English-speaking Europe

English-speaking Europe consists of the constituent nations of the United Kingdom ( England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland ) as well as the Republic of Ireland, two former British colonies ( Cyprus , Malta ) and a current British colony Gibraltar , plus the Crown Dependencies .

There are also pockets of native English speakers to be found throughout Europe, such as in southern Spain, the Algarve , in Portugal, the Netherlands as well as numerous U.S. and British Military Bases in Germany. There are communities of native English speakers in all the main European cities, e.g. Amsterdam , Berlin , Brussels , Barcelona , Paris and Milan .

In areas of Europe where English is not the first language, there are many examples of the mandated primacy of English: for example, some companies, such as Renault , have designated English to be the language of communication for their senior management, and many universities in The Netherlands teach only in English.

HISTORY OF ENGLISH IN ENGLAND

Main article History Of The English Language

English is descended from the , Mercia , East Anglia , Kent , Essex , Sussex , and Wessex .

These Germanic invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants. The dialects spoken by these invaders formed what would be called Old English , which was also strongly influenced by yet another Germanic dialect, Old Norse , spoken by Viking invaders who settled mainly in the North-East. English, England, and East Anglia are derived from words referring to the Angles: ''Englisc'', ''Angelcynn'', and ''Englaland''.

For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066 , the Anglo-Norman Language was the language of administration and few Kings Of England spoke English. A large number of French words were assimilated into Old English, which also lost most of its inflections, the result being Middle English . Around the year 1500, the Great Vowel Shift transformed Middle English into Modern English .

The most famous surviving work from Old and Middle English are '' Beowulf ''
and Geoffrey Chaucer 's '' The Canterbury Tales .''

The rise of Modern English began around the time of William Shakespeare . Some scholars divide early Modern English and late Modern English at around 1800, in concert with British conquest of much of the rest of the world, as the influence of native languages affected English enormously.

Classification and related languages

English belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest undoubted living relatives of English are Scots and Frisian . Frisian is a language spoken by approximately half a million people in the Dutch province of Friesland (Fryslân), in nearby areas of Germany, and on a few islands in the North Sea.

After Scots and Frisian, the next closest relative is modern Low German of the eastern Netherlands and northern Germany. Other less closely related living languages include Dutch , Afrikaans , German and the Scandinavia n languages. Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker, as English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from the Norman Language after the Norman conquest and from French in further centuries; as a result, a substantial share of English vocabulary is very close to the French, with some slight spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.) and some occasional lapses in meaning.

THE SPREAD OF ENGLISH

Wales

The English language was spread through Europe, as indeed throughout the world, by British colonial expansion. The oldest of the English colonies is Wales and this nation has been subjugated since 1282 , when Edward I Of England defeated Llywelyn The Last , Wales's last independent prince, in battle. Edward constructed a series of great stone castles in order to keep the Welsh under control and set in place English domination of the area which was to last until the present day. With English political control came English customs and language. Over the centuries, English has displaced Welsh as the majority language of the Welsh people. However, the Welsh Language is enjoying a Revival at the moment and is in a healthy position in many parts of Wales.

