1,The Old Germanic languages, their classification and principal features.

Germanic languages belong to a vast Indo-European family of languages. Dutch and Frisian are spoken in the Netherlands and Denmark; Norwegian in Norway, Swedish in Sweden, Icelandic in Iceland, Yiddish is spoken in Israel, English in the UK, Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zeeland, South Africa, India, etc. Some modern German languages are national literary languages; others are used with other national languages or are just local dialects. In the 1 century AD G. L. were spoken only in Germany and its surrounding territories as well as Scandinavia. According to the dialectal differences G. L. are classified into:

-North (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese)

-West (High/Low German, Dutch, Frisian, English, Yiddish, Afrikaans)

-East (Gothic, Burgundian, Vangalic)

All Germanic tribes were passing through the stage of developing called barbarism. We learn about ancient teutons from Caesar, Plyny the Elder, etc. According to the Plyny Germanic tribes in the 1 century AD consisted of 5 groups:

-the Vindili (the Goths, the Burgundians, spoke East G.L.)

-the Ingevones (North-western Germ. territ., North Sea)

-the Istveons (the western part, the shores of Rhein)

-the Hermones (the southern part)

-the Hillavions (inhabited Scandinavia, spoke northern G. L.)

There were Old Scandinavian sources 2-3 AD, Old Icelandic 12 century, Old Norman 13, Old Danish 13, Old Swedish 13, Old English 7, Old Saxon 9, Old High German 8, and Old Dutch 12.

The main features of G.L. on 3 linguistic levels:

-phonetic

-grammatical

-lexical

Phonetic features-stress, accent. In Indo-European languages the accent was free or moving and tonic. Later in G.L. it became fixed on the 1 root syllable (except verbs with a prefix) and was dynamic.it had brought the reduction of endings.

2. The origin of the English Language

It is the story of 3 invasions and the Cultural Revolution. The language was brought to Britain by Germanic tribes like Angles, Saxons and Jutes(they conquered Britain in the 3 century). The English language originated from Anglo-Frisian dialect, which made part of the West Germanic group. First were Celtic tribes (Britons and Gaels), who spoke Celtic languages split into 2 groups:

-Gallo- Briton included Gaelic( is spoken in Gaul), British( was represented by Welsh=Cymry, Cornish existed till 18 century, Breton in Brittany in France)

-Gaelic included Irish (Ireland), Scots (Scotland), Manx (isle of Man)

In 55 BC began the Roman invasions under Julius Caesar. But permanent conquest of Britain began in 43 AD under Emperor Claudius. They colonized the country and established a great number of military camps which later on developed into English cities. They occupied vast territories including Edinburgh and Glasgow. Britain became roman profits. Latin spread over the country and countryside. The Romans ruled for almost 4 centuries. Then their legions were recalled from Britain to defend Italy from Goths.

In the mid 5 century AD started the A-S conquest, when Britain was invaded by Germanic tribes. The Britains fought against the conquers for 1, 5 century. The legendary figure of King Arthur belongs to that period. The Angles occupied the north of the Thames, the Saxons- south of the Themes, the Jutes- Kent. To the Celts the invaders were all Saxons. Anglii and Anglia appeared in the language. Gradually the invaders were called Anglecunes, their language- Englisc. By the year 1000 AD the country was known as England. Nowadays more than 100 most common words are of A-S origin (you, the, is, drinkan, etc). The Germanic settlements comprised 7 kingdoms: Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Northumbria, Mersia, Kent, and East Anglia. In 597 AD Christianity was brought. It was a gradual and peaceful process. The Cultural Revolution brought its huge Latin vocabulary and gave English the capacity to express abstract thoughts. Church words were brought from Greek, Latin (priest, bishop, none), Hebrew (pope, Psalter, Sabbath).

In the 9 century the Norman invasion. The Vikings is a collective term referred to all people thought to come from the North. Vic means bay, or from OE – a camp. The half of the country was in their hands. In 878 Alfred (the king of Wessex) got a victory over the Danish King of East Anglia. He started to rebuild monasteries, schools, introduced English in education. He started to translate Latin texts into English, wrote historical chronics.

Saxon place names have endings -ham, -ing, -stoure, -sted, -ton. The Danish origin words are –by, -wick, -throe, -toft, -thwait. About 9000 words used in Modern English came from Scandinavian: get, man, mother.

There were 4 principal dialects, spoken in A-S England

-Kentish- the speech of the Sutes

-West Saxon- in the south of the Thames, the most widely spoken

-Mercian- excluding Wales

-Northumbrian – North of Umbria.

Differences of dialects were not great; all English forms are usually from West Saxon.