hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2018-01-30

■ #3200. 後期近代英語期の主要な出来事の年表 [timeline][history][lmode][chronology][world_englishes][linguistic_imperialism]

　Algeo and Pyles の英語史年表シリーズのシメとなる第4弾は，後期近代英語期 (201--02) ．著者たちのいう Late Modern English は，1800年以降の英語を指している．これより前の時代の年表は，「#3193. 古英語期の主要な出来事の年表」 ([2018-01-23-1])，「#3196. 中英語期の主要な出来事の年表」 ([2018-01-26-1])，「#3197. 初期近代英語期の主要な出来事の年表」 ([2018-01-27-1]) を参照．

1805	A victory over the French at the battle of Trafalgar established British naval supremacy.
1806	The British occupied Cape Colony in South Africa, preparing the way for the arrival in 1820 of a large number of British settlers.
1828	Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language was published.
1840	In New Zealand, by the Treaty of Waitangi, native Maori ceded sovereignty to the British crown.
1857	A proposal at the Philological Society of London led to work that resulted in the New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1928), reissued as the Oxford English Dictionary (1933).
1858	The Government of India Act transferred power from the East India Company to the crown, thus creating the British Raj in India.
1861--5	The American Civil War established the indissolubility of the Union and abolished slavery in America.
1898	The four-month Spanish-American War resulted in the United States becoming a world power with overseas possessions and thus a major participant in international politics.
1906	The first radio broadcast, leading in 1920 to the first American commercial radio station in Pittsburgh.
1914--8	World War I created an alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom.
1922	The British Broadcasting Company (after 1927, Corporation) was established and became a major conveyor of information in English around the world.
1927	The first motion picture with spoken dialog, The Jazz Singer, was released.
1936	The first high-definition television service was established by the BBC, to be followed by cable service in the early 1950s and satellite service in the early 1960s.
1939--45	World War II further solidified the British-American link.
1945	The charter of the United Nations was produced at San Francisco.
1947	British India was divided into India and Pakistan, and both became independent.
1952	The Secretariat building of the United Nations was constructed in Manhattan.
1961	The Merriam Webster's Third New International Dictionary was published.
1983	The Internet was created.
1991	The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was dissolved, leaving the United States as the world's only superpower.
1992	The first Web browser for the World Wide Web was released.

　年表をざっと眺めるだけでも，この時期に英語が世界へ拡大していく様子がわかる．拡大といっても地理的な側面に限らない．話者人口という側面においても拡大したし，使用される状況や場面の範囲，すなわち機能的にも拡大した．Algeo and Pyles (201) の記述が的を射ている．

The history of English since 1800 has been a story of expansion---in geography, in speakers, and in the purposes for which English is used. Geographically, English has been spread around the world, first by British colonization and empire-building, and more recently by the prominence of America in world affairs. The number of its speakers has undergone a population explosion, not alone of native speakers but also of nonnative speakers of English as an additional language. And the uses to which English is put have ramified with the growth of science, technology, and commerce.

　要するに，後期近代英語期は，地理，人口，機能という3面における同時的拡大の時代である．見方によれば，言語帝国主義への道をひた走っていたともいえる．

　・ Algeo, John, and Thomas Pyles. The Origins and Development of the English Language. 5th ed. Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.

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