2. Celtic Britain
(TheIronAge600BC-50AD)
• The Celts are the earliest inhabitants of the British Isles to
leave a mark on our language. The Celts (/ˈkɛlts/,
occasionally /ˈsɛlts/, see pronunciation of Celtic) or Kelts
were an ethno linguistic group of tribal societies in Iron Age
and Medieval Europe who spoke Celtic languages and had a
similar culture. The Celts were a group of peoples that
occupied lands stretching from the British Isles to Gallatia.
The Celts had many dealings with other cultures that
bordered the lands occupied by these peoples, and even
though there is no written record of the Celts stemming
from their own documents, we can piece together a fair
picture of them from archeological evidence as well as
historical accounts from other cultures.
3. Celtic words and Language Influence
• There was a written Celtic language, but it developed well
into Christian times, so for much of Celtic history they
relied on oral transmission of culture, primarily through
the efforts of bards and poets. These arts were
tremendously important to the Celts, and much of what
we know of their traditions comes to us today through the
old tales and poems that were handed down for
generations before eventually being written down.
• The Celtic languages (usually pronounced /ˈkɛltɪk/ but
sometimes /ˈsɛltɪk/)[1] are descended from Proto-Celtic, or
"Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European
language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to
describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707.
4. • Celtic languages are most commonly spoken on the north-
western edge of Europe, notably in Ireland, Scotland, Wales,
Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man, and can be found
spoken on Cape Breton Island.
• SIL Ethnologue lists six "living" Celtic languages, of which four
have retained a substantial number of native speakers. These
are:
1) Welsh 2) Irish 3) Breton 4) Scottish Gaelic 5) Cornish
6) Manx
• In fact, very few Celtic words have lived on in the English
language. But many of our place names have Celtic origins,
such as London, Dover, Kent, the rivers Thames & Wye,
whiskey “water of life” from Gaelic, and Corgi “little dog” from
welsh.
5. Roman Invasion of Britain 55BC-450 AD
The Roman Invasion of Britain is separated into three episodes. The
first deals with the invasion and the events leading up to it, as well
as the British reaction and resistance to the occupancy.
The second episode covers the deadly revolt by the Queen
Boudicca; a hard-core woman who took the battle to the Roman’s,
killing their citizens as well as their troops. One of the most
interesting elements was that Rome created the very first towns
and cities for Britain. Before the invasion, the Britons lived in small
villages, and the concept of towns or cities was utterly alien to
them.
The final episode discusses typical life in Roman Britain, from the
decline of Roman rule to what happened after the Romans pulled
out. The series wraps up with an examination of the influence
these events still have on Great Britain today.
6. Roman Words
• “As the Romans progressed inwards and upwards,
they established more reinforced outposts. As time
went by, the names they used to distinguish one
garrison from another became more generally
known with the further passage of time and a
gradual reduction in hostilities, so these fortresses
began to take on the character of settlements. The
names the Romans gave to them remain to this day,
despite the fact that they are now towns and not
military posts, as they originally were. All the English
towns which end in chester owe their nomenclature
to this origin: Manchester, Chichester, Winchester,
Chester, Rochester; the list is interminable”.
7. • Many of the words passed on from this era
are those coined by Roman merchants and
soldiers. These include win (wine), candel
(candle), belt (belt) and weall (wall).
• It was the Latin language which the
Romans left behind them when they
eventually had to retreat to fend off the
Gothic for menacing Rome which later
fused with the Angle, Saxon and languages
of subsequent invaders
8. Anglo Saxon Invasion 449 AD
Early 5th
century
• With the collapse of the empire, Romans
withdraw from Britain. Britons are attacked by
the Picts and by Scots from Ireland.
Mid 5th
Century
• Angles, Saxons, and other German
settlers arrive in Britain to assist the
Britons and claim territory.
Late 5th
and 6th
Century
• Germanic peoples (Angles, Saxons,
Jutes, Frisians) speaking West
Germanic dialects settle most of
Britain. Celts retreat to distant areas
of Britain: Ireland, Scotland, Wales.
9. Language Development
The Anglo Saxons have little time for
the native Celtic language, preferring
to use their own tongue and its runic
script
The language of Angles a West Germanic dialect
was called Englisc from which the
word English derives, their new country they
named Engle land or Englalond. An Anglo-Saxon
runic inscription dated between 450 and 480AD is
the oldest known sample of the English language.
