UNIT 3 OLD ENGLISH

3.1-3.2
ORIGEN E HISTORIA DEL IDIOMA INGLÉS
DRA. MARY GRACE KILLIAN REYES
2025-1
3.1 THE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND BEFORE
ENGLISH
We are so accustomed to thinking of English as an inseparable
adjunct to the English people that we are likely to forget that it has
been the language of England for a comparatively short period in
the world’s history.
Since its introduction into the island about the middle of the fifth
century it has had a career extending through only 1,500 years.
Yet this part of the world had been inhabited by humans for
thousands of years: 50,000 according to more moderate
estimates, 250,000 in the opinion of some.
During this long stretch of time, most of it dimly visible through
prehistoric mists, the presence of a number of cultures can be
detected; and each of these cultures had a language.
3.1 THE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND
BEFORE ENGLISH
What we know of the earliest inhabitants of England is derived wholly
from the material remains that have been uncovered by archaeological
research.
The classification of these inhabitants is consequently based upon the
types of material culture that characterized them in their successive
stages.
Before the discovery of metals, human societies were dependent upon
stone for the fabrication of such implements and weapons as they
possessed.
Generally speaking, the Stone Age is thought to have lasted in England
until about 2000 B.C., although the English were still using some stone
weapons in the battle of Hastings in 1066.
Stone, however, gradually gave way to bronze, as bronze was eventually
displaced by iron about 500 or 600 B.C.
Because the Stone Age was of long duration, it is customary to distinguish
between an earlier and a later period, known as the Paleolithic (Old Stone)
Age and the Neolithic (New Stone) Age.
 3.1 THE LANGUAGES IN
ENGLAND BEFORE ENGLISH
Paleolithic humans, the earliest inhabitants of England,
entered at a time when this part of the world formed a
part of the continent of Europe, when there was no
English Channel and when the North Sea was not much
more than an enlarged river basin.
The people of this period were short of stature, averaging
about five feet, long-armed and short-legged, with low
foreheads and poorly developed chins.
They lived in the open, under rock shelters or, later, in
caves. They were dependent for food upon the vegetation
that grew wild and such animals as they could capture and
kill.
Fortunately, an abundance of fish and game materially
lessened the problem of existence.
3.1 THE LANGUAGES IN
ENGLAND BEFORE ENGLISH
Their weapons scarcely extended beyond a primitive sledge
or ax, to which they eventually learned to affix a handle. More
than one distinct group is likely to be represented in this early
stage of culture.
The humans whose remains are found in the latest Paleolithic
strata are distinguished by a high degree of artistic skill.
But representations of boar and mastodon on pieces of bone
or the walls of caves tell us nothing about the language of
their designers.
Their language disappeared with the disappearance of the
race, or their absorption into the later population. We know
nothing about the language, or languages, of Paleolithic
culture.
3.1 THE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND
BEFORE ENGLISH
“Neolithic” is likewise a convenient rather than scientific term to
designate the peoples who, from about 5000 B.C., possess a
superior kind of stone implement, often polished, and a higher
culture generally.
The predominant type in this new population appears to have
come from the south and, from its widespread distribution in the
lands bordering on the Mediterranean, is known as the
Mediterranean race.
It was a dark race of slightly larger stature than the Paleolithic
population. The people of this technologically more advanced
culture had domesticated the common domestic animals and
developed elementary agriculture.
They made crude pottery and did a little weaving, and some lived
in crannogs, structures built on pilings driven into swamps and
lakes.
3.1 THE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND
BEFORE ENGLISH
They buried their dead, covering the more important members
of society with large mounds or barrows, oval in shape.
But they did not have the artistic gifts of late Paleolithic peoples.
Their language has not survived, and because our hope of
learning anything about the language they spoke rests upon our
finding somewhere a remnant of the race still speaking that
language, that hope, so far as England is concerned, is dead.
3.1 THE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND
BEFORE ENGLISH
The first people in England about whose language we have
definite knowledge are the Celts.
It used to be assumed that the coming of the Celts to England
coincided with the introduction of bronze into the island.
But the use of bronze probably preceded the Celts by several
centuries. We have already described the Celtic languages in
England and called attention to the two divisions of them, the
Gaelic or Goidelic branch and the Brythonic branch.
Celtic was probably the first Indo-European tongue to be
spoken in England.
One other language, Latin, was spoken rather extensively for
a period of about four centuries before the coming of English.
