The English Language can be traced back to the people who lived in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Known as Indo-Europeans from around the time of 5000 BC.
However, what we do know is mostly based on hypothesis and conjecture, because there are no writings that exist from that time. Many scholars think that Lithuanian may be the closest to the Indo-European language.
Indo-European is just one of a family of languages that includes, Amerindian, Uralic, Dravidian, Niger-Congo, Altaic, Afro-Asiatic, North Caucasian and Sino-Tibetan. It is looked upon as one of the largest family comprising of almost half of the modern world's population. This includes, most of Europe, Australasia, North and South America, South Asia and the Iranian Plateau.
The Expansion of Indo-European Languages
Indo-Europeans began to look for new land across Europe and Asia around 3500 BC to 2500 BC. Around 1000 BC Indo-European began to split up into a dozen or more language groups, these were:
- Albanian
- Balto-Slavic
- Armenian
- Germanic
- Celtic
- Indo-Iranian
- Italic
- Hellenic
Also included were Illyrian, Thracian, Phrygian, Tocharian and Anatolian, and many scholars think other language groups may have existed, but left no trace.
Over the course of time these language groups began dividing and creating new languages such as Swedish, Portuguese, Frisian and Latin. It's not that surprising to think that languages as varied as Farsi, Sinhalese, Greek and Gaelic all come from the same place. Resulting in similar words being found in each of these languages. Words like:
- mouse in English, maus in German, muis in Dutch, mus in Latin, mus in Sanskrit.
- father in English, Vater in German, pater in Latin and Greek, fadir in Old Norse, pitr in ancient Vedic Sanskrit.
- three in English, tres in Latin, tris in Greek, drei in German, drie in Dutch, trí in Sanskrit.
The Start of the Germanic Language
The Germanic language can be traced back to southern Sweden and the Elbe River in modern Germany, around 3000 years ago.
A well-respected philologist, and story writer Jacob Grimm, pointed out that particular consonants in the Germanic family of languages shifted from the Indo-European root. Consequently words like foot in English, foet in West Frisian, fod in Danish, fot in Swedish, are actually more like Latin Ped, because of the change from "P" to "f".
The Germanic languages took some words from the aboriginal (non-Indo-European) tribes that went before them with words for the natural environment. These were words such as, herring, seal, strand, seal, ship, keel, sea, oar, groom, wife, ram, lamb, and sheep.
The Germanic started to break up and migrate into other parts of continental Europe, these were:
- West Germanic, known today as Dutch, German, Flemish, low German, Frisian, Yiddish and English.
- East Germanic, originally spoken by Burgundian, Vandalic and Gothic have all died out.
- North Germanic, known today as Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Icelandic, all of the Scandinavian languages.
About the Celts
Very little is known about the Celts, also known as the Britons, who are thought to have moved into the area around 800 BC. Becoming more widespread by 300 BC, inhabiting Britain, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Austria, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Scotland was also inhabited by the Picts who had an entirely separate language to the Celts. Totally wiped out by the Vikings around the 9th century AD , with any remaining Picts merging with the Scots.
The Celts became largely displaced and diminished, and not the root of what we know today of the English language. However, there are some British place names that still have Celtic origins, such as, London, York, Kent, Thames, Avon and Cornwall.
The Arrival of the Romans
Romans entered Britain in 55 BC under the rule of Julius Caesar, and didn't become permanent residents until around 43 AD. Emperor Claudius sent a force over to dominate the British Celts, with uprisings led by Queen Boudicca in 61 AD. Britain remained part of the Roman Empire for a further 400 years. But, surprisingly the Romans didn't leave much of a linguistic legacy. Nevertheless, Latin would have a significant impact on the English language later on.
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