The Evolution of the English Language from 450 to 1450: Key Influences

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the English language from 450 to 1450, encompassing the Old English and Middle English periods. It explores the significant socio-historical events and influences that shaped the language, including the impact of Celtic, Germanic, and Scandinavian cultures. The essay examines the linguistic changes, such as phonetic, lexical, and spelling transformations, that occurred during these periods. It highlights key historical events like the Germanic invasions, the Norman Conquest, and the Viking Age, and how they contributed to the development of English. Furthermore, the essay discusses the emergence of different dialects, the rise of English as a language of instruction, and the birth of English literature during the Middle English period, providing a detailed understanding of how the language evolved into its modern form. References from academic sources are also included.

EVOLUTION OF ENGLISH FROM THE
YEAR
450 Until 1450
Socio-historical events and changes that infl uenced the language

Introduction
• Language keeps on changing and evolving across time and social group and undergoes lexical changes,
Phonetic changes, Spelling changes and Semantic changes.
• There are many reason and routes to language change through contact, social differentiation and natural
processes that get transmitted from one generation to the next..
• The history of the English language is indeed long and complex as the language has shifted and transformed
eventually to become the lingua franca of the modern world.
• The history of English language covers four major periods (UKEssay 2012) on the basis of linguistic
differences and influences of the basis of historical events -
Old English (450-1150),
Middle English (1150-1500),
Early Modern English (1500-1700)
Modern English (1700-present)

Old English : C 450- C 660
• Celtic influences in English, followed by massive replacement
by the Germanic invaders (Filppula & Klemola 2014, P.48).
• The influx of Germanic tribes led to the colonization of the
main island except the more remote areas,.
• Celts referred to the invaders as barbarians and looked upon
them to be less cultured and civilized (Mastin 2011)
• English began with the Celts and received later received
contributions from the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and so
on.

Celtic influence on the English
• The Germanic tribes left a trnemedous an influence on the
region and this is why English is also known as a
Germanic language.
• As the Celts, interacted with the Germanic tribes and the
local influences of Celtic languages and Germanic tribes
were seen in many English words (Lovis 2011).
• The most apparent Celtic influence on the English
language is through place names.

Old English : C 450- C 660
• Celtic contact and Germanic sister languages spread
across core areas of English grammar. Germanic tribes
began to gradually displace the native Celts.
• With the development of Anglo-Saxon nation, Englisc,
the Old English or the Anglo-Saxon language merged and
became a separate language with different dialects
(Mastin 2011).
• Romano-Celts in the northern England were Christianized
and European culture and literacy spread rapidly.
• The first known written English sentence is i an Anglo-
Saxon runic inscription "This she-wolf is a reward to my
kinsman", that dates to about 450-480 AD (Mastin 2011).

Caedmon hymn in old English
• Caedmon, an illiterate herdsman composes the
first Christian poetry in his own language and it
is an important record of an Old English poetry.

Old English alphabets and script
• Long vowels marked with macrons are a modern invention that distinguishes between long and
short vowels (Ager 2019).
• The alternate forms of g and w were based on the letters used in Old English and were
substituted for g and w.

Old English alphabets and script
The vowel sound of eo (ᛇ) is uncertain and the
letter stan (ᛥ) only appears once in Futhorc
writings while the letter ger (ᛡ) is written ᛄ in
manuscripts (Ager 2019).

The vowels in Old Script

The Old English
• When compared to modern English,
Old English was a very complex
language.
• It carried three genders, different
classes for weak and strong verbs and
eleven forms for the adjectives
(Mastin 2011).
• Many of the common words in use in
English today carry their roots in Old
English such as food, drink, sleep,
earth, house, and more.

The Anglo-Saxon alphabet and
Pronunciation
• The Anglo-Saxon alphabets are different from the modern alphabets of English and many of those letters are
not used today.
• The alphabetic order of most Germanic languages and Old English languages were based on a different
system (UKEssay 2012, P.48).

Scandinavian influence: C 731- C 911
• The Viking Age lasted from the eighth century to the beginning of the eleventh (UKEssay 2012).
• Most of those Vikings were the Germanic tribes of the Denmark and Scandinavian Peninsula.