The history of the English language is inextricably linked with the history of England. It began in the 5th century, when three Germanic tribes invaded Britain, then inhabited by Celts and partly Romans. The Germanic influence turned out to be so strong that soon there was almost nothing left of the Celtic and Latin languages on the territory of almost the entire country. Only in remote and hard-to-reach areas of Britain, which remained not captured by the Germans (Cornwall, Wells, Ireland, Highland Scotland), did the local Welsh and Gaulish languages survive. These languages have survived to this day: they are called the Celtic languages, in contrast to the Germans.
whom English.
Then the Vikings came to Britain from Scandinavia with their Old Norse language. Then in 1066 the French took over England. Because of this, French was the language of the English aristocracy for two centuries, and old English was used by the common people. This historical fact had a very significant impact on the English language: many new words appeared in it, the vocabulary almost doubled. Therefore, it is in the vocabulary that the splitting into two variants of English - high and low, respectively, of French and German origin - can be quite clearly felt today.
Thanks to the doubling of the dictionary, the English language today has many words of the same meaning - synonyms that arose as a result of the simultaneous use of two words. different languages who came from the Saxon peasants and from the Norman masters. A striking example of such social division is the difference in the name of livestock, which comes from Germanic roots:
- cow - cow
- calf - calf
- sheep - sheep
- swine - pig
Despite all external influences, the core of the language remained Anglo-Saxon. Already in the XIV century, English becomes a literary language, as well as the language of law and school. And when the mass emigration from Britain to America began, the language brought there by the settlers continued to change in a new direction, often retaining its roots in British English, and sometimes changing quite significantly.
The beginning of the globalization of English
By the beginning of the 20th century
English is increasingly becoming the language of international communication. English, along with other languages of international communication, was used at international conferences, in the League of Nations, for negotiations. Even then, the need to improve its teaching and develop objective criteria for learning the language more effectively became obvious. This need stimulated the search and research of linguists different countries which have not dried up to this day.
It is clear that one of critical components study of any foreign language is the accumulation of vocabulary. Just by purchasing some lexicon, you can begin to study the relationship of words - grammar, style, etc. But which words should be learned first? And how many words do you need to know? There are a lot of words in the English language. According to linguists, the complete vocabulary of the English language contains at least one million words.
The early grammars of the English language (the first of which was written in 1586) were written either to help foreigners master the English language or to prepare English-speaking students for the study of Latin. In general, these books were not designed to teach native English speakers. It was not until around 1750 that attempts were made to teach the English language.
Too bad it didn't happen a few generations later. Eighteenth century linguists based their study of the English language on wrong theories. For example, they believed that grammatical rules were the same for all languages, and, arguing that Latin was the ideal, they often tried to remake English expressions in the Latin manner. Moreover, they believed that the withering away of endings in words was a sign of degradation, not progress. They could not return the endings that had already disappeared, but they successfully preserved all the others. If not for their influence, irregular verbs in modern English would be much less. Their theories were consolidated and communicated to ordinary people thanks to a wave of widespread education in England. A huge number of irregular verbs and carefully preserved endings did not allow the English language to fully transform from a synthetic language into an analytical one.
With the spread of literacy, the English language slowed its change, but it continues to change to this day. The ease of use of the rules, as well as the richness of the vocabulary, which continues to expand, has allowed the English language to become an international language of communication over the past half century.
We invite you to plunge into the fascinating world of the history of the English language! The British Isles, set apart from the rest of Europe, were conquered by many empires and tribes. This explains the diversity, beauty and complexity of learning English. Below we will tell you.
Old English (450-1100 AD)
The origin of the language begins in the 5th century, when the Germanic Saxons, Angles, and Jutes invaded Britain, whose population consisted of Celts and Romans. The invaders pushed the population of Britain to the northwestern regions, to the territory of modern Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The influence of the Germanic tribes served as an impetus for the eradication of the Latin and Celtic languages. The mix of Celtic and Germanic languages gave birth to Old English.
Fun Fact #1: Old English has a small percentage of similarity with the modern English known to us. Today, the English dictionary contains words from that period, for example:
- demonstrative pronouns: these, those, etc.;
- place names: London, Thames (Thames);
- degrees of comparison: biggest, greatest;
- partially preserved words, for example: strong, water, school, rose, art, parliament.
