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How did the English language originate? History of the English language: from its origins to the present day

We invite you to plunge into the fascinating world of the history of the English language! The British Isles, located apart from the rest of the European countries, were conquered by many empires and tribes. This explains the diversity, beauty and complexity of learning English. Below we will tell you.

Old English (450-1100 AD)

The origin of the language begins in the 5th century, when Britain, whose population consisted of Celts and Romans, was invaded by the Germanic Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. The invaders pushed the population of Britain to the northwestern regions, into the territory of modern Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The influence of the Germanic tribes served as an impetus for the eradication of the Latin and Celtic languages. A mix of Celtic and Germanic languages ​​gave birth to Old English.

Interesting fact #1: Old English has a small percentage of similarities with modern English as we know it. Today, the English dictionary contains words from that period, for example:

  • demonstrative pronouns: these, those, etc.;
  • place names: London, Thames (Thames);
  • degrees of comparison: biggest, greatest;
  • Some words have been preserved, for example: strong, water, school, rose, art, parliament.

Interesting fact No2: During this period, parts of speech were declined according to cases and divided into masculine, feminine and neuter gender. There was also conjugation for persons, numbers, and moods.

Interesting fact No3: It was during the period of the capture that Britain was renamed "Engla-land", and the language of the English was called "Englisc". These names were adapted to the known "England" (England) and "English" (English).

Interesting fact No4: True Celtic language can be heard in Wales.

Middle English (1100-1500 AD)

Christianity was actively popularized, as a result of which the borrowing of Latin vocabulary began. The general Christianization of the population, directed by Pope Gregory, became the impetus for the replenishment of the vocabulary.

This stage ended with the invasion of the Normans in the person of the Conqueror William. Normandy, as part of the territory of France, brought with it the French language and served as the origin of the Anglo-Norman dialects.

Due to the decline of political forces, the use of Norman dialects did not gain popularity. After which, in the 14th century, the popularization of Middle English reached its apogee. This language was the language of the greatest poet Geoffrey Chaucer. We advise you to familiarize yourself with his works; you will make sure that Middle English was already more similar to modern English.

Words borrowed from French speech and remaining in English: beauty (beauty), art (art), poet (poet), parliament (parliament) and many others.

Latin words that are still used today: genius (genius), history (history) and many others.

Interesting fact No5: French became popular among the upper echelons of British society. However, the vast majority of the general population used English.

Interesting fact No6: The Middle English stage also describes the influence of Scandinavian and Slavic languages.

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Towards the end of the Middle English period, vowel sounds suddenly and rapidly began to shorten. Thanks to the active contact of the British Empire with the outside world (16th century), many new foreign words appeared. During this important period for Britain, printing was invented. Literacy became available to all segments of society.

Printed publications allowed the English language to acquire established standards and fix rules in grammar and spelling.

The well-known Shakespearean monologue “To be or not to be” is characteristic of the early modern English period.

If you are somehow familiar with the English language, you will notice the similarities with the currently used language.

In the 1600s, grammatical and spelling standards were fixed, using the London dialect as a basis.

This period is characterized by the emergence of a mass of new words. The impetus for the development of modern English as we know it was the Industrial Revolution, as well as the fact that the British Empire covered more than a quarter of the entire planet. The late English period saw the global borrowing of foreign words.

Britain's entry onto the world stage brought new additions to the English language in the form of many words from Arabic, Turkish and a number of European languages: atmosphere (atmosphere), macaroni (pasta), coffee (coffee), tomato (tomatoes), tobacco (tobacco).

The Industrial Revolution gave birth to familiar words: biology (biology), bacterium (microbe), chromosome (chromosome).

Interesting fact No7: In the early 1600s, the first English dictionary appeared on the market.

Modern English and its varieties

The most important thing you need to know about modern English is that there are now two major dialects - British and American.

Interesting fact No8: The American dialect appeared due to the colonization of North America by the British.

There are also Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, Indian and many other dialects of English.

Today, about 2 billion people speak English, and in 67 countries English is the official language.

