The History of the English Language

The Indo-European Languages  English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. These languages originally stretched from India to Russia and over to the British Isles.

The Indo-European Languages

 Proto-Indo-European originated approximately 10,000 years ago in the area we now call Turkey  While we don’t know anything for certain about this language (because it was never written down), we can assume certain characteristics about it from what we know about the current I-E Languages.

The Germanic Languages  Approximately 500 BC, I-E dialects began to split off from the main language and become their own distinct languages  At this time, the Germanic tribes (who lived in Central Europe) began to speak their language – proto-Germanic. This is the grandfather of all the Germanic languages: German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, and English.

The Germanic Languages  Before any of these languages were written using the Latin alphabet (what we use today), they were written using runes. This was the original Germanic alphabet:

The Germanic Languages  Over time, Germanic split into 3 branches, and each branch split into different (but related) languages: East Germanic: These languages are now extinct. North Germanic: Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic West Germanic: Low German (Plattdeutsch) and High German (Hochdeutsch)  High German: German  Low German: Dutch and English (These two languages are extremely closely related)

How did a form of German end up in England?  The native peoples of the British Isles (what we now call Great Britain and Ireland) are the people called the Celts.  In the years 55 and 54 BC, the Romans, led by Julius Caesar, invaded Britain and colonized it. The territory was named Britannia. When they took over, they Romanized the native Britons and turned them into Roman citizens.  The Celts who refused to be Romanized ran off to Scotland and Ireland. While they did terrorize people living in the border areas, they mostly lived at peace with the Romans. (The Romans were terrified of them, by the way.)

How did a form of German end up in England?  In 410 AD, Rome was sacked by the Vandals, an east Germanic tribe. The Romans, realizing they needed to save Rome and deal with their own affairs, abandoned all of their colonies – including Britannia.  When they abandoned Britannia, the Romanized Britons were left defenseless, and the Scots began trying to take back the entire island.  Because they knew they could never fight off the Scots, they asked for help from several Germanic groups on the mainland that they knew were fearsome warriors: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes.

Northern Europe

Northern Europe – Germanic Homelands

The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes  In the year 449 AD, these three groups sailed to Britain on the invitation of the Britons. They fought the Scots back to Scotland successfully, but…  UNFORTUNATELY FOR THE BRITONS, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes liked Britain so much they just kinda decided they would stick around… forever.  The Britons were made so low in their own country that the Angles/Saxons/Jutes called them the wealas (“the foreigners”). They kicked the Britons out of the land and forced them to live on the outskirts of the island. We now call that country Wales (“the country of the foreigners”).  These three groups eventually merged to become a new Germanic group: The Anglo-Saxons, the people we now call the English; they also renamed the country Englaland (“The Land of the Angles”)

The Anglo-Saxons  This new group settled down into seven kingdoms:  Essex (The East Saxons)  Sussex (The South Saxons)  Wessex (The West Saxons)  Northumbria  Mercia  East Anglia  Kent

The Anglo-Saxon Language (Old English)  The period of the English Language that we now call “Old English” begins in 449 AD with the invasions of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. This is also when we can begin to talk about the idea of “England” as a country.  Old English was extremely similar to the other West Germanic languages. It was highly inflected, meaning that word endings conveyed much of the meaning of sentences, not word order.  It didn’t have a big vocabulary: only about 20,000 words. So to create words, it relied on compounds. Anglo-Saxon names (many of which still exist) attest to this.

“Helton”  “Helton” is an Anglo-Saxon compound word  “Hel”: the top of a hill  “Tun” (later “ton”): a fenced-in area where livestock is kept “Helton”: “A farm on top of a hill”

Helton, England

Original Opening Lines of Beowulf (circa 950 AD) Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, He þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning! ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned, geong in geardum, þone god sende folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat þe hie ær drugon aldorlease lange hwile. Him þæs liffrea, wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf; Beowulf wæs breme (blæd wide sprang), Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.

The Viking Age in Britain  In 793, the Vikings – who came from what we now call Denmark, Norway, and Sweden – began invading and colonizing Britain.  By 876, the Vikings (sometimes called “the Danes”) had taken over most of England. Only one English kingdom remained: Wessex, led by King Alfred.  In 878, Alfred signed a hard-won peace with the Vikings and established the Danelaw – a border between the English and the Vikings.  Alfred’s deal with the Vikings saved England, English culture, and the English language, which would have been wiped out if the Vikings had won.  Alfred completely changed the course of world history, for which he is now called “Alfred the Great.”

The Danelaw

The End of Old English  In 1066, the King of England, Edward the Confessor, died. He was so religious that he never had children. Since he died without an heir, there was some debate as to who should be king next.  Harold Godwinson was the king’s nephew and should have had the claim to the throne (as an Englishman)  The other possible heir was a Norman Frenchman – William of Normandy, the king’s cousin.

William of Normandy  William was the illegitimate son of Robert, Duke of Normandy and his mistress. For this reason, his actual “title” was “William the Bastard.”  When his cousin, King Edward of England, died, he saw an opportunity to move up in the world and, in the summer of 1066, amassed a navy and army to sail across the Channel and invade England.

The Battle of Hastings  On October 14, 1066, the decisive battle of this invasion took place at Hastings.  After a long morning battle, the Normans attacked the English from the rear and took them completely by surprise.  Harold took an arrow to the eye, and died there on the Field of Hastings.

The Normans  After defeating the English at Hastings, the French came in and took over the whole country, bringing with them their language: Norman French.  William was crowned king in Westminster Abbey in London on Christmas Day, He changed his title from “William the Bastard” to “William the Conqueror.” ( Which is definitely a step up.)  The Normans did not learn to speak English and conducted all of the country’s business in French. In fact, for 300 years after Hastings, no King of England ever learned to speak English.

Middle English  English could easily have died in during that time period: the people in power weren’t speaking it, and the people who spoke it couldn’t read or write. But instead, English did what it has always done… it adapted.  In the 100 years after Hastings, English absorbed over 10,000 words from French and completely altered it’s grammar to basically what we know today.  By the 1400s, French was out and everyone in England was speaking English again (even if it did look a lot different by then). This is the period we now refer to as Middle English (which we will cover at a later time).