The History of English

The First Inhabitants in Britain The original inhabitants on the British Isles left no linguistic traces. Celtic tribes from Eastern Europe settled on the British isles around 700 BC. The Romans invaded southern Britain in 43 AD and left in 410.

Who contributed to English ? Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) invaded Britain from 449. The Vikings raided and also settled along the coast of Britain between 793 and 1066. The Normans conquered England in 1066.

The Different stages of English Old English: The Origin of English is a Ger-manic language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. Middle English: After 1066, the Kings of England spoke French for 300 years, many new words were added. Early Modern English: With the invention of printing (1470s), a London-based English spread. Modern English: the Great Vowel Shift (around 1500) changed the pronunciation but the spelling remained unchanged.

The Spread of English After Columbus discovered America in 1492, Europeans started colonizing the world. The first British settlement in America was Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Explorers such as Drake, Raleigh and Cook established British colonies in eg the Caribbean and Australia. In the late 19th century, the British Empire stretched across the whole world.

The English Speaking World Most former colonies still have English as an official language (at least 400 mill. second language speakers) Some colonies also have English as the main mother tongue (375 mill. native speakers)

A World Language? English is used as a Lingua Franca in most countries in the world. It is the language of science and technology, increasingly used in the worlds of business, culture, politics and education. Spoken by at least 1 billion people

Fun facts about English The most used letter in English is ”e”. Three quarters of all mails are in English. English is the most widespread language. It contains vocabulary from all over the world. It has the largest vocabulary (500 000 words). An average native speaker uses 15-20 000 words. Shakespeare used 30 000 words. What about you? How many words do you know?