The Origins of the

English Language

María F.RojasVictoriano

The linguistic geography of Europe

Western Europe

Germanic-Speaking North

Speakers move into Roman territory

Celtic-Speaking South

Overlaid by the spread of Latin

The linguistic geography of Europe•At the beginning of the Christian era...

Language groups

Celtic Latin

Germanic

Celtic

Leaving as a result

• Gaelic (Irish Celtic)

• British Celtic (spoken in

Britain)

Celtic-speaking groups colonized both Britain

and Ireland

Latin

Growth of the Roman Empire Latin spreads to modern Italy, Spain, Portugal, part of Britain, France, Germany and other countries.

Decline of the Roman Empire

Latin disappeared as a spoken language is several parts of the

world, but survived in the central areas of continental Europe

‘Originally the language of Latium, then it became the dialect of Rome’

Latin changed into

different varieties

which became the

Romance Languages.

‘Latin as the international language of scholarship’

‘Major languages of Europe have been profoundly influenced by Latin, not only in vocabulary, but also in grammar’

Germanic

Modern Germanic languages derive from the dialects of different

tribal groups

German: a mixture of the dialects of the south of

Denmark.

Dutch and Flemish: derive from dialects from the North Sea and island in the area of

Weser and Rhine.

Frisian: comes from the coastal dialects.

Language contact in Europe

‘The language spoken by a tribe could change as the result of contact and conquest’

When a native population adopts a language, they do not become ethnic

speakers of that language.

e.i. When a native population

adopted Celtic, they did not

become ethnic Celts, but Celtic-

speaking members of their

tribe.

Contributing factors associated to language changes within a tribe.

Contact between tribes influenced their

languages.

Military contact. e.i. German mercenaries

recruited in Rome adopted Latin.

Food trade and exchange of a variety

of products.

Language in Britain

Britain and Ireland

Britannia in Latin

Britain in English

Prydain in Welsh

Pretanic Islands IVc

B.C

Germanic migrants settled on the east and southern coasts of Britain.

Early English

‘We need to make inferences about the

spoken language from the written language’

Anglian

Early English Dialects

Kentish

Northumbrian Mercian

West Saxon

Both become

Northumbrian

Mercian

West Saxon

Kentish

Written English

Germanic tribes used an alphabet called

RUNES

Inscriptions, texts on wood and magical

purposes

Which was used forBy the second century

as

Christianity is introduced to the

Anglo-Saxons

where

A new literacy culture is introduce

with it

Known as

Latin

Which influenced each other with

so

Conventions between

languages start to develop

To make the earliest glosses

A way must be found to use Latin letters

Which leads to

to Represent English sounds

Another solution is foundDigraphs Group of

letters representing

one sound

Which

are