Before the Romans came to England in 43 AD the British Isles were inhabited by the Celts, or Ancient Britons. Their language - Gaelic - lives on to this day in Wales, Cornwall, Scotland and Ireland. It is not closely related to modern English.
The Romans left England in 410 AD, and soon after England was invaded by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. These people came from around what is now northern Germany.
In the 600's (7th century AD), the Christian faith spread throughout England, and this resulted in many Latin words entering the language - especially words relating to religion. The Roman missionaries also introduced the Roman alphabet, and the art of writing on parchment.
Different parts of England spoke distinct dialects, and the dialects continued to change. The dialect known as West Saxon produced literature which still survives, and we call this language Old English. This language was spelt more phonetically than it is today - for example, silent letters were not used, and most consonants represented a single sound.
In the 800's and 900's, England was invaded by Vikings - mainly Danes - who settled in the east and north of England. Their language was similar to Old English, but they introduced many new words.
In 1066 England was again invaded, this time by the Normans from northern France. They introduced many French words, and also French ways of spelling old words. For about two centuries the country had two languages.
In the 1300's students at Oxford were forbidden to speak in English. Parliament was not conducted in English until 1362. But the English style of French gradually became different from proper French, and English eventually became more accepted.
But much of the French vocabulary remained. Today, 40% of our words are of French origin (although many of these came originally from Latin). However, most of our common words derive from Old English.
One big problem that resulted from mixing English and French has been that our spelling system has become a mix of the two. Whereas Old English spelling was fairly consistent, and modern French spelling is also fairly consistent, modern English is a real mix-up. For example, the use of 'c' to represent the 's' sound is a French habit which was not used in Old English. So now we have the word 'cinder' instead of the OE 'sinder'; 'ice' instead of OE 'is'; and 'mice' instead of OE 'mys'.
But some words still use 'c' to represent the 'k' sound. The 's' sound is represented by 'c' only before 'i' or 'e' - so 'c' can still represent the 'k' sound before other letters - as in cat, cot, cut, climb and crust. In the 1200's the 'c' sound before 'i' and 'e' came to be represented by 'k' - as in king and keen. But the rules are not consistent - for example the recent word 'kangaroo' (1770) uses 'k' before 'a'.
Also, French words do not pronounce an initial 'h'. So in English we have the word 'able' from the French 'habile'; but we retain 'h' in words where it is not pronounced - for example: heir, honest, honour, hour; and we now pronounce initial 'h' in words where Middle English did not pronounce it - for example: horrible, hospital, host.
In Old English the sound 'qu' as in 'queen' was spelt 'cw'. The 'qu' spelling was adopted in Middle English. But borrowings from French included many words where the sound 'k' was represented by 'qu' - as in quay, picturesque.
French borrowings also caused inconsistencies related to the letters 'ou'. Words derived from French include group and soup. But 'ou' is more commonly pronounced in English as in house and loud.
After about 1100 AD the dialect from Mercia in the middle of England became the most important of the English dialects, and this is known now as Middle English. But the upheaval caused by the Norman invasion led to the spelling system varying widely around the country.
The regional differences in Middle English have led to great inconsistencies in modern spelling. For example, 'bury' combines the sound from south-eastern England with the spelling from western England; while 'busy' has north-eastern pronunciation but western spelling.
The problem of 'gh' also stems from this period. Middle English words which were pronounced with the sound as in the 'ch' of the Scottish word 'loch' (or German 'ich') came to be written with a 'gh' - for example: night, high, ought, bough. These spellings have been retained even though the rough sound has disappeared. In some words this same sound has not been entirely lost but has come to sound like 'f' - for example: cough, laugh, tough.
The spelling 'ch' appeared in the 1200's. However the application of 'ch' has not been consistent. Words borrowed from modern French like 'chauffeur' and 'machine' use 'ch' to represent the 'sh' sound. Words borrowed from Latin such as 'chorus' and 'archive' use 'ch' to represent the 'k' sound. And words from Italian such as 'cello' and 'concerto' represent the 'ch' sound with a 'c'.
During the Renaissance (1400's and 1500's) the Latin language became important in England - for example in the church and in medicine. So English acquired many Latin words in this period.
The mixture of English and Latin also caused inconsistencies in spelling. For example, late Latin developed the practice of using 'o' in place of 'u'. So now we have words like come, some, monk, son, tongue, wonder, honey, above, done and love.
By about the year 1500, English had reached a form somewhat similar to that of today, so that we say that Modern English was in use from about that time.
In the 1500's many writers followed a fashion of spelling words to indicate
their Latin or Greek origin. For example, the 'g' was added to 'reign' to
reflect the Latin root 'regno', and 'b' was inserted in 'debt' to reflect the
Latin root 'debitum'. But this fashion was carried out in a haphazard and
inaccurate way - for example 's' was inserted in 'island' because the root was
thought to be the Latin 'insula' - whereas in fact the true Anglo-Saxon root
had no 's'.
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