THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - PART 2

ANGLO-SAXONS

Due to the difficulties faced by the Empire in Rome, the Roman legions in 410 AD, they abandoned the Britannia, leaving its inhabitants Celts in the hands of enemies.

Once Rome had no military force to defend them in 449 AD, Celts seek help with Germanic tribes - Jutes, Angles, Saxons and Frisians. These, however, opportunistically, they become invasive, taking in more fertile areas of southeast Britain, destroying villages and slaughtering the local population.

Celtic-Britons survivors took refuge in the west. Evidence of violence and disregard for local culture of the invaders is the fact that almost no traces of Celtic language were in English.

What will give rise to the English language are the Germanic dialects spoken by the Angles and Saxons. The word England, for example, originated from Angle-land (land of the Angles). From there, the history of English is divided into three periods: Old English, Middle English and Modern English. The second half of the fifth century, when Germanic invasions occurred, marks the beginning of the period known as Old English.