Influence of Historical Events in Languages

Cultural interaction, in terms of language, is one of the most important results of invades, wars or migrations for centuries. When a country invades or migrates to another, it’s inevitable that the new language spread that country. We can see these differences in the history of Turkish and English people like all the others.

Before coming to Anatolia, Turkish people constantly migrated from a country to another in history. During the migration they had been under under the influence of lots of culture and languages. So, when they came to Anatolia, Turkish was influenced by Arabic and Persian. We use, even today, lots of Arabic and Persian words such as “ebedi, hadise, maksat, manevi, etc…”

In English history, we see Norman Conquest and its consequences. It was important for language that Old English replaced Anglo-Norman language. After the invasion, French become the official language of politics and some words disapperared or replaced with French ones. Even names were changed and some of new French names such as William, Robert, Richard began to be used.

To sum up, in the basis of these changes, there is of course the important events and dynamics of societies in history because the relationship between language and lifestyle is deeply rooted.