PAGINA1
HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

From a historical point of view, English is a Germanic language derived from a mix of a number of Low German dialects spoken in Southern Denmark and part of the Netherlands around 4-500 A.D.

The first peoples to introduce such languages at the fall of the Roman Empire came from that area, being pushed westward by the invasion of more German tribes from the eastern mainland and which had also been dispossessed of their lands by nomadic tribes from Central Asia.

Although the first English settlers we know of from prehistoric times are the Celts, it is almost certain that more Mediterranean peoples must have been there for some time, especially in some parts of Scotland. However, of this Celtic and Mediterranean substratum, including Rome's influence there is almost no influence on English.

The English peoples forced them to give up the natives' culture when they invaded their lands while the few who resisted retreated westward into the forests of Wales with the few Romans that had not returned to Europe at the fall of the Empire (476 A.D.) The refugees that settled in Wales were romanized Celts or Celts that still felt part of the Roman Empire and fought to defend that culture.

The legend of King Arthur is said to have been born there, and might have arisen from attempts by these minorities to stop or contain the new German invaders. The prehistoric settlement dates back from the last years of glaciation, about 15,000 years ago when England's land were freed from ice.

Polar winters ended in the North about 8,500 years ago, attracting migration from continental people. The Celts are estimated to have arrived much later – nine or eight century before Christ, apparently coming from Belgium and Northern France. The Iron Age starts with them, and their presence increases with the migration of new Celtic tribes especially from the 5th century.

The Roman conquest of England by Caesar dates to 55-54 B.C., but their impact on the local language must have been minimum, since there is almost no trace of Latin words until the Norman Conquest. The Roman influence only extended to England – the Scots stopped the Romans at Hadrian's Wall.

However, cololization of England would not be accomplished until the next century. Much later, around 400 A.D. The Romans started to leave to defend the continent and particularly the Italian peninsula from the same invasions that eventually pushed the Celts westwards and turned England into a Germanic state.

The Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons and many other Low German tribes were followed by the Danes a few centuries later. The Viking Danes periodically raided the eastern shores of Britain and retreated to their homeland only after blackmailing the locals into paying hefty ransoms.

Given the military weakness of the English, the only solution was to integrate the newcomers in their society by granting them land titles so that they would be subject to the Crown, finally severing their ties with their homeland.

Some of the Danes also settled in France in much the same way. Here, they were named Normans (North-men), and occupied what is today's Normandy. Ironically, two centuries later they would take arms against their own race by claiming England for the King of France.

Those that settled down in France would soon loose command of Danish: in the 11th century their language and culture was French, they had all converted to Christianism, and all of them were part of the landed aristocracy.

These new French subjects were the people who extended their conquests from England (1066) to Southern Italy (1059) down to the Holy Lands through the crusades. In fact, the reason English shows such peculiarly strong romance traits is that Norman colonization (1066-1200) introduced French as the official language of the country, eventually creating a blend between the native and French dialects.

Middle English would keep most of its German features until the Norman rulers fully integrated in mainstream society. This happened when England severed its ties with France in 1200. At this point the French-speaking elite started to unlearn their language while absorbing much of the native dialects.

In trying to adjust to them they unconsciously introduced most of their own vocabulary into tongue while native words competed french ones with losses on both parts however but old inflexional system gave way leaving only a limited use genitive once written without apostrophe whose and confining the dative whom it took 150 years these changes to take effect

In the 11th century the divide between French and English speakers was mainly ethnic, but in the 12th intermarriage between rich natives and the Normans made French just a matter of class. Such mixed couples were bilingual and so were their sons, who also spent much of their lives in France. But when in 1200 King John married Isabel d'Angouleme, already betrothed to Hugh of Lusignan, attacking his home, the divorce with France was consumed.

John's subsequent refusal to submit to the King's justice and return Isabel to Hugh was punished with the forced annexation of the dukedom of Normandy to the Crown from 1205, but England became de facto an independent nation. The quarrel with the French meant that the Anglo-Norman would no longer send their sons to the continent to learn the language.

However, less influence from France freed the English from a process that might eventually transform it into a romance language. In the 14th century, few were the nobles who could speak fluent French, and Chaucer says ironically of the Prioress in the Canterbury Tales that...Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetishly After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, For Frenssh of Parys was to hire unknowe. (Prologue, vv.124-6)

The prioress had much less command of French than she pretended to, the fact that she had studied it an English convent, and that “she knew know French from Paris” means that the stand-off between England and France effectively prevented most English from sending their scions to the continent or avail themselves of native French speakers in England.

However, the French heritage in the English language is neither marginal nor superficial, and many French words could be clearly identified even when spoken, as their pronunciation was in many ways nearer to today's Italian or French. But the Great Vowel Shift in the 1400-1500s changed that pronunciation, and this may partly account for the reason why such French words are so well camouflaged with the native vocabulary in spoken English.

This was a profound change that affected vocalism, especially the long vowels which lost their original value, (oo /o:/ > /u:/, ee /e:/ > /i:/) with new diphthongs arising from French A, I, O, U in words as fame, fine, tone, fume. The result of this shift was Shakespeare's English, which is basically today's English except for some features which we would qualify as archaisms but that are not a serious obstacle to understanding.

However, by the start of the English Renaissance in the late 1500s, even the old -th ending for the third person singular was often replaced by -s, and that is apparent from the uncertain spelling of Elizabethan dramas, official documents and correnspondence. Though many spelling variants would not disappear for a couple of centuries, King James Bible (1611) was essential in that it brought written English from the church and the library into the household - succeeding where eminent scholars and Cusca-inspired academies failed.

Even with words and phrases that certainly sound old-fashioned, Shakespeare's English can be read without much effort today, as this is also the standard of the Authorized Version heard at the Anglican mass. Changing “ Ay, she goeth not thither, she hath a fever ” for “Yes, she won't go there, she has fever” does not sensibly affect comprehension, and many English counties have even kept these old-fashioned phrases within their own dialects.

Next: Myths about the English Language