During the next few centuries four dialects of English
developed:
Northumbrian in Northumbria, Angles north of the
Humber Mercian in the Kingdom of Mercia. ‘Middle’
Angles West Saxon in the Kingdom of Wessex . The
West Saxons. Kentish in Kent
10. Anglo Saxon Words
• Approximately one third of Anglo-Saxon
vocabulary survives into modern English,
including many of our most basic, everyday
words: earth, house, food, sing, night and
sleep. By the 7th century Latin speakers
refer to this country as Anglia - the land of
the Angles - a name that will later develop
into England. Some of them are as
following:
11. Anglo-Saxon Origin Words
Cow (Old English Cū)
Calf (Old English Cealf)
Swine (Old English Swīn)
Sheep (Old English Scēap) / Lamb (Old
English Lamb)
Hen (Old English Hen, Henn) / Chicken (Old
English Cicen)
Deer (Old English Dēor)
Snail (Old English Snægl)
12. 500-1100:
The Old English or
Anglo Saxon Period
• The conquest of the Celtic population in Britain
by speakers of West Germanic dialects (primarily
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) eventually
determined many of the essential characteristics
of the English language. (The Celtic influence on
English survives for the most part only in place
names--London, Dover, Avon, York.) Over time
the dialects of the various invaders merged,
giving rise to what we now call "Old English."
13. St Augustine 597 AD
• The Roman brand of Christianity is brought to
Britain for the first time by St. Augustine, the
missionary sent from Pope Gregory to convert
the Saxons. Augustine lands in Kent and is
welcomed by King Aethelbert whose Frankish
Queen is already a Christian practicing at her
church of St. Martin's, Canterbury. Augustine
converts Aethelbert and his court to Christianity
and founds a monastery at Canterbury.
14. 7th Century:
Church Latin Additions to English
• It was in the northern part of England that a first attempt
to present any part of the Bible in Anglo-Saxon was
made. An illiterate herdsman named Cædmon, after
hearing some Bible stories from the priests at Whitby, set
about learning English writing and turned some of the
stories into poetic songs in his own language. This was
about the year 670AD. In the eighth century we have an
account of the "Venerable" Bede (a learned teacher at
Jarrow, also in the north of England) translating the
Gospel of St. John into Old English on his deathbed (735
AD). Sadly this version has disappeared.
15. • Christine missionaries had the second Latin influence
on Anglo Saxon English. The most readily apparent
influence that Latin had on Old English concerns the
use of the L alphabet. Prior to the Christianization of
England, what little writing there was, was written
with runic letters. Not surprisingly, Latin held the
most pervasive influence on Old English in the area
of vocabulary. In total approximately 450 OE words,
mostly nouns, were borrowed from L (Baugh, 106).
Around 170 of these entered the OE lexicon during
the continental period (Hogg, 302; Williams, 57).
These words pertain mostly to plants, household
items, clothing and building materials.
16. 793 AD - 900 AD
Nordic Fusion
• For a hundred years the Vikings control most of
Eastern England, before being pushed back into
the North East of the country by King Alfred the
Great. They remain in power in the North East
until the late 900s, in an area then known as
Danelaw. During this time King Alfred uses the
English language to develop a sense of national
identity amongst the English.
18. Late 8th century
Scandinavians begin to settle in Britain and
Ireland; Danes settle in parts of Ireland.
Early 9th century
Egbert of Wessex incorporates Cornwall
into his kingdom and is recognized as
overlord of the seven kingdoms of the
Angles and Saxons (the Heptarchy):
England begins to emerge.
19. Mid 9th century
Danes raid England, occupy Northumbria, and
establish a kingdom at York. Danish begins to
influence English.
Late 9th century
King Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great) leads the
Anglo-Saxons to victory over the Vikings, translates
Latin works into English, and establishes the writing
of prose in English. He uses the English language to
foster a sense of national identity. England is divided
into a kingdom ruled by the Anglo-Saxons (under
Alfred) and another ruled by the Scandinavians.
20. 10th Century
• By the 10th Century, the West Saxon dialect of
Wessex became the official language of England.
