, mansion, residence, government, and parliament. There were words in the areas of religion (sermon, prayer, clergy, abbey, piety, etc.), law (justice, jury, verdict, prison, pardon, etc.), fashion (fashion, collar, button, satin, ornament, etc.), cooking (dinner, supper, sole, salmon, beef, veal, mutton, pork, sausage, pigeon, biscuit, orange, oil, vinegar, mustard, etc.), and art (art, music, image, cathedral, column, etc.).

The Growing Influence of French

By his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, Henry II, first king of the Plantagenet dynasty, controlled over half of eastern France, aside from Ireland and Scotland. His kingdom now stretched from Scotland to the Pyrenees, the greatest potential power in Europe. Eventually, Philippe Auguste took back from Henry II's sons (Richard the Lionhearted and John Lackland) the lion's share of the Plantagenets' French possessions (Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, Aquitaine, Limousin et Brittany).
At this time, the entire English monarchy spoke French, not to mention that the English kings married only French princesses (every princess between 1152 and 1445 came from France). Some English kings actually spent more time on the continent than in England; Henry II spent 21 of his 34 year reign there.
In 1259, Henry III of England officially renounced Normandy, which nonetheless retained a kind of autonomy within the French kingdom. The loss of Normandy forced the English nobility to choose between England and the continent . This contributed to marginalizing Franco-Norman while benefiting both Parisian French and English. In 1328, the last of the French Capetians (Charles IV) died heirless. The King of England claimed his succession rights to the French realm, but the French princes chose Philippe VI of Valois (1337). Henceforth, the two French-speaking kings fought over the French kingdom (until 1453) during the Hundred Years War.
After winning the Battle of Crécy (1346), English king Edward III was completely unable to address his troops in an English they could understand. Two years later (1348), he founded The Most Noble Order of the Garter, with its French motto Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense, meaning "Evil to him who evil thinks." But this long war had given birth to strong nationalist feelings in both France and England, and there were to be consequences for the French language of the English monarchy.
The English middle class protested the increasing use of French and demanded the use of English in their legislation. Edward III was forced to concede. In 1362, the Statute of Pleading officially recognized English as the sole language of the courts, although in practice French remained in use until 1731, despite the act of Parliament of 1362 that made English the sole legal language of the country. Gradually, French even lost its privileged place in education. Beginning in 1349, English became the language of instruction at the University of Oxford, whereas previously university teaching had been done in French. English began to be taught in some "grammar schools," and eventually in all schools.
The first king of England to speak English as a mother tongue was in fact Henry IV (1399–1413). One might say that in "kicking the English [allied with the  urgundians ] out of France," Joan of Arc (1412–1431) also contributed to the decline of French across the Channel. One wonders what would have happened to French and English if she had not intervened: the King of England, Henry V— already Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy and of Guyana—would have been crowned at Rheims, thus becoming both King of France and England. French would surely have become the language of both countries thus united in a single kingdom. In short, if Joan of Arc saved France from the English, unbeknownst to her she also did a disservice to the French language, as her intervention ensured the enduring presence of English across the Channel.

The State of Middle English

When compared to Old English, the linguistic developments of Middle English were in the considerable simplification of the language during that period. In fact, beginning in the 13th century, the three or four cases (declensions) of nouns in the singular were reduced to two, and the –es ending marking the plural of nouns was adopted. "Arbitrary" distinctions of grammatical gender were replaced by "natural" ones, contrary to French practice, which arbitrarily assigned the gender of nouns. The duel number (to indicate "two," as in Greek) fell into disuse, while the dative and accusative of pronouns were merged into a single form. Verb conjugation was also simplified by omitting endings and using a common form for the singular and plural of the past tenses of "strong verbs." As for writing, it had evolved from the Runic to the Latin alphabet when England as a whole became Christian. The Middle English writing system retained a number of characteristics inherited from Old English, but adapted them according to the writing system inherited from the Normans.

