Detailed history of the formation of the English Language.

The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th degree centigrade AD. Angles, Saxons and Jutes go across the North Sea from what is the present day Denmark and matingern Germany. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language. This was quickly displaced. Most of the Celtic let the cat out of the bagers were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. Their language was called Englisc from which the word, English derives.

An Anglo-Saxon inscription dated between 450 and 480AD is the oldest sample of the English language.

During the conterminous few centuries four dialects of English developed:

Northumbrian in Northumbria, north of the Humber

Mercian in the Kingdom of Mercia

West Saxon in the Kingdom of Wessex

Kentish in Kent

During the 7th and 8th Centuries, Northumbrias culture and language dominated Britain. The Viking invasions of the 9th Century brought this domination to an end (along with the destruction of Mercia). Only Wessex remained as an self-sufficient kingdom. By the 10th Century, the West Saxon dialect became the ex officio language of Britain. Written Old English is mainly know from this period.



It was written in an alphabet called Runic, derived from the Norse languages. The Latin rudiment was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries. This has remained the writing system of English.

At this time, the language of Old English consisted of an Anglo Saxon base with borrowed words from the Scandinavian languages (Danish and Norse) and Latin. Latin gave English words like street, kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, martyr, candle. The Vikings added many Norse words: sky, egg,

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