Bibliography

English Language History

English is a West Germanic

language originating from the
anglofrisios dialects brought to
Britain by Germanic invaders from
various parts of what is now
northwest Germany, southern
Denmark and northern
Netherlands.

If we review the history of English it

has passed along three main
periods: Old English (450-1100 AD),
English Medium (1100-circa 1500
AD) and Modern English (1500).

The influence of Celtic in the Old English

language was mild. In fact, very few Celtic
words that have survived in English
although many of the names of places and
rivers that preserve Celtic origins: Kent,
York, Dover, Cumberland, Thames, Avon,
Trent, Severn ..

Other influences at this time were

those of Latin (due to the arrival of
St. Augustine in 597) and the
introduction of Christianity and the
Danes and Scandinavians on 878.

Once William the Conqueror, Duke

of Normandy, he hath invaded
and conquered England back in
1066 D.C., he decided to bring
their nobles, who spoke French.

English language use among the

common people and be he who
cooked for the aristocracy, most
pets were named in English: (ox,
cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer)

French also influences more

aspects and termination of the
plural as (house, housen; shoe,
shoen)etc.

After Guillermo Enrique II reigned

coming from France, he and his
wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine brought
to England the Parisian dialect
and French culture and art, like
poetry and troubadours.

Despite the prolonged contact

between English and French, the
Gallic linguistic influence is mainly
restricted to the lexical field.

The French stage coincides with a

period of great syntactic and
morphological changes in the
English, but they had no changes
were rooted in any French dialect.

An interesting exception to the

lack of French influence on English
syntax is the world of idioms

The Norman conquest erased up to

85% of Anglo-Saxon words in the
English lexicon, but today 96 of the
100 most common words of the
language are of Anglo-Saxon origin.

At that time, there are still a few years

for the English from becoming a
virtually global language.

The lexicon borrowed from the

French, then, serves as a layer that
adds distinction and refinement to
the Anglo-Saxon language without
erasing its core. Still common that
the word derived from the French is
considered more cultivated than the
Anglo-Saxon equivalent and
suggests that this stratification is
due to the situation of languages
under the Normans.

look back and review the history, it

helps us to understand many of the
features of a language and also helps
us also to understand why the German
and even French sometimes surprise
us with their similarities to English