French Loan Words

Middle English vocabulary underwent a radical transformation due in large part to its borrowings from Franco-Norman and especially Parisian French. The English nobility and clergy, most of whom were fluent in French and English, littered their English with French words relating to government, the Church, the army, life at court, the arts, education, and medicine. A century after the arrival of William the Conqueror, more than 1,000 Norman words had entered Middle English. Eventually, so did roughly 10,000 French words. In reality, English and Franco-Norman melded so well that the lexical result was very supple and contained numerous terms. However, it is not always easy to distinguish Franco-Norman derivations from French ones in today's English. For example: bargain (bargaignier > barguigner), bastard (bastard, bâtard), choice (chois > choix), crust (cruste > croûte), custom (custume > coutume), merchant (marchand), money (monnaie), mutton (mouton), pork (porc), to toast (toster > rôtir), etc.
Some idea of the standard English of the period can be found in this extract from The Canterbury Tales, by the famous English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400):

He knew the cause of everich maladye
Were it of hoot or cold, or moyste or drye,
And where they engendred and of what humour;
He was a verray parfit praktisour.

Il connaissait la cause de toutes les maladies;
Qu'elles soient dues au chaud, au froid, au temps humide ou sec;
Il savait où elles se développaient et de quelles humeurs elles provenaient;
C'était un praticien vraiment parfait.

These Middle English verses contain at least eight words of French origin: cause (cause), maladye (maladie), moyste (moite), engendred (engendrer), humour (humeur), verray (vrai), parfit (parfait), and praktisour (old form of médecin, doctor). Even this small sample illustrates the importance of the French contribution to the English vocabulary of the period.

Latin Loan Words

English at this time underwent another massive Latinization, borrowing heavily from Medieval Latin, sometimes prompted by French: attencioun (attention), diffusioun (diffusion), pastour (pastor), rectour (rector), actualyte (actuality), captivite (captivity). Among the many terms of Latin origin to have survived are allegory, conspiracy, contempt, homicide, incarnate, infinite, intellect, lapidary, lunatic, moderate, nervous, promote, quiet (quietus), rational, solidary, submit, suppress, temporal, tributary, and zenith. In addition, English was enriched by Latin suffixes and prefixes, some of them borrowed through French. For example, the prefixes de- (deduce), dis- (distract), ex- (except), inter- (interval), per- (pervert), pre- (predestine), pro- (prosecute), and sub- (subscribe); and the suffixes -able (admirable) -ible (credible), -al (capital), -ant/-ent (important, different), -ment (argument, segment), etc. English would later draw from Latin in order to adjust its verbal and adjectival systems to its substantive one. Moreover, English "imported" terms from ancient regional languages spoken in medieval France, especially Angevin and Provençal.
Latin (or French) was also the medium for a number of words of Greek origin. Some 14th century examples include agony, artery, basis, centre, character, climate, comedy, cycle, echo, fantasy, harmony, horizon, idiot, logic, magic, mystery, pomp, prune, schism, spasm, theatre, and tragedy.

Dutch Loan Words

Finally, the Netherlands brought their share of lexical loan words, thanks to flourishing economic relations between England and Flanders at the time. There are words such as poll (meaning "man's head"), clock, pickle, firkin, hop (the plant), skipper, deck, hose (tube), groat, wainscot, bulwark, luck, groove, and snap.
Meanwhile, the people of the English countryside spoke only a Middle English dialect. The language map at left illustrates the locations of the varieties of Middle English dialects.
There were dialects in the north (equivalent to Northumbrian), southwest (West Saxon), southeast (Kentish), West Midlands (West Anglian), and East Midlands (East Anglian). Compared to the preceding Old English period, Celtic speech areas shrunk while Middle English ones grew, in Scotland as much as in Wales and Cornwall.
By the end of the 14th century, standard English was fully formed. It had developed in the area around London for various political, economic, and demographic reasons. Due to massive borrowing from Latin and French, the English of this period had become far removed from other Germanic languages such as German, Dutch, and Danish. And compared to Old English, it was completely transformed. This English was used by the people insofar as it corresponded to the speech around London, one that would become the language of public life, trade, and learning.
It is worth noting that English evolved unchecked, never having been "governed" by the rules generally imposed on official languages. Until now, Latin and French had been the languages used in official functions. In centuries to come, Latin would continue to exercise a profound influence on English, a Germanic language: no small feat!