Interesting fact #2: during this period, parts of speech were declined by cases and divided into masculine, feminine and neuter. There was also conjugation for persons, numbers, moods.
Interesting fact #3: It was during the period of the capture that Britain was renamed "Engla-land", and the English language was called "Englisc". These names have been adapted to the known "England" (England) and "English" (English).
Fun Fact #4: True Celtic can be heard in Wales.
Middle English (1100-1500 AD)
Christianity was actively popularized, in view of which the borrowing of Latin vocabulary began. The general Christianization of the population, directed by Pope Gregory, became the impetus for the replenishment of the vocabulary.
This stage ended with the invasion of the Normans in the person of the Conqueror William. Normandy, as part of the territory of France, brought the French language with it and served as the birthplace of the Anglo-Norman dialects.
Due to the decline of political power, the use of Norman dialects did not catch on. After that, in the 14th century, the popularization of Middle English reached its zenith. This language was the language of the greatest poet Geoffrey Chaucer. We advise you to familiarize yourself with his works, you will make sure that the Middle English language was already more similar to modern English.
Words borrowed from French speech and remaining in English: beauty (beauty), art (art), poet (poet), parliament (parliament) and many others.
Latin words that are used to this day: genius (genius), history (history) and many others.
Interesting Fact #5: French became popular in the upper strata of British society. However, the vast majority of the general population used English.
Fun Fact #6: The Middle English stage also describes the influence of the Scandinavian and Slavic languages.
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
Towards the end of the Middle English period, vowel sounds suddenly and rapidly began to decline. Thanks to the active contact of the British Empire with the outside world (16th century), many new foreign words appeared. During this important period for Britain, the printing press was invented. Literacy became available to all strata of society.
Printed editions allowed the English language to acquire established standards, fix the rules in grammar and spelling.
The well-known Shakespearean monologue "To be or not to be" is inherent in the early New English period.
If you are somehow familiar with the English language, you will notice similarities with the language currently used.
In the 1600s, grammatical and spelling standards were fixed, based on the London dialect.
This period is characterized by the emergence of a mass of new words. The Industrial Revolution, as well as the fact that the Empire of Britain covered more than a quarter of the entire planet, served as the impetus for the formation of the modern English language we know. The late English period accounts for the global borrowing of foreign words.
Britain's entry into the world stage brought the English language replenishment in the form of many words from Arabic, Turkish and a number of European languages: atmosphere (atmosphere), macaroni (pasta), coffee (coffee), tomato (tomatoes), tobacco (tobacco).
The Industrial Revolution gave rise to familiar words: biology (biology), bacterium (microbe), chromosome (chromosome).
Fun Fact #7: In the early 1600s, the first English dictionary appeared on the market.
Modern English and its varieties
The most important thing you need to know about modern English is that there are now two major dialects - British and American.
Fun Fact #8: American dialect appeared due to colonization North America the English.
There are also Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, Indian and many other dialects of English.
Today, about 2 billion people speak English, in 67 countries English is the official language.
Despite such a long history of the formation and development of the English language, it is developing to this day, absorbing slang and jargon. English keeps pace with modern trends.
Proficiency in English is the cherished key to career success and to achieving heights in life. Regardless of your goal, English will become a companion of your life, opening doors to new opportunities!
We hope that we were able to answer your main question: How did the English language originate?". We wish you good luck in learning the most popular language in the world!
For linguists and historians, for a long time, one of the most important questions was how the English language appeared. Indeed, today it is considered international, it is known to almost all peoples of the world from Japan to Hawaii. It is easy to learn, pronounce, has not too much vocabulary, which makes it easy to remember all the most important things. Let's try to find out how it appeared. We will find out which peoples originally spoke it, what influenced its formation and what changed it over the centuries.
Celtic vocabulary database
The first tribes from which a worthy legacy remained on the British Peninsula were precisely the Celtic. They settled these lands around the year 800 and since then have made a huge contribution to the culture and development of future peoples who lived and live here. It is with the Celts that one should begin the story of how the English language appeared. Of course, they did not communicate in English in the form familiar to us, however, many of their records and documents could easily be deciphered. modern archaeologists. The roots of the words that are now used in this speech were laid back in those distant centuries and have hardly changed to this day.
