The History of the English Language

Old English Origins

Like much of human history, the origin of the English language is a long and bloody tale. It stretches back into the early years of the Common Era, and it is littered with violence and conquest. Towards the end of Rome’s reign over the world, the British Isles, an area inhabited by the Celts, was subject to a brutal invasion by North Germanic tribes. Among these tribes were the Angles and Saxons, who spoke a language that is the ancient ancestor of English.

The words “England” and “English” come from the word “Angles”, a group of people who hailed from a place called the Anglia peninsula in the Baltic Sea, which is in northern Germany. Modern English has its roots in the Old English language of the Angles; however, the majority of this ancient language would be unintelligible to us today. It could be argued that the roots of the English language stretch even farther back Before the Common Era with the language known as Proto-Germanic, but this argument is beyond the scope of this article. We will start our story with the Angles and Saxons who brought violence, pain, and what would come to be known as Old English to the British Isles during the 5th century.

            The invasions of the German tribes, which also included the Jutes and the Frisians, pushed the Celtic speaking people to flee north and west to the lands which we now call Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, and other tribes began to occupy England. This was a fearsome group that had stood against the Romans centuries earlier and defended their territory. They had successfully kept the Empire away from their lands north of the Rhine and the Danube. Some of these tribes had even joined the Romans in campaigns against other tribes. Because of this, it is possible that some loan words from Latin were used by the Germanic tribes. As for the Celts, they were mostly illiterate farmers, however, there was a time when Rome attempted to control the British Isles, and it was possible that there were Celts who also spoke some Latin.

Ancient Kingdoms

            The invasion of what is now called England by the Angles and the Saxons was a long process. It was an even longer process for the Angles and Saxons to develop a more concrete political system and unity amongst tribes. Kingdoms were established, and wars were common. The strongest of these kingdoms were Northumbria, Wessex, Mercia, and Kent. In these early days, there was certainly a wide array of English dialects being spoken by the Anglo Saxons, due to a lack of centralization.

After the development of kingdoms came the gradual conversion to Christianity. Around the 8th to 10th century, Anglo Saxon scholars were most likely bilingual in English and Latin, although Latin was most associated with writing. At this time, English evolved to incorporate more advanced writing systems for the purpose of religious expression and documentation.

“It is significant that much early writing in English was prose, used for laws, charters, chronicles, and also for sermons”

Despite the development of writing, the Anglo Saxons did not write much history and even in later years we don’t know much about the difference between the written language and how it was spoken by ordinary families.

An example of Old English is the story of Beowulf (circa 1000 AD).

The Vikings

            In the Early Middle Ages, Norsemen from Scandinavia known as Vikings sailed across the sea and began a campaign against the Anglo Saxons that would last around two centuries. The first known attack was on the Lindisfarne monastery on the east coast of England in 793. The Vikings, who adhered to the worship of Pagan Gods, were not overly friendly to practitioners of the Christian religion, to say the least. At first, the Vikings merely raided and attacked monasteries, but eventually, the Norsemen started to create settlements in England and challenge the rule of the Anglo Saxons.

Britain became separated into places under Anglo-Saxon rule and places governed by the Norsemen under what was called “Danelaw.” For a time, the violence ceased as King Edgar the Peaceful of Wessex became recognized as the King of all England by both Norsemen and Anglo-Saxons. Unfortunately, Edgar’s sons were not as successful in unifying the country and the Vikings began to once again attack the Anglo Saxons.

After many years of raids and violence and alternating Danish and Anglo-Saxon rule of England, there came about the Battle of Stamford Bridge where King Harold II of England defeated Norwegian invaders. The success was short-lived, however, because, shortly after this battle, William the Conqueror of Normandy invaded England and defeated Harold II.

The French Influence

            William the Conqueror, or William the Bastard as he was known by his enemies, was from Normandy, a region in northern France near the British Isles. William capitalized on the war and discord in England, and took over the area swiftly. The Norman invasion occurred in 1066, and it generally marks the end of the age of Old English.

