Editing British English (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of the English language}}

===Origins===
{{further|History of the English language|Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Germanic|Proto-West Germanic|Proto-English|Old English|Middle English|Early Modern English|Modern English}}
English is a [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic language]] that originated from the [[Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo-Frisian]] [[dialect]]s brought to Britain by [[Germanic peoples|Germanic settlers]] from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands. The resident population at this time was generally speaking [[Common Brittonic]]—the insular variety of [[Continental Celtic]], which was influenced by the [[Roman army|Roman]] occupation. This group of languages ([[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Cornish language|Cornish]], [[Cumbric]]) cohabited alongside English into the modern period, but due to their remoteness from the [[Germanic languages]], influence on English was [[Lists of English words of Celtic origin|notably limited]]. However, the degree of influence remains debated, and it has recently been argued that its grammatical influence accounts for the substantial innovations noted between English and the other West Germanic languages.<ref>[[English and Welsh]], 1955 J. R. R. Tolkien, also see references in [[Brittonicisms in English]]</ref>

Initially, [[Old English]] was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the [[Anglo-Saxon]] kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, [[Late West Saxon]], eventually came to dominate. The original [[Old English]] was then influenced by two waves of invasion: the first was by speakers of the [[Scandinavia]]n branch of the Germanic family, who settled in parts of Britain in the eighth and ninth centuries; the second was the [[Normans]] in the 11th century, who spoke [[Old Norman]] and ultimately developed an English variety of this called [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman]]. These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly [[mixed language]] in the strictest sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication).

The more idiomatic, concrete and descriptive English is, the more it is from Anglo-Saxon origins. The more intellectual and abstract English is, the more it contains [[Latin]] and [[French language|French]] influences, e.g. swine (like the Germanic {{Lang|de|schwein}}) is the animal in the field bred by the occupied Anglo-Saxons and pork (like the French {{Lang|fr|porc}}) is the animal at the table eaten by the occupying Normans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/HistEngoverhead.htm|title=Linguistics 201: History of English|website=Pandora Internet Web Server |access-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018113704/http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/HistEngoverhead.htm|archive-date=18 October 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Another example is the Anglo-Saxon {{Lang|ang|cu}} meaning cow, and the French {{Lang|fr|bœuf}} meaning beef.<ref>{{Citation|title=Why You Swear in Anglo-Saxon and Order Fancy Food in French: Registers |first1=Tom |last1=Scott |website=YouTube |date= 14 June 2013 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA2xRVMOThc| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/wA2xRVMOThc| archive-date=28 October 2021|language=en|access-date=18 March 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the [[Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo-Frisian]] core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the [[Romance languages|Romance]] branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a [[loanword|"borrowing" language]] of great flexibility and with a huge [[vocabulary]].