Names and words
The Celts themselves, as history says, were a very developed people at that time. Patriarchy reigned in society, all the boys were under the strict guardianship of their fathers. Everyone who belonged to this people knew writing, could read in their native language. The Celts also had one feature - the warriors painted themselves with blue paint, which made them more terrible in battle with any enemy. This technique they called the word "brith" (brith), which translates as "painted". It was it that formed the basis of the name of the whole country and the peoples who settled it in the future. It would seem that at this stage it becomes extremely clear where the English language came from, but there are a couple more interesting moments. Similarly, many names have migrated from the Celtic dialects, which are now widely used by the British and Americans. Words such as "whiskey", "plaid", "slogan" and many others have also retained their meaning and structure.
Roman conquests and speech assimilation
In 44 BC, the British Isles officially became and ruled over these lands by Emperor Claudius. In the light of these events, there was also a mixture of peoples - Roman and Celts, due to which speech also changed. It is worth noting here that many historians who carefully study how the English language appeared are sure that it has exactly Latin roots. General grammar, many similarities as well as undeniable historical events speak in favor of this. Here we note that the whole of Europe at the turn of the eras was under the influence of the Romans and each individual people took something from it for themselves, and something was supplemented by the original dialects. In the same way, English speech became an assimilation of Celtic and Latin words. But in modern language one can single out such words that came exclusively with the Romans. These are all that have the root "castra" (lat. "camp") - Lancaster Leincester. Also, this word "street" ("street"), derived from lat. "via strata" - "paved road". This also includes the words "wine", "pear", "pepper" and others.
Scandinavian influence
In the late 800s, Denmark conquered the British Isles. During the occupation, which lasted far from one year, the population was assimilated, and speech changed accordingly. Therefore, Denmark plays a big role in how the English language appeared. Beyond the many words that restocked English speech at that time, letter combinations also fit tightly into it, which later formed independent, independent of the Scandinavian words. In particular, these are -sc and -sk. They formed words such as "skin" - "skin" (with the original "hide"), "skull" - "skull" (with the original "shell") and "sky" - "sky" (previously there was only "heaven" ).
Is modern speech mixed?
Now we will consider the basics of the origin of that speech, which is understandable to and finally resolve the question of how the English language appeared. In principle, English was not spoken until the 11th century. There were dialects that were called Anglo-Saxon, Romanesque, Celtic, and so on. It was in this century that the French, under the leadership of King William, conquered Britain. Since then, French has become the official language in the camp. Courts, jurisdiction and other state affairs were conducted on it. At the same time, Latin was in use - it was considered the language of science. The common people spoke Anglo-Saxon dialects. It was from this turbulent mixture that English was born, which a modern person can already understand.
The New England Years: From the 1500s to the Present Day
The language was finally formed in the 16th century. Its founder is the famous writer William Shakespeare. Not only did this man create written records of the existence of literate speech in those days in Britain, he also coined many new words that we use today. One of the most surprising is "swag" (swagger) - means a sprawling, depraved gait. Later, in 1795, the textbook "English Grammar" was published, which was compiled by L. Murray. Until now, it is the basis for teaching aids.
Posting of new lands
The question of how English appeared in America is very interesting, because now all the states speak it. It is officially believed that he came to Novaya Zemlya in the 17th century along with the famous British colonies who went there in search of a better life. It is important to note that at that time other peoples of Europe had already founded their settlements on the lands of America - Romance-speaking (Spaniards, French, Italians), as well as German-speaking (Germans, Swedes, Danes). Among this national diversity, the Spaniards stood out mainly, who settled the southern part of the new continent. In second place were the French, who migrated to the north of America. But the vast majority were British. That is why the English language began to spread in these lands.
American dialects
Another mixture of Scandinavian, Romanesque and British roots gave mankind new language- American. In its structure, it is no different from the British one, but here it is much simpler and more understandable. Americans do not use complex time structures, they always express themselves briefly and simply. In addition, they came up with many new words that were not clear to the British for a long time. Also, the American dialect is heavily saturated with Spanish words. Many are used in their pure form, others are altered in their own way.