            Norman rule in England meant that French became a prominent language in the British Isles. English was still spoken by the lower classes, but “anybody who was anybody,” as they say, spoke and was literate in the French language. Even the English of the lower classes began to incorporate loan words from French into their vernacular.

The Normans brought unity to England, but they were a foreign power with a foreign language. Still, many French manners, ideals, and language remained in England after they left. French continued to be spoken in England long after the reign of William the Conqueror, but eventually, there was a shift back to English being the primary language of the land. By the 14th century, Middle English was developed due to the fusion of French, Latin, and Old English.

            Although English has its roots in ancient Germany, the influence of Christianity, as well as the Viking raids and Norman rule of England, has given Latin, Norse, and French prominent roles in the English language as well.

Early Modern English

Around the 16th century, Early Modern English was born due to several factors. The first was the Great Vowel Shift. Over time, vowels were pronounced much shorter and this greatly changed how the language was spoken. Also, the Renaissance led to more and more words being added to the English language increasing the overall vocabulary.

Another very important factor was the influence of Britain’s colonialism that led to a lot of language mixing with other places in the world. Once again, violence became the means in which English developed, although this time it was on a worldwide scale. Britain’s Empire, as is well known, became massive and therefore the influence of the English language spread like wildfire.

In addition to this, the printing press was invented in 1440. By the 16th century, English was becoming standardized. The first English dictionary was published in 1604. The King James Bible, first published in 1611, was also a very important factor for the spread of the English language. Standardization and literacy led to a lot of changes in the English language. Larger, centralized societies need a language to have more functions because of their vast amount of institutions. As English-speaking societies grew, so did the English language.  

Shakespeare lived in the era of Early Modern English. Today, we can understand much of Shakespeare’s writing, however, there are plenty of words and phrases that no longer have a place in English speech. For example, the word “nice” in Shakespeare’s day actually meant “foolish.” Although much has stayed the same, the English language continued to evolve into what is known as Late Modern English.

Late Modern English and the Present Day

Late Modern English (what we speak today) is mainly different from Early Modern English due to expanded vocabulary. This is because of the British Empire continuing to expand and incorporating more foreign words into the language, as well as the industrial revolution creating a need for words to describe new technology.

British and American colonialism and influence has led to the dominance of the English language around the world. It has become a lingua franca in many regions and within many professional fields like law and science. Colonialism, slavery, “Westward Expansion,” war, independence movements, cuisine, business, and Hollywood have all affected the way that English is spoken in the Modern Day.

The Internet has also had an incredible impact on the spread of Modern English. The Internet was born and created a need for English learning worldwide.

English is the third most-spoken native language in the world after Chinese and Spanish.

English is the most-learned second language in the world.

English is the official language in 67 countries.

The numbers are hard to estimate, but according to my research, it is likely that almost two billion people in the world speak at least a little bit of English.

English continues to change and evolve and as more people learn the language, it is likely that it will shift once again and develop into an entirely new type of speech, as is already happening in many areas of the world.

The Future

“the language of a country often symbolizes its independence and nationalism”

The world is in need of an international language and English might fulfill this purpose in the future. In fact, the trend is already going in this direction. During Britain’s reign, English was the official language of many more countries than it is today, however, there are much more speakers of the language today. This is not necessarily because English is better than other languages, it is just the most useful of modern languages. Certainly, the Internet has an influence on this as well.

            The English language is needed for the Internet, business, legal proceedings, international political conventions, worldwide travel, and for connecting with people of other cultures. Despite its violent history, the English language has become a unifier. Its use is leading to more multilingual people with the ability to speak English as well as their native languages, and, in some cases, even third or fourth languages as well. 

            The future of English is uncertain, but I think it is more than likely that English will one day become the most widely spoken language in the world unifying and leading to open communication between people all over. English already has so many varieties. It is a versatile and adaptable language. English is spoken much differently in India than it is in the southern United States, or in South Africa, or in Australia, or in the Caribbean, or in many other places. It is a language that promotes independence and nationalism, while at the same time creating linguistic unity. Despite its dark history, I believe the English language has a very bright future!