Monday, April 17, 2023

The Rise of the English Language on This Day in History

 

This day in history: On this day in 1397,  "Geoffrey Chaucer read from his book 'The Canterbury Tales' at the court of King Richard II. He read it in English, the language of the common man, instead of the Norman French usually spoken at court. Since the Norman Conquest in 1066, French had been the language of the ruling class. In fact, one of the most famous kings of England, Richard “The Lionheart” barely spoke English at all. English was the language of the peasant, and was slowly dying out. Chaucer would dramatically reverse this trend." Source

"During the fourteenth century, French and Latin were viewed as more sophisticated and more permanent than English. Chaucer proved that literature written in English could be every bit as beautiful, enjoyable, complex, and profound as literature written in a supposedly 'better' language." Source

"The Canterbury Tales is regarded as one of the first poems written in the English language, and Chaucer himself is one of the 'fathers' of the written English language." Source


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