Written Old English is mainly known from this
period. It was written in an angular alphabet
called Runic a Germanic system of writing made
using only straight lines. The Latin alphabet was
later brought over from Ireland by Christian
missionaries and this has remained the writing
system of English, although the Englisc 33 rune
futhark continues to be used for esoteric and
ritual purposes to this day.
22. 11th Century
1000 Approximate date of the only
surviving manuscript of the Old
English epic poem Beowulf,
composed by an anonymous poet
Early 11th century Danes attack
England. The Danish king (Canute)
rules over England and encourages
the growth of Anglo-Saxon culture
and literature.
Mid 11th century Edward the
Confessor, King of England who was
raised in Normandy, names William,
Duke of Normandy, as his heir.
23. Norse Words
• At this time, the vocabulary of Old English consisted of
an Anglo Saxon base with additional words from the
closely similar Scandinavian languages
(Danish and Norse) and also Latin derived from Christian
church usage. Latin gave English words like street,
kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, martyr,
and candle. The Vikings added many Norse words: sky,
egg, cake, skin, leg, window (wind eye), husband, fellow,
skill, anger, flat, odd, ugly, get, give, take, raise, call, die,
they, their, them. Virtually no Brythonic words survived
to pass into the English language, just a few place and
river names, so comprehensive was the utter loss of the
previous Brythonic culture.
24. • Many pairs of English and Norse words coexist in modern
English giving us two words with the same or slightly differing
meanings, and it is known that right up until the mid 11th
century that English, Norwegians, Danes and Icelanders could
make themselves understood to each other. The Norman
invasion broke this ancient Nordic link, however we know
through the Icelandic sagas that Icelanders frequently came to
the English mead halls as ‘ scopes’ (story tellers) and that oaths
and treaties were made between these peoples without any
mention of interpreters. These raiders and settlers bring
almost 2000 new words into the English vocabulary. Words
derived from Norse include anger, awkward, cake, die, egg,
freckle, muggy, reindeer, silver, skirt andsmile. Many Northern
English dialect words still bear traces of Scandinavian
languages, as do many place names such as Whitby and
Grimsby.
25. 1066 Norman Invasion
• The Norman Invasion: King Harold is killed at
the Battle of Hastings, and William of
Normandy is crowned King of England. Over
succeeding decades, Norman French becomes
the language of the courts and of the upper
classes; So for three hundred years English
was effectively driven underground- it
became the language of the poor and
illiterate, an outlaw. Learning English and
speaking it was banned. However, they
refused to give up English.
26. 1100-1500: The Middle English
Period
The Middle English period saw the breakdown of the
inflectional system of Old English and the expansion of
vocabulary with many borrowings from French and Latin.
1150 Approximate date of the earliest surviving texts in
Middle English.
1171 Henry II declares himself overlord of Ireland,
introducing Norman French and English to the country.
About this time the University of Oxford is founded.
1209 The University of Cambridge is formed by scholars
from Oxford.
27. 1215 King John signs the Magna Carta ("Great Charter"), a
critical document in the long historical process leading to
the rule of constitutional law in the English-speaking
world.
1258 King Henry III is forced to accept the Provisions of
Oxford, which establish a Privy Council to oversee the
administration of the government. These documents,
though annulled a few years later, are generally regarded
as England's first written constitution.
Late 13th century Under Edward I, royal authority is
consolidated in England and Wales. English becomes the
dominant language of all classes.
28. French Words
• Thousands of French words become
embedded in the English vocabulary,
most of which are words of power,
such as crown, castle, court,
parliament, army, mansion, gown,
beauty, banquet, art, poet, romance,
chess, colour, duke, servant, peasant,
traitor and governor.
29. Sample French Origin Words
• Old French Origin Words
• Beef (Anglo-Norman Beof; Old French Boef)
• Veal (Anglo-Norman Vel; Old French Veel, Veal)
• Pork (Old French Porc)
• Mutton (Old French Moton)
• Poultry (Old French Pouletrie)
• Venison (Old Norman Venesoun)
• Escargot (Old Norman Escargot)
30. Mid to late 14th Century
• The Hundred Years War between England and
France leads to the loss of almost all of England's
French possessions. The Black Death kills roughly
one-third of England's population. Geoffrey
Chaucer composes The Canterbury Tales in
Middle English. English becomes the official
language of the law courts and replaces Latin as
the medium of instruction at most schools. John
Wycliffe's English translation of the Latin Bible is
published.
