The Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasions

Early history of Britain

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from England and their language was called English - from which the words England and English are derived.

Old English (450-1100 AD) The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

A brief chronology of English

BC 55 Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar.

436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete.

449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins

450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions.

1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England.

The Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasions

55 BC – 410 AD

In the last few decades BC the Romans launched two invasions of the land they called Britannia, in 55 BC under Julius Caesar and in 43 BC under AulusPlautius and the Emperor Claudius. After some considerable struggle, most notably with the forces of the British chieftain Caractacus, the territory was brought into the realms of the Roman Empire. Although there was a considerable Romanization of British culture, particularly in the South, for reasons of geography and numbers the Romans did not impose themselves linguistically to the same extent as they did in Gaul. As such when the Roman legions began to withdraw from Britain around AD 410 Latin had not taken a strong hold and the great majority of its inhabitants remained Celtic-speaking.

449 AD onwards

In AD 449 a group of Germanic invaders arrived in Kent. These were mainly Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. The invaders met with stiff resistance, most notably from the Celtic King Artorius, probably the legendary King Arthur. After over a century of conflict the Germanic invaders were in control of most of what is now England, plus large areas of Southern Scotland. The migration of the Germanic Tribes to British Isles and the resulting separation from the Germanic tribes on the mainland was an important event in their linguistic history. Geographical separation as well as mixture and unification of people caused a development of a separate Germanic language – English. That’s why the Germanic settlement of Britain can be regarded as the Beginning of the independent history of the British language.

3. What is called the pre-written and written period of OE language?

The first – pre-written or pre-historical period, which may be termed Early Old English, lasts from the West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning of writing, that is from the 5th to the close of the 7th c. It is the stage of tribal dialects of the West Germanic invaders (Angels, Saxon, Jutes and Frisians) The tribal dialects were used for oral communication, there were no written form of English. The second historical period extends from the 8th c. till the end of the 11th. The English language of that time is referred to as Old English or Anglo-Saxon; it can also be called Written OE. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects. Towards the end of the period the differences between the dialects grew and their relative position changed.

4. What alphabets employed in the history of Germanic languages do you know?

Runes - are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets, which were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. The earliest runic inscriptions date from around AD 150. The characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianization, by nearly AD 700 in central Europe and AD 1100 in Northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in Northern Europe, for example for decorating calendars.

Our knowledge of the OE language comes mainly from manuscripts written in Latin characters. Like elsewhere in Western Europe Latin in England was the Language of the Church and also the language of writing and education. The first English words to be written down with the help of Latin characters were personal names and place names inserted in Latin texts.Alphabets, which were used on the territory of England- Runic alphabet, Latin alphabet,Gothic alppabet(Ulfilas).5. What is meant by runes? Have any runic letters admitted to the E alphabet?

The earliest written records of English are inscriptions(напис) on hard material made in a special alphabet known as runes. This word originally meant ‘secret’,mystery.

Runes were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. The earliest runic inscriptions date from around AD 150. The characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianization, by nearly AD 700 in central Europe and AD 1100 in Northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in Northern Europe, for example for decorating calendars.

The runes were used as letters, each symbol indicated a separate sound; each rune has its name. In some inscriptions the runes were found arranged in a fixed order making a sort of alphabet. The runic alphabet is specifically Germanic.

The number of runes in different OG languages varied from 28 to 33 in Britain against 16 or 24 on the continent. 6 1^st letters in this alphabet were called Futark.

Many runic inscriptions have been preserved on weapons, coins, rings, tombstones, cross fragments. Some of them occur in OE manuscripts written in Latin characters. The total number of runic inscriptions is about 40.

Thorn and Wynn were introduced into the Latin English alphabet to represent [θ] and [w], but then they were replaced with th and w in Middle English.The runes were used by North and West Germanic tribes.(3-9^th c).

The Ruthwell Cross-document,containing runic letters.It was engraved in a tall stone. + the Runic Cascade.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 4019