OXFORD CLUB

Oxford club a.k.a university of knwledge

PROFESSIONAL OXFORD CLUB TRAINING CENTER

THE ORIGIN OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Name: Ana Tambo

Nickname: Magic
Period: After noom

Teacher

Luanda 2023-2024
INDEX
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................3
THEORICAL BACKGROUND.......................................................................................4
The origin of the English language................................................................................4
Who invented the English language and where it was born?........................................5
The Vikings helped shape and expand English..........................................................5
Shakespeare helped popularize the new English...........................................................5
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION

Knowing the exact origin of any language is a never-ending task of study and
research, which not even the great linguists of history have been able to answer.

However, it is estimated that the history of English began in the 400s, when
present-day Great Britain was occupied by Anglo-Saxon tribes from Central Europe.

However, it's clear that at that time the language was completely different from
the one we know today and, for this reason, it has been given another name: Old
English. We don't need to go into detail about these differences in practice, not least
because the original English has long since fallen out of use.

But just to give you a broader idea, many old terms and words are
unrecognizable even to those who are fluent in the language. Despite this, it is
undeniable that Old English served as the fundamental basis for what we know of the
language today.
THEORICAL BACKGROUND

The origin of the English language

English is a West Germanic Indo-European language that originated in the

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread to what would become south-east
Scotland under the influence of the medieval Anglo kingdom of Northumbria. After
centuries of extensive influence from Great Britain and the United Kingdom since the
18th century, through the British Empire, and from the United States since the mid-20th
century, English has been widely dispersed across the planet, becoming the main
language of international discourse, a lingua franca in many regions and is also the
second language of many people in many countries around the world.

The language is widely learned as a second language and used as the official
language of the European Union, the United Nations and many Commonwealth
countries, as well as many other world organizations. It is the third most widely spoken
first language in the world, after Mandarin and Spanish."

Historically, English originated from the fusion of languages and dialects, now
collectively called Old English, which were brought to the east coast of Britain by
Germanic peoples (Anglo-Saxons) in the 5th century, the word English being derived
from the name of the Angles and, ultimately, from their ancestral region of Angeln (in
what is now Schleswig-Holstein).

A significant number of English words are built on Latin roots, as this language
was in some ways the lingua franca of the Christian Church and European intellectual
life. English was further influenced by the Old Norse language, due to Viking invasions
in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to strong
borrowings from Franco-Norman, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to
give the superficial appearance of a close relationship between English and the
Romance languages, what is now called Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift, which
began in southern England in the 15th century, is one of the historical events that marks
the emergence of modern English from Middle English.
Who invented the English language and where it was born?

The English language was born in the present-day territory of Great Britain, a
land widely desired and invaded by diverse peoples, which has resulted in the
multiplicity of its origins and varied influences. It was the Saxons who introduced the
first elements of Latin vocabulary into English.

The Vikings helped shape and expand English

Almost 600 years after the arrival of the first tribes in the United Kingdom, the
Vikings were expanding across northern Europe in their bloody and violent excursions
by sea.

The fact is that these countless Viking excursions and explorations also led to
the transformation of Old English, which inevitably added new words and terms from
Nordic dialects, widely spoken by their warriors and navigators.

Shakespeare helped popularize the new English

After the end of the Hundred Years' War with France, important literary and
artistic movements emerged and the English language began to be disseminated in a
more modern and accessible way to the people.

Shakespeare was one of the great characters in this process and, without a doubt,
the great protagonist in the evolution of the history of English as we know it today.

Just to give you an idea, scholars believe that he invented (that's right, invented!)
more than 1,700 words in the language, such as “alligator”, “puppy dog” and
“fashionable”, which were previously unknown.
CONCLUSION

History will always be a continuous cycle without an end point. Just as the
English language has undergone countless transformations and influences over the
years, the present day is also marked by many linguistic changes and adaptations.

Due to the assimilation of words from many other languages throughout modern
history, English contains a very large vocabulary. Modern English has not only
assimilated words from other European languages, but also from all over the world,
including words from Hindi and African origins. The Oxford English Dictionary lists
over 250,000 distinct words in the language, not including many technical, scientific or
slang terms.
REFERENCES

Veja mais em https://educacao.uol.com.br/disciplinas/ingles/origens-do-ingles-historia-

da-lingua-inglesa.htm?next=0004H342U336N&cmpid=copiaecola

See more at https://educacao.uol.com.br/disciplinas/ingles/origens-do-ingles-historia-

da-lingua-inglesa.htm?next=0004H342U336N&cmpid=copiaecola

Translated with DeepL.com (free version).