1. History of the English Language
Like a stew, English is a mix of several languages: Old English, Celtic, Latin, German, Greek, and French.

2. Roman Rule – 55 BC to 436 AD
When the Romans invaded Britain from BC 55-43, they brought Latin.
The local inhabitants mostly spoke Celtish, with some words from before the Celtic invasion.
The Romans ruled Britain until AD 436

3. In AD 450 Germanic Tribes Invade

4. Germanic Tribes Invade, cont.
The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which developed into Old English. About half of the most common words in Modern English have Old English roots: be, strong, and water.

5. Vikings Invade AD
The Vikings from Scandanavia spoke Old Norse, a Germanic language.

6. Norman Conquest 1066
In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. These Normans brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the ruling and business classes.

7. Middle English
In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c ),

8. The English Renaissance
Later, during the English Renaissance, many words were borrowed directly from Latin and Greek.

9. An MSWord copy of this slide is available
ETYMOLOGY ASSIGNMENT
From a dictionary, find the languages of origin of the following words (include oldest language):
1. rejoice 6. confident 11. etymology
2. Lord thing assign
3. always 8. begin 13. epistle
4. again work study
5. say perform 15. apostle
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An MSWord copy of this slide is available

10. A PDF copy of this presentation can be found at
The End
A PDF copy of this presentation can be found at
Click on the link to
“KOREAN ENGLISH”
and then on
“History of English”