The Origin of English free essay sample

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. The Angles and Saxons came from Englaland and their language was called Englisc from which the words England and English are derived. Initially,  Old English,  also known as Anglo-Frisian, was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the  Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. We will write a custom essay sample on The Origin of English or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page English changed enormously in the Middle Ages. Written Old English of 1000 AD is similar in vocabulary and grammar to other old Germanic languages such as  Old High German  and  Old Norse, and completely unintelligible to modern speakers, while the modern language is already largely recognizable in written Middle English of 1400 AD. This was caused by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the  Scandinavian branch  of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the  French  Normans in the 11th century, who spoke  Old Norman  and ultimately developed an English variety of this called  Anglo-Norman. About 60% of the modern English vocabulary comes direct from  Old French. [1] Cohabitation with the  Scandinavians  resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the  Anglo-Frisian  core of English. However, this had not reached southwest England by the 9th century AD, where Old English was developed into a fully-fledged literary language. This was completely disrupted by the Norman invasion in 1066. Normandy  is a region in northern France. The  Norman  conquest was a pivotal event in English history. It largely removed the native ruling class, replacing it with a foreign, French-speaking  monarchy,  aristocracy, and clerical hierarchy. By bringing England under the control of rulers originating in France, the Norman conquest linked the country more closely with continental Europe, lessened  Scandinavian influence and brought about a transformation of the  English language  and the  culture of England  in a new era often referred to as  Norman England. And when literary English rose anew in the 13th century, it was based on the speech of  London, much closer to the center of Scandinavian settlement. Technical and cultural vocabulary was largely derived from  Old French, with heavy influence from Norman French  in the courts and government. With the coming of the  Renaissance, as with most other developing European languages such as German and Dutch, latin and Ancient Greek supplanted French as the main source of new words. Thus, English developed into very much a borrowing language  with an enormously disparate  vocabulary.