Languages from the Cradle - lullabies of Europe

About the English Language
English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, which is a large group of languages with a common ancestor. The influence of the original Indo-European languages can be noticed even today, even if there are no written documents to confirm. The English word father becomes vater in German, pater in Latin and pitr in Sanskrit. These words derive all from the same ancient root. English is a Germanic language of the Indo-European languages. Germanic languages started to develop about 3000 years ago and about the 200 BC they divided into subgroups.
The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD. Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the present day Denmark and northern Germany. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. Their language was called Englisc from which the word English derives. Old English was written in an alphabet called Runic, derived from the Scandinavian languages. The Latin alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries and this has remained the writing system of English. By the end of the 14th Century, the dialect of London had emerged as the standard dialect of what we now call Middle English.
Modern English began around the 16th Century and, like all languages, is still changing. Since the 16th Century, because of the contact that the British had with many people from around the world, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, many words have entered the language either directly or indirectly. New words were created at an increasing rate. Shakespeare coined over 1600 words. This process has grown exponentially in the modern era.
The colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a local dialect. Languages that have contributed words to English include Latin, Greek, French, German, Arabic, Hindi (from India), Italian, Malay, Dutch, Farsi (from Iran and Afghanistan), Nahuatl (the Aztec language), Sanskrit (from ancient India), Portuguese, Spanish, Tupi (from South America) and Ewe (from Africa). The list of borrowed words is enormous. The vocabulary of English is the largest of any language. Even with all these borrowings the heart of the language remains the Anglo-Saxon of Old English.

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Disclaimer: The project Languages from the cradle has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.