【英專八級(jí)聽力訓(xùn)練】Mini-lecture History of English(1/4)

Good morning, everyone. Today, I am going to talk about the origins and development of English language. The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders, mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from an angle-shaped land area and their language was called Englisc, from which the words England and English are derived. Generally speaking, the history of the language is divided in to three: Old English, Middle English, Modern English. In some books, Modern English is divided into two: Early Modern and Late Modern English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. It had some sounds which we don't have now. In grammar, Old English was much more highly inflected than Middle English because there were case endings for nouns, more person and number endings of words and a more complicated pronoun system as well as various endings for adjectives. In vocabulary, Old English is also quite different from Middle English. Most of the Old English words are native English which weren't borrowed from other languages. On the other hand, Old English contains borrowed words coming from Norse and Latin. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words, be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.