English Language Day
What is English Language Day?
English Language Day was first celebrated in 2010,
alongside Arabic Language Day, Chinese
Language Day, French Language Day, Russian
Language Day and Spanish Language Day. These
are the six official languages of the United Nations,
and each has a special day, designed to raise
awareness of the history, culture and
achievements of these languages.
Why is English Language Day celebrated on 23
April?
This day was chosen because it is thought to be
Shakespeare’s birthday, and the anniversary of his
death. As well as being the English language’s
most famous playwright, Shakespeare also had a
huge impact on modern-day English. At the time he
was writing, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the
English language was going through a lot of
changes and Shakespeare’s creativity with
language meant he contributed hundreds of new
words and phrases that are still used today. For
example, the words ‘gossip’, ‘fashionable’ and
‘lonely’ were all first used by Shakespeare. He also
invented phrases like ‘break the ice’, ‘all our
yesterdays’, ‘fainthearted’ and ‘love is blind’.
The story of the English language began in the fifth
century when Germanic tribes invaded Celticspeaking Britain and brought their languages with
them. Later, Scandinavian Vikings invaded and
settled with their languages too. In 1066 William I,
from modern-day France, became king, and
Norman-French became the language of the courts
and official activity. People couldn’t understand
each other at first, because the lower classes
continued to use English while the upper classes
spoke French, but gradually French began to
influence English. An estimated 45 per cent of all
English words have a French origin. By
Shakespeare’s time, Modern English had
developed, printing had been invented and people
had to start to agree on ‘correct’ spelling and
vocabulary. […]