How English appeared in Russia
Each of us is well aware that no one has ever spoken English in their native country. Over the centuries, our Slavic, then Russian, language has evolved, which has acquired modern look only in the middle of the 20th century. However, the elite of society began to learn this overseas language since the writings of Shakespeare appeared in the country. Initially, they were translated into Russian, which also required knowledge of the source language. Later, people came to the conclusion that the classics should be taught in its original form. Gradually, the Russian people learned this language, but only the nobles could have such a privilege. Most of the population, which were peasants, could not even read in their native language. In this regard, until now, our nation remains the least knowledgeable in foreign languages, even at the level of users.
The history of the emergence and development of the English language, as in cases with any other language, cannot be considered in isolation from the history of the emergence and development of the state whose inhabitants speak this language. So England.
Initially, the territory of the British Isles was inhabited by the Celts, who spoke Celtic. By the 5th century, conquerors from Rome successfully coexisted with them, bringing the Latin language to these lands. However, it was in the 5th century that several Germanic tribes came to British territories, so successfully entrenched here that the original Welsh and Gaulish languages have remained to this day only in territories not conquered by the Germans - in Cornwall, the mountains of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, lands far and extremely difficult to achieve. Modern English is Germanic English, which has very little in common with Celtic and Latin.
However, the Germans did not end there. British territories were for some time attacked by the Vikings, who came from Scandinavia and spoke Old Norse. And in 1066, under the rule of the French, England begins to hand over its native language to the uneducated lower strata of the population, recognizing only French, the language of the conquerors, as the language of high society. Thanks to this, by the way, the vocabulary of modern English has significantly expanded: the system of synonyms in the language is truly extensive. However, in many cases the same division into higher and lower languages can be traced. So, for example, cattle - the topic of conversation between peasants - has Germanic names (cow - cow), but the dishes prepared from it were discussed in the world, which is why they have French names (beef - beef). Exactly the same pair of names exists for calf - calf and veal - veal and other concepts.
Here are a few more examples:
sheep- sheep, but mutton- mutton;
swine pig, but pork- pork.
Such external influences, of course, significantly affect the language. But under the veil of the introduced changes, there still remains a solid Anglo-Saxon foundation.
Some time passes, the culture of England develops, and naturally the English language finds literary use, and in the XIV century it was spoken by lawyers and specialists in various fields of science. A little later, thanks to mass migrations to the New World - America - the language received a new direction of development, now changing simultaneously, but not always the same in different territories.
Spread around the world
The ability to travel the world and the need to build relationships not only with the closest neighbors on the continent has caused a rather significant problem, what language to speak among themselves? English, along with some other languages, has been used for political negotiations and conferences since the beginning of the 20th century. There is a need to teach it, study it, formalize it. It is English that is one of the main subjects of close attention of linguists around the world so far.
Where does the study of a foreign language begin? Of course, from the dictionary. Grammar, style, punctuation have no meaning without vocabulary. According to scientists, modern vocabulary English language contains more than a million articles. How many of them do you need to learn to be fluent in the language?
The earliest grammar books were created to help students studying Latin and foreigners studying English. That is, the task of teaching the English to their mother tongue was not set. This problem was only begun in 1750, and like many pioneers, linguists made mistakes. In particular, Latin was adopted as the standard of the language. And grammatical rules were considered universal and applicable to all languages. This sometimes led to absurd attempts to remake one language under another.
In addition to attempts to Latinize the language, scientists also resisted the course of its natural development towards simplification, considering this process a degradation. For example, the endings of verbs died off. Conservative teachers and their textbooks, distributed across the country as part of widespread educational programs, have preserved for posterity - that is, for us - many more irregular constructions, irregular verbs and exceptions than they could have been left without external influence. But who knows, it is likely that in a few generations English will turn from a synthetic language into an analytical one? The process of change, although slowed down, did not stop completely. Just don't change at all dead languages that no one speaks.
Despite all the specific features, the English language in our time remains simple enough to learn and at the same time a full-fledged, rich and colorful language to be successfully used as a truly universal language. international language communication.