Ireland

The second oldest English dominion was/is Ireland (see Northern Ireland / Republic Of Ireland ). The colonisation process (known in Ireland as "plantation") started in 1172 , when King Henry II Of England gained Irish lands, and from the 13th Century , English law and language began to be introduced. English rule was largely limited to the area around Dublin known as The Pale initially, but this began to expand in the 16th Century with the final collapse of the Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th Century . In September 1607 , Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl Of Tyrone and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl Of Tyrconnell , set sail from Rathmullan on Lough Swilly in County Donegal with ninety of their followers, never to return to Ireland. This event, the Flight Of The Earls , marked the final destruction of Ireland's ancient Gaelic aristocracy and paved the way for the Plantation of Ulster, bringing with it a deepening of the English language culture in Ireland. The Cromwellian Plantation, and suppression of Catholic and native Irish (or Anglo-Irish) opposition by Oliver Cromwell further cemented English influence across the island. As the centuries passed and the social conditions in Ireland deteriorated, culminating in the Great Irish Famine, many parents refused to speak Irish to their children as they knew that the children would probably have to emigrate and Irish would be of no use outside the home country, in the United Kingdom , The US , Australia or Canada . For this reason the native (Gaelic) language of Ireland is spoken as a Mother Tongue by only a very small number of people in the Republic of Ireland, where most of the speakers have learned it at school; and – as a Second Language – by about 170,000 people in Northern Ireland. English is the only language used in everyday situations for 98 % of the population. In November 2004 the Government of Ireland applied for Irish, the first official language of Ireland, to be recognised as an official working Language Of The European Union . Ireland is currently the only member State that is in the Eurozone and that has English as an official language.

Scotland

Anglic speakers were actually established in Lothian by the 7th Century , but remained confined there, and indeed contracted slightly to the advance of the Scottish language. However, during the 12th and 13th Centuries , Norman landowners and their retainers, were invited to settle by the king. It is probable that many of their retainers spoke Middle English , although probably French was more common. Most of the evidence suggests that English spread into Scotland via the Burgh , proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I . Incoming burghers were mainly English (especially from Northumbria , and the Earldom Of Huntingdon ), Flemish and French. Although the military aristocracy employed French and Gaelic , these small urban communties appear to have been using English as something more than a ''lingua franca'' by the end of the 13th Century . English appeared in Scotland for the first time in literary form in the mid- 14th Century , when its form unsurprisingly differed little from other English dialects. As a consequence of the outcome of the Wars of Independence though, the English of Lothian who lived under the King of Scots had to accept Scottish identity. The growth in prestige of English in the 14th century, and the complementary decline of French in Scotland, made English the prestige language of most of eastern Scotland.

Thus, from the end of the 14th Century , and certainly by the end of the 15th Century , Scotland began to show a split into two cultural areas – the mainly English or Lowland Scots Lowlands , and the mainly- Gaelic speaking Highlands (which then could be thought to include Galloway and Carrick ; see Galwegian Language ). This caused divisions in the country where the Lowlands remained, historically, more influenced by the English to the south: the Lowlands lay more open to attack by invading armies from the south and absorbed English influence through their proximity to and their trading relations with their southern neighbours.

In 1603 the Scottish King James VI inherited the Throne of England, and became James I of England. James moved to London and only returned once to Scotland. By the time of James VI's Accession to the English throne the old Scottish Court and Parliament spoke Lowland Scots. Lowland Scots developed from the Anglian spoken in the Northumbrian kingdom of Bernicia, which in the 6th century conquered the Brythonic kingdom of Gododdin and renamed its capital of Dunedin to Edinburgh. Lowland Scots continues to heavily influence the spoken English of the Scottish people today. It is much more similar to dialects in the north of England, than to 'British' English, even today. The introduction of King James Version Of The Bible into Scottish churches also was a blow to Lowland Scots, since it used Southern English forms.

In 1707 the Scottish and English Parliaments signed a Treaty Of Union . Implementing the treaty involved dissolving both the English and the Scottish Parliament s, and transferring all their powers to a new Parliament in London which then became the British Parliament . A customs and currency union also took place. With this, Scotland's position was consolidated within the United Kingdom.

Today, almost all residents of Scotland speak English, although many speak various Lowland Scots dialects which differ markedly from Scottish Standard English . Approximately 2% of the population use Scottish Gaelic as their language of everyday use, primarily in the northern and western regions of the country. Virtually all Scottish Gaelic speakers also speak fluent English.

