The Origin of English Language

496 Words2 Pages
The Origin of English Language Throughout the history of the world, there are numerous languages that are spoken by myriads of people. There were plenty of old languages that were expressed by the ancient people which extinct. However, the minority of those languages continue to subsist which still people use to communicate. English is one of the languages that survived and still spoken in all over the world in the present day. The origin of the English language inaugurate with the invasion of three Germanic tribes in Great Britain during the 5th century AD. The three tribes were called the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons and the Jutes. These tribes traversed the North Sea from Denmark and northern Germany to arrive in England. When these tribes invaded England, the population of Britain spoke a certain old language which was called the Celtic language. However, the indigenous people were forced to move to Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Since the Angles had most of the authority in Great Britain and the language that was spoken by the Angles was called "Englisc" - from this the word "English" are derived. English language went through many phases before it became the language that is today. English is mainly gone through four stages – Old English, Middle English, Early modern English, and Modern English- to develop into the language that is in the present time. Old English was spoken between the time periods 450-1100 AD. The alphabets of the old English was entirely different than the English today. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The king of French William the conqueror invaded and took over Great Britain in 1066. On that era, the people of higher class system spoke French and the lower class people spoke English. However in the late 14th century, English became the central language in Britain
Open Document