History of the English Language
Foreword
| To Understand English, it is helpful to understand its
history. To understand its history is to know that English is a
mixed language, full variety and rich in culture. English,
originally, was NOT a written language. Not until the Roman Empire brought written language to the British Isles, did any writing
take place. That's why not much is know about what occurred on the
Isles before the Romans conquered them. Unfortunately, the Roman
alphabet was (and is) insufficient for the English language.
English has 13-15 vowel sounds and the Roman alphabet has only five
vowels. What a pity!
Anyways, I hope this is helpful to somebody.
|
5,000 BC: Archeology shows that people have been living on the Isle since at least this time. Who they were and what
language they spoke is a complete mystery.
500 BC: Celtics lived on the Isle. Druids ruled. (nothing is known of their
language)
43 AD: Romans took over rule of the Isle.
410 AD: British Independence from Rome, and the start of 500 years of civil wars
435 AD: Irish invade
446 AD: Saxon mercenaries hired to defeat the Irish, given land.
496 AD: King Arthur defeats the Saxons ('cause the Saxons were getting unruly)
838 AD: Vikings (Norsemen) invade the Isle. And, their presence lasts for many years.
988 AD: Danes invade England
994 AD: Danes and Norwegians invade the Isle.
1015 AD: King Canute the Great of Denmark & Norway invade England and Saxon Wessex.
1017 AD: King Canute the Great becomes the King of all England, Wessex, Denmark and Norway.
1068 AD: The Norman conquest of England begins. (Normandy = pre-France)
So what you get is a language that is a mixture of the following:
1. The original language of the Celtics
2. The Roman language (Latin)
3. The Irish language (Gaelic)
4. The Saxon language (?)
5. The Norse language (Norwegian)
6. The Danish language (Danish)
7. The Norman language (French)
English also contains many many Greek words (probably due to the Roman
influence), some Arabic words and quite a few Dutch words.
English, or what I would call "Pure English" is very
similar to Dutch, which is very similar to German, in fact it is thought that the first people on the isle of
Great Britain, came from Germanic tribes that migrated north along the Danube
River. But the English we speak today is so full of influence of other
languages that it makes a good lingua franka (for Europe, anyways; not for the
other parts of the world).
