The history of English language(英汉双语)

英语属于西日耳曼语支，起源于盎格鲁

-

弗里西 亚方言，是在日耳曼人入侵时被引入不列颠的。

English is a West Germanic language that originated from theAnglo-Frisian dialects, brought

to Britain by Germanic invaders

最初的古英语由多种方言组成，晚期西撒克逊语最终成为了统一英语的语言。

现代人所认识的英语，很大程度上和公元

140 0

年的书面中古英语相似。这种转变是由历史上两

次入侵引起的 。第一次是来自北日耳曼语支

North

Germanic

languages.

（也称斯堪的那维亚语支）

的入侵，他们在公元八、九世纪征服并使部分不列颠岛成为他们的殖民地。第二次是十一世纪

时来自诺曼人的入侵，他们讲的古诺曼语最终发展为英语的一种变体，称为盎格鲁

-

诺曼语。

Middle English differed from Old English because of two invasions which occurred during the Middle

Ages. The 1st invasion was by peoples who spoke North Germanic languages. They conquered and

colonized parts of Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. The 2nd invasion was by the Normans

of the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and eventually developed an English form thereof

called Anglo- Norman.

Proto-English

英语诞生于日 耳曼人的语言，主要包括盎格鲁语，撒克逊语，弗里西语，朱特语。这其中还可

能含有法 兰克语，之后又融合了拉丁语。

The languages of Germanic peoples gave rise to the English language( the best known are the Angles,

Saxons, Frisii, Jutes and possibly some Franks,) . Latin loan wordsentered the vocabulary.

Old English

–

from the mid-5th century to the mid-11th century < /p>

人们现在所讲的古英语是长期以来多个殖民部落的方言融合而形成的。在盎格鲁

撒克逊入侵之

后，日耳曼语言就取代了大不列颠 某地区（现英格兰岛）上本土的布立吞语和拉丁语。凯尔特

语则在苏格兰、威尔士、康沃 尔等地保留下来。

What is now called Old Englishemerged over time out of the many dialects and languages of the

colonising tribes. After the Anglo- Saxon invasion, the Germanic language possibly displaced the

indigenousBrythonic languages andLatin in most of the areas ofGreat Britainthat later became England.

The originalCeltic languagesremained in parts ofScotland, Walesand Cornwall

拉丁语也在这些地区 作为凯尔特教堂用语、受过高等教育的人使用的高尚语言得以保留。拉丁

语后来还被凯尔 特和罗马教堂的传教士重新引入英格兰，对英语语言产生很大影响。

Latin also remained in these areas as the language of the Celtic Church and of higher education for the

nobility. Latin was later to be reintroduced to England by missionaries from both the Celtic and Roman

churches, and it would, in time, have a major impact on English.

作为一门日耳曼语言，大约有 一半的现代日常用词具有古英语词根。像

be, strong

以及

water

这

些词，都源自古英语。

Old English varied widely from modern Standard English. Native English speakers today would find

Old English unintelligible without studying it as a separate language. Nevertheless, English remains a

Germanic language, and approximately half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have

Old English roots. The words

be

,

strong

and

water

, for example, derive from Old English.

很多非标准的方言，如苏格兰语、诺森伯兰语 都保留了古英语的词汇和发音特点。

[5]

古英语的

Many non-standard dialects such as Scots and Northumbrian English have retained features of Old

English in vocabulary and pronunciation.

[7]

Old English was spoken until some time in the 12th or 13th

century.

公元十、十一世纪，古英语受到 了属于北日耳曼语支的古诺尔斯语的强烈影响。包括阴阳性的

丢失、格的变化（代词除外 ）。英语大约从古诺尔斯语借用了两千个词条，比如：

anger, bag,

both, hit, law, leg, same, skill, sky, take

等等，还可能包括代词

they

。

In the 10th and 11th centuries, Old English was strongly influenced by the North

Germanic languageOld Norse, spoken by the Norsemen who invaded and settled mainly in the North

East of England. The Germanic language of the Old English-speaking inhabitants was influenced by

extensive contact with Norse colonizers, resulting perhaps in cases of morphological simplification of

Old English, including the loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked case (with the notable

exception of the pronouns). English borrowed approximately two thousand words from Old Norse,

including

anger

,

bag

,

both

,

hit

,

law

,

leg

,

same

,

skill

,

sky

,

take

, and many others, possibly even including

the pronoun

they

.

