Dr.

Manar Almanea The History of English

Old English Ch. 3

p. 34
Has English originated in Britain?
Or is it a migrant language?
English is a MIGRANT language. It is a descendant
from the West Germanic languages which were
located in Denmark and west Germany.
38. The periods in the History of
English
The evolution of English in the 1500 years of its
existence in England has been an unbroken one.
The dividing lines between periods are arbitrary.
Yet, certain broad characteristics can be noticed
in each period.

The history of the English language went through

three phases:
1.Old English 449-1150 (period of full inflection:
endings of nouns, verbs, adjectives are preserved)
2. Middle English 1150-1500 (inflections greatly
reduced)
3. Modern English 1600-until now (inflection lost).
 29. The languages in England before
English

1.Celtic tribes:
Prior to the hypothesized date 449 A.D., there was
no such thing as “English”. The inhabitants of
Britain were Celtic tribes (native Britons) who did
not speak English, but various Celtic languages.
Celtic was the first Indo-European tongue to be
spoken in England. Modern Welsh, Irish, Gaelic and
Scots Gaelic (spoken at different parts of the
United Kingdom nowadays) are Celtic language
survivors of the original Celtic language
29. The languages in England before
English
 30/31. The Romans in Britain

2. Roman Empire
During those days, the Roman Empire (with its capital city
Rome in Italy) was dominant and very powerful. It
continued expanding in the Continent and it successfully
occupied Britain (what they called Britannia) under
guidance of Emperor Claudius at 43 A.D. There was an
earlier unsuccessful attempt to occupy the land by Julius
Caesar which was received by some unexpected spirited
resistance of the Celts. Britain remained as a Roman colony
for a long time, and there are many Roman remains in UK
nowadays (e.g. the stone wall separating Scotland from
other British regions). The district south of this line was
under Roman rule for more than 300 years.
The Roman’s stone wall
 32. Romanization of the Island

Where the Romans lived and ruled, Roman

civilization was found. They built four big
highways and numerous smaller roads to
connect important military or civil centers. A
number of cities were built following the
Roman traditions and habits of life, as well as
Roman theaters. Their houses had heating
apparatus and water supply, and their floors
were paved in mosaic. Roman dress,
ornaments, utensils, pottery, glassware all
had been in general use.
 33. The Latin language in Britain

The language of the Romans was Latin. This era

introduced the effect of Latin on the area. A great
number of inscriptions found in England were in
Latin. It seemed to be the official language. Yet,
Latin did not replace the Celtic language in Britain.
Its use by native Britons was probably confined to
members of the upper classes and some
inhabitants of the cities and towns. But that use
was not sufficiently widespread to cause it to
survive. Its use began to decline after 410, the date
at which the Romans officially withdrew from
Britain.
 34. The Germanic conquest
About the year 449, an event occurred that profoundly
affected the course of history. In that year, the invasions of
Britain by certain Germanic tribes began, who were the
founders of the English nation.
For more than a hundred years, shiploads of the conquerors
and settlers migrated from their homes in what is called
now Denmark and Netherlands and established themselves
in the south and east (at the city of Kent first) of the island
gradually extending the area they occupied until it included
all but the highlands in the west and north.
The oldest book in English history, from which we learned
about these events is Bede’s (731) Ecclesiastical History of
the English People.
 34. The Germanic conquest
The Germanic tribes were three tribes : The Angles, Saxons
and Jutes. A fourth tribe, the Frisians, are reported to
settle
in smaller numbers in England, too.
The story of their migration:
When Britain was a Roman colony, it was under continuous
attacks of some tribes such as the Pics from the north and
the Scots from the west. After the Roman withdrawal from
Britain (at the early 5th C.), the weak Celtic Britons (who had
neither courage nor skill to fight the Pics and Scots) called
the Jutes from the Continent (nowadays Germany,
Denmark and Netherlands) for help against their enemies.
 Beginning of Old English

