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Many of you here can claim English as your mother tongue, perhaps because your ancestors came to the Colonies from somewhere in the British Isles. The way that the languages into use today came about is a fascinating subject to many people, including me. I was raised speaking four languages on an almost daily basis - three of them common to the British Isles and one from the Middle East. I later added four more to that total, and a working knowledge of another three. That might account, in a way, to my rather stilted use of English, which is not really my preferred lingua franca.

A forum pal of mine, who lives up in the far north of Scotland in Wester Ross, found this and posted it on airgunbbs.com, where I found it, and with his blessing, I've reposted it here.

A Brief History of British and Irish Languages - Starkey Comics

Thanks, Will, Go raibh maith agat go leor leat.

As a long-time student of languages, bearing in mind that I'm not any kind of an expert, just an everyday user of three of the British languages, I'm happy to get involved in any discussion that this post might raise, if at all.
 
I often think about how language and traditions of peoples are intertwined. This makes me wonder what has been lost over the centuries. For example, my wifes grandmother was the eldest member of a pacific northwest native tribe. In the early nineties someone wanted to take video of the elders speaking in their native tounge, but even at that time, they often could not agree on how or what words to use due to the loss of the language. Over time, throughout history we see "agressors" assimilating "native" cultures into themselves either by force or younger generations slowly drifting towards the more "popular" form of communication.

On a side note, this reminds me of a early culture of Japan. Called the Jomon, known for their intricate ceramics, but the language has been lost to time, so now we can only imagine their culture and what significance these ceramic vessels had in thier culture.

What has come into being and dissapeared throughout humanity is....
Hard to wrap my mind around.
 
One thing is that English is closely related to German.* In some places, native speakers will understand each other, even tho they are from different countries.

The Latin based languages can have that feel.

This map is interesting
In 1066 the English were conquered (defeated) by the Vikings* (Norman France )
Surprised there is not more of their language at this time
Battle of Hastings - Wikipedia
upload_2019-3-7_11-23-22.png


Good stuff, thanks for sharing.


*((Anglo-Saxons. They came from Denmark and northern Germany,))
*((The Vikings in the region became known as the "Northmen," from which "Normandy" and "Normans" are derived. ))
 
By the time that Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, got around to thinking about his new location and what language he should adopt or continue to use, it was obvious that in order to get along with his new neighbours in France, it was going to have to be French. So the North Germanic language they spoke - Old Norse, was quickly forgotten and was completely supplanted by French. When they successfully invaded England in 1066, the language they imported with them was Norman French, which continued to be the language of court and courts for a couple of hundred years. The remainders of that language, like the word 'remainder', survive in the legal world of lawyers and justice - 'lawyer' is an Old English word, and 'justice; is Norman-french. As is clerk, bailiff, judge, accountant, tort, sue, plaintiff, court, attainer, retainer, complaint, restrain, order and hundreds more.

What is more surprising is that the north of England. and the counties therein, retain [another French word] a HUGE element of Old Norse, and the Southern part of England, a HUGE element of Danish and Friese.

It's a fascinating subject [two French words there], non?
 
French getting snuck in,

Cow = du boeuf
Pig = porc

etc, makes sense.

Hidden in the day to day.

Basically, if it was walking, then it was in English and if ready to eat, then Norman French -

Sheep - mutton [mouton]

Swine/pig - pork

Cow - beef

Calf meat - veal

Chicken - poultry from NF poultrie = chicken in MF = la poule

Same with animal names - Big Swan = swan, but little swan = cygnet from NF - cignette/MF - cygne

About 25% of ME is French or French-derived, however, the further East and North you go in England. the more Old Norse/Old Danish you find. Place-name endings like -sey, -by and -wy are ON/OD, whereas places with names that end in -bury/burgh denote a fortified location with some kind of a prefix of a personal name, and are OE/AS. All places with suffixes like -caster, -chester, -caister, -cester et al were Roman forts.

I could go on like this for ages, since it was part of my degree in Modern Languages, but you can look it all up far better than I can explain it -

than = Old English/Anglo-Saxon

I = Old English/Anglo-Saxon

can = Old English/Anglo Saxon

explain = Norman French

it = Old Germanic
 

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