Scientific works etymology of English words. History of the appearance of the English language

The history of the English language 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 northern 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 of a common language of 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, the colonization of North America by the British led to the emergence of. Some words and pronunciations were “frozen in time” when they reached America. In some ways, American English is even more similar to Shakespeare's language 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.

Brief chronology of the English language
55 BC e.	The Romans, led by Julius Caesar, invade Britain	Local residents speak Celtic language
43 n. e.	Roman conquest. Beginning of Roman rule in Britain.
436	The Romans finally leave Britain
449	The beginning of the settlement of Germanic tribes in Britain
450-480	Earliest known inscriptions in Old English	Old English
1066	William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, conquers England	Old English
approx. 1150	Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English	Middle English
1348	English is replacing Latin as the language of instruction in most schools
1362	English is replacing French as the language of power. This is the first time that English is used in Parliament.
ca.1388	Chaucer begins writing The Canterbury Tales
approx. 1400	Beginning of the Great Vowel Shift
1476	William Caxton opens the first English printing press	Early Modern English
1564	Shakespeare is born
1604	The first dictionary of the English language, Table Alphabeticall, was published.
1607	First permanent English settlement in the New World founded (Jamestown)
1616	Shakespeare Dies
1623	The first collection of Shakespeare's plays published
1702	The first English-language daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, was published in London.
1755	Samuel Johnson publishes The Dictionary of the English Language
1776	Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence
1782	Britain gives up its colonies, which will later become the USA
1828	Webster publishes the American English Dictionary	Late New English
1922	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) founded
1928	The Oxford English Dictionary has been published.

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

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! Today we will get acquainted with the history of the origin of the English language and look at some of its varieties.

We all, one way or another, come across English words and expressions in our lives. However, not everyone knows that the British language has been modified and improved throughout the history of its existence.

Briefly about the history of the origin and development of the English language

The history of the English language is divided by many philologists and linguists into three periods: Old English, Middle English and New English. However, this division is conditional, because the language existed among the tribes that inhabited the British Isles long before the conquest of Britain by Caesar or the spread of Christianity throughout the country.

Celtic Britain

55 -54 G. BC.uh. Two campaigns to Britain by Guy Julius Caesar. The British Celts - the Britons - first came into contact with the Romans. The word "Britain" itself supposedly comes from the Celtic root "brith" "colored".

44 G. n. uh. A century after Caesar, Britain, after a personal visit by Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), was declared a province of the Roman Empire. In addition to Claudius, among the Roman emperors, Hadrian visited Britain (120 AD), and Septimius Severus died (211) while in York (lat. Eboracum). Constantius Chlorus (306), the father of Saint Constantine the Great, Equal-to-the-Apostles, also died in York.
B 410 G. n.uh by order of Emperor Honorius, Britain ceased to be a Roman province; from now on the Britons are left to their own devices. What remained from the Romans were Christian churches, roads, and fortified settlements on the sites of military camps.

The Latin word for camp is castra. The elements “-caster”, “-chester”, “-cester” in the names of English settlements go back to this Latin word. For example: "Lancaster", "Manchester", "Leicester". The element "-coln" goes back to the Latin word "colonia" - "settlement". For example: "Lincoln".

Among the common nouns in their language, the English owe the presence of the Romans in Britain such common words as “street” and “wall” - “wall”: the first - from the Latin expression “via strata” - “paved road”, the second - from “vallum” - “shaft”.

Old English period (450-1066)

The Germanic tribes of the Saxons, Jutes, Angles and Frisians entered Britain in 449. Since these tribes were much larger in number than the Celtic ones, gradually the Anglo-Saxon dialect completely replaced the Celtic dialect from use.

In modern English, some names of places and bodies of water go back to the language of the Britons. For example, London and Avon (“avon” means “river” in Celtic).

The Germans brought with them several words of Latin origin, which they borrowed from the Romans on the mainland - the so-called “common Germanic borrowings” from Latin. Of these, in modern English there are words such as “wine” - “wine” - from Latin. "vinum" - "wine"; “pear” - “pear” - from lat. "pirum" - "pear"; “pepper” - “pepper” - from lat. "piper" - "pepper". The words “butter”, “pound”, “cheese”, “alum”, “silk”, “inch”, “mile”, “mint” are also “common Germanic borrowings” from Latin.

In 878, the conquest of Anglo-Saxon lands by the Danes began. For many years, the Danes lived on the lands of Britain and intermarried with representatives of the Anglo-Saxons. As a result, a number of borrowings from Scandinavian languages appeared in English. For example, “amiss” - “something is wrong”, “anger” - “anger”, “auk” - “auk”, “awe” - “awe”, “axle” - “axis”, “aye” - “always” .