With their first landing, roughly in 449 A.D., the period of Old
English actually began. Large groups of 3 tribes (Angles,
Saxons, and the Jutes) were migrating from overseas to
Britain. Instead of helping the Britons, they ironically
occupied their lands and dismissed them to the west, north
and south west of the country. That is why we find the
Celtic languages still spoken in these areas up to the
present time (Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, etc). The Germanics also
wrote letters to other members of their tribes asking more
and more to join them, informing them about the fertility of
the land and the weakness of its inhabitants.
Beginning of Old English
 Beginning of Old English

The settlement of the Jutes was a very different from the

conquest of island by the Romans. The Romans came to
rule the Celtic population, not to eradicate and dispossess
it. The Jutes forcefully occupied the lands of the Celts and
Each tribe settled in different part of the country (mainly
central areas), and today’s dialectical differences in UK can
be attributed to the original dialects of the Germanics. they
met their resistance by driving them out of their lands.
 35.Anglo-Saxon Civilization
The civilization attained at under Roman
influence was largely destroyed. The
Roman towns were burnt and
abandoned. Town life did not attract a
population used to life in the open and
finding its occupation in hunting and
agriculture. In time, various tribes
combined either for strength or under
the influence of a powerful leader to
produce small kingdoms, among these
are Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, Essex,
Wessex, etc.
36. The names “England” and “English

With time, the term Angli or Anglia was used to refer not only
to the Angles, but to all tribes. From the beginning, all
Germanic writers call their language Englisc (English). The
word is derived from the name of the Angles (OE Engle).
Similarly, the land and its people are clearly called
Angelcynn (Angle-kin or race of Angles). From about the
year 1000 Englaland (land of Angles) begins to take its
place. The name English is thus older than the name
England.
A map of the Germanic tribes invasion
and settlement
40. Some characteristics of Old English

These are the first 11 lines of the

Masterpiece poem Beowulf (written in
Old English).

What do you first notice?

40. Some characteristics of Old English
It looks strange because of the employment of certain
characters that no longer form a part of our alphabets.
Differences between Old and Modern English are in
pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary and grammar.
1. Pronunciation of Old English commonly differs from
that of their modern equivalents, especially in the long
vowels as in stān, ‘stone’ or fot and ‘foot’. Some words
were contracted such as headfod (head), faeger (fair).
(more examples in the book).
Listen to these basic words of Old English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQbF7A92
eLo
40. Some characteristics of Old English

2. Spelling of Old English is strange when

compared to Modern English. There are
some unique characters in Old English
that are not used today such as: The
symbols þ (thorn) and ð (eth) to stand for
modern th . Also, æ (ash) stands for a
sound as in : hæt (hat). Sc in Old English
stands for sh as in (Englisc. C either meant
k as in(bæc) or ch as in (benc).
 40. Some characteristics of Old English

3. Vocabulary of Old English is purely Germanic. No

borrowings were clear at the early phase of the Old
English period. There is a complete absence of Latin
and French words (which together make up to half
of today’s English vocabulary). The Germanic words
which survived until modern times are basic
elements of our vocabulary such as pronouns,
prepositions and words for fundamental concepts
like: mann (man), cild (child), hūs (house) (more
examples in the book). Most of other Germanic
words (for example those appropriate to literature
and learning) were replaced by French and Latin
words during the Middle English period.
40. Some characteristics of Old English

4. Grammar of Old English is more complex than

modern English. English is an inflectional language.
Inflectional languages fall into two classes: synthetic
and analytic. A synthetic language is one that indicates
the relations of words in a sentence largely by means of
inflections (e.g. endings on nouns, adjectives, verbs
etc.) Analytic languages are those which make
extensive use of preposition, auxiliary verbs and word
order to show relationships in a sentence.

