Where did the English language come from? 備忘録

Where did the English language come from? Why has it become so popular?

To answer these questions we must travel back in time about five thousand years to an area north of the Black Sea in southeastern Europe. Experts say the people in that area spoke a language called Proto-Indo-European. That language is no longer spoken.


Proto-Indo-European is believed to be the ancestor of most European languages. These include the languages that became ancient Greek, ancient German and the ancient Latin.

Yet it left behind three great languages that became modern Spanish, French and Italian. Ancient German　became Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and one of the languages that developed into English.

The English language is a result of the invasions of the island of Britain over many hundreds of years. The invaders lived along the northern coast of Europe.

The first invasions were by a people called Angles about one thousand five hundred years ago. The Angles were a German tribe who crossed the English Channel. Later two more groups crossed to Britain. They were the Saxons and the Jutes.

These groups found a people called the Celts, who had lived in Britain for many thousands of years.

After a while, most of the Celts were killed, or made slaves. Some escaped to live in the area that became　Wales. Through the years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different languages. The result is what is　called Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

The next great invasion of Britain came from the far north beginning about one thousand one hundred years ago. Fierce people called Vikings raided the coast areas of Britain. The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway and other northern countries

In some areas, the Vikings became so powerful they built temporary bases. These temporary bases sometimes became permanent. Later, many Vikings stayed in Britain. Many English words used today come from these　ancient Vikings. Words like "sky," "leg," "skull," "egg," "crawl," " lift" and "take" are from the old languages of the far northern countries.

The next invasion of Britain took place more than nine hundred years ago, in ten sixty-six. History experts call this invasion the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror led it.

The Normans were a French-speaking people from Normandy in the north of France. They became the new rulers of Britain. These new rulers spoke only French for several hundred years. It was the most important language in the world at that time. It was the language of educated people. But the common people of Britain still spoke Old English.

Old English took many words from the Norman French. Some of these include "damage," "prison," and "marriage." Most English words that describe law and government come from Norman French. Words such　as "jury," "parliament," and "justice."

The French language used by the Norman rulers greatly changed the way English was spoken by eight hundred years ago. English became what language experts call Middle English. As time passed, the ruling　Normans no longer spoke true French. Their language had become a mix of French and Middle English.

Middle English sounds like modern English. But it is very difficult to understand now. Many written works from this period have survived. Perhaps the most famous was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet who lived　in London and died there in fourteen hundred. Chaucer's most famous work is "The Canterbury Tales,"written more than six hundred years ago.

The kings of Britain did not speak the language of the people until the early fourteen hundreds. Slowly, Norman French was used less and less until it disappeared.

The English language was strongly influenced by an event that took place more than one thousand four hundred years ago. In the year five ninety-seven, the Roman Catholic Church began its attempt to make Christianity the religion of Britain.

The language of the Catholic Church was Latin. Latin was not spoken as a language in any country at that time. But it was still used by some people.

Latin had a great affect on the English language. Here are a few examples. The Latin word “discus” became several words in English including “disk,” “dish,” and “desk.” The Latin word “quietus” became the English word “quiet.” Some English names of plants such as ginger and trees such as cedar come from Latin. So do some medical words such as cancer.

English is a little like a living thing that continues to grow. English began to grow more quickly when William Caxton returned to Britain in the year fourteen seventy-six. He had been in Holland and other areas of　Europe where he had learned printing. He returned to Britain with the first printing press.

The printing press made it possible for almost anyone to buy a book. It helped spread education and the English language.

Slowly, during the fifteen hundreds English became the modern language we would recognize. English speakers today would be able to communicate with English speakers in the last part of the Sixteenth Century.

Experts say that Shakespeare’s work was written to be performed on the stage, not to be read. Yet every sound of his words can produce word pictures, and provide feelings of anger, fear, and laughter.

Shakespeare’s famous play “Romeo and Juliet” is so sad that people cry when they see this famous story.

The development of the English language took a giant step just nine years before the death of William Shakespeare. Three small British ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean in sixteen-oh-seven. They landed in an area that would later become the southern American state of Virginia. They began the first of several British　colonies. The name of the first small colony was Jamestown.　

In time, people in these new colonies began to call areas of their new land by words borrowed from the native people they found living there. For example, many of the great rivers in the United States are taken from　American Indian words. The Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Missouri are examples.

Other Native American words included “moccasin”, the kind of shoe made of animal skin that Indians wore on their feet. This borrowing or adding of foreign words to English was a way of expanding the language.

The names of three days of the week are good examples of this. The people from Northern Europe honored three gods with a special day each week. The gods were Odin, Thor and Freya. Odin’s-day became Wednesday in English, Thor’s-day became Thursday and Freya’s-day became Friday.

For example, the word “shampoo” for soap for the hair came from India. “Banana” is believed to be from Africa.

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