History of the origin of the English language. History of the appearance of the English language

Story in English began with three Germanic tribes that invaded Britain in the 5th century AD. These tribes - the Angles, Saxons and Jutes - came from the territories of what is now Denmark and the northern part of Germany, crossing the North Sea.

At that time, the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language, but the invaders pushed the Celts to the western and northern edges of the island - essentially to what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles called their country "Englaland", and their language was called "Englisc" - this is where the words "England" and "English" came from.

Old English (450-1100 AD)

In the 5th century, Germanic conquerors entered Britain from the east and south coasts. The Germanic tribes spoke similar languages. On the island, their dialects formed a common language, which we now call Old English.

It bears almost no modern resemblance and would be very difficult for current English speakers to understand. However, about half of the most common words in modern English have Old English roots.

This is where words like be, strong and water come from, for example. Old English was spoken until around the end of the 11th century.

Middle English (1100-1500)

In 1066, Britain was invaded by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy (now part of France). The Norman invaders brought with them French, which became the language of the royal court, as well as the ruling and trading classes.

This was a period of linguistic class division, with the lower classes speaking English and the upper classes speaking French. In the 14th century, English began to gain strength again, but...

This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400), but would still be obscure to modern speakers.

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

At the end of the Middle English period, sudden and significant changes in pronunciation began (the Great Vowel Shift), with vowel sounds becoming shorter. Since the 16th century, Britain has had increasing contact with different peoples around the world.

This fact, as well as the advent of the Renaissance, led to the fact that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also contributed to the development common language literature. Books became cheaper, and more and more people learned to read and write. Thus, printing led to the standardization of English.

Hamlet's famous lines, "To be or not to be," were written by Shakespeare in Early Modern English.

The rules of spelling and grammar were fixed, the standard of which was the London dialect, since that was where most of the printing houses were located. In 1604, the first dictionary of the English language was published.

Late Modern English (1800-present)

The main difference between Early and Late Modern English is the vocabulary of the language. Late Modern English has many more words due to two key factors: first, the Industrial Revolution and the development of technology led to the need to create new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered about a quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language borrowed many words from other countries.

Varieties of English

Since the beginning of the 17th century, colonization North America by the British led to the emergence. Some words and pronunciations were “frozen in time” when they reached America. In some ways, American English is even more similar to the language of Shakespeare than modern British English.

Some expressions that the British call “Americanisms” are, in fact, originally British expressions preserved in the colonies (for example, rubbish instead of trash, loan instead of lend and fall instead of autumn; another word, frame-up - “falsification, juggling” - Britain re-adopted through Hollywood gangster films).

Spanish also influenced American English (and subsequently British). Words such as canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante are Spanish words that came into English during the development of the American West.

Today, American English has great strength due to US influence in film, television, music, commerce and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other types of English - for example, Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.

What fact in the history of English aroused your greatest interest or surprise? We are waiting for your answers in the comments.

English language (English English,English language ) - the language of the English ( official language England and in fact all Great Britain), residents USA(official language thirty-one states), one of the two official languages Ireland, Canada and Malta, official language Australia and New Zealand. It is used as official in some states Asia(India, Pakistan etc.) and Africa. In linguistics, speakers of English are called Anglophones; This term is especially common in Canada(including in a political context).

Refers to Germanic languages ​​of the Indo-European family of languages. Number of native speakers - approx. 410 million speakers (including second language) - approx. 1 billion people(2007). One of six official and working languages UN.

The language is dominated analytical forms expressions grammatical meaning. The word order is generally strict. Refers to analytical group of languages. In vocabulary about 70% of words are borrowed. Writing based on the Latin alphabet has existed since the 7th century. (additional letters were used in the early Middle Ages, but they fell out of use). Traditional spellings occupy a significant place in spelling.

It is customary to divide the history of the English language into the following periods: Old English (450-1066), Middle English (1066-1500), New English (from 1500 to the present day).