Latin was introduced when Britain became a province of the
Roman Empire.
3.2 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN
In the summer of 55 B.C.Julius Caesar, having completed
the conquest of Gaul, decided upon an invasion of
England.
What the object of his enterprise was is not known for
certain. It is unlikely that he contemplated the conquest of
the island; probably his chief purpose was to discourage
the Celts of Britain from coming to the assistance of Celts
in Gaul, should the latter attempt to throw off the Roman
yoke.
The expedition that year almost ended disastrously, and
his return the following year was not a great success.
In crossing the Channel some of his transports
encountered a storm that deprived him of the support of
his cavalry.
The resistance of the Celts was unexpectedly spirited. It
was with difficulty that he effected a landing, and he
made little headway. Because the season was far
advanced, he soon returned to Gaul.
3.2 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN
The expedition had resulted in no material gain and some loss of
prestige.
Accordingly the following summer he again invaded the island,
after much more elaborate preparations.
This time he succeeded in establishing himself in the southeast.
But after a few encounters with the Celts, in which he was
moderately successful, he exacted tribute from them (which was
never paid) and again returned to Gaul.
He had perhaps succeeded in his purpose, but he had by no
means struck terror into the hearts of the Celts, and Britain was
not again troubled by Roman legions for nearly a hundred years.
3.2 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN
• The Roman Conquest.
It was in A.D. 43 that the Emperor Claudius decided to undertake
the actual conquest of the island. With the knowledge of Caesar’s
experience behind him, he did not underestimate the problems
involved.
Accordingly an army of 40,000 was sent to Britain and within
three years had subjugated the peoples of the central and
southeastern regions.
Subsequent campaigns soon brought almost all of what is now
England under Roman rule.
The progress of Roman control was not uninterrupted.
A serious uprising of the Celts occurred in A.D. 61 under Boudicca
(Boadicea), the widow of one of the Celtic chiefs, and 70,000
Romans and Romanized Britons are said to have been
massacred.
3.2 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN

Under the Roman Governor Agricola (A.D. 78–85) the

northern frontier was advanced to the Solway and the
Tyne, and the conquest may be said to have been
completed.
The Romans never penetrated far into the mountains of
Wales and Scotland. Eventually they protected the
northern boundary by a stone wall stretching across
England at approximately the limits of Agricola’s
permanent conquest.
The district south of this line was under Roman rule for
more than 300 years.
3.2 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN
• Romanization of the Island.
It was inevitable that the military conquest of Britain
should have been followed by the Romanization of the
province. Where the Romans lived and ruled, there
Roman ways were found.
Four great highways soon spread fanlike from London
to the north, the northwest, the west, and the
southwest, while a fifth cut across the island from
Lincoln to the Severn.
Numerous lesser roads connected important military or
civil centers or branched off as spurs from the main
highways. A score of small cities and more than a
hundred towns, with their Roman houses and baths,
temples, and occasional theaters, testify to the
introduction of Roman habits of life.
3.2 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN
The houses were equipped with heating apparatus
and water supply, their floors were paved in mosaic,
and their walls were of painted stucco—all as in their
Italian counterparts.
Roman dress, Roman ornaments and utensils, and
Roman pottery and glassware seem to have been in
general use.
By the third century Christianity had made some
progress in the island, and in A.D. 314, bishops from
London and York attended a church council in Gaul.
Under the relatively peaceful conditions that existed
everywhere except along the frontiers, where the
hostile penetration of the unconquered population
was always to be feared, there is every reason to think
that Romanization had proceeded very much as it had
in the other provinces of the empire.
The difference is that in Britain the process was cut
short in the fifth century.
3.2 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN
• The Latin Language in Britain
Among the other evidences of Romanization must be included the
use of the Latin language. A great number of inscriptions have
been found, all of them in Latin.
The majority of these proceed no doubt from the military and official
class and, being in the nature of public records, were therefore in the
official language.
They do not in themselves indicate a widespread use of Latin by the
native population. Latin did not replace the Celtic language in Britain
as it did in Gaul.
Its use by native Britons was probably confined to members of the
upper classes and some inhabitants of the cities and towns.
Occasional graffiti scratched on a tile or a piece of pottery, apparently
by the worker who made it, suggest that in some localities Latin was
familiar to the artisan class.
Outside the cities there were many fine country houses, some of
which were probably occupied by the well-to-do. The occupants of
these also probably spoke Latin.
