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The Origins Of The English Language

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II. First I will explain the origins of the English language. A. The English Language begins as Old English, which was spoken from the fifth century A.D. until the eleventh century. 1. Old English is also known as Anglo- Saxon. It is named after the Germanic tribes that migrated to the British Isles during the fifth and sixth centuries. a. These Germanic tribes were known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who originated from parts of present-day Denmark and Germany. b. According to oxforddictionaries.com, Old English is considered a Germanic language, which is related to what later became languages such as Dutch, Frisian, German, and the Scandinavian languages. c. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, published in 2014, states that there were four main dialects of Old English. These dialects were Kentish (spoken by the Jutes), West Saxon (spoken by the Saxons), and the dialects of Northumbrian and Mercian (which were spoken by the Angles). d. Although there were native Celtic tribes who lived in the British Isles before the Anglo-Saxon tribes, there was little Celtic influence on Old English. 2. Around 597 A.D. Roman missionaries led by St. Augustine were sent by Pope Gregory to convert the tribal kingdoms that inhabited Britain, which greatly impacted Old English. a. In the book Introduction to the History of English by Thomas Kohnen from 2014, Kohnen states that the spread of Christianity resulted in the expansion of literacy through the creation of

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