A History of English
Chapter 1
Introduction
Introduction 1
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“To Aetius, thrice consul, the groans of the
Britons.”
Bede (730), Ecclesiastical History of the English
nation; Gildas, De Excidio Britannicae
Picts,Scots, Huns
“They consulted what was to be done, and where
they should seek assistance to prevent or repel the
cruel and frequent incursions of the northern
nations; and they all agreed with their King
Vortigern to call over to their aid, from parts
beyond the sea, the Saxon nation…”
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Introduction 2
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In the year of our Lord 449…the nation of the Angles, or Saxons,
being invited by the aforesaid king, arrived in Britain with three
long ships, and had a place assigned them to reside in by the
same king, in the eastern part of the island, that they might thus
appear to be fighting for their country, whilst their real intentions
were to enslave it. Accordingly they engaged with the enemy,
who were come from the north to give battle, and obtained the
victory; which, being known at home in their own country, as also
the fertility of the country, and the cowardice of the Britons, a
more considerable fleet was quickly sent over, bringing a still
greater number of men, which, being added to the former, made
up an invincible army.”
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Introduction 3
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“In their days Hengest and Horsa,
invited by Wurtgern, king of the Britons
to his assistance, landed in Britain in a
place that is called Ipwinesfleet; first of
all to support the Britons, but they
afterwards fought against them”
(Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)
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Introduction 4
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Saxons, Angles, Jutes
“In a short time, swarms of the aforesaid nations came
over the island, and they began to increase so much
that they became terrible to the nations themselves
who had invited them…”
457: “In this year Hengest and Aesc (the leaders of the
Jutes) fought against the Britons at a place called
Crayford and there slew four thousand men; and the
Britons then forsook Kent […]”
473: “In this year Hengest and Aesc fought against the
Welsh […] and the Welsh fled from the English as one
flies from fire […]”
The history of English as a narrative
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A history vs. The history
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There is not one story to tell
The familiar narrative originated in the 19th
century, drawing on the idea of a national
identity
Nationalism assumes the existence of an
unchanging national essence residing in
shared ethnic origin, fixed territory, common
language
Emphasis on early history, on Anglo-Saxon
roots, on Standard; varieties neglected
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One “truth”:
English is a contact language, a
Mischsprache
Contact situations: Latin, Celtic,
Scandinavian (Viking), Norman French,
Central French, Latin again
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When did English begin?
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The name of the language: Pytheas,
Pretanoi, Britanni, Britannia
Picti, Wealas, Angli, Aethelbert, Angli,
Anglia, Englisc, Englaland, England
The roots: Indo-European family of
languages
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When did ‘English’ begin?
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The traditional answer: When a branch
of the West Germanic family of
languages was brought to what is today
England, from the 5th century onwards,
by the Germanic peoples collectively
known as Anglo-Saxons (a number of
tribal groupings, each of which spoke a
different, though mutually intelligible
variety)
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Franks Casket
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Fisc flodu ahof on
fergenberig
War† gasric grorn
†ær he on greut
gisworn
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Den Fisch hat die
Flut
emporgehoben
auf die
Strandeshöhe
Es ward der
Ozean
bekümmert als er
auf das Geröll
antrieb
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Traditional periods
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Old English: ca. 500-1100
Middle English: 1100-1500
Early Modern English: 1500-17/1800
Late Modern English: 1700-1900
Modern English: 1900-???
Postmodern English? Global English?
Beowulf, Geoffrey Chaucer
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Henry Sweet before the Royal
Society 1873
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I propose, therefore, to start with the three
main divisions of Old, Middle, and Modern,
based mainly on the inflectional
characteristics of each stage. Old English is
the period of full inflections, Middle English of
levelled inflections, and Modern English of
lost inflections.
gifan,given, give
nama, name, name
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The history of English: a story of
invasions and cultural revolutions
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The Germanic Invasion 449
The Norman Invasion 1066
The Renaissance, the Printing
Press, the discovery of the New
World,and the Reformation 1500
The independence of the American
colonies: the end of the English
monopoly on the language 1776
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Other important factors:
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The invasion of the Scandinavians from
the end of the 8th century onwards
The Royal dynasties: Lancaster, York,
Tudors
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Intralinguistic criteria
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The branching off of English from other
Germanic dialects
The loss of inflections
The end of French influence
Latin and Greek loans
Standardization of Spelling and Grammar
The spread of English: New Englishes
industrialization
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What is English?
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Standard English vs. Varieties
Dialects and Registers
Written vs. Spoken English
Englishes, the English Languages
Lingua franca
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What is a standard
language?
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A standard language is a written variety
which is either imposed or promoted
over a wider geographical area than
where it originated with the aim of
making it the principal or sole written
form in the country as a whole
It is regulated, codified, and has overt
prestige
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Standard Varieties of English
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West Saxon Standard
No Standard English in Middle English:
instead Latin and French
The London standardization from 1400
on: English as a national language
promoted by the Lancastrians (Henry
IV, V)
Chancery Standard: spelling
standardization, printing press
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When did English begin: another answer
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A more realistic answer: with the
development of a standardised
written form of the language, under
the influence of Latin (providing a
guide as to what a standardised
language should look like)
This did not happen before the ninth
century under King Alfred the Great
This answer underestimates dialects
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Alternative histories
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Old English as the first phase of several
phases in a single on-going language
Old English as the ancestor of an English
within which Sots is a distinct entity
Old English as the common ancestor of both
English and Scots
Language history as a continuum
English as a pluricentric language
English-Only Europe?
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Samuel Daniel
“And who in time knows wither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue, to what strange
shores
This gaine of our best glorie shal be sent,
T’inrich vnknowing Nations with our stores?
Which worlds in th’yet vnformed Occident
May come refin’d with th’accents that are
ours?”
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Causes of language change:
external
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Imperfect learning
Substratum
Individual variation
Linguistic accomodation
Migration, Prestige
Replacement
Contact vs. Separation
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Causes of language change:
internal
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Ease of articulation
Analogy
Reanalysis
Grammaticalization
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Sources of Information on
Language Change
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Evidence from archaeology
Theoretical reconstruction
Spelling and Misspellings
Rhymes
Translations
Modern dialects as mirrors to the past
‘Linguists’
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