History of English Language

A Concise Introduction of the History of English Language

Edited by: Jezreel Madsa

The word "English" has variety of meaning depending on how it is used in a given context. In some occasion, it refers to the people who dwell in a particular area in Great Britain; other times, it refers to English Language, as is universally used by people across the globe. 

One way to define English is to trace down its origin and history, as well as, its development or evolution over time.

THE ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

The British Isles have been inhabited by different peoples for a long time and before they were islands. The excavation at Boxgrove in southern England show that early humans were present possibly 500,000 years ago in what we now call England. These hominids, however, are assumed not to have had language. They used tools to wound and kill big animals and may have continued to live there until the Ice Age. After the Ice Age, humans again start to occupy Britain around 10,000 years ago and 5000 years ago sees the construction of Stonehenge. We know very little about the pre-Indo European languages these people spoke. Vennemann (2003b) argues that the ancestors of one of them, Pictish, may have spoken a Semitic language.

After the coming of the Celts around 3,000 years ago, we start to know a little more. The Celts encountered the Pictish speakers and possibly influenced that language. Celtic languages were spoken all over Europe and there were many tribes and some migrated to England/Britain. One of these tribes may have been given a name such as pritaini from which the names Britain and British may derive (see Snyder 2003). In Britain, the Celtic languages survive to the present in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Irish English and Scottish English are varieties of English influenced by the Celtic languages.

Just as the Celts displaced or mixed with the people inhabiting Britain before them, they and the languages they spoke were later displaced and pushed further west. Nowadays, some of these languages are being revitalized (e.g. Welsh in Wales and Gaelic in Scotland and Ireland).

The Celts in Britain came into contact with the Romans and Latin when the Romans came to Britain 2000 years or more ago. The Roman Empire ruled much of Europe up to that time. It collapsed and the troops were withdrawn from Britain around 410. Because of the political power of the Roman Empire, Latin was spoken in parts of Britain and the European continent and it exerted a strong influence on Celtic and Germanic languages. Words such as wall, kitchen, wine, mile and street were borrowed from Latin into Germanic and came into English via Germanic. The settlements and roads of the Romans were extensive and remained important even after they left the island in 410. The Latin influence continues through medieval and renaissance times, not through actual migrations but through the Catholic Church and intellectual developments such as Humanism and the Renaissance.

English officially starts when the Germanic tribes and their languages reach the British Isles, in 449. One account tells of Hengist and Horsa being invited by the Celtic king Vortigern to help fight the northern Picts and later turning against Vortigern. There are of course earlier contacts between the continent and Britain. For instance, during the Roman occupation, many speakers of Germanic dialects served in the Roman army; there were many trade contacts as well. Slavery was also widespread in Europe, and it provided another means of contact between Celtic and Germanic speakers and Roman culture. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, one version of which was completed in 1154, tells the history of England from the time of Julius Caesar to 1154 (available in Modern English at www. omacl.org/Anglo). As the map below shows, several Germanic tribes – the Frisians, the Angles, the Saxons, and possibly the Jutes – occupied the British Isles. The word ‘English’ derives from one of these tribes – the Angles.

The Germanic tribes (e.g. the Franks, Goths, Angles, Saxons, Vandals, and Lombards) differed culturally from each other, but it is not clear how distinct their languages were. Some of the ones around the North Sea may have spoken a North Sea Germanic.

What started as a Germanic dialect spoken in a small part of England is now a language spoken by over a billion people in many parts of the world (as a first or second language). Even though it is a Germanic language, English has adopted a large number of words from other languages.

Reference:

Elly van Gelderen, "A History of the English Language" Revised Edition, [John Benjamins Publishing Company: 2014]