The Origin and Development of English

Modern English began to flourish during Shakespeare's time. As Britain occupied and colonized much of the world, local languages ??also greatly influenced the development of English. The following is the content I compiled for you, I hope you will like it

In the early days, the four Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians, immigrated to England, and English came from them Changes in the language are inherited. According to the "Anglo Saxon Chronicle", around 449 AD, Vortigern, the king of the British Isles, invited his "Anglo relatives" to help him fight against the Picts, so he gave the Angles southeastern territory in return.

Later, he sought further support, and the Saxons, Angles and Jutes came one after another. The Chronicle records that these "immigrants" eventually established seven kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex and Wessex. Abbreviation: "Era of the Seven Kingdoms"

After the Germanic invasion, they dominated the local Celtic-speaking people. Local languages ??survive mainly in Scotland, Wales, Cornish and Ireland. The language of these invaders evolved into "Old English" Anglo-Saxon, which was very similar to Old Frisian. The three words English, English, England and East Anglia were respectively developed from words describing the Anglo people: Englisc, Angelcynn, and Englaland.

The Celts lived on an island called "Britannia" by their ancestors. After the Germanic invasion, the Germans occupied and ruled the Kingdom of England in the southeastern part of the British Isles. Some Celts were eliminated and assimilated, while others were forced to move westward, thus forming the famous Celtic Kingdoms period in British history.

King Arthur, who led the Celtic people to bravely resist the Saxon attack, was one of their representatives. Therefore, the Celtic languages ??are mainly spoken in Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Scotland, and France. Brittany survived.

It was not until the 13th century that the Kingdom of England finally formally formed a United Kingdom-style alliance with other Celtic-speaking kingdoms. The United Kingdom-style alliance is the prototype of the current United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The southeastern part of Great Britain was ruled by the Roman Empire from the 1st to the 5th century AD. After the Romans withdrew, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from Scandinavia in northern Europe invaded and settled one after another. In the 7th century, a feudal system began to form. At the end of the 9th century, the invaders occupied almost the entire UK. Southeast.

In the eighth century AD, the Normans immigrated to France, the West Frankish Kingdom. In 911, Charles the Fool of the French Kingdom signed the Treaty of Saint-Clair-Apt with the Norman leader Laurent, granting Brittany, the coastal area in the northern part of the French Kingdom, to Laurent, where they and the French residents Intermarriage formed the Anglo-Normans and established the Principality of Normandy. Since then, the Principality of Normandy has become a dependency of the Kingdom of France, loyal to the French King, and switched to French as its native language.

In 1066, William I, Duke of Normandy in France, conquered the Kingdom of England and was crowned in Westminster Abbey. He was known as William the Conqueror in history. All British nobles were also replaced by French. Within three hundred years after the Norman Conquest, the monarchs and nobles of the Kingdom of England spoke French, while the clergy used ancient Latin. Old English was reduced to the language of common people and serfs.

Due to its use on important occasions and by nobles, French strongly influenced Old English. Old English also lost a lot of its early complex twists and turns due to its relatively high status at the time and lack of attention to and restraint on grammatical norms. Then developed into Middle English. The great vowel shift around 1500 transformed Middle English into Modern English. The most famous literary work in Old English is "Beowulf" and in Middle English is "The Canterbury Tales".

Modern English began to flourish during the period of William Shakespeare. Some scholars divide it into early modern English and late modern English, with the dividing line being around 1800. As the British Empire occupied and colonized much of the world, local languages ??also greatly affected the development of English.

Including John Wycliffe, one of the compilers of the English version of the Jewish Bible, Samuel Johnson, one of the compilers of the first British dictionary, and William Shakespeare's famous plays Writers, poets, etc. are all important figures in popularizing English.