History of the English

Language

Overview: Three Periods of

Linguistic Development

• Old English: circa 450 -1150

• Middle English: circa 1150 – 1500

• Modern English: 1500 - present

Romano Britain

Old English

Middle English

Modern English

U.S.

43 174 305 436 567 698 829 960 1091 1222 1353 1484 1615 1746 1877 2008

Indigenous Peoples

• 6500 BCE: the English channel forms around

this time, separating what is now Britain from the

Eurasian landmass.

• Initially, hunter-gatherers. Agricultural cultures

arise around 4,000 BCE.

• The Henge monuments built sometime between

4000 and 1500 BCE. Stonehenge has become

the best known of these and the circle still

stands on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire.

Indigenous Peoples

• Circa 2000 BCE: the Bell Beaker people arrive and either invade or coexist with native Neolithic peoples. The Bell Beaker people are named for their pottery, which consists of bronze, beaker-shaped vessels

Indigenous Peoples

• Circa 800 BCE: A culture arises that is called

―Celtic‖ by virtue of linguistic association with

Western and Central European peoples of

the time. Contact between those people

described as Celts and the inhabitants of

Britain through trade, immigration and inter-

marriage led to the spread of a Celtic

language into Britain. These immigrants are

thought to have named Britain ―Albion.‖

Romano Britain

• 55-54 BCE: Julius Caesar invades.

Caesar takes12,000 infantry and 2,000

cavalry. The invasion is unsuccessful due

to weather.

• Cassivelaunnus (king of the Catuvellanni)

remained undefeated and Caesar found

an honorable way out by exacting tribute,

a face-saving deal (for Caesar).

Romano Britain

• 43 CE- 409: Claudius invades with around 50,000 troops and conquers all of the Britain up to the Scottish border—where the Picts and others (especially the Caledonians) resist.

• Establishment of settlements around a permanent wooden bridge across the Thames. The Romans call the settlement on the northern side of the bridge ―Londinium.‖

• Over the next 400 years, most of the kingdoms south of Scotland merge culturally (but not linguistically) with the Romans and become Roman culturally as well as legally.

Romano Britain

• 78-142 CE: Roman conquests in the north

begin under Agricola; results north of the

Clyde-Forth line were not decisive.

• Emperor Hadrian completes the conquest

of Britain in person and constructs

Hadrian's Wall (C.E. 123) from Solway

Firth to the Tyne mouth.

Hadrian’s Wall,

built in 123

C.E.

Roman baths at Bath, England

The Anglo-Saxon Invasions

• 367: Anglo-Saxons (from northern

Germany and the Scandinavian

Peninsula), Picts (Scotland), and Gaelic

Dal Riata (from Ireland) begin harassing

Roman fortresses.

• Inland peasant population, which supplies

the cities with food, doesn’t much care

who is in charge.

Anglo-Saxon

Invasions,

circa 370-400

C.E.

The Anglo-Saxon Invasions

• 410: Roman Emperor Honorius refuses an

appeal from Britain for help because he is

too busy fighting off the Goths. British King

Vortigern makes a deal with Saxon

leaders Hengest and Horsa (brothers),

offering them a patch of land on the island

of Thanet, if they’ll help beat back the

Picts and Dal Riata. He then reneges.

Anglo-Saxon Britain

• Circa 615: the Angles and Jutes reach the

Irish channel, having subjugated the

Eastern and Southern parts of the island

entirely.

• Many ―Celts‖ concentrate in the west,

southwest, and Wales.

• Roman infrastructure falls into disrepair.

Anglo-Saxon Britain

• An Anglo-Saxon ―Heptarchy‖ emerges,

consisting of seven ―kinglets‖:

Essex, Wessex, Sussex are

Saxon

East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria

(Angles)

Kent (Jutes)

Anglo-Saxon Britain• 560-616: The supremacy of Ethelbert of

Kent in the Heptarchy.

– Kent converts to Christianity: Queen Bertha, Ethelbert’s wife, was a Frankish Christian.

– Pope Gregory sends Augustine to build her a chapel at Canterbury, where Augustine becomes the first Archbishop

– Pope Gregory refers to Ethelbert as Rex Anglorum.

– Latin orthography adopted because of the Catholic influence; it replaces the runic fuþorc alphabet.

Old English, 450-1150 C.E.

• English belongs to Low West German

branch of the Indo-European family.

• A synthetic language because word

endings change to indicate grammatical

function. (Modern English, by contrast, is

analytic because word order indicates

grammatical function.)

Old English, 450-1150 C.E.

The Noun has four

cases, and nouns are

strong if their Germanic

stem ends in a

consonant and are

inflected with vowels; or

weak if their stem ends

in a vowel and is

inflected with a

consonant.

Case Strong (vowel declension)

Sing Nominative Stān

Genitive Stān-es

Dative Stān-e

Accusative Stān

Plu Nominative Stān-as

Genitive Stān-a

Dative Stān-um

Accusative Stān-as

Old English, 450-1150 C.E.

• The Verb:

– Two simple tenses: past and present and

except for one word, no inflected forms for

the passive. Has indicative, imperative, and

subjunctive moods.

– Has strong (irregular) and weak (regular)

verbs.

• Strong show tense through changing root: sing,

sang, sung.

• Weak show tense through addition of suffix:

walk, walked, walked.

Old English, 450-1150 C.E.

Orthography

• æ—the ash (æsc), which represents the vowel in Modern English 'hat'

• þ—the thorn, which represents Modern English 'th'

• ð—the eth (or ðæt), which also represents Modern English 'th'. Capital ð is written Ð.

• sc = sh (scēap [sheep])

• c= k (cynn [kin], nacod [can you guess?])

Self-explaining compounds (as in

German, e.g., Fernsehen for

television)

• Lamp = lēhtfæt (light + vessel)

• Dawn = Dægred (day + red)

• Geometry = eorþcræft (earth + craft)

• Creation = frumweorc (beginning + work)

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,

þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,

hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,

egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð

feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,

weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,

oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra

ofer hronrade hyran scolde,

gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning!

Ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned,

geong in geardum, þone god sende

folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat