INTRODUCTION

In this work I present the development of the English language and the

factors that influenced the language over the centuries until it evolved into modern

English. Most are aware that the English language is more profitable in the world in

the sense of business, tourism and even the most popular. For us, as future

professionals, it is essential to know the roots and stages of the English language,

because we are going to practice it daily in our practices as teachers or translators.

For example, as our Spanish morpho-syntax teacher says, it is essential to know

our mother tongue thoroughly and it is also necessary to know its roots, phrases

and history of the language in which we practice our career. The language has four

tenses in which it is distinguished: Old English, Middle English, Early Modern and

Current Modern. In each of these stages we are going to discover what were the

factors that influenced the evolution of the English language. In the ancient land of

the Romans: The seed of Old English planted its roots in the mid-fourth century,

when the Anglo-Saxons and Jutes invaded the Celts of Britain, where the Roman

Empire was declining. They are known as Anglo-Saxons, the tribes that began to

move along the coasts of Britain, pushing the Celts to the west and north of Britain.
 1. ORIGIN OF ENGLISH

It is said that approximately 15% of English words have a Viking origin, but
how much truth is this statement and, furthermore, which language(s) made up the
remaining 85%? Let's dig a little into the history of the English language.

Linguists claim that today's English is a unique blend of several ancient and
modern languages. And as we are going to see, it is not surprising that this is
precisely the language of international relations, of negotiations, of science and
medicine and, even in the sky, of aviation.

The vast majority of modern languages contain “native” words and

“borrowed” words. English is no exception and before delving into a detailed
historical review going back to the last five centuries, we can summarize that Old
English has Germanic origin, to which French and Latin were added during the so-
called “ Middle English, which eventually evolved into modern (and contemporary)
English.

To learn a little more about the origins of this language that has become
indispensable for us and the entire world, we share this article that describes a little
more about the origins of English.

The history of English can be described from the arrival of three Germanic
tribes to the British Isles in the years 500 BC

The Anglos

The Saxons

The Jutes

These 3 tribes crossed the North Sea from what we know today as Denmark
and northern Germany and called their own language Englisc, a word that derived
from English or English as we know it today.

Before the arrival of the Germanic tribes, the inhabitants of Great Britain
spoke a language of Celtic origin. These people were forced to move towards
Wales, Cornwall and Scotland, which is why the Celtic were quickly displaced.
Another group emigrated to the coast of French Brittany, where their descendants,
even today, speak the Breton language, of Celtic origin.

As the Germanic tribes expanded across the country, four dialects

developed:

Northumbrian in Northumbria, north of the River Humber

Mercian in the kingdom of Mercia, in the central part of present-day England.

West Saxon in the kingdom of Wessex, in the southwestern part.

Kentish in Kent, in the far south east.

During the 700s and 800s, Northumbrian culture and language dominated
Britain. The Viking invasions in the 900s put an end to that domination, and also
brought about the destruction of Mercia. Leaving only Wessex as an independent
kingdom.

Speaking Old English vocabulary consisted of a mixture of Anglo-Saxon

words with words borrowed from the Scandinavian languages (Danish and
Norwegian) and Latin.

In 1066 the “Normans” conquered Britain and French became the language
of the aristocracy which consequently generated more words into English.

Because the English servants cooked for the Norman nobility; The names of
most domestic animals are English, such as (ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer),
while the names of the meat obtained from these animals are of French origin (beef,
veal, mutton , pork, bacon, venison).

While the Germanic form of plurals (house, housen; shoe, shoen), was
displaced by the French way of creating plurals: adding an “s” to the end of the
words (house, houses; shoe, shoes). Only in some cases has the Germanic form of
the plural been preserved: men, oxen, feet, teeth, children.

The French influence also affected writing, so that the “cw” sound became
written as “qu” (thus, “cween” became written as “queen”).

All this changed until the 14th century when English once again became the
dominant language in Britain. Thanks to Henry IV who, in 1399, became the first
king of England, since the Norman conquest, whose mother tongue was English. At
that time, the London dialect emerged as the standard dialect of what is now called
Middle English, or Medieval English.

Starting in the 16th century, the expansion of the British Empire, together with
the Renaissance, brought with it many words of foreign origin that were
incorporated into English, directly or indirectly. New words were created at an
increasingly intense pace.

Around 5,000 words from this time remain unchanged. Among these words
we have the bases on which language is built: words of domestic use, parts of the
body, names of common animals, names of natural elements and phenomena, most
of the pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliary verbs.

So now you know, English as we know it, could be said to be a language of

combinations through conquests and mixtures. Despite being such a dominant and
popular language, it retains much of its humility as a surviving language over the
years. Don't waste any more time and join now! With this reference we are sure that
you will have one more reason to want to learn the English language.

1.1 OLD ENGLISH

The Germanic language displaced the indigenous British language in what
would later become England. The original Celtic languages remained in parts of
Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. The dialects spoken by Anglo-Saxons form Old
English (also called Anglo-Saxon). The most famous literary work of this period is a
fragment of the epic poem Beowulf that appears to have been substantially modified
later.

