English began in England, a country on the island of Great Britain in Europe. Germanic tribes (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes) came to Britain from around 449 AD. They made their home in the south and east of the island, pushing out the Celtic Britons who were there before them. The Germanic dialects of these different tribes became Old English. The word "English" comes from the name of the Angles - Englas. Old English did not sound or look much like the English we speak today. If English speakers today were to hear or read a passage in Old English, they would understand most words, but might not understand a few. The closest language to English that is still used today is Frisian, a group of languages spoken by about 500,000 people living in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Despite its similarity to English, speakers of the two languages would not be able to understand each other. Many other people came to England later at different times, speaking different languages, and these languages added more words to make today's English. For example, around 800 AD, many Danish and Norse pirates, also called Vikings, came to the country and English received many Norse loanwords. Their languages were Germanic languages, like Old English. After William the Conqueror conquered England in 1066 AD with his armies and became king, he brought his nobles, who spoke Norman, a language closely related to French, to be the new government. They stopped English from being taught in schools for a long time, and the language changed greatly, because it was mostly being spoken instead of written for about 300 years. English borrowed so many words from Norman at that time that it could be called a different language, Middle English. Geoffrey Chaucer is a well known writer of Middle English. After more sound changes, Middle English became Modern English. Although the works of Shakespeare might seem very old, they are actually called modern. cowboy...

English started in the fifth century, when Anglo-Saxons began invading from Denmark and Jutland, displacing the native Celtic language. The language that resulted was Old English. During the Middle Ages, the Catholic monks in England added to the language by using Latin (which they knew well). They would take Latin words, and modify them to create new words for which there was no Old English equivalent. This is why so many English words have a Latin origin. Further additions to English occurred during the Germanic invasions of the eighth and ninth centuries, and in the Norman invasion of 1066, which added French or Romance elements to the language. The Norman addition played a large role in the language of courts and government ("voir dire" is a good example that lasts to this day).

English is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organisations. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the island of Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. English was further influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. At the time of the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. The etymology of the word "English" is a derivation from the 12th century Old English englisc or Engle, plural form Angles ("of, relating to, or characteristic of England").[13] Modern English developed with the Great Vowel Shift that began in 15th-century England, and continues to adopt foreign words from a variety of languages, as well as coining new words. A significant number of English words, especially technical words, have been constructed based on roots from Latin and ancient Greek.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language]