The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD.Angles,Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the present day Denmark and northern Germany.The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language.This was quickly displaced.Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales,Cornwall and Scotland.One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today.The Angles were named from Engle,their land of origin.Their language was called Englisc from which the word,English derives.
During the 7th and 8th Centuries,Northumbria's culture and language dominated Britain.The Viking invasions of the 9th Century brought this domination to an end (along with the destruction of Mercia).Only Wessex remained as an independent kingdom.By the 10th Century,the West Saxon dialect became the official language of Britain.Written Old English is mainly known from this period.It was written in an alphabet called Runic,derived from the Scandinavian languages.The Latin Alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries.This has remained the writing system of English.
At this time,the vocabulary of Old English consisted of an Anglo Saxon base with borrowed words from the Scandinavian languages (Danish and Norse) and Latin.Latin gave English words like street,kitchen,kettle,cup,cheese,wine,angel,bishop,martyr,candle.The Vikings added many Norse words:sky,egg,cake,skin,leg,window (wind eye),husband,fellow,skill,anger,flat,odd,ugly,get,give,take,raise,call,die,they,their,them.Celtic words also survived mainly in place and river names (Devon,Dover,Kent,Trent,Severn,Avon,Thames).