Modern English : 1500 to the Present

Modern English begins in the middle of the 15th century, when Franco-Norman and Anglo-Saxon coalesced to form today's English. Modern English can be divided into three periods:

1. Early Modern English : 1500 to 1750
2. Late Modern English : 1750–1800 to the 20th Century
3. Contemporary English : the 20th Century

Early Modern English

The period known as Early Modern English began just prior to the Renaissance, a time o f unprecedented, intense excitement that included a fascination with Italy, new inventions, the discovery of America, etc. While it was a prosperous era for the aristocracy and the middle class, the peasants generally lived in squalor and knew nothing of Renaissance splendours. The English language attained its definitive structure in the 16th century, when spelling began to be standardized and grammar acquired the characteristics known today. At the end of the first period, which corresponds to the Renaissance movement, pronunciation transformed itself: for example, to meet, once pronounced [met], evolved into [mi:t].

The Contribution of Latin and Scientific Words

Vocabulary once again borrowed heavi ly from Greek and Latin, often through French. For example, with real and royal came the Latinism regal. The great authors wrote in English (this was the Shakespearean era), but scientific writings were always in Latin. This is why English drew from Latin and Greek: maternity, esteem, education, atmosphere, skeleton, catastrophe, drama, scheme, genius, vacuum, anonymous, celebrate, and confiscate are but a few examples. Others include absurdity, adapt, agile, alienate, anachronism, appropriate, assassinate, atmosphere, autograph, benefit, capsule, catastrophe, chaos, climax, conspicuous, contradictory, crisis, criterion, critic, disability, disrespect, emphasis, encyclopaedia, enthusiasm, epilepsy, eradicate, exact, excavate, excursion, exist, expectation, expensive, explain, external, extinguish, fact, glottis, habitual, halo, harass, idiosyncrasy, immaturity, impersonal, inclemency, jocular, larynx, lexicon, lunar, monopoly. monosyllable, necessitate, obstruction, pancreas, parenthesis, pathetic, pneumonia, relaxation, relevant, scheme, soda, species, system, temperature, tendon, thermometer, tibia, transcribe, ulna, utopian, vacuum, and virus.
Many words borrowed from Latin first went through French, but as usual it is not always easy to tell which ones. Meanwhile, new complications arose in spelling, leading to some disharmony between pronunciations and written forms, a characteristic as striking in French as in English.
Some English scholars very attached to Latin etymology managed to impose Latinate forms. For example, debt (F dette) and doubt (F doute) acquired a written [b] as a reminder of the Latin debitum and dubitum. A -g was added to reign because of the Latin regnum, and an -s to island because of insula. But in the latter case, island did not come from the Latin insula but from the Old English iegland. There was also the addition of numerous Latin prefixes and suffixes:

• Prefixes: a- (amoral), ab-, ac-, ad-, ante-, anti-, co-, com-, con-, de-, di-, dis-, e- (eject), em-, en-, ex-, it-, im-, in-, ir-, ob-, op-, per-, pre-, pro-, re-, sub-, super-.
• Suffixes: -age, -al, -ance, -ant, -ar, -ate, -ence, -ent, -ible, -ic, -id, -ile, -ion, -ite, -ity, -ive, -or, -ous, -tion and nouns like -a (data), -is (crisis), -ude (decrepitude), -um (datum), and -y (contingency).