The letter combination “sk-” or “sc-” at the beginning of a word in modern English is also very often an indicator that the word is a Scandinavian loanword. For example, “sky” - “sky” (from the original English “heaven”), “skin” - “skin” (from the original English “hide” - “skin”), “skull” - “skull” (from the original English “ shell" - “shell”; “shell”).

Middle English period (1066-1500)

In the middle of the 11th century, the inhabitants of northern France conquered Britain. William the Conqueror, a Norman by origin, becomes king. From this time on, the era of three languages began in the history of the people. French became the language of the aristocracy and courts, Latin remained the language of science, and the common people continued to speak Anglo-Saxon. It was the mixture of these three languages that gave rise to the formation of modern English.

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 of Old French words that it becomes a mixed language. The process of penetration of Old French words continued until the very end of the Middle English period, but reached its peak between 1250 and 1400.

Early Modern English period (1500-1800)

William Caxton is considered the first printer in Britain, who printed the first book in English in 1474. It was a translation of Raoul Lefebvre's "Collected Stories of Troy."

During his life, Caxton published more than 100 books, many of which were his own translations. It should be noted that thanks to his activities, many English words finally found their finished form.

As for grammatical rules, Caxton often invented his own rules, which, after publication, became publicly available and were considered the only correct ones.

Late Modern English period (1800-present)

The great William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is rightfully considered the founder of the English literary language. He is credited with originating many idiomatic expressions that are still used in modern English. In addition, Shakespeare invented many new words that have taken root in the language.

For example, the word "swagger" - "swaggering gait" or "swagger" - is found for the first time in the history of the English language in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Varieties of English

English is spoken by more than 500 million people. In terms of the number of speakers, it is second only to Chinese and Hindi. The widespread use of English and its prominence throughout the world is due to the extensive colonization of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the political influence and economic dominance of the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present day.

The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into 3 general categories. These are the dialects:

British Isles (UK)
North America (USA and Canada)
Australasia (India, Australia and New Zealand).

Dialects can be associated not only with place, but also with certain social groups. In England alone there are more than 20 English dialects .

Timeline of the development of the English language

800 BC	Representatives of the Indo-Europeans, the Celts, moved to Britain from the mainland.
55 - 54 BC e.	The Romans arrived in Britain. Guy Julius Caesar made two trips here.
44 BC e.	Britain was declared a province of the Roman Empire. The island was visited by the emperors Claudius, Hadrian, and Septimius Severus.
	The Romans finally leave Britain
	The Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians penetrated into the territory of Britain. The Anglo-Saxon dialect began to displace the Celtic language from everyday use.
	William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, conquers England
	The first English literature appeared
	The first government documents in English were issued
	This is the first time that English is used in Parliament.
	Chaucer begins writing The Canterbury Tales
	William Caxton opens the first English printing press
	Birth of William Shakespeare
	The first English dictionary called Table Alphabeticall was published. The dictionary was created by Robert Caudrey
	The first English settlement in the New World was founded (Jamestown)
	Death of William Shakespeare
	The first collection of Shakespeare's plays published
	The first daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London.
	The first “Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language” was published
	Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence
	Britain gives up its colonies in North America
	Webster publishes the American English Dictionary
	The Oxford English Dictionary has been published.

Conclusion

Now you have read a brief excursion into the history of the English language. And now you can show off your knowledge in the company of friends who, like you, care about this beautiful and universal language.

Go ahead and let"em know some history there! Just not too much!

Big and friendly EnglishDom family

English has long been the language of international communication. It spread throughout the world, became the main language of the Internet and united all continents. Why this became possible can be partly answered by the history of the emergence of the English language, in which fascinating events took place.

Many learners know that English belongs to the Germanic group of languages, but if you compare it with German, you will see huge discrepancies. Of course, you will find words that sound similar. And yet, an Englishman who has not studied German will never understand a native German.

At the same time, according to the majority of Europeans, and even residents of other continents, English speech is the easiest to memorize and reproduce. In many countries, this language is included in school curricula and is studied as one of the main subjects.

In linguistic universities, the history of the emergence of the English language cannot be explained briefly, so it is singled out as a separate subject for study. We will note the main periods of history and elements of influence on the development of the English language.

How it all began

In the 5th century AD, tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes settled the British Isles (mostly the territory of modern Great Britain). The Celts, who inhabited these lands at that time, were unable to provide worthy resistance - and went deeper into the island.

Assimilation with the Celts was weak, and therefore they had little influence on the English language (which became dominant). The first result of the change in Anglo-Saxon vocabulary was the conquest of the island by the Vikings, who “left” on the island such words as sky, window and others.

The beginning of the rapid development of English - the English language and culture - occurs during the reign of King Alfred the Great, who marked the birth of the English state and strengthened its influence.

A period of great change

In the 11th century, Britain was occupied by the Normans, led by William the Conqueror. They themselves were descendants of German tribes (Normans - northern people), who, having captured part of the territory of France, assimilated with the local residents and adopted the French language as a means of communication.