Old English did not sound like modern English, from which it differs widely in
phonology and especially in grammar, making Old English unintelligible to modern
speakers. The grammar included grammatical case (nominative, accusative,
genitive, dative and instrumental), three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine
and neuter) and three numbers (singular, dual and plural). Likewise, about 50% of
the words in current English have linguistic roots in Old English. The words be,
strong, and wáter, for example, derive from Old English; and many non-standard
dialects such as Scottish and Northumbrian English have maintained many features
of vocabulary and pronunciation. Old English was spoken until the late 12th or 13th
century.

Later English was strongly influenced by Northern Germanic, specifically

Norse or Old North spoken by the Vikings who invaded and settled mainly in the
northeast of England. The roots of these dialects were similar to Old English but the
grammar was different.

Contact between Old English and the Old North mainly produced a
morphological simplification of Old English including the loss of grammatical gender
and explicit linguistic cases (with the notable exception of pronouns). Among the
words originating from Old Norse (Old North) are anger, bag, both, hit, law, leg,
same, skill, sky, take and other names, possibly even the pronoun they.

With the introduction of Christianity, Latin and some Greek words were
added. The Old English period formally ended shortly after the Norman Conquest,
when the language was greatly influenced by the Old Norman spoken by the
Normans. The use of the term "Anglo-Saxon" to describe the mixture of languages
and cultures is of relatively modern formation. According to Louis Fundís, "The first
reference to the language came from the time of Elizabeth I of England, from a
historian named Canden.

1.2 INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH

For 300 years after the Norman Conquest, the Norman kings and their court
spoke only the Romance language of Oil which in England was called "Old Norman"
while the common people continued to speak English. Middle English was strongly
influenced by Anglo-Norman and later by Anglo-French. Even with the decline of the
Norman language, French had the status of a prestigious language and (along with
Norman) had great influence that can still be seen today with a large number of
words of French origin. The trend of greater formality when using words of Norman
origin continues today, so most current English speakers consider that saying "a
cordial reception" (from French) is more formal than "to Harry recommends" (from
Germanic).

Most of the literature of this period was in Old North or Latin. A large number
of words entered Old English, many of them with double Latin and Germanic forms.
The Norman influence produced what is now known as Middle English. There was
also Celtic influence in English with the introduction of the continuous aspect, a
feature found in many languages, but very soon developed in English. The
pronunciation was affected by Norman with the sounds /θ/ and /ð/ transcribed as th.

The most famous writer in Middle English is Geoffrey Chaucer and his
Canterbury Tales. The Provisions off Oxford, made in 1258, were the first
government document published since the Norman Conquest. Edward III was the
first king to address the English parliament in English in 1362. By the end of the
century even the royal court had switched to English and Anglo-Norman was
reduced to small circles, but it was no longer a living language .

1.3 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

With early modern English it is believed that there was a vowel evolution of
English (Great Vogel Shift), which happened mainly in the 15th century. English was
standardized from the London dialect and spread through government and
administration, as well as the effects of the printing press. By the time of William
Shakespeare (mid-16th century), the language was already recognized as modern
English. In 1604 the first English dictionary (Table Alphabeticall) was published.

English continued to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek
since the Renaissance (in the 17th century Latin words were often used with the
original declension but this practice eventually disappeared).

Before and after the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603, the
emerging Standard English began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots
of Scotland.

The grammatical and spelling conventions of late 16th- and 17th-century

literary English remain highly influential in modern Standard English. Texts written in
the late phase of Early Modern English, such as the King James Bible and the
works of William Shakespeare, can be understood by most modern English readers
and have greatly influenced modern English.

Texts from the earlier phase of Early Modern English, such as Le Morte
d'Arthur of the late 15th century (1485) and Gorboduc of the mid-16th century
(1561), may present more difficulties, but are obviously closer to the grammar of the
modern English. lexicon and phonology than 14th-century Middle English texts,
such as the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.

1.4 LATE MODERN ENGLISH

This form of English is often mistakenly called Old English or Old English. It
should not be confused with Old English, the nickname given to the descendants of
the colonists who arrived from Wales, Normandy and England after the invasion of
Ireland in 1171.1

True Old English is the term for the English language of the Early Middle
Ages (even more archaic), while Early Modern English is the linguistic form of
English speech that was practiced right at the end of Middle English (the last half of
the 15th century) until 1650.

Thus the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William
Shakespeare belong to the late phase of early modern English, although the King
James Bible intentionally preserves some archaisms that were not already
widespread at the time it was published.

Precisely under the long tutelage of said monarch, English letters and arts in
general flourished, continuing what was done in that regard by Elizabeth I of
England, so the English language was easily transmitted outside European borders.
This was supported by the beginning of the commercial, military and cultural
expansion of the British Empire.

People who read today's English can generally understand Early Modern
English, although it is often with numerous difficulties due to grammatical changes,
changes in word meaning, as well as differences in spelling.

The regulation of spelling occurred precisely during the Early Modern English
period, and is influenced by some international conventions that precede the great
vowel change of the language. This explains a number of non-phonetic spellings of
modern English.