Old English is a synthetic language while Modern

English is an analytic language.
 41. The Noun
Old English nouns are inflected for number
(singular and plural) and case (four cases:
nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative).
The endings of these cases vary with different
nouns depending on whether the noun ends
in a vowel or in a consonant. There are vowel
declensions (endings) (e.g. –a, -i) and
consonant declensions e.g. (-r, or –n). Some
are called strong declensions, while others
are called weak declensions. E.g. book p. 51
 42. Grammatical gender
OE differs from Modern English in having grammatical gender in
contrast to the Modern English that has natural gender.
OE has grammatical gender (remnant from Indo-Europoean) in
which the gender of nouns is not dependent upon consideration
of actual gender. It assigned nouns to classes ( masculine,
feminine and neuter) without necessarily matching the sex of the
noun's referent. For example, stān (stone) is masculine, mōna
(moon) masculine, but sunne (sun) is feminine, mӕgden (girl)
and wīf (wife) are neuter. This illogical system disappeared in
Modern English.
Modern English has natural gender .Natural gender based on the
gender or, for neuter, the lack of gender of the referent of a noun,
as English girl (feminine) is referred to by the feminine pronoun
she, boy (masculine) by the masculine pronoun he, and table
(neuter) by the neuter pronoun it.
 43. The adjective
An important feature of the Germanic
languages is the development of two types of
adjective declension:
1. the strong declension is used with
(indefinite) nouns when not accompanied
by a definite article (or a
demonstrative/possessive pronoun). e.g.
(gōd mann) (good man).
2. the weak declension is used when the noun
is definite (preceded by a definite article).
e.g. (sē gōda mann) (the good man). (more
examples in the book).
 46. The Verb
Old English distinguished two simple tenses by inflection (
present and past). It has no special inflectional form for the
passive. It recognizes three moods (indicative, subjunctive,
and imperative), and had the usual two numbers and three
persons.
A peculiar feature of the Germanic languages was the
division of the verb into two great classes, the weak and
the strong ( corresponding to Modern English regular and
irregular respectively).
Strong verbs like (sing, sang, sung) are called so because
they have the power to change the internal vowel of their
root to indicate tense, while weak verbs show tense by
only adding a dental suffix (ed). There are 7 groups of
strong verbs. E.g. p. 54.
 Dr. Manar Almanea The History of English

Foreign Influences on
Old English Ch. 4
35. The contact of English with Other
Languages

Old English in the course of its existence for around 700 years
in England was brought into contact with at least three
other languages. From each of these contacts, there are
certain effects on the language, especially additions to its
vocabulary.
35. The contact of English with Other
Languages

54. The Celtic influence

With the exception of place-names, the influence of Celtic
upon English was very limited and almost negligible. The
Celtic people were killed in large numbers at central areas,
and others fled to the west. Many place names in England
came from a Celtic origin as “Kent”, “London” and the river
“Thames”. The relationship between the Anglo-Saxons and
the Celts was not strong enough to bring about any
considerable influence on English. Celtic was the language
of the ‘defeated’ people in which the Anglo-Saxons were
not interested.
35. The contact of English with Other
Languages
55. The Latin influence
Latin was not the language of the conquered people (as
Celtic). Rather, it was the language of a highly regarded
civilization, one from which the Anglo-Saxons wanted to
learn. Therefore, it was a language which exerted a great
influence on English. The contact with the Latin/ Roman
civilization was first commercial and military, and later
religious and intellectual indeed extended over many
centuries and was constantly renewed. It began long before
the Anglo-Saxons came to England (during the Roman
invasion of Britain) and continued throughout the Old
English period.
60. The Christianization of Britain

The greatest influence of Latin upon Old English was

occasioned by the conversion of Britain to Roman
Christianity beginning in 597. That year marks the
beginning of a systematic attempt on the part of Rome to
convert the pagan inhabitants and make England a
Christian country.
The Roman Church sent 40 missionaries led by ‘Saint
Augustine’ to convert the Anglo-Saxons into Christianity.
They landed in Kent, and they brought with them the
Gospel, and they built the first ‘Canterbury’ church in
England.
 60. The Christianization of Britain
The task of the missionaries was not an easy one. Their
problem was not merely confined to substitute one religion
to another, but rather to change the philosophy of a
nation. The Anglo-Saxons habits of mind, their ideals, the
actions to which these gave rise were often in sharp
contrast to the teachings of the Bible. Germanic philosophy
focused on physical courage, independence and power
even to the extent of arrogance, revenge, and loyalty to
one’s family or leader. In contrast, Christianity preached
humility, meekness, submissiveness, and patience under
suffering.
The missionaries may even have faced difficulty in respectful
hearing.
 60. The Christianization of Britain