Old English period

The ancestors of the present-day English - the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes - moved to the British Isles in the middle of the 5th century. During this era, their language was close to Low German and Frisian, but in its subsequent development it moved far away from other Germanic languages. During the Old English period, the Anglo-Saxon language (as many researchers call the Old English language) changes little, without deviating from the line of development of the Germanic languages, except for the expansion of the vocabulary.

The Anglo-Saxons who moved to Great Britain entered into a fierce struggle with the indigenous local population - the Celts. This contact with the Celts had little effect on the structure of the Old English language or its vocabulary. No more than eighty Celtic words survive in the Old English language. Among them:

• words associated with the cult: to curse - to curse, cromlech - cromlech (Druid buildings), coronach - an ancient Scottish funeral lament;
• words of a military nature: javelin - dart, pibroch - military song;
• names of animals: hog - pig.

Some of these words have become firmly established in the language and are still used today, for example: tory ‘member conservative party’ - in Irish meant ‘robber’, clan - tribe, whiskey - vodka

Some of these words have become international property, for example: whiskey, plaid, clan. This weak influence of Celtic on Old English can be explained by the cultural weakness of the Celts compared to the conquering Anglo-Saxons. The influence of the Romans, who controlled part of Britain for 400 years, is greater. Latin words entered Old English in several stages. Firstly, some Latinisms were adopted by the German-speaking population of the north of continental Europe even before the resettlement of some Germans to the British Isles. Among them:

• street - from lat. strata via‘straight, paved road’,
• wall - from lat. vallum, wall
• wine - from lat. vinum'wine';

Another part - immediately after the resettlement of the Anglo-Saxons: these are the names of the places, for example:

• Chester, Gloucester, Lancaster - from lat. castrum‘military camp’, or
• Lincoln, Colches - from lat. colonia'the colony',
• Port-Smouth, Devonport - from lat. portus‘harbour’ and a number of others.

The names of many types of food and clothing are also Latin in origin:

• butter - Greek-Latin butyrum'oil',
• cheese - lat. caseus'cheese',
• pall - lat. pallium'cloak';

names of a number of cultivated or farmed plants:

• pear - lat. pira'pear',
• peach - lat. persica‘peach’, etc. and more. etc.

Another layer of Latin words dates back to the era of the penetration of Christianity into Britain. There are about 150 such words. These words also entered deeply into the language and became part of it along with the indigenous Germanic words. These are, first of all, terms directly related to the church:

• apostle - Greek-Lat. apostolus'apostle',
• bishop - Greek-Lat. episcopus'bishop',
• cloister - lat. claustrum'monastery'.

The era of raids, and then the temporary conquest of Britain by the Vikings (790-1042) gives the Old English language a significant number of commonly used words of Scandinavian origin, such as: call - to call, cast - to throw, die - to die, take - to take, ugly - ugly, ill - sick. The borrowing of grammatical words is also characteristic, for example both - both, same - the same, they - they, their - theirs, etc. At the end of this period, a process of enormous importance gradually begins to manifest itself - the withering away of inflection. It is possible that the actual bilingualism of part of the English territory under Danish control played some role in this: language mixing led to the usual consequences - a simplification of grammatical structure and morphology. It is characteristic that inflection begins to disappear earlier in the north of Britain - the area of ​​​​Danish law.

Middle English period

The next period in the development of the English language covers the time from 1066 to 1485. The invasion of the Norman feudal lords in 1066 introduced into the Old English language a powerful new lexical layer of so-called Normanisms - words dating back to the Norman-French dialect of the Old French language spoken by the conquerors. For a long time Norman French remained in England the language of the church, government and the upper classes. But the conquerors were too few in number to impose their language unchanged on the country. Gradually, medium and small landowners, who belonged to a relatively greater extent to the indigenous population of the country - the Anglo-Saxons, acquired higher value. Instead of the dominance of the Norman French language, a kind of “linguistic compromise” is gradually emerging, the result of which is a language approaching the one we call English. But the Norman French language of the ruling class retreated slowly: only in 1362 was English introduced into legal proceedings, in 1385 teaching in Norman French was stopped and English was introduced, and from 1483 parliamentary laws began to be published in English. Although the basis of the English language remained Germanic, it included such a huge number (see below) of Old French words that it becomes a mixed language. The process of penetration of Old French words continues from about 1200 to the end of the Middle English period, but reaches a peak between 1250-1400.

