18. Three main periods

It is customary to divide the history of the English language into three main periods :

The 1^st, called OLD ENGLISH which lasts from the 5^th century to the end of the 11^th century ; the dates of its end as suggested by various authorities range from 1066, which is the year of the Norman conquest, to 1150.

During the Old English period, most additions to the English vocabulary were based on native English words. Old words were given new meanings; new words were formed by the addition of prefixes or suffixes, or by compounding. Of foreign languages the most influential was Latin. The Scandinavians also influenced the language of English during the Old English period. From the 8^th century, Scandinavians had raided and eventually settled in England, especially in the north and the east. This prolonged if unfriendly contact had a considerable and varied influence on the English vocabulary.

The second, called MIDDLE ENGLISH – from the 12^th to the 15^th century; the period is believed to have ended in 1475, the year of the introduction of printing.

The Middle English period was marked by a great extension of foreign influence on English. The Norman Conquest in 1066 brought England under French rule. The English language, though it did not die, was for a time of only secondary importance. French became the language of the upper classes in England. The variety of French they spoke is now called Anglo-French. The lower classes continued to speak English but many English words were borrowed from French.

The third, called NEW ENGLISH - from 1500 to the present, which means the English of the last six centuries.

Modern English (New English) has been a period of even wider borrowing. English still derives much of its learned vocabulary from Latin and Greek. English has also borrowed words from nearly all the languages of Europe. And with the modern period of linguistic acquisitiveness English has found opportunities even farther afield. From the period of the Renaissance voyages of discovery through the days when the sun never set upon the British Empire and up to the present, a steady stream of new words has flowed into the language to match the new objects and experiences which English speakers have encountered all over the world.

19. The Anglo-Saxon Invasion

In the 5^th century first the Jutes and then other Germanic tribes, the Saxons and the Angles, began to migrate to Britain.

In 449 the Jutes landed in Kent. That was the beginning of the conquest. The British natives fought fiercely against the invaders and it took more than a hundred and fifty years for the Angles, Saxons and Jutes to conquer the country. The Britons could never drive them away. They were forced to retreat to the west of Britain. Those who stayed became slaves of the Anglo-Saxons.

For a long time the tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes fought against one another for supreme power. Britain split up into seven kingdoms: Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria.

The new conquerors brought about some changes. They disliked towns and villages. They destroyed the Roman towns and villages. The roads were broken.

The Jutes, Saxons and Angles were closely alike in speech and customs. They gradually merged into one people. They called the Celts “welsh” which means “foreigners” as they did not understand the Celtic language. The Anglo-Saxon villages were small. Nearly all the villagers were engaged in cultivating the land. Besides arable - farming, they continued cattle-breeding, hunting and fishing. There was very little trading at that time. Roads were very poor. Thus, natural economy predominated in Britain in early medieval times. By the beginning if the 9^th century changes had taken place in Anglo-Saxon society. Rich landowners were given great power over the peasants. The king’s warriors and officials held more land and they ruled the country. From tribal organization the society passed to the feudal class organization.

The Anglo-Saxon Element in the English Vocabulary

The Anglo-Saxon tribes they brought their dialects, which we now refer to as Old English and which formed the foundation for the ultimate development of Modern English. The Anglo-Saxon element is still at the core of the language. Native words stand for fundamental things and generally express the most vital concepts, for example:

1. actions: go, say, see, find, love, hunt, eat, sleep; 2) everyday objects: food, fish, meat, milk, water; 3) names of animals and birds: sheep, bull, ox, fowl; 4) natural phenomena: land, sun, moon, summer, winter, sea; 5) geographical concepts: north, east, west, northward, northwest, way; 6) names of persons: man, woman, father, mother, son; 7) qualities: long, short, far, etc..

The native stock of words includes modal and auxiliary verbs (shall, will, be), pronouns (I, he she, you), prepositions (at, on, of, by), conjunctions (and, which, that, but), articles (a, an, the), most of the numerals (one, ten, fifty, the third). These words are characterized by: a) plurality of meanings; b) great word-building power; c) combinative power in phraseology.

But a number of Anglo-Saxon words were irrevocably lost. Many of those words denoting things no longer in use dropped out of the vocabulary, such as, for instance, names of weapons no longer used, garments no longer worn, customs no longer practiced, etc.