Re: Roots of English (Was: Intro and other)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregory Gadow" <gadow@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 8:39 PM
Subject: Roots of English (Was: Intro and other)


> Changing the subject to keep things on track.
>
> >From: Elliott Lash <AL260@...>
> > > > > > As for Gaelic being related to English... interesting. I've
never
> > > > noticed the similarity. It would make sense, though; the origins of
> > > > English should be related to Cornish, Kentish, Welsh, Manx, Scotch,
> > > > Irish and other languages of the British Isles. The question is,
> > > > where does Frisian fit in?
> >
> >
> >Someone does not understand the inner-workings of the language of the
> >British Isles!!
>
> (Excellent information snipped so as not to be redundant)
>
> <pouts and looks shamefaced>
>
> Nice way you have of educating me, using *two* exclamation points :-(
>
> Seriously, I did not know just how English was related to the other
> languages in the region; all the books I've read started with the Roman
> Occupation and went from there to the northmen and Norman invasions with
> little to no information on the root language (except to mention such
> curiosities as having a peasant word (Older English) for something as it
is
> and an aristocratic word (Norman) for using/eating that thing, thus
> pig/pork, flax/linen, etc.)
>
> All a fascinating history, but not complete. How did Frisian, natively
> spoken (if memory serves) in the northern provinces of the Netherlands,
come
> to England, and how did it surplant the native Celtic languages? If it was
> an ancient language on the island (I seem to remember reading about a
> Kentish tongue), at what point did it supplant the older languages?
>
> Any recommendations on books that would have such linguistic history?
>
> Gregory Gadow
>
From what I have gathered, Frisian and English came from a similar root
language called Proto-Ingweonic.  Probably based in southern Denmark.  The
Danes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes ancestors). Settled in two places in the
end.  Friesland, and England.  The Frisian people settled soon.  The English
were still in Denmark.  In 449 (according to Bede) the English invaded
Britain, overunning Central Britain (ie. Everywhere apart from Scotland,
Wales, Cornwall and Cumbria) and setting up 7 kingdoms ( Northumbria,
Mercia, Wessex, East Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Essex).  Each had it's own
heavily dialectized version of a similar language, but the Dialects were
hardly understandable to speakers of a different one.  Eventually, in the
9th Century, England was united, and the Language began to unify, it was
still in this process, when, in 1066, the Normans invaded, placing French as
the official language, and disrupting any unification of the dialects.
English disappeared as a written language for nearly 300 years.  When it
surfaced again, it was very different, and had lost a lot of the Old English
grammar, and taken on much French lexicon and Pronunciation.  It was also
fragmented, each county having it's own semi-dialect.  The works of Geoffry
Chaucer helped the Struggling Middle English gain a sense of identity, and
was adopted as the standard dialect.  However, in southern scotland, another
form of English was also spoken, called Scots, It is the English that wasn't
affected by French, but by Gaelic.  Anyway, English began to Reunite, and
was adopted once more as the official Language, spoken by the Royal Family.
There was the start of Early Modern English, Shakespeare's English.  English
continued to Evolve, by the 18th century looking much like it does now, and
by the 19th, it  was almost exactly the same, having lost the Inflections
for person.