History of English Language

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[Jul10++]

English is a West Germanic language that originated from languages brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany. The original Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second wave was of the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke a variety of French. These two invasions caused English to become highly "creolized"; creolization arises from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication. Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Friesian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance branch of European languages; this new layer entered English through use in the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of considerable suppleness and huge vocabulary.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, around the year 449, Vortigern, King of the British Isles, invited the "Angle kin" (Angles led by Hengest and Horsa) to help him against the Picts. In return, the Angles were granted lands in the south-east. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes). The Chronicle talks of a subsequent influx of settlers who eventually established seven kingdoms, known as the heptarchy. Modern scholarship considers most of this story to be legendary and politically motivated.

These Germanic invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants, whose languages survived largely in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. The dialects spoken by the invaders formed what would be called Old English, which resembled some coastal dialects in what are now the Netherlands and north-west Germany. Later, it was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north-east (see Jorvik). The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distant, including the prefixes, suffixes and inflections of many of their words. The Germanic language of these Old English inhabitants of Britain would be partly creolised by the contact with Norse invaders. This resulted in a stripping away of much of the grammar of Old English, including gender and case, with the notable exception of the pronouns; thus, the language became simpler and plainer. The most famous work from the Old English period is the epic poem "Beowulf", by an unknown poet.

For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and the high nobility spoke only a variety of French. A large number of Norman words were assimilated into Old English, with some words doubling for Old English words (for instance, ox/beef, sheep/mutton). The Norman influence reinforced the continual evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in what is now referred to as Middle English. Among the changes was a broadening in the use of a unique aspect of English grammar, the "continuous" tenses, with the suffix "-ing". During the 15th century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of printing. Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William Shakespeare. The most well-known work from the Middle English period is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
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[JuliänD]

Thanks for the information... a little bit of history shouldn't hurt me! :P

[Luis(tm)]

Hey man... Good intervention... Thx =)
You deserve some Karma :P

PD. Which word in english is the most accurate for "Aporte" :nervios:

Cya!

[JuliänD]

Hey man... Good intervention... Thx =)
You deserve some Karma :P

PD. Which word in english is the most accurate for "Aporte" :nervios:

Cya!
I would translate "aporte" as contribution...

"Hey, thanks for your contribution"...

Sounds OK to me.

[jasz]

or "thanks for your two cents" :P

[Jul10++]

jeje Some History is not so bad to our mind !! :P

[EnempE]

There is much more to the story though, and the language continues to evolve.

[Power Computer]

There is much more to the story though, and the language continues to evolve.
Yeah, the english language have more complexity than that, but in that information there are much more to study and think, i think so
good contribution:D
Is very interesting meet people that speak english, there are too variety of ways to learn english per example, the videogames online hehehehe, the books, Internet!!!!!!!!, and speak with people that speak english, personally i speaked enlgish with american people face to fave, but in the future im planning go to usa to study much more of this english and modism, for the bussiness english, bye bye

[GARUDA]

Yeah, the english language have more complexity than that, but in that information there are much more to study and think, i think so
good contribution:D
Is very interesting meet people that speak english, there are too variety of ways to learn english per example, the videogames online hehehehe, the books, Internet!!!!!!!!, and speak with people that speak english, personally i speaked enlgish with american people face to fave, but in the future im planning go to usa to study much more of this english and modism, for the bussiness english, bye bye
and also you can speak with people of many countries because is a universal languaje :P:P
in irc most of the people speak english :P:P

[Power Computer]

and also you can speak with people of many countries because is a universal languaje :P:P
in irc most of the people speak english :P:P
Yeah, i know this language, in the future will be the most important languague in all the world, but there are other languague that can scroll down, and this language is the chinese, in china currently is the best place for make bussiness, bacause it have very muuuuuuuch people that export much things to other countries in the worl(seeit: Made In China :P lol!)
bye

[GARUDA]

Yeah, i know this language, in the future will be the most important languague in all the world, but there are other languague that can scroll down, and this language is the chinese, in china currently is the best place for make bussiness, bacause it have very muuuuuuuch people that export much things to other countries in the worl(seeit: Made In China :P lol!)
bye
chinese people likes to speak english lol :P:P

[karl2006]

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
Powered by Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) ;)
Great story. Thanks a lot!

[EnempE]

Chinese people hate speaking english. You think that english is difficult for you, you try learning it when your language has no alphabet, a different tonal structure and no more than 1 syllable per word.