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[/b][/i][/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_English_language][b][i][u][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]History of the English language[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25]
English is a [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germanic_languages][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]West Germanic[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] language that originated from the [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Frisian_languages][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Anglo-Frisian[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] dialects brought to [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Britain[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Northern [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Netherlands[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][[/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]citation needed[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25]]. Initially, [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_language][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Old English[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain[[/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]citation needed[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25]]. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Germanic_languages][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Scandinavian[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Normans[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Norman][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Anglo-Norman[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25]. These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication).
Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Norman[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_languages][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]Italic[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary.
The emergence and spread of the [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]British Empire[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] and the emergence of the [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]United States[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] as a [/b][/i][/size][/font][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpower][b][i][u][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25][color:cf0d=#0000ff]superpower[/b][/i][/u][/color][/size][/font][/url][b][i][font:cf0d=BankGothic Md BT][size=25] helped to spread the English language around the world[/size][/font][font:cf0d=CityBlueprint][size=25].[/size][/font][font:cf0d=CityBlueprint][size=25][/b][/i][/size][/font]
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