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 Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:58 am
Today, many scholars will tell you that modern English is derived from the proto-germanic languages, eventually evolving into the distinct Old English.
Now, many claim the process by which German was introduced into Britain was due to an 'invasion' from near-by continental regions of Germanic influence, and the native Celtic language was quickly subordinated.
However, new evidence seems to suggest that the rapid change in British culture following the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the subsaquent adoption of a Germanic language and culture was not due to an invasion period, but merely an act of the British adopting the habbits of the dominant local culture, to better fit into local power spheres. Currently, there is little to no evidence of a violent invasion from continental Europe.
Another supporting factor for this hypothesis is the genetic evidence that most British residents have ancestry on the Isles extending for more than 2,000 years, and well beyond (9,000 in some instances). Likewise, some scholars attribute English's rapid loss in the use of declension, relying more on word oder, was due to the Celtic influence, seeing as for most inhabitants, it was their original language.
I was wandering if anyone has any more information on the influences of the Celtic herritage over the development of the English language. I always thought that the loss of the declension system occued throughout the French possession of England, but I suppose I never really read anything to back this up, but merely assumed, as it was the period where Old English evolved into Middle English.
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Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:32 pm
I don't know anything about how the Celtic and Geman languages evolved into English, but it would be fun to know more.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:04 pm
I'm the same as her, I have no idea, but it would be cool to see how it evoled. (Maybe I can take a class like that in college, it seems close to my intended major, that's over a yr from now, but it could happen sweatdrop )
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Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:44 am
I have never heard that theory about us Britons adopting English. From what I have read before, the native Britons spoke a Celtic Brythonic (or British) language very similar to Welsh, Cornish and Breton. However English was the language of the Anglo-Saxons who invaded from Germania bringing their Germanic language, Old English, with them. The British who weren't killed fighting the English invaders when defending the sub-Roman kingdoms would either then have been forced to intergrate into the invaders society (which I believe is less likely seeing as "barbarian" Saxon culture was very very different from "civilised" Romano-British culture) or migrate further west into the Cornish and Welsh kingdoms where their culture and language has continued up to the modern day.
I find it unlikely that the British would simply adopt Germanic culture and language, especially when there seems to be frontier of English and Welsh language speakers, coincidentally along the Welsh-English border (England being the land that the invaders took and occupied). And languages don't just disappear as fragments of them remain in languages that replace them, yet in the English language there is no Celtic influence at all. Also, the Anglo-Saxons, who spoke Old English, were not the dominant Germanic people as the nearby Franks in Frankia (France) were far more powerful and influential so it would have been much more logical to adopt the Frankish language rather than English.
Those are just my thoughts though and unfortunately there is little historical record of Dark Age Britain (why couldn't they write stuff down? Couldn't the Romans have taught us the keep records of things rather than build sewers?)
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