The history of the English language started when three Germanic tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes came from today's Denmark and northern Germany. Most of the Celts who lived there at the time were pushed by the invaders into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The word England comes from the word "Angle-land" (the land of the Angles).
The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages. Today we know it as Old English. About half of the most words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, come from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.
In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The Normans brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. The lower social classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.
Towards the end of Middle English the Great Vowel Shift started, a big change in pronounciation leading to vowels sounding shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many nations from around the world. Many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. And in 1928 the Oxford English Dictionary was published.
From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American version of English. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English.
Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.
The Germanic Family of Languages
English is a member of the Germanic family of languages.
Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.
English words of French origin