31. 1362
The Statute of Pleading makes English the official
language in England. Parliament is opened with its
first speech delivered in English.
1399
At his coronation, King Henry IV becomes the first
English monarch to deliver a speech in English.
32. Late 15th Century
• William Caxton brings to Westminster (from the
Rhineland) the first printing press and publishes
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Literacy rates
increase significantly, and printers begin to
standardize English spelling. The monk Galfridus
Grammaticus (also known as Geoffrey the
Grammarian) publishes Thesaurus Linguae
Romanae et Britannicae, the first English-to-Latin
wordbook.
33. New Latin words
•Many thousands of Latin words
come into the language, most of
which are connected to religion,
medicine, law or literature. These
words include scripture, collect,
immortal, history, library, solar,
recipe and genius.
34. 1500 AD: The Great English Vowel Shift
“The great printer William Caxton set up the first printing
press in England at the end of the 15th century and with its
use the language began to take the first steps toward
standardization. The period from 1500 to about 1650 is
called Early Modern English, a period during which notable
sound changes, syntactic changes and word enrichment
took place, although in some areas such as in Scotland's
Lowlands and North Eastern England the Old English
vowels can be still be heard 'oot' for 'out' is but one
example. The Great English Vowel Shift, which
systematically shifted the phonetic values of all the long
vowels in English, occurred during this period.
35. • Word order became more fixed in a subject-
verb-object pattern, and English developed a
complex auxiliary verb system. A rush of new
vocabulary from the classical languages, the
modern European languages, and more distant
trading partners such as the countries of Asian
minor and the Middle East entered the language
as the renaissance influences of culture and
trade and the emerging scientific community of
Europe took root in England”.
36. 1500 to the Present: The Modern
English Period
• Distinctions are commonly drawn between the Early Modern
Period (1500-1800) and Late Modern English (1800 to the
present).
• During the period of Modern English, British exploration,
colonization, and overseas trade hastened the acquisition of
loanwords from countless other languages and fostered the
development of new varieties of English (World English), each
with its own nuances of vocabulary, grammar, and
pronunciation. Since the middle of the 20th century, the
expansion of North American business and media around the
world has led to the emergence of Global English as a lingua
franca.
37. Renaissance 1476-1650
• In the following 150 years around 20,000 books are
printed. Books become cheaper and are therefore
increasingly popular. Literacy rates rise. Printers have to
make a choice about which words, grammar and spellings
to use. The choices they make help to set and spread a
standard language. They base their decisions on the
dialects of the South East - the most socially and
economically influential region. But these rules are not set
in stone, and people continue to speak in different accents
and dialects, and to write with different spellings. Over the
next 200 years wonderful discoveries and innovations are
made in the fields of art, theatre and science. There is a
fresh interest amongst scholars in classical
languages, while intrepid explorers and opportunistic
traders travel to the New World
38. Renaissance Words
During the renaissance new concepts, techniques, inventions and goods
came into being and because no words were existing to talk accurately
about them, about 10,000 words entered into English language.
Some renaissance loan words in English:
- From Latin and Greek: appropriate, benefit, crisis, encyclopedia, explain,
fact, monopoly, relaxation, soda, virus
- From or via French: anatomy, chocolate, invite, pioneer, progress, ticket,
tomato
- From or via Italian: balcony, carnival, cupola, design, opera, solo, violin
- From or via Spanish and Portuguese: anchovy, banana, canoe, cocoa,
embargo, guitar, mosquito, negro, sombrero
- From other languages: bamboo, ketchup (Malay), caravan, turban
(Persian), coffee, kiosk, yoghurt (Turkish), landscape (Dutch), trousers (Irish
Gaelic) Literature New words to enrich the language Many translations of
classical works Latin and Greek terms were introduced Criticism Inkhorn
controversy Supporters enrich, credit Opponents darken, interfere Other
aspects - Deruncinated words: many words were retained, others not.
39. William Shakespeare Words
The English language owes a great debt to
Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common
words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs
into adjectives, connecting words never before used
together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising
words wholly original. Below is a list of a few of the
words Shakespeare coined, hyperlinked to the play
and scene from which it comes. When the word
appears in multiple plays, the link will take you to
the play in which it first appears.
