The History of English

The History of English

1. How old is English?

   • documented for about 1'300 years
   • English was the language spoken by Germanic tribes who settled in England in the course of the 5th century
   • comparitive reconstruction = hypothisis that some languages are related
     • you compare related words systematically and you then reconstruct the earlier forms from which the recorded ones must have been descended (abstammen von)
   • The Indo-European Family of Languages
     • Indo European -> Germanic -> West-Germanic (German, English, Dutch) or North-Germanic -> (Danish, Norweign)
     • Indo European -> Italic -> Latin -> Romance -> Portuguese, Spanish, French, etc.
     • Indo European -> Celtic -> Insular (-> Goidelic -> Irish or Brittanic -> Welsh, Cornish) or Continental -> Gaulish
   • Relation of languages
     • genetically related languages -> related words (father, Vater)
       • dialects became daughter languages in their own right
         • own language if: they have a written standard, do the speakers feel that theirs is a language?
     • language contact -> borrowings (Latin: vinum, English: wine)

2. The British Isles before the Arrival of English

   • England and Wales were part of Roman Empire
     • inhabitants were Celts, spoke varieties of celtic and in the parts occupied by the Romans Latin
       • Anglo-Saxons arrived, found Romanized Celts
         • Celts were conquered (besiegt) and driven westward -> thats why Celtic languages are spoken in western parts of the British Isles (Welsh in Wales)
       • The Celtic languages and Latin have left hardly any traces in English. Only in river names or topographical terms
         • later loanwords: slogan, whiskey
       • Insular Latin: place names ending in -chester (Manchester), -caster (from castrum) -> Anglo Saxons added the Latin suffix

3. External and Internal History

   • External History of a language: History of the people who speak it
     • Example Norman Conquest: French speaking Normans came and banished the Anglo-Saxons
       • French was official language of England (150 years not written but spoken by almost everyone)
         • elite spoke French, many texts in French -> large-scale borrowing (10'000 words from French)
   • Internal History of a language: developments which cannot be explained by historical events

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