As one would expect, the vast majority of words related to government go back to Old French (with the exception of the original Germanic king, queen and a few others):

• reign - to reign, government - government, crown - crown, state - state, etc.;

most noble titles:

• duke - duke,
• peer - peer;

words related to military affairs:

• army - army,
• peace - peace,
• battle - battle,
• soldier - soldier,
• general - general,
• captain - captain,
• enemy - enemy;

court terms:

• judge - judge,
• court - court,
• crime - crime;

church terms:

• service - service (church),
• parish - parish.

It is very significant that words related to trade and industry are of Old French origin, and the names of simple crafts are Germanic. An example of the first: commerce - trade, industry - industry, merchant - merchant. No less indicative for the history of the English language are two rows of words noted by Walter Scott in his novel “Ivanhoe”:

names of living animals - Germanic:

• ox - bull,
• cow - cow,
• calf - calf,
• sheep - sheep,
• pig - pig;

the meat of these animals bears the Old French names:

• beef - beef,
• veal - veal,
• mutton - lamb,
• pork - pork, etc.

The grammatical structure of the language undergoes further changes during this period: nominal and verbal endings are first confused, weakened, and then, by the end of this period, almost completely disappear. Appears in adjectives, along with in simple ways formation of degrees of comparison, new ones, by adding words to the adjective more'more' and most'most'. The end of this period (1400-1483) saw the victory of the London dialect over other English dialects in the country. This dialect arose from the merger and development of southern and central dialects. In phonetics, the so-called Great Vowel Shift is occurring.

As a result of the migration of part of the British in 1169 to the territory of the Irish county of Wexford, the Yola language independently developed, which disappeared in mid-19th century.

New England period

The period of development of the English language, to which the language belongs modern England, begins at the end of the 15th century. With the development of printing and the mass distribution of books, the normative book language, phonetics and colloquial continue to change, gradually moving away from dictionary norms. An important stage in the development of the English language was the formation of diaspora dialects in the British colonies.

We invite you to plunge into the fascinating world of the history of the English language! The British Isles, located apart from the rest of the European countries, were conquered by many empires and tribes. This explains the diversity, beauty and complexity of learning English. Below we will tell you.

Old English (450-1100 AD)

The origin of the language begins in the 5th century, when Britain, whose population consisted of Celts and Romans, was invaded by the Germanic Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. The invaders pushed the population of Britain to the northwestern regions, into the territory of modern Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The influence of the Germanic tribes served as an impetus for the eradication of the Latin and Celtic languages. A mix of Celtic and Germanic languages ​​gave birth to Old English.

Interesting fact #1: Old English has a small percentage of similarities with modern English as we know it. Today, the English dictionary contains words from that period, for example:

• demonstrative pronouns: these, those, etc.;
• place names: London, Thames (Thames);
• degrees of comparison: biggest, greatest;
• Some words have been preserved, for example: strong, water, school, rose, art, parliament.

Interesting fact No2: During this period, parts of speech were declined according to cases and divided into masculine, feminine and neuter gender. There was also conjugation for persons, numbers, and moods.

Interesting fact No3: It was during the period of the capture that Britain was renamed "Engla-land", and the language of the English was called "Englisc". These names were adapted to the known "England" (England) and "English" (English).

Interesting fact No4: True Celtic language can be heard in Wales.

Middle English (1100-1500 AD)

Christianity was actively popularized, as a result of which the borrowing of Latin vocabulary began. The general Christianization of the population, directed by Pope Gregory, became the impetus for the replenishment of the vocabulary.

This stage ended with the invasion of the Normans in the person of the Conqueror William. Normandy, as part of the territory of France, brought with it the French language and served as the origin of the Anglo-Norman dialects.

Due to the decline of political forces, the use of Norman dialects did not gain popularity. After which, in the 14th century, the popularization of Middle English reached its apogee. This language was the language greatest poet Geoffrey Chaucer. We advise you to familiarize yourself with his works; you will make sure that Middle English was already more similar to modern English.

