The English language: origin, history and

expansion
The historical importance and origins of the English language have played an essential
role in its development and expansion. A summary of the main aspects of the language
can help us better understand its current situation, as well as the flexibility and
dynamism of English.
The origin of the English language in 500 BC It is located in northern Europe, in the British Isles,
where it was established and developed, and from where it expanded throughout the world
through its colonies. This language has Germanic roots, and is also related to Dutch, Low
German and Frisian, due to the continuous invasions and subsequent settlement of Nordic
tribes from the continent. This makes it an extremely rich language in linguistic terms, which
even today uses other languages to continue its growth, such as Latin, Greek or French. The
first two have commonly served as a reference to incorporate new terms that have emerged
from the technological and scientific revolution.

In terms of positions and figures, English is ranked as the third language in the world by its
number of native speakers, and as the first in non-native speakers. However, its power as a
vehicular and dissemination language in the world of business, science and communications
has made it the most used language in the world. Its supremacy is supported by figures: it is
spoken by more than 400 million inhabitants in the world, it is an official or co-official language
in more than 50 countries; It is the language in which two thirds of scientific publications are
written; at least half of trade agreements are made in English; It is the language used in most
large international organizations, and a long etcetera.

Its expansion is undoubtedly due to the power that the British Empire exercised during the 18th
and 19th centuries in its colonies, and later to the political and economic influence of the United
States since it became one of the main world powers.

As a consequence of this expansion, and despite efforts to maintain a “homogenized” English,

the language has been experiencing regional changes that have finally become variants. The
best known are those of the United States and Great Britain, which show orthographic, lexical
and pronunciation differences, but the English of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South
Africa also have their own terms and have differences in pronunciation, influenced by their own
geographical characteristics.

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

English in our days

English is a Germanic language of the Indo-European family and today it is the second most spoken
language in the world after Chinese. However, English is the most widespread language worldwide
and is on its way to becoming the universal language. Here are some of the reasons that explain this
supremacy over other languages such as French, Spanish and Arabic:

- It is the official or co-official language in more than 45 countries.

- Half of all business agreements are carried out in English.
- Two thirds of scientific studies are written in English.
- More than 70% of all emails are written and addressed in English.
- It is the language par excellence of science today: computing.
- Most international tourism, aviation and diplomacy are conducted in English.
- Furthermore, English is present in the cultural, social, political and economic life of most countries in
the world.

As an interesting fact, we can mention that more people who speak English live in China than in the
United States.

Origin and History

The history of English can be described from the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles in
the years 500 BC The Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what we now know as
Denmark and northern Germany. The Angles received that name because of their land of origin Engle
or Angels. They called their own language Englisc, a word that derived from English or English.

Before the arrival of the Germanic tribes, the inhabitants of Great Britain spoke a language of Celtic
origin. These people were forced to move towards Wales, Cornwall and Scotland, which is why the
Celtic were quickly displaced. A group emigrated to the coast of French Brittany, where their
descendants, even today, speak the Breton language, of Celtic origin.

The oldest written specimen of the English language is an Anglo-Saxon inscription dating between
450 and 480 BC. During the following centuries, and as the Germanic tribes expanded throughout the
country, four dialects developed:

· Northumbrian in Northumbria, north of the River Humber

· Mercian in the kingdom of Mercia, in the central part of today's
England.
· West Saxon in the kingdom of Wessex, in the southwestern part.
· Kentish in Kent, in the far south-east.

During the 700s and 800s, Northumbrian culture and language

dominated Britain. The Viking invasions in the 900s put an end to
that domination, and also brought about the destruction of Mercia.
Only Wessex remained an independent kingdom.

By the 10th century, the West Saxon dialect became the official
language of Britain. There are samples of Old English dating from
this period and are mostly written using the Runic alphabet, which
originated in the Scandinavian languages.

The Latin alphabet was brought by Christian missionaries from

Ireland and is still the English writing system today.

The Old English vocabulary consisted of a mixture of Anglo-Saxon words with words borrowed from
the Scandinavian languages (Danish and Norwegian) and Latin. Thus, Latin introduced to English
words such as street, kitchen, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, among others. The Vikings, for their part,
added Norwegian words such as: sky, egg, skin, window, husband, skill, odd, get, give (give), take
(take), call (call). Celtic words still exist, mainly in the names of places and rivers (Devon, Dover, Kent,
Trent, Severn, Avon, Thames).

Many word pairs in English and Norwegian coexist giving us two words with the same or similar
meaning. Examples of this:

Norwegian English
Anger wrath
Nay No
 cold desde
ill sick
Dyke ditch
Skirt Shirt
In 1066 the Normans conquered Britain. French became the language of the Norman aristocracy and
consequently more words were added to English. More similar word pairs emerged.

English

French
Close Shut
Reply Answer
Annual Yearly
Demand Ask
Desire wish
I will go wrath / anger

Because English servants cooked for the Norman nobility, the names of most domestic animals are
English (ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer), while the names of the meats obtained from these animals
They are of French origin (beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, venison).

Eventually, the Germanic form of plurals (house, housen; shoe, shoen), was displaced by the French
way of creating plurals: adding an "s" to the end of words (house, houses; shoe, shoes). Only in some
cases has the Germanic form of the plural been preserved: men, oxen, feet, teeth, children.

The French influence also affected the writing, so that the "cw" sound became written as "qu" (thus,
"cween" became written as "queen").

It was not until the 14th century that English again became the dominant language in Britain. In 1399,
Henry IV became the first king of England, since the Norman Conquest, whose native language was
English. By this time, the London dialect had emerged as the standard dialect of what is now called
Middle English, or Medieval English.

During the last years of the medieval period and the first of the modern period (15th to 17th centuries),
a continuous process of standardization of the English language was observed in the territory that
extends south of the border with Scotland. The language spoken and written in London (The London
Standard) continued to evolve, spreading its use among the upper sectors of society, especially in
formal contexts. The other regional varieties were displaced, under the stigma that they indicated a
lack of social prestige and education.

In 1476, William Caxton introduced the first printing machine to England and through this new
medium, the London Standard spread its influence throughout the country. Books became more
affordable for the common population and literacy spread. Works in English became more common,
while the opposite was true for works in Latin. Standards of writing and grammar were established
and, in 1604, the first dictionary of the English language was published.

It is from this period that the English language begins to take shape and resemble something like the
language spoken today. Although the word order and sentence construction was still slightly different,
this early version of Modern English would have been understood by the Old English speaker. For
example, the Old English phrase "To us pleases sailing" became "We like sailing." Classical elements,
from Greek and Latin, deeply influenced the creation and origin of new words. Early Modern English
borrowed from Greek words such as grammar, logic, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy.
Starting in the 16th century, the expansion of the British Empire, together with the Renaissance,
brought with it many words of foreign origin that were incorporated into English, directly or indirectly.
New words were created at an increasingly intense pace.

The number of words from other languages incorporated into the English language is enormous, but
the heart of the language is in the Anglo-Saxon core of Old English.

Around 5,000 words from this time remain unchanged. Among these words we have the bases on
which language is built: words of domestic use, parts of the body, names of common animals, names
of natural elements and phenomena, most of the pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliary
verbs.

Sources consulted:
· Crystal, David, "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language" Cambridge University
Press: (1997)
· Katsiavriades, Kryss & Qureshi, Talaat, "The Origin and History of the English Language" The
Kryss Tal Website: (1997, 2002)
· Waters, Jen, "Whither English?" The Washington Times: (Sept. 16, 2004 )