Continuing with the English Language, one of the Germanic tribes from Anglen crossed the north sea to Britain and displaced the native celts. The language they brought with them can still be heard today in the Frisian Isles. This was in 450AD just after the Roman withdrawl.
The Romans, despite their long existance on the Isle for 367 years, contributed only a few words. Chester, meaning Camp, is used in serveral English cities today: Manchester and Lancaster.
At the same time as the Anglens, the Saxons and Jutes, (tribes from the north) began their exodus to Britain. These tribes all settled together in different parts of Britain, each bringing it's own speech, some of which can be heard in the different British dialects today. These three tribes merged and subdivided over time to create seven small kingdoms. They dominated most of the Island, except Wales, Scotland and Cornwall which remained celtic.
The Saxons florished but the Angles and Jutes aren't really heard of and details of the invasion are unknown due to illiteracy. The nation was known as Anglo-Saxon and it had some sort of alphabet. The first evidence of writing was found in 480AD. On the whole though, the tribes were pagan and uncultured people and the previously residing celts must have felt a sense of indignity to find themselves with primative warriors. The celts were more civilized and sophisticated people. Finding this too much, they exited and moved to Brittany and Spain.
The Anglo-Saxon language was rich in posibilities and in 597 the christian era brought about great cultural change. After 100 years, the Isle became a centre of culture, flowing at it's sharpest focus in the far northan kingdom of Northumbria. From here Englands first great poet Caedman came.
No-one can say at which point English became a seperate language distinct from Germanic. It developed as a flexible language, an example of this is the ability to add prefixes and suffixes Soon after this, cultural revival began and England's infant language was under attack again, this time by viking raiders from Scandinavia and Denmark. These people were so closely related that they could probably understand each other's languages, though this probably ment little to the farmers who suffered their pillaging. These attacks on britain were part of a huge, uncooridnated expansion by the vikings.
No-one knows why these previously mild and pasterol people suddenly became aggressive and adventurous but for two centuries they were everywhere in Russia, Iceland, Britain, France, Greenland and North America.
At first, in Britain the attacks consisted of smash and grab raids, mostly along the east coast. Just as mysteriously as they started they stopped. In 793AD britain was left alone again. During this period of calm, the inhabitants must have watched the coast line with unease.
Then in 850AD their fears were realised. 350 Viking ships sailed up the themes and started a series of battles that went on for 4 years with each side taking terns in winning and loosing. Finaly there was an unexpected victory in 878AD and a treaty was established and signed: English South and Danish North.
The Danish influence in the north was very important, more than 1400 place names in Northan England are Scandinavian origin. For a long time in some places old English was spoken whilst in neighbouring villages or settlements they spoke an old Viking dilect. This lasted for years and in some places centuries, until the 1700's, and there are over 15 000 dialect words still today. Over the years the two linguistic sides merged.
A great number of scandinavian words were adopted and are used today e.g. leg, scream, trust, take, sky and many others which often have similar meaning and so it is why there are a great number of synonyms in the language such as wish and want, craft and skill. Some others have grown apart in meaning.
In 1066 the Normans invaded bringing with them a French dialect. The Normans were Vikings who had settled in Northan French. They spoke a French dialect that was different to the French of Paris and this also contributed greatly to the English language.
No king of England spoke English for the next 300 years and then King Henry IV, the first English speaking king came to reign in 1399. The Earls and Bishops were French and they brought with them designers, cooks, craftsmen and scholors. So although it was an Anglo Saxon Britain the Normans influenced the society. The French aristocracy dominated the courts, government and fashion whereas the English peasantry supplied the humbler trades of bakers and millers and supplied most of the words relating to eating, drinking and sleeping. Animal names came from the English language and the name of the meat once cooked was french e.g. sheep and mutton.
Over a period of time the English/French and the French/French drifted apart and the Normans began to think of themselves as English.
Another major contributer was Sheakspear who when writing his works introduced another 2000 words of his own.
Overall it can be concluded that both geography and history has shaped the language with the movement of people to and fro the isle. Thus the language has developed with different regions having different dialects even though they may be neighbouring villages and it accounts for the diversity of accents. There are 13 recognised accents in the U.K. and these were also carried to America where the Yeah comes from the Kent district. Studies on the American accent and their language have identified that the langage barriers run from East to West with those on the East Coast being similar those on the British Shores.