Words borrowed from French speech and remaining in English: beauty (beauty), art (art), poet (poet), parliament (parliament) and many others.

Latin words that are still used today: genius (genius), history (history) and many others.

Interesting fact No5: French became popular among the upper echelons of British society. However, the vast majority of the general population used English.

Interesting fact No6: The Middle English stage also describes the influence of Scandinavian and Slavic languages.

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Towards the end of the Middle English period, vowel sounds suddenly and rapidly began to shorten. Thanks to the active contact of the British Empire with the outside world (16th century), many new foreign words appeared. During this important period for Britain, printing was invented. Literacy became available to all segments of society.

Printed publications allowed the English language to acquire established standards and fix rules in grammar and spelling.

The well-known Shakespearean monologue “To be or not to be” is characteristic of the early modern English period.

If you are somehow familiar with the English language, you will notice the similarities with the currently used language.

In the 1600s, grammatical and spelling standards were fixed, using the London dialect as a basis.

This period is characterized by the emergence of a mass of new words. The impetus for the development of modern English as we know it was the Industrial Revolution, as well as the fact that the British Empire covered more than a quarter of the entire planet. The late English period saw the global borrowing of foreign words.

Britain's entry onto the world stage brought new additions to the English language in the form of many words from Arabic, Turkish and a number of European languages: atmosphere (atmosphere), macaroni (pasta), coffee (coffee), tomato (tomatoes), tobacco (tobacco).

The Industrial Revolution gave birth to familiar words: biology (biology), bacterium (microbe), chromosome (chromosome).

Interesting fact No7: In the early 1600s, the first English dictionary appeared on the market.

Modern English and its varieties

The most important thing you need to know about modern English is that there are now two major dialects - British and American.

Interesting fact No8: The American dialect appeared due to the colonization of North America by the British.

There are also Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, Indian and many other dialects of English.

Today, about 2 billion people speak English, and in 67 countries English is the official language.

Despite this long history formation and development of the English language - it is developing to this day, absorbing slangs and jargons. The English language keeps pace with modern trends.

Proficiency in English is the treasured key to success in your career and to achieving heights in life. Regardless of your goal, English will become a companion in your life, opening doors to new opportunities!

We hope that we were able to answer your main question: “ How did the English language originate?" We wish you good luck in learning the most popular language in the world!

Today English is an international means of communication. It is taught in schools, in various courses and people of all ages study it to broaden their horizons and become a free "citizen of the world." It wasn't always like this.

The emergence of English

The English language has its origins around 800 BC. It was then that the first mentions of Celtic tribes who settled on the territory of the British Isles appeared.

The chronicles of that time say that the British Celts communicated in their own dialect, had a fairly developed culture with patriarchal foundations, men could have up to 10 wives, and children who reached a certain age were raised in a male society, learning the art of hunting and wielding weapons.

After British Isles were conquered by Caesar, they became one of the Roman provinces. During this period, the Celts experienced the powerful influence of the Romans, which, undoubtedly, could not but be reflected in the language.

The presence of roots of Latin origin in many words English vocabulary. For example: street"street" (from lat. via strata"paved road") wall"wall" (from vallum"shaft"), wine"wine" (from lat. vinum"wine"), pear"pear" (from lat. pirum"pear"), pepper "pepper" (from Latin piper). Castra (from Latin "camp") is present today in some modern geographical names Britain Lancaster, Manchester, Leicester.

English language development

Historically, it is believed that the ancestors of the British were the ancient Germanic tribes of the Saxons, Angles and Jutes, who appeared on the territory of Britain in 449 and gradually assimilated. Therefore, after the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the islands, very few Celtic words remained in English.

After the beginning of Christianization in 597 AD. Roman Church, by the beginning of the 9th century almost half of the population of Britain professed Christianity. During this time, the English language borrowed more than 600 words from Latin, most of which related to religion and politics. For example, school"school" (from lat. school"school"); Bishop"bishop" (from Lat. Episcopus"supervisor"); mount"mountain" (from lat. montis"mountain"); priest"priest" (from Lat. presbyter"presbyter").

