Old English. Historical Background

The history of the English language begins with the invasion of the British Isles by Germanic tribes in the 5th c. of our era. Before description of these events it is essential to recall a few preceding facts of history relevant to the development of English.

Prior to the Germanic invasion the British Isles must have been inhabited for at least fifty thousand years by Celtic tribes: the Picts and the Scots in the North and the Britons in the South.

In the first century BC the Romans under Julius Caesar made two raids on Britain, in 55 and 54 BC. Caesar attacked Britain for economic reasons - to obtain tin, pearls and corn, - and also for strategic reasons, since rebels and refugees from Gaul found support among their British kinsmen. But this stay was a short one.

Only in AD 43 Britain was again invaded by Roman legions under Emperor Claudius, and towards the end of the century was made a province of the Roman Empire. Roman civilization - paved roads, powerful walls of military camps - completely transformed the country. The Latin language superseded the Celtic dialects in townships and countryside in the south-east. In the 4th century, when Christianity was introduced in the Roman empire, it also began spreading among the Britons.

The Romans ruled Britain for almost four hundred years, up to the early 5th century. In 410 Roman legions were recalled from Britain to defend Italy from the advancing Goths; so the Britons had to rely on their own forces in the coming struggle with Germanic tribes. The only permanent linguistic sign of their presence proved to be the place names of some of their major settlements - such as the towns now ending in -chester (derived from the Latin word for ‘camp’, castra), and a small number of loan words, such as str t (‘street, road’, from strata), weal (‘wall’, from vallum), pipor (‘pepper’, from piper), win (‘wine’, from vinum).(Ilyish p. 62)

It was about mid-5th century that Britain was conquered by Germanic tribes. There is an account in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation reporting the invasion of Britain in AD 449 by warlike tribes from north-west Europe - the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, who lived in the regions now known as the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Bede’s account was written in Latin in about AD 731. (D.Crystal p.146)

The invaders were first called ‘Saxons’, but Latin writers later began to refer to them as ‘Angles’ (Angli), regardless of which tribe they belonged to. Until around AD 1000, the nation was called Angelcynn (nation of the Angles), and then Englalond (land of the Angles). The language was always referred to as Englisc (the sc spelling was used for the sound sh), and this has led to the modern name.

Fig. 4 “England in the Old English period”

The conquerors settled in Britain in the following way. (B.Ilyish) The Angles occupied most of the territory north of the Thames up to the Firth of Forth; the Saxons, the territory south of the Thames and some stretches north of it; the Jutes settled in Kent and in the Isle of Wight.

Its original territory was England (in the strict sense) except Cornwall, Wales, and Strathclyde (a region in the north-west). These western regions the Britons succeeded in holding, and they were conquered much later: Cornwall in the 9th, Strathclyde in the 11th, and Wales in the 13th century.

The Scottish Highlands, where neither Romans nor Teutons had penetrated, were inhabited by Picts and Scots. The Scots language, belonging to the Celtic group, has survived in the Highlands up to our own days. Ireland also remained Celtic: the first attempts at conquering it were made in the 12th century.

Now a few words as to significance of the invasion. When the Angles, Saxons and Jutes settled on the island of Great Britain, they were seperated from all their kinsmen, which resulted in the differentiation of their speech. The slight difference between their dialects and those of the other Germanic tribes, no longer levelled by communication, had a tendency to grow, and in the course of time it brought about the development of a separate language - the English language.

On the other hand, the fact that the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came to live together on the same island and fought the same enemy contributed much to their being gradually united into one people - the English people.

Therefore the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Great Britain is usually considered the beginning of the history of the English people and the history of the English language.

As a result of the invasion seven Germanic kingdoms were formed in Britain. The Angles formed three kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia. The Saxons also founded three kingdoms: Wessex, Essex, Sussex. The Jutes founded one kingdom - Kent.

