HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH
LANGUAGE

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 van Gelderen, E. 2006. A History of the English
Language.

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The Pre-English Period: Pre 450 AD

Although English shares its distant roots with

many other languages, English did not evolve as a
separate distinct language until about the middle
of the fifth century AD.
However, the events that transpired during this
earlier period are central to understanding the
eventual birth and evolution of the English
language.

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 6000 BC
Proto-Indo-European
evolves as the common
ancestor of most European
languages spoken today,
including Latin and the modern Romance languages, the Germanic
languages including English, the Indo-Iranian languages including
Hindi, Persian and Sanskrit, the Slavic languages and Baltic languages
including Latvian and Lithuanian, Serbo-Croatian and Russian, the
Celtic languages including Irish Gaelic, Scots and Welsh, and Greek.

3000 BC
The break-up and broad
relocation of this original
Proto-Indo-European civilization
is now well underway as a
result of two innovations:
the horse and the wheel.

Some travel east, establishing the Indo-Iranian languages

of the Caucusus, India, Pakistan and Assam.
Others travel west to what is now Greece, Italy, Germany
and the Baltic.

This migration resulted in the emergence of numerous

distinct but related language families that are now
spoken in some form by half of the worlds population.

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 1000 BC
After many migrations, the various branches
of Indo-European become distinct.

During this period, Celtic becomes the most

widespread branch of Indo-European in
Europe;
the Celtic peoples inhabit what is now
England, Spain, France and Germany.

Celtic tribes crossed the Channel and

starting to settle in Britain already in
the 7th century BC.

The very word "Britain" seems to be

the name given by the pre-Celtic
inhabitants of the island, accepted by
first Indo-Europeans.

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 The Celts quickly spread over the island, and only
in the north still existed non-Indo-European
peoples which are sometimes called "Picts" (the
name given later by Romans).

Picts lived in Scotland and on Shetland Islands

and represented the most ancient population of
the Isles, the origin of which is unknown.
Picts do not seem to leave any features of their
language to Indo-European population of Britain
the famous Irish and Welsh initial mutations of
consonants can be the only sign of the
substratum left by unknown nations of Britain.

At the time the Celts reached Britain they spoke the common
language, close to Gaulish in France.

But later, when Celtic tribes occupied Ireland, Northern

England, Wales, their tongues were divided according to tribal
divisions-dialects.

These dialects will later become Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Cornish,

but from that time no evidence remained, because the Celts did
not invent writing yet.

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 Not much is left from Celtic languages in English.

Though many place names and names for rivers are

surely Celtic
like Usk - from Celtic *usce "water",
or Avon - from *awin "river",

the morphology and phonology are untouched by

the Celtic influence.
Some linguists state that the word down comes
from Celtic *dn "down"

other examples of Celtic influence in place names are

the following:

dun, dum (a hill) - Dumbarton, Dumfries, Dunedin

llan (church) - Llandaff, Llandovery, Llandudno
coil (forest) - Kilbrook, Killiemore
kil (church) - Kilbride, Kilmacolm
inis (island) - Innisfail
inver (mountain) - Inverness, Inverurie
bail (house) - Ballantrae, Ballyshannon,

and, certainly, the word whiskey which

means the same as Irish uisge "water".
But this borrowing took place much later.