Document sans titre

The History of the English language

Background information :
In the Mist of times : the emergence of European language families (- 5'000 B.C.)
The Indo-Europeans : the ancestors of all European people (- 4'000 B.C.)
The Celtic expansion and decline : in Europe and in Britain (-1'000 / 300 A.D.)

The megaliths of Stonehenge were set up a long time before the Indo-European Celts reached the British Isles. It isn't quite clear who set up these huge standing stones, and especially how, in view of their size.

The Celts in Britain
The iron Age - from (approx) - 600 B.C. to + 43 A.D.

In approx. - 1'000 B.C., while Rome didn't exist yet, the Celts entered a period of great expansion. They were one of the cultural group that had formed out of the Indo-European invaders who had invaded Europe as from - 4'000 B.C.; the original homeland where the Celtic culture developed was an area where there is nowadays Switzerland and Austria (Hallstatt in Austria and, particularly, La Tène in western Switzerland). They gradually expanded all over Europe as far as the area where Turkey is nowadays.

They settled the British Isles in about 600 B.C., i.e. during the iron age, but some believe that they reached Britain as early as during the bronze age. They never "invaded" anything but just sort of gradually infiltrated. They consisted in a large number of tribes, constantly fighting among themselves, loosely connected by a similar language.

The language of the Celts was one of the Indo-European language family . The language of the Celts of Britain fell into two groups: the Gaelic (or Goidelic branch) and the Cymric (or Britanic branch).

The remote ancestors of most Europeans are Celts. Due to their lack of cohesion and lack of political organization, they were unfortunately defeated and brought to near extinction by the Roman military super-power and by Roman imperialism. But this doesn’t mean that the Celts were inferior to Romans – they had a different concept of life and society. Nowadays there is a very important come-back of interest for our Celtic past, for their way of life and for the druidic concept of spirituality.

The Gaelic language is still spoken by a considerable number of people in Ireland, Scotland, the Shetland, Orkney and other islands as well as Wales. But otherwise it has became extinct everywhere else in Europe at the time of the Roman expansion but the English language doesn't contain any elements of Gaelic, except a few geographic names.

The History of the English language Background information : In the Mist of times : the emergence of European language families (- 5'000 B.C.) The Indo-Europeans : the ancestors of all European people (- 4'000 B.C.) The Celtic expansion and decline : in Europe and in Britain (-1'000 / 300 A.D.) The megaliths of Stonehenge were set up a long time before the Indo-European Celts reached the British Isles. It isn't quite clear who set up these huge standing stones, and especially how, in view of their size. The Celts in Britain The iron Age - from (approx) - 600 B.C. to + 43 A.D. In approx. - 1'000 B.C., while Rome didn't exist yet, the Celts entered a period of great expansion. They were one of the cultural group that had formed out of the Indo-European invaders who had invaded Europe as from - 4'000 B.C.; the original homeland where the Celtic culture developed was an area where there is nowadays Switzerland and Austria (Hallstatt in Austria and, particularly, La Tène in western Switzerland). They gradually expanded all over Europe as far as the area where Turkey is nowadays. They settled the British Isles in about 600 B.C., i.e. during the iron age, but some believe that they reached Britain as early as during the bronze age. They never "invaded" anything but just sort of gradually infiltrated. They consisted in a large number of tribes, constantly fighting among themselves, loosely connected by a similar language. The language of the Celts was one of the Indo-European language family . The language of the Celts of Britain fell into two groups: the Gaelic (or Goidelic branch) and the Cymric (or Britanic branch). The remote ancestors of most Europeans are Celts. Due to their lack of cohesion and lack of political organization, they were unfortunately defeated and brought to near extinction by the Roman military super-power and by Roman imperialism. But this doesn’t mean that the Celts were inferior to Romans – they had a different concept of life and society. Nowadays there is a very important come-back of interest for our Celtic past, for their way of life and for the druidic concept of spirituality. The Gaelic language is still spoken by a considerable number of people in Ireland, Scotland, the Shetland, Orkney and other islands as well as Wales. But otherwise it has became extinct everywhere else in Europe at the time of the Roman expansion but the English language doesn't contain any elements of Gaelic, except a few geographic names.