ENGLISH OUTSIDE BRITAIN AND IRELAND

Gibraltar

Although originally a fortified Moorish settlement, the town of Gibraltar had been in Spanish hands for almost 250 years when the town was seized by the British Crown . The town had been seized by Spanish forces from the Arabs during Reconquista in 1462. The rock was temporarily owned by the King of Castile, but later taken by the Duke Of Medina Sidonia and passed to his son. Queen Isabella Of Castile had her army besiege and re-take Gibraltar for the Spanish kingdom in 1501. This period gave Gibraltar its Spanish influence on top of its Arabic base. Later an Anglo-Dutch force led by Sir George Rooke seized The Rock in 1704. The territory was ceded to Great Britain by Spain in the 1713 Treaty Of Utrecht . Despite early attempts by the Spanish, most notably in the Great Siege Of 1783 , the Rock has remained British ever since.

This mix of early influences, along with the influences of the immigrants ( Genoese , Maltese , Portuguese , Germans , Sephardim and Hindus ) in the colony over the years has lead to the development of a unique English Patois existing alongside Standard British English . This Creole Language is called Llanito in Gibraltar, although some prefer the Spelling ''Yanito'' . It is a mixture of English and Andalusian Spanish with influences from Moroccan Arabic , Genoese Italian, and Hebrew, as well as other linguistic influences.

English is the sole official language, used in government and the courts, and also in the media. Spanish (or Llanito) is primarily a vernacular language, although there are some newspaper articles and radio programmes in the language. It is also the medium of instruction in schools, while most Gibraltarians who go on to tertiary education do so in the UK. Although Gibraltar receives Spanish television and radio, British television is also widely available via Satellite . Whereas a century ago, many Gibraltarians would have been monolingual Spanish speakers, most are now bilingual in English and Spanish.

Cyprus

In 1914 the Ottoman Empire declared war against the United Kingdom and France as part of the complex series of alliances that led to World War I . The British then annexed Cyprus on 2 November , 1914 as part of the British Empire, making the Cypriots British Subject s. On 5 November , 1914 the British and the French declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Cyprus gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960 , with the UK , Greece and Turkey retaining limited rights to intervene in internal affairs.

The British colonial history of Cyprus has left Cypriots with a good level of English but it is no longer an official language in either the Greek-dominated Republic of Cyprus or the Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus . Since the effective partition of the island in 1974 , Greek and Turkish Cypriot s have had little opportunity to learn the other's language, and are more likely to understand English.

Knowledge of English is also helped by the large Cypriot migrant communities in the UK and Australia , leading to diffusion of culture and language back to their country of origin. There is a large British Expatriate population, in addition to the British military presence in the Sovereign Base Area s, plus the UN Buffer Zone , whose peacekeepers usually use English as a '' Lingua Franca '' maintains an English-speaking presence on the island.

Malta

In 1814 , Malta voluntarily became part of the British Empire , under the terms of the Treaty Of Vienna . Prior to the arrival of the British, the language of the educated Maltese elite had been Italian , and all legal statutes, taxation, education, and clerical discourses were conducted either in Italian or in Latin .

However, this was increasingly downgraded by the increased use of English . The British began scripting and codifying Maltese – hitherto an unscripted vernacular – as a language in or around 1868. From this point on, the Maltese language gradually gained currency as the main language on the islands, its grammars and conventions evolving in a mix between Italian, Arabic, and English.

Between the 1870s and 1930s, Malta had three official languages, Italian, Maltese, and English, but in 1934 , English and Maltese were declared the sole Official Language s. The British associated Italian with the Mussolini regime in Italy, which had made territorial claims on the islands, although the use of Italian by nationalists was more out of cultural affinities with Italy than any sympathy with Italian Fascism . With the outbreak of the War , the Maltese lost their sense of fraternity with the Italian world, and there was a decline in Italian spoken in Malta.

English remains an official language in Malta, but since independence in 1964 , the country's cultural and commercial links with Italy have strengthened, owing to proximity. Italian television is widely received in Malta and is highly popular.

SEE ALSO

Anglophone

Anglosphere

History Of The English Language

Duchy Of Grand Fenwick

Information About

English-speaking Europe