The English People: Their Language and Literature

The English People,English Language and Literature

The English People: Their Language and Literature

England and the English People

The English language and also literature belong to the Englishmen. But the Englishmen were not the original inhabitants of what is known today as England. They were actually the savage residents of some scattered localities of modern Germany, designated as Germania by the famous Roman historian Tacitus.

In fact, the land, now known as Britain, was the habitat of the Celtic people who might have settled there in the remote past during the gradual spread of Aryan civilization in the West. Those Celtic people, also known as Bretons or Brythoners, lived there as their native land, better known as Britain. They had to face aggressions, time and again, to defend their land and liberty.

The result of one such aggression was the occupation of Britain by Rome in 43 A.D. The Roman rule of the country was long and continuous. The Celtic natives were absolutely under the rigours of the Roman power. But that had, too, a cultural bearing on them and brought them to the light of civilization.

The Roman Empire fell under the pressure of civil dissention in Rome. The Roman army withdrew from Britain. The Celtic people found themselves quite helpless and unprotected thereafter. The invasion from the savage Teutonic tribes started from the latter part of the fifth century. Those Teutonic tribes were mainly three - Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Without any military strength and the sense of national solidarity, it was impossible for the Celtic natives to resist the savage aggressors. So they fled away to the mountaneous regions of Wales. Angles, Saxons and Jutes — the three Teutonic tribes -- settled in Britain with a certain sort of regional divisions, made mutually by them.

That was a new beginning in the political history of Britain. The name 'England' was introduced from 'Angul', a particular place in Germania, where the Angles had lived till their settlement in Britain. The word 'English', too, came from the old Teutonic form Anglisko (Old English - Englisc). That was the beginning of the terms 'England’ and 'English'. The present day rich stores of the English language and literature belonged originally to those tiny tribes of the remote past.

 

The English Language and Literature

The language is found to precede literature everywhere. It makes the latter. Yet, literature, a formidable one in particular, cultivates, develops and even sponsors a language and makes it a great one. In fact, the language and literature are complementary to each other. A great literature comes out of a great language and vice versa.

This story of the language and literature is applicable, in no less measure, to the English language as well as literature. However, both of them had a dim beginning, but an eminent rise.

The language, originally spoken by the Germanic settlers in Britain, was Teutonic in character. It belonged to the Teutonic group of languages and descended from the Germanic tongue, rather from low German. That language came to be known, after the settlement, as Englisc (anglix), subsequently termed as English. But all that was the matter of the remote past.

Those settlers from Germania, before their settlement in Britain, no doubt, had some sort of literature. That was unwritten and carried from mouth to mouth, from one generation to another, and preserved by tradition. Earliest English literature, as any other literature, had its origin in poetry. That was unwritten and consisted mainly of songs and poems, rather heroic and stirring in character. Prose literature in English came much later only after the invention of the science of writing.

But both the language and literature in English developed gradually but firmly, of course in no plain and smooth manner. They had a very humble beginning in a far off, remote, hardly illumined by the light of civilization, land. But their stupendous march has taken them, to the height of excellence today. The English language is immensely opulent and a rightly claimant for the status of the international language. English literature, too, is rich and resourceful in immensity, variety and artistry. This, perhaps, enjoys maximum popularity and celebrity in the literary world, old or new.

In fact, the present mighty edifice of English literature as of this language is no product of a magic lamp or wand. It is the total effect of diverse forces in operation in diverse phases.

A steady and harmonious growth of different complex affairs, political, social and ecclesiastic all, has actually led to the tremendous greatness and popularity of the English language and literature. Of different materials, going to the making of it, this mighty of edifice of English language as well as literature, the following need to be particularly noted:

1. The Roman Conquest of Britain.

2. The Conquest and Settlement of the Germanic tribes in Britain.

3. The Conversion of the English to Christianity,

4. The Scandinavian Invasion and Settlement in England.

5. The Norman Conquest.

6. The Revival of Learning.

7. The Civil War and the Restoration of Monarchy.

8. The Bloodless Revolution and the Growing Power of Parliament.

9. The French Revolution.

10. The Industrial Revolution.

11. The Expansion of the British Empire.

12. The Extensive Growth of Science, Technology, and Commerce.

13. The World Wars.