The first translator of the Gospel into the Anglo-Saxon language was the English educator Bede the Venerable, whose work had a great influence on the further development of the language.

At the end of the 9th century, the conquest of British lands by the Danes and their active assimilation with the local inhabitants began. As a result, the English language has been replenished with many words borrowed from the Scandinavian group of languages. Very often this is indicated by the presence of letter combinations sk- or sc- at the beginning of words: sky"sky", skin"leather", sake"scull".

After the conquest of Britain by the peoples of northern France, starting in the mid-11th century, the era of three languages ​​began: French was considered the language of the aristocracy, Latin the language of science, and ordinary citizens spoke Anglo-Saxon. It was as a result of the mixing of these three languages ​​that the process of formation of modern English began.

How did the English language originate?

Linguists around the world define English as a mixed language. First of all, this is evidenced by the fact that many words that have a similar meaning do not have a single root. So, if you compare a number of words that have a similar meaning, in Russian “head head head”, in English they will sound completely different.” chapter head chief". This is explained by the process of mixing languages ​​mentioned above. Thus, Anglo-Saxon words denoted specific objects, hence the word head. The word chapter, used in science, came from Latin, and from the French language of the nobility chief.

Similar phenomena can be found in other semantic series of the English language. Thus, the words denoting the name of the animal are of Germanic origin, and the name of the meat of this animal is Old French: cow cow, but beef beef; calf calf, but veal veal, sheep sheep, but mutton mutton; pig pig, but pork pork, etc.

After 1400, the English language underwent significant changes in grammar and pronunciation: many verbs lost their endings, vowel sounds began to be pronounced more briefly.

With the advent of the Renaissance, the English language was enriched with many new words, and the invention of the printing press only contributed to the development of the literary language. William Caxton is considered the first printer in Britain, who published the first book in English in 1474. While working, Caxton often invented his own rules of grammar, which after the publication of the book began to be considered the only correct ones. Thanks to this, many English words consolidated their writing and acquired a finished form.

By the beginning of the 17th century, the rules of grammar and spelling were fixed, and the London dialect became the standardized form of the language, which at that time was spoken by almost 90% of native speakers. In 1604, the first dictionary of the English language was published.

Modern English

The colonization of North America at the beginning of the 17th century by the British contributed to the emergence of the American version of the English language. In part, American English is more similar to the language of Shakespeare's time than modern British. Many American words originated from British expressions and came into widespread use in the English colonies before disappearing in England. As the colonialists moved west, where Spain dominated, the language was replenished with new words. For example, alligator, anchovy, banana, cannibal, hurricane, potato, sombrero, tobacco and many others.

Linguists consider American English easier to understand and learn. Today it ranks second in the list of the most widely spoken languages ​​on the planet. According to researchers, it is spoken by between 600 million and 1.6 billion. There are also Canadian English, Australian English, and various dialects and dialects are common in Great Britain itself.

Modern English, and in particular its American version, is the language of international communication. It is enshrined as the official language of 53 countries of the world, as well as the language of the United Nations. Politicians, cultural figures, scientists, members public organizations communicate in English. Knowledge of the language allows you to freely travel around the world, communicating with representatives of any nationality.

• • Previously, the English alphabet had 1 letter more. The 27th letter was the symbol The word queue will sound the same even if the last four characters are removed from it;
  • Punctuation marks in English appeared only in the 15th century;
  • Most frequently used letter in english alphabet letter "e";
  • More words in the English language begin with the letter "s" than with any other;
  • The English language is rich in various synonyms. The word drunk has the most synonyms alcohol intoxication can be conveyed using about 3,000 words and expressions;
  • Sound in English can be represented by various letter combinations. For example: He believed Caesar could see people seizing the seas;
  • Offer " The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" contains all the letters of the English alphabet;
  • Due to an error made in the printing house, from 1932 to 1940 the word existed in the English dictionary dord, which didn't matter;
  • Most often, mistakes in pronunciation are made precisely in the word pronunciation, which is translated as “pronunciation”;
  • The word bride comes from a German verb meaning the process of cooking.
  • One of the most difficult tongue twisters in the English language is " Sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick";
  • The word set has 68 meanings and two hundred different variations;
  • The longest word consisting of one syllable is screeched "squealed";
  • The word mortgage came into English from French and is translated as “lifetime contract”;
  • Every year, the English dictionary is replenished with approximately 4,000 new words, that is, approximately 1 word every 2 hours;
  • There are more English speakers in Nigeria than in the UK;
  • There are about 24 different dialects of English in the United States.