41. 1700 AD:
Englishcolonizethe'NewWorld'andit'sEmpire
expands
1700s is the age of dictionaries, grammars and rules and
regulations.
By the 1700s almost all of the modern syntactic patterns of
English were in place and the language is easily readable by
modern speakers. Colonisation of new territories by the
newly united Kingdom of Great Britain spread English to the
far corners of the globe and brought cargoes of still more
loanwords from those far-flung places. At this point English
began to develop its major world dialectal varieties, some
of which would develop into national standards for newly
independent colonies.
42. Progress of English Language
during 1700s
• 1702 The Daily Courant, the first regular daily
newspaper in English, is published in London.
• 1712 Anglo-Irish satirist and cleric Jonathan
Swift proposes the creation of an English Academy
to regulate English usage and "ascertain" the
language.
• 1721 Nathaniel Bailey publishes his Universal
Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, a
pioneer study in English lexicography
• 1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his two-
volume Dictionary of the English Language.
43. Industrial Revolution
1760-1795
In an age of inventions and contraptions, of science
& industry, of expanding cities & smog-gurgling
factories the language must swell to accommodate
new ideas.
This period also marks the rise of the English
grammarians (Joseph Priestly, Robert Lowth, James
Buchanan, John Ash, Thomas Sheridan, George
Campbell, William Ward, and Lindley Murray),
whose rule books, primarily based
on prescriptive notions of grammar, become
increasingly popular.
44. New words
• Bragg notes that the Industrial Revolution displayed a new vocabulary.
For example, in 1851 at the Great Exhibition the English language
showed the world what it made of the machine age and how trade
terms denigrated by Johnson now powered the language as
empathetically as Tyndale's Bible (Bragg, 2004: 238). These are some of
the words that appeared at the Great Exhibition, some plain English and
others coinages from other languages: 'self-acting mill'; 'power looms';
'steampress' and 'cylindrical steampress' (Bragg, 2004; 239) to name a
few. The standardisation of spelling was just one aspect of a more
general attempt to regulate the language, an attempt especially
prominent in the second half of the eighteenth century when there was
a growing feeling that English needed to be 'ruled' or 'regulated', as
classical Greek and Latin were believed to have been (Barber, 2000:
203). Commentators like Swift wanted to protect English against the
charge of 'barbarism' . . . to 'fix' language so that it no longer varied
(Graddol, Leith and Swann 1996:157).
45. 1900s - Present Day
Since 1900, a very large amount of vocabulary words has
been added to English in a relatively short period. The
majority of these words are related to science and
technology, and use Greek and Latin roots. A century of
world wars, technological transformation, and globalisation.
The language continues to grow, expanding to incorporate
new jargons, slangs, technologies, toys, foods and gadgets.
It is in this century that we get doodlebugs, gasmasks,
gobstoppers, mini skirts and modsand rockers; we enjoy dim
sum, cappuccino, chicken tikka masala and pizzerias; we talk
ofchavs, mingers and weirdos; and we are addicted to tellies,
websites, cybercafes and compact discs.
46. English as an International Language
The rise of English in diplomacy began in 1919, in the aftermath of World War I, when
the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as in French, the dominant
language used in diplomacy until that time. The widespread use of English was further
advanced by the prominent international role played by English-speaking nations (the
United States and the Commonwealth of Nations) in the aftermath of World War II,
particularly in the establishment and organization of the United Nations.
When the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca
of the colonies of the British Empire. In the post-colonial period, some of the newly
created nations which had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using
English as the lingua franca to avoid the political difficulties inherent in promoting any
one indigenous language above the others. The British Empire established the use of
English in regions around the world such as North America, India, Africa, Australia and
New Zealand, so that by the late 19th century its reach was truly global, and in the latter
half of the 20th century, widespread international use of English was much reinforced
by the global economic, financial, scientific, military, and cultural pre-eminence of the
English-speaking countries and especially the U.S. Today, more than half of all scientific
journals are published in English, while in France, almost one third of all natural science
research appears in English, lending some support to English being the lingua franca of
science and technology. English is also the lingua franca of international Air Traffic
Control communications.
