Subject and Aims of the History of English.

Modern English reflects the centuries-old development.

Since English belongs to the Germanic group of languages, it would be natural to expect that it has many common words
or roots with related Germanic languages. But also many words in modern English have parallels in Romance languages
such as French, Latin, Spanish, etc.
Ex.: English- to give, Swedish- giva, German- geben.

Germanic languages
English belongs to the Germanic of Teutonic group of languages, which is one of the 12 groups of the Indo-European
linguistic family. It is part of the historical or genealogical classification groups languages in accordance with their origin
from a common linguistic ancestor.
The Germanic languages in the modern world are as follows:
English- in Great Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, etc.
German- in Germany, Austria, etc.
Netherlandish- in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium).
Afrikaans- in the South African Republic.
Danish- in Denmark.
Swedish- in Sweden and Finland.
Norwegian- in Norway.
Icelandic- in Iceland.
Frisian- in some regions of Netherlands and Germany.
All the Germanic languages are related through their common origin and joint development at early stages of history.

The earliest period of Germanic history

Proto- Germanic - The history of the Germanic group begins with the appearance of what is known as the Proto-
Germanic language. PG is entirely pre-historic language: it was never recorded in written form. As the Indo-Europeans
extended over a larger territory, the ancient Germans or Teutons moved further north and settled on the southern coast of
the Baltic Sea in the region of Elbe. In the XIX century it was reconstructed with the methods of comparative linguistics.
At the earliest stages of history PG was fundamentally one language, though dialectally colored. In its later stages
Germanic appears divided into dialectal groups and tribal dialects. The migrations and expansion of the Teutons caused
by overpopulation, poor agricultural technique and scanty natural recourses in the area of their original settlement.
The teutons had extended over a larger territory and the PG broke into parts. PG split into 3 branches: East -Germanic,
North-Germanic, and West-Germanic. These branches in their turn split into separate Germanic languages.

East-Germanic - The Goths were the first of the Teutons to become Christians. Around 200 A.D. they moved south-east
and made attacks on the Roman Empire, Byzantium. They founded one of the first barbarian kingdoms the Toulouse
kingdom, it lasted until the VIII century, and then they were absorbed by the native population, the Celts. It is one of the
earliest texts in the languages of the Germanic group; it represents a form of a language very close to PG and therefore
throws light on the pre-written stages of history of all the languages of the Germanic group, including English.

North-Germanic - Teutons left Scandinavia after the departure of the Goths gave rise to the North-Germanic subgroup
of languages. Runic inscriptions were carved on objects made of hard material in an original Germanic alphabet known as
runic alphabet or the runes. (since the VI century) they were mainly used by North and West Germanic tribes. The speech
of North-Germanic tribes showed little dialectal variation until the IX century and is regarded as a sort of common North-
Germanic parent-language called Old Norse or old Scandinavian.
The North-Germanic subgroup includes 2 more languages: Icelandic and Faroese, whose origin goes back to Viking Age.
Swedish is spoken not only by the population of Sweden, but also extends over Finnish territory.
Beginning with the VIII century, Scandinavian sea-rovers and merchants started distant voyages and set up many colonies
in many territories. Known as Northmen they overrun France and settled in Normandy. Crossing the Baltic Sea, they
came to Russia. Going still further west they reached Ireland, Greenland and North America.

West-Germanic - About the beginning of our era West-Germanic tribes dwelt in the lowland between the Oder and the
Elbe bordering on the Slavonian tribes in the East and the Celtic tribes in the South. High German was spoken between
the Oder and the Elbe. Franconians, Angles and Frisians, Jutes and Saxons inhabited the area of modern Netherlands,
Germany and southern part of Denmark. The population spoke a local variety of Latin, which developed into one of the
most extensive roman languages, French. Their dialects on the British Isles developed into the English language.
 Germanic languages
East-Germanic North- Germanic West- Germanic
Old- Germanic Gothic(IVc) Old Norse or Old Anglian, Frisian,
languages Vandalic Scandinavian(II-IIIc) Jutish, Saxon,
Burgundian Old Icelandic(XIIc) Franconian, High
Old Norwegian(XIIIc) German
Old Danish(XIIIc) Old English(VIIc)
Old Swedish(XIIIc) Old Saxon(IXc)
Old High
German(VIIIc)
Old Dutch(XIIc)

Modern Germanic No living Icelandic English

languages languages Norwegian German
Danish Netherlandish
Swedish Afrikaans
Faroese Yiddish
Frisian