It is noteworthy that Latinate words had a higher status than Anglo-Saxon or Germanic words, especially during the Renaissance, when professional vocabulary (medicine, botany, law, etc.) entered English in full force directly from Latin or through French. Thus, Latinate words became indicators of a good English education and, consequently, of the speaker's social status. For example, it can be shown how words of Latin (or French) origin have acquired a higher social cachet than Germanic ones. Today's English has many such doublets: amiable/ friendly, lachrymose/ weeping, libr a ry / book store, city/ town, journey/ trip, couch/ bed, cuisine/ kitchen, pork/ pig, mutton/ sheep, etc.
The English humanists also borrowed from Greek, either directly or through Latin. Many scholars knew Greek and promoted its study. They directly introduced words such as criterion, acoustic, idiosyncrasy, pathos, topic, acoustic, anonymous, chorus, crisis, critic, cylinder, dogma, drama, enigma, isthmus, larynx, nectar, site, and theory. Moreover, Renaissance English fostered the use of compound words taken from Greek, such as anthropology, archaeology, biography, cacophony, geography, hydrography, and physiology. This way of enriching the lexicon would become very much in vogue in the 18th and 19th centuries—not to mention the 20th.
On the other hand, during the Renaissance many Latin or Greek words were considered pompous. Called inkhorn terms, they seem to have been most popular in university circles. With this fashion, however, came a growing resistance to borrowings often considered pointless. Some writers who used inkhorn terms were criticized for being boring and unintelligible, and even pedantic. Terms that the local populations would find hard to understand or use were called hard words. Some scholars, such as George Pettie (1548–1589), spoke of "the barbarousness of our tongue," while Sir Thomas Wilson denounced "these scholars who Latinize to the point that the man in the street wonders what they are saying." Later on, English protestants would refer to Latin as a Popish language in the belief that it had been created to keep the common people in ignorance and uphold the power of the clergy. Moreover, changes were underway as the 17th century drew to a close: in 1687 Newton wrote his Principia Mathematica in Latin, but in 1704 published his Opticks in English.

The Contribution of Modern Languages

Throughout the 17th century, English continued to borrow French words, notably through the English aristocracy and middle class. Examples include aide-de-camp, belles-lettres, burlesque, cabaret, canaille, champagne, chef-d'oeuvre, commandant, compote, cortège, contretemps, crayon, démarche, dishabille, double entente, envoy (from envoyer), façade, faux pas, group, liaison, muslin (from mousseline), penchant, pis-aller, repartee, reverie, suite, and tableau.
As elsewhere in Europe, the Renaissance also brought a contingent of Italian words. Thanks to its economic riches, military strength, technological and scientific advances, and cultural supremacy, Italy dominated almost every field of endeavour. So it is no surpri s e that many in England were fascinated by this country and gave in to a vogue of Italomania that is still evident in the English language today. Between 1500 and 1650, English borrowed heavily from Italian: artisan, bandit, battalion, bankrupt, belvedere, cav a lier, cornice, madon n a, opera, partisan, pedant, populace, balloon, carnival, caprice, gazette, disgrace, mustachio, tarot, etc.
Although Queen Elizabeth I and her advisors took great pains to foster anti-Hispanic sentiment, many English people also spoke Spanish, especially since the marriage of Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, with Philip II of Spain. But it was not until the mid-17th century that Spanish terms entered the English vocabulary through French: sherry, cargo, infant, renegade, creole, toreador, armada, escalade, grenade, etc. Some words were borrowed from the Spanish Americas: ananas, banana, cannibal, mosquito, potato, etc.
English continued to borrow from Dutch (brandy, yacht, smack [fishing boat], filibuster, wagon, frolic, snip, sputter, etc.), Arabic (alchemy, admiral, alembic, azimuth, cotton, elixir, alcohol, algebra, apricot, hashish, arsenal, etc.), the languages of India (curry, pariah, nabob, arsenic, check, chess, lilac, etc.), Persian (bazaar, dervish, shah, etc.), and Turkish (caviar, coffee, dolman, horde, janissary).
During the 16th and 17th centuries, English took canoe, lama, manioc, tobacco, chocolate, condor, tomato, moccasin, sachem, squaw, and others. from aboriginal languages.

