Book contents
- The Long Journey of English
- The Long Journey of English
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue: A View from the Birthplace
- 1 Where It All Started: The Language Which Became English
- 2 The Journey Begins: The First Movement South
- 3 Interlude: A View from the Celtic Island
- 4 Heading West Again: The North Sea Crossing, 400–600
- 5 Anglo-Saxons and Celts in the British Highlands, 600–800
- 6 And Further West: Across the Irish Sea, 800–1200
- 7 Atlantic Crossing: On to the Americas, 1600–1800
- 8 Onwards to the Pacific Shore
- 9 Across the Equator: Into the Southern Hemisphere, 1800–1900
- 10 Some Turning Back: English in Retreat
- 11 Meanwhile … Britain and the British Isles from 1600
- 12 Transcultural Diffusion: The New Native Englishes
- Epilogue: Sixteen Hundred Years On
- References
- Index
- References
3 - Interlude: A View from the Celtic Island
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2023
Book contents
- The Long Journey of English
- The Long Journey of English
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue: A View from the Birthplace
- 1 Where It All Started: The Language Which Became English
- 2 The Journey Begins: The First Movement South
- 3 Interlude: A View from the Celtic Island
- 4 Heading West Again: The North Sea Crossing, 400–600
- 5 Anglo-Saxons and Celts in the British Highlands, 600–800
- 6 And Further West: Across the Irish Sea, 800–1200
- 7 Atlantic Crossing: On to the Americas, 1600–1800
- 8 Onwards to the Pacific Shore
- 9 Across the Equator: Into the Southern Hemisphere, 1800–1900
- 10 Some Turning Back: English in Retreat
- 11 Meanwhile … Britain and the British Isles from 1600
- 12 Transcultural Diffusion: The New Native Englishes
- Epilogue: Sixteen Hundred Years On
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
Britain was amonolingual Celtic-speaking island for at least a millennium before Roman colonisers brought Latin to England in AD 43, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. A description of the geographical spread across Britain of early forms of English is therefore equivalent to a description of the geographical retreat of the Brittonic Celtic language which had preceded Germanic to the island by hundreds of years. This retreat led to Cornish, Welsh and Cumbric eventually becoming separated from one another geographically and eventually linguistically.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Long Journey of EnglishA Geographical History of the Language, pp. 31 - 41Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Further Reading
Tim., Clarkson 2010. The men of the North: the Britons of southern Scotland. Edinburgh: John Donald.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Bruce, & Robinson, Fred. 2011. A guide to Old English. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar