The Origins
of the English
Language
María F.RojasVictoriano
The linguistic geography of
Europe
The linguistic geography of
Europe
•At the beginning
of the Christian
era...
GermanicSpeaking North
Speakers move
into Roman
territory
Celtic-Speaking
South
Overlaid by the
spread of Latin
Western
Europe
Language groups
Celtic
Latin
Germanic
Celtic
Celtic-speaking groups
colonized both Britain
and Ireland
Leaving
as a
result
•Gaelic (Irish
Celtic)
•British Celtic
(spoken in
Britain)
Latin
‘Originally the language of Latium, then it became the dialect of Rome’
Growth of the
Roman Empire
Decline
of the
Roman
Empire
Latin spreads to modern Italy, Spain, Portugal,
part of Britain, France, Germany and other
countries.
Latin disappeared as a spoken
language is several parts of the
world, but survived in the central
areas of continental Europe
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 Celticspeaking
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
Pretanic
Islands IVc
B.C
Prydain in
Welsh
Britain and
Ireland
Britannia in
Latin
Britain in
English
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’
Early English
Dialects
West
Saxon
Kentish
Northumbrian
Both
become
Anglian
Mercian
Northumbrian
Mercian
Kentish
West Saxon
Inscriptions,
texts on wood
and magical
purposes
Written
English
as
Which was used for
Germanic tribes
used an alphabet
called RUNES
Christianity is
introduced to the
Anglo-Saxons
Which
influenced
each other
with
Known as
Latin
To make
the earliest
glosses
where
A new literacy
culture is introduce
with it
Another solution is found
A way must be
found to use
Latin letters
to
Represent
English sounds
Which leads to
Digraphs
are
Conventions
between
languages start
to develop
so
Group of
letters
representing
one sound