English Language

• Indo-European


  A major system of language that English has its roots in
• Major branches of the Indo-European tree

  • Teutonic
  • Romance
  • Greek
  • Slavic
  • Celtic
• English


  A Teutonic language
• English takes its most common words and structure from Anglo-Saxon, a Teutonic language
• English has borrowed heavily from Latin (a Romance language) and Greek, so its vocabulary actually has more words from these two languages than from Anglo-Saxon
• Brief history of the English language

  1. Early Celts inhabited England before Anglo-Saxons

  2. Romans occupied Britain for hundreds of years, leaving a lasting influence on the language

  3. Latin entered English at many different times

  4. Angles and Saxons drove Celts westward and established the basic English language

  5. Danes added their store of words

  6. Norman Conquest in 1066 almost doubled the vocabulary with French words based on Latin