The history of a language always helps to better understand it when studying and increase the efficiency of its assimilation. We will be glad if our article is not only informative for you, but also strengthens you in your desire to learn this beautiful language or improve your skills.

The history of the English language is inextricably linked with the history of England. It began in the 5th century, when Britain, at that time inhabited by Celts and partly by Romans, was invaded by three Germanic tribe. The Germanic influence turned out to be so strong that soon the territory of almost the entire country from Celtic and Latin languages there was almost nothing left. Only in remote and inaccessible areas of Britain that remained unoccupied by the Germans (Cornwall, Wells, Ireland, Highland Scotland) were the local Welsh and Gaulish languages ​​preserved. These languages ​​survive today: they are called Celtic languages, as opposed to Germanic

whom English speaking.

Then the Vikings came to Britain from Scandinavia with their Old Icelandic language. Then in 1066 England was captured by the French. Because of this, French was the language of the English aristocracy for two centuries, and Old English was used by the common people. This historical fact had a very significant impact on the English language: many new words appeared in it, the vocabulary almost doubled. Therefore, it is in the vocabulary that the split into two variants of English - high and low, respectively of French and German origin - can be quite clearly felt today.

Thanks to the doubling of the vocabulary, the English language today still has many words of the same meaning - synonyms that arose as a result of the simultaneous use of two different languages, who came from Saxon peasants and from Norman masters. A striking example Such social division is the differences in the name of livestock, which comes from Germanic roots:

• cow - cow
• calf - calf
• sheep - sheep
• swine - pig

Despite all external influences, the core of the language remained Anglo-Saxon. Already in the 14th century, English became literary language, as well as the language of law and school. And when mass emigration from Britain to America began, the language brought there by the settlers continued to change in new directions, often maintaining its roots in British English, and sometimes changing quite significantly.
The beginning of the globalization of English

By the beginning of the 20th century

Nowadays, English is increasingly becoming the language of international communication. The English language, along with other languages ​​of international communication, was used at international conferences, in the League of Nations, and for negotiations. Even then, the need to improve its teaching and develop objective criteria that would allow learning the language more effectively became obvious. This need stimulated the search and research of linguists different countries, which have not dried up to this day.

It is clear that one of essential components learning any foreign language is an accumulation vocabulary. Only after acquiring some vocabulary can you begin to study the relationships between words - grammar, stylistics, etc. But what words should you learn first? And how many words should you know? There are a lot of words in the English language. According to linguists, the complete vocabulary of the English language contains at least one million words.

Early English grammars (the first of which was written in 1586) were written either to help foreigners become proficient in English or to prepare English-speaking students to learn Latin. In general, these books were not intended to teach native English speakers. It was not until about 1750 that attempts were made to teach the language to the English.
It's a shame this didn't happen a few generations later. Eighteenth-century linguists based their study of the English language on incorrect theories. For example, they believed that grammar rules the same for all languages, and, claiming that Latin was the ideal, they often tried to remake English expressions in the Latin manner. Moreover, they believed that the death of endings in words was a sign of degradation, not progress. They could not bring back the endings that had already disappeared, but they successfully preserved all the others. If not for their influence, irregular verbs in modern English it would be much less. Their theories were consolidated and brought to ordinary people thanks to a wave of widespread education in England. Great amount irregular verbs and carefully preserved endings never made it possible for the English language to completely transform from a synthetic language to an analytical one.

With the spread of literacy, the English language slowed its change, but it continues to change to this day. The ease of use of the rules, as well as the richness of the vocabulary, which continues to expand, has allowed the English language to become international language communication.