Have you ever wondered about the history of English when you are having your English lessons in your classrooms every week? It is known that “English” emerged in Britain. But how does it evolve from time to time?

You may wonder about when English began. Before the first century, original settlers were Celts, which were a group of people spread across today’s Europe. Interestingly, few Celtic words were found in today’s English. They were rivers and settlements (for example, Aron, London, Kent), seabirds (penguins, gulls, puffins) as well as frequent use of present continuous tense (be+ -ing form). They were common in Celtic.

In AD 43-410, Britain was a Roman province. Roman spoke Latin. Latin became the official language of commerce and government departments. Therefore, Latin was well connected with other parts of the world through administration, trade and scholarship. Meanwhile, many languages were spoken in Britain but Latin was essential for essential communication between traders. Due to increasing intermarriage between Celtic and Romans, Celtic was spoken at home while Latin was spoken in the street in many people’s lives. Nowadays, Latin words were still used in English. They were: alibi (elsewhere), bonus (good), exempli gratia (abbreviation is “EG” which means for the sake of example), ego (I), impromptu (spontaneous), intro (within), multi (many), re: (about).

In AD 443, Roman legions withdrew to defend Rome during the Anglo-Saxon Invasions period. Britain undefended. It was invaded and settled by Germanics tribes called Anglos, Saxons and Jutes. (The sites were Northern part of Germany and Denmark nowadays.) Native Britain was driven westward into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland or remained as servants. Old English (or Anglo-Saxon English) was formed. It inherited all simple everyday nouns for today’s English. For instance, “woman” is the old English word “wif”. “Earth” comes from the old English word “ertha”. “Tuesday” comes from Proto-Germanic “Tiwaz” which means “god of the sky”. Also, Some vocab of family relationships (brothers, sisters, fathers), determiners, prepositions, auxiliary verbs came from Old English.

Next time, I will tell you about the entire part of English history. Stay tuned!

Reference:

Viney, B. (2008). The history of the English language (Oxford bookworms library. Factfiles. Stage 4). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.