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Romans ruled the country for close to 400 years. However, when their empire fell and the Romans left Britain, three Germanic tribes - the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles - invaded the area. Their arrival marked the beginning
of the English language that we know
today. They spoke a language called
"Englisch".
World War II caused phonology to change and introduced many new war terms such as "kamikaze" and "atomic bomb". This is because soldiers and officers used different dialects to interact with each other.
The Normans invaded and used Norman French as their language. They had a unique heritage since they were descendants of Viking conquerors with a mixed culture of Salian Franks and Roman Gauls. The church and schools used Latin. Meanwhile, society's most powerful people, such as royalty and aristocrats, spoke French instead. This resulted in the English language gaining thousands of French words like "romance", "parliament", and "banquet".
The Anglo-Saxon dialects became the base of Old English. About 400 of their texts have survived, many of which include heroic poems. Approximately a third of those words are still used today, such as sing, food, strong, and house.
The languages that made their way into the UK were traditionally a part of the common Indo-European language family. Today, the United Kingdom has several official languages with English as the dominant language. The official languages in Wales are Welsh and English, while the official languages in Scotland are Scots Gaelic and English. Even with English as the main language, there are still many common immigrant languages in the UK.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was founded. This station allowed millions of people to listen in and adopt the language that was commonly spoken by broadcasters. In turn, Received Pronunciation, a dialect of the UK, became much more popular during this time period.
After the 100 Years War, the English language gained momentum. A big part of this was due to the establishment of the Cambridge and Oxford universities. The printing press was introduced, leading to the formation of a standardized language as well as an increase in literacy. Explorers and traders supplied new words into the English as well, adding words from other languages such as Spanish, Latin, and Italian.
The Vikings arrived and took control of a large part of Scotland and the Northern Isles. During the 11th century, they were pushed back to the North East section of Britain, where they continued to be dominant. English became the language of choice to develop a feeling of national identity. The Nordic tribes brought new words such as "smile", "silver", and "awkward".
The Industrial Revolution and technology in Britain created a need for new words. Since the British Empire at its height was so expansive, the English language adopted many foreign words from different countries. The most significant differences between Early Modern English and Late Modern English are vocabulary and structures in language.
Geoffrey Chaucer, who is now known as the Father of English Literature, wrote The Canterbury Tales. His works essentially got the English language to become "approved" alongside those
of French and Latin, proving that literature in English
could be equally as profound and complex.
Samuel Johnson published Dictionary of the English Language. He defined 40,000 words and included 114,000 quotations to cover all branches of learning. Johnson recognized that it is impossible to fix language since it is constantly changing, and so his only goal was to simply record the language of the current time.
William Shakespeare wrote and published his works during a time when the English language was undergoing many changes due to war and exploration. To fully express his ideas, he borrowed words from other languages or adapted the English language to say things the way he wanted to. He introduced about 1700 original words into the language, such as "lonely" and "dwindle".