Story of the English language
PRABHA MUTHUKRISHNAN
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An interesting account of how the English language came to be.
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PHOTO: AP
THE VIKINGS: Also influenced the language.
Did you know that English is not the original language of England? It was introduced to the island only in the mid-fifth century by three Germanic tribes. Prior to this, Celtic was the spoken dialect. This language survives even today in Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland and in Welsh. When the Germanic tribes entered the British Isles, they pushed the locals into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. The invaders were Jutes, Saxons and Angles. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. Their language was called Englisc from which the word English is derived. They spoke a mutually intelligent dialect, which gradually evolved into English or rather Old English.
Many influences
Also influencing English at this time were the Vikings. The Roman invasion in the ninth century had, introduced a number of Latin words. The next influence came from the Norman Conquest in 1066 A.D. The Normans were of Germanic stock. Anglo-Norman was a French dialect that had Germanic influences in addition to Latin roots.
With the Renaissance in the 14th century, a number of Greek and Latin words entered into the English vocabulary. Gradually, Old English became obsolete. There has been a change in the written script too. Earlier English was written in an alphabet called Runic. This was replaced with the present Latin alphabet which was brought from Ireland by the Christian missionaries. Modern English language began in the sixth century and like all living languages is still growing. French and Latin had always been regarded as the fashionable dialect of literature and the elite class.
English is quite flexible and extends hospitality to all languages. This is the reason why foreign languages have greatly influenced the English dialect.
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