English Transformed

These contributions show without a doubt that the English lexicon was undergoing quite a transformation with the introduction of foreign terms. English was even forsaking its Germanic heritage of short words in favour of long words passed down by Latin and Greek, and even French (or Franco-Norman). Moreover, this was a fashion followed by most English writers—Chaucer in the 14th century, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Bacon in the 16th, and Ben Jonson and Milton in the 17th. If some in England reacted "badly" to the intrusion of foreign words—especially Latin and Greek ones—others believed the English language had also grown richer with thousands of new words, and that it had acquired a remarkable lexical flexibility. It is easy to understand the reaction of someone like Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) at the influx of these foreign terms into English. Writing to the poet Gabriel Harvey (1550–1631), he lamented that they had made the English language a gibberish and a mishmash of all other languages. This flood of new words from approximately fifty different languages must have made a similar impression on many in England. Still, the majority of loan words came from Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish, giving the language of this "northern country" a curious and unique " Mediterranean flavour."
It is also around this time that concerns were raised about spelling. The introduction in 1476 of the printing press by William Caxton played a role in standardizing spelling. There were two opposing camps—"revolutionaries" and "reformers." The former wanted to completely overhaul the writing system, while the latter merely wanted to tidy up the spelling. The reformers won, which left English spelling in a rather complex state. In the mid-17th century, a major campaign was waged aimed at founding an English Academy modelled after the French Académie française (1635) and the Italian Accademia della Crusca (1582). The proponents of the idea wanted to set out and impose a series of norms that would stabilize the English language. But despite the support of such famous writers as Dryden, Defoe, and Swift, nothing came of the idea. A certain standardization did occur during the next period, but attempts at reform would remain half-hearted until the arrival of lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843). In 1828, Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language, which included distinctive new American spellings. Webster's fame does not rest solely on his impressive body of work—he was the first to see the necessity of distinguishing American usage from its British model. As for grammar, despite numerous attempts since the 16th century, English has never been truly codified.

Late Modern English

As one would expect, the breach opened by the Latinizers of the preceding period widened during the 18th and 19th centuries during what is now called the Late Modern English period. Industrialization fostered a very large technical and scientific vocabulary taken mostly from Greco-Latin sources. The second period of Modern English (1750–1800) saw the first attempts at standardizing and regulating the English language by means of the first prescriptive grammars and dictionaries.

The Borrowing Continues

A new phenomenon arose near the end of the 17th century: genuine Latin words, borrowed directly and without phonetic or morphological alterations, entered the English language: album, antenna, desideratum, lumbago, minimum, momentum, nebula, status, stimulus, viscera, and others. This movement continued to a lesser degree into the 18th century: humus, insomnia, locus, maximum, extra, prospectus, ultimatum, detritus, duplex, ego, excursus, sanatorium, etc.
French continued to provide English with new words in the 18th century (chaperon, etiquette, picnic, pirouette, roulette, valise, bouquet, pompon, pot-pourri, canteen, chaise, connoisseur, fauteuil, salon, denouement, vignette, bivouac, manoeuvre, route, glacier, hors d'oeuvre, police, soi-disant, vis a vis, etc.) and in the 19th century (format, cliché, beret, blouse, bain-marie, bonbon, gratin, mayonnaise, restaurant, sauté, coupé, acrobat, secretaire, morgue, bête noire, mirage, etc.).
Italian enriched English in the 17th and 18th centuries with impresario, largo, pergola, presto, solo, sonata, soprano, virtuoso, casino, concerto, prima do nn a, trio, imbroglio, etc., and in the 19th with intermezzo, scenario, studio, tremolo, mafia, vendetta, etc.
English continued to borrow from foreign languages throughout the 20th century and will most likely continue to do so indefinitely. In fact, in a July 2003 editorial, a journalist for the prestigious Wall Street Journal wrote, "What makes English so strong, after all, is its openness to new words from the four corners of the world. While English is a crucible of languages, the French seem to think of their language as a soufflé—extremely delicate and always in danger of falling." The writer ridiculed the decision by the French Minister of Culture to ban the word e-mail (courriel in Quebec), calling it "très stupide" (in French). He did not mention, however, that in March 2003, following France's refusal to participate in the Iraq war, an Ohio Republican decreed that French fries would henceforth be rechristened freedom fries in all cafeterias and annexes of the House of Representatives. In the same patriotic spirit, French toast w as now freedom toast. Is this what they call taking French leave?