Despite such a long history of the formation and development of the English language, it is still developing to this day, absorbing slangs and jargons. The English language keeps pace with modern trends.

Proficiency in English is the treasured key to success in your career and to achieving heights in life. Regardless of your goal, English will become a companion in your life, opening doors to new opportunities!

We hope that we were able to answer your main question: “ How did the English language originate?" We wish you good luck in learning the most popular language in the world!

English language (English English,English language) - the language of the English ( official language of England and in fact all Great Britain), residents USA(official language thirty-one states), one of the two official languages Ireland, Canada and Malta, official language Australia and New Zealand. It is used as official in some states Asia(India, Pakistan etc.) and Africa. In linguistics, speakers of English are called Anglophones; This term is especially common in Canada(including in a political context).

Refers to Germanic languages ​​of the Indo-European family of languages. Number of native speakers - approx. 410 million speakers (including second language) - approx. 1 billion people(2007). One of six official and working languages UN.

The language is dominated analytical forms expressions of grammatical meaning. The word order is generally strict. Refers to analytical group of languages. In vocabulary about 70% of words are borrowed. Writing based on the Latin alphabet has existed since the 7th century. (additional letters were used in the early Middle Ages, but they fell out of use). Traditional spellings occupy a significant place in spelling.

It is customary to divide the history of the English language into the following periods: Old English (450-1066), Middle English (1066-1500), New English (from 1500 to the present day).

Old English period

The ancestors of the present-day English - the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes - moved to the British Isles in the middle of the 5th century. During this era, their language was close to Low German and Frisian, but in its subsequent development it moved far away from other Germanic languages. During the Old English period, the Anglo-Saxon language (as many researchers call the Old English language) changes little, without deviating from the line of development of the Germanic languages, except for the expansion of the vocabulary.

The Anglo-Saxons who moved to Great Britain entered into a fierce struggle with the indigenous local population - the Celts. This contact with the Celts had little effect on the structure of the Old English language or its vocabulary. No more than eighty Celtic words survive in the Old English language. Among them:

  • words associated with the cult: to curse - to curse, cromlech - cromlech (Druid buildings), coronach - an ancient Scottish funeral lament;
  • words of a military nature: javelin - dart, pibroch - military song;
  • names of animals: hog - pig.

Some of these words have firmly established themselves in the language and are used today, for example: tory ‘member of the Conservative party’ - in Irish it meant ‘robber’, clan - tribe, whiskey - vodka

Some of these words have become international property, for example: whiskey, plaid, clan. This weak influence of Celtic on Old English can be explained by the cultural weakness of the Celts compared to the conquering Anglo-Saxons. The influence of the Romans, who controlled part of Britain for 400 years, is greater. Latin words entered Old English in several stages. Firstly, some Latinisms were adopted by the German-speaking population of the north of continental Europe even before the resettlement of some Germans to the British Isles. Among them:

  • street - from lat. strata via‘straight, paved road’,
  • wall - from lat. vallum, wall
  • wine - from lat. vinum'wine';

Another part - immediately after the resettlement of the Anglo-Saxons: these are the names of the places, for example:

  • Chester, Gloucester, Lancaster - from lat. castrum‘military camp’, or
  • Lincoln, Colches - from lat. colonia'the colony',
  • Port-Smouth, Devonport - from lat. portus‘harbour’ and a number of others.

The names of many types of food and clothing are also Latin in origin:

  • butter - Greek-Latin butyrum'oil',
  • cheese - lat. caseus'cheese',
  • pall - lat. pallium'cloak';

names of a number of cultivated or farmed plants:

  • pear - lat. pira'pear',
  • peach - lat. persica‘peach’, etc. and more. etc.

Another layer of Latin words dates back to the era of the penetration of Christianity into Britain. There are about 150 such words. These words also entered deeply into the language and became part of it along with the indigenous Germanic words. These are, first of all, terms directly related to the church:

  • apostle - Greek-Lat. apostolus'apostle',
  • bishop - Greek-Lat. episcopus'bishop',
  • cloister - lat. claustrum'monastery'.

