Country Studies / LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE

English is not the language that has always been spoken in the British Isles, nor is it the only language that is spoken today. English is descended from the language of the Angles and Saxons. These two Germanic tribes from the north coast of present-day Germany invaded Britain in the 5^th century. They spoke different dialects of the same language.

Anglo-Saxon, or Old English remained the language of England from about 450 A. D. to about 1150 A.D. The following extract is dated 1100, at the close of the Old English period:

On thisum geare aras seo ungethwsernes on Glaestinga byrig betwyx tham abode Durstane and his munecan.

[The Anglo Saxon Chronicle]

(In this year arose the discord in Glastonbury between the Abbot Thurstan and his monks.)

Two further invasions of the islands – the first, the Norsemen or Vikings from Scandinavia, - then, the Normans from Normandy in France, served to modify Old English and to change it in the next three centuries, into Middle English. The Scandinavian influence is not so marked because of the great similarity between Old English, Old Norse, and the language of the Danes of those times; but with the Norman invasion to Britain a new and foreign language was heard everywhere. The English language was not to be used in polite society or as a means of learning for centuries. In the schools and churches Latin was used and the Norman lords spoke French. When Norman lords replaced Englishmen in all important posts of government, the Church, the monasteries and the schools, the English language ceased to be used except by the poorer people as they went about their humble everyday jobs. Not for two hundred years was any important literature produced except in French or Latin.

The government of the country affected everyone, and when it was carried on in a new language, a flood of new words came into general use, and very few Old English words to do with rank and government have survived. Strangely enough, the titles king and queen were kept. So too were earl, lord and lady, but dozens of new titles were introduced, such as: prince and princess, duke and duchess, count and countess, chancellor, minister and esquire. The words: government, parliament, crown and council are all of French origin. At first in the Norman law courts no English was spoken. Judge and justice, to accuse and to defend, jury, crime, cause, tax and traitor are only a few of the many French words which show the Norman influence on the law of England.

Since all military affairs were in the hands of the new lords, it is not surprising that a host of French military terms were introduced, e.g. arms and armour, battle and siege, standard and trumpet, soldier, sergeant, officer and lieutenant. The Normans introduced also a number of words associated with gallant conduct, i.e. glory, honour, fine and noble. Because the Normans were great builders, fortresses and castles sprang up all over the country. This splendid architecture needed many new French terms to explain it. Arch, pillar, tower, castle, and palace are some of them. Thousands of French tradesmen came over from Normandy, and so we find that the names for those trades are all of French origin: butcher, barber, carpenter, grocer, painter and tailor, while the more humble jobs have kept their old English names, e.g. baker, blacksmith, fisherman, shepherd and swineherd. French people have set the fashion in dress ever since the days of the Normans, and dress-making terms and nearly all garments have French names: dress, costume, design, mode, etc. The French have always prided themselves on their excellent cooking, and so the names for what were the chief meals of the day – dinner and supper – are both French.

Readers of Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Ivanhoe, will recall the passage in Chapter I that serves to show how new words were brought into Saxon English: “Animals take the old English names when alive, but have a French name when killed and prepared for the table; cow or ox becomes beef, sheep is mutton, and deer is venison.”

So English was compelled to remain little more than a peasant language. It existed in several different dialects, and consequently there was no recognized spelling throughout the whole country. Here the Norman invasion had an important effect, for when English became once more a literary language, writers adopted a new spelling based on changes introduced by the French, which involved many complications and it is certain that the coming of the Normans to Great Britain accounts to some extent for the muddled and confused state of Middle English spelling. Middle English was the common tongue of the inhabitants of England from about 1150 A. D. to about 1500 A.D. Here is an example from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written in the fourteen century.

The bisy larke, messager of day,

Salueth in her song the morwe gay,

And firy Phoebus riseth up so brighte

That all the orient laugheth with the lighte.

[The Knight’s Tale]

No translation, I think, is necessary.

Since there were no further conquests of the island, there were no radical changes in the languages and Middle English merged gradually into Early Modern English of Shakespeare’s age and then into the English spoken today. We could trace borrowings from various other languages up to the present day. Let us take a few words that are in everyday use in English and study their derivation:

angel – from Greek angelos	city – from French cite
cheese – from Latin caseus	husband – from Scandinavian husbonda
cherry – from Latin cerasum	knife – from Scandinavian knyfr
wine – from Latin vinum
beauty – from French beaute
libretto, concerto, motto – from Italian
negro, comrade – from Spanish
nihilist, tzar, sputnik – from Russian
waltz, lager, sauerkraut – from German
robot, polka – from Czech
hussar – from Hungarian
pyjamas – from Indian

As we have seen, the English language though Teutonic, has many current words of foreign origin. It is a language combining simple and homely Germanic words, especially the most common words as mother, father, food, drink, hunger, most prepositions, conjunctions and nearly all strong verbs with the more splendid Romance expressions. The combination of influences has produced a language of fine shades of meaning and of great possibilities of precision. English has often been referred to as’a language of the bridge’, which spans the gulf between the Germanic and the Romance families of speech.

So far we have mentioned only England, but the British isles consist also of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Angles and Saxons after having invaded England, drove the Celtic tribes into the mountain parts of the islands, to which they did not penetrate. In these remote parts the Celts kept their own language. The Celtic languages belong to the Indo-European family and various Celtic languages are still spoken today. In Wales, Welsh is spoken by a majority of people in the western counties. Here is what Welsh looks like:

Ail ir ar ael Eryre,

Cyfartal hoewal a hi.

(on that day: the head of Snowdon shall be leveled with the ground, and the circling waters shall murmur around it).

Travelling through Wales you will see Welsh names on signposts and on railway stations. Here is a name you will see in the northwestern country of Anglesey:

Llanfairpwilgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwilllantysiliogogogoch

(The church of St. Mary in a wood of hazel trees near a rapid whirlpool and near St. Tysilio’s cave not far from a red cave.)

On the map you will find the town marked Llanfair P. G. Many place-names in Wales begin with Llan- - Llanberis, Llandudno, Llangollen, and there are hundreds more. Llan, usually translated as church, dates back to Saxon times, when groups of Celtic preachers went from place to place, organizing Christian worship. These centres were known as Llans. The llans often took the name of the saint who started them. For example, Llandudno was the llan started by St. Tudno, Llandewi was the llan of St. Dewi (David).

Scottish Gaelic is spoken in the Highlands of Scotland and the adjacent western islands, where it was introduced be Irish settlers from about the beginning of the sixth century A.D. Here are some Scottish Gaelic sentences, with word for word translations to show the word-order and then followed by the literal translation.

Is le Anna an leabhar. (Is book at Ann) – Ann has a book.

The i’na bantraich. (Is she in-her widow) – She is a widow.

Bu duine treun Seumas. (Was man brave James) – James was a brave man.

In Ireland, Erse is spoken. A fourth Celtic language, Cornish, used to be spoken in the peninsula of Cornwall down to the seventeenth century, but it is now extinct. Manx, the language formerly spoken in the Isle of Man is spoken by a few people and is used in addition to English on official occasions.