Over centuries English language has been influenced by the history of people who English and by the other languages which came in contact with English. So many words came from the languages of Latin, Greek, French etc. the isles were conquered by the Romans and a number of Latin words in modern English are to be found in old English.
English had really begun in the 5th century AD, when invaders from what is now northern Germany and Denmark began to attack the coasts of Britain. These angels, Saxons and juts began to settle and gradually conquered much of what we now call England. Their language is German origin and many of the commonest words in the modern English. During the Anglo-Saxon period, England invaded from north-west Europe. Invaders are describes as Danes, Norsemen and Vikings attached the east and south coast. The influence is obviously seen in the differences between the place names of northern and eastern England. Although the effect of Scandinavians was very small, the effects of next major invasion by Normans were big. A group of Normans attacked and defeated the Saxon army. Their native language is French and this became the language of ruling class for centuries. All the upper classes began to learn and speak French as well as English.

French is the only big influence on English. French derived words commonly in use today cover many aspects of life. After French there is an effect of Latin on English which is the language of the church in which all services and administration is done. Many of the laws of government are from Latin as Latin is the language of laws. After the period of renaissance, there was en enormous expansion of English and its vocabulary all over the world. The development of science and technology and other academic disciplines has led to the expansion of vocabulary very much and helped for the expression of new concepts. Words also continue to be constructed by the process of compounding, in which two existing words are combined to form a new word. In this way our modern English had evolved from old English after influenced by so many other languages.

August 11th, 2009
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