There are few programs which will tell about history of English language: the first program consists of facts about invasions that threatened to destroy English language, the second is about the language that was underground for 300 years, the third is about how language took on the power blocks of church and the last one is about the language of Shakespeare.
It should be said, that English language is traced back to the Germanic family of languages. In the 5-th century a Germanic tribe of the family, that also contained Angles and Saxons, made sail to look for a better life and they took their language with them. But they weren’t the first, to invade the shores, more than 500 years before, the Romans had also come by sea to impose them. Anglo-Saxon is the language which British people speak every day, but some words sound different from modern language.
In the 7-th century Christians brought to England Latin, from which English took their script. Beowulf is the first great poem in English, it was written in 10-th century.
Another tribe was Vikings. The language of the conquerors was spreading through the land and it had a great influence on Modern English. Alfred the Great was the king of Wessex, who defended his Kingdom against the Vikings. Alfred’s crucial victory was memorialized by white horse carved into the land.
English land was engulfed by Danish, But Danish was absorbed after Alfred’s victory. English borrowed some words from Danish. Alfred took English to new heights of achievement. Habitant couldn’t understand godly books which were written in Latin, so he decided to promote literacy and restore the English. Alfred had five books of religious instruction, philosophy and history translated from Latin into English.
Normans captured lands in 1066. William, the Normans King spoke French. There are a lot of words, such as cream, salmon or market, came from French.
So, there were a lot of trades which had a great influence upon English.
It should be said, that English language is traced back to the Germanic family of languages. In the 5-th century a Germanic tribe of the family, that also contained Angles and Saxons, made sail to look for a better life and they took their language with them. But they weren’t the first, to invade the shores, more than 500 years before, the Romans had also come by sea to impose them. Anglo-Saxon is the language which British people speak every day, but some words sound different from modern language.
In the 7-th century Christians brought to England Latin, from which English took their script. Beowulf is the first great poem in English, it was written in 10-th century.
Another tribe was Vikings. The language of the conquerors was spreading through the land and it had a great influence on Modern English. Alfred the Great was the king of Wessex, who defended his Kingdom against the Vikings. Alfred’s crucial victory was memorialized by white horse carved into the land.
English land was engulfed by Danish, But Danish was absorbed after Alfred’s victory. English borrowed some words from Danish. Alfred took English to new heights of achievement. Habitant couldn’t understand godly books which were written in Latin, so he decided to promote literacy and restore the English. Alfred had five books of religious instruction, philosophy and history translated from Latin into English.
Normans captured lands in 1066. William, the Normans King spoke French. There are a lot of words, such as cream, salmon or market, came from French.
So, there were a lot of trades which had a great influence upon English.
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