ORIGINS

The history of Legal language begins

in ancient Britain and develops
successive waves of invaders – Anglo-
Saxons, Scandinavians, Norman
French – left their marks not only on
the English language in general, but
on legal English in particular.
 REASONS FOR THE SPREAD OF LEGAL
ENGLISH
 Conversion to Christianity
Development of centralized system of justice
The rise of legal profession
The spread of writing and printing
The invaded became the invaders and
propagated English and legal system across
the globe
LEGAL LANGUAGE- HISTORY – NEED TO KNOW

 It is impossible to appreciate legal language

without knowing something about its history
 All the odd characteristics of the speech and
writing of the lawyers have some historical
basis
 Knowing the reasons for these features may
help us determine their usefulness today
• Anglo Saxon mercenaries
• Scandinavian Riders
• Latin Speaking Cleric
• Norman Invaders
The Indo- European Family of Languages
445 and 2/3 are Indo Iranian
 THE CELTS
 The inhabitants of England before the time of
Christ were Celtic
The Celts inhabited not just much of Britain
and Ireland, but large parts of Central and
Western Europe as well.
 Their language is a branch of Indo- European,
Celtic is ultimately related to English
The Britons were an ancient Celtic people who
lived on Great Britain from the Iron Age
through the Roman and Sub-Roman periods.
They spoke a language that is now known as
Common Brittonic.
 ENGLISH AND CELTIC
English does not derive from Celtic
Celtic languages did not leave any traces in
English
Most of the Celtic remnants in England are
place names including
 CORNWALL
 AVON
 DOVER
 LONDON
 British CELTS- LEGAL LANGUAGE
 Had little lasting impact on the present day
legal language
Inferences made based on the surviving
manuscripts of Celtic law from Wales and
Ireland
Expressed much of their law in legal sayings or
maxims – semi-poetic/rhetoric(oratory,
eloquence), often alliterated
 ALLITERATION
• Alliteration is derived from Latin’s “Latira”. It
means “letters of alphabet”. It is a stylistic
device in which a number of words, having the
same first consonant sound, occur close
together in a series.
• Examples:
• But a better butter makes a batter better.
• A big bully beats a baby boy.
CELTIC- MANUSCRIPT
 CELTIC LAW
Oral tradition in the form of poems
 “Sing-out” legal aphorisms
Poets acted as judges
Use of poetic language became problematic
 Instances- King removed poets as judges
because of the obscurity of their language!
 ROMAN CONQUEST
Romans conquered much of Celtic territory
including England
Despite of Roman conquest, masses never
switched to Latin
Roman law has very little impact on this
region
Roman law operated only on Roman citizens
in Briton
 END OF THE CELTS
 Effect of Roman law on Celts- highly
insignificant
In the 5th century, Celts largely disappeared
along with the Roman legions
THE CELTIC BRITONS
 POST- CELTIC CONDITIONS
After Romans departure, Britons lost
protection against raids by Picts and Scots
 Long pacified by the Romans, Britons lacked
the skills and resources to defend themselves
Appealed help from other warlike Germanic
tribes living on the continent
 In fended Picts and Scots
 ARRIVAL OF ANGLO-SAXONS
Around AD 450, boatloads of Angles, Jutes,
Saxons, Frisians arrived on a battle with Britons
Took control of other tribes and most part of
the today’s England
 All the tribes joined in them
Domination was so complete that their territory
became – ANGLE-LAND, ultimately producing
the name ENGLAND
 ADOPTING NEW LANGUAGE
Most of the tribes adopted the new language
Only Cornwall and Wales remained Celtic
speaking areas
Welsh is spoken even now, Cornish died out
relatively recently
Other Britons fled to the continent, to the
Celtic enclave of Brittany in France
 SETTLEMENT OF ANGLO- SAXONS
Germanic tribes spoke different languages
that came to a form – ANGLO- SAXON or OLD-
ENGLISH
Settled down after they lost their wander lust
Over time, tribal structure of Anglo- Saxons
was replaced by several kingdoms
 KENT, ESSEX, SUSSEX, WESSEX, EAST ANGLIA,
MERCIA and NORTH UMBRIA
 LAWS AND LEGAL WORDS
 Developing political institutions increased the
desirability of written laws
 Around early 600 King Aethelbert of Kent
produced written laws in Old English
Eventually, several kingdoms were
consolidated into single kingdom of England
Their legal words include
 Bequeath murder theft
 Goods right ward
 Guilt sheriff
 Land steal
 Manslaughter swear
 Murder theif
WITNESS –ANGLO -SAXON witan (to know)
Originally meant Knowledge, now evidence
WIT – to use knowledge (earlier)
humour (now)
GEWRIT/ WRIT (related to written)– Anglo-
Saxons written document to confirm a grant of
land, often sealed letters
 will- originally meant I desire,
• Now also used as a modal verb
ANGLO – SAXON word – ic wille (I DESIRE)
• Moot – meeting (OE word formed through umlaut)
MOOT- MEET
 CHRISTIANITY AND LATIN
Significant change for language and law of
England – landing of Christian missionaries in
597
Though Christianity entered during Roman
times, it gained foothold on in 597
Church established in Canterbury with its first
archbishop in 601
 Christianity spread throughout England
 LITERACY AND WORDS

• Christianity promoted literacy by contributing

new words
• Latin- used as legal language
 Client clerk(then priest)
 Conviction
 Admit
 Mediate
 legitimate
 THE SCANDINAVIANS
 During 8th century, Vikings from Scandinavia
invaded the English coast
Over next few hundred years they sacked
churches and monasteries
These Northmen occupied most parts of the
land
• -
 SCANDINAVIAN LAW – LEGAL WORDS
In 9th and 10th centuries Scandinavian law known
as the Dane Law governed parts of Eastern
England
 They made lasting impact on English language
Contributed the word ‘law’, derived from the Old
Norse ’lay’- etymologically meant – “that which
is laid down”
Scandinavians influence reached its height in the
11th C when Canute and Dane
• Law- law-er- law-y-er
• They
• Their
• Skin
• Sky
• Take
• Hamscon (house-breaking)
• Stefnan(summon)
• Gift, loan, sale
• Most disappeared after Norman Conquest
 NORSE WORDS
• GIFT
• LOAN
• SALE
• TRUST
• Thank you
 COMPLEXITY IN LAWS
The written laws were more complex because
of the usage of complex sentences instead of
simple sentences