LIN 401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Great Vowel Shift, Danelaw, Early Modern English
Document Summary
Languages of the past, relationships between languages, past. Language can change so much that it needs to be translated! English is a west-germanic language that received considerable influence from. People on the british isles spoke celtic languages. Germanic languages were spoken on the european mainland. Brought germanic languages to south and west britain. Loanwords (borrowed words) resulted from contact with latin. Loanwords can also come from travel and trade. The four germanic tribes: angles, saxons, jutes, frisians. Isolation lead to the development of different languages. Danes brought old norse to the british; the british were moved to the danelaw. King alfred the great - boosted the profile of english. The normans invaded england and brought anglo-french. Anglo french became upper-class language; anglo saxon (english) was the lower class language. Infusion of french words - brought regal and legal words - 10,000 total. Normandy seized by france led to people in england starting to speak english, not anglo-french.
