Summary

The video “Birth of a language” describes development of English language during centuries. Some programs were made about history of English.

The Netherlands is place, where we can still hear the modern language sounds closest to what the ancestor of the English sounded like 1,500 years ago.

In the 5th century, a Germanic tribe, part of the family that also contained Jutes, Angles and Saxon's, made sail to look for a better life. In fact, they took their language with them.

More than 500 years before, the Romans had also come by sea, their empire had crumbled, and they'd abandoned these islands.

Germanic invaders seized Celt`s lands in 491. The Celts became servants and second-class citizens. Only few words from the Celtic language have survived into modern English. By the end of the 6th century, these Germanic tribes occupied half of mainland Britain and had divided into a number of kingdoms Kent, Sussex, Essex, and Wessex. East Anglia, names after the Angles who gave England it's name. The Germanic tribes spoke Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

Katie Lowe, language expert, said that in the region of around 25,000 words were swirling around at that time.

The monks brought the international language of the Christian religion - Latin. The Runic alphabet, was made up of symbols, formed mainly of straight lines, so that the letters could be carved into stone or wood.

The great English monk and scholar Bede began writing the first ever history of the English speaking people.

No one knows who composed the epic Beowulf, the first great poem in the English Language. The poem celebrates the glory days of the Germanic tribes, optimizing the heroic warrior who gives the poem it's name.

Over 12 centuries ago, the vikings savaged easten half of the country. In 865, they landed a great army in East Anglia.

King Alfred's the only monarch known as "the Great". In 878, the Danes won what appeared to be a decisive battle at Chippenham in Wiltshire. Alfred, with only a few followers, went on the run into the marshes of Somerset and got a victory. Hundreds of Norse words entered the mainstream of English.

Alfred made an extraordinarily imaginative project, to promote literacy, and restore the English language. As a result, Alfred made a significant influence on development of English.

In 1066 the Normans came. About 10,000 words come from the conquering Norman French. Nearly 500 words dealing with food, cooking, and eating alone entered English from French. The Doomsday book, show us how widespread their influence and their language.

To sum up, English language was influenced by different tribes and now it has a poor place in a country with 3 languages.