Historical outline

Lecture 3, 4 ETYMOLOGY

The vast Indo-European family of languages, to which most of the languages spoken in Europe belong, consists of several branches, of which the Germanic languages are one.

Nowadays Germanic languages are spoken in many countries: German (in Germany, Austria, and partly in Switzerland), Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic, English (spoken, besides England, in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and partly elsewhere). In India English is considered as a second official language.

In ancient times the territory of Germanic languages was much more limited Thus, in the 1^st century A.D. Germanic languages were only spoken in Germany and in territories adjacent to it, and also in Scandinavia.

Germanic languages are classified into three groups: East Germanic, North German'c, West Germanic.

East Germanic languages have been dead for many centuries. Of the old East Germanic languages only one is well known, viz. Gothic: a vast written document has come down to us in this language, namely, a translation of the Bible made in the 4 th century A.D. by the Gothic bishop Ulfilas from the Greek.

All North Germanic and West Germanic languages have survived until our own times.

Germanic languages are stated to be a separate branch within the Indo-European family on the ground of several characteristic features distinguishing them from other Indo-European languages.

English as well as German belongs to West Germanic group of Germanic languages.

The name "Britain" derives from Greek and Latin names probably stemming from a Celtic original. Although in the prehistoric period the Celts were relatively late arrivals in the British Isles, only with them does Britain emerge into recorded history. The term "Celtic" is often used rather generally to distinguish the early inhabitants of the British Isles from the later Anglo-Saxon invaders.

After two expeditions by Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 ВС, contact between Britain and the Roman world grew, culminating in the Roman invasion of AD 43. Roman rule was gradually extended from south-east England to include Wales and, for a time, the low-lands of Scotland. The final Roman withdrawal in 409 followed a period of increasing disorder during which the island began to be raided by Angles, Saxons and Jutes from Northern Europe. It is from the Angles that the name "England" derives. The raids turned into settlement and a number of small English kingdoms were established. The Britons maintained an independent existence in the areas now known as Wales and Cornwall. Among these Kingdoms more powerful ones emerged, claiming overiordship over the whole country, first in the north (Northumbria), then in the midlands (Mercia) and finally in the south (Wessex). However, further raids and settlement by the Vikings from Scandinavia occurred, although in the 10^th century the Wessex dynasty defeated the invading Danes and established a wide-ranging authority in England.

In 1066 the last successful invasion of England took place. Duke William of Normandy defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings. The Normans and others from France came to settle. French became the language of the nobility from the next three centuries, and the legal and social structures were influenced by those or prevailing.

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