The Spread of the English Language

The middle and especially the end of the 18th century witnessed a general interest in British civilization, especially in its politics and social customs, and English was to play an increasingly important role in international affairs. The British had spread their language around the globe and English was now the language of economic and political relations. As a result, it acquired great influence, and began bequeathing vast numbers of words to other languages. In fact, of all European languages, English now borrowed least while lending most; it had gone from word borrower to word lender. This gave a real boost to the prestige of English on its continent of origin. Later the British and the Americans would show they had the determination and the means to spread their language—and their goods of trade—far and wide.

Contemporary English

Compared to other languages, contemporary English may appear something of a hybrid, given all its non-genetic pairings (eye/ocular, mind/mental, mouth/oral, nose/nasal, sun/solar, etc.), but this rather shows its tremendous flexibility. Its immense vocabulary is officially estimated at over 500,000 words, most likely closer to a million.
Today, English presents fewer noticeable variations in spelling and stress. Nonetheless, written American English tends to have a more rigid grammar and syntax, but is more tolerant in its use of neologisms. This could be a result of the United States' colonial role in the late 19th century, when it arrived in Southeast Asia (the Philippines), then in the Caribbean (Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, etc.), and after World War II in vast stretches of the Pacific. Since then, the United States has played a predominant role in the spread of English because of its political, military, economic, and cultural power. Despite minor variations, English is easily understood everywhere in the world.

Canadian English

With the exception of varieties of English spoken in the Maritimes, there are almost no regional variants of English in Canada. What regional peculiarities do exist are usually derived from occupations typical of the region or province, and are not a genuine internal variant of English. This is the case for highrigger, a word used in forestry in British Columbia to designate someone who works in tree tops, while in the Prairies, the verb sodbust is a farming term.
However, there do exist non-geographical variations, which is why researchers have become increasingly interested in variations that would help to identify Canadian English. For example, it has been shown that the differences in spoken English between women and men appear far greater than previously thought. Researchers are attempting to verify a widespread hypothesis that women, faced with a choice between regular English and divergent forms, are far more likely than men to choose standard English. Moreover, a study conducted in Ottawa has shown the relationship between certain language habits and the speaker's social class. Two similar studies (in Toronto and Vancouver) showed that the "rising inflection" (vowels) peculiar to Canadians is becoming increasingly uncommon in young people. In other words, Canadian English is changing.
The situation is somewhat different in the Maritimes. The English of this region of Eastern Canada has more in common with the language spoken in southwest England than with the one spoken by Loyalists who once settled in Ontario. But the distinct nature of Maritime English stems in particular from the influence of Scottish and, to a lesser degree, Irish. Even at that, Maritime English presents few variations from the standard norm when compared to varieties found in other anglophone countries; moreover, it is almost never found in cities. This variety of English does, however, present many fascinating characteristics. It contains expressions current in Scotland, such as stormstayed (kept home by a storm), and Ireland (clart: "bad housekeeper"). Other words come from the Micmac (pung: "horse-pulled sleigh"), Acadians (aboiteau: "dike with sluices"), and Loyalists (double runner, different kinds of sleighs). It is also not surprising that some words are related to fishing: fiddler ("small salmon"), flake ("drying platform"), lolly ("soft ice"). Finally, the distinctive pronunciation of words such as aunt, calm, vase, and wash in the Maritimes constitutes something of a genuine regional accent. The situation in Newfoundland differs even more: its variety of English has its roots in the English of southwest England and Ireland . After almost 400 years of separation from the homeland, Newfoundland English has acquired a regional character very different from current Canadian English. Nevertheless, in cities, everyone tends to speak a kind of standard Canadian English. As with Canadian French, one of the major causes of the standardization of English has surely been an increase in education, but the development of electronic media and international communications has also contributed to narrowing the gap between varieties of English. However, it took state intervention—especially by the Canadian federal and Ontario governments—to foster the collective identity of English-language Canadians.

