The history of 'English'

The history of language in Europe has been strongly influenced by the spread of the Roman Empire. The split of the families of languages is due to a successful Roman Campaign in the 2nd Century AD. This caused the  split in the languages, creating the two main families known today. The languages influenced by the Romans are known as the Romance Languages, these being Italian, French, Romanian, Portugese, and Spanish. The Germainc Languages are generally towards the North of Europe and are found inthose places that were less influenced by the Roman Empire. These include German, Flemish, Danish, Swedish and English.

This brings us to the English language. The English language developed as a result of three Germanic tribes who came and settled in Britian in the 5th Century BC. Before they arrived, the language spoken there was a Celtic language. The three tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes came across the North Sea from Northern Germany and Denmark, pushing the Celts up North and to the West. This is the reason that Celtic languages are still alive in Scotland and Ireland. The Angles homeland was known to them as 'Englaland' and their language as 'Englisc' Hence the modern day 'England' and 'English'
Available from:
http://www.englishclub.com/