Wait.. so this is the original english? I thought english has always been the same like we're speaking now but that is not true? So this is the actual original english? So how did it change? And why did it change?
Not the most accurate but I’ll try my best: Originally, the British Isles were inhabited by the indigenous Celtic peoples. they spoke the indigenous languages of Brittonic, Cornish, Gaelic Manx, Scottis, Irish, and a couple others as well. Eventually Germanic peoples from Roman legions settled in the conquered territories. The first early English speakers pop up, some Latin entered the mix too. (More of the Romances languages will come). After Rome left and then collapsed, a sudden migration of Germanic peoples came to England. These Germanic peoples are from a pretty wide range. Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. The prevailing theory as to why they emigrated was because The Isles had more fertile land to farm on. The most prominent were the Angles and the Saxons. There were the Jutes but they got absorbed by Danes and the aforementioned Angles and Saxons. Not to say they weren’t significant, they were, just trying to save time. The Celtic languages never meaningfully integrated or influenced the Germanic languages, so they either went extinct via assimilation, or moved away to different areas. England was made up many kingdoms competing and fighting, forming alliances, betrayal, classic nation building, until King Æthelstan conquered them all and created the Kingdom in England English at this point remained fairly Germanic. Little bit of Latin sprinkles with a Celtic cherry on top, but remained very Germanic. as you hear in the video, but that would soon change. Eventually this arising culture called the Normans popped up. Originally Scandinavians who settled in west Francia, they founded the Duchy of Normandy (D-Day). Norman-French became their language. Due to the Normans assimilation with Frankish populations, a fusion between Norman and French arose (mainly french). I cannot stress how French they were. After the death of King Edward, there was no direct heir, so the war for the English crown was on. In 1066, William the conqueror became the first Norman king, and proceeded to install his cronies into power, replacing Germanic rulers with French/Norman rulers. French was for King and court, while English remained for the everyday commoner. Marriage pacts helped maintain that dominance. Until King Henry the V broke this 320 year French hold by promoting the usage of English in court. Specifically Middle English. English has 4 periods of evolution, Old, Middle, Early and Late Modern. There is a video on RU-vid that you can look up to hear this evolution. Great stuff.
Pure brimstone show. The Vikings were terrible at fighting and got annihilated pretty much anywhere they went, whether that was England, Ireland, Scotland, France or Germany.
I find it very fitting that an ominous sign such as a dragon-shaped cloud in a storm heralds the beginning of the Viking Age, which forever changed the course of European history.
On the topic of English evolution is American English today what English people sounded like In the 1700s? Or did they sound like what they sound like now and it's us that went our own way?
We read through the first part of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English at school in 1963. Can't remember any of it, wasn't much use for a trainee Quantity Surveyor.
At our school (USA), Chaucer was only taught in Middle English. I can still recite the prologue. The modern English translations lose so much of the beauty of the poetry. And that's the kindness thing I can say about them.
