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Many Invaders, Many Languages: Why England Speaks a Germanic Language

English shares many similarities with languages like French, but they're not as closely related as you might think.

By Haley KellerPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Harian's wall in Northern England. (Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/ubcmio-2095253/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=5485375">ubcmio</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=5485375">Pixabay</a>)

When English speakers learn languages such as French or Spanish, they often notice a lot of familiar words This leads many people to think that English must be closely related to one another, but the truth is much more complicated than that.

French and Spanish themselves are closely related. They’re both Romance languages. The name “Romance” doesn’t mean they’re related to love. Instead, it has to do with the Romans. The Romance languages evolved from Latin and include Portuguese and Italian as well as French, Spanish, and other languages. As these parts of Europe were part of the Roman Empire, it’s unsurprising that their modern languages trace their roots back to the Latin of the Romans.

England was part of the Roman Empire for a time too, but English is not as closely related to Latin as the Romance languages are, despite how it may seem at first glance. English isn’t a Romance language at all. It’s a Germanic one. Other Germanic languages include German, Dutch, and Norwegian. These are the languages that English is most closely related to.

Why did a Germanic language take hold in Britain? Well, to understand that, we need to take a look at the history of Britain and the different groups of people who have lived there.

The First Languages of Britain

English is the language spoken by the majority of people in England today, but that was not always the case. Ancient Britons spoke Common Brittonic. Common Brittonic would evolve over the centuries until it became several different languages, including Welsh.

Common Brittonic was not a Germanic or Romance language. It was a Celtic one. (Celtic, Germanic, and Romance languages are all part of the Indo-European language family. That’s a big group that includes both English and Hindi among a wide variety of other languages.) Other Celtic languages spoken today include Irish and Scottish Gaelic. These Celtic languages are more closely related to each other than they are to English.

Long ago, Celtic languages were spoken across much of Europe, but over time, Britain, Ireland, and the area of Brittany in France became the only places where they were the primary language. These Celtic languages are the first languages of the British Isles.

Today, Celtic languages continue to be spoken in Great Britain, particularly in Wales and Scotland. Despite this, modern-day England feels so tied to English that the language and place share a name. However, English wasn’t even the next language to arrive on the island.

Roman Conquest of Britain and Latin’s Arrival

The parts of Europe which speak Romance languages today were once part of the Roman Empire. When the Romans conquered these areas, they brought their language, Latin, with them. Over time, the Latin of each of these areas took on a local character and changed until it became French, Italian, Spanish, and the other Romance languages.

Britain was part of the Roman Empire too. Or, at least, part of it was. The Romans never conquered the entire island of Great Britain, but they did rule over most of modern-day England and Wales. So it’s worth asking: Why didn’t Latin take hold there too?

Britain is really far from Rome, and Rome conquered it much later than it did other areas of Europe. The Roman Conquest of England began in 43 CE. By contrast, Rome controlled parts of France as early as 121 BCE. Latin was brought to Britain by the Romans, and experts think that at least some civilians came to speak Latin, though just how common Latin was remains a matter of debate.

What is known is that Latin died out in Britain after the Romans left instead of morphing into a Romance language like those found in other former parts of the empire.

Of course, most people who’ve studied English know that there are a lot of Latin influences in the language. It would be easy to believe that these were incorporated into English because of Roman rule in Britain, but when the Romans arrived in Britain, the people there were still speaking Celtic languages. English hadn’t arrived yet.

Latin did have an influence on those Celtic languages, which would later come to influence English themselves.

But the languages that would one day become English were already developing in central Europe, including in modern-day Germany and Denmark, during the time of the Romans, and the people who spoke these Germanic languages were already in contact with Latin themselves. English was being influenced by Latin before it ever reached Britain.

Many of the Latin influences on English had nothing to do with the Romans conquering Britain, as strange as that might sound.

The Anglo-Saxon Invasion and English’s Arrival

Not many Americans are well-versed in British history except for what they see in period movies. Most have heard the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and know that it has something to do with England, but many Americans don’t know the exact origins of the term or who it refers to.

As already mentioned, Britain used to be inhabited by a group of people called Britons. These people spoke Celtic languages and were not Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxons were various groups of Germanic people who arrived in Britain in the 5th century CE. This same period of time is marked by a lot of migration throughout Europe, not just in Britain. The Anglo-Saxons came to Britain from northern Europe.

In areas where they settled, the Anglo-Saxons established kingdoms of their own, exerting power over native Britons in the process. The culture of the Anglo-Saxons would go on to fundamentally reshape what is today England and leave a lasting impact.

When they came to Britain, the Anglo-Saxons brought their language with them, and that language is what we call Old English.

The Norman Conquest and French’s Arrival

The Anglo-Saxons weren’t the last invaders to arrive. The Normans, led by William the Conqueror, invaded what is today England in the 11th century. The Normans were from Normandy, an area in modern-day France that borders the English Channel.

Just like the Romans and Anglo-Saxons before them, the Normans brought their own language to England. They spoke Anglo-Norman, which was a dialect of the Romance language Old French. This became the language of the royal court and aristocracy in England. William the Conqueror himself never learned how to speak English.

For a time, French was a prestigious language that was spoken by many in England. Because of this, Norman French had a large impact on English. By some estimates, 45% of English words today are of French origin.

The fact that French was the language of the elite, while commoners continued to speak English, is evident in the French words that English adopted. Meat from a cow is called ‘beef’ in English. Why not just call it ‘cow’? After all, we use the term ‘chicken’ for both the animal and its meat. Well, ‘beef’ comes from the French word ‘boeuf’ whereas ‘cow’ is an older English word for the animal. The Norman aristocrats weren’t often in the fields with the livestock.

English has had a long history. Though it is a Germanic language, it has been deeply influenced by Latin, the Romance languages, and even other languages throughout its history.

Historical
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