For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English (public domain) Middle English (1100-1500) Old English was spoken until around 1100. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century Old English (450-1100 AD) The Angles came from "Englaland" and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England" and "English" are derived. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. The French words did not replace the English.This page is a short history of the origins and development of the English language French words were added to the language, but only in a more refined form that is, English words for meat referred to the animal itself: ox, calf, swine but the French words referred to the food as it was eaten: beef, veal, pork. To them, the English language was only for the lower class. They used only Latin and French in their literature. They were a well-educated people who had been Christian for centuries. Their language was also of Indo-European origin but through the Latin branch. The Normans invaded England from Northern France. Other words were not replaced, but came to us along with the Danish words: Anglo-Saxon Danish no nay from fro shirt skirt ditch dike = An even greater change came to the English language in 1066. Since some words in Anglo-Saxon were awkward, the Danes replaced them with such shorter words as take, cut, and get. In AD 870, the Danes, also of a Germanic language group, invaded England. number the form of a word which indicates the singular or plural person a change in a pronoun or verb to show who is speaking Shakespeare a poet of sixteenth-century England tense the form of the verb which shows time relation Tyndale translator of the Bible in the sixteenth century Wycliffe fourteenth-century translator of the English Bible Aspirate letters pronounced with a puff of air, as in hot Briton the people or language of ancient England case a form of noun, pronoun, or adjective that shows its relation to other words Celts ancient people of the British Isles Chaucer poet of the fourteenth-century England clergy a group of pastors or priests diphthongal glide one vowel which becomes two sounds when pronounced, as in long a ecclesiastic a churchman such as pastor or bishop gender the noun grouping into masculine, feminine, and neuter Great Vowel Shift a period of spelling changes in English, particularly the changing of vowels to diphthongs melting pot one city or country containing many cultures mood the form of verb to indicate fact, doubt, command, etc.
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