 3.2 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN
Tacitus tells us that in the time of Agricola, the Britons
who had shown only hostility to the language of their
conquerors, now became eager to speak it.
On the whole, there were certainly many people in
Roman Britain who habitually spoke Latin or upon
occasion could use it.
But its use was not sufficiently widespread to cause it
to survive, as the Celtic language survived, the
upheaval of the Germanic invasions.
Its use probably began to decline after 410, the
approximate date at which the last of the Roman
legions were officially withdrawn from the island.
The few traces that it has left in the language of the
Germanic invaders and that can still be seen in the
English language today
The Germanic Conquest.
The Germanic Conquest.
About the year 449 an event occurred that
profoundly affected the course of history. In
that year, as traditionally stated, began the
invasion of Britain by certain Germanic tribes,
the founders of the English nation.
For more than a hundred years bands of
conquerors and settlers migrated from their
continental homes in the region of Denmark
and the Low Countries and established
themselves in the south and east of the island,
gradually extending the area they occupied
until it included all but the highlands in the
west and north.
The Germanic Conquest.
The traditional account of the Germanic invasions goes back
to Bede and the AngloSaxon Chronicle.
Bede in his “Eclesiastical History of the English People”,
completed in 731, tells us that the Germanic tribes that
conquered England were the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles.
From what he says and from other indications, it seems
possible that the Jutes and the Angles had their home in the
Danish peninsula, the Jutes in the northern half (hence the
name Jutland) and the Angles in the south, in Schleswig-
Holstein, and perhaps a small area at the base.
The Saxons were settled to the south and west of the Angles,
roughly between the Elbe and the Ems, possibly as far as the
Rhine.
The Germanic Conquest.
A fourth tribe, the Frisians, some of whom almost certainly came
to England, occupied a narrow strip along the coast from the
Weser to the Rhine, together with the islands opposite.
But by the time of the invasions the Jutes had apparently moved
down to the coastal area near the mouth of the Weser, and
possibly also around the Zuyder Zee and the lower Rhine, thus
being in contact with both the Frisians and Saxons.
Britain had been exposed to attacks by the Saxons from as early
as the fourth century.
Even while the island was under Roman rule these attacks had
become sufficiently serious to necessitate the appointment of an
officer known as the Count of the Saxon Shore, whose duty it was
to police the southeastern coast.
At the same time the unconquered Picts and Scots in the north
were kept out only at the price of constant vigilance. Against
both of these sources of attack the Roman organization seems to
have proved adequate.
The Germanic Conquest.
But the Celts had come to depend on Roman arms for this
protection. They had, moreover, under Roman influence settled
down to a more peaceful mode of life, and their military traditions
had lapsed.
Consequently when the Romans withdrew in 410 the Celts found
themselves at a disadvantage.
They were no longer able to keep out the warlike Picts and Scots.
Several times they called upon Rome for aid, but finally the
Romans, fully occupied in defending their own territory at home,
were forced to refuse assistance.
It was on this occasion that Vortigern, one of the Celtic leaders, is
reported to have entered into an agreement with the Jutes
whereby they were to assist the Celts in driving out the Picts and
Scots and to receive as their reward the isle of Thanet on the
northeastern tip of Kent.
The Germanic Conquest.
The Jutes, who had not been softened by contact with
Roman civilization, were fully a match for the Picts and
Scots. But Vortigern and the Celts soon found that they had
in these temporary allies something more serious to reckon
with than their northern enemies.
The Jutes, having recognized the weakness of the Britons,
decided to stay in the island and began making a forcible
settlement in the southeast, in Kent.
The settlement of the Jutes was a very different thing from
the conquest of the island by the Romans. The Romans had
come to rule the Celtic population, not to dispossess it. The
Jutes came in numbers and settled on the lands of the Celts.
The Germanic Conquest.
They met the resistance of the Celts by driving them out.
Moreover the example of the Jutes was soon followed by the
migration of other continental tribes.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle some of the Saxons
came in 477, landed on the south coast, and established
themselves in Sussex. In 495 further bands of Saxons settled a
little to the west, in Wessex.
Finally in the middle of the next century the Angles occupied
the east coast and in 547 established an Anglian kingdom north
of the Humber.
There were Saxons north of the Thames, as the names Essex
and Middlesex (the districts of the East Saxons and Middle
Saxons) indicate, and the Angles had already begun to settle in
East Anglia by the end of the fifth century.