The era of raids, and then the temporary conquest of Britain by the Vikings (790-1042) gives the Old English language a significant number of commonly used words of Scandinavian origin, such as: call - to call, cast - to throw, die - to die, take - to take, ugly - ugly, ill - sick. The borrowing of grammatical words is also characteristic, for example both - both, same - the same, they - they, their - theirs, etc. At the end of this period, a process of enormous importance gradually begins to manifest itself - the withering away of inflection. It is possible that the actual bilingualism of part of the English territory under Danish control played some role in this: language mixing led to the usual consequences - a simplification of grammatical structure and morphology. It is characteristic that inflection begins to disappear earlier in the north of Britain - the area of ​​​​Danish law.

Middle English period

The next period in the development of the English language covers the time from 1066 to 1485. The invasion of the Norman feudal lords in 1066 introduced into the Old English language a powerful new lexical layer of so-called Normanisms - words dating back to the Norman-French dialect of the Old French language spoken by the conquerors. For a long time, Norman French remained in England the language of the church, government and the upper classes. But the conquerors were too few in number to impose their language unchanged on the country. Gradually, medium and small landowners, who belonged to a relatively greater extent to the indigenous population of the country - the Anglo-Saxons, became more important. Instead of the dominance of the Norman French language, a kind of “linguistic compromise” is gradually emerging, the result of which is a language approaching the one we call English. But the Norman French language of the ruling class retreated slowly: only in 1362 was English introduced into legal proceedings, in 1385 teaching in Norman French was stopped and English was introduced, and from 1483 parliamentary laws began to be published in English. Although the basis of the English language remained Germanic, it included such a huge number (see below) of Old French words that it becomes a mixed language. The process of penetration of Old French words continues from about 1200 to the end of the Middle English period, but reaches a peak between 1250-1400.

As one would expect, the vast majority of words related to government go back to Old French (with the exception of the original Germanic king, queen and a few others):

  • reign - to reign, government - government, crown - crown, state - state, etc.;

most noble titles:

  • duke - duke,
  • peer - peer;

words related to military affairs:

  • army - army,
  • peace - peace,
  • battle - battle,
  • soldier - soldier,
  • general - general,
  • captain - captain,
  • enemy - enemy;

court terms:

  • judge - judge,
  • court - court,
  • crime - crime;

church terms:

  • service - service (church),
  • parish - parish.

It is very significant that words related to trade and industry are of Old French origin, and the names of simple crafts are Germanic. An example of the first: commerce - trade, industry - industry, merchant - merchant. No less indicative for the history of the English language are two rows of words noted by Walter Scott in his novel “Ivanhoe”:

names of living animals - Germanic:

  • ox - bull,
  • cow - cow,
  • calf - calf,
  • sheep - sheep,
  • pig - pig;

the meat of these animals bears the Old French names:

  • beef - beef,
  • veal - veal,
  • mutton - lamb,
  • pork - pork, etc.

The grammatical structure of the language undergoes further changes during this period: nominal and verbal endings are first confused, weakened, and then, by the end of this period, almost completely disappear. In adjectives, along with simple ways of forming degrees of comparison, new ones appear, by adding words to the adjective more'more' and most'most'. The end of this period (1400-1483) saw the victory of the London dialect over other English dialects in the country. This dialect arose from the merger and development of southern and central dialects. In phonetics, the so-called Great Vowel Shift is occurring.

As a result of the migration of part of the British in 1169 to the territory of the Irish county of Wexford, the Yola language independently developed, which disappeared in the middle of the 19th century.

New England period

The period of development of the English language, to which the language of modern England belongs, begins at the end of the 15th century. With the development of printing and the mass distribution of books, the normative book language is being consolidated; phonetics and spoken language continue to change, gradually moving away from dictionary norms. An important stage in the development of the English language was the formation of diaspora dialects in the British colonies.

