 Germanic Tribes invaded England which was previously settled by the Celts

and the Romans (430 A.D)

 Frisian people came to settle in England
 The Germanic Tribes and Frisian spoke in dialect which closes resembles
English e.g. meal, lamb, goose, butter, cheese, sea, boat, storm, butter, rain,
snow, mist, sleep
 The Germanic Tribes eventually took over and eventually formed seven
smaller kingdoms the Saxons which over time became the dominant group
hence leading to the new Anglo-Saxon nation
 The Anglo-Saxons formed suffixes that indicated place names throughout
England e.g. -ing meaning 'people of' (Worthing, Hastings), -ton meaning
'village' (Taunton, Burton, Luton, Brighton), -ham meaning 'farm'
(Nottingham, Birmingham, Grantham) and -stead meaning a site
(Hampstead)
 This new Anglo-Saxon nation became known as Engaland which was then
shorten to England
 Around 600A.D the English language began to develop its own distinctive
features which where separate to the Germanic dialect
 Augustine and his 40 missionaries from Rome brought Christianity to Anglo-
Saxons of England in 597 A.D. (This then influenced English literacy and
culture, bringing with it the establish monasteries and centres for learning)
 The Celts and early Anglo-Saxons used and alphabet of runes which are
angular characters originally developed for scratching onto wood or stone
 The Christian missionaries introduced the more rounded roman alphabet
much like we use today which was easier to read and more suited to writing
on parchment
 Latin was only used by the ruling classes and church leader and Latin had a
minor influence on the English language at this time some of the latin words
where adopted related to religion included e.g. priest, bishop, pope, nun,
angel, monk, baptism, candle and some of the domestic words e.g. fork,
spade, school, plant, cook also came into English from Latin at this time
 Around the 7th Century Old English literature began to develop e.g. poetry
started by Caedmon, and Venerable Bede Englishes first historian
 By the 10th Century the West Saxon dialect had become the official
language of Britain
 The Old English language was characterised by poetic features such as
alliteration and percussive effects
 The Old English language between the 8th and 11th Centuries was very
complex in the poem Beowulf which was written in that time period is
 unique as it uses 36 different for hero, 20 for man, 12 for battle and 11 for
ship
 Many of the basic and common we use in English today have their roots in
Old English including water, earth and house