roots of english + spread of english

25 maps that explain the english language

english is the language of shakespeare and the language of chaucer. it is spoken in dozens of
countries around the world, from the united states to a tiny island named tristan da cunha. it
reflects the influences of centuries of international exchange, including conquest and
colonization, from the vikings through the 21st century. here are 25 maps and charts that
explain how english got started and evolved into the differently accented languages spoken
today.

the origins of english

1) where english comes from
english, like more than 400 other language, is part of the indo-european language family,
sharing common roots not just with german and french but with russian, hindi, punjabi, and
persian. the chart shows some of english’s closest cousins, like french and german, but also
its more distant relationships with language originally spoken far from the british isles such
as farsi and greek

2) where indo-european languages are spoken in europe today

saying that english is indo-european, though, doesnt really narrow it down much. this map
shows where indo-european languages are spoken in europe, the middle east, and south asia

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 today, and makes it easier to see what languages dont share a common root with english:
finnish and hungarian among them.

3) the anglo-saxon migration

here is how the english language got started: after roman troops withdrew from britain in the
early 5th century, three germanic peoples — the angles, saxons, and jutes — moved in and
established kingdoms. they brought with them the anglo-saxon language, which combined
with some celtic and latin words to create old english. old english was first spoken in the 5th
century, and it looks incomprehensible to today’s english-speakers. to give you an idea of just
how different it was, the language the angles brought with them had three genders
(masculine, feminine, and neutral). still, though the gender of nouns has fallen away in
english, 4500 anglo-saxon words survive today. they make up only about 1 percent of the
comprehensive oxford english dictionary, but nearly all of the most commonly used words
that are the backbone of english. they include nouns like “day” and “year”, body parts such as
“chest”, “arm”, and “heart”, and some of the most basic verbs: “eat”, “kiss”, “love”, “think”,
“become”. fdr’s sentence “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” uses only words of
anglo-saxon origin.

4) the danelaw
the next source of english was old norse. vikings from present-day denmark, some led by the
wonderfuly named ivar the boneless, raided the eastern coastline of the british isles in the 9th
century. they eventually gained control if about half of the island. their language was
probably understandable by speakers if english. but old norse words were absorbed into
english: legal terms such as “law” and “murder” and the pronouns “they”, “them”, and
“their” are of norse origin. “arm” is anglo-saxon, but “leg” is old norse; “wife” is anglo-
saxon, but “husband” is old norse

5) the norman conquest

the real transformation of english — which started the process of turning it into the language
we speak today — came with the arrival of william the conqueror from normandy, in today’s
france. the french that william and his nobles spoke eventually developed into a separate
dialect, anglo-norman. anglo-norman became the language of the medieval elite. it
contributed around 10,000 words, many still used today. in some cases, norman words ousted
the old english words. but in others, they lived side by side as synonyms. norman words can
often sound more refined: “sweat” is anglo-saxon, but “perspire” is norman. military terms
(battle, navy, march, enemy), governmental terms (parliament, noble), legal terms (judge,
justic, plaintiff, jury), and church terms (miracle, sermon, virgin, saint) were almost all

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 norman in origin. the combination of anglo-norman and old english led to middle english, the
language of chaucer

6) the great vowel shift

if you think english spelling is confusing — why “head” sounds nothing like “heat”, or why
“steak” doesnt rhyme with “streak”, and “some” doesnt rhyme with “home” — you can
blame the great vowel shift. between roughly 1400 and 1700, the pronunciation of long
vowels changed. “mice” stopped being pronounced “meese”. “house” stopped being
pronounced like “hoose”. some words, particularly words like “ea”, kept their old
pronunciation (and northern english accent dialects were less affected, one reason they still
have a distinctive accent). this shift is how middle english became modern english. no one is
sure why this dramatic shift occured. but it’s a lot less dramatic when you consider it took
300 years. shakespeare was as distant from chaucere as american are from thomas jefferson.

the spread of english

7) the colonization of america
the british settlers coming to different parts of america in the 17th and 18th centuries were
from different regional, class, and religious backgrounds, and brought with them distinctive
ways of speaking. puritans from east anglia contributed to the classic boston accent; royalists
migrating to the south brought a drawl; and scots-irish moved to the appalachians. today’s
american english is actually closer to 18th-century british english in pronunciation than
current-day british english is. sometime in the 19th century, british pronunciation changed
significantly, particularly whether “r”s are pronounced after vowels

8) early exploration of australia

many of the first europeans to settle in australia, beginning in the late 1700s, were convicts
from the british isles, and the australian english english accent probably started with their
children in and around sydney. australia, unlike the us, doesnt have a lot of regional accents.
but it does have many vocabulary words borrowed from aboriginal languages: kangaroo,
boomerang, and wombat among them

9) canada
british loyalists flooded into canada during the american revolution. as a result, canadian
english sounds a lot like american english, but it’s maintained many of the “ou” words from
its british parents (honour, colour, valour). there’s also some uniquely canadian vicabulary,

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 many of which is shown in this word cloud. canada is undergoing a vowel shift of its own,
where “milk” is pronounced like “melk” by some speakers. but unlike british and american
english, which has a variety of regional accents, canadian english is fairly homogenous

10) english in india

the british east india company brought english to the indian subcontinent in the 17th century,
the period of british colonialism established english as the governing language. it still is, in
part due to india’s incredible linguistic diversity. but languages from the subcontinent
contributed to english, too. the words “shampoo”, “pajamas”, “bungalow”, “bangle”, and
“cash” all come from indian languages. these phrase “i dont give a damn” was once
speculated to refer to an indian coin. this probably isnt true — the oxford english dictionary
disagrees — but it shows that language exchange during the colonial era was two-way street

11) tristan da cunha

tristan da cunha is the most remote archipelago in the world: it is in the south atlantic ocean,
more or less halfway between uruguay and south africa. it is also the furthest-flung location
of native english speakers. tristan da cunha is part of a british overseas territory, and its nearly
3— residents speak only english. tristan da cunha english has a few unusual features: double
negatives are common, as is the use of “done” in the past tense (he done walked up the road)

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