Реферат: The role played by the german and scandinavian tribes on english language

The English speech is one of the significant world languages today in the world, perhaps taking the first place by the number of its speakers. It is a language of Germanic groups of languages, spoken in United Kingdom, USA, Australia, New Zealand, India, and many other parts of the world. Today this language is becoming a dominant means of communication, and it is not surprising that millions of people are more and more paying time and money to learn this language. Thus many people go to the trouble of learning English in order to be able to communicate with the native English speakersor in some cases, with each other.

By family group, English belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group within the western branch of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages. It is related most closely to the Frisian language, to a lesser extent to Netherlandic (Dutch-Flemish) and the Low German (Plattdeutsch) dialects, and more distantly to Modern High German. Its parent, Proto-Indo-European, was spoken around 5,000 years ago by nomads who are thought to have roamed the South-east European plains.It is inevitable that a language like English, spoken by so many people scattered from one end of the world to the other, should have many varieties, differing rather widely from one another. The most obvious varieties are regional dialects, some of which go far back in history. Three main stages are usually recognized in the history of the development of the English language.

We are so accustomed to think 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 fifteen hundred years. Yet this part of the world had been inhabited by man 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 races can be detected; and each of these races had a language. Nowhere does our knowledge of the history of mankind carry us back to a time when man did not have a language. What can be said about the early languages of England? Unfortunately, little enough 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 man was dependent upon stone for the fabrication of such implements and weapons as he 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. Since 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.

Paleolithic Man, the earliest inhabitant 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. He was short of stature, averaging about five feet, long-armed and short-legged, with a low forehead and poorly developed chin. He lived in the open, under rock shelters or in later times in caves. He was dependent for food upon the vegetation that grew wild and such animals as he could capture and kill. Fortunately an abundance of fish and game materially lessened the problem of existence. His weapons scarcely extended beyond a primitive sledge or ax, to which he eventually learned to fix a handle. More than one race is likely to be represented in this early stage of culture. The men 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 t