The success of their mission was due to several factors. First,

they seemed to have appealing personalities and devotion
to purpose. Second, the queen of the Kingdom of Kent was
Christian. By the time St. Augustine died seven years later,
the Kingdom of Kent had become wholly Christian. Third,
they were granted freedom in their mission.
The conversion of the rest of England was a gradual process.
 61. Effects of Christianity on English
civilization
Christianity as a philosophy affected all aspects of life in
England. It meant building churches and establishments of
monasteries. Some became vibrant learning centers and
schools were established in monasteries, too (such as the
school of York and Canterbury). Workers in stone and glass
were brought from the continent for the improvement of
church building. Literature, poetry, astronomy, history, and
other fields of knowledge flourished then. Schools used to
have great, renowned, devoted teachers. The language of
the Church and the Holy Book was Latin. In the 8th c.
England held the intellectual leadership of Europe, and it
owed this leadership to the Church.
 61. Effects of Christianity on English
civilization

Christianity in Britain re-introduced the influence of Latin to

English. There were numerous borrowings from Latin to
English during that period. Most words were of a religious
nature such as (church, priest, nun, pope, etc.) or related
to the church as ( candle, ark, hymn, etc.). Some of the
borrowed words have to do with education and learning
such as (school, master, grammatic. Verse, etc).
Christianity reconnected the English people with Rome and
the Continent. It also separated the English more form the
Celts and the Irish church. It spread literacy in learning
centers and monasteries. The (round) Roman alphabets
were adopted for writing.
 67. The Scandinavian influence: the
Viking age
Near the end of the Old English period, English underwent a
third foreign influence, that resulted in contact with
another important language: the Scandinavian.
Who were the Vikings: Some Germanic inhabitants of the
Scandinavian peninsula (nowadays Norway, Iceland,
Sweden, and mainly Denmark (who were once neighbors
of the Anglo-Saxons and closely related to them in language
and blood) carried a series of attacks upon England and
many other regions.
When: the period of their invasions extended from the middle
of the 8th century to the beginning of the 11th century.
They were called the Vikings, Northmen, the Norse, Danes,
etc.
 68. The Scandinavian invasions of
England

Three main stages of the Vikings attacks can be distinguished:

1. The first is the period of early raids. They were simply
attacks upon towns and monasteries near the coast. Sacred
vessels of gold, silver, and valuables of all kinds were
carried off.
2. The second stage is the work of large armies and is marked
by widespread expansion and extensive settlements. They
captured London, Canterbury and York and they controlled
the surrounding country. They occupied the whole eastern
part of Britain and continued their attacks other areas as
well. England was divided into two parts as in:
68. The Scandinavian invasions of
England
 69. The settlement of the Danes in
England

The third stage is the period of political adjustment and

assimilation of the two people. The English people regained
their power and began to win over the Vikings . The Vikings'
attacks resulted in large numbers of Scandinavians settling
in England. Their big number is clear in the numerous place
names (up to 1400) in England which were originally
Scandinavians. Most settlements were in peace side to side
with the English, and there were many intermarriages with
them and thus a mixture of the two ‘closely related’
cultures.
70. The amalgamation of the Danes in
England
The fusion of the two peoples was greatly facilitated by the
close kinship that existed between them. The English kings
only sought control over the area accepting the mixed
population. This was aided by the natural adaptability of
the Scandinavians. Many of them accepted Christianity. It
was just a question of time that these large groups of
Scandinavians were completely absorbed into the general
mass of the English population.
Despite enmity and bloodshed, there was a feeling among the
English that the Vikings belong to the same family as
themselves (since all were Germanic tribes). That feeling
was never felt regarding the British Celts.
75. Scandinavian loan words and their
character

They used to speak old Norse, and their tongue had

similarities with old English to allow communication with
the English people. Because of the continued interaction of
the two languages, Old Norse clearly affected Old English in
many aspects.
The civilization of the Vikings was very much like that of the
English. The borrowed words of Old Norse were simple
everyday words as egg, race, reindeer, seat, skill, etc.