Rajarata
University of Sri Lanka
Department of
Languages
Faculty of Social
Sciences and Humanities
Online Lectures
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Year and Semester
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Year-3 Semester-1
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Subject
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History of English
Language
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Subject Code
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ENGL 3112
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Course Unit
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Introduction to
History of English Language/Celtic Influence
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Date
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05.05.2020/07.05.2020
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Time
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Theory (11.00 am-1.00
pm) Practical (2.30 pm-4.30 pm-07.05.2020)
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Lecturer
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D.N. Aloysius
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Theory Hours
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02
Total No of Hours: 02
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Practical Hours
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02
Total No of Hours: 02
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Old
English
At present, English is considered to be the global language as it is
geographically spread all over the world and used by approximately, one billion
people as their first, second and
foreign language. The English language has become more popular than any other
internationally used languages among many countries. It is, therefore, worth to
investigate how this prominent language originated and spread far and wide so
rapidly. English is a West Germanic language,
first spoken in early medieval England. It is spoken
as a native language by the majority
of the people of the United
Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and a host of Caribbean countries and
considered as the third most common native language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. English is
also widely learnt as a second language
and foreign language all over the world and is one of the official languages of the European Union, many Commonwealth countries and the United Nations, as
well as in many other world organizations.
Three Germanic tribes invaded Britain
during the 05th century.
These tribes consisted of Angles, Saxons and Jutes from Denmark and
northern Germany. When they arrived, the inhabitants of Britain spoke Celtic.
However, on their arrival, most of the Celtic people were expelled by the
invaders to Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Celtic became the first language that
influenced Old English. It was further influenced by Scandinavian languages, Latin
and Greek. The Germanic tribes, who invaded Britain, spoke similar
languages, which gradually enriched Old English. Today, even native English speakers find it
difficult to understand Old English. However, most commonly used words in
Modern English have their roots in Old English. The objective of the present study is, therefore, to
investigate how those four ancient languages contributed to expand the English
during the Anglo-Saxon period between 450 and 1100 AD.
Old or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest historical form of the English
language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in
the early Middle Ages. It was probably brought to Great
Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the
mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from
the mid-7th century. After the Norman
conquest of 1066, English was replaced, for a time, as the language of
the upper classes by Anglo-Norman, a relative
of French. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, as
during this period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman,
developing into a phase known now as Middle
English.
Old English developed from a set
of Anglo-Frisian dialects
originally spoken by Germanic tribes
traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became
dominant in England, their language replaced the languages
of Roman Britain: Common
Brittonic, a Celtic language, and Latin, brought to
Britain by Roman invasion. Old English had four main
dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms: Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the
basis for the literary standard of the later Old English period, although
the dominant forms of Middle and Modern
English would develop mainly from Mercian. The speech of eastern and
northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence
due to Scandinavian
rule and settlement beginning in the 9th century.
Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest
relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon.
Like other old Germanic languages, it is very different from Modern English and
difficult for Modern English speakers to understand without study. Within Old English grammar nouns, adjectives,
pronouns and verbs have many inflectional endings
and forms, and word order is much freer. The oldest Old
English inscriptions were written using a runic
system, but from about the 8th century this was replaced by
a version of the Latin alphabet.
Celtic Influence on Old English
Old English culture and language
spread rapidly across east and central parts of Britain during the 06th and 07th centuries while
the dominant culture and language of the Celtic people, who captured Britain
around 600 BC, remained. Even today, their
languages are found to be preserved in the areas where they had inhabited. The Celtic people, who invaded Britain, seem
to have integrated with the natives, who were absorbing elements of the
language spoken by the new group. The Celts had already spread their influence
across the most of central Europe and interacted with the Germanic tribes.
Dialects spoken in northern Spain are heavily influenced by Celtic to this day.
There is also a noticeable correspondence between northern Italian place names
with those in Cornwall, particularly starting with tre, a Celtic word for a farm or
settlement.
Celtic words in Old English derived from identifiable sources
from the continent usually those associated with conflict and battle as they
were often used as mercenaries. Celtic loan words were taken over after their
settlement, usually place names, and words from Ireland frequently associated
with Christianization of Britain. However, the Anglo-Saxons terrorized Celts
rather than integrated with them and so their languages became isolated until
the Norman Conquest creating a linguistic hierarchy with Celtic languages firmly
The social stigma on the Celtic languages in British society
during the long period of thousand years seems to be responsible for its lack
of vocabulary in the English language, which is a language renowned for its
borrowing of words from many other languages. Celtic languages were considered
inferior and as a result it did not acquire due recognition during that specific
period. In general, the words that have survived are of geographical
significance particularly place names. They remained and all other words
disappeared due to less respect. Some adopted words such as bucket, car,
crockery, slogan and flannel, truant and geol survived. The survival of the
Celtic languages can be seen in the areas, which were densely occupied by the
Celts. In many such areas, Celtic influence on the English language is mostly
obvious through place names. The Celtic language was also known as the British
language, the language of Britons, who were the native inhabitants of the land.
Some Celtic names survived in the areas, where the Celts occupied for a long
time. The names of rivers such as the Thames and the Yare and important Roman towns
such as London, York and Lincoln still remain in the form of Celtic. We also
find a number of names, which are the compounds of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon words
including ‘bre’ and ‘pen’ that are two Celtic
words, which appear in a number of names associated with ‘hill’. For
example, Brill in Buckinghamshire is a combination of ‘bre’ and Old
English, ‘hyll’. Breedon on the Hill in Leicestershire is a combination of ‘bre’ and ‘dun’, both Celtic words, and Brewood
in Staffordshire is combined with Old English ‘wudu’. It is also found that the use of
"Combe" or "Coombe" as part of many place names derived
from the Celtic word, ‘kumb’, which
meant "valley". This was later adopted into Anglo Saxton English. The
Celtic word ‘tor’ is mainly used in the south-west of
Britain. ‘Tor’ means "rock" in English and it is with the granite
peaks on Dartmoor and Bodmin moor, ‘Hay Tor’, ‘Hound Tor’, etc. This was later
incorporated into the name of the coastal town, ‘Torquay’.
The contribution of Celtic languages to the English language
seems to be much less when compared to that of other languages to the former.
However, the place names such as London, York and Lincoln introduced by the
Celtic languages remain even today with their own identity.
1.
Write
a brief essay on The History of the English Language.
2.
Explain
the influence of Celtic Language on the English language.
References:
1.
A History of the
English Language by Albert C. Baugh
2. Old
English: A Historical Linguistic Companion by Roger Lass
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