The Internationalization of English

The internationalization of national economies and the expansion into outside markets have created the need for common international languages, and English has benefited the most, along with French, Russian, Spanish, and Chinese. Songs, movies, and scientific research continue to spread English, as do communications and information technology. But it is especially from Latin and Greek that Anglo-American continues to draw for the scientific and technical vocabulary vital to the greater scientific and economic communities.
Since the mid-19th century, the importance of English in the world has continued to grow . The decline of the British Empire was not a setback for English—Great Britain simply handed the torch off to the United States. English is not an international language in the way that French, Spanish, Arabic, or Russian are; it is a genuine world language, a super-language above all others! It is the medium of science and technology, medicine, computer science, finance, and international trade. English appears to be continually evolving toward a kind of borderless standardization, yet without abandoning its national, regional, and social variants. English has adapted by taking diversified local forms.

The future

Of course it remains possible some day for the English language to fragment and break down into dialects, insofar as the final result of territorial expansion is always implosion. The more a language is spoken over a vast territory, the more it tends to diversify and fragment. Here are a few possible scenarios:

1. English will continue to retain (over many centuries) its present status as world medium in international, economic, and scientific relations.
2. Alliances among large language families—such as francophones, hispanophones, lusophones, arabophones, etc—will limit the expansion of English. Such a scenario implies the vigorous political intervention of all governments and organizations concerned. Would nationalist countries undertake such international struggles?
3. New technologies, especially the Internet, will allow languages to develop freely. However, it is almost certain that only a few languages—including English—would benefit from such an advantage.

Whatever the scenario, English must perish some day. As with Phoenician, Greek, or Latin, English will surely be replaced by another language, although it is impossible to know which one, let alone when exactly this will occur. What is certain is that an important international language does not die out quickly, especially in written form; sometimes it continues to be used for many centuries after the last speakers have disappeared, as in the case of Greek and Latin. As for knowing if English will dialectify, this is unlikely to happen soon, as technological discoveries such as radio, telephone, television, the Internet, and others have halted linguistic fragmentation. On the contrary, standardization of the English language—spoken and especially written—is increasing, albeit certain local forms continue to coexist. In short, it is very difficult to predict the future!

Similarities Between English and French

From a historical linguistics viewpoint, especially in comparing English to other Germanic languages such as German, Dutch, or Danish, English is obviously much more Romanized due to the influence of French and Latin, which played a big role in the evolution of the language. Moreover, French was greatly Germanized by Francisque during the Romance era, contrary to the other Romance languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc.). In other words, English is to Germanic languages what French is to Latin languages: languages influenced by another genetically different one. If English remains a distinct language among Germanic languages, the same can surely be said for French among Romance languages.
Moreover, throughout its history, English (following the example of French) has drawn heavily from Latin and Greek for the new words it has needed. It also inherited spelling irregularities from French. In addition, linguists estimate that roughly 60% of English words come from both French and Latin, while French owes English only 3% to 5% of its vocabulary. Yet English and French share more than 3,200 words. For instance, abandon, bizarre, fiancé, important, moustache, objection, and troglodyte have exactly the same spelling and meaning, while other words are close cousins: mushroom (< F mousseron), laundry (< F lavandier),  powder (< F poudre), school (< F escole: école), etc. All of this explains in part certain stunning resemblances between the two languages.
Linguist Henriette Walter, in L'aventure des mots français venus d'ailleurs (Paris: éditions Robert Laffont, 1997, p. 177), is eloquent on the subject of the shared history of English and French, which remain "old travelling companions." In fact for nine centuries, their relationship has been "intimate" and their exchanges unbalanced, advantageous at first for French, then today for English. Between the 11th and the 18th centuries, French bequeathed thousands of words to English . This was reversed in the mid-18th century, when English words nourished the French language. From the mid-20th century, the process increased significantly, this time in the United States. In other words, French and English have always been "mutual borrowers." In the end, we can say the two official languages of Canada certainly share similarities they have inherited from the shared history of France and Great Britain.