English Language History

English Language Research Task

1. The origin of the English language can be traced back to the 5th century A.D. with the arrival of three tribes from present day Germany. The three tribes were called Angles, Saxons and Jutes. At this time the main language in Britain was the Celtic language, which was quickly replaced by English. Recently an old manuscript dating from 450 A.D. was found in England and it contained the first known words of English.

2. The languages that influenced English are Latin, Danish, Norse, French, Greek, German, Russian, Arabic, Hindi Italian, Malay, Dutch, Farsi, Nahuatl, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Spanish, Tupi, and Ewe. The list is enormous. However the main languages that influence English are the first seven. Latin adds words such as Kitchen, kettle, and cup. Danish and Norse added the words such as sky, egg, cake, and leg. French also added words such as Power, desire, and chamber.

3. Some words that were brought from other languages to the English language are Orange, Chocolate, Algebra, and Checkmate. Orange comes from the Indian word Naranj. When the fruit was introduced to the English they used this word but since words did not commonly end in a j it was changed to "narange" and then the "na" at the beginning was dropped for an "o" and the word "orange" came to be. The word Checkmate comes from the Farsi word Shah-k-mate which, simply means "the king is dead". Then the word was changed through French grammar to become Checkmate.

4. With the Invention of the printing press the English language (and other languages) became more accessible to people all over the world. This invention mainly just got people to know that English existed but as a learned language. Then the English ruled the world and colonized many countries around the world (25% of the world was under Britain's control) and since they controlled this many people they introduced English as a learnable and practical language. Then with mass literacy sweeping the world the English language became easily accessible to most of the world, and people started to learn the language as they travelled