Unit 5 课外补充材料及练习 Events that Shaped the History of English -2022-2023学年高中英语人教版（2019）必修第一册

Events that Shaped the History of English English is a West Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Anglo-Saxon migrants (移居者). And English has evolved through generations of speakers, undergoing (v. 经历) major changes over time. Its history can be roughly (adj. 粗略的) divided into three stages: Old English, Middle English and Modern English. Here are a few events that shaped (v. 影响…的发展) the history of English. The Anglo-Saxon Settlement: Prior to the Anglo-Saxon settlement, the Rome Empire dominated the British Isles. However, in the 5th century BCE, the Romans withdrew from Britain as their empire began to collapse. Later on, Saxons, Angles, and Jutes sailed across the water and came to the British Isles from various parts of northwest Germany. Through the years, those three Germanic tribes mixed their different Germanic dialects, which formed what linguists refer to as Old English. Old English may look very unfamiliar, and even though its surviving elements form the basis of Modern English vocabulary, the majority of native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. The Norman Conquest: In 1066, England was invaded and occupied (v. 占领) by the Normans, who were descendants (n. 后代) of Vikings settling in France. They had abandoned the Viking language and culture in favor of a French lifestyle, but they still fought like Vikings. They placed a Norman king on the English throne (王座). And thus, over the next few centuries, French was the language of the British royalty (王族) and aristocracy (贵族), while the English language, as the language of the now lower class, was considered a vulgar (adj. 粗俗的) tongue. The vocabulary of English in this era changed enormously, with a tremendous number of words related to the system of government and religious concepts borrowed from French and Latin. The Great Vowel Shift: In this period a series of changes occurred in English pronunciation, which go und