The rule of the Franks lasted about two centuries, and they had a huge influence on the development of English. As a result, an almost new language was formed, in which the main cases disappeared, and more than 50 percent of lexical units were replaced by French words.

It is interesting that the London nobility, most of whom were Franks, retained that part of the vocabulary that was close to them. For example, they did not keep livestock, but ate meat products. Therefore, the names of animals and basic life-sustaining things were retained by the Anglo-Saxons - peasants: cow - cow, sheep - sheep, horse - horse, swine - pig, bread - bread, house - house. The Franks consumed everything indicated as food, luxurious living and entertainment, so they left such words as: pork - pork, beef - beef, veal - veal, palace - palace, etc.

Shakespeare, Catholics and Modernity

The history of the development of the English language did not end there, and several more significant changes occurred. The era of Shakespeare (1564-1616) and the rapid development of theater and other arts had a significant impact on its change. The heroes of the great poet gained immortality, and the English language was enriched with new phraseological units: “the wild-goose chase” - “the pursuit of the impossible” and much more.

By the way, several advents of Latin took place, since already at the end of the 5th century the Catholic Church began to actively penetrate Great Britain. Services in temples were conducted in the language of the ancient Romans, which was no longer used in worldly life, but many words and expressions were borrowed.

Thus, English became a conglomerate of the main European languages, changing the basic principles of word formation and syntax. From a synthetic language (the language of cases and endings) it turned into an analytical means of communication, where context (the place of a word in a sentence and in the text) took on the leading role.

To make the history of the development of the English language more clear to you, the Lim English website provides a presentation of its main periods. The evolution of English is most amazing, and it has never stopped. It continues to this day - which is confirmed by the gradual elimination of the use of the auxiliary verb shall, when describing events in the future.

Many philologists and linguists divide the history of the English language into three periods: Old English, Middle English and New English. However, this division is quite arbitrary, because the language existed among the tribes that inhabited the British Isles long before the conquest of Britain by Caesar or the spread of Christianity throughout the country.

Celtic culture at the origins of the history of the English language

The first mentions in ancient chronicles of the inhabitants inhabiting the British Isles date back to 800 BC. At this time, a tribe of Indo-European people, the Celts, moved to the island. Those tribes that lived on the islands before the arrival of the Celtic people did not leave any traces in history.

From 800 BC The era of the British Celts and, accordingly, the Celtic language in Britain begins. Many linguists are of the opinion that the word "Britain" comes from a word with a Celtic root - brith "colored". In the chronicles you can find a mention that the Celts actually painted their faces and bodies when they were going to war or hunt. There are also mentions in the chronicles that the British Celts already at the time of the conquest of the British Isles by the great Caesar had a developed culture. Patriarchy flourished among the tribes. Men had 8-10 wives. Children were raised by women until a certain age, then the boys came under the care of men who taught them to hunt and wield weapons.

The chronicles also mention that the British Celts spoke a special dialect.

And words such as whiskey, plaid, slogan came into the English language much later from the Celtic languages, which were widespread at that time: whiskey (Irish uisce beathadh “living water”), slogan (from the Scottish sluagh-ghairm “battle cry” ").

The influence of the Roman Empire on the development of the English language

A century after Caesar conquered the British Isles, in 44 BC. The British Isles were visited by the Roman Emperor Claudius, after which Britain began to be considered a Roman province. During this period, there was close communication between the Celtic people and the Romans, which, of course, was reflected in the language.

Thus, many words in modern English have Latin roots. For example, the word castra (from Latin “camp”). This root is found in many place names in modern Britain - Lancaster, Manchester, Leicester.

There are also such common words as street "street" (from the Latin expression via strata "paved road") and wall "wall" (from vallum "wall").

There are many common nouns borrowed from Latin: wine "wine" - from Latin. vinum "wine"; pear "pear" - from lat. pirum "pear"; pepper "pepper" - from lat. piper.

Old English period (450 - 1066) in the history of the English language

The immediate ancestors of the English people are the Germanic tribes of the Saxons, Jutes, Angles and Frisians, who entered the territory of Britain in 449. Since these tribes were much larger in number than the Celtic ones, gradually the Anglo-Saxon dialect completely replaced the Celtic dialect from use.

Thanks to the Anglo-Saxon tribes, many names of geographical objects appeared in the English language and have survived to this day. Also, words such as butter, pound, cheese, alum, silk, inch, сhalk, mile, mint have common Germanic roots, borrowed from Latin. Or the word Saturday - stands for “day of Saturn” - the father of the god Jupiter in ancient Roman mythology.