Latin is considered the founder of all languages. It is therefore not surprising that many modern words are so similar to Latin ones. And many languages ​​are similar to each other, since they originated from the same base. Eg:

1. The German language resulted from a mixture of Latin and the language of the Gothic tribes;

2. The French language appeared as a result of a mixture of Latin and the language of the Gaul tribe;

3. The English language appeared as a result of mixing Latin and the language of the Celtic peoples.

Don't forget about Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. They all come from Latin, and therefore are incredibly similar to each other. When communicating, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese can speak their native languages ​​and will understand each other.

A little history

The emergence of the English language dates back to the 8th century BC. At that time, modern Britain was inhabited by Celtic people. Even the name of the country itself comes from their language, because in Celtic “brith” was translated as “colored”. In addition, several other words came from the Celtic language that are still used today. After 7 centuries, Caesar declared the territory of Britain part of the great Roman Empire and began to populate these lands with the Romans. Willy-nilly, the Celts had to communicate closely with the Romans, so Latin was added to the Celtic language, which greatly influenced it in the future. Many modern words were borrowed from the Latin language. Both peoples communicated with each other until the 5th century AD, creating new words for the future English language. In the 5th century, Germanic tribes invaded Britain, so a completely new stage began in the development of the English language.

Formation and development of the English language. Three periods of formation.

The emergence of the English language took quite a long time. Its formation was created by mixing several languages ​​and dialects and went through three stages:

1. Old English period. This stage lasted from 449 to 1066. At this time, the invasion of Germanic tribes led to the fact that the number of Celts was exaggerated by the invading tribes. Over time, the dialect of the Anglo-Saxons began to displace the dialect of the Celts, transforming already established words into their own language. Many areas of Britain, which are located in inaccessible places, were not subject to the Germanic tribes, so the Celtic language was perfectly preserved there. These areas are considered to be Ireland, Cornwall, Wells and Scotland. If you want to feel the atmosphere of the development of the English language, then you should visit this country. Thanks to the invading tribes, many words with common Germanic-Latin roots remained in the language.
In 597, Rome began to Christianize all the countries under its control, including Britain. This had a great impact on the language, since many lexemes (Latin words assimilated by Germanic dialects) appeared. In those days, the English language was replenished with about 600 new words that had both Germanic and Latin roots.
In the 9th century, the Danes began to seize the lands of the Saxons. As a result, the English language was replenished with the dialect of the Scandinavian Vikings.

2. Middle English period. It lasted from 1066 to 1500 AD. In the 11th century, England was invaded by the French. This led to the beginning of the so-called era of “three languages” in the development and formation of the language:

1) French, which was used for communication between aristocrats and the judicial system;

2) Anglo-Saxon, which was spoken by ordinary people;

3) Latin, which was used by doctors.

The beginning of this era led to the final formation of the English language exactly as we know and teach it today. Due to the fact that several languages ​​participated in its formation, its vocabulary has almost doubled. There is no doubt that traces of the past division remain in the language. For example, you can notice that animals are translated into English as “cow”, “calf”, “sheep” - these are words from the dialect of the “common people”. The name of the meat of these animals has already come to us from the aristocracy, so it sounds differently - “beef”, “veal”, “mutton”.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the language acquired literary features, and therefore became the main language of education of people and the formation of law. Also, at this time the first English book appeared. At this time, the English language acquired the first rules in grammar and phonetics, adjectives acquired degrees of comparison, and the endings of verbs disappeared.
Later, when the mass migration of the British to America began, the language underwent a change towards the British and American dialect.

3. New England period. It dates back to 1500 and continues to the present day. Many consider W. Shakespeare to be its founder. Thanks to him, the English language was “cleansed” of impurities and acquired its own form and vocabulary.

