Friday, June 15, 2007

A Brief History of the English Language: Part 2

Eventually, around 100 AD, the Romans invaded.  There was no real reason why, save that the Romans invaded everyone.  Not being invaded was a real insult.  It implied that you were not worth invading.  The Romans could totally invade you if they wanted, but did not.  It was like not being invited to a party in high school.  So the Romans conquered most of the British Isles and then stopped short when they encountered the Picts, who were large, naked and covered in blue war paint.  No one knows why the Picts did this, but hey, it stopped the Romans.  This means that in addition to really nifty buildings, the Romans brought their Latin, which intermingled with the native Celtic.  Which brings up the question of why Latin is not called Romanish, but I digress.  Next: The Dark Ages

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Some of this language's history is absolutely galling! (' Course, it may also be that my latchets are too tight....) On the other hand, it's pretty cool that our language suffers no angst about foreign words - otherwise we might not know alcohol as such!