England part of a small island off the
west coast of Europe yet English is the
spoken language or else an official
language in all these parts of the world
it is in fact a world language where did
it start somewhere between South Russia
near the Black Sea and the Baltic
several thousand years ago this was the
home of a group of languages we now call
indo-european from here they have spread
all over Europe and into Asia the
Americas Africa and Australasia share in
northern Europe one of these
indo-european languages about 2000 years
ago
divided into three main groups of
dialects the eastern group marked
roughly here has quite died out the
northern group spread across Scandinavia
and much later into Iceland the western
group began to spread over these parts
of Europe now Britain about sixteen
hundred years ago was still part of the
Roman Empire it was inhabited by Celts
who spoke Celtic and by romanized Celts
who spoke a form of Latin but the Romans
had to go leaving the land to the Celts
a few years later Germanic tribes from
Northwest Germany invaded the island
the Celts retreated to the west where
the Celtic language survived the
invaders quickly settled down in a
fertile land and became the English they
spoke four english dialects of these
four english dialects the central one
mussel is the basis of modern english
this early english brought from north
west germany was already a satisfactory
language with first-rate poetry from it
come all our most essential and most
familiar words such as man woman Ben
eat drink sleep
already in the fifth century English was
a flexible language quite ready to
enrich its stock of words with new
acquisitions from the original Celtic
language the English began borrowing any
words they wanted notably river names
tens and seven or the names of towns
such as Dover London Lincoln Leeds
from the romanized kilts the English
borrowed Latin words many being names of
plants and agricultural implements
typical Latin words adopted at this
period into English are pair cup
pail anchor
about a hundred years later missionaries
came from Rome to convert England to
Christianity from them the English took
many more Latin words especially terms
of religion such as Minster Arms altar
during the 9th century the Vikings from
Scandinavia attacked many parts of
southern Europe many of these
Scandinavian settled in Britain from
them the English gathered several
thousand everyday words the English
language already had such words as sail
and ship but the many nautical words
they took from the Scandinavians include
haven other common scandinavian words
acquired at this time are knife take
another very common word taken at this
period is root
the Scandinavians who had settled in
France were called the Normans the for
long they gave up their own language and
spoke French in 1066 the Duke of
Normandy made himself King of England
and many of his followers came over with
him settling among the English from them
the English took many hundreds of new
words some of them dealt with buildings
such as castle tower
Moute caught in the sins of courtyard
chimney other French words taken into
the language at this time dealt with
cooking so we get pride boil and we also
get names of food such as beef mutton
and sausage French words were also
borrowed through the Normans to describe
new legal ideas court meaning law Court
judge advocate
during the Middle Ages the English took
more than 10,000 words from the French
the king's courts of law began to sit in
London so London became the legal center
of England in the Middle Ages it was
also the center of trade so naturally
the form of language that was spoken in
London became standard English now the
English for always great travelers and
traders and they traded all round the
North Sea from the Dutch they gathered
many new and useful words to do with
shipping boy is one of the Dutch words
taken into English in the Middle Ages
other words of Dutch origin are skipper
dich doch
up to the 15th century only this part of
the world marked in black was known but
in the next 150 years the new world was
discovered now the English embraced a
new world with their trade routes and
enlarged their language with new words
some words they got from Spain the word
of Spanish origin
is gallium another is comrade yet
another is Armada from the Portuguese
the English borrowed only a small number
of words the best known is taught wine
from South and Central America came
Native American words imported into
English through Portugal and Spain such
as tobacco potato maize
English also enriched itself with words
from Europe from Germany were borrowed
terms associated with metals and mining
one well-known word is quartz the German
language also provided words associated
with war such as plunder between 1450
and 1640 lien language English was
greatly enriched by cultural terms of
architecture music literature and art
from Italy come cameo
miniature
now look honey
umbrella
so by 1600 when Shakespeare was writing
English had become a rich and powerful
medium of expression with large numbers
of words taken from many languages
Shakespeare in his works used some
20,000 words here is a passage of 11
lines containing only 59 different words
yet 22 come from abroad this royal
throne of Kings this scepter dial this
earth of majesty this seat of Mars this
other Eden
denne paradise this fortress built by
nature for herself against infection in
the hand of war this had a breed of men
this little world this precious stone
set in the silver sea which serves it in
the office of a wall or as a moat
defensive to a house against the envy of
less happier lands this blessed plot
this earth this realm this England 1600
in the next century and a half the
English built up a great colonial empire
where their language came to be spoken
in 1776 the 13 English colonies on the
coast of North America became
independent as the United States of
America English is the language of the
United States and with the growth of the
American people has spread across North
America by this time the English were in
partnership with the Scots Welsh and
Irish together as the United Kingdom
they built the present British
Commonwealth where English is either the
spoken all the official language as
British trade with the world has
increased by leaps and bounds
so every year English has enriched
itself with more words from other
languages from India the British have
adopted cockatoo
and chins from China comes tea from
Arabia sash and sofa from Turkey coffee
from Persia Deven and shawl from West
Africa chimpanzee zebra from Australia
kangaroo and budgerigar to mention only
a few examples the modern world is full
of new inventions and to describe these
new inventions English has made use of
both Latin and Greek from Latin comes
omnibus from Greek cinema photograph and
many other recently coined words such as
thermometer and telegraphy when mr.
Churchill broadcasts in English he is
understood by the greater part of the
world the people have the British Empire
may love Pete they do not keep the land
to wealth of any country but they are a
tough and Hardy lot we have not
journeyed all this way across the
centuries across the oceans across the
mountains across the prairies because we
are made of sugar candy the English the
Churchill speaks is based on an old
indo-european toilet it is a vigorous
rich and flexible language quick to make
use of new words from other languages
the English language has borrowed
thousands of its 1/2 million words from
all over the world and it is
understood in almost every papa