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English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects and was brought to Britain by Germanic invaders (or settlers) from what is now called north west Germany and the Netherlands.

The Celts

The earliest inhabitants of Britain about which something is known are the Celts (the name from the Greek “keltoi” meaning "barbarian"), also known as Britons, who probably started to move into the area sometime after 800 BC. By around 300 BC, the Celts had become the most widespread branch of IndoEuropeans in Iron Age Europe, inhabiting much of modern-day Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and also Britain.

The Picts

Parts of Scotland were also inhabited from the early time by the Picts, whose Pictish language was completely separate from Celtic and probably not an IndoEuropean language at all. The Pictish language and culture was completely wiped out during the Viking raids of the 9th Century AD, and the remaining Picts merged with the Scots.

Vocabulary

Despite their dominance in Britain at an early formative stage of its development, the Celts have actually had very little impact on the English language, leaving only a few littleused words such as brock (an old word for a badger), and a handful of geographical terms like coombe (a

and crag and tor rocky peak).

Vocabulary

Many British place names have Celtic origins, including:

Kent

York

London

Dover

Thames

Avon

Trent

Severn

Cornwall and many more

The Romans

The Romans first entered Britain in 55 BC under Julius Caesar, although they did not begin a permanent occupation until 43 AD, when Emperor Claudius sent a much better prepared force to subjugate the fierce British Celts. Despite a series of uprisings by the natives Britain remained part of the Roman Empire for almost 400 years, and there was a substantial amount of interbreeding between the two peoples, although the Romans never succeeded in penetrating into the mountainous regions of Wales and Scotland.

Vocabulary

The West Germanic invaders

More important than the Celts and the Romans for the development of the English language, though, was the succession of invasions from continental Europe after the Roman withdrawal. West Germanic invaders from

Jutland and southern Denmark-the Angles, Saxons, and Jutesbegan to settle in the British Isles in the fifth and sixth centuries AD.

Vocabulary