History of English Language: General Overview History of English. English is a West Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian(northwestern Europe) dialects brought to Britain in the 5th to 7th centuries AD by Germanic invaders and settlers from what is now northwest Germany, west Denmark and the Netherlands.

The Old English of the Anglo-Saxon era developed into Middle English, the language as spoken between the Norman Conquest and the late 15th century..

A significant influence on the shaping of Middle English came from contact with the North Germanic languages spoken by the Scandinavians who conquered and colonized parts of Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries; this contact led to much lexical borrowing and grammatical simplification

Another important influence came from the conquering Normans, who spoke a form of French called Old Norman, which in Britain developed into Anglo-Norman. Many Norman and French loanwords entered the language in this period, especially in vocabulary related to the church, the court system and the government.

The system of orthography that became established during the Middle English period is by and large still in use today – later changes in pronunciation, however, combined with the adoption of various foreign spellings, mean that the spelling of modern English words appears highly irregular

Early Modern English – the language used by Shakespeare – is dated from around 1500. It incorporated many Renaissance- era loans from Latin and Ancient Greek, as well as borrowings from other European languages, including French, German and Dutch. Significant pronunciation changes in this period included the ongoing Great Vowel Shift, which affected the qualities of most long vowels. Modern English proper, similar in most respects to that spoken today, was in place by the late 17th century.

The English language came to be exported to other parts of the world through British colonisation, and is now the dominant language in Britain and Ireland, the United States and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many smaller former colonies, as well as being widely spoken in India, parts of Africa, and elsewhere. Partially due to United States influence, English has taken on the status of a global lingua franca.

Old English consisted of a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo- Saxon kingdoms established in different parts of Britain. The Late West Saxon dialect eventually became dominant; however, a greater input to Middle English came from the Anglian dialects..

Geographical and social variation between English dialects and accents remains significant today. Scots, a form of English traditionally spoken in parts of Scotland and the north of Ireland, is often regarded as a separate language

Topic in HL Pre-Roman - Anglo-Saxons - Scandinavians - Norman Conquest - Pre/Modern Era.

Pre-Roman A general term applied by modern literary historians to a number of developments in late 18th-century culture that are thought to have prepared the ground for Romanticism in its full sense. In various ways, these are all departures from the orderly framework of neoclassicism and its authorized genres . These developments seem to have helped to give a new importance to subjective and spontaneous individual feeling. For a fuller account, consult Marshall Brown, Preromanticism (1991).

- Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons are a people who have inhabited Great Britain from the 5th century. They comprise people from Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe, their descendants, and indigenous British groups who adopted some aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture and language. Historically, the Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about 450 and 1066, after their initial settlement and up until the Norman conquest.

The early Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an English nation, with many of the aspects that survive today, including regional government of shires and hundreds. During this period, Christianity was re-established and there was a flowering of literature and language. Charters and law were also established.[2] The term Anglo-Saxon is popularly used for the language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England and eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. In scholarly use, it is more commonly called Old English.[3]

Anglo-Saxon Old English Old English (Ænglisc, Anglisc, Englisc) or Anglo-Saxon is the early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southern and eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. Old English is a West Germanic language closely related to Old Frisian and Old Saxon. It had a grammar similar in many ways to Classical Latin.

In most respects, including its grammar, it was much closer to modern German and Icelandic than to modern English. It was fully inflected with five grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), three grammatical numbers (singular, plural, and dual) and three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). The dual forms occurred in the first and second persons only and referred to groups of two. Some of the characteristics of the language were: adjectives, pronouns and (sometimes) participles

- Scandinavians The history of Scandinavia is the history of the region of northern Europe comprising Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Finland and Iceland are at times considered part of Scandinavia.\ in historical linguistics, the North Germanic family tree is divided into two main branches, West Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic) and East Scandinavian languages (Danish and Swedish), along with various dialects and varieties.

- Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest. In 1066, the Normans invaded England. It was an event that was to transform the English language forever. For over 300 years French was the language of power, spoken by royalty, aristocrats and high-powered officials - some of whom couldnt speak English at allthen the Middle English that resulted from their interaction.

. The English language that is spoken today is the direct result of 1066 and the Norman Conquest. Modern English is vastly different from that spoken by the English prior to the Conquest, both in its word-hoard and its grammar. In order to understand what happened, and why, it is necessary to look at both English and Norman French before 1066,

- Pre Modern Era and historical linguistics All living languages are in a continuous state of change. Much of the complaint tradition, which is a social factor affecting many languages including English, is a reaction to recent changes. Pre-modern In the pre-modern era, many people's sense of self and purpose was often expressed via a faith in some form of deity, be that in a single God or in many gods. Pre-modern cultures have not been thought of creating a sense of distinct individuality though.

Religious officials, who often held positions of power, were the spiritual intermediaries to the common person. It was only through these intermediaries that the general masses had access to the divine. Tradition was sacred to ancient cultures and was unchanging and the social order of ceremony and morals in a culture could be strictly enforced