The origin of the English language.

The making of E. is the story of 3 invasions and Cultural Revolution. The L was brought to Britain by Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), influenced by Latin and Greece, and enriched by Danes and finally transformed by the French speaking Normans. From the beginning English was a hybrid of several lang-es and was created in war and peace.

The E. was originated from anglo-friesian dialects, which formed part of the West Germ group.

The earliest mention of Br. Isles was made in the 4 cent.BC, when Greek explorer Pytheus landed in Kent. At this time Britain was inhabited by Celtictribes: Britons and Gaels who spoke various Celtic L.

The permanent conquest of Br began in 43 AD under the emperor Claudius. Br became a roman province. The Latin L spread over the country. The Romans ruled Br 4 c. up to the 5^th c. In 5 cent Britain was invaded by German tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes),who formed their kingdoms(Kent, Essex, Wessex, Sussex, East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria). 3 cent. After the event the Venerable Bede wrote his “Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum” in Latin. These people were called Angelcyhn and their lang. was Englisc. By 1000AD the country was known as “Englaland”. 100 most common E words are of Anglo-Saxon origin(the,is,you,mann,drincan).

“The Exeder book of riddles”-old E culture.

597- The Christianity was brought to England with its Latin vocabulary. It enriched the vocabulary and gave English the opportunity to express extra thoughts. Such words came from Latin(disciple(ученик), preost(священник), nonne(монашка),biscop ) from Greek (pope,psalter, apostle).

Vikings.The mass movement of Scandinavian people (750-1050)-one of the greatest migration in history. Unlike the A-S race war against the Celts, which preserved practically no trace of the Celtic L within English, the Danish settlers had profound influence on all English.

Alfred the Great was so called for his thoughts of creating the idea of national identity—Englishness conveyed by the language. He began rebuilding schools and monasteries, introducing English, not Latin. At the age of 40 he learned Latin to translate texts. He instituted the Chronicle, which was unique in Europe. He is called Savior of the English L and prose.

Evidence of the way Saxons and Danes lived alongside each other is in the place names that survived to this day.Saxon: ending in – ham, -ing, -stowe, -sted, -ton.Danish:ending in –by, wick, -scale, -thorpe, -toft, -thwait.

The impact of Old North(старо норвежск.) is great, because of the great similarity of these lang-es.Scandinavian:900 words(man, wife, winter, house, summer, mother).The fusion of Saxons and Vikings can be observed in “Beowulf”(3000 lines.)