	The Romans in Britain from + 43 A.D. to + 410 A.D.

Julius Caesar landed the first time in Britain in -55 B.C. but he didn't achieve much of a result. He tried a second time without more success and didn't get a chance to have a third go since, as we know, his nephew Brutus brumped him off. The Romans shelved the project of invading Britain for nearly 100 years and it was only in + 43 A.D. that emperor Claudius succeeded in the purpose at the cost of sending ... 40'000 troopers ! One of the reasons for this invasion was to discourage the Celts of Britain from coming to the assistance of their kinsmen on the continent, especially in Gaul, should the Gauls attempt to riot against Roman domination. They never managed or tried, for that matter, to conquer the parts where there is now Scotland. These parts were inhabited by some extremely aggressive tribes : the Picts and the Scots. The Romans never succeeded in submitting them and, eventually, they protected the northern border of Roman Britain by a stone wall stretching from one sea shore to the other. The remains of this wall, the Hadrian Wall, can still be seen today.
	Britain was romanized only superficially. The Romans were not fundamentally interested in Britain, like in Gaul. They didn't like the climate, forget about the food ... no, it's a joke, but it's true that Britain was conquered when the Roman empire was already declining. Upper class Britons and those who lived in cities adopted Roman ways and partly the Latin language, but altogether Latin never replaced Celtic. When the Barbars (the Germanic tribes from central and eastern Europe entered their phase of unrest, expansion and invasion) Rome gradually abandoned Britain and in + 410 A.D. the last legionaries left England to go and try to help protect the capital of the Empire.


The Anglo-Saxons - the same barbars who raided the Roman empire- gradually invaded Britain too as from A.D. 500 Old English The same "barbars" who had raided the Roman Empire and were sweeping over Europe, were now crossing the Channel and coming to have a look at Britain. This was around 500-600 A.D, a period called The dark Age (Dark because the historians have not yet been able to clarify in detail all the political and social events of that time). These invaders came from three areas where Germany and Danemark are nowadays : their names were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. They didn't speak English, of course, but Ancient Germanic and gothic. Nevertheless, we call their language OLD ENGLISH. They didn't strictly speaking "invade" the country but arrived by successive waves. The local Celts hadn't progressed very much in matters of political organization, national and military cohesion since the earlier Roman invasion. Their system was still tribal, although some Celtic chieftains tried to form a national unity and to assemble the Celtic military forces against the invaders. In this regard, it is useful to mention that an individual whose existence has not yet been historically, archeologically and scientifically been proved and whose name was ARTHUR emerged in those times. He might have been one of those Celtic chieftains who fought against the Anglo-Saxons. This was King Arthur, who is the central character of a vast amount of literature and legends in which the pagan Celtic past and the Christian faith are closely linked to form the epic of the Quest of the Holy Grail, which remains one of the most fascinating legends in European culture and history. The City of Troy was considered as a myth until, one day, archeologists found its remains. Maybe one day somebody will find King Arthur's grave ! So, anyway, the Anglo-Saxons settled in Middle and Southern England where the climate was better and farmland was available and established a country called "Engoland".The origin of the word : Angles, Anglia. The Anglo-Saxons came from areas where there is Germany nowadays and they were the people from three tribes : the Jutes (Jutland), Angles and Saxons. On the Isle of Britain they establed a kingdom which was a country divided into 7 "areas" with a lord at the head of each one (North Anglia was the biggest and most powerful). It has to be stressed that the Anglo-Saxon monarchy was generally elective : the 7 lords used to elect a king, this is why it was called a heptarchy. They were christianized; the first "English" bible, written in Ancient Germanic or Old English was published around 800 A.D. Let's stress at this point, that the Germanic invadors and the Celtic locals belonged to two completely different linguistic and cultural groups. When the Celts were defeated by the Germanic invaders, they fled towards the north and the West of the Isle of Britain. And the Anglo-Saxon were happy and snug on their island and no doubt thought they would enjoy peace and quiet for as long as God blessed their foggy little kingdom. Halas, as said earlier, for some reason, already in those remote times, peace and quiet always tended to be disturbed by a troublemaker or another. In fact the peace and quiet didn't last very long.

	A new troublemaker ahead - William of Normandy

Back to top