FROM AN OBSCURE GERMANIC DIALECT TO A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

Part I

The history of the English language is a complex tapestry of gradual developments and short, sharp, shocks, of isolation and mutual influences, of borrowing and obsolescence. Unlike languages that developed within the boundaries of one country (or one distinct geographical region), English, since its beginnings 1,600 or so years ago, evolved by crossing boundaries and through invasions, picking up bits and pieces of other languages along the way and changing with the spread of the language across the globe.

Language is no respecter of boundaries or national borders, and overlaps across borders are common.

Before English — Proto-English

Languages are constantly evolving and it can be difficult to define when a language actually began. Many people consider that English started to take shape when several Germanic tribes, including the Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes started trading with the Roman Empire. The Germanic, or Proto-Germanic, language group can be traced back to the region between the Elbe river in modern Germany and southern Sweden nearly 3,000 years ago. certain consonants in the Germanic family of languages have shifted somewhat from the Indo-European base. Thus, Germanic words like the English “foot,” West Frisian “foet,” Danish “fod,” Swedish “fot,” are in fact related to the Latin “ped,” Lithuanian “peda,” Sanskrit “pada,” etc…

The Celtic Influence

The earliest inhabitants of Britain about which anything is known are the Celts (the name from the Greek “keltoi” meaning barbarian), also known as Britons, who probably started to move into the area sometime after 800 BC. Despite their dominance in Britain at an early formative stage of its development, the Celts have actually had very little impact on the English language, leaving only a few little-used words such as “brock” (an old word for a badger), and a handful of geographical terms like “coombe” (a word for a valley) and “crag” and “tor” (both words for a rocky peak).

The Romans — Latin

The Romans first entered Britain in 55 BC under Julius Caesar, although they did not begin a permanent occupation until 43 AD, when Emperor Claudius sent a much better prepared force to subjugate the fierce British Celts. Although this first invasion had a profound effect on the culture, religion, geography, architecture and social behavior of Britain, the linguistic legacy of the Romans’ time in Britain was, like that of the Celts, surprisingly limited. This legacy takes the form of less than 200 “loanwords” coined by Roman merchants and soldiers, such as “win” (wine), “caese” (cheese), “cetel” (kettle)… However, Latin would, at a later time, come to have a substantial influence on the language. Latin did not replace the Celtic language in Britain as it had done in Gaul, and the use of Latin by native Britons during the period of Roman rule was probably confined to members of the upper classes and the inhabitants of the cities and towns.