Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English

English is the ugly stepchild of the Germanic languages. It has adopted various grammatical features, pronunciation and vocabulary from other neighbors. Meanwhile, the Germanic languages have plenty of unique features that separate it from other Indo-European languages. What are some of these features and why did they come about?

Language evolves more quickly when different people intermingle without writing things down. English has various periods of limited literacy and connections with others. This contributed to many changes. Alas, these factors also make it difficult to trace the changes. Making it even more difficult, writing tends to be more conservative than spoken language. Thus, we may still see things written one way even after the language has moved on. 

Widespread writing and communications give us better records of language change. However, they also tend to significantly slow the rate of change. 

English has had a lot of interaction and influence from other languages. The author brings about the possible interaction of the Phoenicians with early Germanic speakers leading to some of the language changes. The Celts, Vikings, and Norse all played a role in influencing the language. There have been changes in both grammar and vocabulary that appear to be influenced by others.

The author is less convinced of the influence of language on thoughts and actions. There are some small cases where culture seem to match language. However, it is difficult to determine whether this was culture influencing language or the other way around.