A History of English Language – documentary

Part I

1. The German Origins

-the actual origins of the English Language are in FRIESLAND (Nederlands) – the Frisian language sounds
the closest to the ancient English language spoken 1500 years ago

-both modern Frisian and modern Englishcan be traced back to the GERMANIC family of languages

- similarities: FRISIAN ENGLISH

buter butter

brea bread

tsis cheese

miel meal

sliepe sleep

boat boat

snie snow

see sea

stoarm storm

- In the 5th century, a Germanic tribe of the family that contained also the Jutes, Angles & the Saxons
sailed to Britain

- before the Germans, the land had been occupied by the Romans who conquered the Celts and the
Britons

- in 491 the Celts were decimated - the Germans used the word “WELSH” to describe them =
“foreigner”, “slave”

- the Celts and their language were pushed to the margins – few Celtic words survived in the modern
English

crag rock

combe deep valley

brat child

broch badger
 tor peak (as in toponyms such as Torpenhow)

car fortified place (as in Carlisle)

- the language that prevailed was that of the victors

- by the end of the 6th century the German tribes occupied approximately ½ of mainland Britain – divided
into different kingdoms: Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, East Anglia ( from the tribe of Angles), Mercia
(Midlands), Northumbria

-iNG termination =” the people of “ eg. Reading

- TON = “enclosure or village” eg. Wigton

- HAM = “farm” eg. Tottenham

- from all Germanic dialects only the Anglo-Saxon dialect emerged = Old English

- words that remained from Old English: now, youth, son, daughter, field, friend, home, ground,
prepositions: in, on, into; by, from, and, the; all numbers, drink, come, go, sing, like, love – but they
sounded differently centuries ago.

2. Latin Influences

- together with the revival of Christianity, Latin became an important influence (this is specific to English:
the layering of words taken from different sources)

Latin English

altera altar

apostolus apostle

mass

monk

verse

-also English took the Latin script (the Germanic tribes used RUNES to write)

- the monk BEAD recorded a history of the English speaking people in Latin = the language of
scholarship

- 8th /10th century – BEOWULF – epic poem, author unknown – in Old English written in Latin alphabet
+some runes – it marks the beginning of the English literature tradition – it shows that English was a fully
developed poetic language

- oral poems start being recorded in writing

3. The Vikings (The Danish Influence)

- Old English almost became extinct because of the Vikings (pagan pirates) – they burnt monasteries +
their libraries

- 865 A.D. – the Vikings decided to take over the land

- the Danes now controlled the N&E – only Wessex was free

- Old Norse was spreading throughout the land – Old English was now in the same position Celtic was
before

- king Alfred the Great – the savior of England – defeated the Vikings – peace treaty - border between
Wessex and Danelaw (crossed for trade, business, intermarriage)

- English Toponyms with Danish influence:

- BY ending =farm

- THORPE ending = village

- WAITE ending = portion of land

- Names ending in –SON

- BECK= stream

- GARTH= paddock

- angr (anger), bole (ball), freckmur (freckles), knif (knife), knakki (neck), rot (root), vindanga (window)

- the group SK is characteristic for Danish : skor (score), sky, skule (skull),

-pairs of synonyms in English:

Old English Old Norse

Craft skill

Hide skin

Sick ill

- in general, English adds words from other languages increasing the richness and flexibility of the
vocabulary
- Old Norse restructures Old English (based on word order, endings) by having it add articles,
prepositions, pronouns.

- the decadence of written English – few monks to understand and speak Latin for religious purposes –
King Alfred orders religious books written in English.

4. The Normands (French influences + Indirect Latin influences via French)

1066 Battle of Hastings Wiliiam The Conqueror