Ancient Origins of the English Language Essay

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Ancient Origins of the English Language

English is one of the best known languages in the contemporary society, but in order for a person to have a complex understanding of the language, he or she needs to go back in time and learn about its early period. English is a West-Germanic language that came to develop as a consequence of Germanic invaders settling in areas around Britain. This means that there are a great deal of English words that are similar to words in German, Dutch, and languages in the Scandinavian Peninsula. The English language certainly has an impressive history and in order for a person to be able to comprehend its past properly, he or she would have to concentrate on tribes on the European continent that were responsible for perfecting it and for bringing it to Britain.

English started out as a Germanic dialect and came to be a language spoken by more than a billion individuals around the world. While it is generally recognized as a Germanic, language, English has borrowed terms from a multitude of environments and it is believed that half of the vocabulary in English is taken from French and Latin. "French and Latin loanwords are also used in English to add formality to the language." (van Gelderen 3)

Even with the fact that many sources claim that the English language originates in Eastern Europe or Western Asia, it is difficult to verify these respective sources and they can only be considered to be speculations. Previous of the introduction of the English language, individuals in Britain were speaking Celtic for several millennia. The area was first controlled by the Romans and this meant that it adopted several Latin terms. One can observe these respective terms in contemporary English: wine, kitchen, street (van Gelderen 2).

There is no written record of the language spoken by individuals who initially inhabited the British Isles. "By the time the Romans came to Britain and made it part of their Empire (in the middle of the first century B.C.), the land had long been settled by Celtic speakers." (Lerer xviii) With the Roman Empire disintegrating, and with Romans leaving Britain, communities of German-speaking peoples started to interact with an increased frequency with the isles. These respective Germanic tribes were known as the Angles and the Saxons and were speaking a language that gradually came to be identified as Anglo-Saxon. People in the modern society relate to this language and being Old English (Lerer xviii). The Angles are actually responsible for the language's present-day name, as the name of the tribe has been derived into the word 'English'.

English is a living language and this is reflected by the fact that it constantly experiences change. Old words are frequently removed while new words are introduced to the language. "Much of the vocabulary of Old English has been lost, and the development of new words to meet new conditions is one of the most familiar phenomena of our language." (Baugh & Cable 2) By looking at words in Shakespeare's works, one can easily observe how a series of terms have either been removed from English through time or have changed their meaning.

Even with the fact that it maintained terms from Celtic and from Latin, "English officially starts when the Germanic tribes and their languages reach the British Isles, in 449." (van Gelderen 2) There is some controversy with regard to this matter, as the fact that there were numerous Germanic-speaking individuals in the Roman army could have played an important role in getting Germanic ideas to Britain before 449. "The Germanic tribes (e.g. The Franks, Goths, Angles, Saxons, Vandals, and Lombards) were different culturally, but it is not clear how different their languages were." (van Gelderen 2)

By looking at German philologist Jacob Grimm's 1822 attempt to emphasize the series of parallels between consonants in Germanic languages and consonants in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, one can also acknowledge how English words are derivates of Germanic words and that many Germanic terms are, in turn, derivates from Latin or Greek terms. Germanic languages saw letters like the Indo-European Latin and Greek p being changed into an f. "Thus we should look for the English equivalent of Latin piscis or p-s to begin with an f, and this is what we actually find, in fish and foot respectively. What is true of p is true also of t and k: in other words, the original voiceless stops (p, t, k) were changed to fricatives (f, þ, h). So Latin tr?s=English three, Latin centum=English hundred.

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A similar correspondence can be shown for certain other groups of consonants." (Baugh & Cable 19)

Germanic languages thus had a strong influence over the development of the English language both because of interactions between Germanic tribes and Britain consequent to the fall of the Roman Empire and because of the Germanic fighters who were a part of Roman armies. Similarly, Latin was introduced in Britain both because of the time that Romans occupied the territory and because of the fact that Germanic tribes that came into Britain later had already borrowed a great deal of terms from Latin. "Such words survive, in various forms, in all modern Germanic languages." (Lerer xix)

To a certain degree, one can observe why particular Latin words were adopted both by the British and by Germanic tribes while others were not. The English word street and the Germanic word Strasse originate in the Latin expression via strata, which means 'a paved road'(Lerer xix).

The fact that the Romans were accustomed to building a great deal of roads and to improving infrastructure in most territories that they came to control influenced individuals in these respective territories to express more interest in words associated with positive changes they experienced. "In the course of history, words came into English from later church Latin, from Scandinavian languages, and (with the Norman Conquest) from French." (Lerer xix)

Ancient Germanic language is largely associated with runes, as runic writing was invented by early Germanic tribes with the purpose of inscribing names on diverse objects. Such inscriptions were also meant to emphasize one's ownership of a particular object. Runes were adopted by the British as they interacted with Germanic tribes and were generally used with the purpose of writing languages associated with the Anglo-Saxons (Tyson).

Germanic influences over Britain can be observed through a series of analyses. One of the most intriguing link would be the fact that "the first 24 runes of the Old English rune alphabet are identical with the runes of the German rune alphabet, with only a few minor variations in form." (Tyson) Runes pervaded the British society at the same time as Anglo-Saxon languages and this played an essential role in shaping people's understanding of the world as a whole.

Among the earliest text in Old English were writings composed by scribes who attended Catholic monasteries and learnt more about the Roman alphabet there. This enabled them to adapt methods of writing with Latin letters and to use them in association with words from their own languages. Modifications largely occurred because there were several sounds in Latin that did not correspond to sounds in Old English. Old runic letters played an important role in making this transition easier. These letters practically provided scribes with the chance to use them with the purpose of replacing sounds that could not be represented through Latin letters.

Certain digraphic spellings in Old English have generated much confusion on account of being seen as 'long diphtongs'. However, they were actually reflexes of diphthongs introduced from Proto-Germanic. It is thus essential for one to focus on Germanic influences when attempting to interpret Old English spellings, as doing so can make it easier for the respective person to understand the connection between Old English and Modern English (Tyson).

Considering Germanic words and how they came to dominate the English society can prove to be especially important for a person, taking into account that this can basically assist the individual in coming up with more truthful interpretations of old texts (Tyson).

English uses archaic words or native words because it makes the language seem more official. English is largely a combination between Old English, French, Latin, Scandinavian, and other, less influential, languages. The contemporary English language is basically the result of borrowings from all of the previously mentioned languages. Many of these words have been adapted and have come to have the aspect they have in the present.

When considering the short Old English poem "Caedmon's Hymn" and when comparing it its modern English translation, one is probable to observe a great deal of differences. For example, heafen -- heaven, uard -- guard. Furthermore, there is a lack of grammatical words in the Old English version of the poem and modern English seems to contain much more words.

Modern English contains 13 or 14 vowels while languages such as Navajo and Spanish have much less (Navajo has four and Spanish….....

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