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Reading A: The Story of Old English (by David Crystal)

Summary by Will Gurdian

 

In any external history of English (an account of who spoke the language, where and when), the main questions are, where did the first speakers of English came from and where did they settle? Reading A in Chapter 3 of our text is one such account of the origins of English (up to the Norman conquest in 1066) by David Crystal, a contemporary linguist, taken from Crystal’s 1988 book, “The English Language.”

Crystal believes the roots of the language were not indigenous to what is today the United Kingdom, but came instead from present-day northern Germany. Before the invasion of England by these Germanic, Anglo-Saxon tribes, the languages spoken in England were Celtic. Although these Celts were first subjugated by the Romans, Crystal points out, no one knows if they spoke any Latin. After the Romans left in the early 5th century, the Anglo-Saxons soon came to the British Isles.

Crystal says the Anglo-Saxons destroyed many Celtic communities, and eventually pushed the Celts in a northwestward direction into present-day Cornwall, Wales and Cumbria. If any Celts remained in the Anglo-Saxon-controlled south and east of the country, Crystal believes they would have been assimilated. He says this because he also believes the Celtic language had almost no influence whatsoever on the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. As evidence of this, he points to the small smattering of Celtic words that were incorporated into Old English.

            By contrast, the Anglo-Saxons incorporated large portions of vocabulary from other groups of people – newcomers to England like themselves: the Christian missionaries from Rome and the Vikings (Danes). First arriving in England from AD 597, Christian missionaries brought with them a Latin vocabulary that was incorporated into Old English. By Crystal’s count, 450 words became part of the language of the Anglo-Saxons, words dealing mostly with liturgy and science. The Vikings first invaded England in AD 787, and they maintained a large presence there until the beginning of the 11th century. England was completely under Danish rule for 25 years. As a result of this prolonged language contact, Crystal estimates that more than 1,800 words of “definite or probable” Scandinavian origin became part of Old English (and are still part of contemporary English). The majority of these borrowed words are place names, but even some of the most common words in English came from Scandinavian, such as “both,” “same,” “get,” “give” and “take.”

            Crystal claims there is a “clear line of descent” from Old English to contemporary English. He sees this in the sounds, spelling, grammar and vocabulary of both, claiming that one-third of the vocabulary in contemporary English is of Old English origin.

 

Study Questions:

  1. According to Crystal, which group of people had the largest role in the formation of Old English? Which group had the smallest role?
  2. Considering what we learned in class on 9/28 about the way a language story is told, which group of people does Crystal consider to be the “hero,” and which group of people does he consider the “villain”? How might this story of Old English be told if these roles were reversed?
  3. Before the Norman invasion in 1066, which invading people had the largest impact on the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons?

 

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