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Translate the highlighted words as you listen to the song
When
we
talk
about
English
we
often
think
of
it
As
a
single
language
But
what
do
the
dialects
spoken
in
dozens
Of
countries
around
the
world
Have
in
common
with
each
other
Or
with
the
writings
of
Chaucer?
And
how
are
any
of
them
related
to
the
strange
words
in
Beowulf?
The
answer
is
that
like
most
languages
English
has
evolved
through
generations
of
speakers
Undergoing
major
changes
over
time
By
undoing
these
changes
We
can
trace
the
language
from
the
present
day
Back
to
its
ancient
roots
While
modern
English
shares
many
similar
words
With
Latin-derived
romance
languages
Like
French
and
Spanish
Most
of
those
words
were
not
originally
part
of
it
Instead
they
started
coming
into
the
language
With
the
Norman
invasion
of
England
in
1066
When
the
French-speaking
Normans
conquered
England
And
became
its
ruling
class
They
brought
their
speech
with
them
Adding
a
massive
amount
of
French
and
Latin
vocabulary
To
the
English
language
previously
spoken
there
Today
we
call
that
language
Old
English
This
is
the
language
of
Beowulf
It
probably
doesn't
look
very
familiar
But
it
might
be
more
recognizable
if
you
know
some
German
That's
because
Old
English
belongs
To
the
Germanic
language
family
First
brought
to
the
British
Isles
in
the
5th
and
6th
centuries
By
the
Angles
Saxons
and
Jutes
The
Germanic
dialects
they
spoke
Would
become
known
as
Anglo-Saxon
Viking
invaders
in
the
8th
to
11th
centuries
Added
more
borrowings
from
Old
Norse
into
the
mix
It
may
be
hard
to
see
the
roots
of
modern
English
Underneath
all
the
words
borrowed
From
French
Latin
Old
Norse
and
other
languages
But
comparative
linguistics
can
help
us
By
focusing
on
grammatical
structure
Patterns
of
sound
changes
And
certain
core
vocabulary
For
example
after
the
6th
century
German
words
starting
with
'p'
Systematically
shifted
to
a
'pf'
sound
While
their
Old
English
counterparts
kept
the
'p'
unchanged
In
another
split
words
that
have
'sk'
sounds
in
Swedish
Developed
an
'sh'
sound
in
English
There
are
still
some
English
words
with
'sk'
Like
'skirt'
and
'skull'
But
they're
direct
borrowings
from
Old
Norse
That
came
after
the
'sk'
to
'sh'
shift
These
examples
show
us
That
just
as
the
various
Romance
languages
descended
from
Latin
English
Swedish
German
and
many
other
languages
Descended
from
their
own
common
ancestor
Known
as
Proto-Germanic
Spoken
around
500
bce
Because
this
historical
language
was
never
written
down
We
can
only
reconstruct
it
by
comparing
its
descendants
Which
is
possible
thanks
to
the
consistency
of
the
changes
We
can
even
use
the
same
process
to
go
back
one
step
further
And
trace
the
origins
of
Proto-Germanic
To
a
language
called
Proto-Indo-European
Spoken
about
6000
years
ago
On
the
Pontic
steppe
in
modern
day
Ukraine
and
Russia
This
is
the
reconstructed
ancestor
of
the
Indo-European
family
That
includes
nearly
all
languages
historically
spoken
in
Europe
As
well
as
large
parts
of
Southern
and
Western
Asia
And
though
it
requires
a
bit
more
work
We
can
find
the
same
systematic
similarities
or
correspondences
Between
related
words
in
different
Indo-European
branches
Comparing
English
with
Latin
We
see
that
English
has
't'
where
Latin
has
'd'
And
'f'
where
latin
has
'p'
at
the
start
of
words
Some
of
English's
more
distant
relatives
include
Hindi
Persian
And
the
Celtic
languages
it
displaced
in
what
is
now
Britain
Proto-Indo-European
itself
descended
From
an
even
more
ancient
language
But
unfortunately
this
is
as
far
back
As
historical
and
archeological
evidence
Will
allow
us
to
go
Many
mysteries
remain
just
out
of
reach
Such
as
whether
there
might
be
a
link
between
Indo-European
And
other
major
language
families
And
the
nature
of
the
languages
spoken
In
Europe
prior
to
its
arrival
But
the
amazing
fact
remains
that
nearly
3
billion
people
around
the
world
Many
of
whom
cannot
understand
each
other
Are
nevertheless
speaking
the
same
words
Shaped
by
6000
years
of
history