The Development of English

             English is a language that is widely used all over the world, and English as a language has developed through history, and it has changed from its basic origins, when it was referred to as 'Old English' to the modern English that is used today, which is referred to as 'Modern English'. What is important is that the language displays continuity through the ages, and this adds to the interest about the evolution of English as a language. It must be remembered at the very outset that English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, which is a family that includes a large number of European languages being spoken today. The branches of this Indo-European language include Latin and the modern Romance languages, the Germanic languages, the group of Indo-Iranian languages, which would include Hindi and Sanskrit, the various Slavic languages, the Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian, but not Estonian, Greek, and other Celtic languages. The influence that the original Indo-European language is obvious even today, even though there is no written record to substantiate the fact. For example, when the word for 'father' in English is taken, it is 'pitr' in Sanskrit; it is 'vater' in German, 'pater' in Latin. These words are all referred to as cognates, meaning that they are all similar words in different languages that share the same root of origin. (A (Very) Brief History of the English Language) .

             However, it is often stated that the history of the English language started when the three Germanic tribes, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes arrived in Britain in the fifth century A.D, from across the North Sea from what is today known as Denmark and Northern Germany, and invaded the country. This was the time when the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language, but soon after the invasion, these people were pushed into what is today known as Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

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