A Brief History of Old England.pptVIP

The Trace of the English Language Prehistoric ages: Indo-European. According to the philologists, the original home Indo-European family was the mainland of Europe and the Western part of Asia. 11 principle groups: With the immigration of the people, the great tribe split. Accordingly, the language fall into, Indian, Iranian, Armenian (as ancient country in western Asia, now divided between Armenia, Turkey, Iran), Italic, Balto-Slavic (Baltic), Germanic( the origin of Old English), Celtic, Hittite( Anatolia, Syria 1900-1200 B.C., cuniform syllabary), Tocharian( spoken in the NE tarim basin of western China c. 500-800A.D.) The aboriginals in Britain The British Isles has her inhabitants long before the record of history, since Paleolithic Age（旧石器时代）, 50,000years according to more moderate estimates, 250,000 in the opinion of some. The first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge are the Celts. Celts was probably the first Indo-European tongue to be spoken in England. The other language appeared. It was Latin. In the summer of 55 B.C., Julius Caesar, having completed the conquest of Gaul, invaded Briton, and conquered it. Briton became one of Roman provinces for a very long time. Since then, till 410 A.D., the last of the Roman legions officially withdrawn from the island. About the year 449, as traditionally stated, began the invasion of Britain by certain Germanic tribes, the founders of the English nation. Germanic Tribes That Conquered England the Jutes( Danish peninsula in North) Saxons( Rhine) Angles( South, from which the word English came) The Periods in the History of English The period from 450 to 1150 is know as Old English. It is sometimes described as the period of full inflections( 变音)， because during most of this period the endings of the noun, the adjective and the verb are preserved more or less unimpaired. Foreign Influences on OE The Celts. The influence of Celtic on OE is weak, because of the Celt’s submerged