It is believed that the English language appeared by mixing different languages, and even in our time it does not stand still, constantly developing and modernizing. English is the official language in many countries. These include India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Rwanda, Ghana, etc. As you understand, in all these countries people communicate in their “own English”. There are many phrases from other languages, the accent changes, and sometimes even the rules of grammar. England and America still have a huge influence on the formation and development of the language. Of course, it is Britain that is the example of pure English, but “American English” is still considered international. The USA has greatly influenced the modern world, and if we teach English in schools and universities, then it is the American dialect. Of course, England and America greatly influence each other. They exchange their vocabulary, as a result of which the language is constantly updated with new expressions and names. Bottom line: English became the main means of communication during the formation of the world, so it is generally accepted that it is an international language. With its help, people from different countries and continents can communicate. Therefore, it is impossible to do without it in modern society.

The article was prepared by the website of the company I-Polyglot -

English – the language of the world

However, since the two languages ​​coexisted, they immediately became . What happened is that Norman French became Anglo-Norman, borrowing an extensive vocabulary from Germanic dialects, so it became the so-called. It was very different from other European languages.

It was partly Germanic (vocabulary of everyday life, grammar and grammatical structures), partly Romance (vast amounts of more literary vocabulary). He even absorbed some of the Celtic languages ​​that were still in use in Cornwall and other parts of the British Isles. Finally, as Middle English became the language of the vast majority of the population, it became dominant in England. By the 14th century it was well on its way to becoming a national language. A language not only for everyday communication, but also for official document circulation and literature.

In the end, English supplanted Latin even from church use. , but the decisive role was not played by this, but by the Protestant Reformation that followed in the 16th century, coinciding with the era of Shakespeare. From this point on, the establishment of Middle English as the national language was already very firmly secured - and just in time. This was precisely the historical moment when colonial expansion began.

Young and vibrant, English at its dawn became the language of the first men and women from Great Britain to settle in America. It was the same language that traveled around the world with English ships and their annual cycles of trade, missionary activity and commercial transactions.

At the beginning of the 18th century, England became the leading nation in world trade, making a bid for its language to become the language of international commerce.

English is close to everyone

English occupies a unique place at the junction of two major groups of languages ​​in Western Europe - Germanic and Romance. This means that most people, whether they live in Spain or the Scandinavian countries, will find something from their native language in English. For example, if you speak one of the Germanic languages ​​(German, Danish, etc.), then you will need to study little, if any, English to understand the following sentence in English:

"The man forgot to water his garden last night."

At the same time, anyone who speaks French, Spanish or Italian will understand the English sentence without the slightest effort:

“Indicate if you have a difficult problem.”

The important thing is that, thanks to the intermediate position of English, speakers of other languages ​​usually communicate easily with each other, even if grammatical difficulties are taken into account.

But right away it must be said that! Without it, no language can survive. It is like the cement that holds together the “bricks” that make up any language system. Without it, even a simple sentence in English cannot be understood. The importance in an English sentence is clear enough from the following example sentences in English, which although similar, have completely different meanings.

“The man the woman saw was hungry.”
“The man saw the woman was hungry.”

Or marvel at the difference in meaning between these two seemingly similar sentences:

"This is a story forgotten by Charles Dickens" (This is a story forgotten by Charles Dickens).
"This is a forgotten story by Charles Dickens" (This is the forgotten work of Charles Dickens).

Modern English

As English has become a global language and is used throughout the world, it itself has become much richer than it once was. He adopted new words from other languages ​​and cultures, for example: "bungalow" (from Indian - ed.), "detente" (from French - ed.), "kebab (from Turkish - ed.), "potato" (Indian languages ​​- ed.). Many American slang words come from Indian dialects.

The process of changing vocabulary and grammar has not stopped today. Surprisingly, there is no “official standard English”. Neither the UK nor the US have anything like an official French Academy (Académie Française - ed.), which decides what is right and what is wrong in a language. The most authoritative sources of ideas about the norm are the famous dictionaries: “Webster” in the USA and “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED - ed.) in Britain.

However, they, like any other dictionaries, rather describe the current state of affairs, rather than regulate it. In other words, they dispassionately reflect the state of the language - they do not tell people what they should and should not do. Today's language differs from itself a hundred years ago in pronunciation. And there is no doubt that in a hundred years it will differ even more from its current state (about the history of the English language - ed.).

Translated by Valentin Rakhmanov.




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