From Anglo-Saxon to Middle English: A Linguistic Timeline

The Origins of English: Celts and Germanic Tribes

The early inhabitants included the Celts (Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Brittany) and the Germanic Peoples.

In 55 BC, Julius Caesar landed in Britain. Later, Germanic tribes threatened the Celtic chiefs. These tribes—the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—sailed to Britain starting around AD 449. They established seven kingdoms (Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex), forming the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.

The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy and Old English

Old English (Anglo-Saxon English) incorporated only a couple of Celtic words. By AD 1000, the country was known as Englaland (the land of the Angles). Old English had its own dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, and West Saxon.

The Conversion of England and Linguistic Change

In AD 597, Augustine and his monks landed in Kent. The King established their house in Canterbury. By AD 635, a preacher from the Celtic Church in Ireland began the conversion of the North.

The conversion of England changed the language in three significant ways:

1. It gave English a large church vocabulary.
2. It introduced words and ideas from China and India.
3. It gave new meanings to existing words.

Viking Invasions and Alfred the Great

In AD 793, Viking attacks began in England, sacking monasteries such as Jarrow and Lindisfarne. By the middle of the 9th century, half the country was in Viking hands.

In 871, Alfred, King of Wessex, won the Battle of Ethandune. He decided to educate his people in English. He translated some key texts and instituted a record of current events, known as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Around AD 1000, the Vikings conquered Norway and ruled the Scandinavian world. The King of Denmark inherited the English throne.

The Norman Conquest of 1066

In 1066, William of Normandy defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Harold was the last English-speaking king for three hundred years. During this period, religion, law, science, and literature were conducted in Latin or French.

In 1154, the English monks who wrote the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle abandoned their work.

Why English Survived the Conquest

English survived because:

• English speakers had a numerical advantage.
• The Normans began to intermarry with those they had conquered.
• In 1204, the Anglo-Normans lost control of their Norman territory.

The Rise of Middle English

By the 13th century, English made a comeback at both the spoken and written levels. Several factors accelerated this return:

• The Hundred Years' War with France encouraged people to speak English, fostering national identity.
• The Black Death occurred, causing massive fatalities. New people, often educated in English, rose to positions of influence.

Middle English is a written record of what had happened to spoken Old English. It featured five main speech areas: Northern, West Midland, East Midland, Kentish, and Southern. The geographical triangle formed by Oxford, Cambridge, and London provided the basis for Standard English.