The history of the English language, as well as its appearance, is rich in events. The territory of modern Great Britain was inhabited different nations, it was captured and released more than once, and each invader wanted to “invent” a new language for Great Britain. This is reflected in the diversity of the English language. Every period English history contributed to the origin and general formation of the English language as we know it. We have prepared for you a short tour of what each of the periods of its formation left in the English language.
Celtic period
Emergence and the history of the English language began in the 8th century BC. when the Celts settled in what is now Great Britain. The emergence of English is directly related to them. They communicated in the Celtic language from which the word brith came, which meant "painted". The appearance of this word is due to the fact that the Celts painted their bodies blue to intimidate the enemy. The first seizure of British territory by the Romans is associated with the same period.
The Celtic languages of later times gave modern English such well-known words as:
whiskey- whiskey (from Irish uisce beathadh "living water")Many borrowings from Latin, which remained after the Roman conquest for 44 years, have also been preserved in modern English. So, for example, the names of English settlements such as Lancaster, Leicester and Manchester were able to form, based on the Latin word castra - "camp".
slogan- slogan (from Scot. sluagh-ghairm "battle cry")
plain- plaid
street- street (from lat. via strata "paved road")
wall- wall (from lat. vallum "shaft")
Old English period
The time of the German conquests is connected with the Old English period, when the Anglo-Saxons (Germanic tribes) - the ancestors of modern Englishmen - penetrated into Britain. The Anglo-Saxon dialect quickly supplanted the Celtic language from widespread use and prevented the emergence of something new. The Germans themselves brought many Latin words that they managed to borrow from the Romans. Among these words in our short dictionary there are those that are still used today:
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wine- wine (from lat. vinum "wine")
pear- pear (from lat. pirum "pear")
pepper- pepper (from lat. piper "pepper")
butter — butter(from lat. butyrum "cow's butter")
cheese- cheese (from lat. caseus "cheese")
miles- mile (from Latin milia passuum "thousands of steps")
Saturday- Saturday (from lat. Saturni dies "Saturn's day")
The Christianization of Britain and the appearance in the language of many more borrowings from Latin are also associated with the Old English period, including:
school- school (from lat. schola "school")
master- teacher (from lat. magister "teacher")
pea- peas; pea (from Latin pisum "pea")
priest- priest "(from Latin presbyter" presbyter ")
In 876 AD the Battle of Wedmore took place, as a result of which a peace treaty was concluded with the Danes, who had long ravaged British lands. This world also affected the English language, which allowed the formation of a multitude of Danish words.
auk— auk
aye- yes/always
axle- axis
sky- sky
skull- scull
skin– skin
Middle English period
The Middle English period is famous for the Norman takeover of Britain. The Normans (French-speaking Vikings) defeated the Anglo-Saxons and seized power in Britain. This is connected with the emergence of trilingual English everyday life of that time: the language of courts, administration, royal court and the aristocracy was French, the language of the common people continued to be Anglo-Saxon, and the language of learning was Latin. This is what allowed the emergence of the so-called "New English" language. The influence of the French language is very noticeable in modern English:
pork- pork (from French porc "pig")
tennis- tennis (from French tenez "hold")
New England period
In the New English period, printing appeared. In 1474 (1475), the pioneer printer William Caxton printed the first book in the English language. He himself translated the book from French. When translating, he relied on the spelling of the handwritten tradition, which allowed the formation of the first canon - this led to a slowdown in spelling changes in the English language, because a written sample "as it should be" appeared.
The work of William Shakespeare also left a huge mark on the history of the English language.(well, who else?), who was able not only to “invent” modern English, but also to introduce many new words - where he himself took them from is not always clear. Many of the words found in Shakespeare's works can also be found in modern English.
swagger- swagger around → swag- be in style
At the end of the 18th century, the Englishman William Jones spoke of the need to study the ancient Indian language in depth in order to more competently build a science of language. In modern English there are many words related to the words of the ancient Indian language.
path- path, path (from pathin "road")
bandanna- bandana (from bandhana "bandage")
Modern English
Modern English is called mixed - many words that have a common meaning do not have a common root. This is a consequence of the trilingualism characteristic of the Middle English period.
The English language is constantly developing, replenishing and acquiring dialects, each new concept gives people the opportunity to come up with many new words around it. Some words, on the contrary, go down in history as unnecessary.
