The Expansion of the Language

Over the millenium the language grew, but by 1600 there was still only under 5 million speakers. How did the language take off and spread throughout the world to arrive with nearly 375 million speakers today? By 1800 the numbers had only increased to 9 million, but suddenly began to grow. By 1850, there were 17 million speakers. Up until the 1800s the numbers were only increasing due to expansion of the language into the British Isles, with little outside expansion into Europe or elsewhere. But it was not European expansion that increased these numbers but movement in North America. But in the early nineteenth century massive immigration into the continent began, resulting in 50 million speakers by 1880. This immigration and expansion continued and by the year 1950 there were 150 million speakers worldwide. Although, this increase was not entirely due to expansion in United States but also into Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The Development of Old English

But to continue with the movements of the Anglo-Saxons. As said in my first post, by the year 700 the Anglo-Saxons had inhabited the whole of England except Cornwall. England now became split into seven distinctive areas: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Wessex, Essex and Sussex. Each area would have spoken diferent dialects of Old English. Over the following centuries we see a gradual shift in the centres of power. In the seventh century Northumbria was very powerful and a great centre of learning. Power then moved southwards to Mercia, the centre of the seven kingdoms. By the ninth century power had shifted to Wessex, the most southerly. It was the kings of Wessex that eventually united the country, meaning that the Wessex dialect became the literary standard; most of our Old English scripts appear in this dialect. Although it is actually the Anglian dialect that is the ancestor of modern English. But other than dialect influences, many other movements affected the composition of modern English during this period of history, two of the most significant being the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to christianity and the Norman Invasion in the eleventh century. The christian conversion brought the influence of Latin, the language of the church, into the English language; it also importantly brought a writing system to Old English, other than previous rarely used runes. The Norman invasion then occurred in 1066, having a dramatic effect on the language; French even became the first language for a time. This is a brief history of early English and some of its first developments.

The History of our Ancestors

The Anglo-Saxons are in our recent history, only five to six centuries ago, but what is their history. How did Old English come to be, what previous influences came together to form our language. As said before, Old English is descended from the Germanic languages. These languages were spoken in Northern Europe, across Scandinavia and Germany, descending into our modern languages of German, Dutch/Flemish, Frisian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic. They all descended from Proto-Germanic, the parent of the Germanic languages, which itself is a member of the Indo-European language group, a group which influences most of the modern world's languages (it's descendants having 3 billion speakers today). This is where the search ends. In the land between the Red and the Caspian Seas has been the home of what we call the Proto-Indo-European language for many millenia. Between 4000 and 25oo BC Indo-European spread, entering Europe and Asia. After this it spread rapidly, by 1000 BC nearly all of Europe was affected and a large part of Asia, right down throughout India.

taken from wikipedia.org

The Beginning of the Language

England, the Land of the Angles. English, their language. But from what corner of the world did the Angles travel from? We head to Germany, the land of the Anglo-Saxons, also to Denmark, the center of the Proto-Germanic languages. Here, along this northerly coast and on the surrounding Islands live the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes (although they have been found to live slightly further south, even as far as the Rhineland). This is where the English language began. During the end of the 5th Century and throughout the 6th, these groups of people travelled into Britain, beginning the era of Old English. This movement of people was on such a heavy scale that little influence was made on the language by the previous Romano-Celtic inhabitant. Although, this movement was not an invasion, the Romans had left by 410, and little conflict arose from their coming. By around the year 700 the whole of England, except Cornwallis, was occupied by the Anglo-Saxons (Although Wales still remained a British stronghold). But English was still in its youngest form; if we were to view it now it would appear as a foreign language, the comparisons with modern English still being distant and very difficult to see.

Welcome

The English language, the language of the age, a common ground for linguists across the globe. But from what humble beginnings did it arise. This is the topic I shall endeavour to cover in the following posts. Enjoy…