From Beowulf to Hamlet – Short Version
Short version
Over 2000 years ago the people in Britain spoke Celtic languages. These have survived in the modern
Celtic languages spoken today in Wales, Scotland and Ireland: Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.
Celtic languages are very different from Germanic languages like English, Norwegian and German.
Some 1500 years ago Britain was invaded by tribes called the Angles and the Saxons. Their Germanic
languages merged with the Celtic languages and this resulted in Anglo-Saxon or Old English, the
language of the famous poem called Beowulf. Old English is very different from modern English.
Next Britain was invaded by the Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries. Many Vikings settled in Britain
and their language, Old Norse, gave the Old English language many new place names and words.
In 1066 Britain was invaded again, this time by William the Conqueror and his Normans from France.
He became the new king of Britain and therefore his language, an old version of French, became the
language spoken by the powerful people in the country. English was the language of the peasants.
Over the centuries French changed the English language completely, resulting in what is called
Middle English, the language of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400). During this period the
English language got many new words from French and the pronunciation of many words changed
over the centuries.
The pronunciation of the English language kept on changing, but spelling became fairly fixed after the
invention of the printing press in the late 1400s. When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, the r’s were still
pronounced in words like suffer and poor. These r’s disappeared later on in British English, but were
kept in many British dialects and in American English. So this means that American pronunciation is
really just an older variety of British pronunciation.
Glossary for the short version
survived
overlevd
invaded
invadert
tribes stammer/stammer
Angles angler/anglarar
Saxons saksere/saksarar
merged with
smeltet sammen med / smelta saman med
conqueror
erobrer/erobrar
peasants
bønder
pronunciation uttale
spellingstaving
invention
oppfinnelse/oppfinning
printing press trykkpresse
suffer lide
disappeared
forsvant/forsvann
© Audun Rugset /H. Aschehoug & Co.