In 597 AD. The general Christianization of Britain begins. Before this, the Anglo-Saxon tribes were pagans. The Roman Church sent monk Augustine to the island, who through diplomatic means gradually began converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. The activities of Augustine and his followers brought tangible results: by the beginning of 700 AD. a significant part of the population of the British Isles professed Christianity.

This close fusion of cultures is reflected in the language. Many words appeared that were borrowed at this time. For example, school "school" - from Lat. schola "school", Bishop "bishop" - from Lat. Episcopus “supervisor”, mount “mountain” - from Lat. montis (Gen. Fall.) “mountain”, pea “peas” - from Lat. pisum "peas", Priest "priest" - from Lat. presbyter "elder".

According to rough estimates by linguists, in this era the English language borrowed more than 6 hundred words from Latin, not counting their derivatives. These are mainly words related to religion, church, as well as government.

The work of Beda Venerabilis, the first English historian and educator, who was the first to translate the Gospel from Latin into Anglo-Saxon, dates back to this time. The work of the Venerable Bede had a significant impact on the development of the language and is an important step in the history of the English language.

Influence of the Scandinavian group of languages

In 878, the conquest of Anglo-Saxon lands by the Danes began. For many years, the Danes lived on the lands of Britain and intermarried with representatives of the Anglo-Saxons. As a result, a number of borrowings from Scandinavian languages appeared in English. For example, amiss "something is wrong", anger "anger", auk "auk", awe "awe", axle "axis", aye "always".

The letter combination sk- or sc- at the beginning of a word in modern English is also very often an indicator that the word is a Scandinavian loanword. For example, sky “sky” (from the original English heaven), skin “skin” (from the original English hide “skin”), skull “skull” (from the original English shell “shell; shell”).

Middle English period (1066-1500) of English language history

Development of the English language in the Middle Ages

Modern English - mixed

Linguists interpret modern English as mixed. This is due to the fact that many words, with a general meaning, do not have common roots. Let us compare, for example, a number of words in Russian: head - head - main. In English, the same series is represented by the words: head - chapter - chief. Why did this happen? Everything is explained precisely by the mixture of three languages. Anglo-Saxon words denoted specific objects, hence the word head. The word chapter remains from Latin, the language of science and education. What remains from French is the word that was used by the nobility, chief.

The same distinction can be found in many semantic series in English. For example, there is a difference between the words denoting the name of an animal (words of Germanic origin) and the name of the meat of that animal (these words come from Old French). So, ox - bull, cow - cow, calf - calf, sheep - sheep, pig - pig; but beef - beef, veal - veal, mutton - lamb, pork - pork, etc.

During this period in the history of the English language, changes also occurred in the grammatical structure. Many verb endings disappear. Adjectives acquire degrees of comparison, including suppletive degrees (with the addition of the words more, most). The phonetics of the language is also undergoing significant changes. By the end of 1500, the London dialect became increasingly popular in the country, and was spoken by 90% of native speakers.

First books in English

William Caxton is considered the first printer in Britain, who printed the first book in English in 1474. It was a translation of Raoul Lefebvre's Collected Stories of Troy. During his life, Caxton published more than 100 books, many of which were his own translations. It should be noted that thanks to his activities, many English words finally found their finished form.

As for grammatical rules, Caxton often invented his own rules, which, after publication, became publicly available and were considered the only correct ones.

New English period (1500-present) of the history of the English language

For example, the word swagger "swaggering gait; swagger" is found for the first time in the history of the English language in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

History of the English language during the Enlightenment

In 1712, for the first time in history, an image representing Great Britain and the national character of the British appeared. This year, the hero of John Abertnot's political pamphlets, John Bull, was born. And to this day, the image of Bull is a satirical depiction of an Englishman.

In 1795, the first textbook “English Grammar” by Lindley Murray was published. For almost two centuries, this textbook has been fundamental to English grammar. All educated people studied Murray's grammar.

Modern English

Modern language in the British Isles is by no means static. The language lives on, neologisms constantly appear, some words become a thing of the past.

However, the most important difference between English and many European languages is that in the UK there are no static norms. On the contrary, it is various dialects and adverbs that are in great use. Not only do the pronunciations of words differ on a phonetic level, but there are also completely different words that denote the same concept.

The media and government officials speak British English. But American English is considered the most popular. There are Australian English, Canadian English and many other dialects. Within the UK itself there are several dialects in use, spoken by residents of one province or another.

As you can see, the English language has retained its traditions of “mixing languages” to this day.

The popularity of the English language was greatly promoted by the colonial policy of Great Britain and the colonization of Australia and North America.

After the Second World War, the importance of a country such as the United States increased, which also contributed to the popularization of the English language.

In the modern world, the Internet community, people of science and culture mainly communicate in English.

It is difficult to name the exact number of people who speak English in our time. The results of various studies vary by tens of percent. The figures given are 600 million and 1.2 billion.

Undoubtedly, English is the most important means of communication in the modern world.