Fig. 5 “Anglo-Saxon England”

Fig. 6 “The Main Dialects of Old English”

The main dialect divisions (see map) reflect the settlements of the invading tribes, with their different linguistic backgrounds, and these divisions are still apparent in the country today. The area occupied by the Angles produced two main dialects: Mercian was spoken in the Midlands, roughly between the River Thames and the River Humber, and as far west as the boundary with present-day Wales; Northumbrian was spoken to the north of Mercian, extending into the eastern lowlands of present-day Scotland, where it confronted the Celtic language of the Britons of Strathclyde. Kentish, spoken by the Jutes, was used mainly in the area of present-day Kent and the Isle of Wight. The rest of England, south of the Thames and west as far as Cornwall (where Celtic was also spoken), was settled by Saxons, the dialect being known as West Saxon. Most of the Old English manuscripts are written in West Saxon, because it was the kingdom of Wessex, under King Alfred, which became the leading political and cultural force at the end of the 9th century. However, modern standard English is descended not from West Saxon, but from Mercian, as this was the dialect spoken in the area around London, when that city became powerful in the Middle Ages.

The history of English is one of repeated invasions, with newcomers to the islands bringing their own language with them, and leaving a fair amount of its vocabulary behind when they left or were assimilated. In the Anglo-Saxon period, there were two major influences of this kind.

First we must mention the introduction of Christianity in the 7th century. The Christian missionaries not only introduced literacy. They also brought a huge Latin vocabulary, some of which was taken over into Old English. The missionary influence resulted in around 450 new words coming into the language, mainly to do with the church abd its services, but including many domestic and biological words. The vast majority have survived in modern times. Some of them are: abbot, altar, angel, cancer, candle, cucumber, elephant, fever, grammatical, history, idol, lobster, marshmallow, master, noon, nun, offer, paper, place, plant, pope, purple, radish, rule, school, scorpion, sock, temple, tiger, title.

Another result of this influence was the substitution of the Latin alphabet, called Runic, used before that.

The second big linguistic invasion came as a result of the Danish (Viking) raids on Britain, which began in AD 787 and continued at intervals until the beginning of the eleventh century. Within a century, the Danes controlled most of eastern England. Only the kingdom of Wessex remained independent. In the year 878 Alfred, king of Wessex gained an overwhelming victory over the Scan-dinavians and made them sign the treaty in which the Danes agreed to settle only in the north-east third of the country - east of a line running roughly from Chester to London - an area that was subject to Danish law, and which thus became known as the Danelaw. Within the Danlaw the Scandinavians lived side by side with the Anglo-Saxons and a constant process of assimilation was going on for centuries, which had a marked influence on both languages. In 991 a further invasion brought a series of victories for the Danish army, and resulted in the English king, Ethelred, being forced into exile, and the Danes seizing the throne. For the next 25 years England was ruled by Danish kings.

Fig. 7 “Scandinavian place names in England”

The result of this prolonged period of contact was a large number of Danish settlements with Scandinavian names. There are over 1500 place-names of Scandinavian origin in England, especially in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Over 600 places end in -by, the Danish word for ‘farm’ or ‘town’ - Derby, Grimsby, Rugby, etc. Many end in -thorp (‘village’), as in Althorp and Linthorpe. Many Scandinavian personal names (e.g. surnames ending in -son, such as Davidson and Henderson) are also found in these areas.

The closeness of the contact between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danish settlers during this period of 250 years is clearly shown by the extensive borroings. In the long term, over 1800 words of definite or probable Scandinavian origin entered the language, and are still found in present-day standard English. Several thousands more continued to be used in regional dialects, especially those of the north-east.

Some of the commonest words in English came into the language at the time, such as both, same, get, give, and take. Three of the Old English personal pronouns were replaced by Scandinavian forms (they, them, their). And - the most remarcable invasion of all - the invading language even took over a form of the verb to be, the most widely used English verb. Are is of Scandinavian origin.