Origin & Diffusion of English

The British Isles had been inhabited for thousands of years, but we know nothing of their early languages until tribes called the Celts arrived around 2000 B.C.E., speaking languages we call Celtic. Around 450 C.E., tribes from mainland Europe invaded, pushing the Celts into the remote northern and western parts of Britain, including Cornwall and the highlands of Scotland and Wales.

German Invasion

The tribes invading the British Isles were known as the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. All three were Germanic tribes—the Jutes from northern Denmark, the Angles from southern Denmark, and the Saxons from northwestern Germany (Figure 5-18). Modern English has evolved primarily from the language spoken by the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons.

Invasions of England

The first speakers of the language that became known as English were invaders from present-day Germany and Denmark. Later invasions by Vikings and Normans brought new words to the language spoken in the British Isles. The Normans were the last successful invaders of England.

The three tribes who brought the beginnings of English to the British Isles shared a language similar to that of other peoples in the region from which they came. Today, English people and others who trace their cultural heritage back to England are often called Anglo-Saxons, after the two larger tribes.

The name England comes from Angles’ land. In Old English, Angles was spelled Engles, and the Angles’ language was known as englisc. The Angles came from a corner, or angle, along the border between Denmark and Germany known as Schleswig-Holstein. At some time in history, all Germanic people spoke a common language, but that time predates written records. The common origin of English with other Germanic languages can be reconstructed by analyzing language differences that emerged after Germanic groups migrated to separate territories and lived in isolation from each other, allowing their languages to continue evolving independently.

Other peoples subsequently invaded England and added their languages to basic English. Vikings from present-day Norway landed on the northeastern coast of England in the ninth century . Although defeated in their effort to conquer the islands, many Vikings remained in the country, and enriched the language with new words, including bag, cake, and egg.

Norman Invasion

English is quite different from German today primarily because England was conquered by the Normans in 1066 (Figure 5-20). The Normans, who came from present-day Normandy in France, spoke French, which they established as England’s official language for the next 300 years. The leaders of England, including the royal family, nobles, judges, and clergy, therefore spoke French. However, the majority of the people, who had little education, did not know French, so they continued to speak English to each other.

Bayeux Tapestry

The tapestry depicts the Norman invasion. It was woven a few years after the invasion. It normally is displayed at a museum in Bayeux, France.

England lost control of Normandy in 1204, during the reign of King John, and entered a long period of conflict with France. As a result, fewer people in England wished to speak French, and English again became the country’s unchallenged dominant language. Recognizing that nearly everyone in England was speaking English, Parliament enacted the Statute of Pleading in 1362 to change the official language of court business from French to English. However, Parliament continued to conduct business in French until 1489.

During the 300-year period that French was the official language of England, the Germanic language used by the common people and the French used by the leaders mingled to form a new language. Modern English owes its simpler, straightforward words, such as sky, horse, man, and woman, to its Germanic roots, and fancy, more elegant words, such as celestial, equestrian, masculine, and feminine, to its French invaders

Origin of English Words

Although classified in the Germanic branch, English actually has a higher percentage of Romance branch words.

Pause & Reflect 5.2.2

School and university: Which word entered the English language through the German invasions, and which through the Norman invasion?

Diffusion of English

The contemporary distribution of English speakers around the world exists because the people of England migrated with their language when they established colonies over the course of four centuries.

English first diffused west from England to North America in the seventeenth century. The first successful English colonies were built in North America, beginning with Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, and Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. After England defeated France in a battle to dominate the North American colonies during the eighteenth century, the position of English as the principal language of North America was assured.

Similarly, the British took control of Ireland in the seventeenth century, South Asia in the mid-eighteenth century, the South Pacific in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and southern and eastern Africa in the late nineteenth century. In each case, English became an official language, even if only the colonial rulers and a handful of elite local residents could speak it.

Into the twentieth century, the United States was responsible for diffusing English to several places, most notably the Philippines, which Spain ceded to the United States in 1899, a year after losing the Spanish-American War. After gaining full independence in 1946, the Philippines retained English as one of its official languages, along with Filipino.