Fears that English is ‘disappearing’ in England are misplaced – history shows the island has always been multilingual
Retrieved on:
Martedì, Maggio 28, 2024
But it has never been the case that English was the only language spoken on this island.
Key Points:
- But it has never been the case that English was the only language spoken on this island.
- Old English, the earliest ancestor of the modern English language, was a relative newcomer to Britain.
- The Old English language was initially joined by other Germanic languages including Old Norse and Frisian.
- They had such an impact on the English language that it shifted to a new stage of development known as Middle English.
Impact of Germanic migration
- The language the Anglo-Saxons spoke after their arrival, Old English, belongs to the Germanic language family, and it too was quickly influenced by Latin as these pagan people converted to Christianity.
- From the late 8th century, groups of Scandinavian raiders who spoke a different Germanic language (Old Norse) and have come to be known collectively as Vikings were also a significant presence in Britain.
- Many common English words such as kid, stench, egg, yard, skirt, anger, fight, law and knife were originally borrowed from Old Norse.
- Speakers of the Germanic Frisian language, who came from a region that now includes the coast of the Netherlands and north-western Germany, formed a significant community in pre-Norman Britain.