由于公元六世纪晚期基督 教的引入，超过

400

个拉丁词被借用引入英语，包括：

priest, paper,

school

等词，以及一些较少的希腊语词汇。古英语时期正式结束是在

1066

年诺曼征服后，诺曼

人开始大规模影响英语语言时。诺曼人讲的是一种叫古诺 曼语的法语方言。

The introduction of Christianity late in the 6th century encouraged the addition of over 400 Latinloan

words, such as

priest

,

paper

, and

school

, and fewer Greek loan words. The Old English period formally

ended some time after the Norman conquest(starting in 1066 AD), when the language was influenced to

an even greater extent by the Normans, who spoke a French dialect called Old Norman.

Middle English

–

from the late 11th to the late 15th century

我们现在所称的中古英语是指诺曼语的影响是英 语在受侵略后发生语言大转变的体现。

The

Middle English we called now means the language producing from Norman influence is the hallmark

of the linguistic shifts in English over the period of time following the invasion.

诺曼征服后的几个世

纪内，诺曼的国王以及高层贵族曾一度流行奥依语 ，该语言属法语的一种，称盎格鲁

-

诺曼语。

< br>其使用范围甚至扩张到了不列颠群岛的其他地方，并受到北方奥依语方言的影响。商人和较低

阶层的贵族曾经同时使用盎格鲁

-

诺曼语和英语，英 语仍然被视为普通人使用的语言。

For centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and high-ranking nobles

spoke that we call Anglo-Norman. Merchants and lower-ranked nobles were often bilingual in Anglo-

Norman and English, whilst English continued to be the language of the common people. Middle

English was influenced by both Anglo-Norman and, later, Anglo- French

英语也受到被其取代的凯尔特语言的影响，特别是布立吞语的影响。最明 显的是

“

进行时

”

的引

入，它是许多现代语言特征，但它是在英语中更早地、更充分地被发展的。

English was also

influenced by the Celtic languages it was displacing, especially the Brittonic substrate, most notably

with the introduction of the continuous aspect, which is a feature found in many modern languages but

developed earlier and more thoroughly in English.

英语文学在

1200

年后重新出现，受那时的政治氛围和盎格鲁

-

诺曼语言不断衰落的影响，英语

变得愈加受尊重（即地位不再 处于普通人的语言之列）。

1362

年爱德华三世成为首个用英 语发

表英国国会演讲的国王。到了十四世纪末，就连贵族阶层也开始使用英语。到这一时 期，盎格

鲁

-

诺曼语变成仅在小圈子内 部使用的语言，后来就不再活跃了。

English literature reappeared after 1200, when a changing political climate and the decline in Anglo-

Norman made it more respectable. In 1362, Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in

English. By the end of the century, even the royal court had switched to English. Anglo-Norman

remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it had ceased to be a living language.

英语语言在中古英语时期经历了沧桑巨变，这种变化同时体现在语 法和词汇上。古英语是一门

严重受到其他语言影响的语言，非常纷繁复杂。但在中古英语 时期，发生了词尾的全面精简。

大量的名词和形容词的词尾被简化为

-e

，原有的语法差异随之遗失。曾用于表示复数形式的词

尾

-en

被大量简化为

-s< /p>

，词的阴阳性被遗弃。中古英语从法语（也有诺曼语）借用了大约一万

个词，特别是政府、交通、法律、军队、时尚和饮食方面的词汇。

The English language changed enormously during the Middle English period, both in grammar and in

vocabulary. While Old English is a heavily inflected language (synthetic), an overall diminishing of

grammatical endings occurred in Middle English (analytic). Grammar distinctions were lost as many

noun and adjective endings were leveled to -e. The older plural noun marker -en largely gave way to -s,

and grammatical gender was discarded. Approximately 10,000 French (and Norman) loan words

entered Middle English, particularly terms associated with government, church, law, the military,

fashion, and food.

[14]

英语的拼写也同 样在这一时期被诺曼语所影响。这一现象体现在：

/θ/

和

/?

/

这两个音被拼写为

th

，而不是古英语字母

?