II. Problem of division into periods.

The history of E.I. is traditionally divided into 3 periods.

I – Old English period – (from the beginning of old relics and monuments – of the VII-th century – till the end of the XI-th century).

II – Middle English period (среднеангл.) – from the beginning of the XII-th cent. till the XV-th cent. Some scientists include the 15-th cent. – as a transitional period (переходный) between Middle English period and New English period.

III – New English period (from the XVI-th cent. – till our days).

The period from 16-th cent. till 17-th cent. is called (XVI-XVII) Early New English Period. The division into periods is based on extra-linguistic phenomena that is on the external events of British history. These external events were very important when eco­nomic and political systems of the country were changed.

For example: the middle of the 11-th cent.- it is the period of the Nor­man conquest (нормандское завоевание), the result of this conquest was the completion of feudalism in Britain. The 15-th cent. – the period of Wars of Roses,- White Rose and Red Rose – disintegration of feu­dalism, transition to absolute monarchy, development of bourgeoisie. All these events are very important for the history of Britain, but they can’t be very decisive when we find out the stages of the development of English language. So the stages or the periods of the language devel­opment are relative. But above mentioned division is common for all linguistic schools.

English belongs to the group of Germanic languages (or Teutonic) which is one of the largest subgroups of Indo-European group. The earliest information about Teutons was in “Commentaries on the Gallic War” (Записи о Галльской войне) written by Julius Caesar (a Roman general, statesman and writer who lived from about 100 B.C. till 44 B.C.

III. Early History of British Isles

At the dawn of their history the peoples on this planet lived in the primitive societies. These primitive peoples, wherever they lived, began their long path of progress with stone tools, but they didn’t reach the same level of civilization at the same time in different countries.

The ancient civilization of Greece and Rome were already in existence when the people living in Britain were only at the first stage of social development.

The earliest inhabitants of British Isles were Iberians [ai’birianz] (ибе­рейцы). We don’t know about these early people because they lived in Britain long before a word of their history was written.

During the period from the 6-th to the 3d cent. B.C. people that called the Celts spread across Europe from the east to the west.

More than one the Celtic tribes invaded Britain. The Iberians were un­able to fight back the attacks of the Celts who were armed much better. So the next inhabitants of British Isles were the Celts. They began to inhabit British Isles in the 6-th century B.C. To this day the descendants of ancient Celts live on the territory of British Isles. Some words from the Celtic language can still be found in Modern English and most of them are geographical names. Thus in England there are several rivers called Avon which in Celtic means a river.

In the 1^st century B.C. when the inhabitants of the British Isles (Iberians, Celts) were still living under the primitive communal system, the Ro­man Empire became the strongest slave-owning state in the Mediterra­nean. It was the greatest of the civilization of the ancient world. The Roman ruled all the civilized world and in the 1^st cent. A.D. they con­quered Britain.

In 55 B.C. Julius Ceasar invaded the British Isles for the first time. It was not success. But the next year, 54 B.C. he again came to Britain. The Romans defeated the Celts. The Celts promised to pay tribute to Rome. Since 54 B.C. till the 80ies of the 1^st cent. the Romans conquered the Br. Isles.

The Romans remained in Britain for about 4 centuries. In the 3d and the 4^th centuries the power of the Roman Empire gradually weakened. The unproductive labour of slaves led to the economic decline of the empire. The uninterrupted struggle of the exploited against the slave-owners greatly weakened the Roman Empire too.

The end of the 4^th cent. found Germanic tribes invading the Western Roman Empire and the slaves who hated the Romans were joining them by the thousands. Early in the 5^th century (407) the Roman legions were recalled from Britain to defend the central provinces of the Ro­man Empire from the attacks of barbarian tribes. They didn’t return to Britain and the Celts were left alone in the land.