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The Beginning of the English Language

Explore the ancient inhabitants of Britain, the Roman conquest, Germanic invaders, early politics, and the development of the English language. Learn about Old English and its dialects.

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The Beginning of the English Language

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  1. LECTURE 2 THE BEGINNING OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

  2. PLAN 1. People • Who were the ancient inhabitants of Britain? • The Roman conquest of Britain • Germanic invaders of Britain 2. Early politics • Kingdoms of the Germanic tribes in Britain • How did Christianity spread in England? • Anglo-Saxon Social Organisation 3. Language • Periods in the history of the English language and their brief characteristics • What is Old English? • Why learn Old English? • Old English dialects

  3. Who were the ancient inhabitants of Britain? • England has been inhabited for at least 50,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with an advanced megalithic civilization arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons“.

  4. Celtic British place-names • London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester • place-name elements Brythonic in origin: bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. • Welsh legacy of their meaning for England "Lloegr" translated as "lost lands".

  5. The Roman conquest of Britain • Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC • the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century (in the 1st century B.C.)

  6. Influence of Roman civilization The Romans brought to 'barbarian' Britain their administration, their way of life and their language: • built London (Londinium) • founded military settlements or camps ('castra' surviving in some place-names: MANCHESTER, LANCASTER, etc.); • built their famous Roman roads; • set up towns for the retired soldiers or 'colonies'(surviving as part of place- names: COLCHESTER, LINCOLN).

  7. Germanic invaders of Britain The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. An OE monastic scholar Bede the Venerable (about 673-735) who wrote the first history of Britain, tells a popular legend about the origin of the English

  8. Kingdoms of the Germanic tribes in Britain • 1. Kent, • 2. Sussex, • 3. Essex, • 4. Wessex, • 5. Mercia, • 6. East Anglia, • 7. Northumbria, which consisted of two regions, Bernicia and Deira.

  9. How did Christianity spread in England? • In 597 Pope Gregory I sent a mission to England in order to spread Christianity among the Germanic conquerors and to include England into the sphere of his political influence. • Christianity also penetrated into England from Ireland, which had not been invaded by Germanic tribes. Irish monks had great influence in Northumbria under king Oswine (642-670). • In the 7th century Christianity spread all over England.

  10. The Anglo-Saxon community The boy's Father and Mother The young boy's Grandfather and pregnant Aunty His elder brother examines his new shield whilst his Grandfather takes his neighbour to set some traps. The young son of a Gebur farmer

  11. Anglo-Saxon Social Organisation

  12. Periods in the history of English • OLD ENGLISH - from the 5th century to the end of the 11th (the dates of its end range from 1066 to 1150) ; • MIDDLE ENGLISH - from the 12th to the 15th century (1475); • NEW ENGLISH - the English of the last six centuries: Early New English from the 15th century to the 17th, up to the age of Shakespeare and Modern English.

  13. Henry Sweet’s classification • OE - the period of full endings. This means that any vowel may be found in an unstressed ending: SINʒ AN 'sing‘, SUNU 'son' • ME - the period of levelled endings. SINGEN, SUNE,(also spelt SONE). • NE - the period of lost endings: sing, son.

  14. What is Old English? OE represents the stage of Old Germanic dialects in the history of English; common Germanic features then still prevailed over its newly developed individual characteristics. Most of our records of the Old English language date from the period between about 875 and about 1100

  15. Why learn Old English? If you • have curiosity about the past, • interest in language, • taste for experiencing cultures that are different from your own, • find stretching your mind to meet new challenges pleasant, then you will almost certainly be happy with this course.

  16. Old English dialects The 4 main dialects in OE were: • West Saxon, or the Wessex dialect, the principal dialect of the Saxon group. • Kentish dialect, spoken in Kent. It had developed from the speech of the Jutes. • Mercian, spoken in the kingdom of Mercia; this dialect had developed from the tongue of the Angels. • Northumbrian, another Anglian dialect, spoken to the north of the Humber river.

  17. The Northumbrian dialect is represented by: Bede the Venerable's DYING SONG. the runic texts of the Ruthwell Cross.

  18. West Saxon The statues of King Alfred the Great

  19. Old English kingdoms and dialects

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