a brief history of english

The advent of three Germanic tribes that invaded Britain in the 5th century AD marked the beginning of the English language's history. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came from what is now Denmark and northern Germany and crossed the North Sea. The people of Britain spoke a Celtic language during the time. However, the invaders moved the majority of Celtic speakers west and north, mostly into what is now Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The Angles were from "England, " and their language was called "Englisc, " which is where the terms "England" and "English" come from. Invading Germanic tribes spoke comparable languages, which evolved into what we now know as Old English in Britain. Nonetheless, Old English origins may be found in almost half of the most regularly used terms in Modern English. Old English was spoken until roughly the year 1100. The middle English started when William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, attacked and conquered England in 1066. The new conquerors (known as the Normans) brought a type of French with them, which became the language of the Royal Court, as well as the governing and economic classes. For a time, there was a linguistic class split in which the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400).