The History of English Language

1、 . . questions: 1:how many language families in the world? 2:which language familiy does english belong to? . indo-european family印欧语系 sino-tibetan family汉藏语系 altaic family阿尔泰语系 semito-hamitic family闪-含语系 ural language family乌拉尔语系 ibero - caucasus family高加索语系 dravidian family达罗毗荼语系 austro-asiatic fa

2、mily南亚语系 austronesia family 南岛语系 english is a member of the indo-european family of languages. this broad family includes most of the european languages spoken today. the indo-european family includes several major branches: latin and the modern romance languages (french etc.); the germanic language

3、s (english, german, swedish etc.); the indo-iranian languages (hindi, urdu, sanskrit etc.); the slavic languages (russian, polish, czech etc.); the baltic languages of latvian and lithuanian; the celtic languages (welsh, irish gaelic etc.); greek. . indo-european languages the indo-european language

4、s are a family (or phylum) of several hundred related languages and dialects. there are about 439 languages and dialects, according to the 2009 ethnologue estimate indo-european languages are spoken by almost three billion native speakers,2 the largest number by far for any recognised language famil

5、y. of the twenty languages with the largest numbers of native speakers according to sil ethnologue, twelve are indo-european: spanish, english, hindi, portuguese, bengali, russian, german, marathi, french, italian, punjabi, and urdu, accounting for over 1.7 billion native speakers.3 several disputed

6、 proposals link indo-european to other major language families pie chart of world languages by percentage of speakers . the root of english in the time of celts, britain was divided into various trible kingdoms, each one speaking its own kind of celtc,but as these ancient people had no written langu

7、age,they left little that could later be incorporated into english.relics of cletc,however, do remian in place names. 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 t

8、he jutes, crossed the north sea from what today is denmark and northern germany. at that time the inhabitants of britain spoke a 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 eng

9、land and their language was called englisc - from which the words england and english are derived. the evolution of old english （500-1100ad） also influencing english at this time were the vikings. norse invasions and settlement, beginning around 850, brought many north germanic words into the langua

10、ge, particularly in the north of england. some examples are dream, which had meant joy until the vikings imparted its current meaning on it from the scandinavian cognate draumr, and skirt, which continues to live alongside its native english cognate shirt. the evolution of old english （500-1100ad） .

11、 bede and his works bede(673-735) also referred to as saint bede or the venerable bede . he is widely regarded as the greatest of all the anglo-saxon scholars. he wrote around 40 books mainly dealing with theology and history. he is well known as an author and scholar, and his most famous work, hist

12、oria ecclesiastica gentis anglorum (the ecclesiastical history of the english people) gained him the title the father of english history. in 1899, bede was made a doctor of the church by leo xiii, a position of theological significance; he is the only native of great britain to achieve this designat

13、ion a doctor of the church . bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work with the latin and greek writings of the early church fathers contributed significantly to english christianity, making the writings much more accessible to his fellow anglo-saxons. . the ecclesiastical hi

14、story of the english people (731 ad) is bedes most famous work. a scholarly monk working in the north-east of england, bede wrote the five books of the history in latin. starting with the invasion of julius caesar in the fifth century, he recorded the history of the english up to his own day. in par

15、ticular, he described their conversion and the complex ways in which christianity was spread among them. william the conqueror, the duke of normandy, invaded and conquered england and the anglo-saxons in 1066 ad. the new conquerors (called the normans) brought with them a kind of french, which becam

16、e the language of the royal court, and the ruling and business classes. for a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke english and the upper classes spoke french. the norman influence on the english (1100-1500) . middle english (1100-1500) in 1204 ad, king

17、john lost the province of normandy to the king of france. this began a process where the norman nobles of england became increasingly estranged from their french cousins. england became the chief concern of the nobility, rather than their estates in france, and consequently the nobility adopted a mo

18、dified english as their native tongue. about 150 years later, the black death (1349-50) killed about one third of the english population. and as a result of this the labouring and merchant classes grew in economic and social importance, and along with them english increased in importance compared to

19、 anglo-norman. it was the language of the great poet chaucer . this mixture of the two languages came to be known as middle english. . geoffrey chaucer and his works chaucer (1343-1400),known as the father of english literature, is widely considered the greatest english poet of the middle ages and w

20、as the first poet to have been buried in poets corner of westminster abbey. while he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher,alchemist and astronomer. his many works, which include the book of the duchess, the house of fame, the legend of good women and troilus and criseyde, he is best known tod